Eric Holder gave a speech yesterday in which he called for the automatic restoration of voting rights for felons once their sentences have been served. A few thoughts on this; I may write more depending on how seriously Mr. Holder’s dishonest speech appears to be taken.

He conveniently ignores the reason for felon disenfranchisement, namely that if you aren’t willing to follow the law, then you can hardly claim a role in making the law for everyone else, which is what you do when you vote. We have certain minimum, objective standards of responsibility, trustworthiness, and commitment to our laws that we require of people before they are entrusted with a role in the solemn enterprise of self-government.

For example, dressing up in costume, breaking into private property, stealing someone else's tea and throwing it into the harbor, then overthrowing the legally-enacted government. Those people shouldn't have been allowed to make laws for everyone else, right?

Oh, but he's probably talking about people who break just laws for ignoble reasons, right? Political protestors breaking laws in order to make a point are probably cool.

Few people have been allowed inside the sky dome at the National Corvette Museum since a sinkhole emerged early Wednesday morning, and one of them was the museum director Wendell Strode, who arrived at work to the devastating scene.

"Where we had Corvettes, there's now a big hole," said Strode.

WBKO was able to capture still images from the National Corvette Museum's live web stream inside before it went off-line when the sinkhole knocked out power where the hole can be seen. Strode says it is about 30 ft. deep and 40 ft. wide. Strode says Eight cars were swallowed by the hole, six of them owned by the museum, and two on loan from General Motors. Strode says 20 to 25 cars still remain unharmed inside the sky dome.

Fer fuckssakes boss man, there's a "Bone-Chilling: 'Catastrophic' Winter Blast" on its way, expected to arrive here within the hour. Close this office!

OK... they announced just after the snow started that the office would close in 90 minutes. Fuck that. I left immediately. And, OMFG what a disaster it is out there. Absolute white-out. Roads are uncleared, unsanded, as white as the sky. White-knuckle driving.

Mrs. had a birthday party last weekend. She requested that we serve a drink called "Jalapeno's Revenge", which she found on the Jose Cuervo website, I think.

Anyway, the ratios are:

4: silver tequila which has been infused with jalapeno
3: blood orange juice
2: triple sec
1: lime juice

I did it this way:

Pour a bottle of tequila plus another splash (to bring the total up to 800ml from 750ml) into a pitcher. Add a sliced jalapeno. Let that sit for a three hours.

Scoop out the jalapeno slices, put them in a bowl on the side for garnish, if people want them.

Add 600ml of blood orange juice (about 8 oranges), 400ml of triple sec, and 200ml of lime juice (about 8 limes).

Or: 1 bottle tequila (750ml=25oz), 18oz OJ, 12 oz triple sec, 6 oz lime juice.

Stir it up. Drink with ice.

Recipe said to serve in salt-rimmed glasses. We chose not to.

It's just a bit spicy, not really hot - as confirmed by our spice-averse friend. And very tasty. Though it would probably work fine with regular OJ, the fresh blood orange juice gives the drink a nice deep pink/orange color. It was delicious, as you might suspect. I'm not sure if what I felt in the morning was the jalapeno's revenge, or the champagne's revenge, or the beer's revenge, or the red wine's revenge, or... But something set me up the bomb. Use with caution.

On January 26, the Disney Channel made a gentle stride into a more progressive era by featuring its first-ever same-sex couple on an episode of Good Luck Charlie, introducing two lesbian moms who bring their child over for a playdate, then show everyone they’re just like normal parents by not scissoring or establishing a golf pro shop in front of the kids. It was, as you might imagine, a controversial subject among those who spend their entire lives looking for things to be outraged about—such as One Million (Totally Not Gay) Moms, who sent out an urgent call for “conservative families” to raise their voices and decry Disney’s introducing these gay characters for one episode, right before they disappear forever, because Good Luck Charlie’s series finale is Feb. 16. Now police are investigating some voices who have been making death threats aimed at the show’s star, Mia Talerico. By the way, Mia Talerico is 5 years old.

A new video posted to YouTube on January 28, 2014, exposes an involuntary process of deep disclosure taking place during former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s recent interview with German television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) taped in Moscow. The video demonstrates how secret messages encrypted backwards in the whistleblower’s statements relate details of telepathic contact with human extraterrestrials.

Instead of watching the Super Bowl this Sunday, I'm going to go see ... Neutral Milk Hotel.

I don't think there could be anything more hispterish than that.

(And then on Tuesday, Robyn Hitchcock! And then in March, St Vincent and Stephen Malkmus! And I just bought the Slint box set)

Deputies say he admitted to shooting the two men because he thought they were trespassing on his property.

Sheriff McComas says the land actually belonged to Garrick Hopkins. He had just purchased it and was showing his brother where he and his family were planning to build their new home in the coming weeks...

Investigators said [Black] told dispatchers the two men were breaking into his shed, but sheriff's officials said the shed wasn't his.

You will all be shocked to learn that the two dead men were - according to the sleuthing of a commenter on the gawker article - black.