The Occasional Observer

as Rush would say.

I just love this headline from Yahoo! News:

• Climate change led to Neanderthals' demise, scientists say

You can kind of imagine the discussion that went into picking this headline:

Ben Bradlee: "OK, boys, we've got nothing to lead with. Nothing. This one headline looks promising but it's incomplete: Something led to Neanderthal's demise."

Naive intern: "Do we know what scientists think killed the Neanderthal?"

Han Solo: "Look kid, scientists are a dime a dozen. Just write your headline and we'll find one who supports us."

Kieth Olbermann: "George W Bush killed the Neanderthal. And then became a Neanderthal to cover it up. How stupid. How deviously genius."

Woodward: "I had an off-the-record sit down with the GEICO cave men, and they assured me that the Neanderthal are indeed alive and well. I have a second source that confirmed via negative consent."

Rosie: "What a load of bull. Figures I'm in a room full of straight white men. The answer is obvious: our culture of intolerance killed the Neanderthal."

Bradlee: "Compelling."

Sen. Reid: "That is not compelling. I can't sell that to the independent voter. It's our culture of corruption that killed the Neanderthal."

Algore: "I'd prefer to stick to my, er, the facts. As such, I've brought along 25 copies of An Inconvenient Truth. If you'll quickly turn to page 78, I'd like you take a look at some of the hypothesized charts showing global mean temperature change over 1000 year intervals. I think you'll find that when the Neanderthal began moving from cooking meat over fire pits to using coal-based BBQ pits, global temperatures began changing radically."

Han Solo: "Hokie science and ancient scare tactics are no match for a good headline at your side."

Bradlee: "Good point, Han. What are you getting at Al?"

Olbermann: "O'Reilly killed the Neanderthal?"

Algore: "It's climate change that killed the Neanderthal. Now if you'll move along to page 79..."

Bradlee: "Thanks Al. We're good. I think we've got our headline. Senator?"

Reid [rummaging through his man-purse]: "I think I've got my stamp in here somewhere..."