Louis C.K. on lube, how Jimmy Carter might die and why the Pope is a pedophile. From last night's Daily Show:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Louis C.K.
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

"Mike Todd died in a plane crash and my father consoled Elizabeth Taylor with his penis."--Carrie Fisher

Sure, her recent work might benefit from tighter editing, but Carrie Fisher will always be in the pantheon as a writer and as an actress. In a characteristically hilarious new interview, she holds forth on her legacy; plans for her ongoing one-woman show, Wishful Drinking; her laugh-or-you'll-cry geneology; and Tea Baggers.

From Pop Eater:

http://www.popeater.com/2010/06/14/carrie-fisher-interview-tea-party-star-wars-wishful-drinking/

Side note: If you don't consider "Rosemary's Baby", the season #2 episode of "30 Rock" in which Fisher guest-starred to be the reason TV was invented, odds are good I don't like you much.

Orayne Williams:

Of the slew of horrific details surrounding the BP disaster, one of the most unsettling is the huge role human error played at each juncture. Even the most optimistic of us can't help but feel shaken by the enormity of the damage we, as a species, caused.

There has been much sardonic (and cathartic) humor online that we're near the tipping point and our extinction might be for the best. And I've had moments when I've agreed.

But the best among us keep me hopeful. Orayne Williams, a homeless and abandoned Brooklyn high school student who still graduated with honors, earned a college scholarship and plans to become a doctor, is one such example:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/15/2010-06-15_untitled__college15m.html

We could all use a bit more Baxter:

Yesterday at Thomas St. Park in Seattle, 5:50 p.m. Baxter is nine weeks old and his owner told me it was the kitten's first day outside their apartment building. Yeah, I know, cat photos on the Internet, but whatever: Baxter is ridiculously sweet and preternaturally smart and a lovely counterbalance to a world sometimes teeming with crap.

Bemused detachment...

...is not only necessary at this stage but perhaps a key factor in getting one to the next.

Lucky:

It's hardly a secret this is the worst year of my life.

However, I'm so massively fucking grateful to so many for so much.

Last night was a kick and I'm glad I rallied despite feeling wobbly inside and out. Incredibly fortunate to have such perceptive, wickedly funny and kind friends.

An apropos of nothing, if you need a laugh and/or to feel superior, check out this guy because he'll fill both requirements:

http://gawker.com/5559349/finally-obamas-british-past-connected-to-scandalous-british-present

In six hours...

...I must be cogent and witty for a dinner party.

Right now, I feel like the bumblebee that just crashed against my bedroom window.

Still, I finished another chapter of final draft last night.

Onward.

The most recent findings re the XMRV retrovirus and CFIDS/CFS from a new Chicago Tribune feature:

Despite the depressing-as-fuck headline, it's encouraging that in recent years, the illness has finally been recognized as the pernicious, debilitating force it is. Mad props to my loved ones who have always understood this.

From yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-07/health/ct-met-chronic-fatigue--20100607_1_chronic-fatigue-syndrome-xmrv-autism

"Can you pick a favorite color from a thousand shades of gray?"--Joe Pernice, "Say Goodnight to the Lady" by the Pernice Brothers

Today's events have reached vast crevices and in some cases, been wholly inexplicable.

All one can do is keep writing.

In a world that is often...

...unfathomable, slipshod and erratic, some mornings it is best to reach for the blackberry truffles.

How Botswana's government and citizens successfully mobilized to contain the worst fall-out from AIDS:

While the news isn't click-your-heels great--tragically, one in four Botswanans is HIV-positive--it's hugely invigorating the country defied the World Health Organizations projections and is treating HIV rapidly and effectively.

From the Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-04/in-saturday-is-for-funerals-unity-dow-and-max-essex-show-how-botswana-beats-aids/

Defying the boundaries of logic and displaying the reasoning skills of single-cell organisms:

From yesterday's New York Times, "Before Oil Spill, It Was Unclear Who Was in Charge of Rig".

Excerpt:

"As a result, deepwater rigs operate under an ad hoc system of exceptions. The deeper the water, the further the exceptions stretch, not just from federal guidelines but also often from company policy."

More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06rig.html?hp

RIP, sir:

I'm not a huge sports nut, but John Wooden was a sage and his words resonate. A compilation:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5249709

Two birds; one stone:

Put BP in charge of detaining aid to Gaza and let the Israeli military oversee oil stoppage.

It's been a morning of hippie-wrangling:

I skew left, obviously, but find it incredibly irksome when those on the left condemn "Americans" as if our nation of 300 million individuals is a monolith or as if they, too, aren't American.

Also, it's imbecilic and self-defeating to abdicate the "American" moniker to the far right.

How we approach death...

...says everything about how we approach life.

As horrifyingly often as we read stories like these...

...do they ever become comprehensible?

A gunman has killed twelve in Cumbria (northwest England). One was his friend. The other 11 were strangers he shot randomly. There are 30 different crime scenes so far and he is still at large:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/10219655.stm

[Update at 7:15 p.m. PST. Friends, neighbors and acquaintances of the assailant, who has since killed himself, report he was an outwardly stable and affable man. No discernible motive so far:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/10216923.stm]

It's futile, of course...

...to think this way, but the wrong ones are dead.

Re the newly launched criminal probe:

BP's legal fees are going to top the Vatican's.

We should call it the BP oil...

..."eruption".

Referring to it as a "spill" at this point is like calling pneumonia a "cold".