So, they had to go to Randolph, Utah, population 480, to find people who still like the president?

And any article that contains this line must be worth reading:
"Dijon mustard," Louderman says as the woman drives away. "I don't know what Dijon mustard is. Don't care to find out, either."

Can I move there? Please?

Utah Town Has Question About President: 'What's Not to Like?'

Um, is it April Fools' Day? Is this really for real?

MediaGuardian.co.uk Media BBC's Jesus sings Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Heh heh, it's an especially good one this morning...

Questionable Content: New comics every Monday through Friday

Interesting...very interesting. The man who commodified irony is a staunch Republican? You learn something new everyday...

As if I needed another reason to loath Urban Outfitters...

pw: philadelphia weekly online

Democrats Split Over Filibuster On Alito: "Some Republicans poked fun at Kerry -- the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, who may make another White House bid -- for allowing others to announce the filibuster plan earlier in the day while he was attending an economic conference in Davos, Switzerland."

Er, I'm not understanding where the fun-poking comes in. "Haha, you were in Switzerland!" Whaaat?

I spent a great deal of time yesterday updating my del.icio.us links. There are lots of sites on here. I'm a nerd. Thanks to Mr. X for introducing me to this very cool thingymabobber.

Dude, I'm way too tired to be awake right now.

del.icio.us/lkrier

Hm.

saki store blog: Best Buy BS

Oh man, I always wanted to go here. And I didn't even know about the hillavator!

Cooking For Engineers - Dining Out: Shadowbrook Restaurant (Capitola, California)

You might have thought there was nothing to laugh at about Islamic extremism and hotel bombings. You were wrong.

The inner workings of a terrorist's mind (You have to register with the New Republic to read this, but it's free.)

It's good to know that corporate lobbying has taken such a hit with the whole Abramoff scandal.

Closed-Door Deal Makes $22 Billion Difference

Of course, this argument relies on unquestioned ideas of economic efficiency and "a better life."

Why America Has to Be Fat

Ok, let me rephrase. I don't just feel chills. I feel nauseating fear and disgust in the pit of my stomach. Did it only take 30 years for people to forget what it was like in a pre-Roe America? Are people really so ignorant about abortion that they believe it doesn't happen when it's illegal?

Most importantly, is the "pendulum" really swinging against Roe, or is this a media-generated story without a solid basis in reality, as too many reporters' stories are? I can only hope...

Protesters See Mood Shift Against 'Roe'

These things give me chills. And wait--people who are antiabortion, and yet wear t-shirts that say "sex is good, the pill is bad"? Errrr...

Serious, serious, fearful chills.

Protesters See Mood Shift Against 'Roe'

The funny of the day.

Cat and Girl

The funny of next Tuesday: The State of the Union address. I'm all about getting some peeps together for watching and drinking and lamenting. Who wants to help me come up with the 2006 rules for the SOTUA drinking game? Good times, good times.

Call me ignorant, but I hadn't realized that someone actually invented smallpox blankets, as an intentional attempt at biological warfare. I thought it was just kind of a gross oversight. We're worse than I thought.

Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, I guess winter had to come sometime. I can't really complain, considering that for most of January we had awesome 50 and 60 degree days, but I thought we were only supposed to get "light snow"?

And I definitely slipped on the Icy Walkway of Death outside my house this morning. That was awesome.

Local Weather Forecast for Boston, MA (02116) - weather.com

Mostly, I just think this headline is really funny.

Politics Alleged In Voting Cases

Oh so terrible. So very terrible.

Paris Hilton Deposition

Oooh. This is where my book fetishism could get out of control. I think...yup, I'm salivating.

Book Details

A woman is fired from her job as school bus driver when the school district finds out she's a practicing pagan. Ok, so this story is about some very serious things, like civil rights, religious freedom, and bigotry, but there are too many humorous elements here for me to leave it alone, and not just because practicing pagans are inherently funny.

I mean, her vampire husband is running for governor? "Being a witch involves a complex of actions that puts children in jeopardy?" The best part? The school district doesn't feel that she can be a good role model, as a witch bus driver. Since when is the school bus driver meant to be a role model?

