June 2009 was a busy month. The Iranian uprising was in full flower. George Tiller had just been murdered. Michael Jackson gave up the ghost. And on June 24, America beheld one of the most marvelous days in South Carolina political history — so marvelous that Mark Sanford would be the hands-down winner of the 2009 Stinque Award for best sex scandal.

After all, “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” is just irresistible.

So irresistible that America might be forgiven for quickly forgetting John Ensign’s less-brandable scandal — which broke only a week before.

We mention all this because there’s been some partisan wang-wrangling this week over whether Weiner got a fair shake. What about David Vitter, goes the refrain. What about John Ensign?

To answer the first: We don’t have Sex Scandal Diaper Ratings for nothing.

And to answer the second: John Ensign got lucky.

Read more »

David Mason, a classical trumpeter best known for his piccolo solo in The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” died today at the age of 85. He got the gig after Paul McCartney heard him play the piccolo trumpet in Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto.

Here’s a short clip from the Beeb where he talks about the experience:

[The Guardian]

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Bacon Ipsum: A Meatier Lorem Ipsum Generator

placekitten: A quick and simple service for getting pictures of kittens for use as placeholders in your designs or code

“Newt Gingrich’s top campaign aides resigned en masse today, POLITICO has learned. Campaign manager Rob Johnson, strategists Sam Dawson and Dave Carney, spokesman Rick Tyler, and consultants Katon Dawson in South Carolina and Craig Schoenfeld in Iowa have all quit to protest what two officials called their ‘different vision’ for the campaign.” [via SFL]

Everyone’s handsome uncle, Mitt Romney, is saying things that are getting him in trouble, because he is again giving credence to “theories” based on “fact” and “evidence.” That’s right, Romney said:

I believe the world’s getting warmer

And, wait for it:

I believe that humans contribute to that.

In case any of you forgot that Romney used to live in Massachusetts, where driving cars is banned and I personally have served on several death panels (So Fun, Guys!), you can now go on and remember that again. Which is what Rush Limbaugh did, and then he decided:

Bye-bye, nomination . . . The last year has established that the whole premise of man-made global warming is a hoax, and we still have presidential candidates that want to buy into it. Read more »

Leona Helmsley’s pampered Maltese ‘Trouble,’ one of the world’s richest dogs, dies at age 12 [Daily News]

We feared we would have to Go Long On Weiner this morning, patiently explaining that it’s not the non-crime, it’s the non-criminal cover-up — “Weinergate”, indeed — and that whatever you might think about, say, hypocritical Republican calls for Weiner to resign while David Vitter still walks the Senate, the fact is, Weiner has become a national punchline (nice touch with the Bulging-Weiner-Briefs Dunking Mascot, Conan) and is a strategic liability, whose usefulness for any cause he espouses effectively ended at his confessional press conference Monday afternoon.

And then we saw this video and decided we could use a break.

Texas cinema texter becomes foul-mouthed movie star [The Register, via Sully]