you’ve selected the proper last. The Second Daughter found that the New Balance site allows you to narrow your shoe selection not just by type of shoe and width and length, but also by the structure of the last. The Eldest, for example, was finally able to find shoes that fit exactly by finding a last that had a narrow heel, large toe box, and high instep. She says that they were incredibly comfortable right off the bat.

Select a shoe type, and at the top you’ll see the options to narrow the selection. Click on “Shoe Last” and you’ll see an explanation of the various lasts. Very nice indeed.

Billmon posts some interesting thoughts on the recent Supreme Court decision. Worth reading.

Lt. Cmdr. Swift is the attorney who represented the Guantánamo detainees before the US Supreme Court. Read this post about an honorable, principled, and courageous military officer.

I just filled up my normal, 4-door sedan, which has a 16-gallon tank. $48.40! This is not the premium fuel, either, but the middle one, just above regular: 87 octane rating.

Man, if I were still commuting to work, that would be $100 per week cash outlay for gas. $400 a month. That would be one heck of a hit.

The first auto manufacturer to come out with a really high-mileage car is going to make a killing. The next generation of the Prius, due in 2008 (a presidential election year) will get around 100 mpg. (The story says 113 mpg, but that’s in the UK: Imperial gallon. In the US, using our gallon, it will be about 94 mpg.)

I blogged earlier about using a child’s divided plate, which offers two benefits:

The compartments show proportions of vegetables, protein, and carbs (whole wheat pasta, cooked whole grains, etc.): 1/2 the plate for veggies, 1/4 for protein, 1/4 for carbs.

The use of a child’s plate means the portion sizes are about right for an adult.

This is the plate that I got, which unfortunately is now out of stock. But they still have this one. Give it a go.

Oddly, the plates are not the shape pictured. Instead, they are wider than they are tall. But the compartments are still correct: 1/2, 1/4, 1/4.

Via Dan Froomkin’s column, the profile of David Addington is now online. This is the guy who rammed through all the illegal structures and processes, with Cheney’s backing, either ignoring objections or working around those who would object. He’s the author of the 750 signing statements that are intended to allow Bush to ignore the laws passed by Congress. He’s the one who created the military tribunals that the Supreme Court has clearly denounced as violations of law. Read the profile and marvel that this sort of person was ever given a voice in government. From the profile:

On November 13, 2001, an executive order setting up the military commissions was issued under Bush’s signature. The decision stunned [then-secretary of state Colin] Powell; the national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice; the highest-ranking lawyer at the C.I.A.; and many judge advocate generals, or JAGs, the top lawyers in the military services. None of them had been consulted. . . . According to multiple sources, Addington secretly usurped the process. He and a few hand-picked associates, including Bradford Berenson and Timothy Flanigan, a lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, wrote the executive order creating the commissions. Moreover, Addington did not show drafts of the order to Powell or Rice, who, the senior Administration lawyer said, was incensed when she learned about her exclusion.

Liberals, believing strongly in the virtues of a secular government and the clear separation of church and state, are easily caricatured as hostile to religion—by Conservatives and by false “friends” (e.g., Joe Klein and the like).

This caricature has led to the creation and courting of the Religious Right by the GOP, with regular pandering in preparation for elections: government display of the Ten Commandments, the “war on Christmas,” homophobic positions and amendments, and the like.

It’s difficult to fight attacks of this sort without sounding defensive or even (worse) adopting the frame set by the Right, covertly accepting that Liberals are somehow anti-Christian. Barack Obama, for example, fell into that trap.

The Second Daughter suggested a superb bumper sticker that finesses all that:

Values Voter: Matthew 25: 35-40

Read the rest of this entry »

I briefly mentioned this before, but let me give a step-by-step for my readers who use Firefox and subscribe to Netflix. But first, read both UPDATES below. In the upper right of your browser window—at this very moment—you’ll see the “search” box. Click the symbol in the box (probably the symbol for Google, if that was your last search). A drop-down list will appear, showing the search engines you have installed and, at the bottom, “Add engines.” Open a new tab (Ctrl-T) and, while you’re in the new tab, click “Add engines.”

At the upper right of the displayed page is a search box, which allows you to search for the search engine you want. Type “Netflix,” press enter, and then click it to add it to your search engines.

Let me know if you have a problem. You can switch among the Firefox tabs with Ctrl-Tab, analogous to the way you switch among Windows programs with Alt-Tab.

UPDATE: Constant Reader points out that doing the search as described no longer brings up a Netflix search engine, but instead an extension called “Slim Search,” which is much more powerful: Read the rest of this entry »

Megs, on the arm of the chair. She’ll sit here fairly often, either inspecting me, as shown here, or crouched down to look out the window behind me or in the other direction to look over the living room. British Shorthairs feel that they are keeping you good company if they are just close to you, not necessarily on me. When she’s on me, she generally wants to sleep, not socialize.