WIN OF THE AFTERNOON: In the middle of this monster Palin Chaos Theory post, commenter-person Alaska Girl reminds us why Sarah Palin’s latest “I’m gonna take my ball and go home” move is standard Wasilla Snowbilly behavior: “She didn’t finish her term as mayor, stepping down to run for Lt. Governor. She didn’t finish her term on the petroleum board ethics panel, she resigned in protest and then ran for Governor. She doesn’t want the office, she just likes running for office. She doesn’t want (can’t actually) accomplish anything, she just wants to talk about it.”

PUBLIC EXECUTION: We warned “Miller” never to show his link-whoring fraud face around here again, but he did anyway, and now he is banned permanently & forever. Boo Miller! Miller’s the worst!

WIN OF THE AFTERNOON: In some post about something or other, a potential human called “Bill” tapped out a comment so weird and confusing that we cannot figure out if he’s a libtard or a wingnut or what! Of course he thinks Wonkette is a “she,” which is pretty normal for these drive-bys, but he gets the Invisible Trophy anyway, because he drove the conversation, off a four-foot cliff, into a cat box. MORE »

It sure was Christmas morning for racists on the Fox News commenter forum today! MORE »

BAN-HAMMER OF THE GODS: Folks, things have become a bit intolerable in our previously fun & funny comments section. You should know better, etc., but for the sake of Good Manners we’re going to repeat some very basic rules. MORE »

Marcus “Black-Chop” Epstein (someone come up with a better nickname!), seen here with drunk popinjay Christopher Hitchens at one of Reason magazine’s monthly medieval blood orgies, will not enroll at UVA law school this fall, according to the university’s Dean of Admissions in reply to queries from TPM and, more reliably, a Wonkette commenter. And what’s this! And this! [TPM]

WIN OF THE AFTERNOON: In response to this post about bulbous adulterer crybaby Newt Gingrich twit-bitching about Sonia Sotomayor while he was visiting Auschwitz (!) today, Wonkette commenter GuruKalehuru offered this sad assessment of America’s dumbest fad for old people: “This twitter thing is going to be like the new ‘It was the alcohol talking.’ Or it should.”

It’s just plain great to have the official White House photographer putting stuff on Flickr all the time — it is great for democracy, it is great for voyeurs, and it is especially great for independent websites lacking the budget for, say, an Associated Press membership. But, because Flickr is technically “part of the Internet,” these noble images from the White House have a completely typical wasteland of comments beneath each picture. Why does the Internet hate anything nice? MORE »

NO WE DID NOT BAN YOU (YET): We don’t know what’s going on with the comments, either. But we have our comment boxes again, on our various machines, across this great land. HEADQUARTERS is maybe working on the “can’t comment at Wonkabout” problem? Okay here is a fun challenge: If you can comment, but couldn’t before, please explain what happened, in the comments, and then we’ll have TECH SUPPORT read these comments, the end?

• ONLINE COMMENTERS ARE GENERALLY STUPID AND RUDE: Virginia Heffernan looks at comments on the Washington Post and finds their authors uninformed, mean-spirited, and unwilling to engage in anything resembling an adult argument. Thank you, Wonkette Commentariat, for at least being stupid and rude in a fun way. [New York Times]

Apparently your Wonkette was depicted this way on Anderson Cooper’s show last night, as part of the “angry left” along with Daily Kos and, uh, the Washington Post. Really? We’ve always thought of ourselves as WARBLOGGERS. The pull quote CNN uses, of the word “Mad” repeated three times (this is how CNN indicates that the Angry Left is “mad” about something), comes from a Kev-O-Tron comment that was actually written, “mad mad mad.” So CNN misquoted Kev-O-Tron, IS ALL. Anyway, enjoy Gitmo, Kev-O-Tron! [CNN]