Outside The Interzone: Aug 29, 2010

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Mmmm-Hmmm

We'll see what happens in a couple of months, but drawing on the old Star Wars riff, I have a bad feeling about this. Via Library Grape.

Via Arizona Geology, a clip from a flyover of the surface rupture from Saturday's earthquake in New Zealand. Miraculously, apparently there were no fatalities or even serious injuries from this event. Meddling socialists and their pesky regulations.

Tuesday Tits

Two Tuesday Tits today, since I forgot this item last week. Long-tailed tit, Aegithalos caudatus, from Britannica.

Monday, September 6, 2010

The Borowitz Report

Rabid Dog Briefly Mistaken for Tea Party Candidate
JEFFERSON CITY, MO (The Borowitz Report) – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.

The dog, later identified by its owner as “Mister Buster,” held the crowd spellbound as he barked, growled, and frothed at the mouth, eventually receiving a standing ovation for his exertions.

Gwendolene Thomason, 42, a Tea Party supporter from Jefferson City, was one of the hundreds on hand who were convinced that the Doberman was a Tea Party candidate until he was outed as a dog.

“I liked what he had to say,” she said. ”He reminded me of Glenn Beck, only furrier.”

Very funny satirical snark; here's the link to the rest of this article, and here's the front page. Posting is irregular, but every single one is good. Here's another piece I had set aside and forgot (again, click over to read the whole thing):

Poll: One out of Five Americans Do Not Believe Obama Exists

‘Existers’ Movement Gathers Steam

WASHINGTON The Borowitz Report – In what might be the most serious challenge to Barack Obama’s legitimacy as President, a new poll shows that one out of five Americans are not convinced that Mr. Obama exists.

The poll, conducted by the University of Minnesota’s Opinion Research Institute, reveals that 23 percent of those surveyed “strongly agreed” with the statement, “I believe that Barack Obama’s birth was faked, just like the moon landing.”

Like

xkcd-themed wedding cake, based on this comic:

The world needs more nerds to get married and have little baby nerds. Via The Daily What.

Look Ma, No "F's"

The Obaminator finally seems to get the idea that a 10+ percent unemployment rate is very bad news for the dems, so guess what he's gonna do about it. If the words "too little, too late" come to mind, you're not alone.

Barack Obama is launching a campaign to persuade American voters that the ailing US economy is safe in his hands, unveiling a $50bn (£32bn) infrastructure package tonight as the countdown begins to November's midterm elections in which the Democrats are expected to receive a drubbing.

And of course, Weepy the Troll (R- Armpit) is compelled to chime in:

“As the American people, facing near double-digit unemployment, mark Labor Day by asking, where are the jobs, the White House has chosen to double-down on more of the same failed ‘stimulus’ spending,” Boehner said in a prepared statement.

Ignoring Boehner's principled opposition, by which I mean if anyone other than a good, jayzus-feering rubblekin proposes anything, he opposes it on principle, let's look at what the American Society of Civil Engineers had to say about the state of US infrastructure last year:

So if we were to expand Obama's proposal by a factor of 10, and spend that amount for the next four and a half years, we would meet what ASCE thinks we need. With all due respect to Obama (very little, at this point), I'll reitierate: too little, too late. And with all due respect to Boehner (none whatsoever), shut yer whiney little yap until you have some sort of useful counterproposal.