Politics and other nightmares

If you've ever wondered what the hell a "pansexual" is, let Texas State Rep. Mary Gonzalez explain it to you, since she just came out as one:

Texas gun enthusiasts -- but I repeat myself -- might be dismayed by Gov. Rick Perry's apparent acceptance of state-level gun control:

I guess this isn't a huge deal, but it bothers me a little:

With the now official selection of Paul Ryan as the running mate to Mitt Romney . . . we have the final pairings of the four men running for the highest offices in the land. And for the first time since 1944, not one of them has ever served in the uniform of our country.

That darn Richard Mourdock. He just won't play the game the way he's supposed to:

Fareed Zakaria, writing in Time magazine, says the case for gun control is so obvious that only willful blindness can ignore it:

If I called President Obama a socialist, it'd probably start a big fight and some of you would call me a typical far-right wingnut. But, hey, I'm not the one calling for a government takeover of American industry:

The government as bully:

Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.

[. . .]

Here's one that should be fun for the partisan warriors, a chart showing the number of jobs created during presintial terms. The best record -- Bill Clinton, with Ronald Reagan coming in at No. 2. And the worst -- George W. Bush in the penultimate position and Barack Obama the absolute worst. How much credit or blame a president should actually get for the number of jobs created is, of course, a whole different topic.

The dystopian nightmare of  "1984" edges one step closer:

Cleaning up one of our messes: