We’ve been ignoring the debt-ceiling talks as long as possible, in part because it’s a ginned-up crisis that nobody cares about, in part because the daily play-by-play is fucking boring — but really because we just want to know how much we’re getting screwed and be done with it.

We’ve been so heroic in our disregard, we managed to ignore an entire day of flailing, following the deliberately provocative suggestion the Social Security and Medicare are now among the lambs to be sacrificed to the Gods of Bipartisanship.

At least, that is, until Glenn Greenwald socked us in the kisser:

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For as long as I can remember there’s been a News of the World. Not that I ever read it, or knew anyone else who did, it was just always there, mouldering in a corner, stinking of stale beer and cigarette smoke. When one bought cod and chips on the way home from the films on a Saturday night, as one doused them in vinegar and salt, the newsprint that came off on one’s hand was more often than not from News of the World. It fostered a working-class dream of upper-class scandals, exposing naughty debs and Lords cavorting with telly stars. It thrived on tits and bums, poofter vicars exposing themselves, MPs with a bit on the side, and sex-starved housewives luring innocent boys into their webs of shame. It came out every Sunday and, last I heard, cost two and six or, if you prefer, a half-crown.

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We can’t find this graphic on the USA Today site itself, but we’re pretty sure it’s there somewhere.

[via @darrenrovell]

Update: Ah. Ran last Friday.

You need a dirty mind to be an editor in this business [Charles Apple]

Tired of ranting nobodies? Sick of ignorant cry-babies? Weary of christianist fascists? Plus there’s nothing on TV?

Here’s something to soothe the savage breast.

Brazil’s Fanny Brice in a witty rendition of a Chattanooga Choo Choo. Seen here, released from the iron grip of Busby Berkley’s boring ’ography, CM’s charm and grace can be better appreciated. Hermes Pan lets her shine.

John Osborne’s fave movie star.

In the course of an otherwise interesting article on the overseas growth of American service organizations — think Rotary — Washington Monthly editor John Gravois lets slip the following:

And while the decline of these groups domestically is certainly not a good thing for America, their growth abroad is hardly unwelcome.

Certainly not. That’s a staggering presumption. A more reasonable assertion might be that service groups, like Playboy Clubs, had their day, and that day ended more than a generation ago. Times change.

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Probably my favorite Papa Haydn 4th Movement:

[Us Magazine]