Pun Salad

• I don't know (as I type) the results of the Connecticut primary election between Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman. I hope Lieberman wins, and that hope exists for the basest of reasons: it would be fun to watch the Kos/Hamsher/HuffingtonPost crowd's heads explode. (Conversely, they'll be insufferable for months if Lamont wins.)

  Dean Barnett has a Lieberman - Lamont FAQ if you want to get up to speed quickly.

• AP writer Charles J. Hanley has written a "news" story headlined "Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD" which is devoted to debunking that belief. Dafyyd, in turn, analyzes Hanley's article, finding it full of misstatements; Henley igores any facts that might confuse or contradict his narrative. It's impressive work from Dafyyd. Recommended.

• Likely voters in the New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary are a foul-mouthed bunch. But they at least have a good excuse: they were asked their opinion of Hillary Clinton. Benjamin Zimmer of Language Log analyzes the asteriskation of the responses as seen in the Boston Herald article. In regards one respondent's dubbing of Hillary as a "political wh***," Prof Zimmer muses:

  But we can safely assume the respondent isn't commenting on Hillary's acumen as a "political whizz," her inexperience as a "political whelp," or her imposing presence as a "political whale." The word is indubitably …

  … well, you'll have to click on the link to find out.

The cover of the current GQ promised to tell us "The Biggest Movie Jerks of All Time". Inside, the article has a somewhat more PG-13 title, "The Dickhead Dozen".

The first guy to come to my mind, however, was totally missing from the list. That would be: William Atherton. In the eighties, he owned movie jerkdom.

• He played the officious Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, memorably being called "dickless" by Bill Murray.

• He played Richard Thornburg in Die Hard and Die Hard 2; in the latter, Bonnie Bedelia referred to him as "Dick", leaving no doubt about what she really meant by that.

• Last but not least, he played Professor Jerry Hathaway in Real Genius, Val Kilmer's nemesis. When Kilmer calls him an "unbelievable bastard," he coolly replies: "Count on it."

In fact, in some cases, it's rumored he may not have officially been hired at all; he just showed up on sets, being a jerk, making up his own jerk lines. It was easier just to let him be in the movie.

The GQ list is woefully and inexplicably incomplete by being Athertonless. In fact, he belongs at the very top.