Short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump, whom Spy notes was teasing a Presidential run a generation ago, lays it on the line: “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put $600 million myself. That’s a huge advantage. I must tell you, that’s a huge advantage over the other candidates.” [ABC]

“Independent voters say they would support Charlie Sheen over Palin for President by a 41/36 margin. Seriously. Despite her deficit with independents Palin does lead Sheen 49-29 overall. We also tested Barack Obama against Sheen and the President leads 57-24.” [Public Policy Polling]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNEyvJgfKfM

Forty years ago, we’re told, one in four college-aged men bought Playboy, more than enough for Hef to purchase and pimp a DC-9, lovingly documented in this long-lasting airline porn. Yes, yes, that’s an eight-track tape they’re popping in the hi-fi, but we have to admit legitimate fascination with the two-inch videotape player on board. We didn’t know those existed outside TV stations.

But here’s the thing: It’s easy enough, at this distance, to giggle at the period quaintness of what’s depicted, not to mention the depiction itself. But what about the contemporary audience? Did they drool as intended? Or was the Space Age Bachelor Pad lifestyle already outdated the moment this was made in 1969?

The Playboy jet: How Hugh Hefner traveled in style [Gadling, via Nerdist]

NYT:

The chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave a significantly bleaker appraisal of the threat posed by Japan’s nuclear crisis than the Japanese government, saying on Wednesday that the damage at one crippled reactor was much more serious than Japanese officials had acknowledged and advising Americans to evacuate a wider area around the plant than the perimeter established by Japan.

Read more »

“The Republican National Committee is considering sanctioning the GOP presidential primary debates and then selling the broadcast rights to news outlets, two Republicans with knowledge of the idea tell CNN.”

“The [budget cuts to] tsunami warning centers, it’s really — the timing of that really puts attention on the subject matter. I don’t know that I would go back and look at that… I think we often over-react to emergencies, especially natural disasters, before we assess the limit of the damage, and particularly with the nuclear part of this.” [ThinkProgress]

So we’re making the rounds, looking for a story to riff on, when we come across an intriguing item out of Texas. Seems a soda tax is being considered to help balance the state budget, which strikes us as curious, since we’ve been bombarded recently by Paid Actors Portraying Angry Everyday Americans Who Oppose Taxing Our Nation’s Precious High-Fructose Corn Syrup, and, well, this story’s out of Texas.

False alarm, alas — the soda tax is being proposed by a Demrat, which is tantamount to burying the lead, since everybody knows that Demrats no longer exist in Texas, except in certain Austin neighborhoods that everybody avoids, and surely National Geographic should be alerted to the sighting.

But before we give up on the piece, this passage confronts us:

“Texas politicians must cut down on their spending binges instead of making citizens swallow this not-so-sweet tax,” said J. Justin Wilson, a senior research analyst at nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom in Washington, D.C.

Nice line, Mr. Wilson. We’re sure you were paid well for it. But by whom?

And here’s the thing: The reporter never tells us.

Read more »