Heh indeedy

Go read:

Yet in the media/punditry's desperate, mob-like rush to kiss the fat white ass of power even as it farts the most foul-smelling lies right in their face, none of these people have answered or even asked the very simple question: If the president is permitted to break this law with absolutely no concrete justification at all, what law isn't he allowed to break? Can he walk into a 7-11 and rob it? Can he steal taxpayer money and pocket it as his own? Or how about executing his political enemies? Can he do that?

These may sound like hyperbolic questions – but they cut to what this really is about. Does the "rule of law" which President Bush has talked so much about actually mean anything in the United States of America?

This is what 'ethical' looks like

Judge resigns from FISA Court:

Quoting colleagues of Robertson, the Post said the judge had indicated he was concerned that information gained from the warrantless surveillance under Bush's program subsequently could have been used to obtain warrants under the FISA program.

Robertson was appointed a federal judge by President Clinton in 1994. Chief Justice William Rehnquist later appointed Robertson to the FISA court as well.

Robertson has been critical of the Bush administration's treatment of detainees at the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most memorably in a decision that sidetracked the president's system of military tribunals to put some detainees on trial.

Judge James Robertson: I don't know you, but I hold you in high regard. Your actions have shown that you take your oath to uphold our laws seriously, even to your own professional detriment, and for that I salute you.

The amazing narwhal

You really should read this article about the narwhal and his sublime spiral tooth. A dentist who got interested in narwhals is reporting his findings this week at the Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in San Diego. It turns out that the teeth are sensory organs that probably tell this whale a lot about his environmental conditions. And no, they don't fight with them, but they do sometimes rub them together, perhaps to clean them. Maybe they will find that related or friendly males do this in greeting (not much is known about the behavior, which is mostly observed by Inuit people - yet another example of the value and scope of Native knowledge).

And it is sort of fitting that I post about teeth today, since tomorrow I'm having surgery to get my top wisdom teeth removed.