* Brush with infamy: Turns out disgraced former NBA referee Tim Donaghy went to high school with my girlfriend. Her yearbook shows that Donaghy was voted Most Likely to Compromise the Integrity of a Major Sports League.
* Civil discourse, illustrated: Seattle Mariners GM Bill Bavasi was asked to comment on criticism from Florida Marlins’ exec David Samson, “My mother always taught me that if the only thing you have to say is ‘[expletive] David Samson,’ you shouldn’t say anything at all.”
* The other day, Atrios pulled off a trick I can never seem to manage: using the word recherche without seeming recherche. I’m trying to think of examples of other words that tend to be demonstrated in their use.
* It seems Rudy Giuliani’s claim that he “cut taxes 23 times” as mayor of New York is, well, not really true. It’s a weird claim to make, anyway. If you want to win votes on your record as a tax-cutter, then the number of separate tax cuts isn’t really meaningful. A single well-designed cut could, in theory at least, be more effective than 23 separate, poorly designed ones. It’s also possible, in theory, to cut taxes 23 times while raising them 24 times (a la Ronald Reagan’s payroll tax hike). A more meaningful figure, for those who want to tout their tax-cutting prowess, would be the difference in the overall tax rate on the day they left office vs. the rate on the day they took office.
* “AFSCME: The Union That Works For You” (via)
* (via) The 5,000-calorie pizza. It includes 12 pigs in blankets, 4 hamburger patties, 21 cheese pizza rolls and bacon, but no sesame seed bun. Anything this bad for you should come with sesame seeds. That’s the genius of the Big Mac, it lets you know when the worst of the damage is over.
* Delawareans without prescription drug coverage can now get a free discount card from the United Way. Nationwide, United Way has distributed some 2 million of these “FamilyWize” cards. If you don’t have prescription coverage, check it out. (You might also want to download your own free ‘SiCKO Health Care Card.)
* Bookmark this Crooks & Liars post. SilentPatriot links to the specifics of each Democratic candidate’s health care proposals.
* I’m not sure I’m clear about what all Catherine Tumber is saying on “How to Talk About God and Politics,” but her recommendation of Martin Luther King Jr. as a model is worth reading. And I rather like her insistence that “religious integrity” shows itself, in part, through “a reckoning with the limitations of life that surpasses stoic resignation; a sense of a cosmic future that will outlive us, upon which to base present hope.”
* From comments, joed supplied the link to Max Blumenthal’s “Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour.” Two things: 1) that’s a different Fred Clark, and 2) evangelical “liturgical dance” must be stopped.
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