Weekend Update - December 5th

• They're Out There Dept.: The Mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, Russell Wiseman, has accused President Obama of deliberately timing his speech about the war in Afganistan this week to block the airing of the "Peanuts" Christmas television special. We quote His Honor: "We sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim president is there, what a load ... try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose." Wiseman did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press on Friday.


• Many are saying Obama's not all he's cracked up to be because he has yet to completely revolutionize every aspect of human life as we know it by instantly turning everything organic, curing all diseases and setting all gay military personnel free to romp in the fields of boot camp. Mark Morford begs to differ.


• We used the trusty old debit card the other day, but apparently we went about three dollars over. The bank paid it, of course, but charged us $25 dollars in fees. Now listen to this: Our nation's financial institutions will collect some $1.8 billion during the 28-day holiday shopping season, through practices such as charging $34 for an average $17 debit card overdraft and manipulating the order in which they subtract debits from their customers' accounts. And remember, we bailed these bastards out with our tax money. Our suggestion? Break up these "too-big-to-fail" institutions and let some of the cockiest ones fail. Fail, big time. In the mean time, let's all just use cash. Happy Holidays.


• Uncle Bob and I had several lively arguments concerning the death penalty in America. Uncle Bob always was dead set against it. I, of course, played "devil's advocate" and did all the standard pro-death arguments, what-if-he-killed-your-family things. Uncle Bob always won of course, and now there's this: Some innocent dead men walking can now take hope. Two cases have been decided in the last four months that suggest that in the United States, at last, it may actually make a difference whether or not the prospective visitor to the death chamber is guilty or innocent. From Common Dreams.


• Women are smoking more pot. That's right. And here's a fascinating article about why women have signed onto marijuana reform -- and why they could be the movement's game-changers. Oh, you go girl!