Torturing, lying, murdering cockroaches slink away into the darkness, their crimes unpunished, as we bicker over whether or not we deserve to be healthy. What in the hell went wrong?

Most Americans are blissfully in the dark about it, but across the Atlantic in the UK, a commission reluctantly established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown under pressure from anti-war activists in Britain is beginning hearings into the actions and statements of British leaders that led to the country?

The CIA has released its official secrets of magic (stage magic, that is, don’t get any ideas) in a just-published book. Now THAT sounds like an excellent holiday present for quite a few people I know. From Wired:

At the height of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency paid $3,000 to renowned magician John Mulholland to write a manual on misdirection, concealment, and stagecraft. All known copies of the document ?

 
(via Wooster Collective)

 
As readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Matt Taibbi. No one, save for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, comes close to his ability to hone in on the very essence of a political issue and then lacerate the guilty parties with the flick knife of his prose. What an amazing writer. It’s all A game with Taibbi, but he’s especially on point when he writes about Sarah Palin. Sample some of the goods from his most recent column at True/Slant:

Sarah Palin is the Empress-Queen of the screaming-for-screaming?

 

 
Hail Mary Jane has a curious selection of photos titled “25 Awesomely Unique Homemade Bongs.”  I’m partial to the Febreze bong.

 
For every parent who has read Goodnight Moon to their child over and over and over again, this is for you.

 
Some of L.A.‘s fiercest painted ladies will be appearing in person and on screen at the Ultra Fabulous, Beyond Drag event produced by Austin Young and Saskia Wilson-Brown.

Here’s what the organizers have to say:

International in scope, “Ultra Fabulous, Beyond Drag: Part Deux” is a a celebration of gender identification—featuring androgynes, the transgendered, drag queens and tranimals… Going way beyond the boas, glitter and whip-smart sass, it aims to showcase a new filmic genre ?

 
No fatties or producers of bad or derivative art forms need apply.

Via Gawker

Via Paul Di Filippo. Paul captions: “I’m the King of the Beats!” “No, I am!”

Oh dear lord. Mushroom gangs? And not even for Special mushrooms? What are they, like roving Tom Bombadil guys with curly mustaches that make French-guy noises and steal your Portobellos at night?

It is a great French autumnal tradition that furnishes an essential ingredient in some of the nation?