The Headline of the Day

If monkeys are controlling robot arms with their brains, it won't be too long before my job is outsourced to someone living at the Bronx Zoo.

"Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult."

Saying that on a sign in London could get you arrested, so I'll say it here (and it would be nice if it could be repeated everywhere, if only to see Tom Cruise have a televised aneurysm).
One reason for arresting teenagers who state facts on placards (other than pro-Business libel laws and the lack of a formal Bill of Rights in the UK) seems to be that the City of London police are being bribed by the "Church" of Scientology. My personal feeling is that Scientology is more of a tacky business scam created by a huckster than a real cult created by a true-believing nutcase, but calling the "Church" a cult seems to get under their skin, so
"Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult."

Joe Biden for Vice President

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”
- - Senator Joe Biden, a man who knows malarkey, especially foreign-policy malarkey, when he sees it

How many all-knowing made men among America's punditocracy have proclaimed, "Obama needs to get mean," or "Obama needs Hillary's killer instinct"? Maybe Barack Obama just needs his own Dick Cheney, though a Dick Cheney willing to use his genius for good rather than evil.

Read The New York Times on-line for free -- but don't buy it

The New York Times, like The New Yorker, has always been torn between two audiences, those who read the paper for the news and the columnists, and that very elite group that can afford the products featured in the glossy weekend pages and the daily Tiffany ads. Over the past few years, it seems like there's been a lot more pandering to the latter group. It's been awhile since I could justify spending four dollars on Sunday for the Times. Not only was it getting harder to fit into my budget, but there was the guilt over the pounds of wasted paper -- most of it advertisements for things I know that I will never be able to afford. But it's one thing when the Paper of Record panders to the pocketbooks of the scum at the top of New York society with advertisements for $5,000 handbags and Aston-Martins, it's another when one of their Magazine editors, Sandra Ballentine, admits in print:

What I Lust For: The fashionista in me gravitates towards the portrait of Andre Leon Talley and Lord Snowdon (top, left), both swathed in head-to-toe snow leopard.

SNOW LEOPARD?? That's just a little beyond the pale, isn't it?

True Blue Liberal celebrates high gas prices: “The era of the truck-based large S.U.V.’s is over”!!

The New York Times today had a great article celebrating the fact that gas prices are finally having some effect on the mix of new cars leaving America's showroom floors. For the first time in my life I spent over $40 to fill the empty tank of my Volkswagen Golf last week, but the negative shock to my wallet was overcome by the positive Schadenfreude when I thought of the effect on those driving Hummers and Escalades!

... with oil prices expected to remain high for years, auto industry executives are seeing a turning point.
“The era of the truck-based large S.U.V.’s is over,” said [not the] Michael Jackson, chief executive of AutoNation, the nation’s largest auto retailer.
Sales of traditional S.U.V.’s are down more than 25 percent this year. In April, for example, sales of G.M.’s Chevrolet Tahoe fell 35 percent.