Princeton 'witch' disputes her firing

Besides that this case just generally fascinates me, notice John G. Roberts's ruling, which contradicts his previously stated propensity to protect states' rights. Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas were the dissenting judges. This bodes well, don't you think? Sigh.

Justices Uphold Oregon Assisted-Suicide Law

While I'm not about to argue that Alito is my first choice for the Supreme Court, or that I'm in any way satisfied with his selection, I am a little bit frustrated by the knee-jerk liberal reaction against him. I don't think they're really wrong about him, but the point is that I don't know, and neither do they. It's just another wedge in the increasingly hostile and sometimes blind divide between the politically rabid right and left.

No matter who Bush nominated, it was guaranteed that MoveOn.org was going to freak out and demand daily that we block the nomination. What does this accomplish? How can it help to start your attack on a nominee before he's even spoken a word? All is does is make the liberal side look reactionary and dogmatic.

I don't know if Alito was sincere during his hearing. I have no way of knowing that. But because of they way our system works, I have to believe that he meant every word he spoke, and that, as an intelligent man, he IS capable of putting aside his personal feelings and making judgments based on fact. If we don't believe that Alito can do it, how can we believe that anyone can do it? And if it's not possible, what does that say about our judicial system?

I'm just so exhausted by ignorant politics, no matter what side the ignorance is coming from.

Whoa. Alright, Russia. This reads like something you might read in the Onion, but no, it really is Russia's primary newspaper. Oookaay.

Condoleezza Rice's anti-Russian stance based on sexual problems - PRAVDA.Ru

I think Mr. DeLay has a persecution complex. Yup, he's a little bit paranoid. And delusional. Everything, obviously, is because the Democrats are after him.

I really love, too, that his "internal polls" show that he's doing better than the Houston Chronicle poll. Really. You don't say. Now that's just crazy.

I am really looking forward to watching his slide into powerlessness and, if I'm lucky, the madhouse. Heh.

Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay - New York Times

I think Mr. DeLay has a persecution complex. Yup, he's a little bit paranoid. And delusional. Everything, obviously, is because the Democrats are after him.

I really love, too, that his "internal polls" show that he's doing better than the Houston Chronicle poll. Really. You don't say. Now that's just crazy.

I am really looking forward to watching his slide into powerlessness and, if I'm lucky, the madhouse. Heh.

Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay - New York Times

Hm. Maybe I should move to Vermont.

A fictional kingdom in Vermont - ExploreNewEngland.com

More comics. But hey! I did something useful today! I made a form...a beautiful, beautiful form.

Cat and Girl

Cat and Girl Battle International Communism

This article rocks.

Pop Comfort Over Ambition - New York Times

"'When Americans learn to speak a language, learn to speak Arabic, those in the Arabic region will say, 'Gosh, America's interested in us. They care enough to learn how we speak,' ' Bush said."

What a freakin' moran. :-)

Foreign-Language Learning Promoted:

I want to fight the War on Esoterics.

Don't Iraq The Boat - Wonkette

This picture (in the link below) just reminded me of an analogy Susan Faludi makes between headwear and maturity (in the excellent book Stiffed). Her point is that a cap is a sign of boyishness, and that prior to WWII, it was expected for men to eventually graduate to man-hat-wearing status. The fact that men no longer tend toward man-hats, and continue to wear caps pretty much until death, signifies an inability for contemporary men to, uh, grow up.

It's a pretty compelling argument in the context of the book. Read the book. Yeah, it's a thousand pages long, but it's really, really good.

Abramoff Plays Ball - Wonkette

Barista bandits? Only in Seattle.

"I bet they were strung out on something other than caffeine," said Michael Chiu, a spokesman for the police in Bellevue, east of here, which is working the "barista bandits" case, as it is known among the authorities, with the Seattle police and several other police departments.

Espresso Huts Are Target, and Barista Tips Police - New York Times

Ha! My family are not the only strange people who drink this. Reading this has convinced me that it's about time I introduce it to the Empress. Whether she'll like it is another story entirely...

