What a waste of money (that they don’t have):

Dubai (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The tallest skyscraper in the world was inaugurated today. With the Mideast glass-and-steel Burj Dubai standing at over 800 metres, four of the five tallest buildings in the word are located in Asia. Only Taiwan’s Taipei 101 (508 metres) and Hong Kong’s Two IFC (420 metres) towers come closest.

Owned by Emaar Properties, a giant property firm part-owned by the government, Burj Dubai can be seen from as far as 95 kilometres away and has about 28,000 glass panels on the exterior of the tower.

Dubai Inaugurates the Tallest Skyscraper in the World [AsiaNews.it]

Back during the Democratic convention, we enjoyed lurking at PUMA liveblogs — with every cutaway to Michelle Obama sitting in the audience, there would be a handful of comments remarking on her “scowl”. Part of us wanted Obama to win just so we could enjoy Michelle looming over the Bitters as First Lady.

At least there was a flimsy excuse for their displeasure: If you were watching the convention on TV, the Michelle shots were inevitable. By contrast, Instapundit Glenn Reynolds had to dig through the White House Flickr stream — no, we never heard of it either — to fetch this winner of Barry & Plugz from the Kennedy Center Honors, posted December 16.

“Analyze the body language,” Glenn says knowingly. Well, um, okay, Joe looks like a putz, and Barry looks like he just slipped out of a wetsuit while headed for his first martini.

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Brit Hume explains Sunday morning how Tiger’s problem isn’t his driver, but his deity:

“The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith,” said Hume. “He is said to be a Buddhist. I don’t think that faith offers the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger is, ‘Tiger turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.”

A noble sentiment, to be sure. Look how well Christian forgiveness worked for Bill Clinton.

Brit Hume: Tiger Woods must become Christian to be forgiven [Raw Story]

The protesters then chase the shooters. Wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kogEGf0wF8Q

[via]

Title: “The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun”

Author: Gretchen Rubin

Rank: 20

Blurb: “Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. ‘The days are long, but the years are short,’ she realized. ‘Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.’ In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.”

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American banks are kinda like Santa Claus - if Santa was a psychopathic home jacking extortionist. "Hey, you got my fucking fee? You didn't know about it? Hey, you know the fuck about it now! Where the fuck is it? Where the fuck is the money?"

Unless you’ve made your way to a credit union or thrift, likely your bank is planning to beat you unconscious and ream your ass into a bloody pulp with savage new fees to make up for the revenue these gangland operations will lose due to changes in the credit card regulations taking effect next month. If you have a credit card, call your bank immediately and find out what changes are in store. Likely they’re monstrous horrors that the poor telemarketer schlubs will try to explain away as unlikely to effect you.

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Oh my: