Pun Salad

Saith Scott Adams at the Dilbert Blog:

I don't believe in free will.

The interesting thing is, he's saying this as if he had a choice to believe otherwise.

His concluding exhortation is:

Discuss.

A puzzling request, since any "discussion" would merely be the end result of a bunch of brain-chemicals bouncing off each other in eminiently predictable combinations, albeit with a bit of unpredictability thrown in by the grace of Heisenberg. Is there some reason I should pay attention to that? (Much less engage in that?) I don't think so.

Or maybe I do.

Just sayin', is all.

• If you followed any of the links in yesterday's collection on the new Massachusetts mandated health care coverage legislation, you'll also want to look at today's contribution from Tyler Cowen. He looks at positives and negatives, concluding:

  That all being said, the Massachusetts plan is better than I would have expected. I am not convinced that the plan will work out badly, at least relative to feasible alternatives.

  Certainly a masterpiece of damning with faint praise, there. As always, New Hampshire remains a "feasible alternative" to many Massachusetts residents and businesses sick of being stuck with the bill for its politicians' well-intentioned whims.

• Other than that, we have a wish-I'd written from Cathy Seipp, who blogs on reaction to her article about parents, um, focused on getting their kids into selective institutions of higher education:

  But I won't pretend I was surprised that many people took offense, especially those high-anxiety type parents on College Confidential. I guess they detected, just beneath the surface, my usual impatience with officious blowhards and took it personally.

  Ouch!

• And another wish-I'd-written from the good fellas at Surviving Grady on yesterday's nail-biting Red Sox-Orioles game:

  One of those everything-hangs-on-every-pitch games where you clutch onto your precious, slender lead like Roger Ebert straddling the last cheesecake on the dessert cart, and pray to God and Sonny Jesus that when the final out is recorded, you'll still have it secured in your grip.

  Heh. Roger Ebert. The Red Sox magic number is, as I type, 157. Speaking of Grady, Bill Mueller has a batting average (0.500) that matches the won-lost record of his new team (2-2); D. Lowe is scheduled to pitch in Philly this afternoon; Nomar, unsurprisingly, is on the 15-day DL. It's nice to have a National League team to root for, though.

This is a pretty good old-fashioned John Wayne western, only released on DVD a few months back. It's based on a Louis L'Amour story; Louis L'Amour was nominated for an Oscar for this contribution.

It was originally filmed in 3-D, although that feature didn't make it onto the DVD. There are only a few "hey, this is 3-D" shots.

Geraldine Page is a fish out of water, although she got an Oscar nomination too. She's the only woman in the movie. I got the impression from the DVD extras that she might not have got along well with the rest of the cast and crew in an undoubtedly testosterone-soaked environment.