In today's bizarre but beautiful news from the Seattle P-I, three of our current political leaders have just "entered the natural history books as a coterie of slime-mold beetles. Two former Cornell University entomologists who admire the politicians named three newly discovered species A. bushi, A. cheneyi and A. rumsfeldi."
Apparently, this is a pretty common event -- scientists have to name millions of insects and understandably run out of creative new names. Nelson Mandela has been immortalized as a sea slug, for example.
According to an Aussie scientist, "There are only so many times one can use the species name Australis or Grandis before the thought, 'maybe I should name this one after Joey Ramone' goes through your head."
Some touchy liberals are apparently taking offense at the new beetles. Personally, I like the image of a little A. bushi munching contentedly on a slime mold, oblivious to the world around him...a dubious honor, methinks.
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