BREAKING MUST CREDIT GERRYCANAVAN.BLOGSPOT.COM: David Cross is pretty funny.

Been busy today. Here are links.

* Pam Spaulding talks about the Durham City Council meeting last night at which a pro-same-sex marriage resolution was passed.

* "In the future, a famous person will die every fifteen minutes."

* More bad news for Republican Chris Christie as a nonpartisan ethics group, NJ-CREW, has now called for an investigation into his time as U.S. Attorney. He's also facing criticism over unreported interest from a loan made to current staffers at the U.S. Attorney office.

* The Obama White House says reports of the death of the public option are greatly exaggerated. (No word yet on the pubic option.)

* David Cross was funny last night on the Daily Show.

* Mad Men footnotes.

* Xenophobia for Dummies: A District 9 Primer. Of particular interest are the historical details surrounding apartheid-era District 6. Via this AskMe, with more.

* Meanwhile, the usually-more-astute Spencer Ackerman denies that America is anything like those nasty racists in District 9's Johannesburg. What's a million Iraqis give or take?

* And the absolute worst news of all time: "Arrested Development movie is nowhere near happening."

Jeffrey Tambor: Arrested Development movie is "a go."

On the red carpet, Jeffrey told me he just spoke to Mitch and the movie is a go! He says Mitch Hurwitz spoke to him this week and while he didn’t know when the start date was, he said, ”when the writer/director calls you it’s a pretty good sign.”

When Olbermann reported this a few minutes ago, he confirmed that David Cross had also gotten a call.

There is a God.

Late night.

* 'Our Phony Economy': Why measuring GDP doesn't tell us much of anything we need to know. In Harper's, via MeFi.

The purpose of an economy is to meet human needs in such a way that life becomes in some respect richer and better in the process. It is not simply to produce a lot of stuff. Stuff is a means, not an end. Yet current modes of economic measurement focus almost entirely on means. For example, an automobile is productive if it produces transportation. But today we look only at the cars produced per hour worked. More cars can mean more traffic and therefore a transportation system that is less productive. The medical system is the same. The aim should be healthy people, not the sale of more medical services and drugs. Now, however, we assess the economic contribution of the medical system on the basis of treatments rather than results. Economists see nothing wrong with this. They see no problem that the medical system is expected to produce 30 to 40 percent of new jobs over the next thirty years. “We have to spend our money on something,” shrugged a Stanford economist to the New York Times. This is more insanity. Next we will be hearing about “disease-led recovery.” To stimulate the economy we will have to encourage people to be sick so that the economy can be well.

* Springfield Punx Simpsonizes celebrities and superheroes. At right: Tobias Fünke.

* Al Giordano says Tim Kaine is growing on him for VP.

The number one rule in choosing a vice presidential nominee is "first, do no harm." If you're a presidential nominee, you don't want a running mate that will distract from you, commit gaffes, speak off-message, or that secretly thinks he or she is too good to be number two.

And the second rule is, "then, do some good." You want a VP that will reinforce your messages and make voters more comfortable with you.

Kaine is so far passing both tests with flying colors.

I'm not there yet—as I've mentioned before, just about everything I hear about Kaine turns me off—but Al's instincts have never steered me wrong. I guess we'll see.

* What are the essential reads in literary fantasy? Personally I'd have to start my list with heavy-hitters from the twentieth century (and my bookshelf) like Kafka, Borges, García Márquez, and Calvino...

* Mission accomplished, corporations! Wal-Mart employee voluntarily enforces her entirely false belief that "copyright lasts forever."

* And will Burn After Reading, the new Coen Brothers comedy, be the new greatest movie of all time? All signs point to yes:

Arrested Development: The Movie: it's real, per Jason Bateman on KO:



The pessimist in me worries that this will only ruin the world's most perfect TV show, but I'm willing to take that chance. Via MeFi.

Here's the faux Special Comment they reference in the interview, which I'd missed at the time:

Friday night is stupid YouTube night.

* News of a new David Cross/Bob Odenkirk HBO series brings a MetaFilter thread full of classic Mr. Show videos.

* Asking random celebrities who would win in a fight, a minotaur with a trident or a centaur with a crossbow. Via MeFi.

* There Will Be Vader.

(The centaur, obviously.)

Jan. 2 is traditionally the day where I link to things on the Internets. This one is no exception.

* Via MeFi, David Cross attempts to explain why it's okay that he participated in the awful-looking Alvin and the Chipmunks remake.

* New blog Paleo-Future promises "a look into the future that never was." Sold! It's in my RSS reader now.

* My good friend Tim over at Bitter Laughter waxes nostalgic about Disney World's Carousel of Progress, and also concludes that Huckabee is sort of frightening.

* And in New Hampshire's Union Leader, Barack Obama puts forth the case for Barack Obama.

The last David Cross link for a while is this two-pronged riff on heaven and squagels from his 2002 comedy album, Shut Up, You F***ing Baby! Please don't watch this at work. It's not safe for work.

Reaction Jackson Tuesday:

* Steve says my picture of the Mona Lisa puts him in mind of this YouTube video of five hundred years of female portraits in 2 minutes.

*Shankar links in the comments to David Cross's Open Letter to Larry the Cable Guy.

* Everyone in the world is talking about the creation mususem.

* Warning: soft drinks are seriously bad for you. I'm two months dry (de-fizzed?) and I'm starting to not miss the delicious taste... all that much. The first time I stopped drinking soda I went nine months before I relapsed, and I've bounced six-months-on, six-months-off since then—but this time I want to stay off the stuff for good.

This is surely the most juvenile thing I've ever posted, but we've been watching Mr. Show on DVD and this completely idiotic sketch had me in tears.

And while we're on the subject, who knew David Cross used to date Chloe?