Because we all love watching PETA be stupid . . .

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Norfolk-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter-in-chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals."

During an interview for CNBC at the White House on Tuesday, a fly intruded on Obama's conversation with correspondent John Harwood.

"Get out of here," the president told the pesky insect. When it didn't, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead.

"Now, where were we?" Obama asked Harwood. Then he added: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker."

Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama's voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.

Still, "swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," Friedrich said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."

A conversation you never want to have . . .

Liam: (after waiting three full minutes to be acknowledged by a bartender: "May I have a Black and Tan, please?"

[Note, new Irish pub. Trumpeted as Irish pub]

Bartender: "Sure."

*pours the glass almost full of Guinness not using a spoon*

Bartender: "You will have to wait a few minutes, sir. We just tapped the Bud Light, and it needs to settle."

Liam: "You don't make a Black and Tan with Bud Light . . .

"You make it with . . . Oh, forget it, make it a Guinness."

Downstairs, the bartender caught me right away and poured and excellent Black and Tan.

PS: Yes, this was the place that hung up on me three times Wednesday when I tried to find out what time they would open tonight.