That wet dog is a hot bitch, too:

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Playing a hunch, Razib Khan futzes with the General Social Survey and discovers what we all knew about the relationship between alcohol and awesomely smart people like us:

I was expecting it. That is, that the more intelligent, who scored high on a vocabulary test, would drink more than the dumb, who scored low.

New Englanders can drink the rest of us under the table, by the way. And Catholics? Don’t get them started.

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“California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina voiced support Friday for Arizona’s new immigration law even as she deplored a ‘racist tone’ that’s developed in some corners of her party over the highly charged issue.” [Politico, via TPM]

Gene Taylor (D-Mizzippi) would like folks to calm the fuck down about that black death approaching the shore:

What I want people to know is this isn’t Katrina. This is not Armageddon. I did this for the Coast Guard many years ago. Yeah, it’s bad. And it’s terrible that there’s a spill out there. But I would remind people that the oil is twenty miles from any marsh… That chocolate-milk looking spill starts breaking up in smaller pieces… It is tending to break up naturally.

Nice try, Gene, but BP is only paying those five-grand hush-money checks to Alabama right now.

Rep. Taylor Downplays Gulf Oil Disaster By Comparing It To Spilt ‘Chocolate Milk’ [ThinkProgress]

AG: BP Trying To Get Alabamians To Give Up Right To Sue Over Spill [TPM]

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

You may have seen GM CEO Ed Whitacre busting his buttons on the teevee the other day: “We have repaid our government loan,” said the proud papa. “In full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.”

Since GM had only sixty seconds to make the case, there must not have been time for the qualifier — GM’s TARP loan was paid with funds from another government loan:

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Title: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

Author: Dr. Seuss

Rank: 56

Blurb: “You can get all hung up / in a prickle-ly perch. / And your gang will fly on. / You’ll be left in a Lurch.”

Review: “I cringe every time my son (4yrs old) has me read him this book. I hate it. The basic premise — if you don’t like where you are, get up and leave it all behind for great adventure, and when that doesn’t work out, you’ll have to figure it all out for yourself and then you’ll be back at it, unless that doesn’t work out… etc. The premise is not only flawed, it runs counter to everything I’d like him to learn: that he is surrounded by love and the support of his family and friends, and that when the going gets tough he shouldn’t just leave town; he should learn to value trusted relationships to help him overcome challenges. The book has no sense of family, love, or other type of support, and while it does say ‘kid, you’ll move mountains’ it forgets to say ‘kid, you’re well-grounded and loved’ and that is a fatal error by Seuss. Also, the language (complex — ‘dexterous and deft’) is not suitable for young readers.”

Customers Also Bought: “The Piercing Bible: The Definitive Guide to Safe Body Piercing”

Footnote: Seems early for Graduation Season, doesn’t it? Then again, Obama gave a commencement speech Saturday, so what do we know.

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]

Wingnut blogs are having a feeding frenzy today, as the National Enquirer re-breaks an old rumor from 2008:

Reports out of Washington, DC: PRESIDENT OBAMA in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide.

A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.

While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, reports reveal that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says in 2004 that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous in where Obama was staying.

An ENQUIRER reporter has confirmed the limo driver’s account of the secret 2004 rendezvous.

As we’ve learned from John Edwards’ tryst with the alien baby momma, you can’t dismiss Enquirer reports out of hand — even when dealing with a fair-game elected politician, you figure they’ve run every syllable past the lawyers.

So what are they actually reporting?

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