On this topic at least, I recommend extreme pessimism.
Right now this is one sentence in the Huffington Post, which is about a notch or two up from Drudge. In other words: don't count your chickens until they've officially decided to spend more time with their families.
What alcohol and hors-d'oeuvres will you be serving? So, you know, I can decide if I want to go.
Sadly, I agree with everyone else. The only real reason for hope is that Fitzgerald is a Republican, and so may lack the pathetic weakness of our own leaders.
Republican=strong
But odor isn't everything.
The same joke in another form:
"He's a strong man... strong-smelling, that is."
"Also, can you believe the careless arrogance?"
Given caveats and all, yes, I can.
Yes, I think that we need to be cautious about what this means. The Carpetbagger reports that even though Tom Delay has stepped aside as House Majority Leader, he's still the power broker in Washington.
Just as our military has an absolute obligation to treat
prisoners and detainees humanely, the domestic corrections
system has an absolute obligation to protect prisoners from
abuse, including abuse at the hands of each other, no matter
how heinous their crimes might have been.
Thus any exultation at the thought of one or more of Messrs.
Delay, Rove, Libby, Frist, etc., being raped in prison would be
totally uncalled for. But none of you were thinking that, right?
I wasn't. And I'm rather offended that you'd imply that I was, even with a backwards hand.
Nope, you're the first one to bring up prison rape.
(13, 14, offended by my 12)
Well, I'll admit that _I_ was thinking of it, and felt guilty
about it. I wasn't referring directly to either of your posts,
and I apologize for perhaps appearing to do so.
I do find it interesting how our hatred of the bad guys
threatens our moral status as the good guys. Andrew
Sullivan quoted Jane Smiley to the effect that in a just
world, those responsible for the Iraq war "would be taken
out and shot", as part of his argument that "left-wingers" are
all Stalinists. Self-righteousness is an addictive drug (as I
think David Brin said), and we have to watch out for it.
Anybody know how widespread prison rape actually is?
Ted Conover, in _Newjack_, said that he believed there to
be little or none in Sing Sing when he worked as a guard
there. Another race-based myth, like the alleged anarchy in
the Superdome?
DaveMB, why do you write in blank verse?
A study of midwestern prisons estimated 20% of prisoners forced to perform a sexual act and 10% raped.
Telling that Ogged titles a post "Party at My Place!" and the topic turns to man-on-man sex within a dozen comments.
Joe D, I was wondering that myself, but I didn't dare to say it.
Sometimes I think the crowd here might be obsessed with butt sex.
16 asks: Why do I write in blank verse?
You're not claiming that I'm writing in meter, are you? I can't see any trace of that. But I am used to putting in my own line breaks as I write, rather than trust the software to put them in as it ought to do in this post, because I'm trying to remember not to put in my own line breaks when I get to the edge of the box. When I put them in, of course, my lines come out shorter than they would otherwise.
Thanks for the reference, apostropher!
15: apology readily accepted. I was feeling a bit testy already when I wrote 13.
Apo's study is in line with what I've read, which is an estimation of about 16% are raped. I've read no numbers on attempted rape, however. Maybe it's in one of those links up there (I'll click 'em tomorow).
Totally OT, but can we finally declare TNR to be irrelevant to all Democrats who are both decent and of sound mind? Jeebus.
More than irrelevant; they're very, very dangerous.
Jesus Haploid Christ. Every time I think TNR can't get any stupider, they go and demonstrate my sheer lack of imagination.
apostropher--Is this the corollary to Brad Delong's point that no matter how bad you think the Bush administration is, it always winds up worse than you could imagine---even after you've added a margin of error--"worseness insurance"--to what you could actually imagine.
I believe in its pithiest form, DeLong's Law states that the Bush administration is always worse than you could imagine, even when you take into account DeLong's Law.
See also Hofstadter's Law.