An act in two parts. I have to say I slightly sympathize with the kid—when you’re working retail, sometimes your brain goes into something like cash register drone mode—but this kid sounds like he was pretty far gone to begin with.

Daniel Drezner looks at the continued genius of Hardees and Carl’s Jr. in moving from “food porn” to virtual porn (by way of Paris Hilton) as a marketing gimmick in order to gain free ads from oft-quoted “watchdog” groups. I’m not one of those people who thinks Hilton is all that hot, but I guess I’m in the minority on that score.

I am surprised that H/CJ continues to keep a split brand, however… since Federated has now assimilated all of its department store holdings under the Macy’s brand, there really aren’t that many important split brands left—Edy’s/Dreyer’s and Checker’s/Rally’s are the only others that come to mind.

In addition to Robert, another of my favorite bloggers, Timothy Sandefur, has decided to retire from the field. The contributions of both will be sorely missed.

The Moonie News Service is reporting that King Fahd of Saudi Arabia is dead, although the practical implications of this outcome are somewhat up in the air: Jeff Quinton thinks there is going to be a power struggle, while James Joyner thinks Crown Prince Abdullah has already consolidated power in the kingdom.

Amusingly, CNN’s headlines on both the King Fahd story and the al-Zarqawi story (he’s allegedly ailing too) both quote people as saying the protagonists are “well.” Somehow I suspect neither assessment is accurate.

American Airlines’ pathetic campaign to protect its monopolistic practices in Dallas-Fort Worth has reached a new low with this jaw-droppingly asinine press release that actually accuses Southwest of monopolistic behavior.

On the heels of two Dallas-area congressmen introducing legislation to repeal the Wright Amendment and evidence that DFW Airport tried to cover up findings by its own consultant that ending Wright would lower air fares, DFW board members like Dallas’ mayor are even recognizing that Wright’s days are numbered—but American still isn’t budging. (þ: Xrlq and Vance of Begging to Differ)

Surfing around via Technorati, I found this blog post with satellite photos of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and a few other Memphis bridges.

Not entirely conincidentally, I started Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America on the flight back from Durham, and probably would have finished it if I hadn’t fallen asleep on the Baltimore-Jackson leg; what I didn’t realize, since I bought the book at least a year ago, but only now got around to reading it, is that the author is a future colleague. Small world and all that.

While I was off in North Carolina, apparently five current or former Tennessee legislators, including John Ford, were indicted for alleged involvement in influence-peddling after a two-year sting operation by Tennessee and federal authorities. I can’t say I’m particularly surprised that the long arm of the law has caught up with Ford, although I am surprised it wasn’t due to his TennCare or child care shenanigans.

I haven’t really been on the case, but Mike Hollihan has, so just start at the top and keep scrolling.

I notified Chris last night and we discussed it via email. I’ll no longer pretend to blog at SN. Even when I have the time to do so, I don’t. School has changed my focus to the point that I’m no longer a motivated blogger and my output, when it’s been there, hasn’t been up to my standards.

On my old Insults Unpunished site, I had a quote by Arthur Alan Leff that went something like “I have an axe to grind, and plenty of fury to turn the wheel”. My fury is gone.

Thanks to Chris for providing me with a forum and, if I get what feels like a permanent swell of fury, I might be back. But I wouldn’t count on it. Thanks to all who have been supportive over the years.

Incidentally, today is my three-year anniversary as a blogger. I was a late starter in the aftermath of 9/11 and had plenty to say; today, not so much. A fitting day to put a clean end to this period in my life.

If you go to North Carolina, you’d probably expect you won’t see anything from Jackson there. If you did, you’d be wrong:

More photos from Duke and Durham are over in my Flickr photostream.

Well, I managed to get back from Durham OK today in more-or-less one piece. I don’t think I’m entirely conscious at the moment, since I had to get up at 6:15 Eastern to make my flight, but that’s OK. I think I have an apartment, but all the i’s and t’s aren’t properly dotted and crossed yet. Durham photos coming sometime soon. Last, but not least, huzzah and kudos to the incomparable Kelly (and Friday) for a ride back from the airport.

Well, that was fun while it lasted:

Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators announced this evening they had reached a compromise designed to prevent a showdown over President Bush’s judicial nominations.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking for the group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, announced the agreement at a news conference at 7:40 p.m.

Under the deal, the Democrats agreed to accept cloture votes on three of President Bush’s judicial nominees: Priscilla R. Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor.

In return, the Republicans pledged not to support the so-called “nuclear option” to end the ability of the minority to use filibusters to block nominees.

I suppose it’s interesting that the guaranteed votes are for the three nominees anyone had ever heard of. Now at least Washington can move on to its next kabuki theatre event. (þ: Robert Tagorda)

Update: Steve at Begging to Differ provides a conventional wisdom watch (McCain, Reid win; Bush, Frist lose) that sounds reasonably right to me, while Stephen Bainbridge thinks it was a worthwhile compromise. I tend to agree with BTD Steve that Republicans probably won’t get the credit for being “bipartisan,” but if you’re the sort of person who likes the small-c conservative nature of the filibuster, Bainbridge points out it’s the smart long-term move—although, should the Democrats ever regain the majority, there’s nothing stopping them from going “nuclear” absent some (highly unlikely) pangs of conscience due to further hypocrisy on their part.

