Muppets and Metacommericals

I think kip_w linked to this a few days ago, but in case you missed it:

Here's a filmed presentation by Muppets, Inc. showcasing their work on the "La Choi Dragon" campaign for La Choi canned Chow Mein, 1966. Five minutes of behind-the-scenes humor, an early appearance by Rolf the Dog, and three pretty funny commercials.

( Howdy! )

Simple answers to simple questions

supergee asks,

Khrushchev's visit didn't seem to bother us as much as Ahmadinejad's has. Have we become a bed-wetter nation?

Answer: Yes.

Longer answer, a la digby:

9/11 . . was when Henry [Hyde] and the rest of his stalwart defenders of the rule of law promptly wet their pants and then let their president use the Constitution to clean up the puddle.

Corruption can be classic

I observed to nancylebov some years ago that I had pretty much always understood that totalitarian governments were inherently corrupt, but I hadn't realized that corrupt governments always trended towards totalitarianism--because the one thing a corrupt government cannot risk is the freedom of the people to complain about the corruption.

Brought to mind by james_nicoll's posting of the 2007 Transparency International rankings of the most corrupt nations in the world. The US came in #20 least-corrupt (out of 179 countries rated), its worst showing in the ten years of surveys on the site, down from a peak of #14 in 2000.