The darn funny Pearl Before Swine has just started a new storyline that draws on energy extraction.

Hydrofracking does NOT contaminate the aquifer with rodents.

And how is that Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! can turn around a strip about TSA screenings in less than two weeks? Impressive literary reference, too.

Meanwhile, Black Eyed Peas are everywhere in an Oprah sort of way with their new release, “The Beginning.” As the ultimate consumer product, the group is comfortable dropping the names of other consumer products. From The Washington Post’s review today, a citation of lyrics from the song “XOXOXO,” which the reviewer hates, hates, hates: “Girl you stole my heart like a klepto/Butterflies in my tummy need Pepto/Bismol.”

That’s got to be good for sales.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for a revival of Carter’s Little Liver Pills as a universal cultural reference. America’s too bilious these days.

So a financial crisis flummoxes Washington and the blog goes down. If we didn’t laugh…. 

From the Reaction Round-Up, “For Many Americans, Fear and Distrust Run High.”

Alberto Tumitati, 47, a maitre d’ at an Italian restaurant in downtown Washington, said he found the House vote unsettling.

“The government should be helping the economy in any way it can — big guy or small guy,” he said, leaning against his Humvee near 19th and L streets NW. “If the big companies are in trouble, then we’re all in trouble. We need a strong economy. Why do they want to screw it up?”

Possible reporter thought: Well, yeah, but he’s a maitre d’ driving a Humvee. If only Americans lived within their own means instead of indulging in conspicuous consumption, why, we could have avoided all this.

Out on the silly fringe of nuttiness, the trial lawyers jump the loanshark with a news release: “U.S. CHAMBER CREATED CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS, NEW REPORT SAYS.” Shame on them.

Meanwhile, Mark Steyn has words of wisdom, as always: “If the entire global economy is so vulnerable that only the stalwart action of Barney Frank stands between it and ten years of soup kitchens, can it, in fact, be saved?

Meanwhile, the Brewster Rockit comic strip is consistently wry. And timely!

In other speculative news….

“Carbon Sale Raises $40 Million”

In the absence of a federal government program to cap the amount of carbon dioxide that power plants pump out of their smokestacks, 10 Northeastern states established the initiative to set their own limits and force all fossil fuel plants to buy allowances to cover excess emissions.