… for a summer internet link sausage barbecue platter (with the obligatory flare-ups and singed weenies).
- Speaking of singed weenies: Can anyone really be surprised that yet more power players in show business are having their personal — very personal — shortcomings aired in public? I thought not. I've always thought that overemphasizing the size of one's box office was sort of compensating for something else… and it turns out it's not just intellectual challenges, but ethics and basic humanity. Given the yuuuuuugely great example being set in DC, though, it's difficult to get too aroused.
- But it could be worse. It will be worse, as more and more politicians — especially the most potentially tyrannical — succumb to their historical fates.
- From the Department of Schadenfreude Pie comes "news" that Facepalm's stock price is undergoing a deserved correction. Naturally (given the source of that second item), there's a "we'll be back" spin to it. How'd that work out for MySpace and AOL, anyway?
- And then there's the open question of "just what the hell is an emolument, anyway?" It's not that easy a question; it's obviously more than "direct payment" (even the Founding Fathers knew how to say "bribe," and did in their letters, so the earlier New York decision seems off). It's at least open enough to question that the facts will matter and the Maryland suit will proceed (PDF), if slightly more narrowly.
Frankly, this lawsuit is the iceberg heading for the overconfident captain of the Titanic: Revelations here are much more likely to cause mutiny among the crew (and passengers) than electoral shenanigans or people-who-don't-look-like-us repression (even involving kids seeking asylum) or that singed weenie noted above. And just like in 1912, California won't be around to save anyone this time, either. How appropriate during Shark Week.