Posted 8:23 PM by Gene

Add opera buffs to the GET A LIFE! crowd. Recently I bought (from one of my favorite retailers, Berkshire Record Outlet) a copy of the very famous Maria Callas recording from 1953 of Puccini's Tosca, mostly because it was cheap -- $7.99 (and that's because it came in a supremely oddball format only the record's publisher EMI seems to use: the Extended Audio Disc -- an audio-only DVD-video; it's so oddball I cannot find the album or its catalog number using GOOGLE!). Not having heard the work I went over to Amazon.com for some learning only to step into a never-ending screaming match over whose Tosca is best. I probably won't listen to this for awhile; opera is the professional wrestling of music, and much of it's sad, as befits a form that seems inordinately devoted to diseases and death. But the opera crowd doesn't help their music's cause with an obsession with minutiae befitting scifi fans and itself beyond opéra bouffe, being self-satire.

Posted 5:57 PM by Gene

No doubt the forces of RIGHT will have conniptions over the idea that we should be building ANY NUCLEAR ARMS at ALL. But if we don't do it -- some of them are said to be falling apart "in ways that researchers do not fully understand" -- SOMEONE ELSE WILL.

Better, of course, to turn these nuke swords into plowshares -- but we'll need a few on hand as Pandora opened that box a long time ago.

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

Now USAOKAY!!!!!'s spinning that its P-Ulitzer-winning story is "a challenge."

It may be a challenge, KEN, when you start off the bat with SOME OF YOUR "FACTS" WRONG.

Posted 5:12 PM by Gene

It appears the SUPE is another victim of PAUL DRECKISM (also known as Artificially and Intentionally Inflated Expectations Syndrome) and will become the latest overpromoted tentpole to do UMPTEEN GIGAMEGAZILLIONS in theory and a mere TENS OF MILLIONS in fact. The season now hinges on a THEME-PARK ATTRACTION, and we still predict the rest of the summer will be a washout. But remember: good news for BIGMEDIA is BAD news for EVERYONE ELSE.

We think we can point a finger at a possible culprit, too: its co-producer PEPSICO, which plastered SHAMELESS PLUGS for the tentpole on every bottle of its tooth-rotting carbonated corn-syrup juice, and no doubt increased sales. (To be sure it was also going up against the Coke Rewards promotion, which offers a far broader line of premiums and contests.) This was further a lunkheaded collaboration with MR. WARNER BROS. Terry! SYNERGY DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE. You'd be better off finding new dissidents to help jail in China.

Posted 11:15 AM by Gene

PRESS 'POUND' TO INDICT BILL KELLER:

This evening I called The New York Times's 1-800 number to suspend delivery of my paper for the holiday weekend. I've done this several times over the years and always gotten the same recorded greeting, which kicks off an automated menu. But tonight I heard something different:

Thank you for calling The New York Times. To comment on recent editorial content, please call 212-[xxx-xxxx]. For all other calls, please remain on the line...

Such is life, I guess, when you've been accused of "treason."

--Michael Crowley

posted 12:05 a.m.

You can almost hear Little Mikey saying, now if only those Nazis would do that to US.

Posted 11:06 AM by Gene

More SCINTILLATING prepackaged news from Al Reut, as featured on Yahoo!'s home page:

Chronic job strain may raise blood pressure

Chronic reading of Al Reut dispatches may raise blood pressure too, so don't talk.

Posted 10:59 AM by Gene

ROBERT "OVER THE" HILBURN LIVES! Indeed Ann does him one better...two: she writes so obliquely you're scarcely aware she's discussing a bunch of tantrum-throwing slobs all throwing the same tantrum -- that obliqueness may be a way of trying to evade certain readers' radar -- and she writes so lengthily you're scarcely aware she's writing.

Well, anything to give the clerks, interns and customer-service reps a bad day is always worth it -- especially since you're telling THE TRUTH.

The next time we encounter such logorrhea we will simply call its author ROBERTA "OVER THE" HILBURN.

Posted 10:11 AM by Gene

THIS IS ALMOST A PARODY: Some yutz at Daily Kos trots out every cliche and dark fantasy against conservatives and Republicans. Unfortunately, in his three-club-footed way some yutz has a point: a certain cadre of con-SER-va-tives (call them Buchanans, after -- one of our best presidents) has always thought the wrong side won the Civil War -- not that they would have backed slavery, necessarily, but there was a...romance about the Confederacy, with its plantations, and Gone With the Wind, and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and miscegenation and shacklin' and whippin'; and in the same breath of airless nostalgia these Buchanans blame Lincoln for inventing BIG GOVERNMENT. We would not begin to guess what would have happened had the South prevailed, except to say that con-SER-va-tism would probably not have been much different from the kind that condoned anti-Semitism.

And yes, we copied from Jo-NAH's words, but only because they're TIMELESS. Besides, Jo-NAH copied his hed from some yutz.

Posted 9:38 AM by Gene

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!! DEY PASSED A WESOWUTION AGAINST OUWUH HEWOES!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

[The Overseas Press Club of America on Thursday told President Bush that his administration's attacks on The Times could have a "chilling influence" on editors around the country.]

TRANSLATION: DAMMIT! We'll have to pretend to tone down the partisanship!

Posted 9:35 AM by Gene

Awwwwwwwwww, Lesley Visser's too old for television but not too old for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Isn't broadcasting a class act?

Posted 9:25 AM by Gene

Excellent: the first tenants in the continuously redesigned "Freedom Center" will be the Feds, all but confirming it's going to be a long haul filling it up.

Posted 9:22 AM by Gene

We are grudgingly happy to note our local RENDELLTORIUM turned a small profit, thanks mostly to a lawsuit and its bus-and-truck-company garage. We should also note, however, that the proud city of Toronto lost $3 million helping to bankroll that CGI TOLKIEN "musical."

Or as Mike Riedel says: "(Note to Canadian taxpayers: NEVER PUT YOUR OWN MONEY IN THE SHOW.)"

Posted 9:18 AM by Gene

THE WALL STREET JOURNALS insist they are NOT THE PAPER OF RE-CORD!!!!!

Well, at least the CONSERVATIVE EDITION does.

(Via the inimitable Romy)

Posted 6:58 AM by Gene

Meantime the proud hacks of the Allegedly-Christian Pseudo-Science Monitor, speaking on behalf of HACKS EVERYWHERE, insist, NOT ME!

If the HACKS could redesign the American flag in their image it would have yellow stripes and yellow stars against a field of yellow.

Posted 6:53 AM by Gene

USAOKAY!!!!! continues its campaign for the P-Ulitzer Prize for public affairs and a suitable excuse to run MORE PRESS RELEASES and PLUGS than ANY OTHER PAPER with this quasi-correction:

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees confirm that the National Security Agency has compiled a massive database of domestic phone call records. But some lawmakers also say that cooperation by the nation's telecommunication companies was not as extensive as first reported by USA TODAY on May 11.

See! SEE! Says THE NATION'S PR PAPER. We were AT LEAST HALF-RIGHT. But you were a little bit wrong, too. Happily wrong doesn't count against P-ULITZER PRIZES or running TONS OF PRESS RELEASES AND PLUGS.

