The Sky Is Falling

Only this time it doesn't look like a false alarm. In "What Ever Happened to Congress?" Tom Engelhardt interviews Chalmers Johnson on Antiwar.com. It's one of the scariest things I've ever read.

In it, they discuss

1. the lunacy of the 2007 Pentagon budget
2. the out of control military
3. the huge expansion of executive branch powers
4. the failure of Congress to do its job
5. the collapse of the American economy
6. the fall of the Roman Empire

I don't see the obvious way out of our problems. The political system has failed. You could elect the opposition party, but it can't bring the CIA under control; it can't bring the military-industrial complex under control; it can't reinvigorate the Congress. It would be just another holding operation as conditions got worse.

Crooks and Liars

The colossal lies, the intelligence ignored, the ongoing slaughter, the criminally irresponsible waste of taxpayer dollars, the countless opportunities lost, the crony profiteers. [snip]...a headline juxtaposition that perfectly reflects the dangerously delusional world of the President of the United States.

A link-rich post on Crooks and Liars.

Your Inner Dog

In keeping with my animal theme, I'm linking to this funny video of a completely insane dog. Don't take my word for it. Check it out. Could be some kind of weird autoimmune disease?

If you'd like to find out what your inner dog is, try the game on
this site. Click on Game in the left hand column, answer the ten questions and find out which dog you're like. I'm a Shetland Sheepdog. At least I'm not the dog in the video. Well. Sometimes, maybe.

Baby Animals

I'm sorry about this. I seem to need heavy doses of cute lately.



The little feet! Awwwww






(Cute Overload)



Much more at babyanimalz.com.

Monet

My diabetic cat, Monet, an orphan from Hurricane Andrew, in 1992. I give him an insulin shot every day, and he doesn't seem to mind. Too bad his blue eyes are closed. He would probably prefer the Beck's box to an expensive cat bed.

If Picasso Had Painted Shannen Doherty

The diabolically clever artist, 14, has started a series called "What if Important Artists of the 20th Century Were to Paint the Portraits of Today's Tabloid Celebrities?" in Gallery of the Absurd. Shannen Doherty is the first vict...er, subject.

Also provided is a link to Mr. Picassohead, where you can create your own work of art.

Beginning To See The Light

It has taken more than three years, the loss of tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives, and the expenditure of $200 billion -- all to achieve a chaos verging on open civil war. But finally the neoconservatives who sold the United States on this disastrous war are starting to utter three small words.

We were wrong.

Interesting article.

The president who claimed he had no idea Katrina would be so bad, despite repeated urgent warnings, must now explain why he also didn't heed the warnings of Middle East experts who warned him about exactly what is unfolding in Iraq.

As ABB says,

It’s like taking a rabid dawg to your neighbor's birthday party, watching it go crazy for two hours and then abruptly leaving while shouting ‘sorry!’ as you rush out the door. The regret is legitimate, but you might want to take that rabid dawg with you. Oh, and help clean up the mess, pay for the medical bills and counseling and so forth. But maybe your neighbor doesn't want to look at your face for...well, ever again?

Y’all feel me?

Scorned Woman

I don't know if the story in this eBay listing is true, but it's funny to read. It's the ultimate revenge. Reminds me of Scorned Woman Hot Sauce and the blurb that goes with it.

You've known many a scorned woman - but none that produce this kind of kick. Give it a try and understand just how mad she was, and how lucky you were to escape. Or, ladies, taste it and know just what you're capable of, right FireGirl? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Rainbows

I didn't know there were so many different kinds. 18 months ago, I saw a spectacular double rainbow; two perfect rainbows, one larger than the other. It was over the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, so the shot would have been spectacular. Oh well. At least it's stored in my memory bank.

Stephan's Quintet

(AP Photo/Nasa via Pa)

NASA's telescopes keep generating these incredible images of outer space. This one shows the central region of a group of galaxies 300 million light-years away known as Stephan's Quintet. Astronomers say that this distant galaxy is generating a 'sonic boom' of cosmic proportions, caused by one of the galaxies falling towards the others at high speed, ploughing through a cloud of hydrogen gas travelling at 540.6 miles per second - 100 times faster than the speed of sound.

It makes me feel like a speck of dust in a tornado, but it also makes me feel like part of something incomprehensibly magnificent.

The Oscars

The rabid ferret living in Helena Bonham Carter's hair must have attacked Tim Burton's head. I mean, seriously, would it have hurt him to comb it for the Oscars? Are there mirrors in his house? Helena is a poem herself. I wish I understood the significance of her "do". I know. Meow. But really.

This year I wasn't willing to spend 3½ hours watching the Oscars. Why should I, when I can read hilarious recaps on TVgasm?

9:36pm
Commence the porn groove as badass Samuel L. Jackson comes out to present a masturbatory retrospective of movies with a "social conscience." Oddly, the montage is accompanied by "Rodeo" from Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, better known as the The Theme Song to Beef. Just after the music reaches soaring, inspirational heights, Jon Stewart deflates the entire montage with his sarcastic proclamation "...And none of those issues were ever a problem again." Haha, the Academy must HATE him.

Ok, he was a little confused about Copland's work, but he's funny. Check it out.

Poppy Velvet Toes

On the Daily Kitten. Too cute for words!

Yo Yo Man

No, not the cellist misspelled. And not Tommy Smothers.

This guy is amazing!

Alocacias

This is a little dark, but I don't have a better shot at the moment. Alocasia cuprea has an odd juvenile leaf that looks heavily shellacked. I've never read about any speculation on what the purpose of that would be. I can't imagine one, unless it's to help prevent fungus. It's a small plant, growing only about 50 cm tall, with leaf blades about 30 cm long.

Alocasias belong to the family Araceae, one of the largest plant families, which includes philodendrons, anthuriums, colocasias, amorphophallus, xanthosomas, and many other genera.



Contrasting with species like A. cuprea, which grow close to the rainforest floor, are alocasias with the largest leaves of any herbaceous plants in Nature, such as Alocasia robusta, whose leaves can reach 10 meters in height. Click here for a truly awesome photo of Alocasia robusta, growing in the wild in Sarawak.

Americans Don't Know Diddley

A recent study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22% of Americans could name all five family members in "The Simpsons", compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms. About one in five thought the right to own a pet was included.

As AngryBlackBitch astutely observes,

This is great news, chil’ren! All this time a bitch has been harboring a secret fear that my fellow Americans understood the freedoms they were willfully handing over to the current administration.

[snip]

Americans aren’t willfully handing their freedom over to Satan’s helpmate…they're just ignorant as a motherfucker.