While walking through the Math building rotunda this afternoon I looked up and in the lamp hanging directly overhead saw more than a few dead moths.
And at that moment I wondered: If augury is divination through the the observation of bird flight, what do we call predictions based on the patterns formed by dead moths? "Heteroceramancy" becomes entangled somewhere between my tongue and teeth whenever I try to say it.
You may have heard that William Kristol has called for Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele to step down after the latter's comments regarding the war in Afghanistan. I will be saddened if Steele takes this advice, as his mouth is the gift that keeps on giving.
I doubt Kristol realizes how much he shares with Steele in this respect. I listen to Fox News Sunday primarily for the entertainment value Kristol provides during the panel discussion. Here he is on yesterday's program confirming his position on Steele in response to a question from guest host Major Garrett (cue spit-take):
And I think one thing as a Republican I think Republicans can be proud of is that we don't politicize foreign wars ...
And here is the same William Kristol a few minutes later, in his very next comment:
And [Obama will] have to win [the war in Afghanistan], unfortunately, over the doubts and opposition, almost, right, of almost two-thirds of the Democratic members of the House who voted late last week for a timetable to get out, which is really astonishing.
Nine Republicans voted against the president on this. Like 165 or something supported the president. A hundred sixty-five Republicans supported the president and General Petraeus in the attempt to win this war. Sixty percent-plus of House Democrats said, "No, Mr. President, we just want to get out."
Congressional Democrats seem never to have met a war that, when it gets tough, they don't want to get out of.
This is, presumably, an example of a Republican proudly not politicizing a foreign war. To quote Jon Stewart, "Oh, Bill Kristol, are you ever right?"