Posted 6:08 PM by Gene

A very helpful story from Al Reut and Al Pinch:

CHRONOLOGY-Fed funds rate changes since 1990

By Reuters | June 29, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark federal funds rate to 5.25 percent from 5.00 percent on Thursday, the central bank's 17th consecutive interest-rate hike since it began tightening monetary policy in June 2004.

The following is a chronology of the Federal Reserve's changes in the federal funds rate since 1990.

Moves are measured in basis points (bps), each of which equals one-hundredth of a percentage point: 2006 June 29 Raised 25 bps to 5.25 pct May 10 Raised 25 bps to 5.00 pct March 28 Raised 25 bps to 4.75 pct Jan 31 Raised 25 bps to 4.50 pct 2005 Dec 13 Raised 25 bps to 4.25 pct Nov 1 Raised 25 bps to 4.00 pct Sept 20 Raised 25 bps to 3.75 pct Aug 9 Raised 25 bps to 3.50 pct June 30 Raised 25 bps to 3.25 pct May 3 Raised 25 bps to 3.00 pct March 22 Raised 25 bps to 2.75 pct Feb 2 Raised 25 bps to 2.50 pct 2004 Dec 14 Raised 25 bps to 2.25 pct Nov 10 Raised 25 bps to 2.00 pct Sept 21 Raised 25 bps to 1.75 pct Aug 10 Raised 25 bps to 1.50 pct June 30 Raised 25 bps to 1.25 pct 2003 June 25 Cut 25 bps to 1.00 pct 2002 Nov 6 Cut 50 bps to 1.25 pct 2001 Dec 12 Cut 25 bps to 1.75 pct Nov 6 Cut 50 bps to 2.00 pct Oct 2 Cut 50 bps to 2.50 pct Sept 17 Cut 50 bps to 3.00 pct Aug 21 Cut 25 bps to 3.50 pct June 27 Cut 25 bps to 3.75 pct May 15 Cut 50 bps to 4.00 pct April 18 Cut 50 bps to 4.50 pct March 20 Cut 50 bps to 5.00 pct Jan 31 Cut 50 bps to 5.50 pct Jan 3 Cut 50 bps to 6.00 pct 2000 May 16 Raised 50 bps to 6.50 pct March 21 Raised 25 bps to 6.00 pct Feb 2 Raised 25 bps to 5.75 pct 1999 Nov 16 Raised 25 bps to 5.50 pct Aug 24 Raised 25 bps to 5.25 pct June 30 Raised 25 bps to 5.00 pct 1998 Nov 17 Cut 25 bps to 4.75 pct Oct 15 Cut 25 bps to 5.00 pct Sept 29 Cut 25 bps to 5.25 pct 1997 March 25 Raised 25 bps to 5.50 pct 1996 Jan 31 Cut 25 bps to 5.25 pct 1995 Dec 19 Cut 25 bps to 5.50 pct July 6 Cut 25 bps to 5.75 pct Feb 1 Raised 50 bps to 6.00 pct 1994 Nov 15 Raised 75 bps to 5.50 pct Aug 16 Raised 50 bps to 4.75 pct May 17 Raised 50 bps to 4.25 pct April 18 Raised 25 bps to 3.75 pct March 22 Raised 25 bps to 3.50 pct Feb 4 Raised 25 bps to 3.25 pct 1993 No rate changes 1992 Sept 4 Cut 25 bps to 3.00 pct July 2 Cut 50 bps to 3.25 pct April 9 Cut 25 bps to 3.75 pct 1991 Dec 20 Cut 50 bps to 4.00 pct Dec 6 Cut 25 bps to 4.50 pct Nov 6 Cut 25 bps to 4.75 pct Oct 31 Cut 25 bps to 5.00 pct Sept 13 Cut 25 bps to 5.25 pct Aug 6 Cut 25 bps to 5.50 pct April 30 Cut 25 bps to 5.75 pct March 8 Cut 25 bps to 6.00 pct Feb 1 Cut 50 bps to 6.25 pct Jan 9 Cut 25 bps to 6.75 pct 1990 Dec 18 Cut 25 bps to 7.00 pct Dec 7 Cut 25 bps to 7.25 pct Nov 13 Cut 25 bps to 7.50 pct Oct 29 Cut 25 bps to 7.75 pct July 13 Cut 25 bps to 8.00 pct REUTERS
[SIC]

Gee thanks again for those swell stats!

Posted 3:07 PM by Gene

A humble admission from the land of Dow 36,000 -- from a SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGER, no less:

The SOX [Sarbanes-Oxley] internal control rules adopted in response to the meltdown at Enron have been criticized by many (including yours truly) for being too costly, especially for small business. Yet, while the SOX rules may not be perfect, some system of internal controls is necessary to ensure that the accounting trickery and frauds of the 1990s are not repeated.

Posted 1:36 PM by Gene

Sounds like all that MAJOR DEFEATISM moved Dubya not one iota.

He may be playing politics with THE PAPER OF RE-CORD, but there's a reason we don't trust NEWS HACKS anymore.

Posted 1:32 PM by Gene

Which takes precedence: the MAJOR DEFEAT or the MAJOR RATE HIKE?

Posted 1:20 PM by Gene

Marty "SMASH HIT!!!!!" Peretz makes a confession:

I confess: I did buy five copies of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Are you an S&M PHREAK, Smash Hit, or merely a CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTOR?

Posted 12:19 PM by Gene

I imagine the VOLOKHHEADS are typetypetyping over this, but it does become increasingly untenable to hold the Gitmo detainees forever, especially as some may be innocent; that said it is also obvious this is another of those RIGHT v. LEFT votes, and that doesn't augur well for our fight against terror.

The hacks are in their MAJOR DEFEAT mode, meaning they're smiling. Guys, let US judge, PLEASE?

P. S. I have just added MAJOR DEFEAT to THE NEWS HACKS' DICTIONARY.

Posted 9:42 AM by Gene

Awwwwwwwwww, BP, the PC big-oil company, cornered the market in propane in 2004 and made it -- expensive.

Isn't that sweet?

Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

You mean the day when Richie Riches could fling their money at "colleges" who'd then fling it to Ward Churchills has come to an END?!?!?

Highly unlikely; there's a millionaire born every minute.

Posted 9:13 AM by Gene

The Pope makes some BBC factotum named Kenyon mad:

WHAT THIS CULTURAL AUTHORITARIANISM COMPLETELY OVERLOOKS IS HOW RADICALLY THE CONGREGATIONS FOR LITURGICAL WORSHIP ARE CHANGING! THE SINGLE, CENTRAL KIND OF MUSIC HEARD IN CHURCH IN THE PAST HAS, AS IN SO MANY AREAS OF OUR LIFE, BEEN COMPLETELY OVERTAKEN BY A HUGE VARIETY OF STYLES AND TASTES: WHO IS TO SAY THAT DIFFERENT GENERATIONS CANNOT WORSHIP TO THE MUSIC OF PALESTRINA OR POP, JOSQUIN OR FLAMENCO??????????

