The Good

Okay, it’s not good that these wanted posters for abortion providers are making a comeback. But it is good that Flip Benham is being found guilty in a court of law for posting these dangerous, vile things.

Michelle and Barack get down in Indonesia! Love it.

I know I read in some Forster novel (I think it was Howards End) an argument among hoity-toities about the foolishness of just giving money to poor people, instead of attaching strings to tell them how to spend it. But those characters may have been on to something — apparently giving people even a dollar a day that they can spend any way they like is more effective than any other program at getting more poor kids in school, for example. Sure, some people will spend that money on drugs or drink, but so will some people who work in an office, and you don’t see us stipulating how salaries are spent. Most of the time, though, people just want money to feed, shelter, and clothe their families, and this is one way to help them do that.

The Bad

Damn it, government officials who knowingly destroy evidence of government wrongdoing should be prosecuted for their crimes, not given a free pass. But the Obama administration disagrees.

This is a month late, but it’s still worth seeing this compilation of hateful, untrue, and dangerous things that Tea Partiers have said. You know they’ll be back in 2012. Know your enemy, etc.

Oh don’t worry, John Shikmus (R-IL), who hopes to chair the House Energy Committee, reassures us, “The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over. Man will not destroy this earth. This earth will not be destroyed by a flood.” I’m so very comforted.

The organization that Thurgood Marshall called the “uptown Klan” is funding some schools in Mississippi. Take action to ask the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools why it accredits those schools and encourage the corporations that donate to the MAIS to make sure their donations aren’t being funneled to white supremacist, anti-gay schools.

Ask the Obama administration to change its policy on not sending condolence letters to the families of servicemembers who died by suicide. (I especially like Melissa’s point that there are many deaths in the military that are called suicide that may be anything but.)

The Silly

Here’s a cool interview with Brian Eno, a man more equipped than most to coax new and interesting sounds out of any machine on hand. I like what he says about how different forms of listening to music affect how we listen to music and also the music itself, and how he’s getting more and more interested in studio sessions that don’t sound quite so perfect.

Leave your interesting links in the comments, as usual, and have a great weekend!