Yesterday the department of agriculture put their hands in the pockets of their overalls, looked rather sheepishly at the ground and kicked a clump of sod. Then they admitted they’ve paid over a billion dollars in subsidies to farmers who were, well, dead. The result is my second favorite quote of the year:

“It’s unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming,”

My favorite quote, of course, is “We have not released giant badgers in Basra.”