Some seriously U.S. wars updates

When it comes to wars, The Guys are starting to overstretch our resources. At last count we’re engaged on four fronts and with some real heavyweights, like robots, every animal in the world, extraterrestrial intelligence and the entire concept of education.

The U.S. fights a lot more wars–albeit against punier opponents like potheads and religious fanatics–so sometimes it’s hard to keep track of what our benevolent leaders are waging against. To keep you informed, we bring you A Seriously U.S. Wars Update.

Afghanistan
It turns out there may be more to Afghanistan than poppies and Muhammad fanboys who–like our own fanboys–have poor hygiene and fear the touch of women. U.S. geologists have discovered large untapped deposits of copper, iron and lithium and believe this could help draw more international aid. Because when we think of improving living conditions for a people that have been impoverished by unchecked religion, war and corruption, we think of mining.

Iraq
After over seven years of searching for chemical weapons in Iraq, U.S. forces have finally found them.

Illegal Immigration
According to an expert witness, Arizona is “the gateway to America for drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and crime.” That was Gov. Jan Brewer, who is experimenting with a new method of curbing illegal immigration: paint your state as a hellhole so that nobody will enter it.

So, in summation, America is winning!

You Missed It: Dem bones edition

It’s October. That means it’s time for Octoberfest. It also means time for playoff baseball and football is just starting to get interesting. For those reasons I am significantly more comfortable now with the fact that summer is over. I still wear my Speedo around the house, though. If you were busy running from one natural disaster or another this week, odds are you missed it.

Look what we found
It’s been a tough week for Lucy, the oldest known human ancestor skeleton. First, Lucy of the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” dies (the song was playing on the radio when archaeologists discovered Lucy, hence her name), now she’s not even the oldest skeleton anymore. Scientists went public this week with the discovery of Ardi, who is 1.2 million years older than Lucy. She is also named after a Beatles song, though. “Ob Ardi, Ob Arda” was playing on the radio when she was found.

Keep your Worldwide Pants on
David Letterman shocked his audience last night when he announced he was the victim of an extortion attempt. He said about three weeks ago he got a package saying if he did not pay up, the person would make his sexual trysts with show employees known. According to reports, the extortion letter also included the Top Ten reasons why he should pay $2 million.

You have been poked by federal investigators
The U.S. Secret Service determined this week that a Facebook poll asking if President Barack Obama should be killed did not pose a threat to the president. Instead, the federal agency just found it as annoying as every other poll, quiz and game your friends try to send you on Facebook.

Dude extorts own mother, fails

OK everyone, I know that my last story probably isn’t the most feel good story of year. However, this one is, though more in a quasi-National Lampoon’s Vacation/Naked Gun subplot vein.

So there’s this dude. And this dude is hard up for money, because, y’know, economy. So what does he do? He tries to get 30 million yen by calling his mom up at 2 am after not coming home Friday night, claiming that he has her son held hostage and wants the money.

The 31 year old man didn’t come home to his mom. Let that sink in.

Mom, being the worrying parent she is, had already filed a missing persons report when he didn’t come home Friday night. She lets the police know, and mentions that it sounded like her son was the one on the phone. After five hours of police searching, they found him parked in a car down by the river. Police detained him, and the reason for all this?

“[H]e did it because he thought his misappropriation of company funds was about to be discovered, and because he wanted to cause some trouble for the company.”

Simultaneous failure attempts FTW.