For our part we doubt many people have been worshipping to flamenco lately -- we doubt very many have been worshipping at all in Spain, which is trying very hard to be The World's Most PC Nation™. (Or in Mexico, where the national religion is leaving the country.) And lots of our churches do worship to pop -- which maybe is why not too many people take the Catholic Church seriously in these parts. Heck we could worship to John Cage -- let's see the pews fill. Or [C]RAP -- I sense a new burst of Catholicism in the inner city! We suspect someone who gets his forehead into such furrows hasn't been to church lately, or at all (he IS British), but that's okay if it gives him permission to get MAD.

(Via the usual ArtsJournal.com, the ROMY of AHT)

Posted 9:02 AM by Gene

Warner Music and EMI: Who Plays Lead?

Who smashes the guitar?

Posted 8:58 AM by Gene

The New Orleans Convention Center, where thousands were "murdered," "raped," "robbed" -- whatever it was, the hacks invented it -- has reopened, and the city is on its way to being fully Rendellized.

Posted 8:45 AM by Gene

GREG FINDS A LINK BETWEEN HADITHA AND MY LAI!!!!!!!!!!

JANE!!!!! STOP THIS CRAZY THING!!!!! JANE!!!!!!!!!!

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

Obviously Dubya will play politics with THE PAPER OF RE-CORD. Obviously THE PAPER OF RECORD will play politics with Dubya.

SIX OF ONE....

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 8:50 PM by Gene

And speaking of the LALATimes (and before we forget) we MUST bow down to our inner man and post this picture of this Australian (or rather Amazonian) surferette. Though surfing may be ridiculed as the province of dunderheads, as witness a certain surfing Congresspoop -- we were transfixed to learn there's a professional surfing league -- it nonetheless has produced surf music, and surf movies, and obviously a few pleasures for the eye.

Posted 8:45 PM by Gene

Clever: A former P&G boss, John Pepper, who probably watched not ONE of the programs he sponsored, has been named the figurehead chairman of ESPNCorp, overseeing THE LORD GOD STEVE and that whatshisname Ub Iger. Presumably the company did it to attract more TV commericals, but possibly Mr. Pepper is acquainted with COMPUTERS -- although we wonder. No matter; he will likely be as hands-off (and brains-off) in Burbank as he surely was in Cincinnati, and pass through his tenure suitably unnoticed.

Posted 5:49 PM by Gene

DAGNABBIT [Jonah Goldberg]
I should have said "soft-pedal" earlier not "soft-peddle."

Heads will role.

(That was a joke).

Like The Corner?

Posted 5:33 PM by Gene

We wonder if this isn't a trick: We clicked on this CNN.com link:

• Commentary: Media shows bias for gay marriage

...and found that damfool "Dr." WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!! Dobson. Possibly the purpose of this stunt was a kind of QED that would make people laugh at him and his prejudices; but even having this damfool belch does not negate the notion that yes, the media have their crotchets.

Posted 5:23 PM by Gene

Detroit's Book-Cadillac is finally being renovated -- but here's the rub:

The financing underpinning of the deal is complex. Starting more than two years ago, Ferchill negotiated 22 different layers of financing, including investor equity, bank loans, and multiple levels of tax credits keyed to historic preservation, brownfield cleanup and environmental conservation.

We would not be surprised to learn this is mostly taxpayer-financed. If so, this project could be gutted again in less time than it will be rebuilt. We know too the delusions people harbor that downtowns can be rebuilt. All said we hope this works -- there's enough to work against it.

Elsewhere a fine old Detroit bar (these hacks MUST call it LEGENDARY) is being replaced by something called the Rosa Parks Transit Center, whose very name summons the cities' uphill climb.

Posted 2:54 PM by Gene

Am I the only person who doesn't care about the megalomaniacs on THE VIEW?

Posted 1:35 PM by Gene

Gerrymandering is (mostly) legal.

Posted 12:17 PM by Gene

McClatchy CEO disappointed in market's reaction to KR deal

Well BOO HOO.

Posted 12:12 PM by Gene

The superliberal stealth candidate for president says his party should go after people who pray, which too often it does.

Posted 11:40 AM by Gene

UPS in deal to carry mail for US Postal Service

When does UPS take it over?

Not that the brown-uniform gang is that hot these days with all their damaged merchandise.

Posted 11:21 AM by Gene

Sometimes the way show-biz types can strike a pose is more amusing than what they do. Here's a picture from 1949 of (left to right) Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck. These names will be unknown to most people, so let's identify them for who they were: the voices of Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto. If you recall the Famous Studios Popeyes of the forties and fifties (and you should given their excessive televising), you'll know how abysmal those cartoons are. No doubt about it, though: these three were their characters.

See what I mean?

P. S. Here's more evidence of the extraordinary vision of NEWS HACKS, especially the HEARST HACKS:

There was actually a clause in the original contract between Paramount Pictures and King Features, stating that after ten years, the prints and negatives of the Popeye cartoons were to be destroyed. King Features had the same clause for all of their licensed properties. There is speculation that the clause contributed to the demise of Fleischer Studios. The clause was never enforced for Popeye.

The communal editing of Wikipedia is a great strength -- and a great weakness; the site has this decent Popeye entry -- and virtual "stubs" for Hearst and King Features.

P. P. S. at 1:15 p.m.: I unaccountably called Bluto "Brutus" in the original post -- perhaps because King Features unaccountably called Bluto Brutus.

Posted 10:29 AM by Gene

In sad, sad news, the CGI Tolkien "musical" is closing in Toronto before the producing suckers had a chance to "recoup" (Pfffffffffffffffffffffft!), and the Jerry Springer "opera" may NEVER BE PERFORMED AGAIN, despite the raves of people better than us, who are now screaming of INTOLERANCE.

(Both via ArtsJournal.com, where the proprietor is feeling sad too)

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

Now PAPEROFRECORDCO's spin is that THE FEDS BOASTED OF IT, SO IT WASNT SECRET!

Sure Mac, sure.

Posted 8:30 AM by Gene

When a rag like The Hollywood Stenographer stands for "common sense", we can be sure it last graced the premises decades ago -- and got booted out posthaste.

Posted 8:28 AM by Gene

Fifty years ago, Ike helped invent "such basic elements of American life as the suburb, the motel, the chain store, the recreational vehicle, the seat belt, the spring-break trek to Florida, the 30-mile commute and the two-mile traffic jam."

Thanks, Ike!

Posted 8:26 AM by Gene

CNN president Jon Klein calls Mr. Cooper “the anti-anchor.”

Yes, if we weren't anti-anchors before we are now.

Great ratings, Jon!

Posted 7:01 AM by Gene

Radio rabble-rouser Rush Limbaugh joked yesterday that he bought the Viagra that U.S. customs agents in Florida confiscated from him "at the Clinton Library."

Since when has the Clinton Library been selling drugs without a prescription, PILLHEAD?

Posted 6:44 AM by Gene

In the time since we won the P-Ulitzer Prize for Public Service disclosing the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL of our domestic spying, USAOKAY!!!!! seems to have gone back a little on its CHARTER to TELL THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, so help us gods!

