Fun Fact For The Day

In the 19th century, particularly on the frontier, ear wax was frequently used as lip balm.

Off The Shelf

Awful Library Books, a collection of titles from libraries across the country that desperately need some purging.

Baywatch Can Breathe Again

The Sun has found its spots.

Following up on his post.

On Quitting

Palin today in the Anchorage Daily News:

Palin responded Monday (to accusations that she's a quitter) by saying there's a double standard. She brought up the fact Murkowski left the Legislature when her father, then-governor Frank Murkowski, appointed her to the U.S. Senate seat he gave up to become governor.

"The double standard that's applied here is a bit perplexing. ... Didn't Lisa Murkowski leave office to go take her dad's seat? (Govs.) Huntsman left, Napolitano just left ... ," Palin said, referring to governors who took positions in President Obama's administration.

Everyone she references quit their jobs to take another job; Palin just quit.

There's No Federal Investigation, So...

...that leaves batshit crazy as the explanation.

LA Times:

"There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we're investigating her or getting ready to indict her," Special Agent Eric Gonzalez said in a phone interview Saturday. "It's just not true." He added that there was "no wiggle room" in his comments for any kind of inquiry.

Palinoid Delusions

Palin has been utterly absent today, a day after announcing her resignation. Palin's spokeswoman said she was in Juneau, but she did not participate in the Fourth of July parade there or the celebration of Alaska's 50th anniversary of Statehood (what governor doesn't celebrate a 50th anniversary for statehood anyway?) Instead, the only communication from Palin today was a Twitter shout-out to the troops, and an odd post on her Facebook page where she took the media to task.

The money quote:

The response in the main stream media has been most predictable, ironic, and as always, detached from the lives of ordinary Americans who are sick of the “politics of personal destruction”. How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it’s about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make. But every American understands what it takes to make a decision because it’s right for all, including your family.

"A higher calling?" Is she taking some kind of vows or something?

And what's up with the persecution complex - "we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies to the decisions I make." Hate to burst her bubble but the standards applied to her are pretty damned low and she still didn't make the grade with that performance yesterday. The woman wanted to be Vice President, for heaven's sake, and she thinks that some kind of explanation of what she means by a higher calling is asking too much.

And who is she to rail against the "politics of personal destruction?' It seems to me she was pretty damned good at it last fall - "palling around with terrorists." She may whine about it now, but when she was dishing it out last fall she said, "Nobody should have hurt feelings! My goodness, this is politics! Politics is rough and tumble, and people need to get thick skin, just like I’ve got."

There is one more line from her little blurb today that is more than bizarre:

We have accomplished so much and there’s much more to do, but my family and I determined after prayerful consideration that sacrificing my title helps Alaska most.

Go ahead, read it again. Yes, that small part at the end - "sacrificing my title helps Alaska most." Does she think she is still a pageant contestant? It is not a "title", it's an elected office. She is not the Duke of Windsor abdicating the throne. She is a governor who is quitting her job before the end of her term.

If her missive was a blog post by some ordinary person discussing why they quit their job you would think they were nuts. Read it like that and it all becomes clear.

This is all one great drama in her head. She is the put-upon, tortured, heroine who must "sacrifice" all for the good of her country and a "higher calling." It is just that simple.

The snowbilly thinks she's Joan of Arc-tic.

There's An Idea!

Peter Ferrera, on FoxNews calls Palin's resignation, "a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement."

He goes on to offer some options for her, including,

"She should also lead the nation's mothers to oppose mandating replacement of incandescent light bulbs with the new mercury poison gas bulbs."

That's what I call a national platform.

Don't Even Try To Follow This

"Life is too short to compromise time and resources... it may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along, and appease those who demand: "Sit down and shut up", but that's the worthless, easy path; that's a quitter's way out."

- Sarah Palin, July 3, 2009, announcing she was resigning as Governor of Alaska.

Palin made an analogy in her rather rambling, incoherent little speech yesterday about "calling an audible" and "passing the ball so the team can win." Hmm, problem is, she is not passing the ball; she's leaving the fricking game. She added that the only way her administration could "continue without interruption" was if she ended it. In a reference to the military (and she never misses an opportunity for one) she said, "We can ALL learn from our selfless Troops... they're bold, they don't give up." And then, of course, she said she was giving up her job.

Basically, she said that she's no quitter, and just to prove it she's gonna quit. You betcha.

I just have no words.

She said, "In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life..." Yet word has arrived that her own husband, Todd, who was fishing yesterday, had to abandon his boat, leave other fishermen to care for his setnet, and hurry home to be there for the announcement. Doesn't sound as if he was polled (or maybe he's just not that important.)

If there is no scandal on the way, then there is no plausible explanation for this sudden resignation. She certainly offered none in her speech that ran the gamut from "apathy" and "dead fish" to "refrigerator magnets" and "lame ducks." She argued that all the ethics investigations have cost Alaskans millions so far and it wasn't fair to the state's citizens to add to that. The Anchorage Daily News just yesterday said the investigations have cost a total of $296,000 and most of that was Palin's own investigation of herself in the Troopergate mess.

When Palin closed her delusional, stream-of-unconsciousness, black is white/day is night, rambling, she offered one last bit of pithiness:

"In the words of General MacArthur said (sic), 'We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.'"

She even got that wrong - those are the words of General Oliver Smith.

First You Resign, Then You Go To Jail?