I have just discovered why horoscopes have that “for entertainment purposes only” disclaimer at the bottom:

If I believed a single word of it, it would be a word too much. Though I have to say that if I’d known before I got here that North Carolina was full of attractive young women, I’d have moved here eons ago.

I spent today looking at more apartments than I really care to remember. I don’t know that I accomplished much, but I think the day at least let me narrow down my possibilities a bit.

Now if only I could get over the massive high-speed Internet withdrawal I’m suffering I’d be set—dragging my butt to various places with WiFi is a poor substitute for having my own access at the hotel.

I finished Moneyball on the flight from Jackson to BWI today. As I mentioned at the other place, the story of people getting ahead by bringing data to the problem warmed my little empiricist heart to no end. Plus, Michael Lewis is a really good writer—the ideas he expresses come across clearly and with good humor (compare, if you will, Jill Jonnes’ horribly-written Empires of Light, about a topic that ought to be at least as interesting; the difference is as between night and day).

I realize I’m probably the last person in America to read the book, but if you haven’t (particularly if you like baseball), do so immediately.

I made it safely to Durham on time and in one piece, thanks (in no particular order) to Kamilla (who got me to the airport), Southwest Airlines, and my rental Pontiac Bonneville. I did a bit of driving around after checking into the hotel, and found my way over to Borders in Chapel Hill (where this entry is being posted from).

Now the tough part—finding somewhere to live next year—which begins in earnest tomorrow.

When I told my Civil Liberties class that one way porn producers tried to defend themselves in court was to produce adult films with “serious” artistic and political themes (one of the prongs of the Miller test), it never occurred to me that there might be a porn star who also has a career a lawyer. You learn something new every day… (þ: OTB)

I guess you can say I’m very conflicted:

What Kind of American English Do You Speak? (þ: Sarah Hempel)

Continuing a theme, Tom Traina has a worthwhile post on Lochner and Roe. I don’t have anything to add beyond what I already said in comments to Tom’s post.

Ah, there’s nothing like a controversy combining college football and religion to add to the excitement of the upcoming 2005 season. The spotlight, of course, is on DeBerry due to the Air Force Academy’s apparent religious indoctrination problem, but you’d be naïve not to think that the same thing goes on in the locker rooms of other great American public universities and high schools—ask Bobby Bowden for one. And, if you go beyond the formalities, one suspects that it’s easier to be considered a “team leader” in the locker room if you have an FCA membership card in your wallet.

Like Kevin Aylward’s favorite school district, DeBerry and the academy are clearly running afoul of the law, even under the weaker “neutrality” test of religious establishment adopted by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. If his players really want to be “saved,” I’m sure there are other people who can take care of it for him.

This week’s edition of The Economist is focused on the American economy. They say flatly that it’s the best in the world, but could use some improvement. They end this article (may or may not be for subscribers) as follows:

This last recommendation is one that George Bush will be especially reluctant to accept. Mr Bush is the classic instance of a conservative politician who confuses support for particular businesses with support for enterprise in general. These seemingly similar ideas are in fact directly contradictory. The way to support enterprise—American enterprise, the best in the world—is to be as unEuropean as possible. Mr President, look at France. Notice their economic policies. See how they subsidise this and protect that. Do we have to spell it out?

You can tell things have gotten bad in Washington when even Democrats are being compared with Adolph Hitler. I think Ed Cone put it best:

Yes, it’s bad, it’s deplorable, a United States Senator should not say such things. But let’s maintain perspective: it’s Rick Santorum. What do you expect?

Original story here for those who haven’t heard enough Hitler comparisons in the past six months.

Kevin Aylward apparently thinks people who violate court orders with impunity should get off scot-free since the people who are calling for enforcement of the court order have, in the past, defended people Kevin doesn’t like. For that matter, I don’t really like those people too, but neither do I particularly like people who confuse public schools with Sunday school.

The debate over the evolving nature of the pre-tenure academy continues today with more contributions from Mike Munger and Stephen Karlson. Again, I have little to add in terms of insight, which may just be the result of my relatively weak socialization into the norms of the academy.

Anyway, I’ve got to pretend to get ready for my trip in 38 hours, so back to work on that.

Finally, George Lucas has done something that doesn’t fuck up the franchise. Revenge of the Sith is far, far better than the other prequels and I would put it ahead of Return of the Jedi simply because there are no Ewoks. One downside: he places a gratuitous shot of Jar-Jar Binks in towards the end. Anything to frustrate the fans…

I keep fluctuating between having 18 and 20 friends in Friendster, which is very confusing. Database replication is apparently a much more inexact science than you’d think…