Shut up when you're goddamned ahead!

I flipped back and forth around the dials listening to the various channels taking up Sarah Palin, and after slipping past Sean Hannity's passive banality I dropped into liberal Randi Rhode's show. Randi was ranting and raving about how Palin is a pro-Intelligent Design advocate.

Rhodes was screaming about how science proves evolution, and she kept ranting about "Carbon dating, you can't deny carbon dating, evolution is supported by carbon dating!"

I my reaction was, "Please, shut the fuck up!"

Carbon dating is only useful for the human era. You don't use carbon dating to study evolution. The nested evidentiary columns of cosmogenic dating and geologic stacking support each other in establishing the age of the Earth, supported by both chemical and nuclear science and experience, gives us always-provisional knowledge about the age of the Earth.

But please, it's not carbon dating.

Anecdotal evidence of everywhereness

When I took Dinah to the vet for her follow-up, one the nurse techs came in and found me with Dinah on my lap, reading a magazine. There were dozens of manly magazines in the place, and one copy of Martha Stewart Living.

I love Martha.

The nurse tech took a look at my reading material, and then my sweat-shirt. "Is that an Act-Up^[?] shirt?" she asked.

"Queer Nation.^[?]," I told her. "It's a very old shirt."

The funny thing is, this woman knows I'm married to a woman and have two lovely children. And she didn't bat an eye. Very cool.

Watching the right PANIC!

It was so fun to watch Ramesh Ponnuru over at The Corner go from this (and godsdammit, why can't The Corner use proper persistent linkage? You'd think they were prepared to scrub the evidence at a moment's notice!):

If all you knew of Obama was what he presented to you in his speech, you would think of him as a typical Democratic politician improved by the addition of a bit more thoughtfulness and idealism than the average representative of the class. You would be amazed to learn of his extremely close relationship to a radical anti-American preacher; or that he has followed a no-enemies-to-the-left approach to politics that put him in the company of an unrepentant terrorist. You would not suspect that he favors taxpayer-funded abortion or drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants. You would not realize that he has crossed party lines far less often than McCain. You would not imagine that he had ever voted against funding for troops in war zones. It would not cross your mind that this denouncer of hardball, self-interested politics might be having his campaign intimidate reporters out of looking into his record.

To this:

Experience: Palin has been governor for about two minutes. Thanks to McCain's decision, Palin could be commander-in-chief next year. That may strike people as a reckless choice; it strikes me that way. And McCain's age raised the stakes on this issue. As a political matter, it undercuts the case against Obama. Tokenism. Can anyone say with a straight face that Palin would have gotten picked if she were a man? Compatibility: It doesn't seem as though McCain knows Palin well. Do we have much reason to think they would work well together? Debates: Maybe, as Jonah said the other day, Biden will look like a bully going up against her-- and maybe she'll shine. But I can think of a lot of other picks who would have been lower-risk.

Shannen Coffin at NRO echos Ponnuru: "McCain is one arrogant SOB. He is essentially telling the world that he doesn't really need a Vice President." That's right. 72-year-old, four-time cancer patient John McCain doesn't really need someone to step into his shoes. Not on day one, not anytime in the next four years.

And in the I-Told-You-So category, from fallenpegasus's favorite political website:

Men have a favorable imperssion of Palin by a 35-point margin, whereas women have a favorable impression of her by an 18-point margin. Conversely, by a 23-point margin, women do not think Palin is ready to be President, whereas Palin lost this question among men by a considerably smaller 6-point margin.

Wikipedia informs us that the Hail Mary pass^[?] "is unlikely to be successful, because of the general inaccuracy of the pass and the defensive team's preparedness for the play makes it likely that it can intercept or knock down the ball." Well, Team Obama may not have been ready to intercept the ball, but McCain's now legendary inaccuracy has, indeed, led to failure.