White-Haired Obama Has "Complete Confidence" In Eric Holder

Ken Layne · 05/16/13 12:31PM

Barack Obama and a visiting foreigner just had a press conference, but nobody cares about the other country (Turkey?) because there are scandals afoot in Washington, so everything's about Eric Holder always doing terrible things. Eric Holder is Obama's friend. So he won't be fired unless all of this doesn't go away in the next couple of news cycles.

(Update) Kai, the Internet's Hero Hitchhiker, Now Wanted for Murder

Cord Jefferson · 05/16/13 12:06PM

You might remember Kai, Pauly Shore's Encino Man character come to life, from earlier this year when he helped save a Fresno woman who was being attacked by a violent racist. Kai's chill-bro demeanor and quick thinking in the face of danger—he beat the crazed man down with hatchet blows to his head—briefly made him the internet's new favorite meme. But was the drifter hero everyone was celebrating also a deadly maniac himself?

Please, Walk Down the Escalator

Hamilton Nolan · 05/16/13 11:54AM

Let's just say for argument's sake that you enter a New York City subway station and step onto an escalator that's headed down towards the train tracks. At that moment, you must choose one of two clear courses of action: walk down the escalator, or stand still. Put more precisely, you can either walk down the escalator, or you deserve to be pushed down the escalator.

Poor Joe Biden Can't Get Anybody To Buy His Book

Ken Layne · 05/16/13 11:46AM

Everybody claims to love Joe Biden, but in fact nobody wants to hear his story. They just want to objectify him as the "cool old creep" who somehow became vice president. If people truly cared about Joe Biden, he would've made a lot more than "less than $201" on book sales.

Leah Beckmann · 05/16/13 11:23AM

The ceiling of a shoe factory in Cambodia collapsed this morning, killing two and injuring several (some sources are reporting three killed). This just a day after the search for survivors of the building collapse that killed over a thousand people in Bangladesh last month was called off.

Study: Market Economies Make Us Evil

Hamilton Nolan · 05/16/13 11:14AM

You're a good person, right? You have morals. You would never betray your ethical code. Unless there was a bidding war for your morals— in that case, you could scarcely resist selling out. It's human nature.

Paintings Made of Money Shatter Records at History's Biggest Auction

Maggie Lange · 05/16/13 09:57AM

At an auction held at Christie's last night, a record-breaking $495 million was spent on paintings, surpassing individual records for works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, and Roy Lichtenstein. The chairman of Christie's Americas, Marc Porter, said this was the biggest art auction in history. Some might wonder about the buyers—what are these people, made of money? Nope, just the paintings, paintings literally made of money and jewels.