Hey, there are rumors aplenty floating around right now, but the gist seems to be that this suprise announcement came up because Federal indictments are about to be handed down following an investigation of embezzlement while Palin was mayor of Wasilla. The investigation has been a long one and has focused on the Palin house and the "legendary" Wasilla Sports Complex that Palin fought so hard to have built. It seems they were built simultaneously and the materials - doors, windows, wood, fixtures - are the same in both.

Now that's Mavaricky!

Linkage:

The specific details of it all were initially laid out in an exhaustive article last October in the Village Voice.

Well, This Smells Funny...

...But then, she's fucking crazy so who knows.

She says she's resigning because she wants to spend more time with her family and can't do that with her job.

Um, excuse me, but didn't she have a special needs newborn and a pregnant 17 year old at home when she accepted McCain's offer for running mate? What the hell changed in 10 months? Would she have called it quits around this time if she and McCain had won?!

Seriously - What changed?

Nothing, that's what. And this isn't about her family or being a lame duck (she made herself a lame duck when she decided not to run for reelection in Alaska). No, this is simply cabin-fevered, snowblinded, tainted moose-meated, batshit, crazy talking.

You! You people that voted McCain/Palin - Yeah, you! Are you watching this? Have you seen her for the last 10 months? Are you really praying she runs in 2012?! Who are you people?!

This isn't about ideology or left & right or Democrat/Republican. This is about someone who is psychologically disabled. She is pathologically disturbed. She lies and lies and lies, about things that are all too easily disproved, about things that don't even matter, about anything and everything without rhyme or reason except to support her delusional ideas about herself and her life.

Geez, this will never end, will it.

Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out

Palin resigns as governor of Alaska. If she imagines she's laying the ground work for a 2012 run for the WH, then quitting in the middle of her first term as governor isn't really a good start. Maybe she just doesn't get enough time to do all those marathons.

Anyway, she's done.

I just can't think of anything else snarky to say.

But I'm certain we haven't heard the last of the Snowbilly.

Oh, and one more thing - that timer you hear right now? It's mine, and its counting the minutes until the proverbial "other shoe" drops.

RubikCubism

Like Pulling Teeth

Curry has manned up and finally admitted what we all knew: he can't bring himself to reveal his innermost secrets - pour his guts out - blogstyle. Thus he's opted to communicate to us exclusively through cryptic found videos. Tis a moving, movin' picture blog. Indulge your need for visual stimulation, and his need to speak without speaking.

Behold the Heterodont.

Where Is Their Vote?

Apparently still at the polling place.

From Raye Man Kojast? (Where's My Vote?):

Today, Mohammad Reza Rezazadeh, the governor of Shiraz, paid a visit to the Shiraz Central Library. During his visit reporters discovered four ballot boxes. They were asked not to report the incident. According to the election laws all ballot boxes have to be returned to Tehran.

Yeah, this election was totally above the board. This is just an isolated incident, I'm sure.

Vertigo

The Sears Tower in Chicago unveiled its new glass skyboxes today. The glass enclosures jut out from the 103rd floor and allow one to get a full view from that height.

I have climbed mountains, scaled sheer rock faces, with nothing between me and gruesome death but a small nut wedged into a crack and a rope. I love that. But for some reason if you put me at a decent altitude in, or on, a building I freak out. A mere glance over the edge sends me into spasms of irrational, physical fear. Nausea wells up and my breathing goes into overdrive. I can't explain it. Even these photos creep me out.

Sears Tower will not be getting a visit from me.

If You Thought California Government Was A Mess...

Try New York. Their legislature has been the most comical governing body in a long time.

It all started earlier this year when the Democrats got themselves a majority in the the senate, 32-30. As they prepared to install a Democratic Senate leader two Dems switched their votes and went for a Republican. Chaos ensued. Democrats closed the senate (I have no idea how). Republicans refused to be seated. Courts got involved. And absolutely nothing has happened there for weeks. The are literally doing nothing. The Governor is furious with them, as are most New Yorkers.

Yesterday the Governor laid down the law and said get moving or nobody goes home for the Fourth. 31 Democrats sat down in the Senate but they are required to have 32 senators in the chamber for a quorum. Without a quorum nothing can be done. The Republicans refused to enter, until...

Republican Senator Frank Padavan got thirsty. He found the hallway much too crowded. So to get to the free soda machine he took a shortcut through the back of the chamber. The Dems spotted him and immediately called a quorum. Before it was over 120 bills were passed. The Republicans called foul. The Governor said he won't sign the bills. During the course of all this yesterday vital state operations ground to a halt because legislation expired.

In the meantime, a court is uncomfortably ordering them to all sit down and get to work. New Yorkers aren't getting anything in return for all that free soda.

Necessity May Have Been The Mother...

windshield defroster

door lock

...but booze was definitely the daddy.

From the perfect little blog, There, I Fixed It.

Because Nobody Watches These Things...

...Air New Zealand made theirs a little more interesting.
(Hint: those aren't uniforms)

via JMG

As Seen On TV

First, Ed McMahon. Then Farah! Then MJ! But now this?!

When will it end? And who is left to lead us?

The REAL Luckiest Man In The World

Forget Mark Sanford and his boot from the front page. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical corespondent, was officially the luckiest man in the world last night. After spending the entire afternoon sweating about an uncomfortable evening of anal cancer chit chat (ewww), he was given a reprieve and merely had to go on and on about the mundane workings of a bad ticker. He still had to deal with Larry King, but hey, luck only gets you so far.