From The "No Publicity Is Bad Publicity" Department:

At least Denny's is consistent.

Lot's Going On, Nothing To Say

Actually, I have a lot to say, but there are so many things going on in the country and the world, and I do have to block out some time for making a living, I get a little overwhelmed about what I want to say regarding things like judicial fillibusters and the new pope. One thing I did come across (via Tom Tomorrow's website), is this peice from the LA Times, about the hijacking of Christianity by the Republican party. The writer makes a lot of good point, but I think some of the responsibility for this situation has to lie with the left as well, for letting the right get away with it.

Lying In The Age Of Video

Remember Alan Dershowitz talking about "Testilying" a few years back? Remember how outraged people got at him, daring to suggest that police officers might not tell the truth on the stand all the time? So how could this have possibly happened? Here's the scary part:

For Mr. Kyne and 400 others arrested that week, video recordings provided evidence that they had not committed a crime or that the charges against them could not be proved, according to defense lawyers and prosecutors.

Oh, and this too:

Seven months after the convention at Madison Square Garden, criminal charges have fallen against all but a handful of people arrested that week. Of the 1,670 cases that have run their full course, 91 percent ended with the charges dismissed or with a verdict of not guilty after trial. Many were dropped without any finding of wrongdoing, but also without any serious inquiry into the circumstances of the arrests, with the Manhattan district attorney's office agreeing that the cases should be "adjourned in contemplation of dismissal."

91%

Un-f%&*ing-believable.

I guess that American Hero status the NYPD has been enjoying the last couple of years is starting to wear off.

We Stand As One

Has anyone NOT seen this? Wow, even by Lee Greenwood/Toby Keith standards, it's a steaming pile of crap. I know a lot of people think it's a parody, but I was in radio for a long time, and we used to get stuff like this every day. This guy's disturbingly on the level.

Just Like Rathergate! Except It's Not

Looks like all those accusations of forgery over the "Schiavo Memo" are just that: Accusations. The author of the memo finally steped forward, and it is, in fact, a Republican staffer after all. All that blathering on right-wing blogs about this being a Democrat dirty trick, all the denials from the Republicans about any GOP involvement whatsoever, and it turns out that Mel Martinez (R-Fla) HANDED the damn thing to Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on the Senate floor. Beautiful.

Reductio ad Absurdum = Comedy

Appearing on Hannity and Colmes, Minuteman Project organizer James Gilchrist had this to say:

Alan, there are supremacist groups out there of all races, colors and creeds. It's not just white supremacists. Why are you picking on them? There are brown. There are purple. There are red.

It's a veritable Rainbow Coalition of hate out there! By the way, would someone please forward me a list of all Purple Supremacist groups?

Hedberg Tributes

I didn't know Mitch personally, I never worked with him, and only really met him once, so I have no cool stories to tell, unfortunately. On the flipside, Mike Birbiglia and Tim McIntire do, so you should read them, because they're very good. In fact, even if I did have cool stories about him, I'd still recommend you read them first, because they're much better writers than I am. I know a lot of times, when someone relatively unknown to the world at large dies, there is a backlash about people calling them a genius or gifted or whatever. Please believe me when I tell you that Mitch deserves that kind of adulation. He was a very special kind of performer, and a rare one these days. He really was in it just to be funny, and in spite of that, he still managed to get industry attention.