Sure, she meant his ancestral country or whatever. Still, it sounded pretty birtherish:

I'm sure she's not a birther and believes, like most of us, that the President was born in the United States. It's still alarming that she doesn't even blink at calling anything other than the United States her husband's "home country."

Far as I know, the only Americans with an excuse for referring to another country as the "home country" are immigrants and Texans.

Oh, on the Homophobia Comment: Pat at the link says the First Lady is blaming the spread of AIDS on homophobia.

Yes and no. That video is clipped from a longer discussion about how refusals to wear condoms and take HIV tests has led to an explosion of new cases. Stigma associated with the disease has led individuals to hide or ignore it, lest others accuse them of homosexual activity. That's especially true in the black community here in the U.S. and in Africa.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 6 percent of the adult population has HIV and that ranges upward to 15% percent in some countries. In Swaziland, over half of the population aged 20-29 has the virus.

So when the First Lady says that homophobia exacerbates HIV infection, she's saying it leads individuals to refuse to take HIV tests, not that homophobia actually causes the disease, like in some insane reverse-Falwell.

Birtherism Update: I don't want to get into the debate again so I'll just link this long post discussing the issue last July. The conclusion:

In short, my message is for the waverers: don't fall for Birtherism. First, the President is a natural born citizen; he proved it the only way current Hawaii law allows. Second, under no circumstances should you support a movement that wants the courts to start overthrowing lawful elections and, in fact, I want you to join me in condemning the very notion. Third, don't make this the Republican version of the "selected not elected" movement. It was ridiculous from the Left after Bush v. Gore. We really need to move on to the stuff that matters.

It's amazing how much the issue hasn't changed since then.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:42 PM | Comments (598)
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Hey it's the start of a brand new week. So we've got that going for us.

So Where's My Damn Jetpack?
Well the Martin Jetpack might be it. Of course I'm guessing that it'll be expensive and noisy as hell.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:31 PM | Comments (711)
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Get it? I'm bringing to life a relatively obscure Dylan gospel song that you probably aren't all that familiar with. So it's from the vaults. On Easter. And it's a gospel song. It all ties together. I'm so clever.

Anyway, long time AoSHQ readers (and I mean long time....I havent done a post on this topic in years) will know that I am a huge Dylan fan. And he is actually in the news today, as the ChiComs have refused to allow him to perform in Beijing and Shanghai.

After Tiananmen Square, I suppose the Reds aren't too keen to hear "The Times They Are A-Changing".

Nevertheless, this story has given me an excuse to post one of my favorite Dylan tunes. It's from his so-called "Gospel phase" and first appeared on the album "Saved". It's a bluesy little track called "What Can I Do For You?" more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 03:14 PM | Comments (117)
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Twitterers and others reporting a shudder down around SOCAL.

Update [Gabe]: A 6.9er in Baja shook most of Southern California and was felt as far away as Scottsdale, Arizona.

Here in Hollywood, it was mostly long slow waves. The quake was notable only in that it lasted upwards of 30 seconds, which is a darn long time for an earthquake. The doors, cabinets, and shutters at my house all swung back and forth. Rather than do something smart, I twittered blasphemously mid-quake.

Update 2 [Gabe]: USGS just upgraded it to a 7.2. There have been many aftershocks, though only one that was felt up here in L.A. The civil authorities are suggesting that all of Southern California take precautions for more shakes in the next few days.

Some friends called and said that their cars had shifted position, I'm gonna run out and see if mine is still good.

Glad to hear the San Diego folks are okay.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 02:58 PM | Comments (218)
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Are you braced? Does that feel better?

I know. It's a friggin throwaway from the AP on the dismal jobs outlook, peppered with some hopey feely crap, sorta. In this absurd lede:

Buoyed by good news on the jobs front, the White House claimed credit Sunday for reversing the downward economic spiral while bracing out-of-work Americans for a slow recovery.

Is this the most convoluted opener you have seen in a while? Good news! Get ready for more not good news! The only pathetic positive in this story is that people are being hired but they're temporary census workers. But this story doesn't even pretend there's any real good news here, it's just claimed in the first paragraph (that there's anything resembling good news on the employment front) and then goes on to explain to you, the reader, why there's nothing at all to be happy about.

