… then why the heck did his folks name him Oral, fer cripesake?
Via Unrepentant Old Hippie, a posthumous glimpse into a side of the preacher man that we never knew:

Here are highlights, again thanks to Unrepentant Old Hippie:
“The vagina. Only one organ made can bring forth life. It’s the male organ. It’s not, in lesbianism, [...]

Maybe you’ve already heard this at Feministe, where I picked it up. If not, enjoy the wonderful weirdness of Hanukkah lyrics penned by Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which last I heard was the Mormons’ promised land.
The song’s backstory is here. Musically, it’s good enough that you can happily hear it more than once.

And is it really [...]

Apparently it’s poetry week here at Kittywampus. Following up on Rumsfeldian penis-spam poetry, we’ve now got the next literary contender from Wasilla. If you didn’t hear William Shatner’s dramatic reading of Sarh Palin’s tweets, you’ve got some catching up to do.
All caught up? Then you’re ready for Shatner performing Levi Johnston’s twitterpoems – if indeed [...]

No, I’m not sick, nor are my kids – and my husband got the swine flu shot this morning, as one of those “lucky” people who are likely more vulnerable than average. But as I was stirring the dinner pots this evening, my sister called to tell me that her daughter (my six-year-old niece) has [...]

The German Democratic Republic built a lot of apartments from prefab material in an effort to alleviate their perennial housing shortage. They had a great name for it, Plattenbauweise, which is only a long word when you consider the technique is called “Large Panel System building” in English. Basically, the builders took a bunch of [...]

The other day, a friend of mine mentioned that her son and a friend of his (both in middle school) had been discovered searching for porn on the Internet. Now, that probably describes a few million teenagers in this country, but they were searching specifically for transformer porn. It sounds like the parents were admirably [...]

The Political Cat posted this clip of Al Franken questioning Mark de Bernardo, an arbitration lawyer and apologist for Halliburton subsidiary KBR. I was blown away by Franken’s intelligence and empathy. The clip is longish but it’s worth watching the whole thing to see him make mincemeat of Mr. de Bernardo in the last third.

Al [...]

I haven’t been very bloggerific lately. Real life – teaching, grading, watching kids’ soccer – has cut way into my time for writing. So in lieu of my half-baked thoughts, this (via Jim Yeager at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo):

Tommy Emmanuel shows his virtuosity, but his technical brilliance is never overshadowed by the fire of his [...]

Maybe it’s just ’cause I’m the daughter of a mother who has sung in barbershop quartets for the last quarter century. Maybe it’s because I remember Jaw, ET, the original Star Wars trilogy, and Indiana Jones from their big-screen debuts. Maybe I’ve got a secret Wookie fetish, but if so, it’s hidden even from me. [...]

Why does it take two of our comedians – Al Franken and Jon Stewart – to show how there’s nothing funny about rape?
I’m impressed at the great job Al Franken has done so far. He just authored and won passage of an amendment that will stop the government from awarding contracts to companies that bar [...]

So you’ve probably all heard about the balloon boy, even if you watch as little TV news as I do (zero, that is). Yesterday, Falcon Heene, a six-year-old boy in Fort Collins, Colorado, went missing. His family reported that he had apparently floated away with an enormous helium balloon that they kept tethered next to [...]

Congratulations to mama lion Asali and daddy Tomo, parents of three cubs born on September 22.
(Photo: Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, via the Columbus Dispatch)
A few days ago, zookeepers finally got to check them out, acccording to the Columbus Dispatch:
The triplet lion cubs born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium two weeks ago got their first [...]

I’m not so sure Letterman’s confession – possibly the most-discussed since St. Augustine’s – deserved to be held up as a model for future public figures who cheat on their partners. I agree with Fran Langum (aka Blue Gal) that Ensign, Sanford, and Vitter could learn a little something from Letterman in the “don’t be [...]

From the land of Hello Kitty and Rabbit vibes comes a really freaky interpretation of Debussy from electronic music artist Isao Tomita. Blame Debussy for the racist title, Dance of the Golliwogs, which might have sounded prettier in French but was probably no less problematic. I’m not sure if the whiteness of the kids in [...]

I was really struck by this opening paragraph to an article by Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon on the difficulty of raising a gender-neutral child:
A Swedish couple has refused to reveal the sex of their 2-year-old to anyone — except those on diaper duty. When word got out about their decision to eschew personal pronouns and [...]

In response to the comments sparked by my post last week on reverse racism, I’d like to let Stephen Colbert have the final word. But first, I’ll try to be concise for a change and offer the two best reasons I know for not using “racism” to refer to hatred or prejudice against the dominant [...]

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The charity Rethink Breast Cancer, which just produced a moronic video to “raise awareness” of breast cancer? Or LA Times reporter Dan Neil, who thinks this ad, entitled “Save the Boobs,” is a swell idea? (I think something may be rising and swelling, but I highly doubt it’s awareness.)

Jeff Fecke of Alas has already laid [...]