Tales from Uncle Mike

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Spoilers - Who Dies? What Happens? If you are one of the 12 people who isn't infatuated with J.K. Rowling's little Brit warlock, Harry Potter, you can click above to get the general upshot of the ending of the seventh and last book (besides the inevitable graphic novels, comics, cartoon shows and online game). Basically, a whole bunch of minor characters and all the villains get killed off. Oh, and a couple of sidekicks, including an owl. Apparently, Rowling also kills off quite a few teachers and kids at the Hogwart's Satanic School for the Precociously Possessed. The books may have gotten progressively darker, but fear no philosophical abyss; the prose remains 8th-grade level in both vocabulary and morality, and justice is dealt out with TV movie probity. The saddest finality is that, with the end of the series, the movies will no longer provide employment for every Equity union actor in the UK.

Here you'll find the Associated Press fact piece on an obscure American legislative process that will take place once again, due to Dubya's most recent shameless desecration of the Constitution. It's a nice little "Q&A" article that, to its journalistic credit, manages to avoid the question "What the flippin' f%$@ is going on in this country?" Contempt of Congress: What Is It? After reading the article, one realizes that no matter who does or does not testify, whatever the result, Dubya (supposes that) he has the power to simply nullify the consequences via executive dictat. Should we expect otherwise?

"I Take the iPhone Home" - TIME : "The iPod was the accessory of the hip cognoscenti. Will the pricey, sought-after iPhone become a mere status symbol, the kind of thing that marks you as an overpaid Wall Street jerkwad?" Answer: Yes

There are a lot of ways to tie the beginnings of Christianity to the rites of pagan sun worship that came before. This video points out a lot of those ways. But since it's set to The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun", even if you think it's blasphemy, it's still quite pleasant.