A series of useful charts showing the source and future of the national debt.

And guess what? It didn’t start in January 2009.

So decisions about energy, oil, climate change, etc. are going to be made by someone who believes “God will decide when to end the Earth, not man.”? That seems like a REALLY bad idea. Of course, he might not get the appointment. No, it might instead go to the biggest recipient of oil and gas company donations instead. We’re screwed either way! Hooray!

Via Bad Astronomy

Me, I bought a big bottle of barleywine and gonna watch some streaming Netflix and say, “boy are you people easily tricked.*”

- – -
* works both ways.

NYTimes.

Oh, and bonus: stupid headline.

OK, I am slow to keep up with all the political news, but this parody letter by the Tea Party Express chairman is just unbelievable. What the hell? This is absolutely appalling (and not funny to boot). How does he keep his job? That he does must say something about the party he represents, eh?

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

How many steps back does this country have to take before we start moving forward again?

Massive Flow Of Bullsh*t Continues To Gush From BP Headquarters

Congressional hearings aimed at stopping the bullshit have thus far failed to do so, with officials from BP and its contractors Halliburton and Transocean only adding to the powerful torrents of bullshit by blaming one another for the accident.

Along with the region’s wildlife and fragile ecosystem, countless livelihoods have been jeopardized by BP’s unchecked flow of corporate shit. Those who depend on fishing or tourism for their income are already feeling the noxious effects of the bullshit firsthand, as out-of-control platitudes begin to reach land and seep ashore.

Jason Kottke (whose post really I am cheating off of) adds the apparently excellent satirical Twitter feed of BPGlobalPR. Oh, Kottke!

Safety is our primary concern. Well, profits, then safety. Oh, no- profits, image, then safety, but still- it’s right up there.

This weekend only! Come to bp to top off your tank and we will top off your tummy with some free $10 blackened shrimp! #bpcares

The New York Times has a good interactive graph showing Obama’s proposed budget. It might take you a bit of time to find NASA… so why are we cutting them?

A Democratic congressman walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve your kind here.” The Democratic congressman whimpers, “You’re right, I’m sorry, I never should’ve come in here, it’s all my fault, boo-hoo, please, bend me over, I’ll do whatever you want because I’m a little punk.” The bartender says, “Jesus Christ, you people are pathetic.”

Is this real or just really really subtle parody?

via Seeing the Forest

Ron English’s painting, from an entrance to 58 Gallery in Jersey City (I am told that this is in a very odd below-the-viaduct-potentially-creepy section of town).

via, again, wfmu’s beware the blog.

I don’t know why they are holding frozen coffees.

image via WFMU

And how much should we be debiting Obama’s lead based on all the dirty tricks the GOP is trying?

And my favorite quote on the faked-up voter fraud issue? “Just because Mickey Mouse fills out a registration form doesn’t mean he gets to vote.”

This weekend in St. Paul, as a prelude to the Republican convention, police and FBI raided protest organizers homes, “detained dozens of people and issued a series of search warrants.” More here, and here, and here.

The house where i-witness video, the group that documented police misconduct in the 2004 RNC in New York, was surrounded, and later the occupants were all arrested; they were released after a few hours and search of their house and equipment. Clearly it’s not OK to to surveil the surveillants.

The incident began in the late morning when an FBI agent and a Wisconsin Deputy Sheriff showed up on the doorstep of the house in which members were staying (on Igelhart St.), interrupting a collective planning meeting. The officers left after a short conversation with members through a locked front door. Two hours later, around 30 police surrounded the house. Two people who left the house were detained in handcuffs; several others, who were inside, were told that if they left, they would be also be detained. Around the same time, three other I-Witness Video members who had left the house on bikes and two others who were riding in a car across town were also detained by police.

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now was arrested by police when she tried to find out why two of her producers had been arrested at a protest today. Protest was against the Republican convention being held in town. She’s since been released.

And lastly, police seized a sustainable-living bus and kicked the occupants out. It’s not a good weekend to be a hippie in the twin cities.

Another winner from the folks that brought you (the now out-of-date) john.he.is, Don’t Think of a Black Man, and 3 in the Mourning.

via radosh.net

The lower appellate court opinion reveals the Wiccan group was exempted from paying sales tax on copies of the Bible and Quran, but forced to pay sales tax on the Satanic Bible and the Witches Bible.

(They lost, by the way.) So where to go when you need pagan legal advice? Pagan Village News? Or maybe Witch School dot com, which has a course entitled Pagans and The Law.

Perhaps it’s best to just go to The Pagan Law Firm. Judging from the solicitation they just stuck in my mail box, I think they are calling it that because it’s Spanish for “they pay.” But they may be surprised by the number of wiccans who contact them….

Extraordinary photo by Todd Heisler of 2nd Lt. James Cathey’s body being brought home. From The Rocky Mountain News’ Final Salute.

Leon Kass, head of President’s Council on Bioethics until 2005, feels public ice cream licking is disgusting and undignified.

Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone–a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. … Eating on the street–even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat–displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. … Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. … This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if we feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior. [edited text via Daily Kos]

If you wanted to learn more about this important bioethical topic, first brought to my attention (as all important news is) by a recent “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” (hey, Peter Sagal has a blog!) The New Republic has a very long article all about the strange demi-religious reports issued by the council. And isn’t it rather ironic that anyone appointed by this torture-luvin’ administration would have any right to speak about ethics?

Dr. Steven Pinker, author of the New Republic article, offers an eloquent critique of the report in session with this council about halfway down this page.

(BTW, image above comes from this amusing LOLcat archive, and you might want to have your porn-filter on when searching for “ice cream lick.” Sheesh.)

MiFi has picked this up, and I can’t help but link to this awesome comment.

This simple government statistic graph seems strange. Why the remarkable drop in illegal distilling? Well, in a general sense, because it’s become legal, of course. Imagine that, you legalize something pleasant, and the criminal activity drops….