Uncle Jonathan's corncob pipe!

I'm at a loss, I do not get the thinking behind Obama-lovin that tries to turn terrible news into something special. Or rather, that does it in such a lame fashion that absolutely no one who would read this would say "YAY!"

UPDATED WITH SUNDAY NIGHT STUPID: Create your own AP fantasy happy headlines. Commenter Cicero offered this one,

DONNER PASS -- (AP) Creative settlers cooperate to devise unexpected culinary creations.

You've got to break a few eggs, I'm told...

UPDATE, Purp

Check out this BLS chart. Pay particular attention to the trends in duration of unemployment. People are staying unemployed longer and longer as time goes on. To a non-zombie layman such as myself, this doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound like "recovery".

UPDATE [Maetenloch]
Well since everyone is jumping in, let me add my own update to the funemployment news. Here's a chart stolen from TigerHawk showing the duration of employment recovery during post-WWII recessions.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 01:43 PM | Comments (332)
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Butler against Duke. I didn't catch Duke and West Virginia yesterday, did watch most of the Butler/Michigan State game.

I've heard West Virginia's coach Bob Huggins has a little bit of a reputation for being a growly SOB. Watch him consoling Da'Sean Butler after suffering a bad knee injury in yesterday's game.

Here's the AoS leaderboard through 10 (correct picks through 1,2,3,4 and semis, final winner, points/possible points).

1 Mr. Wednesday Night 22 18 20 24 16 Duke 100 132
2 WunderKraut 25 18 20 16 16 Duke 95 127
3 Nomentum 23 22 16 16 16 Kansas 93 93
4 Tennesseebaby 23 18 16 16 16 No Pick 89 89
4 King Of Farts HQ (INCITEmarsh) 27 18 12 16 16 Syracuse 89 89
6 pacific 24 20 12 16 16 Kansas 88 88
7 Khatmandu Yaks 21 14 20 16 16 Kansas 87 87
7 K-State! 21 14 20 16 16 Kansas St. 87 87
9 Little Miss Spellcheck 24 18 12 16 16 Duke 86 118
10 WashJeff 25 16 12 16 16 Kansas 85 85

I'm guessin Little Miss Spellcheck is now a fan of pure concentrated evil for third place braggin rights. Me, I say "go David, kick Goliath in the balls".

Also I have personally maxed out my own "possible points" option.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 11:44 AM | Comments (107)
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Or perhaps it won't.

Redlettermedia's even longer review of The Attack of the Clones.

I'm just halfway through the first part. It's compelling. And rich.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:35 PM | Comments (260)
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This piece is a few days old now, but its not been mentioned here yet. It looks like comrade Glenn is on the warpath and has a pretty valid point - when you're sucking someone in the administration's dick for the sake of scoring "inside info" for a phat book deal, what are the chances you'll be asking them any hard questions?

...But to then purposely compound that conflict by putting yourself in such a dependent and needy position vis-a-vis White House aides (with these "behind-the-scenes" books) proves how inappropriate the word "journalist" is for them. They're motivated by many things; journalism plainly isn't one of them.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:43 PM | Comments (108)
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Hello, hello all M&Ms. Welcome to your regularly scheduled CatSaturday night ONT here at the AoS mansion.

The Wall of Death!
Thanks to overpopulation and a reincarnation-based fatalism, there's no such thing as OSHA in India. And so I guess life there is fairly cheap which leads to awesome exhibitions like this. But it's probably safer than it looks based on the fact that the cars don't look banged up. But then maybe body work and paint are cheap there too.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:40 PM | Comments (781)
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You know what you call it when you interview one crank and make sweeping generalizations with no basis in fact?

Besides a MSM story about the Tea Parties, I mean.

You can call it a lot of things, I suppose. "Intellectually lazy" comes to mind. "Vapid" could apply. "Insulting" seems appropriate.

But what do you call it when you do the above while gratuitously inserting cult of personality passages designed solely to attest to the benevolence of the ruling cartel?

You call it "Propaganda". And today the Baltimore Sun's Jill "Pravda" Rosen reveals she certainly would feel comfortable asking you to believe that Kim Jong Il just finished his round 38 strokes under par. more...

Posted by: Jack M. at 03:45 PM | Comments (278)
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