The truth about Barack Obama’s funny foreign friends

h/t Ellroon.

Fafblog interviews Hillary Clinton

Read it here.

Spring colors

h/t Mark Frauenfelder @ Boing Boing.

New report on marijuana addiction

Abstract: We found marijuana addicts showed a varied profile of dangerous and potentially lethal withdrawal symptoms. 82% of them went from being psychologically healthy to showing clear clinical signs of anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress, or obsessive compulsive disorder. These varied psychological withdrawal effects were less responsive to conventional treatment. Patients whose marijuana addiction was concurrent with cancer additionally suffered nausea, vomiting, an increase in pain sensitivity, increased growth rates of tumors and increased morbidity. Marijuana addicted AIDS patients showed a severe reaction that included nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, wasting, and an inability to comply with medication regimes, which was worse than heroin withdrawal. In addition, marijuana withdrawal caused more subtle effects on music perception and brain function, with many of the musicians and music lovers moving from various abstract, creative genres, to smooth jazz and pop-country, and a decreased tendency to notice and ability to play polyrhythmic music. These withdrawal effects clearly and conclusively show the dangers of marijuana, and demonstrate a particular concern for marijuana in cancer and AIDS patients.

by commenter TomK @ Drug WarRant.

Read more.

Big Oil, incorporated

In this case, the reality is considerably worse than the satire.

(h/t Monkeyfister)

Hungarians are dirty ghoulies who wash in peanut oil?

There is no call for that kind of hate speech on the internets.

SilentPatriot @ Crooks and Liars has video.

The news according to Fox

Hat-tip Chester, and Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars has a different clip which is also quite good.

Enlistment numbers are down

Glenn Greenwald‘s excellent satire of neoconservative chickenhawk yellow elephant Republicans:

We need to prove to the world how powerful and tough and strong we are by kicking ass and starting wars and putting our boots on the ground and getting our hands dirty and bombing and invading and fighting like the Real Warriors we are because Civilization is at Risk. And the way we should do that is by sending those people — the ones way, way over there — to go and fight and risk their lives in the wars I love.

I am a full-throated Supporter of the Epic War of Civilizations, but I can’t fight in it, because my knee hurts and I need to collect advance checks from Regnery and I want to stay at home and wipe dribble from my baby’s chin. But those people over there can and should fight. And between watching Star Trek on television and playing war video games, I will log off periodically to write articles and posts about how great these wars are and I, too, will therefore be strong and noble and resolute and brave.

Via Mustang Bobby @ Shakespeare’s Sister, which is serving again as hurricane headquarters for Shakesville, which appears again to be under attack.

Related post:

• I am Shakesville.

If George Bush is incompetent, who is the president?

A Proclamation by the Vice-President of the United States of America

The Office of the Vice President represents the independent, capitalistic and entrepreneurial spirit of America and has done so publicly since 2001. Wherever oil companies and military industrial complexes are repressed, wherever the morality of disproportionate corporate profits is called into question, the Office of the Vice President is there to remind us of that skyrocketing capital gains for the few at the sake of the huddled masses, yearning for decent jobs and nationalized health care, is the American way.

Two hundred and eighteen years ago, the United States Constitution established the Office of the Vice President. It was implicit in the Constitution that future generations of Americans foresee the need for a fourth branch of government to protect the people from the dangers posed by a tripartite system run amok and to protect the upper class from the great unwashed.

The Office of the Vice President is an institution separate and apart from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches. As such, it is not subject to the minor and petty demands of the American people, their representatives in Washington, D.C., or any level of the United States judicial system. The Office of the Vice President has the right to claim Executive Privilege despite being separate and apart from said Branch.

While the Chief Executive is tasked under the Constitution with the responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief, the Departments of State and Defense fall under the control and purview of the Office of the Vice President. The Office is within its implied rights to determine and drive foreign policy (including, but not limited to, initiating preemptive strikes on sovereign nations and revealing classified information for personal gain), to establish and maintain domestic energy policy, and to ensure an ever-upward spiral for corporate profits.

To celebrate this great Office all day and every day, the Vice President recommends that the American people tell all who question their individual authority: Go fuck yourselves.

THEREFORE, I, RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY, do hereby proclaim that the Office of the Vice President has been and will continue to be immune from prosecution and/or impeachment or other querulous, ad hominem attacks and investigations by the Legislative Branch.

THEREFORE, I, RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY, do hereby proclaim that the Office of the Vice President has been and will continue to direct the Office of the President and rule on matters of foreign and domestic policy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

RICHARD B. CHENEY, REX.

News from the present through-the-looking-glass

William K. Wolfrum, again.