Mike points out something that ought to make everyone’s blood boil about how we’re treating our wounded troops.

There are several, but here’s the best one:

THINGS I’D PROBABLY SAY
IF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WERE JUST
A WEEKLY TV SHOW AND I WERE
A REGULAR VIEWER.
By Eric Maierson “Now, see, you can’t just go and do something like that. That would be illegal.” “Boy, someone’s gonna get fired for that.” “Wasn’t that the one who made all the mistakes? Why is she getting promoted?” “Come on, in real life you’d never get away with something like that.” “They really expect us to believe that?” “Am I the only one confused here?” “Does this make any sense to you?” “Why is this still on?”

Or, at least, wherein we point you at someone else’s tribute. David Edelstein at Slate gets it right, and smacks down the McNews for their absurd reduction of Carson’s style and legacy:

Sometimes it’s easier to begin an appreciation by saying what a person emphatically was not. Consider this passage about Johnny Carson from an editorial in USA Today, which is wrongheaded on nearly every count:

But what made Carson so unusual wasn’t just his success, but how he achieved it. His monologues were not biting or cynical, as is often the case with today’s TV. His conversations with guests put the focus on the interviewee, not the interviewer. He didn’t win laughs at the expense of others, like Jay Leno does in his “Jaywalking” segment, which shows people unable to answer easy questions. If anyone was the butt of Carson’s humor, it was Carson himself.

You’d think that Carson was some sort of egoless saint of television, when at his peak he was precisely the oppositeÑwhich is why, of course, so many millions of us watched him so faithfully and took the news of his passing, at age 79 from emphysema, so hard.

Besides, BoingBoing has already done the “clever” part for us; we’re just giving directions:

• Cory Doctorow Debunks DRM
• The EFF publishes a list of technologies and products we wouldn’t have if the RIAA/MPAA cabal got their way
• Cory explains why Big Media’s claim that “if [consumers] don’t put up with DRM, they’ll just stop releaasing content” is so much hooey

Boing Boing has the scoop.

Now they’re after Spongebob Squarepants, whom they view as somehow encouraging tolerance of homosexuals.

Jesus, would you please talk to these people?

Jenna Jameson is working with Wicked Wireless to provide moantones.

Sounds inflammatory, doesn’t it? Well, take a look at this. Short version: documentaries (about, e.g., the civil rights movement) made years ago are being removed from circulation because the filmmakers cannot afford to re-clear the excerpts included therein.

Hey, Frank, dig this:

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) — Defense attorney Leslie Ballin called it the “jury pool from hell.” The group of prospective jurors was summoned to listen to a case of Tennessee trailer park violence. Right after jury selection began last week, one man got up and left, announcing, “I’m on morphine and I’m higher than a kite.” When the prosecutor asked if anyone had been convicted of a crime, a prospective juror said that he had been arrested and taken to a mental hospital after he almost shot his nephew. He said he was provoked because his nephew just would not come out from under the bed. Another would-be juror said he had had alcohol problems and was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer. “I should have known something was up,” he said. “She had all her teeth.” Another prospect volunteered he probably should not be on the jury: “In my neighborhood, everyone knows that if you get Mr. Ballin (as your lawyer), you’re probably guilty.” He was not chosen. The case involved a woman accused of hitting her brother’s girlfriend in the face with a brick. Ballin’s client was found not guilty. CNN

Boing Boing points us to this MP3 of the outgoing voice mail message at the Mississippi State Tax Comission from yesterday.

You’ve reached the Mississippi State Tax Commission. On Monday, January the 17th, the State Tax Commission offices will be closed in observance of Robert E. Lee and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Tax Commission offices will reopen on Tuesday, January the 18th. Office hours are from 8 until 5. Thank you, and have a safe and happy holiday.

We can’t verify that the message itself is real (though the accent is authentic), but we have verified that yes, Robert E. Lee’s birthday is also a state holiday, and is observed concurrent with MLK’s birthday. What better way to honor the progress we’ve made than by honoring a man who fought to preserve slavery on the same day we honor Dr. King?

So. Fucking. Proud.

A Las Vegas weatherman has been fired for describing yesterday as “Martin Luther Coon Jr. Day” during his forecast.

Clickable before and after satellite photos of tsunami locations. Wow. Just wow.

CNN has let Tucker Carlson go. Aw, poor guy.

MSNBC has an interview with Desmond Tutu that’s well worth reading. A few choice excerpts:

I still can’t believe that [Bush’s reelection] really could have happened. Just look at the facts on the table: He’d gone into a war having misled people–whether deliberately or not–about why he went to war. You would think that would have knocked him out [of the race.] It didn’t. Look at the number of American soldiers who have died since he claimed that the war had ended. And yet it seems this doesn’t make most Americans worry too much. I was teaching in Jacksonville, Fla., [during the election campaign] and I was shocked, because I had naively believed all these many years that Americans genuinely believed in freedom of speech. [But I] discovered there that when you made an utterance that was remotely contrary to what the White House was saying, then they attacked you. For a South African the deja vu was frightening. They behaved exactly the same way that used to happen here [during apartheid]–vilifying those who are putting forward a slightly different view. [. . .] It’s unbelievable that a country that many of us have looked to as the bastion of true freedom could now have eroded so many of the liberties we believed were upheld almost religiously.

And on religion:

I keep having to remind people that religion in and of itself is morally neutral. Religion is like a knife. When you use a knife for cutting up bread to prepare sandwiches, a knife is good. If you use the same knife to stick into somebody’s guts, a knife is bad. Religion in and of itself is not good or bad–it is what it makes you do… Frequently, fundamentalists will say this person is the anointed of God if the particular person is supporting their own positions on for instance, homosexuality, or abortion. [I] feel so deeply saddened [about it]. Do you really believe that the Jesus who was depicted in the Scriptures as being on the side of those who were vilified, those who were marginalized, that this Jesus would actually be supporting groups that clobber a group that is already persecuted?

Word.