LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Legendary pinup queen Bettie Page died of pneumonia at the age of 85 in a Los Angeles, California, hospital Thursday, a week after suffering a heart attack, according to her agent. "She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality," said agent Mark Roesler in a written statement. "She is the embodiment of beauty." Page, said to be one of the most photographed people of the past century, became a recluse in recent decades. Yet, her images continued to be used around the world to market Bettie Page action figures, clothing lines and other merchandise.

R.I.P.

1950s pinup model Bettie Page dead at 85

“If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention,” Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.

Alcee Hastings is clearly the racist here. In case you're wondering, yes, that's the same Alcee Hastings who was impeached and removed from office (as a judge) for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3 in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988.

Racist Comment by Rep. Alcee Hastings

On Nov. 5, the presidential election winds up in a electoral-college tie, 269-269, the Democrat-controlled House picks Sen. Barack Obama as president, but the Senate, with former Democrat Joe Lieberman voting with Republicans, deadlocks at 50-50, so Vice President Dick Cheney steps in to break the tie to make Republican Sarah Palin his successor.

Sound impossible? It's not. There are at least a half-dozen plausible ways the election can end in a tie, and at least one very plausible possibility - giving each candidate the states in which they now lead in the polls, only New Hampshire - which went Republican in 2000 and Democratic in 2004, each time by just 1.5 percent - needs to swap to the Republican column to wind up with a 269-269 tie.

269 tie: An electoral college 'doomsday'?

The arrival of Palin on the national scene, with her youth, charisma and vitality, probably also portends a changing of the guard in Washington.

With Republicans having zero chance of capturing either House, and but a slim chance of avoiding losses in both, a Vice President Palin, with her reputation as a rebel and reformer, would surely inspire similar revolts in the Republican caucuses.

As Thomas Jefferson said, from time to time, a little rebellion in the political world is as necessary as storms in the physical.

The Palin nomination could backfire, but it is hard to see how. She has passed her first test, her introduction to the nation, with wit and grace. And the Obama-Biden ticket, having already alienated millions of women with the disrespecting of Hillary, is unlikely to start attacking another woman whose sole offense is that she had just been given the chance to break the glass ceiling at the national level.

Her nomination, which will bring the Republican right home, also frees up McCain to appeal to moderates and liberals, which has long been his stock in trade.

With his selection of Sarah Palin, John McCain has not only shaken up this election, he may have helped shape the future of the United States – and much for the better.

Pat Buchanan: Johnny's got a new girl

A tough economy ratchets up the pressure to rethink spending decisions. Food, clothing and shelter are essential. But when it comes to the extras, grim new realities set out some straightforward choices between needs and things we can live without.

Then there's booze.

In the past few weeks, scattered reports have noted that alcohol sales are up in some places, despite -- or maybe even because of -- the downturn in the economy. The new figures have revived the thinking that when Americans are taking it on the economic chin they keep a firm grip on the bottle.

But individual decisions about alcohol can be very nuanced. In the short term, it's clear consumers are going out to eat less and drinking more at home, Brager said.

In a persistent economic downturn, though, drinking habits can change significantly over time.

"A lot of people think that when times are bad people will drink more. The evidence is pretty clear that, at least in terms of alcohol sales, that that's not true, that people will drink less," said Christopher Ruhm, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Drinking habits and the economy

A spy from an Internet fan site for the upcoming film, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," has posted a video purported to show the production version of the Chevrolet Volt during filming of the sequel to the 2007 blockbuster.

High Voltage Scoop: Chevy's Electric Car Caught on Camera

We need Obama, not 4 more years of George Bush
By Fatimah Ali, September 2, 2008
Philadelphia Daily News

If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness - and hopelessness!

Amazing... I find myself appreciating John McCain more each day.

Fatimah Ali, Philadelphia Daily News

Amethyst Initiative's Debate on Drinking a Welcome Alternative to Fanaticism
Monday, August 25, 2008
By Radley Balko, Fox News

It's been nearly 25 years since Congress blackmailed the states to raise the minimum drinking age to 21 or lose federal highway funding. Supporters of the law have hailed it as an unqualified success, and until recently, they've met little resistance.

But that may be changing. Led by John McCardell, the soft-spoken former president of Middlebury in Vermont, a new group called the Amethyst Initiative is calling for a new national debate on the drinking age. And McCardell and his colleagues ought to know. The Amethyst Group consists of current and former college and university presidents, and they say the federal minimum drinking age has contributed to an epidemic of binge drinking, as well as other excessive, unhealthy drinking habits on their campuses.

