they tell me whisky works better than beer


E. L. Kirchner, Street, Berlin, 1913

* Top ten conservative idiots. excerpt:

John McCain

"It was revealed last week that John McCain has been keeping a little secret about his campaign's response to Barack Obama's overseas trip. According to Business Week:

What the McCain campaign doesn't want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was... wait for it... using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that's political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents - a lie.

"Elsewhere on the McCain campaign trail last week: we all know how fond the senator is of insisting that he will never raise taxes, never, not ever. But last week, McCain appeared on "This Week" and said, 'I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table.'

"Whoops! Conservatives were not happy. It's okay though because just days later McCain said, 'I want to look you in the eye. I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it.' So that clears that up. He's definitely not going to increase anyone's taxes, unless he does."

* RIP Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

* Corn Chips and Pie is counting down the 100 greatest things of all time and is currently at 98:

"#98: The sun

"It provides hope each morning and encourages amateur photographers each evening. It sustains life on our planet, and is the reason that all of us (except some shitty little bacteria hanging out near thermal vents) are here today. Not bad, right? The only thing keeping the sun from ranking higher on this list: it hasn't really shown me very much recently. No innovation. It's kind of a celestial Stereolab, cranking out the same thing over and over, content in stasis. Some critics might say 'stagnation.' Enjoyable, yes, but only 98th best."

* "Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people." -- Robert Benchley