Scandalous!

The Illinois state university system is in the grips of a scandal over students being allowed to attend state universities even though they are under-qualified.

The investigation has found that the under-qualified students are white and bad at sports.

In A Handbasket

I couldn't help it. When they said Michael Jackson had "touched many people", I laughed.

The Bells

I stopped at the store to grab a few things on my way to work, and I passed a display of six packs on sale. "Hm," I thought to myself, "Oberon is on sale. I'll have to pick some up later."



"Wait... Oberon?"

Bell's is back in Illinois. When did this happen? Is it back in Chicago or just down here?

I have got to get out of the house more often.

Obama Bigger Douchebag Than Previously Suspected

Human rights activity thus far:

Ruled out prosecution of torturers

Quashed ACLU FOIA into prisoner abuse

Reinstated Gitmo kangaroo courts



I'll just keep telling myself that a Republican would have been worse.

...right?

Maybe?



Sigh.

Oh, Padma...

If I'd know you needed the money, I'd have sent you $10. We could have worked something out.



I know that I said that I'd watch Top Chef even if it was just an hour of watching Padma eat but I...

um...

Wait. What was I talking about?

(administrivia)
This is not going to become a collection of YouTube videos, I promise. We're swamped and getting ready to move to a new building. Hopefully, sometime in the next week or two, things will return to a semblance of normalcy. In the meantime, expect more of these cheap and easy posts.

CP, you're still blocked. I think our firewall relies on a list, not on actual content, so until you get cleared from the list, I'm stuck.

Flan, you're so near and yet so far. Unfortunately, between work and volunteer stuff, I don't think I'm going to be able to make the trip to Chicago while you're in town. Sorry!
(/administrivia)

Emily Says...

I love Concrete Blonde as much as the next guy, but is Johnette Napolitano really qualified to be head of Homeland Security?

Obama And Cheney In Battle For Moral Low Ground

Attorney General Eric Holder says that this administration has made it clear from day one that it will not condone torture. Hope! Change! Hurrah! As it happens, Obama is so opposed to torture that he's already promised not to prosecute the torturers. Those of us with dictionaries will, at this point, be excused for our difficulty in reconciling Holder's comments with Obama's actions.

The torturers were, Obama reasons, just following orders, so the man has a point. Ever since Colin Powell whitewashed the Mai Lai Massacre, only foreigners are guilty when they follow orders. Americans are free to rape, murder, and mutilate civilians, as long as they get permission first.

Obama told the torturers that they should not "...be discouraged that we have to acknowledge that potentially we've made some mistakes." Potentially. He's not going to commit to calling the torture of prisoners a mistake. Let's not go crazy with the whole not condoning torture thing. The torturers have got his full support and we're going to move on. They should be proud to be members of an organization that... um... sanctions and carries out torture of prisoners, so buck up, lil torturers!

Because that's how we learn, people. We torture prisoners. And then we move on. Proudly.

Meanwhile, Cheney, speaking from his retirement home in suburban Mordor, says that what he finds disturbing about the release of the torture memos is that we didn't get to hear the success stories. Is anyone surprised that he doesn't find the actual torture disturbing? Anyone?