Thanks to ABC News, we now have a list of 20 top Internet cat videos.

Here's one for you kitten fans out there. It only has 65.6 million views as of this writing. Go figure.

Our love for Korean sensation PSY's "Gangnam Style" is well-documented around these parts.

So with that in mind, we bring you the political parody song of the season: "Mitt Romney Style"

Tonight, the public is invited to attend a panel discussion presented by the University of Arizona chapter of young Americans for Liberty, featuring liberal writer Glenn Greenwald, conservative lawyer and former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein and libertarian commentator Jacob Hornberger as the trio of disparate political opinions come together to discuss "The War on Terrorism, Civil Liberties, and the Constitution."

This discussion, moderated by Charleston City Paper columnist Jack Hunter, is part of a five-college tour, and will feature topics such as habeas corpus, the PATRIOT Act, drone warfare, torture, and will take a look at how the war on terror has affected the rights of U.S. Citizens.

The two-hour event begins at 7 p.m., and doors open at 6 p.m. It's free, and open to the public. For more information, check out YALiberty.org/tour

(Note: Crossposted from We Got Cactus)

This is the last of these reminders I'll subject you to, but this is the final notice that submissions are due tomorrow — Friday, Oct. 19 — if you're interested in participating in this year's Great Cover-Up.

This year's event will take place at Plush on Thursday, Dec. 13, Club Congress on Friday, Dec. 14, and the Rialto Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 15, and all proceeds will be donated to the Southern Arizona Artists and Musicians Healthcare Alliance (SAAMHA — formerly TAMHA), which you can read about here.

To submit an application, just send your band name, what type of music you normally play, your top three choices of acts you'd like to cover, contact info (name and email address or phone number) to [email protected].

And, in case you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, read all about the event here.

If you decide to go to Wat Buddhametta's monthly Thai buffet at 5 p.m., this Saturday, my suggestion is to arrive early. Last month's event was absolutely packed, and the line was still almost out the door nearly an hour after it started.

I wouldn't keep talking about this event if it wasn't so tasty, affordable ($10, free for kids 10 and younger) and, well, just plain awesome. There's more information about Wat Buddhametta over here.

Ron Barber and Martha McSally, opponents in the race for the open seat in Arizona's new Congressional District 2, met last night in Sierra Vista, in the first of two debates between the two. We have this account from reporter Bill Hess, of our sister publication, the Sierra Vista Herald.

Check out the story, as well as information regarding the second debate between Barber and McSally scheduled for Oct. 23 at the University of Arizona, below the jump.

So the ill-advised Arizona Daily Wildcat cartoon is now national news, at least in media and LGBT circles.

A Change.org petition that calls for the figurative heads of the Arizona Daily Wildcat cartoonist, editor and copy editor (Huh? Copy editors don't look at cartoons!) as of this writing has around 3,250 signatures. Jim Romenesko, the country's pre-eminent media blogger, had the debacle as his top story earlier today.

Well, as a newspaper editor, a former student journalist and a gay dude (by default, the one of the most-prominent gay journalists in this dusty little burg), I feel the need to share my two cents. And the summary of those two cents?

Everyone needs to calm the heck down here.

Let's consider some of the comments on our Facebook post about the issue.

The guy who wrote it got fired, cool. What about the editor who allowed it to be published? What about the publisher who allowed it to be published in his paper?

Yes, the cartoonist who did this cartoon was fired, and he probably deserved it. This toon crossed a line, to be sure, and crossing a line is OK, if that line-crossing is given proper context.

This strip did not do that. There was no context. It wasn't funny. And I am concerned that the fired cartoonist, D.C Parsons, doesn't yet understand all of that, based on his lame apology. He says, in part: "I have always used humor as a coping mechanism, much like society does when addressing social taboos. I do not condone these things; I simply don’t ignore them. I do sincerely apologize and sympathize with anyone who may be offended by my comics (I am often similarly offended by “Ralph and Chuck”), but keep in mind it is only a joke, and what’s worse than a joke is a society that selectively ignores its problems."

If society were ignoring its problems, D.C.—problems, like, say, bias against gay folks—your ass would not be figurative grass right now.

However, I think the editor and everyone else at the Wildcat should get a bit of break.

Folks, this is a student newspaper. That means that, at its heart, the Wildcat is a learning tool. Writers, cartoonists, editors and photographers who don't have experience go there to get experience. And when people are learning something as complex as journalism anew (and, yes, this shit is complex), they're gonna make mistakes.

That strip should not have run, and based on her apology, it seems that the Wildcat editor, Kristina Bui, gets that now.

Let's put this in context here. What's more likely: The Wildcat is staffed by tone-deaf homophobes, or it's staffed by overworked, unexperienced, semi-amateur journalists who, for whatever reason, really messed up here?

Here's another Facebook comment:

uh, this comic wasn't homophobic "in a way". it was homophobic and disgusting in EVERY WAY. STOP DOWNPLAYING THIS.

I gave our previous post on The Range an edit, and I was the one who inserted "in a way" into David Mendez's copy. Why?

Well, I am not sure this is full, complete homophobia . You know what's full, complete homophobia? Someone getting attacked outside of a gay bar simply because they're gay. Or legislation that targets gay folks simply because they're gay.

A cartoon by a kid that appears in a college newspaper? Somewhat damaging and unbelievably dumb, yes. Homophobic? Not necessarily. Again, look at the context.

Another comment:

BFD.

