But no

Bush is Back -- and popular now! At the beginning of the Week of Bush Revisionism, the Washington Post and ABC News released a poll showing that Bush’s poll numbers have recovered since leaving office.…

Salon

20 songs about working: What better reason not to?

The point is, labor has been the single most popular subject of pop songs for decades (besides girls, cars, alcohol, parties, religion, and about 10,000 other things). So below, we’ve collected 20 of the best songs about the working life. Think of it as an extremely depressing playlist…

The Pessimist

Alright, that's enough

THE KEY THING TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT apple varieties is that apples do not come true from seed. An apple fruit is a disposable womb of the mother tree, but the seeds it encloses are new individuals, each containing a unique combination of genes from the mother tree and the mystery dad…

Mother Jones

Caboose

Caboose, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

Oh never mind, I'll just imagine the rest

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the congressional fix for widespread flight delays is an irresponsible way to govern, but he's prepared to sign the legislation…

Yahoo! News

And it really worked (really!)

It's the age-old Nigerian folktale. A long, long time ago, a prince lost his way. Riches and wealth seized by an evil government, the prince wandered the Bay Area, searching for an ordinary citizen with a heart of gold to break the curse. All it would take, the prince told the goodhearted citizen, was a little cash infusion that would break the government's evil spell, releasing millions of dollars for the prince to share with his savior.… 

Gawker

Money in the water

The newly-limbless victims from the Boston Marathon attack are still being treated, and the alleged bomber has only been in custody for a few days. But for a handful of defense and intelligence contractors, it’s never too early to start pimping their products as the solution to the next terrorist strike. 

Wired

Pop quiz for tax aficionados

As our informed readerbase will know, Killer whales (Orcinus orca ) are not fish. What then are the tax implications for ‘owners’ of killer whales – given that US tax law has specific regulations which differ considerably according to whether one owns a killer whale (a mammal), or a large fish, say a Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharias).

Improbable Research

We are shocked!

Three years ago, when BP’s Deepwater Horizon began leaking some 210 million gallons of Louisiana Crude into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. government allowed the company to apply chemical “dispersants” to the blossoming oil slick…But a number of recent studies show that BP and the feds may have made a huge mistake, for which everything from microscopic organisms to bottlenose dolphins are now paying the highest price.

UNDERNEWS 

A

Untitled, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

File under Size Isn't Everything

Karl Rove, who has been described by former President George W. Bush as “the architect” of his 2000 and 2004 election victories, isn’t backing down in his defense of the former president’s legacy, saying “he got the big things right.”

Yahoo! News

99 point wait a minute – what?

While fighting off a minor but nonetheless troubling urge to do some work this morning I was forced to read this teeny tiny print on the back of my hand sanitizer bottle, here. And what do you think it says? I quote:

Effective at eliminating over 99.99% of many common harmful germs and bacteria.

No kidding. And yes, I added the italics.

So uncommon germs, dude, and you are definitely on your own.

Don't worry!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Friday overwhelmingly approved a Senate plan to ease nationwide air traffic delays caused by automatic federal spending cuts, seeking to calm an irritated traveling public as lawmakers themselves flew out of Washington for a week-long recess.

Yahoo! News

Hey they can always nick the little old ladies for a few more bucks on their Social Security to make up the difference in an automatic federal spending sort of way. Little old ladies on Social Security are not part of the irritated traveling public.

Oh yeah, Obama will sign this.

And, recalling flight controllers? What would St. Ronnie say?

And what are you laughing at?

The Crapo Hill landfill is several miles from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth…

Boston Globe

April

April, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

And you're surprised because…?

Exxon Earns $9.5 Billion Q1 Profit One Month After Arkansas Oil Spill That It Pays No Taxes To Help Clean Up 

Think Progress

Exit

Exit, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

No way can this end well

US President Barack Obama has warned his daughters that if they get tattoos, he and his wife will get matching ones on the same place on their bodies.

BBC et. al.

The first rule of dealing with teenage daughters is: Never ask a question unless you already know the answer and it's okay.

Otherwise, dude, stay out of it.

Why can't we have one too?

If House Concurrent Resolution 12 passes, Oregon could become the first state in the Union to declare an official state microbe.

Lowering the Bar

Nothing is too crazy for the net

In the 10 days since the lethal explosions, strange and alarming hypotheses have descended on the Web like a swarm of locusts: the Boston bombing was staged by the government; Michelle Obama plotted with a Saudi national; Tamerlan Tsarnaev was taken naked and alive, then killed by authorities before he could speak the truth.…

Daily Beast

Oh no, we are not touching this one

“You’d think that 30 years later it wouldn’t be ‘a man is effective and a woman is a bitch,’” Dingell said. “I thought maybe we had advanced. We hadn’t.”…

Daily Beast

Unfriendly skies

At some point during the flight, my daughter wet her diaper. Babies tend to do these things without warning. I got up to change the diaper. Flight attendants spotted a clear and present danger in my actions, and launched a national-security scramble.…

Daily Beast

Petraeus Agonistes

Under the Seal of silence could not keep,/But weakly to a woman must reveal it,/O'recome with importunity and tears./O impotence of mind, in body strong!

John Milton, with an assist from Wired

The mind really, really boggles

When visitors tour the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, they will find a facility that reflects the character and personality of the former president… 

Washington Post

Have we found the least informative headline ever?

Police say 5 people found dead in small Ill. town 

Associated Press/Yahoo News

Time marches on, slowly

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — As ­cannons and mortars roared, 20 ­Africans, in the grip of the Revolutionary War, made an impassioned plea to their state government to abolish slavery for the sake of justice and humanity.… 

Their eloquence linking a slave’s freedom to the ideals upon which the revolution was based was ­denied in the New Hampshire ­General Assembly. Lawmakers ­instead pledged to address the Nov. 12, 1779, petition at a more convenient time. 

