Here’s Vice President Joe Biden shaking hands with a Democratic fat cat at a fundraiser here in Columbus, Ohio, last Thursday:

I’m the fat cat.

(I wonder if a girdle would help…)

Jon Huntsman is the only candidate in that whole group that believes when an apple falls from a tree, it hits the ground.

Actually, I think Mitt Romney secretly believes that, too. But he would never dare to say it out loud.

Update: Three days after Reiner made this observation, Huntsman dropped out of the race. A man with his views has no place in the modern Republican Party.

He shared life lessons:

Update:

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams wrote:

I once thought his success was mostly a matter of luck. Anyone can be at the right place at the right time.

But then he did it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

He was my only hero.

Links to many more tributes in the comments at TidBITS.

A good movie is about something, and also about something else.

And a great movie can be enjoyed even if you only get part of what it’s about.

Would have been, but Emmett Till was murdered when he was 14 years old.

A negro boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi, he may not have known that there were places in 20th-Century America still untouched by civilization. He carelessly violated one of the countless “unwritten rules” of the savage Mississippi culture, and for that he was kidnapped and brutally tortured to death.

His body was found three days later, horribly mutilated. His mother insisted on an open-casket funeral. She said, “There was just no way I could describe what was in that box. No way. And I just wanted the world to see.” Photos of the body were published in JET magazine (Warning: the photos are extremely disturbing) and other publications around the country.

In retrospect, it seems that the photos opened a lot of eyes to the nature of race relations in the American South. It was no longer possible to be blind. It was no longer possible to look away.

A little more than three months after Emmett Till was killed, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, launching the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

It seems to me that the Civil Rights Movement is bookended with the murders of children: Emmett Till in 1955, and four little girls in 1963.

It wasn’t all that long ago. Emmett Till would be just 70 now.

I was seated way back, at a table far from the podium. I was close enough that when a well-known statewide official or candidate rose to speak, I could say, “Ooh, that’s really him!” but distant enough that I felt like a spectator rather than a participant.

As I made my way out at the end of the event, I found myself walking right past John Glenn, one of the first American astronauts. I eagerly shook his hand. He said something like, “How are you?” but I couldn’t say anything in reply. I was in awe.

Today is John Glenn’s 90th birthday.

Since my first encounter with him, he became a U.S. Senator from Ohio. After he retired from the Senate, he flew on the Space Shuttle and became the oldest human being to go into space.

Happy Birthday, Senator Glenn. I’m still in awe.

Click the image or the link for the full cartoon.

It doesn’t matter if you believe in global warming.

Global warming believes in you.

Reality always seems to have a way of grabbing your attention, even if it’s not always in time to allow you to alter reality.

After watching it, I feel compelled to channel the spirit of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson:

Maybe God is saying, “You know, I made Mexicans, too.”

I think I do a pretty good impression of those guys, not because I have the same message, but because I use the same methodology.

I have a political bone to pick with Arizona, so when a disaster strikes there, I seize upon it to say, “God agrees with me. Therefore, I’m right! Congratulations, me!”

I’ve read a lot of Thurber stories, and seen a lot of his cartoons, but until now, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the sound of his voice. Here he explains the origin of one of his more baffling cartoons to Alastair Cooke:

(Via New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff.)

Apple electrified the tech industry this week with its iCloud announcement.

This photo has nothing to do with that.

Boston.com has a collection of photos documenting an eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile. Pretty amazing stuff, including a couple views from space.

Nobody wants to live entirely without hope, you know…

They’re standing with one of the single most enduring icons of popular culture, but nobody knows it yet.

Imagine being one of the actors who was to become an enduring icon of popular culture.