Pun Salad

… from my little black book:

• Lore Sjöberg discusses what the Library of Congress did and did not say in their recent intellectual property ruling. The article leads off with:

  

  … which, appropriately enough, I filched off the Wired site. Hey, I'm a subscriber, so it's like totally fair use, man…

• The Survey Center of the University Near Here released its recent polling for the New Hampshire Congressional and Senate races. Summary:
  • Democrat Congresswoman/Toothache Carol Shea-Porter outpolled Republicans Frank Guinta by 5%, Sean Mahoney by 9%, Rick Ashooh by 8%, and Bob Bestani by 11%.

  • In the Other District, sorta-Republican Charlie Bass leads Democrats Ann McLane Kuster by 18%, and Katrina Swett by 17%. Jennifer Horn leads Kuster by 2% and Swett by 4%.

  • In the Senate race, Republican Kelly Ayotte leads Democrat Paul Hodes by 8%; Bill Binnie leads Hodes by 3%. Hodes (on the other hand) leads Ovide Lamontagne by 6%.

  Follow the links for details. For Shea-Porterphobes like me, head pollster Andy Smith provides a reason to not slit our wrists just yet:

  It is important to point out that Shea-Porter does not break 50% against any of her challengers, a critical indicator of weakness for a Congressional incumbent.

  And if you're looking for a grain of salt, here it is: the UNH pollsters had Barack Obama beating Hillary Clinton by 9% in their final poll released the day before 2008's New Hampshire Presidential Primary. Hillary wound up winning by 2.6%.

• Genius law professor Eugene Volokh notes a sentence from President Obama's recent remarks to the National Urban League:

  We should all make more of an effort to discuss with one another, in a truthful and mature and responsible way, the divides that still exist -- the discrimination that's still out there, the prejudices that still hold us back -- a discussion that needs to take place not on cable TV, not just through a bunch of academic symposia or fancy commissions or panels, not through political posturing, but around kitchen tables, and water coolers, and church basements, and in our schools, and with our kids all across the country.

  … and notes that you would have to be either an idiot or a lunatic to attempt an honest discussion of race around your workplace water cooler. If you don't know why, click on over there for some free legal advice.

• Chewbacca fights Nazis while riding mutant squirrel. That is all.