In short, we're running LOTS OF PRESS RELEASES AND PLUGS AGAIN -- like THIS WELL-DRESSED 2,058-WORD MASTERPIECE!

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO DONNA!

Posted 5:22 PM by Gene

No wonder megacities are passé. Have you seen a picture of Hong Kong lately? It's a great place if you're a building. So people will move to new cities and make them uninhabitable. The cycle never ends.

Posted 5:20 PM by Gene

The grand poobah of Canterbury (or whatever they call him) is proposing to shun his American franchises?

Wwwwwwwwwell! That'll show 'em to put coffee in their tea-times!

Posted 1:33 PM by Gene

SIX OF ONE: Someone should let National Review and its Web site have it for making conservative PC out of show-biz junk. But the answer isn't liberal culture, which reeks in a different way. A piece like this, and especially with its heavily ironic snideness, is quite disheartening because it makes you believe you can think in one, and ONLY one, political way, with checkmarks confirming your prejudices in a long row. As I've said before, I am conservative; but I can't stand RUSH, I can't stand HANNITY, I can't stand SNIDELY WHIPLASH, I can't stand the NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE and RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the Wall Street Journals Conservative Edition and other MOVEMENT heroes. Why must we show mindless allegiance either way?

Posted 1:30 PM by Gene

Well, as ESPNCorp makes less and less money on computer animation, it faces at least some consolation:

Kilroy said Monday that Intel's Xeon 5100 chip will be the tops in both "performance and performance per watt," and he trotted out Greg Brandeau, vice president of computer operations for Pixar Animation Studios, to back up his boasts that the new microprocessor would be speedier and energy efficient.

Brandeau said it took 12 months of 'round-the-clock computer animation to create Pixar's new film, "Cars," and added that Pixar's data center is now so packed that it can't accommodate new machines without over-heating its air conditioning system.

After testing a prototype server running the Xeon 5100, he estimated that a roomful of such devices would have taken "37 percent of the space and one-half the power" of Pixar's current server array.

But then the day may come when anyone can make Pixar on a computer. What good will server farms do then?

Posted 12:14 PM by Gene

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the prospect of talks with the United States on the nuclear program, saying nothing would be gained, state television reported Tuesday. "Negotiations with the United States would have no benefit for us, and we do not need them," the television quoted Khamenei as telling Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade. [News home-page squib]

Shucks, there goes that good intention.

Posted 11:54 AM by Gene

Warren Buffett's blockbuster $30 billion pledge to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, effectively doubling the size of what was already the world's largest charity, may have set off alarms in some quarters among those who are uncomfortable with a such a mass of endowment dollars concentrated under one roof....

"The scale of generosity is inspiring. We are likely to see other significant transfers of personal wealth into philanthropy for the common good," says Ford Foundation President Susan Berresford. "That bodes well for the creative role philanthropy can play in solving societal problems."

With that endorsement we SHOULD be worried.

Posted 11:23 AM by Gene

These hacks are full of it. What absolute bathos. MOURNING for KnightRidder? How many acquisitions did it take to form Knight Newspapers in the first place? Did anyone cry when Ridder Publications vanished? How much local ownership went six feet under to create another national media barony? What made KnightRidder so special that its former hacks should wear black armbands for the rest of their profitable careers? KnightRidder "died" simply because it wasn't selling enough papers, and it wasn't selling enough papers in no small measure because ITS WRITERS AND EDITORS ARE BETTER THAN THEIR READERS.

Now KnightRidder, rest in PEACE.

(Via the interminable ROMY)

Posted 11:12 AM by Gene

Let us hope Hamas is "implicitly" recognizing Israel for a better reason than it needs the money, though we suspect that's exactly the reason.

Posted 9:21 AM by Gene

MEDIABISTRO'S IMPRESSED TOO!

Posted 9:10 AM by Gene

Maybe this is a rusted, unsafe hulk. The problem with CVS is that it will replicate anywhere if not checked. Why are we convinced CVS is only in business for cloning itself, and shaking down Medicare?

Posted 9:03 AM by Gene

Meantime, in more news of the NEW YORK CRIMES:

The New York Post told reporter Andy Geller not to come to work for a month after the newspaper discovered he copied massive sections of an article from The New York Times, sources at the Post confirmed yesterday.

All the news that's fit to FILCH! Right, RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

(VIa the inevitable Romy, who may not stop laughing all day)

Posted 6:56 AM by Gene

Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess: St. Warren and Bugmeister Bill are the GREATEST!

What is the point of editorials?

(Mr. Buffett and Ms. Gates are directors of The Washington Post Co.)

What is the point of THIS editorial?

Posted 6:51 AM by Gene

The Pill-Popping Pundit of the Air is seized for possessing Viagra without a prescription!

We thought having all that power and money were ENOUGH, Rushbo!

Posted 6:45 AM by Gene

More TRUTH TO POWER in the state of Sam Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere and Sen. Fatso Glub-Glub:

The board of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry includes clergy from several liberal Christian and Jewish denominations and other faiths, including paganism.

1. This group seems to have adopted Jack Abramoff's notion: "Let your name tell the public as little as possible." 2. This is a liberal's idea of religion.

Posted 6:33 AM by Gene

PREZ RIPS NEW YORK CRIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A fired-up President Bush yesterday said The New York Times did "great harm" to America by revealing a top-secret program to track terrorist financing.

"The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," Bush told reporters at a White House photo op.

And what would You have done -- RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Let's ask the editors of THE TIMES.

Posted 7:58 PM by Gene

Public EEEEEEEDI-torrrrrrr! Where ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU?

Posted 7:27 PM by Gene

Speaking of the PAPER and its great AHTS JERNALISTS, Granola (or whatever her name is) calls the latest TENTPOLE "leaden", and we wonder if THE CONSPIRACY is THAT good at alchemy.

Posted 7:23 PM by Gene

Dubya will NOT revoke THE PAPER OF RE-CORD's credentials. It would launch the hacks into a unprecedented fit of self-righteousness; besides, we know he's afraid of them, though he can best them. That doesn't mean he shouldn't challenge JERNALISM's greatest achievement. He can refuse to answer its reporters' questions. He can invite them for tete-a-tetes and then cancel at the last minute. Surely there are many things he can do to get back at an editor who is starting to achieve Howellian greatness.

Posted 5:17 PM by Gene

Larry sues again.

At this point we don't care. Ugly's going up on the site -- ugly and useless.

Posted 5:12 PM by Gene

There seems to be this MANIA for "IMPROVING" Web sites, and the big reason for it -- THE ONLY REASON -- is to bring in MORE AD DOLLARS. In this the Webtocracy shows every bit of the same contempt for the peons as the PINCHES, and in time a big change to a Web site should inspire a massive LOGOFF.

We wouldn't want to discourage advertising on the Web; it keeps it free. But can't sites redesign in a more surfer-friendly way?

