The Cake Editrix has the goods on McCartney’s ludicrous refusal to perform in China because of . . . wait for it . . . their cruelty to animals in the fur trade! Here’s Kathy:

While I don’t necessarily think it’s a good thing to be cruel to animals, where, precisely, was Sir Paul’s outrage when Mao was having his little tete-a-tete out in the countryside, you know, that little event that’s more commonly known as The Cultural Revolution? Yeah, I know, he was probably stoned like everyone else was. It was the sixties, after all. But still, The Beatles wielded some power back then.

But, seriously though, is he worried about the high rates of female infanticide in rural China? You know, little baby girls being killed right after birth, their tiny bodies dumped in shallow graves because boys are more highly valued? Is he worried about political dissidents who are forced into slave labor? What about the workers who are poorly paid to sew together those cat and dog pelts into coats and the like? Where’s his outrage on their behalf?

And you thought Lennon was a dope.

While we wait for the inevitable calls for the sacking of Donovan McNabb and / or Andy Reid, Geoffrey Norman has this excellent piece on what T.O. means for America’s unions. It’s very fun.

But before we throw Owens into the dustbin of Philadelphia history with other jerkoff athletes who crippled their teams (Matt Geiger, I’m looking at you), I have one final question: Instead of suspending Owens and then deactivating him and then, next season, potentially having to face him on the other side of the field, wouldn’t it have made more sense for the Eagles to have kept him on active duty and simply sent him across the middle on every play in the November 6 game against the Redskins? And McNabb, in a show of sportsmanship, could have thrown the ball his way on every down. And you know, what with that sports hernia, a lot of McNabb’s passes were bound to be high. Maybe the problem would have taken care of itself.

I don’t like to give out too many private details on this blog–I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned, for example, the name of my dog. Or told you how old my son is. The reason isn’t because I’m trying to preserve the mystery–it’s because you don’t care. And if you do care, you shouldn’t.

But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d like to share something personal: I have come to believe that Brendon Donnelly is the second coming of P.J. O’Rourke, Conan O’Brian, and Owen Wilson, all rolled into one. And I love him.

Don’t believe me? Check:

RnB superstar Usher is said to be so smitten with Rachel McAdams after seeing her in the Notebook, he is saying he would love to work with her, and even has a project in mind.

“She has such great energy on camera, it’s ridiculous – it just pops off the screen. I’d love to do a period piece with her.”

I’m not positive Usher has really thought this all the way through. A period piece about an interracial couple might not end the way he’s hoping. For him. Unless he means a future period, where the world has healed its racial divide and theres one global government and we all wear jumpsuits and none of the doors have hinges.

Will someone just pick up one of his spec scripts already? This guy is the biggest talent on the Internet.

Sometimes neocon is used simply to mean hawk, and so here the category includes many political shades, as various British people found a Scoop Jackson society. Of course, the tone is cheerful. I could use some of that. Times

So when was the last time the Washington Redskins finished the season at or above .500? Funny you should ask. As Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell points out, that would happen to be under Marty Schottenheimer:

He took a team that started 0-5–losing those games by 112 points–and, with Tony Banks as his quarterback, finished 8-3 to reach .500.

But finishing 8-8 was not good enough for Skins owner Dan Snyder, who sent Schottenheimer packing in 2001. Just yesterday, Schottenheimer’s Chargers beat the Skins at Fedex Field, 23-17 in OT.

The week before, Norv Turner and his Oakland Raiders also beat Washington, 16-13, at Fedex. The last time the Redskins made it to the playoffs? Under Norv Turner.

So how about an exhibition game against Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks?

Geoffrey Nunberg, the Stanford linguist, notes a deviation from generally agreed usage in some conservatives’ use of the word “elite” to refer to an individual. I do think there may be a bit of pandering to illiterates in some of his examples, or at least a deliberately lowbrow strategy at work, perhaps not unlike the one that had George Bush Senior call the dictator of Iraq “Sadim.”

Dem Elites Tink Dey Know Evrythin.

The Washington Post‘s Metro section reports on a bizarre incident that occurred around the corner from our offices yesterday at lunchtime. A man double parks his gray Jeep Cherokee in front of an office building on 15th and K Street and runs inside. He’s completely naked. Writes Post staffer Petula Dvorak, “The man told Crouch [a lobby security guard] that he was ‘handicapped,’ asked him for 50 cents to make a phone call and then spoke incoherently, mumbling something about his father…”

He then jumps onto an elevator, eventually emerging on the eighth floor. A few moments later a fire alarm goes off, people are descending the stairwells, and he’s bumping into them, saying “Excuse me.” He enters an office and shatters a window using a chair. He then leaps to his death.

No notes (he was, after all, naked). No standoff snarling traffic. In a building where I used to work ten years ago. Two days before Thanksgiving.

Naturally, as Dvorak reports, DC parking police ticketed his car.

Yesterday we had a textbook example of how not to cover the videogame industry. Today the Wall Street Journal gives us a perfect blueprint for a very smart, very informative videogame piece. The reporters, Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret, are to be congratulated.

In addition to playing the story straight, Mossberg and Boehret give readers a wealth of information, some of which may even be news to those who have followed the Xbox 360 a bit closely. For instance, did you know that:

* The $400 Xbox will play old Xbox titles, but the $300 core system will not?

* That the power adapter for the Xbox 360 is enormous?

* That the wireless internet adapter for the Xbox costs $100?

* That the Xbox Live Silver package which the $400 system comes with does NOT allow online gameplay? (For that, you need the Gold package.)

It’s a great piece.