• From the “Something Rotten in Boston” Department – A corpse flower, known for its….. ‘unique’ scent, just bloomed at the zoo in Boston.  It’s stench of rotting flesh is supposed to draw the insects that pollinate it, but I’m convinced that it’s to keep primates from going near it.  Of course, nothing says love like a bouquet that includes a four foot flower that smells like rotten hamburger, and these flowers are exceedingly rare, so I’m sure they will be the thing to get your sweetie for Valentines next year.  Lord knows every other expensive and silly thing has been thrown at me over the years.
• From the “Doing It Wrong” Department – Two parties recently met in Maryland in order to sell a used car.  When they met, one of the sellers pulled a gun and tried to rob the buyers.  The lady in the buying group drew her own gun and started firing. The two goblins dropped their gun and ran away.  So far this sounds like a good defensive gun use.  Unfortunately, the lady admits she fired into the air to scare the robbers, then pursued them and continued to fire.  She’s currently under arrest on weapons charges.  Class, turn to page 38 and read the first paragraph aloud with me:  “There is no such thing as a warning shot.   If someone drops their gun and runs, they are no longer a threat and I no longer need to shoot at them.”  Even though she’s in hot water, I’m glad that neither she nor her companion were harmed.
• From the “Assemble the Minions” Department – Larry Ellison, the head of Oracle, is in negotiations to buy 98% of the Hawaiian island of Lanai.  Some will see this as a rich man indulging himself in the twilight of his life and setting up a tropical paradise to retire to.  I see this as a precursor to a new James Bond-esque plotline.  I’ll get more worried when he starts putting heliports inside dormant volcanoes and constructing a secret submarine base on the island.  Those of you who have had to deal with Oracle over the years should be shaking your heads in understanding right about now.
• From the “About Damn Time” Department – The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted yesterday to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt of Congress, setting up a vote by the full House.  Better minds than mine are weighing in on Mr. Holder, so I’ll hold off on that for now.  I saw some of the ‘coverage’ on the NBC news last night, and one of the Democratic congressmen was defending Holder by saying that he had given the committee everything he could, and that everything he’d held back was classified*.  Let me clue the good congressman in here;  There is nothing so classified that Congress cannot be told about it.  Your ‘need to know’ became active the minute you put your over-compensated butt in the chair.  If y’all don’t want to compromise information, sources, or methods, then hold a session behind closed doors, but hiding behind “It’s classified!” is a non-starter.  I look forward to the partisan shrieking of the next few days.  Who’s got the popcorn?  One final thought – Do you think we’ll see people in the streets chanting “Obama lied, Mexicans died!  Holder lied, Brian Terry died!” anytime soon?
• From the “Enemy Action” Department – NBC News got caught with their hands in the cookie jar again recently when it was revealed that they edited a recording of a Mitt Romney speech to make it look like he was out of touch with common folk.  This is the third time in recent memory that they have been caught in such shenanigans.  At what point do we just rename them TASS and be done with it?

*Paraphrasing from memory here.  It was a soundbite and I didn’t note who said it.  If only there was not only a network of some kind where I could go back and re-watch the broadcast as well as the energy to do so.