short fiction - alive and well

I'm reading the July issue of Locus. I enjoyed Dozois's review of short fiction as usual, but I was amused by his description of Paul Cornell's "One of Our Bastards Is Missing" as a Ruritanian romance written by Charles Stross. Later he describes Paul Di Filippo's "Providence" as "...a grimmer Wall-E, or what Thomas the Tank Engine might be like if he had a flamethrower and wanted to score drugs..."

Wall-E as Killdozer?
I'd go see that.

Democratic spines

Here is what how Salon.com says Barney Frank responded, during a townhall meeting, to a protestor carrying a poster of Obama as Hitler.

"When you ask me that question, I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked. "You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis ... Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it."

It's nice to see Democratic politicians endowed with a spine.