Midday Thingy

Not much time today---spent most of my lunch hour eating and returning a lousy book than I did blogging---but in the last few minutes available to me I have to share this post from Matthew Yglesias, who's guest-blogging today on Talking Points Memo. As Laura Rozen points out at Washington Monthly, the White House and its GOP followers have started raising the alarmism about Iran, even though the graphics don't always support the stated threat.

So download the House Intelligence report from the Talking Points link, turn to page 15, and be amazed: as Yglesias notes, there's a series of rings shooting out of Kuwait (yes, it should be Iran, but I think Kuwait makes it easier to see)---four rings, for four missiles. The fourth ring looks absolutely terrifying in range and scope ... unless you notice that it's the theoretical range for a missile that doesn't technically exist. Wouldn't that be the kind of information you'd put in a dotted line or a different font or something?

On a happier note, I'm planning two Incidental Poems for later: one about Pluto no longer being a planet, and one about the fact that cows moo with local accents. More later.