Links for July 16th

Tabulaw: What Congress Does When it Runs Out of NumbersCongress recently passed a bill that created section 139D of the tax code. But there was already a 139D. No problem—they just kept the existing one. So there are two section 139Ds. Given my work on codes, this makes my head feel all explodey inside. New …

Links for April 7th

Public Policy Polling: Barbour, Bryant lead in MississippiForget the point of this poll—the real news is that half of Mississippi Republicans think that interracial marriage should be illegal. Oh, and Sarah Palin is leading that bunch by a wide margin. Small government what now? New York Times: Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food …

Links for March 19th

Wolfram MathWorld: Pi DigitsThe first thirty million digits of pi are almost uniformly distributed. That is, 1 occurs with the same frequency as 2, 3, 4, etc. That's consistent with randomness, but hardly evidence of it. Ludolph Van Ceulen’s HeadstoneThis Dutch mathematician devoted his life to calculating pi. By the time of his death, in …

Sarah Palin looks to the “Department of Law.”

Kate Snow, interviewing Sarah Palin for ABC News, provides this deadpan nugget: As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between …

Don’t trouble your pretty little head over Palin’s motivations.

With Gov. Sarah Palin stepping down, it would be tempting to draw some conclusions. After all, no officeholder at the level of governor quits mid-term without a scandal or a nomination for a higher seat. But that’s thinking like a rational, experienced political operative. Palin, on the other hand, operates in her own little universe. …

Media and bloggers fall for clever hoaxer.

The McCain advisor who Fox News relied on for their claim that Sarah Palin thought that Africa was a country is, in fact, a serial hoaxer. Supposed McCain policy advisor “Martin Eisenstadt” is an invention of Eitan Gorlin. He cleverly mixes barely-plausible claims with true statements, so the media and bloggers (including yours truly) take …

Meanwhile, here in the reality-based community…

The McCain/Palin campaign held a rally in Virginia Beach yesterday. They claimed 25,000 attendees. Awkwardly, it turns out the building only holds 16,000. More awkwardly still, the fire marshall says there were only 12,000. Facts be damned, Gerry Scimeca wrote in the RPV’s newsletter this afternoon: For Virginians looking forward to the right kind of …