This old clip from Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, although written in the British election context, gives us a preview of what the speeches during the Republican primary campaign are going to look like.

(Via Balloon Juice.)

For obvious reasons, I don’t write much about Sarah Palin. But I could not help passing on this clip.

Not having grown up in the US and learned its history in any formal way, my knowledge is a bit sketchy. It is especially weak on the specific details of some of the iconic events. But even I have learned enough of the folklore informally to know that Palin had botched the details of Paul Revere’s ride, which raises the question of how it could be possible that she could grow up in the US and not know this. It truly baffles me.

The Holy Ghost (whom I like to call Harvey) has always been the weak link in the Trinity. He did not seem to do much. Melvin and Jesus were the ones who seemed to do all the heavy lifting. So it was no surprise to me to hear this Onion News Network radio report that the Holy Ghost has become the latest victim of the recession.

I’ve shown this before but we need to be periodically reminded of the reality that he starkly points out. (Language advisory)

There is a remarkably good New York Times parody site. The site was created by Tony Hendra whom some may recognize as the put-upon manager of the band in This Is Spinal Tap.

They do a particularly good job with their David Brooks column on Michele Bachmann, where they capture perfectly his technique of seamlessly blending the banal and the obvious and delivering the result with an air of profundity.

They also have a report on what caused the Rapture to not occur on schedule.

Well, it is time to wrap up the Rapture stuff. It was fun while it lasted and for me at least it provided some amusement to see the kind of idiotic certainty that religion can give people. It was also amusing to watch mainline religious leaders squirm as they tried to argue that believing that the Rapture would occur yesterday was crazy while believing that the Rapture will occur some time in the future was quite sensible.

So here are some final thoughts.

And via Machines Like Us: