At the Leap Year Café...

... it's really something.

One year ago at the Wisconsin protests: Nothing happened.

There was no February 29th last year!

Scott Brown leads Elizabeth Warren by 10 percentage points.

A new poll.

"Attending meetings lowers IQ."

And the effect is stronger among women.

"After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?"

An article by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva in the Journal of Medical Ethics: Rather than being “actual persons”, newborns were “p...

10 surprisingly low-paying jobs.

Including: Firefighters Mean annual income: $47,730 Bottom 10% make $23,050... Reporters and Correspondents Mean annual income: $43,780 Bott...

"A carpenter came with a toolbox and said, ‘I’m a carpenter from the underground... Show me the house and I’ll build a hiding place."

Dr. Tina Strobos hid more than 100 Jews from the Nazis — 4 or 5 at a time. She died this week at the age of 91. She learned her values from...

Santorum gets as many Michigan delegates as Romney.

"Rick Santorum claimed a partial victory Wednesday when final results showed he and Mitt Romney evenly split Michigan' s 30 delegat...

"I fought this road tooth and nail so that you’d be forced to ride the bus."

A proposal for billboards along U.S. 12, attacking Governor Walker's likely adversary in the likely recall election here in Wisconsin.

Goodbye to Davy Jones.

The lead singer of The Monkees has died of a heart attack at the age of 66. Very sad. We were just talking about the importance of the cute...

"Snowe's Gift To Obama."

An Andrew Sullivan blog post title.

"You realize when you get to my age... that you hopefully will still do some more work."

"But the last great creative adventure is dying in a positive way." Andre Gregory is back making a movie with Wallace Shawn. (Tog...

You can use "a name of your choice" to reserve a spot at the play about the Sterling Hall bombing.

And you won't need to show an I.D. at the door. I was wrong about that, I've been informed. You simply need to get your name on the...

Federal regulators are about to require rearview cameras in all new cars.

Because something must be done about all those drivers who keep backing up into and over children. This will add $160 to $200 to the price o...

Creeping childishness hits the army.

I went to "Army Dietitian Touts Warning Labels for Desserts and Fried Foods at Mess Halls" from a Drudge link that said "Ar...

At the Winter Fountain Café...

... you can see things you're not meant to see.

One year ago today at the Wisconsin protests: Protesters locked out of the Capitol at long last.

Protesters trying to deal with the lock-out. "About 60 demonstrators who had slept in the statehouse overnight remained inside as of no...

Primary results, Michigan and Arizona.

Let's watch! 7:18: Gingrich is running on about a tree falling on a house. I came in in the middle and he seems deranged. 7:21: Hoosiers...

680,000-pound boulder goes on a 106-mile journey... for art.

It will ride a "294-foot-long centipede-like transporter between 10 and 11 p.m. and travel at the painstakingly slow speed of about 5 m...

"And is it really good policy for Santorum to fill young adults with suspicions about higher learning..."

"... which rightly exists to challenge — in a healthy sense — what parents and maybe pastors have poured into them?" asks Frank Br...

Angelina's leg...

... is everywhere.

Things that make law students go "off task."

This is from a study of students using laptops in class , but the researcher was able to gather data that is more generally useful to teache...

Romney says "I’m not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am."

WaPo reports: Romney suggested that Santorum was winning the support of the GOP’s most conservative voters with “incendiary,” “outrageous” a...

If you had to trust one of these individuals to handle your personal financial affairs...

Let's assume you've got complicated, extensive financial affairs. We're talking about all your life's savings, all the conti...

"Why does yoga produce so many philanderers? And why do the resulting uproars leave so many people shocked and distraught?""

"One factor is ignorance," says William J. Broad in the NYT (via Instapundit ): Yoga teachers and how-to books seldom mention tha...

"Santorum Robocall Asks Michigan Dems To Vote For Him."

TPM reports, with audio and "confirmation that the call did indeed come from the Santorum campaign." Michigan’s primary rules allo...

"New play uses oral history to craft story of the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing."

" Uncivil Disobedience , a new play from Madison’s Forward Theatre Company, examines an important event in Wisconsin’s history.......

"I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners."

And other Romney "wealth gaffes," as the Washington Post calls them . By the way, the official right-wing response is: It's go...

"Walkergate."

"The Democratic Party of Wisconsin released the first of what will likely be a barrage of recall-themed advertisements Monday, as the a...

Ben & Jerry's apologizes for its ice cream that (attempted to) honor Jeremy Lin.

The "Taste the Lin-Sanity" flavor contained lychee honey swirls and fortune-cookie pieces, which outraged some people. Do you see...

"To sit out here in public and philosophize … is really not the best use of our time."

Said one Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice. "I think it’s vitally important that the public be able to see what we do and how we do it......

At the General Strike Café...

... perhaps (purr-haps) you have a solution for everything.

"If women do something like uptalk or vocal fry, it’s immediately interpreted as insecure, emotional or even stupid."

"The truth is this: Young women take linguistic features and use them as power tools for building relationships." Yes, yes, rememb...

