Almost makes me want to come out of retirement/ Thanks Steven!

RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL This is so funny it hurts. My wife came in last night and asked if I was laughing or crying. In truth, it was both. I am not the only one reporting this experience. Winner in the category of so-bad-it's good.

To fully appreciate it, you must know the Van Halen original. Then listen to DLR's isolated vocal track (which is in itself pretty funny).

Finally, hear what mrzarquon hath wrought using Microsoft Songsmith...[play the audio link at the top of the page]

IF YOU'RE GONNA HAVE A HEAD-ON COLLISION WITH A CONCRETE WALL AT 70 MPH... have it in a Smart Car. No, really. Via Reddit

ISRAEL AND PALESTINE This Bill Moyers commentary on the Israeli incursions into Gaza was important enough to bring me temporarily out of my hiatus from blogging. (Watch the video.)

Also worth reading, on Moyers' recommendation, is this article from Newsweek by Aaron David Miller.

TAKING A BREAK Vulgar Boatman is currently on hiatus. Not sure when I'll be back. There are always links galore over at Reddit, Digg, Linkfilter, and Boing Boing. Peace.

LIFE Google makes the entire Life archive of photographs available and searchable. An unimaginable treasure trove... millions of photos... [Google/Life]

NET NEUTRALITY BILL IS COMING A senior U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill in January that would bar Internet providers like AT&T Inc from blocking Web content, setting up a renewed battle over so-called network neutrality. [Reuters]

THE YOUTUBE PRESIDENCY Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video -- a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site, Change.gov, once the radio address is made public on Saturday morning. [WaPo]

WHITE HOUSE SHOCKER Two in the Bush, one in the tush. This seals it. W is the ultimate nexus of bad and dumb: where one ends and the other begins is anyone's guess. Where are this guy's handlers when he needs them? Via Digg

Never heard of The Shocker? Nerd Nirvana has a long list of names for it -- oughtta give the idea.

THE TIMES MACHINE can take you back to any issue from Volume 1, Number 1 of The New-York Daily Times, on September 18, 1851, through The New York Times of December 30, 1922. Choose a date in history and flip electronically through the pages, displayed with their original look and feel. [NYT]

ENGINE FLUSH? DON'T DO IT! Over time, gummy deposits can build up inside your engine. The chemicals used for engine flush, are supposed to break up those deposits. But car-makers say, pieces of that broken up sediment can clog up other parts of the engine and ruin it. [NBCLA]

NSFW

GAY SCIENTISTS ISOLATE CHRISTIAN GENE Brilliant! [YouTube]

TWO-THIRDS OF ALL SPAM WORLDWIDE KNOCKED OUT IN ONE FELL SWOOP The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline. [Security Fix] [WaPo] Oh frabjous day! Kaloo kalay! And the spam it went away. Unfortunately, it'll be back real soon.

FORGET RED VS BLUE It's the Educated vs. People Easily Fooled by Propaganda. Millions of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system informed by childish clichés - they can barely differentiate between lies and truth. [AlterNet]

THE GIANT POOL OF MONEY, PART 2 Lobbyists queuing up swarming for a slice of the bailout pie. [NYT]

TELECOMS BLOCKING VoIP CALLS European Union regulators are looking into whether mobile phone operators who block customers from making inexpensive wireless calls over the Internet are breaking competition rules.[IHT]

WAR BASED ON LIES Remember Iraq? Oh shit, that's right. That war is still going on. Thousands of dead, billions of dollars blasted through every week, and all based on lies about non-existent WMDs. And still the push from the Bush-Cheney death machine to bomb bombg bomb Iran. But at least this time they have some legitimate concerns about Iran pursuing a nuclear weapns program. Right? Wrong. According to the Raw Story, The documents upon which the US has based much of its push for sanctions against Iran--documents allegedly stolen from a laptop computer belonging to an Iranian researcher--are fabricated, according to the IAEA.

Related: Al Qaeda does not exist and never has [Pravda op-ed] Take it for what it's worth

BANKING INDUSTRY BAILOUT RIPOFF Look what Paulsen snuck into the the bailout legislation when no one was looking...a $140 BN tax write-off for the banks...

OLBERMANN'S SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PROP 8 In the name of love. [YouTube]

MIRIAM MAKEBA HAS DIED The South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage in Italy. She was 76. [AP]

THE PHOENIX HAS LANDED DIED Nasa says its Phoenix lander on the surface of Mars has gone silent and is almost certainly dead. [BBC]

RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT LYING SACK OF SH*T with a radio audience of 15-20 million.

"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh told his radio audience of 15 million to 20 million on Thursday. "Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression."

Uh - excuse me, but Obama is the one who's gonna dig us out of this recession, which was caused by the Grand Old Party of greed and anti-regulation. [LAT]

Update: Sean Hannity, too. He must be suffering from McCain herpes

A QUIET WINDFALL FOR U.S. BANKS The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion. [WaPo]

CAN THE DAILY SHOW SURVIVE THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY? "How we gonna make this shit funny?" Jon Stewart plaintively asked last night on The Daily Show, in the middle of a series of lukewarm bits about Barack Obama's historic presidential victory. And it's a good question. [NYMag] Via 1gm

RIGHTEOUS NEW RULES Bill Maher nails it big time. [1gm]

HEAD OF BRIT ARMED FORCES OPPOSES 'SURGE' IN AFGHANISTAN Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, warned that...wait a minute! Jock Stirrup? AYFKM? (A stirrup is a sort of a strap innit?) [Times UK] Via Linkfilter

CHINA'S ECONOMIC BAILOUT PLAN... Invest in infrastructure and social welfare. [Yahoo]

PROJECT PLANNING A LA DILBERT [Link]