After originating as a six-minute comedy sketch on Jackie Gleason’s Cavalcade of Stars five years earlier, “The Honeymooners” premiered 54 years ago today as a half-hour sitcom. Seeing as it’s managed to live on in our hearts and minds (not to mention in reruns, VHS, DVD, a crappy movie version with Cedric the Entertainer, and a thinly veiled cartoon “homage” in the form of the Flintstones) for the past 50+ years, it’s hard to believe it only lasted 39 episodes, broadcasting its final show less than a year after it premiered (though it did return in the form of comedy sketches in various Jackie Gleason variety-type shows and a few one-hour specials). I wonder if the Gotham Bus Company provided health insurance back in 1955? Since Ed Norton was a NYC municipal employee, presumably he and Trixie, at least, were covered (BTW, the NYC Sewage Workers local 1320 has been working without a contract since 2002).

What do you do if you’re the governor of a blood-thirsty state and faced with the fact that you’ve executed an innocent man? Well, if you’re Texas Governor Rick “The Secessionist” Perry, you stick your fingers in your ears and loudly proclaim “la-la-la-la-lah! I can’t hear you!”

A report concluding a faulty investigation led to a Texas man’s execution won’t be reviewed by a state board as planned Friday after Gov. Rick Perry abruptly removed three people from the panel, forcing the meeting’s cancellation.

Perry, who has said the execution was appropriate, replaced the head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and two of its eight other board members Wednesday. The upheaval on the commission came just 48 hours before it was to consider a report critical of the arson finding leading to Cameron Todd Willingham’s execution for the deaths of his three daughters in a 1991 fire.

Baltimore-based arson expert Craig Beyler, who was hired by the commission, concluded the arson finding was scientifically unsupported and investigators at the scene had “poor understandings of fire science.”

Craig, buddy, c’mon. Science? You’ll never get anywhere with that nonsense.

I really have no desire to live in Florida (too hot for me), but I’m tempted to move to its 8th District, just so I can vote for Alan Grayson, who appears to be the only Democrat out there with some semblance of a spine. You’ve no doubt seen Grayson giving a speech on the House floor, declaring that the Rebublican health care plan is premised on the idea that sick Americans should “die quickly” (note to Democrats; this is how you counter the “Death Panels” lie – by telling the truth about these godless hypocrites and their mindless sycophants).

Grayson followed up with an appearance on CNN, where he again spoke the truth, calling Republicans “foot-dragging, knuckle-dragging Neanderthals who think they can dictate policy to America by being stubborn,” insisting that he’s just “saying what everyone else has been thinking but no one else has been saying.” As for whether he should apologize?

Apologize? I’m not the one who should be apologizing. They should apologize to America.

Amen, brother.