One year ago today at the Wisconsin protests: "Meade brought home the video, handed me the cameras, and said 'I almost got myself arrested.'"

"It's funny the second time you watch it! It looks like a Michael Moore-like thing... attempting to get past the police into the b...

"Law Deans May Go to Jail for Submitting False Data to U.S. News."

Why not?

Gov. Scott Walker will not challenge any of the recall signatures.

With the deadline for the challenges coming at 5 p.m. today, Walker's campaign just announced that it faced "an impossible timeline...

Best and worst Oscar fashions.

A nice slide show , beginning with Jennifer Lopez at her best. My favorite is Stacy Keibler (whoever she is). Her dress is a fabulous gold v...

"I fell in love with Benihana because, if you sit at a table full of strangers and you don't say anything to anybody..."

"... you're an asshole...." So, [Tracy Morgan] says he started using the restaurant regularly as a way to try out jokes on the...

"President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob."

"You're good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day and put their skills to tests that aren't taught by some ...

After reports of burned Korans, "a deadly chain of events that has not only inflamed tensions but possibly exposed a crippling weakness" in the Afghanistan exit strategy.

WaPo puts it this way: The killing of the U.S. officers on Saturday occurred two days after a man wearing an Afghan army uniform fatally sho...

"Sacha Baron Cohen just spilled 'ashes' of Kim Jong Il on Ryan Seacrest."

A tweet from the Oscars that I am not watching. Cohen is promoting his movie "The Dictator" and appearing in character as Adm. G...

Looking back at my old Wisconsin protest posts from a year ago, I'm struck by...

... the bemused, distanced attitude I have and how coolly neutral I was presenting material that I could have been really sensationalistic a...

A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests — 100,000 people marched around the Capitol in the snow.

Meade and I walked against the flow of the crowd so we could photograph a lot of faces, and I edited his video down to 10 minutes , that inc...

Evan Bayh, clinging to guns and religion.

This morning, on Fox News Sunday: Well, look, Bill obviously noticed, the Wall Street Journal editorial page will notice, you can go into Mi...

"As we round the corner into Sunday night's low-hype, low-suspense Academy Awards..."

"... is there anything you're hoping to see on Sunday? Any viable surprises that would delight you? Any level of expectation for ...

Rasmussen poll: "just 24% of Likely U.S. Voters favor applying affirmative action policies to college admissions."

"Fifty-five percent (55%) oppose the use of such policies to determine who is admitted to colleges and universities." The national...

"Make the pie higher!"

Said George Bush , that one time. I quoted him, with fondness and enthusiasm, when I saw this high pie in the bakery window. So we got a co...

James Taranto is "surprised to see @annalthouse sort of defending" Charles Blow.

Taranto's tweeting. Citing 2 of my blog posts — "Mr. Blow may attempt to delete that Tweet..." and "Our reflexive respo...

"Something about seeing the silhouettes of all the Holders of the Lights shifts the event from mere signage propaganda...

"... to an odd kind of testimonial. It is the main lesson of the Occupy movement: that bodies matter, and radical action can be defined...

Wyoming prepares for a post-America future.

Just in case! Frankly, I think all the states should have made plans like this a long time ago. Given the possibility of nuclear war, a larg...

Kites on ice, kids on marble.

Today on Lake Mendota, guys with kites (and sails) to pull skis (and sleds): And in the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda — a year after the protest...

A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests — signs and piles of personal belongings everywhere, even on the Veterans Memorial.

In the early morning hours , Democrats filibustered, and then Republicans suddenly, quickly took a vote, enraging the Democrats, who shout ...

"The fervor of the sixties penetrated law schools quite passionately."

Strikingly sexual imagery from a 2005 article called "Introduction to Clinical Legal Education" (which I'm reading in connecti...

The Internet!

"Stated briefly, I will simply try to clarify what the debate over climate change is really about."

"It most certainly is not about whether climate is changing: it always is." It is not about whether CO2 is increasing: it clearly ...

Indoor mountain biking parks.

Very nice! [ Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park , b]uilt in the shell of a defunct 110,000-square-foot Menards home and lumber store [in Mi...

"Seven Other Seinfeld Quotes That Apply to Mitt Romney."

Too easy?

"The vocabulary of class warfare may have begun on the left—a very socialist left..."

"... but in mainstream American politics it didn’t gain much traction until the Republicans took it up." Framing the struggle as c...

"Caricature is the most evanescent and pedantic of the visual arts."

It's hard to look back.

"President Obama’s attempt to 'soften' U.S. immigration enforcement — in what has been widely viewed as an election-year appeal to Hispanic voters..."

"... has so far produced mixed results on both practical and political fronts, according to a new Syracuse University report and anecdo...

"I've tried to explain my belief that a man should not be 'buddies' with another man's wife, but my wife doesn't see it and says they’re just pals."

"At the conference my wife will essentially be 'dating' this guy for five days. I do trust my wife completely. But this guy is ...

At the Ambulance Café...

... you can enhance your performance.

"The girls always make bad decisions and are always losers. Since I'm a girl, then I'm a loser!"