TOM AND JERRY Recipe at Epicurious.com

Sometimes it's amazing to realize how much books can be worth:

Abebooks Search Results - darwin, charles

Jon Stewart to Host Oscars - New York Times

Brilliant.

Gasp! People like their electronic devices? I never would have guessed...

CJR Daily: Electricity: For Real, or Fleeting Fad?

Oooh, good Andrew Bird news. He's not coming to Boston again, but reissues! reissues!

Pitchfork: Daily Music News

Why does he always look so cartoonishly evil and weird? What's with the grimaces, and the staring eyes? I wonder is small children have nightmares about him?

(Picture from WP)

(Oh, and the beginning of this article in the Post basically says Cheney's a big fat liar. What a shocker.)

I think the most annoying aspect of the Abramoff guilty plea is the way everyone is acting as though they didn't know this kind of shit went on. As though they're fooling anyone. Abramoff's public apology, his declarations of atonement and pleas for god's forgiveness...it's disgusting. He's not sorry he did it, and no one could possibly believe that he is--he's sorry he got caught.

What is saddening is that everyone knows the political system is corrupt, but no one cares. These "revelations" aren't surprising anyone. We've just accepted for so long that this is how politics works. It's disgusting. Can it be changed? I'd like to believe so, but the truth is, no one cares.

Bush to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions

What a profound truth...heehee.

[Boy on a Stick and Slither]

It's not too often you're going to find a slang word that continues to be used for over 100 years.
From the OED:

cushty, a. (and adv.)
DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2002
Brit. slang.
Brit. /kti/, U.S. /kti/ Forms: 19- cushti, cushty, kushti. [< Romani (in Britain and Scandinavia) kushto, kushti good, perh. influenced by CUSHY a. Cf. Hindi khush, pleasure.]
Good, wonderful; fine; brilliant. Freq. as a general term of approval or agreement. Also as adv.

[1889 A. BARRÈRE & C. G. LELAND Dict. Slang I. 528/2 Kushto, koshto, good.] 1929 E. MCCARTNEY Additions to Vol. on Slang & Idioms World War in Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. 273 Cushty, smart, good. 1937 ‘J. CURTIS’ There ain't no Justice xx. 226 Him and Tommy'd manage them cushty. 1972 Guardian 9 Oct. 16/5 ‘Kushti little trailer, you know,’ he mused. 1985 J. SULLIVAN Only Fools & Horses (1999) I. 4th Ser. Episode 5. 235 (Del is on the phone.) Del. No, no, no, everything's cushty! Yeah, no, no, no, you've got nothing to worry about! 2001 Daily Tel. 4 Apr. 22/5 Jamie Oliver has shot to culinary fame with almost indecent speed, but not everyone is a fan of his ‘cushty’ cuisine.

Because I didn't come across anything particularly interesting today, and because no one really reads this, so I can definitely indulge myself: the last 20 songs that I've heard on my iPod:

Girl Inform Me, The Shins
Hands Off, Old 97s
Turning Japanese, Liz Phair
Knives Out, Radiohead
Title Track, Death Cab for Cutie
It Hurts 2 C U Dance So Well, The Pipettes (It hurts me to type that title)
Ck86, Sweet William
Papa Was a Rodeo, Magnetic Fields
Amitryptyline, John Vanderslice
You Just Haven't Earned it Yet Baby, The Smiths
By The Way, Built to Spill
What You Are, Drill
Stable Song, Death Cab for Cutie
This Is Love, PJ Harvey
Trailer Trash, Modest Mouse
Immigrant, Sade
Sister Anne, Green Pajamas
Running Up that Hill, Kate Bush
Violent Love, Oingo Boingo
Offline P.K., Pinback

If you like that stuff, you should go to last.fm, sign up, and then search for username lkrier. Then you can listen to what I listen to. Or something. It's a cool site, even if you don't like what I listen to.

Craparagus.

Whaaat? Good god, I'm just glad I didn't have to write THIS story.

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

Heeheehee. Back to work, back to the internet comics. This one is especially for Crystal...scrabble. Heh.

Questionable Content: New comics every Monday through Friday