Where Did That Naval Observatory Come From?

So amid the whirlwind of policies that have cascaded out of the Oval Office over the last week, I would like to draw attention to one of the little markers along the path back to sanity.

Without particular fanfare, the official residence of the Vice President, the Naval Observatory, which had been pixelated out of the satellite photos on Google Maps under Bush, has magically appeared. See the story in TPM.

It raises questions about how one goes about requesting something like this in the first place. It raises even bigger questions about why Google didn't tell whoever made the original request to take a hike. Either way, yet another indication that the country is once again in the hands of rational adults.

Minnesota- What's Going On Up There?

Apparently Minnesota Public Radio is posting some of the disputed ballots from the Franken-Coleman recount.

The recent election had just about renewed my general faith in the operation of democracy, and then I saw entry number 3, with the caption, "...poll workers blamed themselves for not better explaining the voting procedure, and noted that it would be difficult for someone to fill out a ballot more incorrectly."

For the most part, these are hilarious. But you have to wonder- why bother waiting in line to do this to a ballot...and why didn't I hear more about the Lizard People during the campaign?

Profiles in Class

Yesterday, Nate Silver had a rather nasty interview with conservative tool John Ziegler, which Andrew Sullivan commented on and reminded me that Ziegler had been profiled by David Foster Wallace a couple of years ago. The profile is a fascinating piece, delving into the attitudes and assumptions that drive right wing talk radio in, to my mind, a fair and even handed manner. Rereading it online (it’s also available in expanded form in Wallace’s Consider the Lobster), I suddenly wondered what Ziegler had thought of the piece – it wasn’t exactly a flattering portrait of the man. Well, ask and the internet shall provide.

The whole “editorial” is an exercise in extraordinary bad taste and ignorance, from Ziegler admitting that he didn’t know who Wallace was to talking about the children that Wallace didn’t have and finally beginning a sentence with the always problematic phrase, “I know that it is considered bad form, or worse, to speak ill of the newly dead, but …” It goes a long way towards proving that Wallace’s insightful, considered profile and Silver’s interview with Ziegler, in all it’s ignorant, profane glory, is far from an exception to this man’s personality: he’s an unadulterated asshole, through and through.

The only good that this did, as far as I know, is bringing me to finally read Rolling Stone’s masterful (I want to say “wonderful,” but it’s too achingly sad and human for such an adjective) profile of Wallace’s last days and his heretofore little known problems with depression. It was something I had kind of been avoiding, but I’m glad I read it. It’s a very well done profile of one great artist’s struggle with an illness that weighs on too many people.

Go read the Wallace profile of Ziegler from the Atlantic. Read Ziegler’s reaction to Wallace’s suicide. Read the Rolling Stone profile of Wallace. And then you let me know who you believe is telling the truth.

For Reals

So I was shopping for some recycled hemp eco-friendly organic solar-powered reusable shopping bags as a minimal nod toward making a dent in the size of my otherwise yawning carbon footprint when I came across this hot little number:

No! Shopping Bag Bra

You know, for those times when you want to carry groceries around in...I should say with...your undergarments?

The holidays are coming, everyone!

Annals of the Stupid

If you’re going to try and hijack an airplane, it probably helps to not be drunk.