"Sarah Palin is the White House bunny"...LOL

That silly White House Easter Egg Roll would never be the same, would it?

If this wasn't such a damn serious threat to actual American freedoms, we could laugh about it more easily. But sometimes you gotta try, at least. I'm told it helps maintain one's sanity in trying circumstances. I was just thinking yesterday that the choice of Palin is almost as absurd as if Obama had picked Phyllis Diller to be his running mate, or Dennis Rodman... perhaps even Kim Jong-Il (yeah, I know, he's not eligible). But SOME utter wacko, if you catch my drift.

Now I'm kind of wishing Obama had gone with Janet Napolitano, actually. But then McCain, who waited until the last minute, might have picked Romney or Giuliani and played the "age and experience" card with a vengeance.

It will be interesting to see Biden debate Palin on October 2.

If you're agile enough, not too heavy, and don't have a loose toilet... it's actually possible to place your (preferably bare) feet right up on the toilet seat and assume the squatting position on a regular Western-style flush toilet. The hardest part is stepping up initially with your full weight balanced on one foot, all to one side of the seat (the main reason why a loose toilet seat could cause problems). Obviously this is not something you'd want to do barefoot in a public loo... but what would you be doing in there barefoot to begin with? On the other hand, assuming you could balance OK with your shoes on, this trick might prove useful should you encounter a public toilet that’s nasty when you have no choice but to use it anyway (though I don't believe I've ever done this with pants on and that might cause a problem - yikes). I learned the technique from a Berlin-born girlfriend back during college days in the 1970's. She was an advocate of the "squatting is healthier" viewpoint and, having assumed the position on occasion myself, I became convinced her idea had merit. (In fact, squatting can help in cases of constipation or sluggish bowels.) Hopping up onto the toilet seat to squat provides a satisfying mix of wholesome, thorough elimination, a certain worldly, multicultural flair and that sense of "living outside the box". Unfortunately I have no further insights to add about the clean-up end of the experience - though I do hope to own a bidet eventually, before my life is through...

...could be called The Sweated Nipples (plumbing terminology, if you don't know) with his band The Plungers.

How to quit your day job... just - whatever you do - don't make over $250,000 at it. 'Murka is so WEIRD. As the saying goes, you couldn't even make this shit up.

The last time Republicans and Plumbers coincided (Watergate) things got quite messy indeed. Hmmm... maybe there's an album title in there somewhere. The whole (fill in the blank)-gate thing has certainly never worn out.

Swingstategate? Skinheadgate? Knuckleheadgate?

Nah... keep it simple: Hatergate.

Lyndon Johnson used to say "nuke-u-lar" so I suspect it's a Texas-ism that long predates George W. Bush, rather than some cleverly diabolical faux-populist fabrication on W's part.

Then again my father, a life-long Mainer, used to talk about the "Vet-Nan" war back in those days. No accounting for mispronunciation, I guess.

Hopefully we can forget all the stupid stuff (however briefly) and celebrate a big Obama win on Tuesday... but we forget it at our peril if we do so for long because something like half the nation seems to think we on the left are the "wingnuts" and that Obama is "scary". Bad enough that conservatives deliberately co-opt our terminology, twist it around and use it against us... but when they do this for 2 or 3 decades we end up with a whole generation that only knows what real freedom felt like by reading about it or perhaps by interviewing aging hippies...

...believes in freedom FROM the press, freedom FROM speech.