Current Affairs

I, uh, well, you see, the thing is, um, you know, this means, oh, rats:

This is pretty cool. We're always being told how many species are being made extinct by our damn selfish human behavior. So it's nice to know there's another part of the story:

For centuries scientists have pondered a central question: How many species exist on Earth? Now, a group of researchers has offered an answer: 8.7 million.

I hope this Washington Post writer's interpretation is wrong. It's from a blog "with a liberal slant" (their description), so maybe I should take his analysis of a conservative politician with a grain of salt. A lot of us are hoping for a little more than politics as usual this election cycle, and this sounds like anything but:

I got busy yesterday and forgot to bring up and link to an Associated Press story in the Saturday Journal Gazette that irritated the hell out of me. It was basically a soft-pedaling of the country's growing debt and an aplogy for all the people who have contributed to it.

For the "It's never enough" file:

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A state lawmaker is worried the money the state made from the leasing of the Indiana Toll Road could run out sooner than expected.

Huh. I wouldn't have thought a business like this could make it in staid old Fort Wayne, but the owner says he's getting a lot of repeat business:

Fort Wayne Dust Bunnies offers light housekeeping to its clients, but the cleaning is done in the nude.

[. . .]

The maids are only permitted to do light housekeeping duties: washing dishes, vacuuming, and dusting.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, as they use to say:

The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules.

Hoosier yokels display their complete lack of sophistication:

Residents of a west-central Indiana community are urging city officials to start enforcing curfews in the downtown area after a spate of graffiti incidents that have marred buildings, vehicles and homes.

Crawfordsville officials say the graffiti had been confined to alleys between buildings but has now hit a downtown plaza and personal property.

Bad news from the IRS for all you work-at-home types. Deducting your bathroom as a "home office" might not work:

If the economy doesn't improve, President Obama will be in re-election trouble, especially if he faces Mitt Romney or Rick Perry, two Republicans with executive experience who are stressing jobs as an issue. But some Republicans are still unhappy with the prospect of one of those two winning the nomination and are trying to persuade House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan to run. That could be a mistake. Ryan is the one person most associated with the fight to reduce the size of federal government, and that could give Obama a chance to change the focus of the campaign: