I'm a little too into my t-shirt collection.

Bay Area's growing Jewish scene; full text.

See the recent series on Peak Oil part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and coda.

From our discussion yesterday on blogs and bias: I think there's an incorrect comparison being made here - like writing off all print media because of Bat Boy on the cover of the Inquirer. The blogs I read tend to have a liberal viewpoint, and that influences some choices in which stories they cover. But, on the whole, the coverage of the issues is fair, balanced, and (mostly) free of vitriol.

It's a mistake to tar these decent blogs with the same brush used to paint those "other" blogs that use vitriol and falsehoods to push an ideological agenda. That's a whole different story.

One example of a fine blog: Talking Points Memo. War profiteer pays Republican senator $700K in exchange for defense contracts. U.S. media yawns and goes back to covering the Michael Jackson trial.

In other news: a 22 year old woman is tased, twice by a Florida cop for not responding quickly enough to his requests (she was on the phone). Two 5-second bursts of 50 kilovolts: that's like getting repeated slammed in the face with a lead pipe. Really, there's nothing quite like watching the video to drive home was a monstrous, unnecessary act of police violence this is. I've never heard a woman scream like in my life: it makes my skin crawl.

I refuse to believe that this is the sort of police state my country is becoming. This officer was a disgrace to his uniform.