David Letterman isn't the first public celebrity to acknowledge he's carried on an affair, nor will he be the last. Judging from a sampling of comments posted in the paper or on boards across the web, people are rather indignant over his admission that he's had several affairs with women on his staff.

He's a cheater, how could he do something like that?

I will never watch his show again!

Hypocrite!

You'd think that, if given the chance, some people would hang, dry and quarter David Letterman the first chance they get. How dare he cheat on his wife like that? HOW DARE YOU?

Yet what I find more interesting to all this is not a word, or even a peep, about Robert Halderman, the show's producer now arrested and charged with attempting to extort Letterman out of $2 million. Pay up, or I'll tell the whole world you've been banging every woman on your staff. If anything, the crime Halderman has been charged with is far more of a devastating crime than what Letterman has admitted to, which, obviously, isn't a crime. Letterman let his dick get him in trouble. Halderman let greed and criminal intent get him into trouble. Tell me, who's the bigger scum bag here?

I refuse to get caught up in all this indignation that seems to pass for socially accepted behavior these days. I refused to get caught up over Michael Vick. I refused to get caught up over Roman Polanski, or Paris Hilton, or Lindsay Lohan, or, as of yesterday, Harry Connick, Jr. And I sure as shit ain't going to get caught up in calling David Letterman out for his indiscretions.

Where was all this "indignation" when hundreds of thousands of women were being brutally raped and murdered in Darfur? Where was all this "indignation" when ethnic cleansing took a hold of the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda? And don't give me this crap about "tea parties" and anti-Health Care protestors; at least they're protesting, but me thinks this is just another round of mob-rules mentalities, in which you stir up enough of a shitstorm to get people angry enough to turn their indifference into idiotic and uncontrolled rage. Just as I can't get myself to be angry at Letterman, I can't bring myself to sympathize or even agree with Tea Baggers.

Whatever. Your petty indignations are completely lost on me.




I'm imagining this kind of reaction this morning at the White House: The President is awakened by one of his staffers, greeted by the news that he's just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At first, Obama's probably humbled by the news. Then this horrible realization sets in: I am so fucked right now, because me getting this prize is going to give the Cons even more fodder for their cannons.

Yeah, Obama just can't catch a break. The right-wing pundits are for sure losing their fucking minds right now, foaming at the mouth over what they see as yet another example of how Obama and the rest of the world hates America. Remember, the cons HATED Obama's overtures to the Arabic world, and HATED him for his outreach to the European community, and they screamed BLOODY MURDER after his speech to the United Nations last month. If you believe them, they'll tell you Obama's done nothing but act as the Apologist-in-Chief.

That's a crock of complete shit, of course.

I'm just perplexed as everyone else as to why the Nobel Committee awarded President Obama with their peace prize. “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

Yeah, that's a great start, but, so far, Obama hasn't gotten Iran or North Korea to abandon their nuclear ambitions, or brought the Israelis and Palestinians any closer to a peace agreement. Then again, the Peace Prize is awarded to someone who promotes the process of peace. Desmond Tutu didn't personally bring down Apartheid. Mikhail Gorbachev didn't bring down the Soviet Union. But they began a dialogue and a path towards peaceful resolutions and relations. The Nobel committee, whether we agree or not, felt Obama was doing the same.

I still can't help to be as surprised as everyone else has been. I'm sure that, if given the chance, President Obama would trade that Nobel Prize for a health care reform that doesn't pander to the right's hysteria, and an economy that's clearly on the road to recovery.


(By the way, here's the committee's statement on awarding President Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize:

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the United States is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”)




Anyone watch NASA try to blow up the moon this morning? Yeah, me too. Boring!

NASA's intent was to hurtle a pair of spacecraft towards the surface of the moon, as part of a mission aimed at blasting up any signs of water ice on the moon. Ideally, the spacecraft smash would create a six-mile high debris that a lunar probe would scoop up and analyze. The most telling part of this mission was the massive flash and plume of smoke.

Hot damn, we're gonna blow up the moon!

Yeah...but that didn't happen.

Watching this mission was about as exciting as that time Geraldo Rivera opened up Al Capone's so-called vault; a lot of hype, and...nada.

Guys, if you're going to blow up the surface of the moon, or any planetary surface, here's how you do it: