Mighty blow!

Wonderful takedown of the perfesser.

Perspective. UR DOIN IT RONG.

Yes, for years and years now, the package contains fewer and fewer cookies. And costs the same. It's called inflation. If the price point has to be $3, the amount you get goes down.

I only wish that instead of trying to get away with the lie, the packaging would get downsized also. Have you seen the space between cookies in some of those boxes? There's more plastic than product.

Yes yes, less product, I get it. But throw some green concern in there while you're ripping us off.

Hey, we need some diversity in this here ad

Cool, boss, I'll just throw a black chick in there somewhere. And some more white dudes of various size.



(h/t Photoshop Disasters)


And while we're at it: let's play count the legs!

Gesundheit

"You know her as Lisa Bonet from "The Cosby Show," and Lilakoi Moon (Bonet changed her name in 1995) has given birth to her third child: Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa.

Lilakoi, 41, has a daughter Zoe, 20, with ex-husband Lenny Kravitz and a daughter Lola, 20 months, with boyfriend Jason Momoa of "Stargate: Atlantis" fame."

Frank Zappa thinks she's a freak.

This will shock you

I know, it's tough to believe, but when presented with the choice between a simple, workable plan and one that creates a whole bunch of technical and bureaucratic challenges, a state government is looking into the difficult one.

UPDATE: Yes, I know I should have just post this post in the Drafts folder, but I was in a hurry and annoyed. OK, to answer TJ's very valid question.

Let's say I drove 15,000 miles last year, getting 30 mpg in my Toyota. I bought 500 gallons of gas at $3. The state's current gas tax is $.20 per gallon, so I paid $100 in gas taxes, and $1400 for fuel. That works out to 0.66 cents per mile in taxes.

If I buy a hybrid today that gets me 60 mpg, I'll be paying $50 in gas taxes, and $700 for fuel this year. Slap $50 in fees on my registration. I'll pay it with a smile, because I'm still saving $700, and the state still gets $100 from me to pave the roads I'm using.

Ten years from now I buy a full-electric car. Slap $100 on my registration fee. I'll pay it with a smile and a hard-on.

Now, the technological hurdles maybe aren't as steep as I implied. I suppose when I get my annual inspection at my state-licensed shop, they can plug into the car's computer and figure out that I drove 14,982 miles since the last inspection and hand me a bill for $99.88.

But why? I don't see how that discourages gas use. Fucking double the gas tax RIGHT NOW. Make gas more expensive to buy, period. Minor fees on hybrid and electric cars, so they do pay their share of the road maintenance budget, can be easily calculated based on the real numbers behind established miles-per-vehicle averages, MPG numbers, etc.

Yes, you could eliminate the gas tax. but why would you want to? Gas should not be cheaper.

Pretty much

(h/t oddjob, who found it at Sully's)

They call me... Angelos Tzelepis Smith

Your Gubmint - A Farce

A Quebec businessman whose name is one of the many that have erroneously landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's flight passenger watch list has decided to change his name to avoid lengthy security hassles at the airport.

Mario Labbé, an executive with a Montreal-based record company, says his Canadian passport triggers a red alert on the computers of U.S. customs agents every time he tries to board a flight to the U.S. — which is about once a month for the past seven years.

"I was pulled aside in a room ... and you have to wait your turn to finally be released," Labbé said. "An hour, an hour and a half, two hours, whatever it is after. Once I was caught in Miami like that for six hours.

"It's always the same questions, about if I've lost my passport, if I've been to Japan — I don't know why Japan, but in their file it was something to do with Japan."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote a letter to Labbé in 2004, saying he had been placed on their watch list after falling victim to identity theft. At the time, the department said there was no way for his name to be removed.

Although Labbé wrote letters to the U.S. department, his efforts were in vain, prompting him to legally change his name. "So now, my official name is François Mario Labbé," he said. "Then you have to change everything: driver's license, social insurance, medicare, credit card — everything."

Although it's not a big change from Mario Labbé, he said it's been enough to foil the U.S. customs computers.

I look forward to one of my wingnut acquaintances trying to tell me how we're safer in any way.

UPDATE: Needlenose gives us this work of art:

The gardeners are Mexican though...

Holy emmer-effing d-bag.




PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that -- in which there's a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the -- of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Thank you.

The Big Battle

Driving home the other day, this song came up in a shuffle:

Johnny Cash, The Big Battle

I think sir the battle is over
And the young soldier laid down his gun
I'm tired of running for cover
I'm certain the battle is done
For see over there where we fought them
It's quiet for they've all gone away
All left is the dead and the dying
The Blue laying long side the Gray

So you think the battle is over
And you even lay down your gun
You carelessly rise from your cover
For you think the battle is done
Now boy hit the dirt listen to me
For I'm still the one in command
Get flat on the ground here beside me
And lay your ear hard to the sand

Can you hear the deafening rumble
Can you feel the trembling ground
It's not just the horses and wagons
That make such a deafening sound
For every shot fired had an echo
And every man killed wanted life
There lies your friend Jim McKenney
Can you take the news to his wife

No son the battle's not over
The battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
The part that has blackened the sun
The fight yet to come's not with cannon
Nor will the fight be hand to hand
No one will regroup the forces
No charge will a general command

The battle will rage in the bosom
Of mother and sweetheart and wife
Brother and sister and daughter
Will grieve for the rest of their lives
Now go ahead rise from your cover
Be thankful that God let you live
Go fight the rest of the battle
For those who gave all they could give

I see sir the battle's not over
The battle has only begun
The rest of the battle will cover
This part that has blackened the sun
For though there's no sound of the cannon
And though there's no smoke in the sky
I'm dropping the gun and the sabre
And ready for battle am I


One of my favorites of his, but it's been at least a year since I've heard it. I was floored all over again. How brilliantly does this expose the folly, and the permanence, of war? I got chills.

On top of that, the timing was perfect. Of the last couple days, Atrios and TBogg have been pounding on Michael Gerson, one of the chief marketers of our Grand Iraqi Adventure. Now that he's done coming up with catchy slogans for killing brown people, he's moved on to the more fertile pastures of wingnut handwringing over the "vulgarity" of media and entertainment and political commentary. Yes, you read that correctly. A rethuglican getting his panties all in a bunch over incivility in politics.

These three posts cover it quite well, I think.

MORON

WTF!

What would an appropriate punishment be? I say vast public knowledge of your stupidity would be enough.

Presented without comment

Found at shakes, who found it at another blog, who found it...

Indoor soccer + hooligans + tear gas = WTMF?

Throw in cops with batons and shotguns, and it's fun for the whole family!