Posted 5:04 PM by Gene

Here the SENIOR CLUNKER BROTHER buys luxury boxes for the SUPER BORE -- which coincidentally inspired a commercial filmed in "a former airplane hangar in Los Angles" [SIC!] and featuring "a fashion show, complete with a 100-foot mirrored runway, name super models such as Rachel Hunter, celebrity makeup artist Kabuki and 250 extras." Unfortunately buying the boxes didn't work. So what do the CLUNKERS do? They fire the AD AGENCY!

If I had the moolah SENIOR wasted on those tickets I could live the rest of my life in Beverly Hills, which is near Los Angles.

Posted 1:23 PM by Gene

PRRRRESIDENT HEIN-TZZZ unveils a MA-JOR ENERGY POLICY! He proposes -- ETHANOL PUMPS! And -- TAX CREDITS FOR HYBRIDS! And -- REDUCING OUR OIL CONSUMPTION BY 2.5 MILLION BARRELS A DAY! And --

So will the mizzus and you give up your gas-guzzlers? Didn't think so.

Posted 12:01 PM by Gene

Good news and bad news from Mr. Slut. First the bad news: Joe Morals will lose the primary. The good news: a Republican might win his seat. Mostly good news: If Joe Morals runs as an independent, he wins.

Why do people take Mr. Slut seriously anymore?

Posted 11:53 AM by Gene

And how do we know, Your HOLINESSES, that all that money You're donating to mankind won't go down the proverbial rathole, just as OUR money did in LOUSIANA?

I think it's time for a Statler Brothers tune: "Whatever hap-pened to LIIIIIIIIIIIVE8888888888...."

Over the past year several African leaders have increased dictatorial powers while fresh allegations of huge corruption have emerged. Of the world’s top ten failed states in the world in 2006, six are African.

Yes, we MUST give them more money.

Posted 11:43 AM by Gene

Shucks, that raging reactionary SCALITO broke a TIE, and the DEATH PENALTY STANDS in KANSAS.

What can we protectors of truth, justice and the American way do? How about leaking more of our secrets?

The dissenters, the four liberal members of the high court, bitterly complained about the decision.

Bitter -- that's a liberal's middle name.

Justice David H. Souter, writing one of two dissents....

WAIT! I thought he was CONSERVATIVE.

Posted 10:53 AM by Gene

ADAM!!!!! is IMPRESSED!!!!!

Is the Woodster's adopted -- wife?

Yep, I think we don't have to feel sorry for NOO YAWK any more.

And Effete Edelstein, of all people, pans a movie -- THE movie -- and he says:

It’s not that the movie is 157 minutes; it’s that it feels like 157 minutes.

We feel that way about your reviews, Ef: it's not that they're 5,000 words -- it's that they FEEL like 5,000 words.

Posted 9:28 AM by Gene

Gasp! Roger! Even the TRUE BELIEVERS may not like FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NEWS anymore!

Posted 8:55 AM by Gene

It's an unusual and powerful thing, this freedom that our founders gave to the press. It makes our lives SO much easier. Some may ask, who are the editors of The New York Times (or the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and other publications that also ran the banking story) to disregard the wishes of the President and his appointees? Thank god, however, WE are better than the President, or his cabinet, or any of the people he governs.

LONG LIVE THE PRESS!!!!!

(Slightly emended from the P-Ulitzer-winning remarks of Bill "LE TRUTH C'EST MOI!" Keller)

Posted 8:51 AM by Gene

We would say with a "Bill of Rights" it's amusing some British are finally coming over to OUR way of thinking, but if we know our former rulers it's PC to the nth (a right to abortion, a right to bugger anybody anywhere, a right to be an Islamist) -- and best of all, it's CONSERVATIVE.

Posted 8:37 AM by Gene

Lately I've noticed Coca-Cola (shhh..."Classic") has eliminated sugar from its ingredients list. This is an extremely clever ploy that might backfire. God knows soda's good for your gut, and your nerves, and your TEETH; now the FOOD-LAB DILBERTS have apparently CHANGED COKE'S FORMULA, and in favor of a sweetener whose health effects may be worse than sugar's. One wonders if THE TRIUMPH OF HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP is the DOWNFALL OF THE SOFT-DRINK EMPIRES.

And we've no doubt the HIP, ATTITUUUUDINAL "energy drinks" are NO BETTER.

Posted 8:22 AM by Gene

Pfizer, which not long ago got out its fiddle on a street corner and played the heart-rending tune, "Brother, Can You Spare $10 Billion?", got J&J to fill its tin cup more than expected, and if both sides work it right this acquisition can increase health-care costs.

Posted 8:20 AM by Gene

Hamas engages in -- state-sponsored TERRORISM?!?!?

Ghazi Hamad, the spokesman for the Hamas-led government, called on militants to treat the soldier well and keep him alive.

SO WE CAN KILL HIM ON A VIDEO.

Posted 6:36 AM by Gene

Because so many big schools are football factories, and because so many of these factories oblige their clients by holding non-stop parties, and because so much of partying is drinking, we have "college" students killing themselves to feel good.

So long as the "college" experience is an empty one, we will have binge suicides.

Posted 6:31 AM by Gene

Why I Am a Republican
Because Karl Rove is, for one thing

I guess because he told you someday you'd pay less in taxes on all the millions you earn making ANNOYING TV COMMERCIALS.

Or did he say he's launching plans for a Tricky Dick Memorial on the Mall?

Posted 8:46 PM by Gene

A month before the July 7 attacks, Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee made the judgment that "there would probably be a successful attack of some sort in the U.K. in the next five years." Today, British authorities are not much more confident of thwarting all plots, so they have erected a line of defense that is absorptive, not pre-emptive. It rests on harmony between social groups and on the country's ability to suffer atrocities from time to time, as it did during the heyday of the I.R.A., without escalating unrest or oppression, or the rise of extremist parties. Britain is now betting that the country will retain its historically bottomless reserves of sang-froid in the face of a threat that is orders of magnitude more dangerous than the threat of the I.R.A.; that there is something in the makeup of Britons that makes them more stoical than, say, Americans in New York about bombs going off; that the quiet tenor of the British fight against Islamist terrorism thus far is a sign of good manners and forbearance, not of abject fright or sneaking sympathy; and that Britain in the age of the Diana funeral is the same country it was during the blitz.

It is a risky bet.

Yes, I think we can call Christopher Caldwell's article "a must read" and "depressing."

Posted 8:19 PM by Gene

The fact that Trib has created AN ELABORATE PRODUCTION will make people suspicious, but this story of an apparently wrongful capital punishment confirms our notion the death penalty should be saved for those who really deserve it, and not for common murders, and certainly not without overwhelming evidence.

Posted 8:16 PM by Gene

We are not surprised ST. WARREN will give His mammoth Tithes away; there'd been rumors He would do this for years. Nor are we surprised He's giving them to His fellow God the Bugmeister's Cause, thus assuring Their Immortality.

We suspect in twenty years Their Foundation will make PC look right-wing.

Posted 7:05 PM by Gene

Given how much money flows between us and Europe it is uplifting to think our relations can constitute more than "vacuous rhetoric."

