Current Affairs

Oh, God, please, no, say it isn't so:

Another European leader finally gets it:

You've seen people who drive around picking their noses. 'Cause they think they're invisible inside those cars, right? Now we have the whole new group of people (or maybe they're all nose-pickers who have moved up to better things) who think the Internet is like a private little gathering place where you can do anything and nobody will ever know.

I don't want to turn into the all-Mitch-all-the-time guy, but it certainly seems like he's almost in the presidential race. In an interview with POLITICO:

Daniels suggested three things could keep him from plunging in: his wife's concerns, the calculation that his party or the country aren't ready for his tough-love message or the emergence of another capable candidate.

[. . .]

Reaction to Joe Biden's "Hey, let's spend $53 billion on high-speed rail" contribution to the latest "boondoggle in the name of Progress":

Today's well, duh research grant:

An Indiana University researcher is joining cohorts from three other universities in a study that will look at why children's grades often suffer when their families lose their homes to foreclosure.

This is maddening, but not exactly a big surprise:

The Defense Department and the FBI should have recognized that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan had become an adherent of “violent Islamist extremism” before he went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people, two US senators said Thursday in a special report.

[. . .]

A budding crime career is nipped in the bud:

Hey, it's "big numbers to make your head hurt" Friday!

I don't get the distinction:

House Republicans plan to sidestep a charged debate over the distinction between “forcible rape” and “rape” by altering the language of a bill banning taxpayer subsidies for abortions.