Reader Randolph Addison emails:

I do not have full details, as I only heard the last few seconds of the following on NPR around 8:45 AM:

“…when asked why the European countries have a higher unemployment rate than America, at roughly 5 percent, he responded, ‘Well, we don’t have as many people in jail, do we?'”

Well, actually, that probably is one factor, but it’s certainly disingenuous to imply that it’s the only one…

I take it ‘he’ is some European official and the rest of the story will become available during the day. I just found it interesting that they ignore their bloated welfare state with such an idiotic comment.

Yes. Well, of course, if they were to blame their welfare state, or their job-market rigidity, they might be compelled to do something about it. Much easier to look down their noses at America, and celebrate how much more “humane” they are.

While for the sake of Megan McArdle’s finances, I hope that she soon gets a real job, it will be a sad day if it cuts into the time that she can devote to writing little pieces like this one.

Just in case your opinion of the Taliban couldn’t get any lower, here’s another sad story from Time. Apparently, not all of the holy warriors were willing to wait to get to heaven. They wanted their virgins in the here and now.

It’s a good thing that the Taliban was so concerned with the dignity of women. Just think how they’d have treated them otherwise…

And unfortunately, it’s not over. In western Afghanistan, young women are currently valued at a couple hundred pounds of wheat.

Fresh from Mary Frances Berry’s temporary judicial victory to keep the membership packed with liberal plantation owners, the US Civil Rights Commission continues steadily down the road to irrelevance.

[Update at 9:15 PM PST]

Reader and fellow weblogger Dan Hartung informs me that I’ve confused the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights with the U.S. Commission On Civil Rights.

Not surprising–everyone who knows me know that I’m easily confused. Nonetheless, the point remains…

Mr. Quick points out that Bill Clinton is a gift that just keeps on giving to the Republicans.

I wonder if Democrats ever think wistfully of impeachment days, and would like a “do over”?

Consider–had they done the right thing, and removed his sorry corrupt keester from office at that time, Al Gore would have been President. He would have run as an incumbent, and probably be President today (unless he really screwed things up in his last two years–always a possibility). The party would have much more successfully detached itself from the Clinton sleaze factor.

But instead, they formed a phalanx around him, forever associated themselves with him, and have screwed themselves for years to come.

Does Ted Turner ever engage brain before opening his mouth? Or is the problem that he does, but he’s only running on half a mental cylinder?

“The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don’t have any hope for a better life,” he said.

He said the attacks were an act of desperation, and that Americans lack an understanding of a willingness to die for one’s country.

“I think they were brave at the very least,” Turner said of the 19 airliner hijackers believed to have committed the attacks, adding that they “might have been a little nuts.”

Well, I can think of at least one decrepit former media mogul who they’re at least a little saner than…

Does Ted Turner ever engage brain before opening his mouth? Or is the problem that he does, but he’s only running on half a mental cylinder?

“The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don’t have any hope for a better life,” he said.

He said the attacks were an act of desperation, and that Americans lack an understanding of a willingness to die for one’s country.

“I think they were brave at the very least,” Turner said of the 19 airliner hijackers believed to have committed the attacks, adding that they “might have been a little nuts.”

Well, I can think of at least one decrepit former media mogul who they’re at least a little saner than…

Does Ted Turner ever engage brain before opening his mouth? Or is the problem that he does, but he’s only running on half a mental cylinder?

“The reason that the World Trade Center got hit is because there are a lot of people living in abject poverty out there who don’t have any hope for a better life,” he said.

He said the attacks were an act of desperation, and that Americans lack an understanding of a willingness to die for one’s country.

“I think they were brave at the very least,” Turner said of the 19 airliner hijackers believed to have committed the attacks, adding that they “might have been a little nuts.”

Well, I can think of at least one decrepit former media mogul who they’re at least a little saner than…