Posted 12:55 PM by Gene

Meantime, Congresspoop Peter "I'll Stand Here and Stomp My Feet Until the IRA Gets Justice" King says THE PAPER OF RE-CORD should be charged for disclosing state secrets, which won't happen because they can disclose your greatness during a campaign.

Posted 12:53 PM by Gene

Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Dubya's secrecy fetish meets Sen. O'Specter's camera fetish, and we get -- a law.

Posted 12:45 PM by Gene

Today, exasperatingly, in MyWay.com:

• Spelling Left Indelible Stamp on TV

• Spelling Was a Master of Television

• Spelling Cured Cancer, Heart Disease

No, I made that one up, but I almost expected not to.

Posted 12:40 PM by Gene

A eulogy for America's cities:

Other grim economic logic contributes to the downward spiral of this section of Baltimore. Landlords don't want to make investments in properties that they do not expect to recoup in rents, and tenants don't want to, or can't, pay more rent for buildings that are in poor condition. Retail businesses don't move into neighborhoods without a critical mass of customers to support them, but no one willingly moves into neighborhoods with no amenities. One negative reinforces another. The only change is further deterioration.

And the best laid plans of mice and legisla-TORS:

Throughout the area are rowhouses in near-squalid condition that rent for under $300 a month, like one on the 1700 block of N. Bradford St. with a broken stove in the kitchen, holes in the living room walls and a barely functional faucet in the second-floor bathroom. While the city issues violations for such properties, there are also economic realities that militate against improving housing in distressed areas.

Tenants can't afford to pay more, so landlords can't charge more and are less willing to invest in renovations. Housing deteriorates, properties are abandoned and real estate prices plunge. As this cycle accelerated in the 1990s, landlords joined many residents in flight from the brewery area.

Complicating the matter is a 1994 law that set conditions and deadlines for landlords to rid rental units of dangerous levels of lead. While the law provides much-needed protection for children, it imposes significant costs on landlords, which some claim encourage abandonment. It can cost up to $10,000 to bring a rowhouse into compliance with state and city lead reduction laws, officials say.

Baltimore rebuilt from a horrific fire in 1904. It can't rebuild now because, like the rest of America, it doesn't want to.

Posted 12:18 PM by Gene

Still ANOTHER box-office TRIUMPH that did less biz Saturday than Friday!

Okay, it's just $100,000 less -- but it's still LESS, and movies with any appeal SHOULDN'T do that. But since when has the biz made appealing movies?

This is the FIFTH "big" movie to so underwhelm -- DVC!!!!!!!!!!, the X!!!!!!!!!!!, Nacho Man, Tokyo Speed Racers, and now this. THE CONSPIRACY can't stop HUGGING itself.

Interesting how the ROOTKIT MOVIE CO. has "estimated" its cinematic doo-doo has done EXACTLY $40 MILLION. Why? So PAUL DRECK could scream, "THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE SMASH HIT!!!!!"

And the movie with the strange looking bugs with eyes in what look like windshields (do you suppose that had something to do with the B. O.?) will not reach much above $200 million -- yet another movie that was supposed to do UMPTEEN MEGAZILLION. ESPNCorp's stock hasn't been lapping the field lately.

Posted 9:25 AM by Gene

It's official: K-LO has become NRO's equivalent of PETER TRAVERS.

Posted 9:05 AM by Gene

The head honcho what took on a lot of debt to acquire the StinkyInky sells himself.

Tierney is planning to move into a part of the newspaper building once occupied by Walter Annenberg. He will work full time there, taking a salary he will not disclose.

Once -- and again?

Tierney is working not just the room but the region, the country!

(Emphasis on the EXCLAMATION POINT added)

Beware newspaper publishers who work COUNTRIES.

Posted 8:55 AM by Gene

And speaking of long vacations, the TWXSTERS take theirs by putting Teddy Roosevelt on the cover -- we haven't the FOGGIEST IDEA why, unless it's a hint-hint we'd like a certain PLIABLE REPUBLICAN in the White House (although we supposed that kind of thinking stopped when the hacks realized he's "conservative").

Posted 8:52 AM by Gene

Speaking of F-bombs, Mr. Mark takes a long and very deserved vacation by pretending to like the PEEpul he presumes he represents.

Hey Mr. Mark, if these people are so great why do you and your editors spend so much time schmoozing in Hollywood?

Posted 8:43 AM by Gene

A WaPostie rails against overuse of the F-word.

We would take him more seriously if WaPostCo didn't own TV stations. We would take him more seriously if news hacks didn't have their rebellion shtick and didn't turn every kind of public affront into a cause. We would take him more seriously if we didn't have this notion news hacks and their related brethren in show-biz didn't care, and if they hadn't reduced the First Amendment to a mea culpa and a marketing tool. In short, though quite well-meaning, we can't help thinking this defensive posturing from a business that knows we can't stand its guts.

Posted 6:26 PM by Gene

China's Economy Forecast to Grow 10.3% in First Half

Can anyone doubt that capitalist dictatorship is the future and that it now has the economic might to play tricks with the rest of the world for decades to come?

``China is still a developing country,'' Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan told reporters in Basel, Switzerland, where he is attending the Bank for International Settlements annual meeting. `` We need growth. We need it to solve a lot of economic problems. We need it to have a poverty reduction.''

Knock it off, Zhou, you need growth so you can bully mean Uncle Sam, and so you can be numero uno in manufacturing EVERYTHING.

A question we may ask of con-SER-va-tives: what's the diff between China and their long-time-favorite nation Singapore? Land mass, population and a Little Red Book nobody reads.

Posted 1:17 PM by Gene

If only this hadn't been written by Fred "Face Time" Barnes.

Posted 1:15 PM by Gene

Interesting: the last few minutes I've made some routine requests of G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE News and have gotten error messages.

At what point does this celebrated cardboard-and-Scotch-tape system break down? And how easily?

Posted 1:06 PM by Gene

How far has tennis fallen? One of its formerly top stars retires, and we must ask ourselves, do we care?

And he was once Brooke Shields's husband. That's how far it's fallen.

Posted 10:15 AM by Gene

Our kind of athuhlete:

Philadelphia Phillies hurler Brett Myers punched his wife and dragged her down Dalton Street by her hair early yesterday, police allege, but that won’t stop him from taking the mound at Fenway this weekend.

Our kind of SPORT!

Posted 9:56 AM by Gene

Is it possible it's twenty years ago that Lefty Driesell told his players, "Don't talk t'the p'lice, Ah'm tellin' ya, don't talk t'the P'LICE!"?

Sadly, the nation's drug abuse situation is not much better after 20 years.

Jeez, I wouldn't have guessed.

Posted 9:45 AM by Gene

Aaron Spelling, who produced a lot of cheesy television, has died. RIP.

P. S. USAOKAY!!!!!.com is upset; it's calling him LEGENDARY (home page only; they have the same Bob "The Stenographer" Thomas piece, which amazingly doesn't use the word). But then not much upsets a news hack other than a Republican in the White House, and America winning a war.

