READS: Wednesday, July 11 is...

Naadam (Mongolia)
World Population Day (UN)

From Wikipedia:

Naadam (Mongolian: Наадам, games) is the national festival of Mongolia held from July 11th to 13th. The festival is also called "eriyn gurvan naadam" (эрийн гурван наадам) meaning "men's three variety of games" or "three manly games." The games are Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery, and are the only ones that are held throughout the country. Despite the name, women participate in the archery and horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.

Sadly, I don't have much time for manly games today. I'm busy packing things for my move. I did play disc golf last night, though, and I did belch while I played, so is that manly enough?

I thought an interesting fight was about to develop between the Register and State 29 today over the definition of fair use. Certainly, the first half of this post would imply it. Then, faster than I could say "Oh god, is he back to quoting Animal House?" he folded.

I'm not sure how much I'll miss him, as I've said before that I think he's gone from insightfully vulgar to just vulgar over the years, and gone from producing new and interesting content to seeking out opportunities to grind the same old axes. But I think it's unfortunate that he's decided to fold under pressure from the Register, merely because of the precedent it sets. As such, I had some reads from the Register that I was going to link today, but I'm deleting them. For trying to use legal action to silence a critic, the Register can sit on the bench for a day.

As for other reads today:

While State 29 appears to be shutting down, Joe Kristan is back to cover the end of Project Destiny:

You have to hand it to our local chamber of commerce. The Greater Des Moines Partnership, with the backing of the biggest companies in town and a $770,000 war chest - 200 times that of the opposition - managed to convince about one voter in seven to vote for a sales tax increase in an off-season election specifically timed to maximize their chances for approval. It's hard to think of a way to make their performance any more disastrous, short of having mobs chanting "no!" sack their headquarters building.

You really should go read the whole thing. It gets better from there.

Also, Common Iowan has a good piece up on universal health care. Go read that too.

As you may have guessed from the late nature of today's reads, it's kind of a busy day for me, with packing and other assorted nonsense to take care of in preparation for my move to Maquoketa. There likely will not be posting tomorrow, as I'll be spending the day making a trip over to move some things and interview for a job. Regular posting will likely resume on Friday, assuming the Register doesn't try to run me off, too.

KL