tumbledown debris

It appears that among the great many things Sarah Palin does not know is the difference between former UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden and former Cheyenne Indian tribal leader John Wooden Legs. Her (poorly ghostwritten and apparently unedited) book, Going Rogue, erroneously attributes this quote to the college hoops legend:

Our land is everything to us…. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember than our grandfathers paid for it — with their…

National Geographic reports on speculation that a population of fish may live in a giant sub-surface sea on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. As coastal North Carolina fly fishing guide Capt. Gordon suggests, this could prove to be an exciting new destination for exotic angling adventure.

This is a great example of trans-national labor solidarity

:

U.S. and German labor leaders announced a transatlantic alliance on Wednesday aimed at persuading Germany’s giant Deutsche Telekom AG to allow collective bargaining at its subsidiary, T-Mobile USA.

Under the agreement, which U.S. labor officials called unprecedented, German trade union Ver.di will represent T-Mobile USA workers and the Communications Workers of America in talks with Deutsche Telekom managers…

The brouhaha over President Obama’s bowing to the Japanese Emperor reminded me of my own encounter with foreign royalty. When I received my graduate degree from London University, the ceremony, at the Royal Albert Hall, involved a stream of graduates passing before Princess Anne (Chancellor of the University) to bow or curtsy. As a staunch anti-monarchist, I didn’t care for the ritual. But, seeing no actual harm and not wishing to make a scene, I went along with it–a small, painless, and…