P. P. S. The MESS is upset too; it's calling him an "innovator." What did he innovate? Jiggle?

A puzzlement: he produced 3,000 TV shows, a record we hope stands forever. (So says the home-page squib; it's not in the story.) But during the war he was "[w]ounded by a sniper's bullet" and "was decorated with a Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart with oak-leaf cluster." Go figure it was the same man.

Posted 5:36 PM by Gene

This is why they (rather, we) pay news hacks the BIG BUCKS:

Little Known About N. Korea's Intentions

You hacks seem to have learned of our secret programs; why not go to North Korea and learn about theirs? Oh. It won't bring down a president.

"Experts" and "analysts" appear three time each in this story, meaning it was probably composed entirely in a news suite.

Posted 5:34 PM by Gene

I have an idea: let's put Ann and Bruce in an arena. Ann screams, the Boss whines, and both get pelted with rotten produce.

Posted 5:28 PM by Gene

Eggheads ponder THE EDWARD R. MURROW OF COMEDY and his POISONING of DEMOCRACY -- and in the meantime they ponder other things:

? [SIC] "Risk Avoidance: Graphs Versus Numbers" by Hannah Faye C. Chua, Frank J. Yates and Priti Shah, Memory & Cognition, Vol. 34, No. 2. University of Michigan researchers find that people are more likely to buy an improved but more expensive new toothpaste if the probabilities of getting gum disease are expressed visually in a chart than if they are expressed numerically.

? [SIC] "Disability, Gender and Difference on The Sopranos" by Kathleen LeBesco. Women's Studies in Communication, Vol. 29, No. 1. A Marymount-Manhattan College communications professor argues that story lines in the hit TV show "The Sopranos" that feature mob boss Tony Soprano's one-legged mistress and the "morbidly obese" wife of a crony send mixed messages about the disabled.

Perhaps it is time they pondered something more important.

(Via, oh well, The Corner)

Posted 3:09 PM by Gene

Here is the sad, sad tale of a persecuted Saudi prince, as much of a victim as the man he ran over with his car.

Free the Saudi prince! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!!!!!

Where's Whorvis Communications when you need it?

Posted 2:52 PM by Gene

GREG'S EXCITED AGAIN BECAUSE THERE'S A STORY ABOUT ANOTHER ATROCITY IN IRAQ!!!!!!!!!!

Greg is an excellent argument for obedience school, and for outlawing pit bulls.

Posted 2:33 PM by Gene

When 68,000 watch your cable show, and you're MICKEYMOUSE NIXON, this isn't indifference; this is active avoidance.

Posted 1:41 PM by Gene

Today some geeks are making thousands of phone calls to secretaries and clerks working at the recorded-sound conspiracy's HQ, thinking they'll put it out of business so they can make unlimited copies of junk.

Good luck!

Posted 1:28 PM by Gene

Norman Y. Mineta, whose middle initial is self-explanatory, is retiring, and not a moment too soon.

Posted 10:20 AM by Gene

Keeping in mind this is THE WEEKLY STANDARD (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), this article confirms what I've long suspected: there are Ph.D.s in traffic engineering.

Posted 10:11 AM by Gene

EXCELLENT: Another "incentive war."

When will the CLUNKER BROTHERS learn the Japanese don't use incentives?

Posted 10:07 AM by Gene

Two executives at media-buying firm Focus Media have been convicted of stealing more than $31 million from Sears Roebuck & Co., Universal Studios and other marketers, and face federal prison terms that could be in the hundreds of years.

TRANSLATION: They did illegally what other media execs do LEGALLY.

Posted 9:41 AM by Gene

A bunch of M-----s had a plot.

When will some folks learn we must be extra vigilant of plots by M-----s, whether it hurts people's feelings or not?

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

There's a civil war going on in the left over ONE OF THE UNIVERSE'S GREATEST BLOGGERS. Such debates are tiresome for me because I've been typing for over three years to no effect, while megalomaniacs like Kos and MICHELLE never stop boasting. That said, we wonder how much of the talk of SUPERDUPERMEGAGIGABLOGGING's VAST INFLUENCE is hot air. THE GREAT KOS'S INTERPLANETARY CONVENTION attracted about 1,000 -- a bar gathering by Vegas standards.

And apparently the great Kos didn't even run it. Too busy boasting.

Posted 8:28 AM by Gene

Meantime, how long ago did the CLARK KENTS OF ARLINGTON (who do not wear S's under their shirts) win the P-ULITZER PRIZE saving America from its EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL SPYING GOVERMENT? Winning awards ain't what it used to be.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT STORY, SUPERJERKS?

Posted 8:23 AM by Gene

News hacks think of many different ways of trying to justify tripe. If they were as good at reporting as at justifying tripe we'd have a golden age of news. Here USAOKAY!!!!! thinks it can deke us by insisting this is a piece on CHANGES IN SOCIETY, but we, its readers know better: it's just a 1,428-WORD STORY on a FICTIONAL CHARACTER -- and ANOTHER PLUG FOR ANOTHER OVERHYPED MOVIE.

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO TONY!!!!!

Posted 8:11 AM by Gene

The British Vicarage and Tea-Time Club isn't spinning off some of its outlets just yet.

But the franchisees are furious.

Posted 7:32 PM by Gene

The Union of Concerned Scientists, which marches in the van -- pardon, the VANGUARD of the GLOBAL WARMING BRIGADE, is not serious:

global warming solutions [SIC]

We have the technology and ingenuity to reduce the threat of global warming today. Solutions are already available that will stimulate the American economy by creating jobs, saving consumers money, and protecting our national security. By investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and increasing the efficiency of the cars we drive, we can take essential steps toward reducing our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Using energy more efficiently and moving to renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, and bioenergy) would significantly reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases. The United States currently produces 70 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil, but only two percent from renewable sources. Since the burning of fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide—the leading cause of global warming—but renewable energy does not, increasing the share of our electricity generated from renewable resources is one of the most effective ways to reduce global warming emissions.

Cars and trucks are another significant source (25 percent) of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. A serious effort to address global warming must therefore reduce emissions from cars and trucks. Many technologies already exist that can do this, while also creating new jobs in the U.S. automotive sector and other industries throughout the country. In addition, American consumers would save billions of dollars on gasoline, and we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

By putting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and vehicle technology solutions in place at the federal level, we can reduce our contribution to global warming while creating a stronger, healthier, and more secure nation.

It gases about "we can take essential steps toward reducing our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels that cause global warming." How? It says we can solve global warming while "creating jobs, saving consumers money, and protecting our national security." How? It says it's all for "renewable sources." How? It says it's for "reducing emission from cars and trucks." How? It says we'll "creat[e] a stronger, healthier, and more secure nation." HOW?

This is the kind of soothing blatherskite you expect from a lobbying group with a Washington office. Any fifth-rate senator or Congresspoop could have written it. Jack Abramoff or Sammy Glickman could have written it. The frauds at WHORVIS COMMUNICATIONS could have written it. These people have no concrete suggestions for how to reverse global warming. They have nothing to say because somewhere in their hermetically-sealed reinforced-concrete skulls they must sense reversing global warming "will entail extreme sacrifice, millions of jobs lost -- and IT MAY NOT WORK."

