Underwear Bomber Changes Plea to Guilty

In a surprise move, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, the accused underwear bomber who tried to take out a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day 2009, switched to a guilty plea on all counts today in Detroit federal court. He is representing himself (i.e., pro se) in the trial.

Timing of Iran Terror Plot Announcement

Is it a coincidence that the Justice Department released the info about the alleged Iranian plot against the Saudi ambassador right around the time that AG Holder was about to be subpoenaed by Congressman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the Fast and Furious investigation? Is it possible that the administration held this indictment for political purposes or are we being too cynical?

Strange New Respect for the Tea Party

Politicians flip flop all the time, and the media seems to be following suit. After initially dismissing the movement and then trying to smear the Tea Party with fake allegations, have you noticed how the media echo chamber is trying to validate the Occupy Wall Street by making comparisons to the Tea Party? Any parallel is particularly inappropriate in that the Tea Party wants less government handouts while OWS demands more.

The Daily Caller noticed another aspect to the coverage:

Mark Meckler, the co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, struck a similar note, saying that when the tea party protests first began, “we were ignored, mocked, and then attacked by the media” and “called ‘Astroturf,’ ‘fringe,’ ‘racists’ and ‘Nazis.’”

“Yet today, the leftist media seemingly cheers for a group of lawbreaking miscreants who have openly committed a variety of illegal acts,” Meckler said.

Boston Red Sox Like Fried Chicken and Beer

Like a lot of people, we have to admit that fried chicken is one of our guilty pleasures. That doesn't justify professional athletes in the midst of trying to qualify for the playoffs eating fast-food fried chicken, playing video games, and swilling beer during games as the Red Sox starting pitchers apparently did during the team's September collapse. This revealing Boston Globe article also among other things identifies some serious personal problems that may have distracted former manager Terry Francona from coming to grips with disarray in his clubhouse.

The story of Boston’s lost September unfolds in part as an indictment of the three prized starters. But the epic flop of 2011 had many faces: a lame-duck manager, coping with personal issues, whose team partly tuned him out; stars who failed to lead; players who turned lackluster and self-interested; a general manager responsible for fruitless roster decisions; owners who approved unrewarding free agent spending and missed some warning signs that their $161 million club was deteriorating.

Here is CGI studio Next Media Animation's take on the Red Sox September downfall:

Speaking of takeout (or "takeaway," as they call it in Britain) food and related issues, the woman in this U.K. video apparently freaked out over customer service (which can be spotty) in a KFC restaurant because she was denied extra butter.