Free Borat!  Jagshemash!

(Hat tip to Emo.)

U.S. Congressman pleads guilty to using his position for private gain.

This is so very unusual.

(Warning: cricket ahead.)

Warney seems to have finally yelled BLEAAAAAAAAAUUGGGGGGHHHHHH! one time too many, even after a six-wicket haul.

The umpires had already blown four major
calls in Australia’s favor.  For a while, it looked like
the Windies could get called out just for daring to stand near the
wicket.

If the umps ever decide to leave cricket, they can always find work in Ohio and Florida.

UPDATE: The umpires blew yet another important call today, favoring Australia once again.  Not surprisingly, the cricket lords also decided to let Warne off the hook for disputing the umpires’ abilities.  Even less surprisingly, the West Indies couldn’t overcome the 5-wicket advantage the umps gave Oz in the last two days, an edge roughly comparable to giving one baseball team two extra innings to bat. 

These two pudus have each other to be thankful for.

Wherever you are, I hope you and yours have much to be thankful for this year as well.

I have loved ones to stand guard over (or perhaps crawl under) for a few days myself.

See you Monday.  Have a great weekend.

PS — the above photo is the fine work of this person, who seems shy, but who has this blog. 
I don’t know much more than that, but hey, it’s one of the best pudu pics
I’ve ever seen.  Send them love.  Look around, enjoy
the fun capping, check out their music, and if you like the design and visual sense, don’t just praise them — hire them for something if you can.  I mean, look at that picture.  If that doesn’t tell you they’re cool, whoever they are, I don’t know what could.

There may be hope for Kansas after all.  Reader Stephanie, she of the mighty herds of roaming muntjac, alerts us to a new course being taught at KU, "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."

Two points: one, I’m not denying the existence of a creator.  If there
is one, however, I strongly suspect it’s not a deity of infinite
wisdom.  More like a sophomore deity, doing a summer project to make up
a failing grade on his last universe, which fell over and collapsed
into a black hole while it was still on the lab table, and right in
front of that cute female deity he was really hoping to score with, the
one who still giggles every time she sees him.

Seriously.  I mean, look around.  Tell me that’s not what we’re stuck in.

I prefer this version anyway.  It’s easier to cut the guy some slack.  Speaking of which, everybody’s always going on about asking
some god’s forgiveness.  What if he’s the one who owes the apology? 
Look how many of us are born — born,
mind you, just randomly screwed — sick, hungry, and in the middle of
holy wars that kill lots of us off in the name of some misshapen
perception of godliness, largely the result of being stuck with tiny little primate brains barely capable of reason, which, incidentally, we did not even ask for, much less create.  And we’re the ones begging forgiveness?

Frankly, I think whoever put us here is
probably peering down with the same sinking pit in his stomach that you had
when you were a kid and realized you’d overfed the goldfish.  Oops. 
Sorry, little guys.  And now he’s just hoping the teacher shows up to
grade him before we finally manage to destroy the entire planet, forcing him to retake the entire semester.  Wait
until that hot little female deity hears about that.

Secondly, I will be disappointed if the KU course doesn’t include FSMism.  Let’s hope they are touched by the Noodly Appendage and act in Its wisdom.