So Obama caved on the tax cuts like a good little weenie, extending all of them in exchange for an extension of the unemployment benefits which the GOP was probably going to go along with regardless. So now the left is apoplectic (it is Tuesday) as they won’t get whatever prize they thought they’d get if the rich had their taxes raised and are now talking about primarying Obama in 2012 with a more left wing candidate.

Really?

Now, Obama has been already soundly rejected as too left wing by Americans already, and the nutroots are going to find someone even a bigger weenie and even more of a push over on the international stage? I could only imagine that the mere sight of the guy would turn children gay.

Plus, if they primary the first black president, how is that going to work out with their minority pandering which is the only way the Democrats remain competitive? They could have their own little race war in their own party and completely destroy it.

So just a heads up; 2012 could be a lot of fun.

I realized that every so often there are things that I want to rant about that are just too inconsequential for a whole blog post but I also have too much to say to just tweet something and get it out of my system, so I figured I’d just put a couple in one post and have my peace. That was the whole point of the blog in the first place — to make sure some things I wanted said were said and on record — so here we go:

* Early Marvel comics from the sixties really didn’t get the show-don’t-tell-concept, which you think would be obvious when you have a book filled with pictures. For instance, if a guy is being tripped in one panel, there will inevitably be someone in the same panel saying, “That guy is being tripped!” Who is this aimed at? People who are unable to interprets basic images but are able to read? So infants who are literate.

* We have a satellite radio in one of our cars, and it’s pretty neat except for one thing. Whenever I’m listening to music on it, I will inevitably wonder who is singing the song I’m listen to. So I hit the “Info” button twice. Why twice? Because hitting it once just gives me the genre of the song. When in the history of music has anyone ever said, “I wonder what genre this song is?” But whoever made the radio apparently thought that was more important info than the artist. Do people even test these things out before they ship them? Why do people waste my time?

* I like Big Bang Theory (despite the four camera, laugh track set up which I thought we were about done with as a society), but you have to be extra careful to make sure it doesn’t fall off your DVR because they don’t make it available online at all. The show about geeks is apparently too scared of this new fangled internet to have online distribution. Can’t watch it with ads on Hulu; can’t buy an episode through iTunes. The only option to get a missed episode (if you don’t want to wait months for the DVD release) is to go to some skeevy site filled with intrusive ads and download some non-legal copy. I’m too old to be pirating things. Look: I have money right here in my hand. Just give me some way to give it to you in exchange for your show. Is that so hard?

There’s a lot of competition for coolest gift for Buttercup, but author Mike Z. Williamson’s wife Gail (who also does combat photography) made this Nuke the Moon™ afghan for Buttercup:

Hopefully a reality in her lifetime.

Now Buttercup can go to sleep every night dreaming of world peace.

Also, I should mention Mike Z. Williamson is going to be a part of Operation Fight the Post Holiday Blues to help keep up troop morale after the holidays. They still need to raise more money, though, so donate if you can.

And as a bonus, here’s a picture of Buttercup thinking about the moon being nuked:

The left really is worked up about the rich needing to have their taxes raised. This is kinda hard to understand, as I don’t really get what benefit they think we’ll get from raising taxes in a bad economy, but I’ve listened carefully to a number of liberals, and here is a transcription of their argument of why we need to raise taxes on the rich:

“I get really worked up about the rich not paying more in taxes because how much they earn affects me because of [unintelligible]. And we really need the tax money; sure, we did a ton of spending without worrying about having revenue to back it up before, but now it’s really important because of [unintelligible]. And I don’t buy the argument or historical evidence that raising taxes will decrease tax revenue by harming the economy since [unintelligible]. There is just no reason to think that taking money away from job creators will harm job growth if you factor in [unintelligible]. In fact, raising taxes on the rich could help the economy by [unintelligible]. Really, the reason I get so worked up about us needing to tax the rich is because once their taxes are raised we all get the awesome prize of [unintelligible].”

I think that covers their whole argument. Did I miss anything?

Hey, know what would raise a lot of tax revenue? Getting everyone jobs.

I’m back from my trip! Yay! Thanks to Basil for keeping the blog active while I was gone.

Anyway, while in Texas we went to the Fort Worth zoo. It was pretty neat, and one of the orangutans had a newborn baby (an orangutan baby, not someone else’s baby), and I still don’t think the zoo has publicly announced it yet. I liked the zoo, but Buttercup just slept in her stroller the whole time, as she’s just a stupid eight-week-old baby. Still, I decided I need to practice being a father who is going to educate her and stuff, so here are all the facts I know of the animals we saw, accompanied by the pictures SarahK took.

FUN ANIMAL FACTS

* Due to its long, flexible neck, the pink flamingo is notorious for how difficult it is to execute by hanging.

