Stocking Is the New Planking [via @daveweigel]

John McCain, Sunday:

“We are concerned about, particularly, areas down on the border where there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally.”

Reality, later Sunday:

A U.S. Forest Service official said today there is no evidence that illegal immigrants started some of the wildfires in Arizona, as Sen. John McCain had claimed.

John McCain was quickly shamed and vowed never to lie agai— oh, who are we kidding.

John McCain’s Illegal Immigrants Started Arizona Wildfires Disputed by Forest Service [ABC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BKDD3BDNHg

Our guest columnist is even more frightening pitching the videos on the site’s homepage.

Welcome to Learn Our History, where kids discover history through entertaining animated videos! I co-founded this company to give children a fun, fresh way to learn about America’s rich past and most influential people.

Many of our schools and teachers today haven’t found ways to make history for kids fun. Instead, they’re teaching with political bias that distorts facts for the sake of political correctness. As a result, our national pride and patriotism are in jeopardy.

That’s what makes Learn Our History different. Your kids will love to learn American history as they watch our nation’s stories come to life right before their eyes! All the while, they’ll build a strong sense of national pride and appreciation for America.

Learn Our History

Mike Huckabee Fixes American History [TPM]

Our guest columnist likely needs an intervention.

BIO has ordered ten half-hour episodes of an untitled Bristol Palin/Massey brothers docu-series from Associated Television International, it was announced today by David McKillop, Executive Vice President, Programming, A&E Network and BIO Channel. The series follows Bristol Palin’s move from Alaska to Los Angeles with her son, Tripp, to work at a small charity in need while living with her good friends Chris and Kyle Massey. The series is slated to air in late 2011.

She’s the most famous single mother in America. And she became a national media darling during her odds-defying, ratings record-breaking run on “Dancing with the Stars.” Now as Bristol Palin gears up for her work in this charity, she is allowing cameras exclusive access into her personal life for the first time.

Read more »

We just got curious about the relationship between tornadoes and climate change — this is looking like a record-breaking month for twisters — and happily for us, so did WaPo’s Andrew Freedman. So instead of calling a bunch of meteorologists and surveying the literature, we’re going to relay his take, granting that it’s not definitive.

First, tornadoes require a specific recipe to happen: warmth, humidity, a strong jet stream, and wind shear. Add a cold front, and there go the cows.

It’s the jet stream — perhaps caused by La Niña in the Pacific — that’s forcing the issue in the South. The Gulf of Mexico is also running up to 2.5 degrees Celsius above average, providing more evaporated moisture to the brew.

Wait — warm seas? That’s the climate-change smoking gun, isn’t it?

Read more »

A series of pictures last Sunday of covers of the magazine Tiger Beat, with an article about how the original teen-girl tabloid has remained virtually unchanged since its inception in 1965, erroneously included a parody cover, produced by the satiric newspaper The Onion, that featured a picture of President Obama.

[NYT]

It’s not like we’re looking for this stuff, but once you become aware of it, it’s unavoidable:

A $600,000 frog sculpture that lights up, gurgles “sounds of nature” and carries a 10-foot fairy girl on its back could soon be greeting Defense Department employees who plan to start working at the $700 million Mark Center in Alexandria, Va. this fall. That is unless a new controversy over the price tag of the public art doesn’t torpedo the idea.

We understand that this could become debilitating over time, and we plan on entering a twelve-hop progr— no, no, no, no, no!

Pentagon Art: $600,000 Gurgling Toad Sculpture [US News]