"Where Did 'We' Go?"

Thomas Friedman with a very important article on the thing that everyone rightly hates to even mention:

Criticism from the far right has begun tipping over into delegitimation and creating the same kind of climate here that existed in Israel on the eve of the Rabin assassination.

Example: Last weekend a member of the House of Representatives, at a major conservative political event, called President Obama "an enemy of humanity". A member of the House of Representatives.

Howard Fineman Buys a Talking Point

Newsweek's Fineman apparently heard the RW talking point that says either "Obama is doing too much work!" or "Obama's making too many speeches!" so many times that it became a fact in his head. He writes, "Mr. President, Please Stay Off TV." Sad. The idea that a president is doing too much or is on TV too much is just weird. What does Fineman think presidents are? It's like saying, "Water, please stop being wet."

And could Howard Fineman - who's on the freaking TV every day, it seems - be more presumptuous and arrogant than by saying to the president of the U.S. that he should stay off the TV? What an ass.

Just think of the reverse: If Obama was on TV less - the RW talking point would be "Why is Obama hiding?" And Fineman would have to write a column about that.

Outrage Junkies Have a New Fix [updtd]

Schoolkids singing a song in music class.

THE HORROR...THE HORROR...

Update: More:

But Andrea Ciemnolonski, the parent of another one of the students in the video, said the song was part of a second-grade project on a variety of topics related to the month of February, such as Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day.

"They did songs about President Washington, Lincoln, and they did do one about President Obama," Ciemnolonski said. "My daughter was in the class that did the songs about Obama. It was black history month. ... It was something for the kids to celebrate."

The people who licked George Bush's balls for eight years - even to the point of supporting an unnecessary war - are screaming "indoctrination!!!" because of one class in one elementary school singing one song for kicks. If they only had mirrors. And memories. They'd be too ashamed to speak publicly.

Water on the Moon

NASA has confirmed that there is water on the moon. The article includes information about how that water may have gotten there:

"There are potentially two types of water on the moon: that brought from outside sources, such as water-bearing comets striking the surface, or that that originates on the moon."

The first, it's believed, is how Earth got all its water. The second I'd never heard of.

"This second, endogenic, source is thought to possibly come from the interaction of the solar wind with moon rocks and soils.

The rocks and regolith that make up the lunar surface are about 45 percent oxygen (combined with other elements as mostly silicate minerals). The solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun — are mostly protons, or positively charged hydrogen atoms.

If the charged hydrogens, which are traveling at one-third the speed of light, hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials, Taylor, the M3 team member suspects. Where free oxygen and hydrogen exist, there is a high chance that trace amounts of water will form."

So a sole proton can be thought of as a "positively charged hydrogen atom." Did not know that, but it makes sense. Hydrogen atoms, the smallest atoms in the element world, are made up of just one proton and one electron. That's it. No neutron.* So a sole proton can by thought of as a hydrogen atom that has lost its electron - it's negatively charged particle - and can therefore be thought of as a positively charged hydrogen atom. Huh. My atomic science lesson for the day.

So. We've got hydrogen atoms slamming into the lunar surface, which is 45% oxygen. That oxygen is bonded to other things in the rock and regolith, but the hydrogen atoms smash those bonds, and you have free oxygen. More hydrogen atoms are constantly arriving in the solar wind, and they meet up with free oxygen - H meets O - and you're bound to get H2O.

Fascinating.

* Don't you hate exceptions to the rule? There are actually three types - isotopes - of hydrogen. The most abundant - 99.98% of all hydrogen - has no neutrons. The other two types have one and two respectively. More here.

I Can F*** Russia From My House!

Did Sarah Palin say she wants China to be more open so we can "share bloodlines" with Asian eskimo immigrants?

She also spoke about how Alaska once shared a land bridge with Asia. And she noted that her husband's Eskimo ancestors crossed that bridge. "To consider that connection that allowed sharing of peoples and bloodlines and wildlife and flora and fauna, that connection to me is quite fascinating," she said.

What a strange person.

The Mamas and the *Papas*

When the tickler came out that Mackenzie Phillips was going to have "shocking news" on an Oprah episode, the first thing I thought was, "She's going to say she slept with her dad." Call me psychic. Or sickic.

That family has always had an unhealthy, and tragically unhappy, vibe, worse than you get from even massive drug problems.

Since Colonoscopies Are Legal...

...they ought to be performed right in the middle of the street. Then we'd see how disgusting they are. And we'd hear angels singing. And we'd ponder the glory of defecation.

Or something.

One More Fake Outrage Kicked in the Cajones

In especially brutal fashion.

Dana Milbank Actually Writes for the Washington Post

Is he the most childish, jealous columnist in America today?

Yes. Yes, I think he is.

Joe Wilson (U-LIE) Helped Illegal Immigrant Stay in Country

Hey Teabaggers, Suck. On. This.

Republicans on Iran:

Three months ago: Iranians are the most AWESOME wonderul friendly people in the universe, and HOW DARE Obama blah blah blah!!??!!

Today: Iranians are whore dogs from hell and are our sworn enemy and one day we will make WOLVERINE war with them, and HOW DARE Obama blah blah blah!!??!!

And when exactly did how the average Pole in the street feels become the engine of US foreign policy?

Oof

Mary Travers has died.

Here's a wonderful, wonderful song, and a perfect example of how her beautiful voice mixed with and so sweetly colored the voices of the boys:



So long, Mary. Peace to your family and friends, and thanks for the decades of beautiful and meaningful music.

Remember When the Cold War Ended?

Why doesn't anybody else?

Update: While this is of huge importance to American/Russian relations, the missile shield was apparently planned to protect Eastern European countries from Iran. Because Iran, we are led to believe, has big plans regarding an attack on Poland.

Who knew?

Oh My God! HUMANS Work at ACORN!!!

The Modern Right is mighty happy with itself for getting fruit from their hate and finding half a dozen or so idiots at ACORN offices (how many did they have to go to?).

Eh.

Some police officers are bad people, too. And teachers. And representatives and senators. Does it mean that their shouldn't be any police forces? Schools? Congress?

Drudge's Race-war Bait

Famed internet slimy person Matt Drudge has the all-caps blaring today with the headline "White Student Beaten on Bus; Crowd Cheers".

And?

When I was in school and a fight broke out - everybody cheered. Or nearly everybody, anyway. Unfortunately, you could say, it's what kids do.

And where in the hell was the bus driver?

Snake With a Foot

This will turn out to be a hoax. Or, since the snake has a sizable bulgle in its length right about the spot the leg is protruding, it'll turn out to be the leg of lunch.

ACORN! ACORN!

Drudge and the army of lies that is the engine of the Modern Right are screaming about this story, carrying on their neverending war on the good people at ACORN. What they won't point you to is this, from the very story they link to:

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle praised ACORN.

"We've been very aggressive about a lot of these cases,'' she said. "But we would not have known about these workers unless ACORN brought it to us."

[Among its many other services for poor Americans] ACORN hires people to register primarily poor, minority Americans. The Modern Right hates them for that. (Why? You decide.) Sometimes the people they hire are lazy liars, and they fill out registration forms with names they've made up in order to make money for less work than actually registering people. ACORN look out for these people, and they notify authorities when they find them. Professional liars like Drudge and Malkin then point to these cases and try to use them against ACORN. Why?

You decide.

"What About Torture That Saves Lives?"

If America ever needs an epitaph, it's got one.

Republican Rep.: We must "slit our wrists, be blood brothers" against health care

It'd be wrong to say, "Um, okay, if you must," wouldn't it?

Wouldn't it?