The Morning Blog

A solar powered popemobile? Better pray for sunshine.

The Cuban people are being encouraged to publicly debate on plans to reduce the size of the state and move towards privatization. Granted they're being encouraged to discuss the changes through communist party organizations and labor unions but still...It's a start, right? Right? Please tell me it's a start.

Evidently, the luxurious fur of the swamp rat is coming into vogue with elegant dresses such as this little number:

Model Paige Morgan poses in a blue silk dress draped with strips of what was once a swamp rat. Tiny clay skulls with jewel eyes hang off the ends of the glossy brown fur.

Know what else you can do if you've an over-abundance of swamp rats? Eat 'em.

This is certainly interesting: Former Shadow Emperor of the United States, Dick Cheney, a veritable model of probity, will likely be charged in connection to a massive bribery scandal in Nigeria. Undoubtedly, this is going to lead to people getting some very interesting email.

Tarnation! Confounded Facebook! Dagblam, newfangled social network! This never happened in the good ol' days of Friendster!

More on the continued neutering of football as it relates to James Harrison of the Steelers. Clearly he isn't being unfairly targeted. I mean, it's been at least eight hours since his last fine!

Seriously...Even Terrell Suggs of the hated Ravens thinks he's being singled out.

Formerly honorable man and alleged champion of the military, John McCain dismisses the views of 400,000 members of the armed forces as "not fully-representative".

In other military news, men and women continue to serve in the military with distinction while being ordered to lie daily.

Two more Republican senators have agreed to back the recommendations of the bipartisan deficit panel. Does that mean that Congress will actually take the politically difficult actions necessary to salvage what's left of the nations fiscal health? Meh....No.

The US has offered protection to activists exposed in the Wikileaks cables. I truly don't know what activists suffered exposure or in what countries so I can't say anything as to whether this is a meaningful attempt to protect people who may now be in danger or just a ploy to make the dump appear more irresponsible. I do wonder what protections the government can offer since it's not clear whether or not asylum will be on the table.

The FCC is supporting regulations that favor internet providers over online content providers. The proposal would permit providers to assess usage fees based on the amount of data being used. I'm not much of a tech so excuse me if I'm a bit confused about this. But first of all, what makes a large file more expensive for a provider vs. a small file? My other question is: If usage fees are permitted, how will it be communicated to consumers? Will there be a way of knowing from your bill, which website made your monthly fees jump $10? I'd appreciate it much if someone out there could help talk me through this. I feel a bit dumb on it.

The universe just got a whole lot bigger...

The Economist discusses a Second Amendment case being heard in Texas. The issue is that the federal government has a ban on selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21. The argument is that someone who has reached the majority age of 18 and is a legal adult, is thus discriminated against. Personally, I tend to agree. I think that if you're considered fully adult, than it's ludicrous to treat someone as only partially a citizen. I think that if you're considered mature enough to vote for the leader of the free world, then you're certainly mature enough to have a drink or choose how to defend yourself.

That said, drunken 18 year olds may be the most irritating force on the planet.

Russian television is apparently ignoring Wikileaks revelations concerning Putin. However, these fascinating tidbits were offered up:

State-controlled Rossiya made no mention of the allegations in its mid-morning news broadcast. Instead, it reported on the Moscow river freezing over, on two Russian tourists being attacked by sharks in Egypt, and on government-employed truck drivers in the United States who got drunk while transporting nuclear weapons.

Sharks are ALWAYS NEWS. Always.

London's other underground...

Your daily Ick...Gross: A substitute teacher was arrested at a Wal-Mart after defiling a lightsaber. No word as to whether it was the standard Luke Skywalker model or the double-headed Darth Maul version.

The Best Beer Battle continues. I'm a bit disappointed that Dogfish 60 Minute didn't make it to the Final Four.

Oh. Oh my. Wow. This is certainly something! NASA discovers new life form! It's DNA is completely alien to EVERYTHING. Wow. From the article:

I don’t know about you but I’ve not been so excited about a bacteria since my STD tests came back clean.

Glad to end the Morning Blog on such an exciting note!