Among the things we didn’t hear about over the weekend here in the world’s most isolated open society: a sporting event involving athletes from 13 countries on 4 continents, all to continue raising money for victims of the tsunami.

Granted, it was a rugby match, and most Americans don’t really care about rugby.  What I’m more struck by is the degree to which the tsunami is "over" here.  It certainly isn’t where it actually happened, and apparently a few people are still fairly aware of that.  (I’m guilty, too.  So the Tsunami Relief module is going back up for a while.  Literally the least I can do.)

Also of note: this benefit, which may raise in one blow fully half as much as Bush originally offered from the entire U.S. of A., was considered important enough that several top players missed important games with their professional teams, with no second-guessing I can find.  In American terms, it’s a bit like Tom Brady skipping an NFL game or Roger Clemens bailing on a start in a pennant race in order to do the Muscular Dystrophy telethon.  In other words: unimaginable.

Which just shows how backwards the rest of the world must be.

This isn’t actually a tornado-victim cow that had a tree blown through its head…

It only sorta looks that way.

Another entry from our Stellaluna-writing friend Janelle, this is an Ankole, native to Africa, and hopefully a low-gravity region.  Because, dang.  That’s a lot of horn to have to carry around.

Sometimes if Ankoles are having trouble getting up, a couple of pudus will climb under each horn and lift with all their might.

Which doesn’t actually accomplish anything.  But the Ankoles always appreciate it anyway, and they let the pudus think it made an enormous difference.

William H.T. "Bucky" Bush, brother of Bush 41 and thus uncle to the Chimpinator, just pocketed almost half a million dollars, thanks to a sweetheart no-bid contract the Pentagon just coincidentally gave the company he worked for.  (See "Uncle Bucky and the Rocket-Fueled Breasts" and links, below.)

This was hinky enough that even the DoD’s own inspector general is quietly taking a second look.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-CA for whom I actually enjoy voting) has now asked Rumsfeld to hork up the contracts so the rest of us can have a look-see.

As an aside on bias in news reporting: can you imagine the media firestorm if say, Hillary’s second cousin’s company had pocketed $450,000 from a no-bid Pentagon contract.  Can you imagine?

The howling and hissing would frighten wildlife.

The Bush years are finally going to sink America for good.

By blowing it up.

Been meaning to link to this for a couple of days now.  Thanks to Kathy at the Consumers Union for the heads-up.

Great music, funny as hell, dead-on.  Enjoy.

Then bug your Congress to behave with the slightest bit of sanity.

On a related topic, I know a lot of folks are trying to get Canadian drugs into the country… but wouldn’t it just be a lot faster if we imported Canadian legislators?