Pun Salad

… and I ain't got nobody:

• I occasionally pick up the dead-trees student newspaper at the University Near Here when I get on campus. A recent issue had an ad plugging an upcoming speaker, asking "IS THE TEA PARTY RACIST?"

  I believe my exact thoughts were: "Oh oh."

  But, as it turns out, the speaker is Niger Innis, he's sponsored by the College Republicans, and he'll be speaking Monday night at the MUB, although not for free. It's a refreshing change from the usual ideological monoculture at UNH.

  (Mr Innis almost certainly encountered more racism at MSNBC than at your average Tea Party event.)

• Perhaps the greatest punchline of all time is Shaw's: "We've already established what you are, ma'am. Now we're just haggling over the price." Don Boudreaux generalizes the joke to WaPo columnist Michael Gerson, who wrote a column objecting to ever-increasing nanny state intrusions. Gerson's right …

  But by supporting the ‘War on Drugs,’ Mr. Gerson discards his ability to stand on principle against the state’s nannying intrusions. Even if Mr. Gerson is correct that drug legalization will result in more “addiction” that “robs people of liberty,” why is it appropriate for government to stop me from losing my ‘liberty’ to addictive substances but not appropriate for government to stop me from losing my life to sodium or to transfats?

• An amusing paragraph from this AP story about the Obama administration's broken promises about improving government transparency:

  The administration has stalled even over records about its own efforts to be more transparent. The AP is still waiting — after nearly three months — for records it requested about the White House's "Open Government Directive," rules it issued in December directing every agency to take immediate, specific steps to open their operations up to the public.

  It's a story from last month, but irony ages well. (Via the Agitator.)

• Pun Salad would be remiss if it did not link to this very geeky visual pun. (Explanation here; via, as you might expect, GeekPress, which also noted useful instructions on how to make your own iPad.)