This makes perfect sense. Prohibitions have always provoked over-indulgence. Those of us who have attended college over the last 25 years can certainly attest to the fact that the law has done nothing to diminish freshman and sophomore access to alcohol. It has only pushed underage consumption underground. It causes other problems, too. Underage students, for example, may be reluctant to obtain medical aid for peers who have had too much to drink, out of fear of implicating themselves for drinking illegally, or for contributing to underage drinking.

The U.S. has the highest minimum drinking age in the world (save for countries where it's forbidden entirely). In countries with a low or no national minimum drinking age, teens are introduced to alcohol gradually, moderately, and under the supervision of their parents.

U.S. teens, on the other hand, tend to first try alcohol in unsupervised environments — in cars, motels, or outdoor settings in high school, or in dorm rooms, fraternity parties, or house parties when they leave home to go to college. During alcohol prohibition, we saw how adults who imbibed under such conditions reacted — they drank way too much, way too fast. It shouldn't be surprising that teens react in much the same way.

Anti-alcohol organizations like MADD and the American Medical Association oppose even allowing parents to give minors alcohol in supervised settings, such as a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer on the couch while watching the football game. They've pushed for prison time for parents who throw supervised parties where minors are given access to alcohol, even though those parties probably made the roads safer than they otherwise would have been (let's face it — if the kids hadn't been drinking at the supervised party, they'd have been drinking at an unsupervised one). They advocate a "not one drop until 21" policy that's not only unrealistic, it mystifies and glorifies alcohol by making the drug a forbidden fruit—a surefire way to make teens want to taste it.

McCardell and the academics who have signed on to the Amethyst Initiative are asking only for a debate—an honest discussion based on data and common sense, not one tainted by Carry Nation-style fanaticism. In today's hyper-cautious, ban-happy public health environment, that's refreshing. The group comprises serious academics who have collectively spent thousands of years around the very young people these laws are affecting. The nation's policy makers would be foolish to dismiss their concerns out of hand.

Drinking Age Debate

Olympic host Beijing has set up a sex determination lab to test female Olympic athletes suspected to be males, state media reported Sunday. Experts at the lab, located at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, will evaluate dubious cases based on their external appearance and take blood samples testing sex hormones, genes and chromosomes, Xinhua news agency said.

Sex testing has been routine at the Olympics and other sports events for decades, triggered by fears that male athletes sought to cheat by posing as women. Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan was stripped of an Asian Games silver medal in 2006 after failing a gender verification test.

I'm trying to imagine walking through a hospital and seeing a big "Olympic Sex Determination Lab" sign over a door. The Futurama episode Bend Her comes to mind.

Per Wikipedia:

Sex determination tests typically involve evaluation by gynecologists, endocrinologists, psychologists, and internal medicine specialist.

Controversies:
The practice has come under fire from those that feel that the testing is humiliating, socially insensitive, and not entirely accurate or effective anyway. The testing is especially difficult and problematic in the case of people who could be considered intersexual. The genetic tests provide potentially inaccurate results and discriminate against women with disorders of sexual development. Genetic anomalies can allow a person to have a male genetic make-up but be physiologically female.

Current status:
Sex testing has been done as recently as the Atlanta Olympic games in 1996, but is no longer practiced, having been officially stopped by the International Olympic Committee in 1999. This followed a resolution passed at the 1996 International Olympic Committee (IOC) World Conference on Women and Health "to discontinue the current process of gender verification during the Olympic Games."

The International Association of Athletics Federations too stopped conducting the tests in 1991. However the Olympic Council of Asia continues the practice.

New rules permit transsexual athletes to compete in the Olympics after having completed sex reassignment surgery, being legally recognized as a member of the target sex, and having undergone two years of hormonal therapy.

China 'sets up Olympic sex determination lab'

Calling it a brawl is inaccurate and stupid. Saying Rick Mahorn shoved Lisa Leslie to the floor is dishonest and mean-spirited. Tuesday night's nationally televised Sparks-Shock shoving match was a portrait of equality.

No one ever said equality was always perfect and gentle and positive. Equality was contaminated by the same forbidden fruit as everything else. There is no reason to act surprised that a bunch of women would lose their temper on a basketball court and resort to the same kind of emotional stupidity that afflicts men. The WNBA has been calling for next for at least a decade, and this is what goes along with running with the big dogs. You occasionally get bitten.

Leslie and all the other women on the court signed up for basketball equality. Leslie was treated like an athlete at The Palace. Not a mommy or role model. Just a basketball player.

This was bad publicity that will lead to a bunch of Don Imus jokes. Let's hope the league doesn't overreact and treat Mahorn in a way that signals the WNBA has no real understanding of true equality.

Jason Whitlock: 'Don't make Mahorn the bad boy in WNBA scuffle.'