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Everyday I read a lot of online articles about a variety of things. My sources include a variety of blogs and such news hubs as the Washington Post and the NY Times (although, I've been peeved with the Times lately over their new twenty-article-a-month bullshit). I'm often inspired by the things that I read; I'm often incensed. Periodically, I'm delighted or cracked-up. In any case, it occurred to me that I'd really like to share what I read.

The Photopic Sky Survey offers an interactive, panoramic view of the entire night sky. Navigate, zoom in on, and otherwise explore the Milky Way galaxy and beyond with this utterly cool online program. Via.

The government-sponsored bailout of the Detroit auto industry, viewed skeptically by everyone (including, I will admit, myself), worked. But you won't hear anyone talking about it, says E.J. Dionne, Jr. No, we'd rather cling to the sorry myth that big government is the scariest thing that could ever happen to the country.

Justin Bieber's tour crew are a bunch of whiny, ill-informed pussies who are refusing to go to Japan because of radiation fears. Get a grip, douchebags.

Krugman on how clarity is a liberal bias, particularly when it comes to calling the ridiculous and irresponsible Ryan plan what it is.

A Hasidic newspaper is catching some flak for editing out the presence of women in the now-iconic situation-room photograph taken during the bin Laden raid. The newspaper apparently never shows women because they're innately sexually provocative, but in that case the clear answer was just to forgo the picture entirely. I'll accept their constitutionally protected right to be sexist pigs, but the deliberate alteration of history in favor of that sexist narrative is way over the line.

This YouTube video of kittens simulating car crash tests reminds us all that we human beings are adorably fucked-up creatures with way too much time on our hands.

Enjoy!

Whiny Maggots.

Listening to the eleven o'clock news in the heart of Tea Party Land is bound to raise the blood pressure. Tonight's offensive news piece concerned Clermont County, where voters recently rejected levies that would have generated revenue for district schools. Said voters then went to the school boards to complain about the impending cuts that this voter rejection has resulted in. They apparently wanted to know how the district got so far behind in its finances.

Hearing that statement come out of the television, I suddenly found myself gripped by a horrible, pit-black rage. Then I was sputtering at the television: "Oh, I'm sorry, but the district didn't fall behind, you assholes! You voted against funding them! You just want teachers to teach your snot-nosed brats for free; that's what this is all about, isn't it?! Whiny FUCKING maggots!"

And then my mother was explaining to me in a soothing voice that I really couldn't expect much more from these people--they're Tea Partiers. And my blood pressure slowly began to inch its way back to normal.

This is why I don't watch TV.