Here's the broad view, apparently visible only to those (the majority) who haven't descended into the mosh pit:

Democrats have three reasonably good candidates with reasonably similar positions. They divide the vote three ways because there isn't all that much difference between them and 90% or more of Democratic voters (and a huge chunk of independents) would be happy to vote for any one of them.

Republicans, for the first time in memory, are bitterly divided among four distinct factions: the True Believers (Huckabee, now that Thompson has finally bailed); the SuperRich and Corporate Yes-Men (Romney); the Pro-Military (McCain); the Fear Mongered (the declining Giuliani).

The dirty secret of the Bush years is that most of these factions don't agree on much of anything, and many of them hate the others' guts but just don't know it. Bush, as a Corporate Yes-Man disguised as a True Believer who was good at Fear Mongering and pandering to the Military, kept the coalition together until all his programs headed down the drain (with the sole exception of Tax Cuts, proving where his true values lie). None of the current GOP candidates is going to convince 90% of Republicans (much less independents) that they have their true interests at heart.

As divided as Democrats may seem to the select few who care passionately about one candidate vs. another, the truth is that Dems are united, Republicans are divided this time around.

Somebody get the memo to Bill Clinton, quick!

Has AT&T "simply lots its mind?"

Yes, lots and lots.

Our local public library has watt meters that they loan out to patrons for a week at a time, long enough to test just about all the equipment in your house (and return the device so that the next person can use it).

The biggest watt gobbler in our house turned out to be an old refrigerator ($94 of electricity/year). I eventually replaced it with a new one that consumes 40% as much.

And with "the Wife" on this one. The kid is indeed a snot-nosed brat. Calling a school administrator at home is way out of line -- go see him in his office, kid.

On the other hand, if you've ever lived in the vicinity of DC, you would know that it only takes a fraction of an inch of snow to close down the city. Balto-DC drivers are the world's worst. Three inches must have seemed like the apocalypse.

Fire Toni Schlesinger (if she really writes this wretched mess; I suspect it's actually a drunken intern) and hire Tideswimmer.

... slogging through weeks of this truly wretched attempt at a cartoon...

...to get Machete's link to Kukuburi:

http://www.kukuburi.com/2007/08/09/one/

Now THERE'S a cartoon to be proud of! A million thanks to Machete for the suggestion, and one small thank to KOF for being bad enough to turn me to it.

PS, an observation: I see that Ramon Perez, artist/author of Kukuburi, regularly responds to his readers on his cartoon's letters section. Why do we never, ever hear from TS and TB? Are they too embarrassed to read their own letters?

"A Fred Thompson flasback"

Quick, somebody call a proofreader.

...understanding sophisticated irony is hard for you since that time you were brain warshed in the jyngyl...

Glenn, I enjoy all your posts and usually agree at least somewhat with almost all of them. On this one, you are totally off. (Please note, I am NOT a definite Obama supporter -- not that it maters here in Michigan, where only Clinton and Kucinich appeared on the primary ballot).

Just look at the phrasing. Huckabee runs as a "Christian LEADER." Message: you are my flock. If you call yourself a Christian, you must vote for me.

Obama runs (in SC only) as a "Committed Christian." Message: I'm one of you. I'll listen to you. We can talk with each other.

Sorry, the messages are completely different, one authoritative (if not authoritarian), the other democratic with a small-d, at least in the SC context. It would be nice if someone could run in SC as an "Uncommitted Secular Humanist" but that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

If you think this is just obscure parsing of basically indistinguishable messages, then you haven't spent enough time deciphering coded Christian messages that anyone who lives in that world will recognize and understand instantly.

Just noticed, the increase in births was reported for 2006; the decrease in abortions, for 2005. Still, both figures represent trends.

On Thursday, Lynn Harris reported in Broadsheet that births in the U.S. climbed last year by 3% to a near-record 4.3 million. That is an increase of roughly 120,000 more births.

Today you report that abortions fell by 8% to 1.2 million. That is a decrease of roughly 100,000 abortions -- or an increase of roughly 100,000 births.

It would seem, on the face of it (and if both figures are supported by later research), that the decline in abortions is almost entirely responsible for the increase in births.

I don't think I've laughed so much at anything this week as I did at "the Evolution of Animal Neckwear." The sad thing about is, I remember almost all of those tie-clad characters. Brutal!