That time has come, some 233 years later, as the New Hampshire House of Representatives prepares for a vote Wednesday… 

Boston Globe

Imagine our surprise

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration failed to participate in the Senate's first hearing Tuesday on the use of drones for targeted killings, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said.… 

The administration's refusal to participate comes just a few months after President Barack Obama pledged greater transparency on his targeted killing program during his 2013 State of the Union address. 

HuffingtonPost

Out Back

Out Back, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

Wherein leaving Afghanistan means, well, staying there

One of the major elements of Afghanistan’s air war will remain after most U.S. troops have headed home, the U.S. military command confirmed today. Armed drones, operated by the U.S., will remain over Afghanistan after 2014.… 

Wired

So long, mom, I'm off to drop the bomb

In the winter of 2012, President Obama stood on a podium at the National Defense University to honor the 20th anniversary of a program that successfully dismantled nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union, declaring, "We simply cannot allow the 21st century to be darkened by the worst weapons of the 20th century."…But his administration's recently released budget proposal reflects the opposite agenda: It makes big cuts to nuclear nonproliferation programs while beefing up funding for the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile.

Mother Jones

Lyrics by Tom Lehrer. 

Pretty grim, dude

Life photographs rock stars of the early 1970s – with their parents.

It's either that or cod liver oil

There are certain Simpsony-Bowlesy people who believe quite strongly that the United States will — must — pay for the sin of Debt, by self-imposed austerity or by “becoming Greece.” Plenty of right-wingers already believe a sort of millenarism-via-Drudge in which the United States is already Greece, or some other failed state on the verge of collapse. Mass airport congestion will only nurture that pleasant feeling of inevitable, deserved decline. (This is related to the common elite opinion that mass unemployment is a sign of a country “taking its medicine.”) For some, the worse things get in America, the more evidence it is that we need to make things worse.…

Salon

And then there's Tinfoil Tuesday

Forget everything you thought you knew about the Boston bombings. The real story behind the attack involves not a pair of radicalized brothers, but a world-spanning conspiracy of Michelle Obama, a network of Russian oligarchs, and an army of stagehands armed with fake blood. Oh, and deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev? He was taken alive. Naked.… 

Wired

Four and a Half Chairs

iPhone photo: Phil Compton

Move over, Disneyland

Dubya's New Library Will Feature a You-Be-the-Bush Role-Playing Game 

Gawker

Bring the kids!

He only has eyes for you

Mark Sanford Does Not Remember the Alamo 

Roll Call

This ought to do the gene pool some good

	Ars Technica (@arstechnica)
4/22/13, 4:31 PM Applications open for Mars One, the first human space colony ars.to/13OWo8g by @caseyjohnston

Download the official Twitter app here

What is body wash and why is it not soap?

Have a little mercy here, okay?

The very worst thing about drugstores is that just when I begin to figure out where the stuff I want is, they move it and put it somewhere else. Sometimes it just goes away. That's what happened to me today when I went out to buy some soap. The soap is gone. There's nothing left but body wash. I don't want body wash. I want soap. Also, Cornhuskers Lotion. Where is that?

I'm falling apart here.

I wonder what they know about Lindsey Graham and North Korea

“Once you’re brought to attention by a foreign government, I think you should have a red flag ...’’ Graham [R, Nut Case] said on CNN’s “State of the Union’’ program.…

Boston Globe

Atomic rats!

A cooling fuel pool was shut down for a few hours Monday atJapan's embattled Fukushima nuclear power plant so workers could remove two dead rats. It was the third time in a little over a month that cooling equipment had to be shut down for rat related issues — and right now there are more radioactive rodent recurrences than answers.

Atlantic Wire

Don't laugh. A lot of superheroes (and a few super villains) got their start with a good dose of radiation. So why not rats? Just hope they don't make a movie. 

You know it's over when politicians start picking its bones to prove their points, whatever their points might be

For the second time in as many hearings, the top ranking Democrat and Republican examining immigration legislation in the Senate Judiciary Committee clashed over whether the Boston marathon bombing should be tied to reform.… 

TPM

Getting the words right

The Boston Globe, which did a spectacular job of covering last weeks events in that city, has an article this morning about the legal situation of the bomber in custody:

Chief among them are whether to seek the death penalty for the attacks, which killed three people and wounded more than 170; the potential consequence of authorities’ decision not to read Tsarnaev his Miranda rights; and whether Tsarnaev’s case would be moved outside Boston in order to assure a fair trial. State prosecutors may also file charges in the case.

The emphasis is mine. A lot of people who should know better are writing that the guy's Miranda rights are being denied when it's simply the reading of those rights – that little card that every cop on every TV show reads when somebody gets arrested – that's in question. 

From Pakistan with love

The Pakistani Taliban issued a statement denying responsibility almost immediately after the [Boston] bombings last week, with a spokesman for the organization saying, "Certainly, America is our target and we will attack the U.S. and its allies whenever the [Pakistani Taliban] finds the opportunity, but we are not involved in this attack."

Foreign Policy

Not. Going. Away.

The millionaire oil moguls Charles and David Koch are pushing ahead with their plans to purchase several news outlets across the United States, according to a detailed report in the New York Times on Sunday.

Think Progress

It's amusing that one of the papers the Koch bros want to buy, the Chicago Tribune, was once owned and published by another noted American whack job, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, a guy with whom the Kochs would undoubtedly enjoy sharing a cigar. Assuming, of course, the Kochs smoke cigars. If they don't they should.

One of the most useful things I learned in my youngest years was from a fifth grade teacher who advised, never read only one newspaper. I have no doubt she had McCormick's Tribune in mind.