Current Affairs

Earth Hour this year, when everybody is supposed to turn everything off in "a symbolic statement on reducing atmosphere-heating pollution," is set for 8:30 p.m. Saturday. And some places, like Notre Dame, are going to extend the pointless gesture to the whole weekend. The golden Dome and -- not kidding here -- Touchdown Jesus -- will be dark for 60 hours:

Come up with your own crappy pun for this:

Mayor Jim Suttle went to Washington Tuesday flush with ideas for how federal officials could help cities like Omaha pay for multibillion-dollar sewer projects.

Among the items on his brainstorming list: a proposal for a 10-cent federal tax on every roll of toilet paper you buy.

War:

We are at war, incoming NEA executive director John Stocks told the unions board of directors last month, outlining a plan to keep NEA from joining the private sector industrial unions in a slow, steady decline into irrelevancy to anyone outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

Here's a misstep from the "make government smaller and less costly" guy:

Thoughts on the death of Elizabeth Taylor:

Something for the open-border advocates to consider:

A  potentially explosive admission by federal prosecutors in the pending sentencing of Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane in a San Antonio federal courtroom could aid the case of border states looking to take the initiative to stem the flood of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S.

Yikes:

A state worker who was supposed to inspect the miniature train that derailed Saturday — killing 6-year-old Benji Easler of Gaffney and injuring 28 people — resigned Monday after he told officials he falsified an inspection form last week that cleared the train for use.

This is obscene. Compare CNN's coverage of the royal wedding and the disasters in Japan:

What better way to start the week than with this and other tweets by Michael Moore:

May I suggest a 50-mile evacuation zone around Obama's Nobel Peace Prize?

Better wakeup boost than a strong cup of coffee and a Journal Gazette editorial.

"Being nickeled and dimed to death" usually refers to little costs that add up while you're not paying attention. But its also apt for our lunkheads in Washington who argue bitterly over whether to cut nickels and dimes while the trillions in debt pile up: