So we’re looking for something other than the debt ceiling to riff on, and we’ve already played our Crazy Thomas Friedman card so we can’t play another one, and the Yahoo news blog helpfully offers this headline for our consideration:

Yahoo!, communities across U.S. to honor 9/11 anniversary

There’s nothing unusual about the grammar, as far as headlines go. But there’s something wrong about it. Let’s look at some alternatives to tease it out.

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Dan Savage threatens to redefine Santorum’s first name, with the help of a few Famous Ricks. Unfortunately — or deliberately, depending on your comedic taste — all the proposed definitions are bleeped.

[via TPM]

“We were walking into the gate area and the man taking the tickets told me he would need me to turn my shirt inside-out before entering the park. I questioned why and he told me because it was a family park.” —Olivier Odom, explaining why she couldn’t wear a “Marriage is So Gay” tee while visiting Dollywood Splash Country water park with her partner. Dolly herself supports gay marriage. [Knoxville News Sentinel, via RML]

We ignored Thomas Friedman’s column this week, because we always ignore Thomas Friedman’s columns, and ignoring Thomas Friedman’s columns is a right we cherish as an American.

However, upon reflection and incessant reminders from all over the fucking place, we realize that we have made a mistake — an exceptional mistake — because finally, Thomas Friedman has removed the mask and revealed himself to be a Tom Tomorrow cartoon:

Thanks to a quiet political start-up that is now ready to show its hand, a viable, centrist, third presidential ticket, elected by an Internet convention, is going to emerge in 2012. I know it sounds gimmicky — an Internet convention — but an impressive group of frustrated Democrats, Republicans and independents, called Americans Elect, is really serious, and they have thought out this process well. In a few days, Americans Elect will formally submit the 1.6 million signatures it has gathered to get on the presidential ballot in California as part of its unfolding national effort to get on the ballots of all 50 states for 2012.

Yes, an “Internet convention” does sound gimmicky, unless you’re talking about Comic-Con. But more to the point, it also sounds profoundly naive — because it focuses solely on one office.

Oh, and it also produces counterproductive results.

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Stinquer Tommmcatt forwards an email sent today by Team Sarah, imploring adepts to attend the Sarah Palin bomb movie to keep the Lamestream Media from calling it the abject failure it is.

At least we think that’s what it says. If you view the original at our Scribd account, you’ll see why we’re having difficulties deciphering it.

“According to Bachmann’s latest campaign finance filings, her campaign spent nearly $4,700 on hair and makeup in the weeks after she entered the presidential race on June 13.” [Mother Jones]

[ThinkProgress]