Maybe you shouldn't let your children watch this season of "Survivor," where they've divided males and females into separa...

"The defendant’s acts were not a prank, they were not an accident and they were not a mistake."

"They were mean-spirited, they were malicious and they were criminal.” "You gotta keep things in perspective... He might be stupid...

"This is my livelihood, this is my integrity, this is my character."

Said Ryan Braun. "This is everything I've worked for in my life being called into question."

A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests: "And if Scott Walker gets in our way, we're going to roll right over him.

Here 's how it looked in the rotunda, as things we're getting a little nasty and surreal: And a UW professor retires after after on...

Kodokushi.

Lonely deaths.

"Dr. Seuss' The Lorax... has been licensed to advertise an SUV."

Oh, my. Well, that's just terrible — melding this heavy-handed moralizing scold to a perfectly decent little Mazda.

Karen Santorum says she was against her husband's running for President, but finally decided it was "God's will."

WaPo reports: Speaking in deeply spiritual terms, Karen Santorum said she had been reluctant to throw her support behind the idea because he...

"I have these other aspects of my life that no one knows about. I’m an artist. I’m a musician."

"Nobody knows that... They just see me at the guy who tried to kill Reagan.” In the wake of last year’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giff...

"Michigan GOP Primary: Romney 40%, Santorum 34%."

Rasmussen's new poll, conducted yesterday — that is, the day after the last debate. The margin of error is +/-4.

"Sarah Palin’s top aides held a conference call to denounce the forthcoming HBO movie 'Game Change'..."

"... which like any ultraliberal media production, knocks Palin as a mentally imbalanced moron. Reporters are already underlining the P...

"The photographs are not self-portraits but rather depictions of invented personas and tableaus..."

"... shot in her studio without the help of any assistants, costume designers or hair and make-up experts."

"Mr. Blow may attempt to delete that Tweet..."

But Jim Geraghty has preserved the Mormon-bashing outburst of the NYT columnist. One of your columnists responds to a comment he does not li...

When Satan set his sights on America, the place were he was "most successful and first successful was in academia."

Said Rick Santorum in that 2008 speech at Ava Maria University. I've lived in that purported stronghold of Satan for the last quarter c...

Why did Rick Santorum deliver a yank-your-arm-out-of-its-shoulder-socket handshake to Ron Paul?

At the end of the debate on Wednesday. Video at the link, where the headline reads "Ron Paul Fans Outraged At Hearty Post-Debate Hands...

Finally, some snow...

... as I sit down to the morning's blogging.

Russ Feingold's new book has a title that's so right wing... and I mean 1960s right wing.

"While America Sleeps." Freaky!

Will living alone — without "social checks and balances" — make you too eccentric?

This is one of these NYT lifestyle articles with anecdotes about women who do things like leaving their bra on the kitchen table. Then ther...

"The gradual yellowing of the lens and the narrowing of the pupil that occur with age disturb the body’s circadian rhythm..."

With age, it becomes more important to open our eyes to bright sunlight. Leave the sunglasses off, and you will sleep better, think better, ...

Ryan Braun becomes the first baseball player — as far as we know — to win an appeal after a positive drug test.

These things aren't supposed to be public, so there may have been other cases: The panel consisted of Shyam Das, baseball’s independent ...

The man who published all those dirty books... and turned down "Lord of the Rings" because he "couldn’t understand a word."

Barney Rosset, of Grove Press and Evergreen Review, dead now at 89. Besides publishing [Samuel] Beckett, he brought early exposure to Europe...

"Former Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter said Thursday that Rick Santorum got his facts wrong..."

"... when he said that he endorsed Specter only after securing a promise that Specter would support GOP Supreme Court nominees." S...

So... was Santorum destroyed at last night's debate?

That 's what I heard.

A year ago today at the Wisconsin protests: a camel was tormented by "The Daily Show" and Gov. Walker was pranked with a phone call.

Here 's my post about the "Daily Show"'s nauseating exploitation of a camel here in Wisconsin. (But look here to see some...

Chip unlocks a dirty visual secret.

"That painting is subversively pornographic. It's shocking my eyeballs." Later : See what I mean. I was going to make her head...

"When should knowing lies be restrictable on the ground that they cause emotional distress?"

Eugene Volokh paraphrases the question the Supreme Court Justices were asking yesterday, as they considered whether the Stolen Valor Act vi...

Self-medicating with alcohol...

... by fruit flies.

"Irish call for apology following 'Drunk Vomiting Shamrocks' clothing line."

"Urban Outfitters' St. Patrick's Day products, including a trucker’s cap illustrated with a drunk vomiting shamrocks and a ...

Thinking about Mr. Kruger.

My son John was live-blogging the GOP debate last night: 8:08 - Mitt Romney cuts short his own introduction: "As George Costanza would ...

"The boiling of millions of penguins on a remote Antarctic island triggered one of the first international wildlife campaigns."

"A century on, DNA analysis proves it has been a success. Now, Macquarie Island's king penguins must face rampaging rabbits." ...