TALL LOTT-E: (Sorry, I'm running out of puns.) Julian Sanchez has a post on the John Lott survey stuff--corroboration that Lott's hard drive crashed catastrophically, losing lots of his data.

My only weakness is a listed crime
But last night the plans for a future war
Were all I saw on Channel Four
Blogwatchers of the world, unite and take over...

Ted Barlow: I think this is the funniest lightbulb joke yet--although the Ari Fleischer ones are pretty key.

Am adding Balkinization and Camassia to the blogroll.

Plus Julian Sanchez has some stuff I want to address separately.

Hand it over!

TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION NEWS: Shamed sent me this, with the note, "This has your blog written all over it."

OVAL OFFICE ALLY

Is President Bush more sympathetic than his predecessors on the issue of voting rights for D.C. residents?

It was 202 years ago, where Rhodes Tavern once stood, that this city's residents first protested the denial of full democracy and voting rights in Congress. Residents had enjoyed these rights until 1801, when the final transfer of authority over the District was made to Congress.

Joe Grano, longtime president of the Rhodes Tavern-D.C. Heritage Society, tells this column that he's received a personal letter from Mr. Bush, in which the president acknowledges receipt of voting-rights petitions being circulated around Washington.

"He not only acknowledges receipt of the petition, he wrote a brief letter -- it was not a form letter," says Grano. "So somebody at the White House is taking this petition seriously. I think in the post-Trent Lott world, Republicans want to pay some attention to cities." [sighhhh...I think there are more important things to do w/r/t cities, my obsessive friend...--Ed.]

"By the way," adds Grano, "the president has been the only public official that ever wrote to me concerning the petition, the only one who bothered to take the time, and I think that should be noticed. (D.C. Delegate (and voting-rights activist)) Eleanor Homes Norton didn't write me, (Washington) Mayor Anthony Williams didn't write me, only the president of the United States."

[My take on D.C., voting, taxation, statehood (ha), etc., can be found here. Sorry for the length.--Ed.]

Also, yes, soon I will be thinking again, maybe tomorrow. Coming attractions include more on Iraq/North Korea/my constant hovering and dithering; mail about race, maybe with replies, maybe not; a report from a panel discussion on the pro-life movement at 30; and a book review. More of a book alert really--there's this awesome book that you should run out and get RIGHT NOW, except you can't, because I won't tell you what it is until Friday. (moohoohahahaha!) And maybe final thoughts on All's Well That Ends Well and the crop of Shakespeare I've been grazing on lately.

IAIN MURRAY FIRED FOR BLOGGING??? This is really, really, super-lame. I hope somebody out there can lend him a hand getting a new, destupidized job.

POETRY WEDNESDAY: From Opus. Sort of. I'm in a weird mood today.

How I love to watch the morn,
With golden sun that shines,
Up above to nicely warm
These frosty toes of mine.

The wind doth taste of bittersweet,
Like jasper wine and sugar.
I bet it's blown through others' feet
Like those of ...Caspar Weinberger.

ENTREPRENEURIAL IMAGINATION MAIL: Responses to my column for Jewish World Review.

Nancy Lebovitz makes an excellent point: I've long thought that the schools are designed to produce employees, and wondered how the structure and practice would be different if the intent was to produce entrepreneurs.

P.S. It's not just my opinion that schools are designed to produce employees--I've read (in John Gatto's books) that the standard school structure was developed in Prussia to get people used to being factory workers.

I have no clue about the history of the standard school structure; and of course there's nothing wrong with being an employee rather than an entrepreneur; but I do think fostering an entrepreneurial imagination should be a priority for schools. And as I said in the JWR piece, that imagination can also translate into confidence and career planning for people in non-entrepreneurial positions and in the nonprofit world.

And Jim Corbett writes, along the same lines: In Sacramento we have built a mentoring system around our universities and community entrepreneurs and professionals who work with them. It has been real joy to see our young people grow and prosper in the world of entrepreneurship.

The concept for the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy came from William L. Haeberle D.B.A., a professor from Indiana University. He was my professor 30 years ago in the MBA program. A truly unique man.....

View our website at sealink.org.

BIG POST BY SALAM PAX ON IRAQ, WAR, AND AFTERWARDS.

"YOU COULD HEAR SCREAMING FROM EVERY CLASSROOM."

PROVING MY POINT that even the gun-clueless can safely handle shootin'-sticks, the Oligarch notes that I was actually not shooting a .22 as I'd misremembered. He adds another good point about types of people who generally don't handle guns well.

AS LONG AS I'M JUST LINKIN', NOT THINKIN'... might as well pass on this back-and-forth between Colby Cosh and Kathy "Relapsed Catholic" Shaidle about over- and underrated movies. I seem to be much more in the Shaidle camp, interestingly. More of me on movies here (ten favorites) and here (cultural history of horror).

LOTT LOTT MORE: Julian Sanchez posts a follow-up re John Lott.

JACK BALKIN BLOGS. I expect this to be fascinating. Right now he's started with a series on Roe vs. Wade; in the first post he announces a Yale Law conference on "What Roe Should Have Said," which I hope to attend, and here he compares Roe and Brown v. Board of Education.

