• Sometimes “fact-checking” political claims involves research. Sometimes it just involves remembering. 2008 wasn’t that long ago.
• Fact-checking David Barton is sometimes like “sword drills” from Sunday school. Just look up the Bible verses and you’ll see that they don’t say what he says they say.
• Paul Krugman stares down Paul Ryan. Krugman “Blinks”. Geek worlds collide.
• Mrs. Dushku is keeping the Faith.
• U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., is like a Republican Cory Booker. Well done, sir.
• Looks like we may have a sequel to Oz’s Eleven — Onze de la Mer.
• John Aravosis asks: “Did Haley Barbour make an assassination joke about Obama?” The answer is no. Haley Barbour made a slavery joke about Obama. And everybody knows about Mississippi …
• You can break into someone’s house and steal everything they own without facing arrest. If you get caught, all you have to say afterward is, “We moved quickly and have been in contact with the family to resolve this unfortunate situation and right this wrong.”
Just say those magic words and there will be no arrest, no criminal charges, no jail time. (Note: This only works if you’re a bank.)
• The standard response to complaints about school budget cuts seems to be that “You can’t just throw money at schools and expect good results.” True enough, I suppose. But it’s likely also true that Arizona’s 21.8-percent decrease in per-student spending shouldn’t lead us to expect good results either. Or Alabama’s 21.7-percent decrease, or Oklahoma’s 20.3-percent decrease, or …
• Dark comedy trigger warnings: Todd Akin’s nonsense prompts a mordantly funny pharmaceutical ad and a cheerfully bleak country song.
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