Our little Taiwanese animator friends nail the Yellow Peril Casting Call commercial. We, for one, welcome our new Panda Overlords.

[via Fallows]

“I have another question, the most popular name in the United Kingdom, Great Britain, this was in the news this week, was Mohammed. Am I a racist to feel that I’m alarmed by that? Because I am. And it’s not because of the race, it’s ’cause of the religion. I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?” [ThinkProgress]

“Last weekend, a computer glitch took 50 U.S. nuclear missiles offline for more than 45 minutes at a Wyoming Air Force base. The military says it still could have launched the weapons had it needed to, and there’s no evidence of foul play.” [Yahoo]

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg requests a pat-down instead of a body scan from a TSA agent at the airport, and learns he might soon prefer the other option:

“Yes, but starting tomorrow, we’re going to start searching your crotchal area” — this is the word he used, “crotchal” — “and you’re not going to like it.”

“What am I not going to like?” I asked.

“We have to search up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance,” he explained.

“Resistance?” I asked.

“Your testicles,” he explained.

Later, on board, all the dudes swear he didn’t make it past the knees.

For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance [Atlantic]

• Doom: 1:1
• Pestilence: 1:1
• Cannibal Anarchy: 1:1

Read more »

Title: “Life”

Author: Keith Richards

Rank: 1

Blurb: “Keith Richards was born in London in 1943.”

Review: “If you criticize Mick to him, he’ll slit your throat.”

Customers Also Bought: “Decision Points”, by George W. Bush

Footnote: Sixty-fucking-seven in December. Everybody lost that office pool.

Life [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Our guest columnist this afternoon is Jon Stewart, writing in 2004.

A free and independent press is essential to the health of a functioning democracy. It serves to inform the voting public on matters relevant to its well-being. Why they’ve stopped doing that is a mystery. I mean, 300 camera crews outside a courthouse to see what Kobe Bryant is wearing when the judge sets his hearing date, while false information used to send our country to war goes unchecked? What the fuck happened? These spineless cowards in the press have finally gone too far. They have violated a trust. “Was the president successful in convincing the country?” Who gives a shit? Why not tell us if what he said was true? And the excuses. My God, the excuses! “Hey, we just give the people what they want.” “What can we do, this administration is secretive.” “But the last season of Friends really is news.” The unmitigated gall of these weak-willed… You’re supposed to be helping us, you indecent piles of shit! I… fuck it. Just fuck it…

Why anybody should expect that Jon Stewart, speaking in 2010, should be any different, is beyond us.

America (The Book) [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]