Links to Drink By-- We're broke and the inmates took control of the asylum

30% of Republican voters want more government spending in order to create jobs... why the hell did they vote Republican? WTF?

Orrin Hatch, on whether he sees wiggle room on Bush tax cuts: "No, I don't." Nice.

President Bush, did you order the CIA to torture KSM? "Damn right." War crime or felony? It's one or the other.

"Democracy requires me to respect the results of the elections. It doesn’t require me to agree with them or to admire the process by which voters made up their minds." Michael Kinsley has an excellent piece on American exceptionalism.

Islamic apologetics in the International Journal of Cardiology

World Rally Day!! Hooray! Too bad the entire rise in equities was due to the fall in the US dollar, thank you Mr. Bernanke.. Still no jobs, folks.

Bush's final budget gave us a heart-stopping deficit of $1.41 trillion in 2009, thanks to Wall Street and Detroit bailouts. To paraphrase Richard Feynman, I would call that astronomical but it wouldn't be fair to astronomy. Obama's first budget has a deficit of $1.29 trillion, lower than expected and 9% less than Bush's, but still quite remarkable. Obama promises to cut that deficit in half by 2013.

It's worth noting that on the graph the largest deficit was written by the outgoing President Bush and came in at $1.41 trillion, slightly better than the expected $1.75 trillion.

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And finally, a couple jokes from Harry Newton:

A 54-year-old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God, she asked “Is my time up?”

God said, “No, you have another 15 years, 2 months and 8 days to live.”

Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color and brighten her teeth! Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it.

After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by a bus.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, “I thought you said I had another 15 years? Why didn’t you pull me from out of the bus’s path?”

God replied: “I’s sorry. I didn’t recognize you.”

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A man goes to see a psychiatrist.

“It’s terrible, I think I'm a dog,” says the man. “I walk around on all fours, I keep barking in the middle of the night, and I can’t go past a lamppost anymore.”

“Okay,” says the psychiatrist. “I can help. Get on the couch.”

The man replies, “I’m not allowed on the couch.”