Links of interest for November 30th, 2007:

• The Washington Monthly–The Republican Base
  - Joe Klein attended a focus group for the Republican debate. "It turns out that the only thing these GOP voters hated more than helping the poor was being told that it’s wrong to torture people."
• Brilliant at Breakfast–What constitutes “expressing discontent”
  - FIrefighters in major cities are being trained to be on the lookout for terrorists–by checking out their bookcases,among other things–because they don’t need a warrant to enter a private home.
• Particle physicists plumb the depths for Roman lead - 13 July 1991 - New Scientist
  - Ancient lead from a Roman shipwreck will help physicists in their search for dark matter, and other elusive phenomena.
• Who Is IOZ?: Dramatis Personae
  - The presidential line-up "is the single most preposterous collection of human beings ever to share a stage in the entire history of the human race, a catalogue of human failure, the ultimate proof of the folly of our species and all its works in this worl