It’s the Seventh Night of Hanukkah and here is an Online Menorah for you!

My recurring fantasy is to open a bohemian, snooty coffeehouse in the DC area where I currently live, but this horror story from a New York couple who opened their own little cafe has given me pause.

Do the protesters there and the police response remind you of anything?

Watch out Mike! The US Army has designs on your northern paradise. Truly, one of the more entertaining articles the Post has run in a long time.

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Good for them. There’s no given figure for how many editors refused to work Thursday after three top editors’ firing for criticizing the government – all Chinese media is state-controlled – but it’s a relief to know that conscience occasionally overwhelms conformity in such a society. Background: The Beijing News broke the news of a bloody crackdown in June against protesting farmers in the northern city of Dingzhou that left six dead....

Bad combovers may finally get representation — in Albany, New York: Donald Trump is considering running for governor, a leading Republican said Friday. Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on Thursday suggested that a big-name candidate could be flirting with entering the 2006 contest. On Friday, he confirmed to News Channel 10 in Albany that he had been referring to Trump. Bruno told the station he had spoken to the real estate developer and TV personality about a possible run. Trump’s...

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into who leaked what is being billed as highly classified information about a top-secret National Security Agency program that President George W. Bush used to do warrantless domestic spying. Brace yourself now for a slew of issues and recriminations to swirl around this issue such as: The specific legality or lack of it to do the wiretaps. What do the laws specifically say? What was implied and in what law and what do experts say about that? Comparisons...

Yes, it’s true. TV Newser reports that controversial conservative pundit Bill Bennett will join CNN as a new political analyst starting in 2006….basically replacing journalist Robert Novak, who’s moving over to Fox News. Bennett is coming to CNN from Fox, where his contract just expired. How will Bennett do? We’ll give you five to one odds he’ll be a hit. (And so will Bill…) UPDATE: Crooks And Liar’s John Amato has some thoughts here.

We continue to add to and delete from our blogroll. We’re systematically eliminated “dead” blogs which we define as generally 30 days or more unupdated. There are exceptions, if we know someone is on a leave etc. If you were on our blogroll and were removed and are starting up again, please contact us (we think there was one person but we can’t find the email). We USE this blogroll which represents weblogs containing differing ideas.

It’s the Sixth Night of Hanukkah and here is an Online Menorah for you! Since tonight is the Sabbath, we light our six Hanukkah candles prior to our two (or more) Sabbath candles. Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath Peace)!

An accident, or revenge for her testimony? I await the details. From the AP via Ohio News Now: Lynndie England burned in kitchen mishap at prison in San Diego

Want to see the trailer that’s everybody talking about? Watch here.

I hope that this is promptly denounced by all – left, right and center: JTA: Chavez makes anti-Semitic slur Venezuela’s president said in his Christmas speech that “the descendants of those who crucified Christâ€? own the riches of the world. “The world offers riches to all. However, minorities such as the descendants of those who crucified Christâ€? have become “the owners of the riches of the world,â€? Chavez said Dec. 24 on a visit to a rehabilitation center...

Callimachus has some good thoughts…and…a link!

No, he’s not a terrorist. He’s all alone and the AP reports… As a junior this year at a Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, Hassan studied writers like John McPhee in the book “The New Journalism,” an introduction to immersion journalism — a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it. Diving headfirst into an assignment, Hassan, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States...

8 a.m. – 9 a.m. Friday, December 30 on WAIF-FM, 88.3 in Cincinnati. Cincinnati Advance Radio with Joe Wessels and guest co-host Michael Altman. -> Democrat Paul Hackett ran an unsuccessful campaign against Republican Jean Schmidt during the summer of 2005 for Ohio’s Second Congressional District. Though Hackett didn’t win, the narrow defeat he suffered in the solidly Republican district in southwestern Ohio gained him national attention, berthing a primary run for Ohio’s...

Torturing people for information has consequences. The most likely is the fact that you’re torturing being leaked to the press and the blogosphere. Now a former UK ambassador has published some documents on his blog that suggest the UK has been outsourcing torture to Uzbekistan. I don’t know if any of this is true or not, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. More info if you’d like.

Still more animal love, courtesy of Donklephant…the first name in animal cross-breeding Heh…

No, I’m not joking. More here.

It looks as if Tutakai is back in action again. And to those who insist that a “moderate” means someone who can’t take positions on issues, can’t be passionate, can’t vote, and is always wishy washy Tutakai has the best explanation perhaps ever written. We’ve linked to it several times on this site…and you can read its reposting HERE. REQUIRED READING. We’ve made the same thing here (we do take positions on this site which gets people of all political...