"He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ"

Oh, North Korea, behave!

Memories of the Big Red Machine

Nice interview with Tony Pérez. Simply because I just had a memory of a spectacular catch he made in either the 1975 or 1976 World Series. It was a line drive over Pérez's head (playing at first), and he jumped into the air so quickly and snagged it.

Memory's a weird thing.

Sick, Broken Humans

55 members of congress who oppose the public option currently benefit from the public option Good enough for them, but not for the rest of us.

Sick bastards.

Report: First Direct Talks Between Iran and Israel Since 1979

Um, that would be, like, bizarrely good news:

A representative of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and a senior Iranian official met last month to discuss the chances of declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone, Haaretz has learned. This is the first direct meeting between official representatives of the two states since the fall of the Shah in 1979.

Iranian officials are denying the story, it must be noted, but Haaretz is sticking to the story - saying the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission has confirmed that the meeting took place.

On a related note: Dick Cheny is incompetent. And an asshole.

Raw: Bush Pentagon Used Psychological Ops on US Public

On you. Unbelievable. The sickest part is that the Teabaggers frothing over Obama's government won't even blink at this news. Actual evils in government mean nothing to them.

The story regards the military analyst program. Raw story (in link above) and Glenn Greenwald have been all over this story for some time.

Senator Franken School's a Tool

Just brilliant:

Backseet Dog Iz Wachin U...

This is something I don't normally do, but this dog over at AmericaBlog, where they're posting pet photos, just cracked me up. She's "Moxie from Portland, Maine," and you've got to click on the pic to enlarge it and look at the look on her face. Too funny. She was just asking for a caption. (I actually had to search and find out how to caption photos, and found this site. Piece of cake.)

Reckon I'll start a "Backseet dog iz wachin u" series.

Like Watching the End of Slavery

I just had a goosebump moment, realizing that we, right now, are very possibly witnessing the end of an evil American institution. They won't be able to do things like this anymore. How awesome is that?

Is it a bit much to say it's like watching the end of slavery? Yeah, but still. I love it.

the

Martian Lakes

My prediction for when evidence of life will be discovered on either the Moon or Mars: by 2013. In the next four years.

Nixon in Texas

This is all getting a bit obvious, Governor Perry.

Burning the Strawman's Strawman to the Ground

"I can't remember anyone ever really saying that" [that Obama made the stock market go down]. Too funny:

Taliban Issues Report on Afghanistan

Basically.

Does Al Qaeda Have Weapons of Massive Black Holes?

Forget nukes, Al Qaeda might have a Black Hole Machine!

Nobel Statement

Here's one paragraph:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.

Good Morning, Oslo!

Wow, Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Weird. Seems a bit early. Whatever. Congratulations. Hope your two terms live up to it. If you help push the U.S. into the 20th 21st century in regards to affordable and fair universal health care you'll have deserved it, if you ask me.

Hey - I wonder if the Right Wingers are freaking out. Let me go check.

...

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...

P.S. Please, Mr. President, donate the prize money to ACORN. Please. I beg you.

"If There's a Stonehenge in Your Stonehenge, Don't Be Alarmed Now..."

Second henge of stones found near world famous henge of stones. I hope the famous one doesn't get jealous:

Archaeologists have unearthed a new stone circle near Stonehenge that lends credence to the theory that the famous prehistoric monument in Britain was part of a funeral complex.

University of Bristol archaeologist Joshua Pollard described the new find as "incredible" because it establishes Stonehenge as part of a larger ceremonial complex linked to the nearby River Avon.

He Ain't No Hockey Player

Tom "The Hammer" DeLay out of Dancing With the Stars due to injuries.

"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?

Pedophile Invited to Several TV Shows to Decry Investigation of Pedophilia

Why is this admitted criminal being given the loudest loudspeakers in the country to continuously talk about how great his crimes are? Would they do it for a rapist? A burglar? A pedophile?

I just don't get it.

60,000-Colonoscopy Doctor Protested

CNN currently has a headline on their Web site which reads "Protests aimed at 60,000-abortion doc." How in the world is that the story's headline? If those people were protesting contraceptives outside a drug store - and they just might do that in their spare time - would CNN headline the story "Protests aimed at 60,000-condom drug store"? No. Why? Because it would be stupid to put the focus on condoms, which are legal, just as abortions are, instead of on the crazy.

New headline: Religious freaks still crying because they don't rule the world.

Extra: One more terrorist stopped.

"Pastor Of Gun-Toter At Obama Event Prayed For Obama To Die"

Wonderful.

Rep. Demint to Sick Children: F*ck You. Die.

Rep. Jim Demint of South Carolina recently said this:

I think health care is a privilege. I wouldn’t call it a right.

Please note that Demint currently enjoys that privilege - courtesy of the U.S. government, no less - and that every uninsured child in this country doesn't. Every sick uninsured child in this country doesn't.

What a fucker.

Bonny Doon is Burning, Part II

Last year in June I made a short note about fires in Bonny Doon down near Santa Cruz. Looks like they're getting it even worse now.

Stephen Hawking Can Speak For Himself

This just about says it all:

So Barack Obama is facing the fight of his life (another one) as he attempts to reform the US healthcare system. The "special interests" – doctors, healthcare companies – don't like it. The "birthers" – crazy types who hope to prove he is not American – smell blood. The danger, says the Investor's Business Daily, is that he borrows too much from the UK. "The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script … People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." We say his life is far from worthless, as they do at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, where Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, was treated for chest problems in April. As indeed does he. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." Something here is worthless. And it's not him.

New Glory Protesters

Watching the manufactured rage of the Town Hall Shouters Club is like watching freshman hippie protesters who have no clue what they're shouting for or against. They've simply found an inner spotlight that shines on their tiny lives, making it seem grand and magnificent. Not exactly the picture I want in my head - but there's probably been more sweaty, impassioned sex in those protesters' houses than there's been in decades.

Right on, baby.

Hey Stupid People

Providing funding for people to get a living will or to talk to their doctor about what they'd like to have happen if they become incapacitated isn't a plan to have "death panels" whose job it is to euthanize people any more than it's a plan to have "asshole panels" to euthanize stupid people.

Luckily for you.

View From Your Sickbed

Andrew Sullivan has been running a great series, getting people to write in with their health care stories. He's collected a bunch of them - definitely worth the read.

Obama's Going to Murder and Eat Baby Trig

This calls for a visit to EatBabies.com.

Yum.

The Cash For Clunkers Catastrophe

The other day I went to the county fair to sell some tamales. I brought 200 of 'em with me, thinking that'd last me all day. I sold all 200 by 10 o'clock in the morning and had to run home and get more. I made more money selling tamales that day than I ever had before.

Catastrophe!

P.S. It was kinda like 9/11.