Snarkin' in the Boys Room

Item: Bill Clinton gives testy interview on Fox News, claims "right wingers" were critical about his "obsession" with Osama bin Laden.
Clinton usually is more careful with his lies, and with his interlocutors, than this. Chris Wallace is the mildest mannered guy at Fox News and his questions weren't especially tough. But clearly he does not want people to perceive his presidency as a failure, at least in this arena. But the thing is, Clinton can tell the truth and people will understand it. The truth is that Clinton believed that solving the Palestinian question would be the key to ending terrorism. He met incessantly with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in the last two years of his presidency in an effort to get some sort of peace agreement. He might have been wrong about this, but he wasn't dishonorable in pursuing this strategy. Pretending that he was some avenging angel about bin Laden is dishonorable, though, as the facts don't support his assertions. And Richard Clarke's book is not as exculpatory as Clinton would have you believe it is. We've said it before: when you build your legacy upon spin, you can never stop spinning.

Item: Packers 31, Lions 24
The Lions are better than chicken soup. Favre has another game for the ages, throwing for over 300 yards, three touchdowns and completing passes to 10 different Packers, including the temporarily available Koren Robinson. And now things don't look quite as gloomy as they did earlier. Still, much work remains. By the way, did you notice that the Packers are the only team in the division not running the Tampa-2 defense? Tampa may have left the division, but its legacy remains.

Item: Twins win 2 of 3 in Baltimore, return home to clinch playoff spot (presumably).
Phil Nevin finally chips in with a majestic dinger off Russ Ortiz, the $15M batting practice pitcher. It's all going well, but you'd still rather win the division because a wild card means an instant date with the Yankees. I've enjoyed the development of Boof, Garza, etc. as much as anybody, but it would be a heck of lot easier if the Tigers would have the task of softening them up first.

Item: Maplewood assisted living facility prepares to kick out elderly residents who smoke in their apartments.
Most of the folks threatened with eviction have smoked for 60-70 years and don't want to quit now. Other residents complain that second hand smoke is dangerous for their long term health. I'm reminded of Chuck Berry

C'est la vie say the old folks/Just goes to show you never can tell

There are probably several dozen other conclusions/punchlines that are available here, but ya know, sometimes it's simply better to slowly back away.