Linkee-poo, your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick

Janiece with a little love for Neil deGrasse Tyson.

And Austrian town turns itself into a virtual library. (Grokked from Karl)

You know, this stuff just isn't hard to research. That's a story about Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) chastising the DoJ for using a "Democratic-leaning firm" to analyze the fallout from the Texas Voter ID Law. In doing so, he wrote a letter to the DoJ (which I'm sure made it into his constituent newsletter) saying, "Imagine the outrage if a Republican administration intervened to block a New York City election law on the basis of data provided by a firm run by Karl Rove." Turns out the Texas defense of the law was based on the testimony of University of Texas Professor Daron Shaw who "worked for both of President George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns, the RNC, Fox News’ election desk and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who signed the voter ID bill into law."

OMG! Obama actually did replace all the cross markers Arlington National Cememtary. And he used his time-traveling abilities he had previously used to fake his birth certificate and announcement, and set up Bane to be the Batman villain that would come on screen in 2012 specifically to knock out his electoral opponent. Yes, apparently Obama had traveled into the past to make sure that we never had cross shaped markers in Arlington. Oh, the infamy! Sigh. Just another example of the alternate reality conservative live in.

And speaking of alternate realities (have I mentioned how Newt Gingrich actually writes alternative history speculative fiction?), there's the economic alternate reality conservatives live in. Ah, the Party of No, whistling into the graves in the graveyard (we're no longer whistling past the graveyard). And look, just like climate change, (what happens when permafrost ain't so perma after all) the majority of legitimate people in the field believe the exact opposite of conservative talking points and positions. Fancy that. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

And comments about Romney's (lack of) foreign savviness (which is strange because he did his Mormon time on the road in France) continues to get all Godwin-ee (although in this case not in the "Hitler bad, bad people are Hitler" sense, but with actual historical precedent). It remains to be seen what he'll actually learn over seas, other than, "Man, those people got the cash." And why are people in love with "England" anyway. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

And since we opened with Janiece, we'll close with Janiece. If I didn't think this coming election was the most important for my nieces' and nephews' generation (as well as my own), I would agree with her 100%. Unfortunately this election will, just as the 2008 election, set the course for our country until the time I'm well into retirement and those kids would just be getting started (sort of how the Presidencies of Eisenhower (end), Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon (start) shaped our current systems, with only a minor "course correction" from Reagan - his changes started shaping my adult life's trajectory).

Alligator Quotient: They got a hold of some of the brown LSD, so they're a little distracted right now. But soon they'll all be headed for the Med Tent and then things will get Real Bad Real Quick™.