I’ve been on something of a Gaga kick lately (late to the party, as usual; sorry). So I think I was in a better position than I otherwise would have been to appreciate the jokes in Weird Al’s “Perform This Way” parody. And I enjoyed the whole story when Gaga (or her people) refused permission for Weird Al to use the song after he’d recorded it, so he released it anyway, and shamed her into reversing herself and granting permission.

But all that was before I saw the video. And man, that Yankovic fellow really outdid himself on this one. Gaga’s whole shtick is weird and transgressive already, but throw Weird Al on top of that, and it’s just… I don’t know. Something.

In a Tank Riot podcast from a while back, they talked about how the widespread access to unmediated information about the Kennedy assassination (in particular, the Zapruder film) led to the rise of a million conspiracy theories. But here’s an interesting one I’d never thought of: that Kennedy was actually just collateral damage, because Oswald’s real target was John Connally: A New (to Me) Theory about the Kennedy Assassination: It Was an Accident.

Via Michael Troller, via Boingboing.

This article from New York magazine by Robert Kolker is quite awesome: “I Did It” – Why Do People Confess to Crimes They Didn’t Commit?

It’s several months old, but I hadn’t seen it until now. Highly recommended.

I had not seen this (unlike everyone else), until Lies.com commenter Anithil pointed it out to me. In honor of her, then:

Posted without comment (courtesy of Janus/Onan/Conner):

And on a thematically-related note, from Josh Marshall’s Funniest thing I’ve heard all day:

Chris Hayes tweets that Spitzer, Vitter et al. should record “It Gets Better” vid for Anthony Weiner.

I really, really loved this:

Some jumbled up gibberish about, uh, Paul Revere.

“We saw where Paul Revere hung out as a teenager, which was something new to learn. He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed.”

Oh please brer GOP, please don’t run Super Sarah! If you throw us poor dum libs in that there briar patch, why that would be the worstest! You betcha! (wink)