thursday!

Interesting. I'm mostly in favor of the residency rule. It's certainly a form of protectionism; apparently the original intention was to prevent middle class (mostly white) suburban flight, which is bad because that's kinda racist but good mainly because a vibrant middle class necessarily creates demand for a thriving school system. That said, it is contrary to a merit-based system, mainly regarding teachers (e.g., we should want the best and brightest teachers irrespective of their residence), but c'mon, if we were really worried about recruiting and keeping good teachers we wouldn't be demonizing unions and making all kinds of noise about charter schools. I do think it's a positive and appropriate function of government to incentivize residents to work within their communities, particularly with the police force--when you know the cops and they live in your neighborhood it really reduces the Us vs. Them mentality, and the last thing the CPD needs right now is to widen that divide. Huge sections of the general population distrust law enforcement (often for good reason, because stuff like this is straight up bullsh1t) and that's unhealthy for society. Frankly if I were running for mayor I'd be calling for a return to having beat cops doing foot patrols in more (low to moderate crime level) neighborhoods.

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"Sometimes I feel like America is just in a holding pattern.  We're basically waiting for all the people who are still bitter about modernity to pass away in large enough numbers that those of us willing to move into the future can actually capture the electorate."

If this works, awesome. I am skeptical.

Paul Broun, d0uche of the day.

Hey, this is fzcked up: one, two

This Chris Matthews clip is hilarious. Calling Michele Bachmann a "balloonhead" warms my heart.

Understatement of the Day. And a runner up.

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Crap, I need to snuggle a puppy right NOW.

Extreme Elmo-based cuteness. Srsly.

Oooh, I hate the crap outta that guy.

EPIC