Bad Dog.

End Corporate Personhood!

One of my biggest issues. Vote here.

What's the Consequences of an Atomic Bomb on PDX?

Insert "97211" into the text box HERE.

The Smell of Rotten Fish

Shades of Paul Wellstone.

New Favorite Guitarist

Buckethead.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

What kind of drugs do you think it might be?

UPDATE: Hillbilly Heroin.

Ebert's Studebaker

Ebert waxing nostalgically about when Detroit really made cars.

This Leary Guy Is Getting Funny Again

I'm Finding It Hard To Shed a Tear

Greed is GOOD, right?

Made in Chicago

Just saying.

At the same studio your xmas cards were printed.

Gov'nr Please!

Really!?!

I Can't Stop Laughing

Half Moon, Cont'd

Despot Killer

Deputy Gov.

Next stop, jail?

Rahm's Inbox:

Click to embiggen:

Not Sure How I Got Here.

I like manufacturing videos, and this one is pretty interesting:

However, I got curious about a related video and thought I should share:

Is This Why the Cubs Weren't Part of the Trib's Bankruptcy?

Wow, this Blago thing is getting interesting:

When the Tribune company went bankrupt becaue Zell had loaded them down with debt, Zell made sure that the Cubs and Wrigley field weren't included in the bankruptcy. One assumes that's because he thought they had a better chance of making money going forward. That's where Blagojevich comes in.

Submitted Without Comment Pt. 2:

CLICK FOR DETAIL

You Better Start Hording as Much Gas As You Can.

Clusterfuck Nation:

The price of oil is suddenly down to an astounding $40-odd per barrel. Those of us studying the Peak Oil story have said that the "bumpy plateau" years of peak production would be expressed in tremendous price volatility, and for exactly the reasons now evident -- that the high-price phase would mangle advanced economies, that they would fall back in paralysis, then respond anew to oil price collapses by straggling up again, only to be crushed again when a resumption in demand for oil drove the price back up.

What was not so generally anticipated was the wholesale destruction of global finance in the first phase of this period. This has now occurred so comprehensively that we know the banking business will never be the same again. It has also accelerated other plot-lines in the story. One affects the global oil industry itself: a lack of capital to go forward with the new oil projects that were designed to mitigate the present depletions in old oil fields. The result of this quandary is as likely to be oil shortages in 2009 as much as an extremely sharp snap-back in oil prices. The oil markets themselves are changing in the face of financial disruption. Between pirates lurking off the Horn of Africa, and a shortage in letters-of-credit that enable the shipping of anything for delivery between nations, the allocation system is impaired. This affects poorer nations the most, and when they don't get their oil shipments, conditions in these nations get worse. People lose incomes. Ethnic strife ramps up. All this will make it harder to move oil from the places where it is produced to the importing countries.

Submitted Without Comment:

Roger, Don't Hold Back

Ebert on the Trib's bankruptcy filing:

Zell recently observed that no paper ever made money because of its Pulitzers. I would add that no paper ever made money because of its putzes, which Zell has proven. The lesson here is that journalists create newspapers, and their owners should be in sympathy with that purpose. Sam Zell made his purchase because he wanted to make money.

On Prohibition:

This could go for The Weed as well:

This is a speech by Mississippi state legialator Noah S. "Soggy"
Sweat, Jr., in 1952:

My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

Today in Weed:

Good for memory:

The more research they do, the more evidence Ohio State University scientists find that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells.

Say it ain't so:

Amsterdam To Close Many Of Its Brothels, Marijuana Cafes, Sex Shops

However, it's not totally going away:

"It'll be a place with 200 windows (for prostitutes) and 30 coffee shops, which you can't find anywhere else in the world _ very exciting, but also with cultural attractions," he said. "And you won't have to be embarrassed to say you came."

Still worthy of a trip.

Ken Derry is High:

Ken Derry, crane operator on the Trump Tower, takes great pictures. Click the photo for more:

Submitted Without Comment:

That Toddlin Town

Chicago. GQ City of the Year.

Apropos of Nothing

Wow, This Guy Is Something Else.

Meet Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Associate Justice, sexual predator, self-loathing black man:

Ode to Coffee

Great drawings using only napkins and...coffee.

Winter Classic Promo is Classic

The Bailout: Visually

Wow.

Today In Weed

Chicago Heights, less than an ounce, same as a traffic violation.

Supreme Court: give him back his medicine.

Tides are turning, the anti-legalization forces need to find a new boogieman.

Matt Taibbi

He's doing a blog now. Check him out via the links to the left.

Mary, Mary, You Say It's Your Birthday!

A good recipe here.

Today, New Yorkers are celebrating the "birth" of the Bloody Mary, which they claim occurred in the St. Regis Hotel on this date in 1933. The date may be in question, but the creator is not. According to Robert Hess, Ferdinand "Pete" Petoit actually created the drink at Harry's Bar in Paris in 1920. Petoit took his drink with him when he moved to New York where, the cities lushes claim, he "perfected" the drink by adding Tobasco