There's a palpable sense of terror vibrating through Cambridge, as though some kind of meteorological Armageddon might be happening. I wouldn't know; I've been here at work, minding the conveniently underground Fung Library since noon, and when I left Mather it was just a pleasant dusting of snow, no worse than my Canadian hometown gets in July. (I'm exaggerating, but not by as much as you think.) Possibly it's gotten worse this afternoon -- whatever, damned if I'm going outside. I think I'll just assume that you're all a bunch of shrinking violets who can't handle a little bit of weather. Typical Americans.

Anyway, maybe that explains our sudden blogcoma these past couple days. Or midterm season, or March Madness. I don't know. Fact is, if John McCain's ghostly bifurcated face occupies the front page much longer it's going to start haunting me at night, and nobody wants that. So here's a few links that will hopefully push him down the screen. Get thee behind me, Senator!

--If you haven't already, bookmark Planet 02138, an excellent new Harvard blog aggregator put together by Renat Lumpau. It does subject us to the opinions of Greg Mankiw, but I suppose that's a price we'll just have to pay.

--You may have heard about Hillary's weird response to a question about homosexuality -- apparently, whether or not being gay is immoral is "for others to conclude." Which is a fair answer, but also a shitty one, for obvious reasons. Barack had a similar non-response after Newsday asked him three times -- first he discussed the Joint Chiefs, second he commended military sacrifice, and third:

Signed autograph, posed for snapshot, jumped athletically into town car.

Ouch. After a day, both issued statements to the effect that no, they don't think homosexuality is immoral, please go away. Terrible showing by all concerned; this really ought to be something we fundamentally believe and are willing to say openly.

--So I was going to write about how Governor Patrick's first couple months have been a colossal fuckup, marked by amateur mistakes / borderline-tonedeaf imaging, and he really needs to get his act together. Unfortunately, the Crimson editorialized about this on Wednesday, and as we all know the Crimson is wrong about everything. Thus I'm forced to defend the Governor -- so BRAVO, Deval, for shaking up your staff and eliminating that stupid $72,000 job for your wife's assistant! This definitely indicates that you're back on the right track, and not likely to keep bumbling around and wasting money like a drunk guy at a hotel minibar! Woohoo!

--Zogby reports that 97% of conservatives think the media has a liberal bias. This is incredible. You can't get 97% of conservatives to agree that the earth is round, for crying out loud, yet they all seem to think that CNN has it in for them. Even 17% of Democrats perceive a liberal bias. Can somebody show me this bias? I honestly don't see it. Kos has a liberal bias, not the goddamn mainstream media. (Caveat: this is one of those Zogby Interactive polls, which historically have the same accuracy rate as your horoscope.)

--"Egad! The game is afoot!"

--"Political Insider" (a spinoff of the normally respectable Political Wire) has a helpful guide on becoming a "Political Junkie", which details the reading habits of your average respectable Washington observer. Apparently this involves sucking in massive amounts of Drudge, Novak, and even -- dear God -- ABC News' "The Note". Do read the whole thing if you want to fully appreciate the magnitude of the head-up-assedness. And then we wonder why our Washington journalists all seem so dopey... no wonder they call them "junkies," this is the political equivalent of sniffing glue.

--It's been brought to my attention, somewhat belatedly, that Gilbert Arenas has a blog.

And let’s talk about "Mister 50." Can you believe that crap? Mister 50 ain’t had more than 30 points in one game yet, but he’s Mister 50. I’m not paying attention to a proclaimed Mister 50. If he was Mister 50, why did he lose to a one-armed man? Tell that to Mister 50. If he ain’t scoring 29 points a game, he can’t talk to me. I’m Mister 29... Forget that, I don’t need to be Mister 29. I’m Agent Zero, son.

You need to see this. It's like something out of McSweeney's, only real.

--More and more buzz is building, thanks in part to Josh Downer on GOP-Open, about the potential Republican candidacy of fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson. I agree with Paul of Alien & Sedition (which, again, everyone should be reading): if we're going to have a "Law & Order" President, seriously, it'd have to be Sam Waterston.

--You know what? I can't top that. Have a good weekend, everybody, up to and including St. Patrick's Day. This is an open thread.

Update (7:32 PM): OK, I admit it, the weather sucks. Objectively. It's the fucking Day After Tomorrow out there. Anyhow, I can't believe I missed this -- here's John "Tears Of Blood" McCain delivering his traditional direct, honest, unvarnished "straight talk":

Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

He's a maverick, all right!