You know what? This is a big deal—and that's a very good thing. Lessons are being learned here, and I can promise you that the discussion of this matter—in college classrooms, at newspapers, etc—is happening right now. It's a BFD, folks, and I am happy about that.

South Park must give you all heart attacks.

This comment, from TW contributor Casey Dewey, misses a point that I think sums up this whole matter: If you're going to approach tough, controversial topics in a way that involves humor, you'd better do it well.

One of the reasons why South Park is so bloody brilliant is that Matt Stone and Trey Parker have an almost unparalleled knack at satirizing sensitive topics in a way that is funny and sends a message. (But even they, on occasion overreach—by, say, attempting to depict the prophet Muhammad in an episode, thereby subjecting employees at their network to legitimate threats of violence.) Same goes for the humor of George Carlin, Louis C.K. and other brilliant humor minds.

But for every Matt Stone or George Carlin, you'll have a Michael Richards, or now a D.C. Parsons. Funny, pointed satire is very, very hard to do.

Enough with the petitions and the gnashing of teeth. What happened here is that a college kid, who probably didn't exactly mean to be homophobic, tried to make a point with humor. He failed, badly, and got the punishment he deserved. And we all learned something as a result.

Tucson Weekly's cover story delves into Tea Party Republican Ally Miller's tendency to get the facts wrong when discussing Pima County.

Miller, who is facing Democrat Nancy Young Wright in the race to replace the retiring Ann Day on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, responded to an editorial by Thelma Grimes of the Explorer newspaper saying that Miller had a "Hulk Angry" attitude when dealing with people who point out that she's wrong on the facts.

Miller tries to defend her misstatements on county road spending by saying:

Let’s talk about the condition of the roads and the funding sources. I have researched the disposition of road repair (HURF) funds for the last 5 years. More than $80 million dollars was transferred out of the Department of Transportation during this time to pay bonds. (reference: Pima County finance reports). It appears the money went to pay bonds.

Miller is right that the money went to repay bonds—as the county is legally obligated to do voters approved a bond package in 1997 that would be repaid with HURF funds. We don't know how much "research" was required to uncover this obvious fact, but it's downright bizarre that Miller continues to harp on this as if there's something scandalous about it.

Here's the larger point: When Miller first started talking about county transportation spending, she didn't say that she was upset about using HURF funds to pay back bonds. She said that $345 million could not be accounted for. The Weekly looked into her claim and determined she was wrong. Miller then said we were dishonest and she would no longer talk to us. Then she stopped making her preposterous claim and switched over to inventing a scandal about HURF funds being used to pay back bonds—which she was also wrong about.

Put simply: Miller was called out for being wrong and rather than acknowledge that, she simply changed her story.

In her letter to the Explorer, Miller adds:

Taggart Romney, son of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, was interviewed by North Carolina radio station WPTF following the second Presidential debate, and was asked by host Bill Lumaye what it felt like to have President Barack Obama call his father a liar (starting at 00:35 here).

Tagg's response?:

"[you want to] jump out of your seat, rush the debate stage and take a swing at him"

Which isn't a brilliant response, particularly from a 42 year old man who should know better than to say something like that on the airwaves, considering that he's currently serving as an adviser on his father's campaign to be elected the President of the United States.

I can get why he felt that way — after all, no one who actually likes their father enjoys hearing him called a liar. It's an emotional thing. It happens. You don't talk about it on the radio, but it happens.

But this response from Salon.com's David Sirota takes the topic and (to borrow a phrase from Deadspin.com) abandons the damn yard with this absurd tangent about white privilege:

In a post-debate interview with a North Carolina radio station, Tagg was asked about his visceral reaction to President Obama, and he said his first thought was that he wanted to “jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the stage and take a swing at him.” He then laughed and added, “But you know you can’t do that because, well, first because there’s a lot of Secret Service between you and him.”

One of the hallmarks of White Privilege is the unquestioned and largely unchallenged assumption that white people can say heinous things about people of color without blowback or even mild criticism — things that people of color rarely dare to say about white people, for fear of serious retribution. Tagg — aka Mr. White Privilege — proves the point perfectly. He feels totally comfortable fantasizing about committing physical violence against an African American man. And remember, he’s not just any white guy pondering such grotesque dreams. On the contrary, he’s one of the public faces of a national presidential campaign appearing in a public media interview, meaning White Privilege has made him feel so comfortable airing such notions, that he didn’t hesitate to whimsically broadcast them to thousands of voters.

Seriously? I know that I'm a Hispanic staffer for a newspaper and website that tends to have a leftward lean, but even I'm of the opinion that this was just a stupid, stupid thing said by a son who wants to defend his father's honor.

There's nothing that suggests "white privilege" in his comment — I don't doubt that, had he been asked the same thing about hearing Joe Biden call his father a liar in a public forum, he'd have a similar response.

Tagg Romney needs to be more careful with what he says, and I don't doubt that he'll be shuffled behind curtains for some time while his father deflects questions about Tagg's comment by praising his passion. But to write that Romney said what he did because he's white and President Obama is black is so empty-headed it defies description.

Mazage Cafe and Hookah Lounge has shut down its original location at 1545 N. Stone Ave., but further investigation shows the place is setting up shop in what was most recently the extremely short-lived Auntie Dora's Front Porch at 903 E. Fort Lowell Road.

The restaurant's sign is already affixed to the outside of the new spot and it appears renovations are underway.

Hey, the more falafel the better. There's more on the restaurant here or look at the menu over here.