WhimsyLand

Ads for The Atlantic are starting to look like those for Robb's Report and other upscale mags:  witness a guy who appears to be Roger Moore bowing to a young girl at a picnic in Palmetto Bluffs, "a Lowcountry treasure combining the undisturbed beauty of a pristine natural preserve with a thoughtfully distributed collection of properties."  Doesn't sound like the South Carolina I drove through on my way to college in 1970, where the main revenue was speed traps and breakfast in any town's local restaurant was $1.50, including home-grown tomatoes.  But, I digress.   Calendar notes:  welfare rolls are down 57% in the past 10 years (goodness, did Walmart hire all of them?).  Thomas Noe, the Ohio coin dealer and heavy GOP fundraiser, goes on trial for losing much of the $50 million that Republican appointees gave him to invest on behalf of the state's workman's compensation fund.  Professional golf will start testing for doping next month.  Skilling gets sentenced next month, but Lay's death saved the family $183 million in judgements (yeah, they can keep it all).  Jonathan Rauch views a U.S. president's success according to how long it takes to unwind his mistakes.  Nixon gets the prize, but by his analysis, Bush comes in next, followed by Jimmy Carter.  Antique Autocrats who have served as Dear Leader more than 35 years include Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga, Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, and Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya.  Bongo?  America's educated elite have moved to the big cities in the past 30 years by astounding percentages.  Chuck Todd interviews Democratic Party movers and shakers and finds that many would like to just lose control of the House and Senate in the fall.  The reasoning goes:  even with a one or two member majority in either chamber, it would be difficult to make any sizable legislative changes.  Meanwhile, all the blame for everything (and there will be a lot of everything in the next 2 years) will remain a GOP problem just in time for the 2008 presidential elections.  For most of the 20th century, the typical American workweek grew shorter and shorter (remember how little George Jetson had to do?), but since 1970 the trend has reversed, and by 2001 30% of all American workers put in more than 50 hours a week.  A new study shows that what makes a red state red and a blue state blue is mostly predictable by how the wealthiest in the state vote, not the unwashed masses.  Another study shows that countries with students with the lowest self-esteem tend to score the highest in standardized tests (not surprisingly, the US has the most self-congratulating students).  I've already mentioned what a ride it will be when North Korea starts falling apart, and that the Chinese will probably make out the best.  Juries are increasingly handing out Guilty judgments to Muslim defendants charged with some flavor of terrorism charge, almost always based upon the argument of what they might have done.  Lots of other good stuff.  If you can't afford the five bucks, get thee to a library.

See you tomorrow, most likely.