The recent, much touted not-actually-so-good news on jobs, gets an appropriate answer from Abbott and Costello.

(H/T M.)

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• Cowboys, superheroes, and freedom.
• Intelligent dogs party down.
• Are the NDAA and the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act two pieces of the same puzzle?
• Writers: You may want to may want to avoid self-publishing via Apple iBooks Author.
• The evolution of the U.S. dollar. (Tip o’ hat to D.)
• Yet another reason to be glad you don’t live in New York.
• You’ve heard about the long arm of the Feds reaching to New Zealand to shut down one of the biggest sites on the Web without due process — showing that the MPAA, the RIAA, and the fedgov hardly need SOPA. You heard about the first swift response (you go, Anonymous). But here’s the bigger story, longer term: “Hollywood Must Die.” As a movie fan, I hate to say it. But we’ll all be better off if Paul Graham succeeds.
• Good time to review your digital rights vs the police. (Here’s the one page version (.pdf).)

(Several tips o’ hat to MJR)

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No, not happy news like about crippled orphans being rescued by blind puppies (though that’s good, too). Not glurge.

But in the biblical flood of bad news, good news does occasionally bob to the surface and I’ve been saving up bits of it to brighten your day. So here goes:

• Rhode Island may defy the NDAA. (Tip o’ hat to JS.)
• The most important secret of a prosperous economy.
• Remember the homeless man with the golden voice? Well, so far, so good. (HT to SC)
• Obama (not intentionally, of course) might bring back the Constitution.
• Gaston Glock did an amazing thing.
• Speaking of homeless-but-talented, a homeless whiz kid is a semi-finalist in a national science competition, and the attention is helping her family.
• TSA may — may — apologize to some old ladies it abused. (Okay, I grant you it’s not much; but it’s something.)
• There was once a great pirate botanist. (Tip o’ hat to PT.)
• You don’t have to be a swashbuckling young man to perpetrate Outlaw acts of courage. (HT to MJR.)

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• Not that I think jail is a sensible solution for anything here. But imagine if every government VIP whose projects went wrong were treated like this.
• “Does America Now Qualify as a Police State?” Well now, there’s a no-brainer …
• But inventiveness never ceases to amaze.
• Bush war crimes under investigation. Not in the U.S., of course.
• Even “Raging Grannies” are against SOPA now. Its House and Senate (PIPA) sponsors have blinked. Not good enough, still. But progress.
• Hey, what about the poor dog’s privacy? (Tip o’ hat to JB.)
• Ron Paul money bomb for South Carolina still going strong. The big Ron Paul organizer in our area held meetings today. I tell you, anarchist or no, and snow or no (we had quite the weather going), I was pretty tempted to drop in. I hope Ms. Organizer’s not reading this; she knows where I live.
• You remember the old expression, “If we told you, then we’d have to kill you?” Well, times have changed…

Yeah, we’ve all had one of those days.

(Several tips o’ hat to M.)

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Been collecting again …

• Your awwwwww story for the day: An unlikely mother.
• But this is pretty awww-some, too. Especially if you consider what would have happened had the government gotten to the money before an honest man did.
• The 10 jobs with the happiest workers. (And I’m in two of those jobs; I should be delirious with joy.)
• The dogs of Cat Island. This is in some ways a horrible story. Yet so weird it’s funny. BTW, this is from the Paladin Press blog, and if you poke around a bit you’ll find a few entries by somebody you know.
• The amazing Katherine Albrecht has been blogging about her cancer treatment. You go, Katherine. You’ve got a lot of people out here rooting for you.
• Proof of Ron Paul’s shocking racism.
• Will a simple Firefox add-on negate the evil SOPA?
• The “government is making us fat” meme is gaining ground.

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• J.D. Tuccille’s High Desert Barbecue gets a sterling review from Britain’s Sean Gabb.
• Well, here’s a cheery thought about the current economic mess. Probably true, too.
• Encouraging sites to offer PayPal alternatives. Good idea. Be sure to follow the links to the PayPal (or PayPal/fedgov) horror stories. Who knew that SF writer George R.R. Martin is a terrorist?
• Jim Bovard exposes the post office.
• News from Dave’s blog: Backwoods Home is now on Kindle.

The headline on this one was (of course), “It’s not what it looks like! I can explain!”

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• Even lab rats, it seems, have empathy. Now, if only government agents could be raised to that level.
• I had no idea that my second favorite poem (and the one I most totally identify with) had such universal appeal.
• Only a government could manage to create a butter crisis.
• “The best way to understand the Euro Crisis is to get a DVD of “Animal House” starring John Belushi.” Snort!
• Open letter to some professorial tax eaters from Michael and Debra Jean Dean.
• The average household has a post-crash net worth of nearly $500,000??? Are you kidding? Where do I sign up to join the average class?
• The “I, Pencil” of food. (And apparently the writer never heard of “I, Pencil” until somebody mentioned it in the comment section of his piece.)

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I have to go to court today. No, nothing I did. Just giving support to a friend whose ne’er-do-well son is in trouble again.

Going through my fanny pack to make sure I’m courthouse-ready. You know, it’s amazing the amount of stuff folks carry every day that some other folks might consider a weapon. I’ll probably just stash the fanny pack and put keys, cash, and ID in a pocket lest some letter opener or multitool freak out the paranoiati.

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I’ve got two multi-tabbed browsers full of links I’ve been saving for you. But between revelations of Fed shenanigans (and the MSM’s huge “ho hum” about them), the latest “advance” of the police state, and the unsurprising news about Carrier IQ it all just seems too depressing to wallow in.

Even the articles or opinion pieces that add good insights, like this one, and this one, and this one would make you want to stick your head in the sand if you thought about them for more than a minute.

When you hear absurd talk of “legal oversight and reform,” you really wonder if even some very well-informed people suffer from a serious Failure to Grasp Reality.

It’s getting scary everywhere.

—–

Still, good people go on doing good things and coping with hard times in creative ways. Have you ever, for instance, heard of a gemach? That’s a very noble thing, it seems.

—–

The good guys strike back (with a gratifying bit of chutzpah, to boot).

—–

And governments the world over still give much cause for laughter. (No, I don’t think Sweden owes this poor old guy a wheelchair; but their reasons for denying it are a scream.)

—–

And … well, friends go on doing good deeds for each other:

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