HEADLINE NEWS THAT IS SO EXCITING THAT I ALMOST HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM:

HARRY REID MIGHT RETIRE IN 2010!

And now, the evening news.

• Let's hear it for non-biased news reporting! From a CNN article about an artist who drew a sketch of Mohammed as a dog:
  

  "That's a way of expressing things. If you don't like it, don't look at it. And if you look at it, don't take it too seriously. No harm done, really," he says.

  When it's suggested that might prove an arrogant -- if not insulting -- way to engage Muslims, he is unrelenting, even defiant.

  "No one actually loves the truth, but someone has to say it," he says.

  Vilks, a self-described atheist, points out he's an equal opportunity offender who in the past sketched a depiction of Jesus as a pedophile.

  Still one could argue Vilks should have known better because of what happened in Denmark in 2005, when a cartoonist's depictions of the prophet sparked violent protests in the Muslim world and prompted death threats against that cartoonist's life.

  
  I'm picturing someone backed into a corner in a dark alley by a someone brandishing a lead pipe and saying, "you shoulda learned your lesson, boy."

• The Socialist case for Ron Paul: stripping down the federal government will allow the state governments to implement socialist policies, and states can deal with hot button issues (i.e. abortion) on their own, in smaller (and often more homogenous) settings where there's likely to be more agreement. And if you want to secede, Ron Paul won't fight you on it.
  
  
• I think Alaska is on par with Chicago in terms of corrupt politicians per capita, but only because there aren't that many people living there.
  
  
• I really like Al Gore a lot, but I'm still too traumatized by 2000 for me to want him to run again. I can't bear the thought of going through that again. People forget exactly how bad of a candidate he was: the brain is there, but he has the personality of a granola bar and unfortunately, that matters.
  
  
• 50 years after a court ruled that Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" was designated as not obscene by the courts, radio stations still won't air it because they're afraid the FCC will fine them into oblivion.
  
  
• Fred Thompson: "I would really have to strain hard to come up with something I wanted to say ten times a day for the next year of my life when I knew that talking about the really important stuff would not get me anywhere. You have to have a great desire to be President, and I never had the desire to do that." It shows, too, because his national polling has dropped a whopping 8 points in a month.
  
  
• This is just funny: A guy got tasered and arrested (that's really a thing?) for photographing the police performing a potentially illegal search.
  
  
• There's still a year between Hillary Clinton and being elected president. And as a wise man once said, "a year in politics is a very long time."
  
  
• Rudy Giuliani would be wise to heed the same advice (although I hope he doesn't).
  
  
• 30 years after Vietnam, it isn't the hippies spitting on our troops anymore.
  
  
• On a lighter note, Every day of my life, I dream of having a train conductor like this one.