Last Auto News Blog: cotd

Those who came to the Internet after 2001 may not realize "The Hampster Dance" was once a fad and therefore not grasp the sensitivity an entire generation of people who once possessed Geocities accounts and Gateway computers have to the sped up version of "White Stop" from Walt Disney's Robin Hood. But there it is. A tribute to how easily amused we all are. The site was designed as part of a competition between Deidre LeCarte and others to create the most-trafficked website. Deidre, obviously, destroyed. The site became a craze, generating thousands of views daily and plenty of annoyance among coworkers, friends and neighbors of individuals who felt the need to fire up the site on a daily basis. Imagine if the competition had been to find a cure for cancer? The Hampster Dance (note, she didn't even spell hamster correctly) was one of the first Internet memes and more came as we found out in the 2009 Nissan 370z pricing story, wherein TurboWeasel named a few others.

SHIFT_ like it's going out of style.

I'm already sick of this meme.

In Soviet Russia, car shift_s you and your monorail cat to the WTFBBQ where a dragon gets it but then photoshop buffs it right out.

O RLY?

[Webhamster.com, if you must]

Though there are serious disagreements over the enforcement of drug law violations, one area of growing consensus among Republicans and Democrats is the issue of mandatory minimum sentencing laws. A mandatory minimum essentially states that someone who commits a crime is sentenced to a minimum number of years in prison. The problem is this kind of policy doesn't allow judges to use their judgment to differentiate between low-level, non-violent drug users and high-level, violent criminals. The cost to society is great, both in terms of the price of imprisoning someone for ten years and in depriving a family of a mother or father. The most unfortunate aspect of mandatory minimums is they impose different, racially-biased minimums on crack and powder cocaine. Nick Hogan was released early from jail today after committing what was essentially a violent crime and was greeted by his sister, who has an obvious crack problem that Layabout couldn't help but notice.