So much for that argumentum ad verecundiam

Nicholas Kristof's "Religion and Sex Quiz" is pretty entertaining.

New Slansky!

The latest edition of "This Preposterous Week! Paul Slansky's News Index" is now available for your clicking and snickering pleasure.

(h/t: Riley Waggaman, which is a name that should probably be spelled in all caps if it's going to be underlined. Oh well, next time.)

Conservative Talk Show Host Rips Republicans, and Other Laughs

A fun read: John Batchelor's "Attack of the Zombie Republicans." Among other things, he calls Limbaugh and his suck-ups "a cult that is daily fed the same gossip by the same handful of surprisingly Drudge-dependent sources, a cult that claims to be Republican but could just as easily be Wahhabist for all its make-believe masculine grievances …"

Hat tip to Paul Slansky and his News Index (via Ken Layne), where many other snickers are to be had, including this characterization of Sarah Palin's latest tone-deaf attempt to grab some spotlight: "a national punch line is complaining about a joke."

Brain Teaser

What list would have, among others, the following people on it?

Ayn Rand, Mick Jagger, Alan Turing, David Gilmour, Noam Chomsky, Jodie Foster, and Bruce Lee.

No hovering!

(h/t: Number 49)

Seating Arrangements

If you love the inside baseball, you'll enjoy Sean Quinn's post on the never-ending game of musical chairs in the White House Briefing Room.

Bonus: at the bottom of the post is a good John Oliver clip from the Daily Show, on that same topic.

(h/t: Jim Newell/Wonkette)

Good Taste Threatens America

Brendan I. Koerner has a delightful article up on Slate about the death of Zima.

(Actually, it's been up for a while, but it's new to me.)

(h/t: MK, via email)

Light Bytes

• No More Mister Nice Blog -- three-line post of the month

• Bob Cesca makes me slap my head -- in my morbid obsession of tracking unhinged Obama-haters, how could I have forgotten to keep an eye on Conservapedia?

• Oliver Willis -- another awesome caption

• Wonkette has the video title of the day

• Possibly the only time I've thought dressing up as Darth Vader was appropriate

• Umbrage-takers alert -- Indecision2008 reports:

Last African-American in the Senate forced to give up seat. Way to go, America.

Light Bytes

• Why does Dick Cheney hate John McCain? How could he not know Obama would be on that like a chicken on a june bug?

(alt. video link | h/t)

As others have previously noted, this vid shows another difference between the candidates: unlike John McCain and Sarah Palin who smirk at it (e.g.), Obama has a classy way of quashing ugly crowd noises at a rally: "You don't have to boo. Just vote."

• 538 is running an ad in their sidebar that links to a snark site focused on Wardrobegate with the title "Neiman Marxist."

• Scientific integrity exposes spinelessness of GOP smear merchants. (via)

• Joe Biden on John McCain: "You can't call yourself a maverick when all you've been the past eight years is a sidekick."

• More signs of Palin's backstabbing. I'm loving it. (via)

• Most meaningless poll yet, but of course I link to it!

• Ta-Nehisi Coates reacts to Goldfarb's moment of fail (noted earlier):

The town deserves a better class of McCarthyite

I mean, seriously. If he meant Wright, why not say it? Lrn2Nixonpls. Either that or go back to playing Tetris. In your basement. With your kid sister.

• But really, who is Barack Obama??? asks Giblets at fafblog. Much hysteria. Must read. (via)

Light Bytes

• Charles Pierce's Slacker Friday letter to Eric Alterman is teh awesome. I have always liked lima beans. Now I like them even better.

• Oliver Willis has posted Almost Transformers. Silliness! Lags a bit in the middle (of a two-minute video, the ADD-addled blogger complained), but the idea, the costumes, and the ending are great.

• Bad News For the Lunatic Fringe, John Cole reports. Big laffs for the rest of us.

• James Wolcott encounters Seekrit Agent (shhh!) Jay Nordlinger. (Who, if you don't know, is one of the wingnut welfare recipients installed at America's Shittiest Website^TM for the apparent sole purpose of making Jonah Goldberg seem like an intellectual.) Next, he descends even lower (hard to believe, I know, but there it is), and does a quick survey of the watery bowels of some of the far right's truly unhinged. I knew Obama=Hitler for these cretins, but I have come to find out that he's also Stalin, Saddam, and Pol Pot. "[A]fter a petit mal seizure," I hasten to add. Pol Pot, I mean, not Obama. Or so it would appear. And he hasn't even been elected yet!

• From another one of the good and brave souls of the leftosphere who reads The Corner so I don't have to: TBogg collects foam from the mouth of Mark Levin. He also (*shudder*) reads McMegan.

• Via somebody in my RSS feeds whose name I forgot to note, I saw Thandie Newton And Ricky Gervais Reenact Scene From “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin?”. I'm not sure how many levels of meta this involves, but it's really funny. The video itself is tame, but the whole page may be mildly NSFW if someone uptight is looking over your shoulder. What, you already clicked? Sorry about that.

• And finally, via Oliver Willis, I came across The Many Superhero Faces of Barack Obama. This is my favorite …

… probably because it reminded me of this.