I really do love this English PSA about not calling people “faggot” and stuff, mostly because homophobic slurs are so much sexier in British! Anyway, now gays are mad about the PSA, of course-but only mostly because the Football Association, which did the PSA, wussed out at the last minute on its debut. Also? In the end I don’t really think the PSA’s conceit (that men say things at sporting events they wouldn’t say elsewhere) works-don’t English people call each other “bender” and “poofter” constantly in the office and on the Tube? I mean, that’s how we roll in New York even, and we’re not even a rapidly-devolving glassing-friendly penal colony of angry shit-faced louts.

It showed at Postmasters in the fall, and just showed in Chicago last month, but one can watch artist Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung’s video ‘In G.O.D. We Trust’ on his website, if you need your brain fried.

Issue number one for Tea Partiers and liberals and real conservatives alike should be total wholesale political slaughter of members of the Senate who have both allowed or actively gone down the noble road of blocking appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, like the incident yesterday blocking reasonably pro-worker Craig Becker. Becker’s appointment, as you undoubtedly know, did not pass, with 52 votes for his appointment and 33 against. (15 were unable to attend due to “snow.”) Scott Brown still got there to vote against him, though! And he had a rationale: “Brown described his decision against Becker as pro-jobs, not antilabor.” Nice one! Not that Brown’s vote mattered, because we live in a country where a majority vote no longer dependably passes legislation.

Quite obviously, historically the filibuster was regarded as “a revolt, not against the other party, but against the Senate itself. The senator doing the talking could be a lone swashbuckler, of a sort.” Now it is a group bully tactic.

And that the Democrats have allowed this should, and possibly will, be their undoing. Says John Gage, the head of the American Federation of Government Employees:

“You’re just not going to be able to go to our membership in the November elections and say, ‘Come on, let’s do it again. Look at what the Democratic administration has done for us!’” Gage said. “People are going to say, ‘Huh? What have the Democrats done for us?’”

Not much of anything, that’s what.

If you’d like to think about this further, here is a delightfully snide piece that lectures Teh Liberuls on the historical importance of the filibuster, which stresses the importance of the right of the minority to be heard. It’s neat to watch the right suddenly start embracing the language of an 80s Ivy League campus. This language is also insanely misleading. His argument is that the massive Democratic majority in Congress is an aberration, so we should wait until that’s not true to… pass any legislation, basically. Oh look, Congress apparently agrees!

But, think of democracy! “Majorities can be tyrannical,” warns Jay Ambrose in the SF Examiner!

Unfortunately, Congress is tasked to run its day to day operations as a majority-rule body. When the Demoncrats come to change the Constitution or revoke the Supreme Court or declare war or something, then, awesome, yes, then you get to filibuster all night long.

Plush Toy Insufficient Proof Of Identity

To the frontiers of transportation security: “Police at the Twin Cities airport have stepped up patrols after an incident last night that ended with officers chasing a suspicious man holding a stuffed animal. The Airport Police Department responded to Delta Airlines’ Building C after a Delta employee confronted a man and asked to see his ID badge. Police said the man responded by holding out a leopard-print stuffed animal and saying, ‘This is all you need to see.’” He absconded before being apprehended, but police are on the lookout for a male suspect bearing a resemblance to a leopard-print stuffed animal.

Look what we’ve got in store for the rest of the day! That’s right, snow, snow, and more snow! And I just looked outside the window? That stuff is coming down left and right! Yep, during The Great Snow-Ploughing Of ’10, the snow blows BOTH WAYS. It’s delightful! Now I’ve just got to find somewhere to pick up some lunch within a ten foot radius of the office.

by Abe Sauer

This.

You know what you should totally read? Home Boy, a new blog for GQ about “what happens when a jobless 27 year old law school grad is forced to move back home with mom, dad, and his two sisters.” It happens to be written by Awl grammar columnist Luke Mazur, for whom we could not be more thrilled. Go now!

The fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-often referred to as “the Bible of psychiatry”-is set to be released in 2013, and the American Psychiatric Association has revealed some of the proposed changes. How has your particular brand of crazy-and we’ve all got at least one-been reclassified? Here’s a good summary, although it fails to note the proposal to eliminate “the distinction between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence,” which is very important to some of us. Also, the term “mental retardation” is out, which means Rahm Emmanuel is going to need a new epithet. May we suggest “binge eaters”?

“People see the world around them and they extrapolate. I think that it’s hard to see an economy-wide cap-and-trade [proposal] of the type that passed the House could prevail.”
-Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) explains how the recent blizzards in Washington, D.C., have made his colleagues too stupid to pass global warming legislation. Maybe they should read Time

. If that’s not too complex for them.

“Last fall, when the designer Cynthia Rowley, a Leo, emailed Ms. Miller to invite her to her show, the astrologer convinced her to change the date, which was astrologically ‘dreadful.’ (‘Who can argue with Susan Miller?’ Ms. Rowley emailed The Observer.) Recently, Elle creative director Joe Zee, a Sagittarius, was cautioned in his forecast to be careful about retaining flood insurance. Not long afterward, ‘I had a leak in my roof and my kitchen flooded,’ he said.” Astrologer Susan Miller, described herein as ‘startlingly sane’ (maaayybe), will tell you for $500 that you should get flood insurance. She also gets great reviews from everyone I know that’s seen her, to be fair. So I gave her website a whirl!

I turned, of course, to her Vacation Guide for Scorpio.

Your idea of a terrific vacation is one that gives you ultimate privacy in a beautiful, soothing setting.

Oh my God, it’s like she’s inside my brain pan.

Pluto, your ruler, gives you a strong penchant for seclusion, and the fact that you are a water sign suggests you might enjoy a cottage at a beautiful seashore far from maddening crowds.

*GASP*

Ideal places might include Prince Edward Island, the shoreline of Maine, Newport, Rhode Island, the Hawaiian Islands, an Adirondack camp, or the Florida Keys — all places to read, fish, kick back and work hard on not working at all.

I HAVE BEEN TO FOUR OUT OF SIX OF THOSE PLACES!

Or, you might consider a cruise to the Greek Islands or through the Mediterranean, if not on a private yacht, then on an exclusive cruise that will cater to your every need.

Yes. I would absolutely consider that.

I give her advice an A++!