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August 27, 8:50 a.m.
Here, there’s only a light rain and wind outside. But the local Fox channel is reporting that Tropical Storm Isaac is picking up power and headed for New Orleans, on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This will, of course, provide an amazing opportunity for President Obama. Will it be that—even as G.O.P. keynote speaker and Official Blowhard Christopher Christie denounces him for not understanding America, or not liking white people enough, or some such sin—the networks and the cable news will be breaking away to shots of the president, in his shirtsleeves, sternly rallying FEMA workers as they throw up sandbag barricades, comfort the victims, and provide lifesaving sustenance and shelter? Could we safely conclude from this that God hates Republicans???
More from Kevin Baker:
Political Asylum — November 9, 2012, 3:59 pm
A dispassionate president disavows the liberal idea.
Political Asylum — November 8, 2012, 6:03 pm
Can the G.O.P. genuinely change its attitude toward minorities and women?
Political Asylum — November 5, 2012, 9:42 pm
An election-eve elegy for the country???s former guardians of sanity


Ratio of the number of cicada eggs per square mile of southern New Jersey to the number of stars in the Milky Way:
Jeffrey Lockwood, University of Wyoming (Laramie)/American Museum of Natural History (N.Y.C.)

A Singaporean company unveiled Kissenger, a pair of plastic lips mounted on a large plastic egg, which transmits real-time interactive kisses to a distant lover. “I am not interested in the sexual uses for it,” said the device’s inventor. “We’ve taken several steps to minimize the creepiness.”

The practice of sexualized eyeball licking was causing conjunctivitis in Japanese sixth graders.