Quick Hitts

I received a very sad e-mail a few weeks ago. Archie McPhee, who sells some of the most fun and useless stuff on the planet, informed everyone on their mailing list that the original plastic pink flamingos, the epitome of tastelessness and kitsch, were going out of production. The company that made them was closing […]

One of the most insidious problems with socialized medicine is usually overlooked: It gives the lifestyle nannies a very potent way to control everyone else. Anyone who makes choices the nannies disapprove of will find their medical care delayed, and maybe even denied. This has been going on for quite a while in England, where […]

I’ve been a Weird Al fan since he did “Another One Rides The Bus” in the early 80’s. Most novelty acts do one or two songs and then fade away. Some make a fortune with one holiday song like “The Monster Mash” or “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” and call it a career. […]

About a month ago my doctor told me my diabetes medicine wasn’t working as well as it used to, so he added Avandia into the mix. It worked very well – after a week or so my blood sugar had dropped to nearly normal levels. A week after that the media started reporting that this […]

Those wacky fundies are at it again. This time they’ve got a board game parents can use to reduce the IQ of their children. Or, as they describe it: At last, a board game that reveals the insanity of perhaps the greatest hoax of our times — the unscientific “theory of evolution.” “Intelligent Design vs […]

Five students at the Galesburg Illinois high school have been denied their diplomas, not for anything they did, but because people in the audience had the audacity to cheer when they walked across the stage. Clarke Campbell, president of the Indianapolis school board, defended the idiocy. “It’s an important, solemn occasion,” he said. “There’s plenty […]