Bring me the head of Saddam Hussein.

The head from a damaged statue of Saddam Hussein is on display at the Kentucky State Fair, piquing the curiosity of many tourists but angering some who say it's in poor taste.

Alongside the glass-encased bust is a small Iraqi flag and description of how soldiers captured the statue. The display also includes photographs of the intact statue and tank fire striking it.

Sweet.

The bust was first shown for Independence Day at the George S. Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor at Fort Knox, and will return there after the fair.

Note to self: add Patton Museum to the tour list, along with the Frazier Arms Museum downtown in Louisville.

Now for the dumb shit:

Francene Cucinello, a Louisville talk-radio host, said a state fair is not the appropriate place for a war relic "that represents so many American and Iraqi deaths in the quest for freedom."

"A museum has the reverence that's necessary. It's too important to have on display at a fair," said Cucinello, who said her callers are about evenly split on the issue.

Nonsense. Who the hell even knew about the existence of the Patton museum? Bring the story to the people. Let them marvel. Remind them what we're doing over there and that we won the damn war. Reverence is vastly overrated.

"How would we feel if another country was gloating over its wartime successes? America's too good for that," she said.

I'd say that depends on the gloater and the war. If it's Britain gloating over Bonaparte or any of the Allied powers gloating over Germany and Japan, I'm very much on board with that. As for whether America is "too good" to gloat over military successes, perhaps we should stop celebrating Independence Day out of consideration for the feelings of the British.

[From Angela, who saw the item in question today. She recommends the deep-fried Oreos if you're going to the fair.]

Note to John McCain

...who I'm pretty sure doesn't read this blog: You're about thisclose to being in one of the highly ironic MoveOn.Org anti-SwiftVets ads, buckaroo. John Kerry's service in Vietnam is a legitimate topic of discussion due to the fact that John Kerry has made it the centerpiece of his campaign (in fact, it constitutes pretty much the entire scope of his campaign.) That makes every public utterance he's ever made on the topic subject to intense scrutiny and public debate, and rightly so. I find the idea that you think it shouldn't be more than a bit disturbing, in terms of free speech and the vigorous exercise thereof.

Unusual injury log.

Inadvertently stabbed self in leg with frozen meat yesterday. Top that.

The sink is a dead giveaway.

Withnail alive and well in NYC, living under the pseudonym Mike Toole, apparently.