* The white tiger cannot jump.

* The rhinoceros is the rare offspring of a unicorn and a lizard.

* The gorilla is the largest primate other than your mom.

* Penguins thrive due to a symbiotic relationship with Morgan Freeman.

* Giraffes have long necks to make eating grass seem less boring.

* The hippopotamus is best known for spouting conspiracy theories on The View.

* Since the elephant never forgets, he instead drinks to socialize.

* The lion’s large mane means it’s unemployed.

* The goliath birdeating tarantula got its name because zoologists got tired of kids asking, “What does it eat?”

* The cheetah was rated the fastest animal on land until it was disqualified for using performance enhancing drugs.

* The parrot’s ability to talk helps it hunt its favorite food: human faces.

* Due to its bright orange hair, the orangutan is often mistaken for a prop comic.

* The jaguar has largely been replaced in its ecosystem by the NCISuar.

* The bongo is yet another hoofed animal with antlers that no one finds particularly interesting.

* The zebra is a horse designed by Andy Warhol.

* Here are some more hoofed things with antlers. Really, who cares?

* The mountain lion’s main food source is the daughters of CTU agents who wander away from the plot.

* Due to the kangaroo’s built in pouch, it always gets severely molested by TSA agents.

* The coyote is the only member of the canine family that uses tools ordered by mail.

* The Komodo dragon (right) is not really a dragon; it’s just a lizard that flies and breathes fire.

* The Burmese python can swallow a sheep whole, though at the dinner table that gets it yelled at by its mom.

* The leaf-nosed snake is known for helping more attractive snakes woo females.

* The saltwater crocodile is a frequent enemy of Batman.

* The bald eagle recovered from near extinction after its thunderdomes were shut down.

Well, well, well! It seems the Republicans in the Senate just may have grown a pair by promising to stand united and filibuster the Dems’ Hurry-Up Offense flurry of Progressive wish-list legislation in advance of their turning over the keys to the House in January. At least until the looming massive tax-increases on absolutely everyone who pays taxes are stopped and the government is kept funded until the next Congress can pass an actual budget (something the Dems thought was trivial and not worth their time and effort despite it being one of the few responsibilities of the Congress enumerated in the Constitution! — See Article 1, Section 9, the part about “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”)

After all, the voters decided to evict Nancy and the Donks from the Big Chair for just such abuses of power as, well, rushing through unpopular and possibly unconstitutional legislation that does nothing but screw up the economy and destroy the fabric of the country in order to serve their special interest groups and nutroot kooks…oh, and of course, The Dark Lord Soros instead of concentrating on what’s best for the country, like jobs and the economy and people’s ability to do trivial crap like feed their kids and pay their mortgages. So, naturally, the Democrats schedule a last-gasp effort to do the former again at the expense of the latter. Go figure!

So, what could be so important that the Democrats need to hurry up and pass it with their collective dying breath before bothering with a budget and saving the populace from the untold economic misery from a massive tax increase even most of them agree we can’t afford in the midst of one of the worst recessions in history?

New powers for the Food Police that will cause food prices to skyrocket; Gays serving openly in the military; Free goodies for illegal aliens…the really, really important stuff the whole country can’t wait to see passed!

So, since they seem intent on making asses of themselves, let’s help the Democrats out here by helping them fill in some more important agenda items that need to be addressed before the Republicans can block it in the House and they need to concentrate on all that mundane, necessary stuff like budgets.

• In the wake of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, immediately pass a bill establishing an all-transvestite & transsexual combat squad…the T&A Team! (Or maybe they’d prefer the Pink Berets?)
• A resolution declaring the prime-time lineup at MSNBC a National Treasure and Keith Olbermann’s bathtub & Chris Matthews’ leg National Historical Monuments, making each of them eligible for millions in federal grants.
• A bill linking the new TSA x-ray and grope procedures at the nation’s airports with ObamaCare, saving billions in costs annually by counting them as medical check-ups! (“Now, turn your head and cough.”)
• A new law banning the use of those nasty old fossil fuels in favor of such new “green” technology as…well, we’ll leave that part for later. Let’s just ban the fossil fuels for now! Think of the polar bears we’ll save!
• A bill declaring each September 11th from now on as “National Hug an Imam Day” in the interest of promoting peace and multicultural understanding.
• An appropriations bill for trillions of dollars in new stimulus spending on such job-creating projects as studying the effects of fish farts on ocean currents and creating public murals depicting President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hugging children and snuggling with puppies.
• New banking loan regulations giving preferential treatment to the chronically unemployed so they can borrow their way out of debt! What could go wrong?

Now it’s your turn! What else can the Democrats do in the lame-duck session before the clock runs out on the Progressive Candyland Grab-a-Thon? Have at it in the comments!