Patrick Smith must have meant "largest non nuclear explosions in a military campaign". If that's what he intended, he might be close.

According to Wikipedia, the Beirut barracks bombing had an explosive yield of 12,000lbs of TNT[1], or 0.006 kilotons (kt)

The GBU-43 has an explosive yield of approximately 0.025 kt[2], but has never been used operationally.

The BLU-82 contains 12,600lbs of explosive material (GSX slurry)[3], but I've not been able to find the explosive efficiency of the explosive to calculate the yield of the bomb -- I would guess that it is greater than 1, making it greater than the Beirut explosion. This bomb has been used operationally.

The Grand Slam Bomb [4] used by the British in WWII contained 9,135 lbs of Torpex explosive, which has an explosive efficiency of 1.5[5], for a total yield of roughly 0.007kt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions is a list of the largest non-nuclear explosions.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOAB

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_bomb

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpex

Democrats should demonize Lieberman for spitting in their face by running after losing his party's primary.

I'm not sure who Sherwood Brown is, but Sherrod Brown is doing quite well in the Ohio Senate race.

Announcing you're not resigning is the first step in resigning.

Maybe its time to start publishing Buster's picks. (Or do you, and I'm an idiot and don't seem them?)

Colin Powell has a long road ahead of him, resurrecting his career and image after the damage W convinced him to inflict upon it. In some ways, I feel for him. Mostly, not so much -- he did it to himself.

Let's not play my-party-uber-alles here. There's something to be said for a moderate republican winning a primary in a moderate state. It's part of a return to sane politics, I hope.

I have no doubt that the owner of the business (the boss in question) has provided his tax information to the company, partners and investors.

That really doesn't seem like any kind of stretch to me.

I'd rather win 50 games and get bounced from the playoffs than go 38-44 year after year.

And no one remembers the playoff series where the Warriors beat the Spurs by playing "Point Center" - leaving their center (Alton Lister or Tyrone Hill) at the top of the key on offense, so that David Robinson would have to get out of the paint?

Or at least, he never gave a real apology. He gave a mealy-mouthed 21st apology. From the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081400589.html)

I do apologize if he's offended by that.

So George Allen can be as offensive as he wants. He'll only be sorry when someone happens to publicly take offense at it. That's the kind of non-apology that just whizzes past my ears.

Also, campaign managers to learn the meaning of the word "literally" before using it to the press.

So sad when our president, the "leader of the free world," must be TOLD this.

I think you needed quotes only around the "free" part of that. A unitary executive means that none of us are truely free. We are free only by his fiat, not by fundamental right.

I'd imagine Iowa has regulations about vulgar acronyms on license plates. I'd imagine they'd recall "STFU" (Shut the fuck up) or "DTMFA" (the original term that spawned "ITMFA") if they issued those as well.

Slow news day?

Given that the NFL and NFLPA constitute a monopoly on the highest level of professional football, could an athlete argue he was being discriminated against based on age by that monopoly?

My first edit to get it into passable shape included Buster. Oddly enough, an edit at the same time also included Buster, but has a better description of our coin-flipping boy. I merged the two together. So I can't take all the credit.

But it seems that Buster is the first thing that springs to mind about King.

I, too, would be curious what civil liberties changes the Brits have undertaken.

I suspect, at least, that they were changed under the rule of law, rather than by an illegal Executive power grab.

Mr. Clutch, Derek Jeter, vs. Boston in the postseason:

Year BA/OBP/SLG

2003 .233/.281/.400

2004 .200/.333/.233

I'll take ARod over Jeter, thanks.

And King Clutch, David Ortiz, in the 2003 playoffs:

Opp BA/OBP/SLG

OAK .095/.174/.143

NYY .269/.367/.538

Even great players have bad series.

That is, politicized by the Democrats by asking why we aren't devoting our foreign policy resources to stopping al-Qaeda instead of pouring billions of dollars into Iraq.

The card can be played two ways. The correct play of this one is that the War in Iraq has not prevented al-Qaeda terror attempts.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rodrial01.shtml

Most of ARod's comps are Hall-of-Famers or future Hall-of-Famers. Many of them are feared hitters who are primarily in the league because of their ability to hit. Yet Alex Rodriguez plays a passable, if not better than average SS and 3B.

Remarks about "clutchiness" aside, he'll finish his career as one of those "Pantheon" guys in the Hall of Fame.

I'd guess Clarett would still be a *($#ed up thug.

I don't know what "character issues" the NFL different enough from the NBA that 18 year old players could not succeed. Makes me wonder if the prevalence of evangelical Christianity in the NFL has anything to do with that strict character view.

I'm currently trying to edit the article into a bit better shape. At least enough to get it not deleted.

Overall, I like his style. Its more eloquent and nuanced than Tim Grieve. And nuance is essential -- the politics of black and white are the politics of the far right.

That said, he does tend to run a bit long. I've found his best material to be the stuff that comes in at 3-5 paragraphs, not 8 or so.