I’m a sucker for arty books and paper inventions. (Not necessarily books about art, although those can be interesting too, if unaccountably heavy and given to making my floors creak.) The Museum of Lost Wonder, various items in the Wondermark Goodsery (no relation), the Edward Gorey Dracula Playset (of course), and pop-up books of > more ... (0 comments)

Just found this Wikipedia list that has IQ scores for all U.S. Presidents (excluding Obama). The biggest surprise is how low Wilson comes considering his background and education, though it kinda makes sense considering how much stock he put in his own intellect, only to make the same mistakes again and again and never learn > more ... (1 comments)

Apparently, folks ain’t yet tired of shifting water from Bucket A to Bucket B and back, or of moving piles of sand about with tweezers, and took the opportunity last year to piss in over 450 collective libraries’ ears regarding such nefarious libri malvagi as Captain Underpants and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time > more ... (0 comments)

Watched the Spike Jonze Director’s Series collection last night — man, I had not realized he had his fingers in so many of my yewt’s wonderful musical pies. Cannonball? Check. Sabotage? Check-check. Da Funk? Checkity-check-check. But what really made me want to do a little dance and/or make a little love was watching Christopher > more ... (0 comments)

File this under things that are obviously untrue but that I don’t really care that much about. It’s all about the lobbying campaign anyway with these things, but you have to wonder if it were actually true, wouldn’t she be starring in movies beside the already tired Iron Man franchise? (2 comments)

Tsarnaev going to go through the criminal justice system. The right choice, but somehow I knew the Administration would call this one right. This is one thing they’ve been both right and firm on in the past. (2 comments)

As we all know by now, you’re as likely to be injured in a terrorist attack as much as we are likely to ever suffer an appropriate reaction to a mass killing after 9/11. Just sayin’. (0 comments)

The Obama Administration is threatening to veto SOPA/PIPA’s cousin CISPA. Much as I rag on those guys at times, they have a very good record on opposing these sorts of internet invasion bills, and I’m happy to give credit when it is due. (1 comments)

Via TPM, sounds like South Carolina’s Rollercoaster of Love is ratcheting up the incline o’perversity agin’:

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford must appear in court two days after running for a vacant congressional seat to answer a complaint that he trespassed at his ex-wife’s home, according to court documents acquired by The Associated Press on Tuesday. > more ... (0 comments)

Given that the bill itself seems to be redundant–a bill requiring the NLRB to observe quorum rules?–to the extent that voting for it is essentially a slap at labor, the Republican no votes here are probably a legit accounting of which House Repubs aren’t completely antagonistic to labor. The number appears to be ten, though > more ... (4 comments)

I honestly hadn’t given it too much thought, and was probably disposed against it just because of who was for it, but Emily makes a very strong case for why Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard ought to be released from prison. She argues that it makes sense on humanitarian and political grounds, and I agree with > more ... (0 comments)

As much as I love WJHL’s article Witnesses: Man drove 90 mph with genitals hanging out the window (and with lines like:

At over 90 miles per hour, he had his penis out [the window]… he was masturbating… and that’s when it got really, really bad. I wouldn’t look over any more, and I wrote his tag number down on my hand, which I believe he noticed, and he exited very quickly.

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An unintentional libertarian anthem/meditation from Sully at the Dish:

By then, the subtleties, the mixes of CBD and THC, the nuances of sativa and indica strains will all be turned by the genius of the free market into something quite marvelous. We will finally have made of this weed what was long made of the simple grape. And we will all be happier.

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Who wrote this letter to TPM… (1 comments)

Jack Shafer says “Foreign Correspondents”: Pyongyang reliably remains defiant; talks have resumed or been proposed, canceled, or stalled, while a U.S. envoy seeks to lure the North back to those talks to restart the dialog; North Korea is bluffing, blustering, or is engaging in brinksmanship; tensions are grim, rising, or growing—but rarely reduced, probably because > more ... (0 comments)

If it’s okay with you, I’m just going to take a powder on this one. It’s only minimally news, we knew that Obama wants to cut “entitlements” already, only now he’s just putting it in an official document that is going to be duly ignored by Paul Ryan in a matter of months. The article > more ... (0 comments)

Plebs is coming to ITV: httpv://youtu.be/xlm1VAN4XXQ Somewhat tangentially, I ran across a Cicero quote just recently impuning the moral fiber of the poor; it reminded me of our own current and continuing struggle with the morality of poverty: Gaius Gracchus passed a grain law: this delighted the plebs, for an abundance of food could now be had > more ... (0 comments)