I think talking about Sarah Palin is a distraction from the real issues. But it is interesting how all the Republican hacks do a 180 on certain issues like teen pregnancy just for her...

Here's Jon Stewart catching Karl Rove, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris and other hacks before and after Palin.

Palin claimed that Obama did not do any real work while an elected official. OMG. Does she not have access to Google or THOMAS?

Here are just a partial list:

The Lugar-Obama bill on nonproliferation

One of the strongest ethics reform package ever

Homelessness prevention for veterans

Brain injury care for veterans

Preventing no-bid contracts after a disaster (thanks Katrina!)

Creation of the National Emergency Family Locator System

Money for avia flu research

And many many many more...

Good magazine has an interactive map of the "history's greatest journeys". It is a bit annoying that it did not include Cheng Ho's seven naval expedition. Between 1405 and 1433, Cheng Ho lead Ming Dynasty's Grand Fleet to east Africa, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and all over south east Asia. Anyhow, it is an interesting app.

This is old news: Opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling wont help gas prices much. But I didn't know how little it will help: 75 cents per barrel! Not per gallon, but per barrel! Each barrel has 42 gallons. This means 1.8 cents per gallon. That's how little opening up ANWR for oil driling will help.

This is not some report coming from an environmentalist organization. This is from the Department of Energy.

Two news bits about gay couples. First comes the New York Times article reporting that gay couples are more satisfied with their relationships than straight couples:

After Vermont legalized same-sex civil unions in 2000, researchers surveyed nearly 1,000 couples, including same-sex couples and their heterosexual married siblings. The focus was on how the relationships were affected by common causes of marital strife like housework, sex and money.

Notably, same-sex relationships, whether between men or women, were far more egalitarian than heterosexual ones. In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; men were more likely to have the financial responsibility; and men were more likely to initiate sex, while women were more likely to refuse it or to start a conversation about problems in the relationship. With same-sex couples, of course, none of these dichotomies were possible, and the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.

While the gay and lesbian couples had about the same rate of conflict as the heterosexual ones, they appeared to have more relationship satisfaction, suggesting that the inequality of opposite-sex relationships can take a toll.

The second one is in "Bonk", Mary Roach's book about sex. In it, she wrote about a Master & Johnson study suggesting that gay couples have better sex. The study is a bit dated, as she explains:

First, that study is over 30 years old. Second, the most important thing in improving sex is to talk about it. Heteros have made a good deal of progress in talking about sex, but as a group, homosexuals were more at ease with everything about sex.

That was in the 70s. It would be interesting to find out if this is still the case. My personal opinion is that the younger gays are more up-tight about sex than the older ones from earlier years, but still more open about it than straight people.

And I wonder if there is one of the reasons the gay relationships are more satisfying is that the sex is better...