JOHN LOTT RESPONDS to concerns about his work.

PHILOSOPHICAL DRAG QUEEN CONTEST RESULTS!!!!: Your task: to come up with a nom de drag for a philosopher or theologian of note. EDITED TO ADD: Brad Gittern wants to know what the prizes are.

Close your eyes.

You're lookin' at 'em.

OK, eyes open, back to the contest. I will contribute three:
Ella Mental, a pre-Socratic.
Gloria Monday, a follower of the "indifference to this world" stance described here; as in, Sic transit Gloria Monday.
Genessee Quoi, a negative theologian. (OK, so I stole that one from the people here.)

Your contributions (and I really liked a lot of the honorable mentions, by the way): Third place: Fata Amore, a Nietzschean (Ray Eckhart)

Second place: Annette Hedonia, an ascetic (Although probably, he don't! *ba-dum-bump!*) (Dave Tepper)

First place: Miss So There, an existentialist (M Bat)

Honorable mentions: Closeted Nietzschean, a Straussian; Murray Antoinette, a Burkean (Justin Zaremby)

Pam Opticon, a Foucauldian (Richmond Eustis)

Rhea Xiun, another Burkean (John Povejsil)

Zara Thustra, a Nietzschean; Rue St. Paul, an Augustinian (The Talking Dog)

Martine Boobaire, a fan of I and Thou ; Blaze Pascal (seven alarms!); and Emmanuelle Kant (Oh, Yes She Kan!) (Tenelux, who also notes that a drag philosopher of history might well be... a Vico in a tutu. Hmmmmm.)

Object D’Sartre; Spinoza Bottle (Brad Gittern)

Arthur Silber contributes dueling, good vs. evil queens, from an Objectivist perspective of course: Egoisma vs. Altrueval

Disputations weighs in, with a disclaimer: "First, we must insist on the fact that a Thomist drag queen is an oxymoron. A man is unfit matter for women's clothing, to say nothing of the importance St. Thomas placed on signifying the truth.

"That said, a drag queen named Grace Purrfex (accent on the second syllable) might well be suspected of some training in, or at least acquaintance with, Scholastic thought."

Dave Tepper offers Tommy Swerve, an Epicurean drag king. "(Referring to the "atomic swerve" that Epi believed was the basis of indeterminism and free will.)" Points for suggesting a drag king, points off for needing a footnote...

And a Special Achievement award goes to AgendaBender, of course, for this stellar post on Ayn Rand and drag aesthetic. I thought about handing the top prize to What is Objectivism?, but that seemed a little too... a little too Genessee Quoi, shall we say.

Many thanks to all who contributed!

WHAT IS THE RAT AFRAID OF?

Sheila, watch a, Sheila watch a blog...

Living Room: A list of bloggers in the Southern hemisphere.

Medpundit: What condoms do, and don't do, and what the Bush administration is saying about ditto. Via Charles Murtaugh.

Rosary Blog: Neat blog devoted to quotations from Church Fathers and other saints. Good stuff.

Unqualified Offerings: Begins a series of replies to critics. The first installment defends his claim that US foreign policy should not/can't rely on nuclear nonproliferation.

La la la la la la la la...

LAFEW. ...but my good lord, 'tis thus:
Will you be cured of your infirmity?
KING. No.
--All's Well That Ends Well

You just haven't earned it yet, blogwatch...

Marriage Movement: Intriguing study on the "second shift"--how much work do married vs. unmarried men and women do? The answer may surprise you...

Relapsed Catholic: Which critically-acclaimed movies will gain in stature and which will ultimately be considered overrated? My view: She's wrong about Psycho vs. Vertigo, but right about Shadow of a Doubt vs. North by Northwest; so very, very right about 2001; absolutely right to except Grosse Pointe Blank from her slam on the hitman genre; and wrong, but understandably wrong, about Seven and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Sed Contra: Letter to a woman trying to figure out how to respond to her gay son.

Amy Welborn: How many priests have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors? When were they ordained? Are we talking about teens here, or little kids? Boys or girls? All this and more, in a sad but very important piece from the New York Times.

Telford Work: His inner Abraham and his inner Lot; and: "Some time ago I stopped trying to convince myself either that God is really there or that God really isn't. I decided that God can jolly well show himself. Now this doesn't mean I just sit back and wait for it to happen; I go to church and read Holy Scripture and pray. I go to where God promises to be. But I don't view these things as exercises in conjuring up an imaginative deity, and don't intend them to become so. I view them as appointments God promises to keep. If God is real, God is going to have to show up and meet me there. ...I am not really interested in propping up students' flagging faith if they are secretly more interested in sabotaging it. Nor am I interested in challenging their complacent 'faith' if they are secretly more interested in dismissing the challenges. Both are really 'standing God up' rather than honoring the appointment. ...Jesus was enormously patient with those who really struggled with his message. But Jesus was not overly patient with people who didn't interact with him in good faith, who weren't really interested in determining who he was and treating him accordingly."

LOTT MORE: InstaPundit and Clayton Cramer on John Lott; the Cramer link is especially helpful for anyone who's been following this.