S & P Birther Index?

The Borowitz Report had a fun piece noting with amusement that improving economic indicators coincide pretty reliably with increased activity of "birthers".  It seems that as the economy improves, desperate Republicans become agitated and more anxious to bring down the President by any means possible. When economic conditions worsen, the birthers presumably rest easier,  confident that hard times will ruin the president's prospects without any shenanigans required.

Still,  mere public questioning of Obama's citizenship is not a strong enough indicator of recovery for jittery markets anymore.  Investors now look for signs of increased intensity in the suspicions about who the President really is being tossed around before confidently predicting a sustained economic improvement.

"Mr. Dorinson was quick to add that while the surge in references to Mr. Obama being “an Islamic socialist born in a mud-hut in Nairobi” is encouraging, the economy is not out of the woods yet. We won’t be fully in a recovery until the Republicans start calling him a Wiccan."

If they start calling him an atheist we might be launched into an unprecedented economic expansion!

Gee, Rush, What Words Did You Mean to Use?

Rush Limbaugh is a contemptible pig.  Not only has he not actually apologized to law student Sandra Fluke for his outrageous and scurrilous ad hominem attack,  but in the course of his non-apology,  he has managed to further debase himself by descending into a disjointed tirade in which he blamed "the left" for making him hurl vicious abuse at the graduate student.

To read Limbaugh's mewling apologia is to peek under the veneer of humanity and behold the rabid humanoid underneath.  The notorious shock jock whimpered that the things he said to Ms. Fluke - insults flung not impulsively but repeatedly, over several days, and with increasing vulgarity - were somehow dragged out of him "against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong," by the left!  This breathtaking leap of wingnuttery is simply dumbfounding.

Rush's mouth opens.  Filthy lies spew out.  You can't explain that.

Sometimes, one can only stare at stuff like this in shocked disbelief,  but I would like to take a moment to say - Oh no you don't, you vile bottom-feeder!  How dare this unprincipled slimeball suggest that his disgusting actions were the fault of anyone but himself?  How predictably cynical and typically political of him to try to shift the spotlight which revealed his repugnant immorality off onto the (invisible, mysteriously oligarchical - yet oddly impotent!) left.  The unmitigated gall of the scoundrel!

Limbaugh howled incoherently for half an hour attempting to placate the sponsors who continue to pay for the vitriolic effusions that passes for programming in some media circles.  In the course of his raving,  he whined about his victimization by the left and somewhere in there, he also mentioned that his mistake was in using "those two words" to "describe" Ms. Fluke.

I suppose the burning question now is:  in the context of his rant against the rights of women in general - and Ms. Fluke in particular - to have affordable access to contraception,  what other words did Rush Limbaugh actually intend to use?  If the problem was simply two poor word choices,  what substitutes come to mind now that cooler heads prevail?  Gee, I wonder.  But, I won't hold my breath for an answer to that one.

Sandra Fluke,  I Salute You

Conservative CNN blogger David Frum wrote a grudgingly honest piece rightly denouncing the attack, but WTF? CNN?  Who decided to slap the title, "Are we being fair to Rush Limbaugh?" on the piece? Since when does even-handed journalism mean presenting as the victim a person who is universally recognized as having been guilty of egregious indecency toward the true "victim" in this debacle?

Seriously, WTF?

The Onion Reports on Voter Reaction to Rick Santorum

The Onion's satirical story on Rick Santorum is the sort of thing that almost seems to define Poe's Law.

My favorite quote:

"I mean, with the other guys, you can dig into their past and find at least some shred of rational thinking, even if they're cynically downplaying it now," Gallardo continued. "But I get the sense Santorum is speaking nothing but his completely unfiltered thoughts. I know it's weird to say this about a politician, but I sort of wish he were lying to my face at least a little."

Classic.

I Saw What You Did There, Bill

Bill Nye the Science Guy is the bomb.  When my children were young,  his show was one of their favorites.  My younger daughter and eldest son, in particular, were at the right age at the right time to really benefit from Bill's friendly, energetic, exciting presentation of scientific concepts.  Maybe it is a coincidence, but those two are now working on science degrees in college.

The video below is one of my favorite short ones in which Bill cheerfully debunks Astrology.  It is even more fun that he mentions 2000 years ago when the Babylonians made all this stuff up.  I saw what you did there Bill, you crafty atheist, you.  I approve!

What makes it even cooler is that my daughter the Physics student shares a birthday with Bill Nye the Science Guy.  That makes them both Scorpios!

The Robin Came and Sang...WTF?!?

We've enjoyed a record-breaking mild winter here in Chicagoland with temperatures well above average all season long and hardly any snow.   With no snow on the ground,  people have been looking hopefully for green shoots and other signs of an early spring on the bare brown earth.

Over the past few days I was thrilled to hear the distinctive "Cheer up!" which is the song of the American Robin*.  I had not actually spotted a little harbinger of springtime, but I know that song when I hear it.

I figured I would spot one soon enough, but I didn't expect it to be like this!

A roaring March lion blew in a few inches of snow the other day, catching this little fellow and a bunch of his equally red-breasted friends by surprise.  There was a lot of flustered, fluttery activity outside my window a little while ago.  When I realized what it was, I grabbed my camera, ran out into the snow in my slippers and snapped a picture. 

That is the kind of dedication you won't find in the average blog.

You're welcome.

* I think it is most unfortunate that the lovely robin redbreast has been assigned the unflattering scientific name Turdus migratorius.  Come on scientists, can't you do better than this?  They are the harbingers of springtime,  for pete's sake!