Posted 5:16 PM by Gene

THE PLAY about ST. RACHEL of CORRIE is finally headed to Noo Yawk, and somehow it's apt that a Hammerstein is co-producing it. We can see Ockie naively siding with the forces of good. But Ockie wasn't that naive, and a big name does not make ST. RACHEL's canonization any more palatable.

Posted 5:09 PM by Gene

TRANSLATION: American soccer has a bright future -- which keeps receding into the future.

Which receded a little bit more into the future today.

Posted 4:56 PM by Gene

As we feel the heat of a GLOBAL WARMING CRUSADE coming on, let us guess what our superiors will ask us to do to assist in it as they look on from their chauffeur-driven heights. Bicycle? America's bulge could use it; but how many people will trade in long drives for long bikes? Air conditioning? That uses up a lot of greenhouse-gas producing electricity. How many thousands of old people will die to stop smog? Mass transit? Many cities don't have much of it, and though there's nothing wrong with it in theory in practice it's boondoggles and corruption. Limits on development? Let's see us try that. Meantime the Chinese and the Russians will no doubt gas as usual, which makes us wonder whether global-warming Chicken Littles might benefit from a little greenhouse-panic GREEN on the side -- the better to redistribute our wealth.

Okay eggheads, ALGORE: you say an awful thing's about to happen. WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE TO STOP IT? PUT YOUR PANACEAS WHERE YOUR BIG FAT MOUTHS ARE.

Posted 3:35 PM by Gene

Because a known liberal group (no mention of that there) says CEOs are being paid too much, the obvious solution is for Larry Kudlow to type another of his slathering homages to the likes of Dick Grasso.

Why must so many be left or right rather than just trying to be RIGHT?

Posted 2:07 PM by Gene

What made disco great?

What makes Jerry "Sieg Heil" Yang and Terry "Mr. Warner Bros." Semel stink?

Hint: A five-letter word that begins with a C. (Via Search Engine Watch)

Posted 1:57 PM by Gene

A BIG surprise: TNR's publisher Marty endorses ALGORE -- because his movie's "A SMASH HIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Really, the hacks MUST stop quoting PAUL DRECK.

How long has Marty owned TNR?

Posted 1:38 PM by Gene

THIRETEEN COURAGEOUS DEMOCRATS join in PRESIDENT HEIN-TZZZZ' call to "redeploy" NOWNOWNOW!

And a courageous, er, "Republican" senator gets on his hands and knees and begs his fellow reactionaries to please, please, please leave Iraq someday!

Posted 1:24 PM by Gene

Okay, former ombudspoop Don, we don't like the NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN ZONE either. But then we imagine courageous you hiding under your desk the moment one of your famed skool's teams is implicated in a sex orgy, or a rape, or an assault, or drug abuse, or "subsidies" to needy athuhletes -- and we don't like you either.

Sorry Don, Notre Dame is just another football factory with a few convenient crosses.

What's more: it appears some of NO-SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN SPIN's SPIN has rubbed off on Don:

The New York Times, which also came in for some of Bill's dishonorable mention, has not endorsed the winner in the last two presidential elections.

TRANSLATION: 1. I just got my start in the news biz yesterday! 2. Are you sure it was a gang rape? You know how these guys are, give them a few beers and they talk dirty. It wasn't a gang rape or any rape, and sure we can get that spin out. Just hope the alums believe it.

(Via the usual Romy)

Posted 1:10 PM by Gene

A bunch of Congressionally-funded eggheads has decided the earth is the warmest in 400 years, possibly 2,000, possibly 10 million for all we know. The question the eggheads and the ALGORES refuse to answer is, what do we do about it? And the reason they refuse to answer it? Because they know it will entail extreme sacrifice, millions of jobs lost -- and IT MAY NOT WORK.

And SHERRY'S RETIRING, dammit! If only all Republicans were like him! Maybe he can change his mind and save the world.

Posted 9:36 AM by Gene

THE BUGMEISTER'S LEGACY, CONTINUED:

And consider the even bigger picture: Economists estimate that all information technology, including PCs, contributed about one-third of the 2% average annual U.S. productivity growth since 1995.

So -- MAYBE PCs contributed to a .66% annual growth in "productivity." And how much of that "productivity" was negated by balky software, BSODs, spam, bad Web connections, and needless PowerPoint presentations?

And MSFT is down 60 PERCENT since its high. That's a big productivity boost also.

Posted 9:09 AM by Gene

What do Congressional COLAs have to do with the minimum wage?

In the upside down world of the insane asylum on the Hill, nothing.

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

I'm SURE King Denny cut his deal SOLELY for the benefit of the PEEpul.

Believe that and you can believe I have a farm in Illinois I'll sell you for $1.

Posted 6:08 PM by Gene

The American franchise of the British Vicarage and Tea-Time Club decides, HHMPH! We don't need these old fuddy-duddies! We're going to brew it OUR way!

Posted 5:13 PM by Gene

Tonight: Anderson Cooper Pays a Visit to Jon Stewart

So -- who's the REAL newsman?!?!?

Posted 5:00 PM by Gene

Sorry, CEOs, we are not impressed. The modern businessman will only do the right thing at the point of a gun -- or a lawsuit, or a law. He has delegated so much moral authority away he cannot be moral even if he tried. Moreover the real lesson of Enron and MCI Worldcom to too many execs is that Kenny and Bernie and the gangs could have gotten away with it. Being PC is not being good, either. Little Jeffy has tried polishing His environmental bonafides -- why is He still in broadcasting, a known air pollutant? And CEOs still reserve the right to pay themselves outlandish salaries and engage in other anti-social behavior for profit -- like playing checkers with their offices and factories at taxpayer expense, or burdening the Federal government in perpetuity by unloading their companies' pension plans. We will believe CEOs are responsible when we see it -- and we expect to see Jesus return and walk on water first.

Posted 10:59 AM by Gene

Oh oh: The Inventor of Blogging "provides the intellectual horsepower of, say, an Andy Rooney commentary."

This makes perfect sense. Professor has his catchphrases; Andy bloviates on Hershey bars. They're both masters of the superficial.

Posted 9:37 AM by Gene

173 YouTubes -- and all fostering copyright infringement.

The Bubble is Back!

(Via the SLOW IWantMedia.com)

Posted 9:16 AM by Gene

The cost of U.N. building renovations has skyrocketed by hundreds of millions of dollars, as the world body practically invites fraud and fails to set up an independent watchdog to investigate crooks, American Ambassador John Bolton said yesterday.

What a waste. For all that money the League of Nations could have built new HQ in Riyadh...or Caracas...or Havana...or Tehran...or PYONGYANG.

Posted 9:13 AM by Gene

Another STRONG vote for ADVERTISING:

The strongest brand in America -- drum roll, please -- is Reynolds Wrap.

Yes, the thinly supported brand of thin-sliced aluminum owned by heavy-industry titan Alcoa, which got all of $7.5 million in media support last year as measured by TNS Media Intelligence, has the strongest brand equity in the U.S., according to Harris Interactive. [Emphasis added]

Posted 8:49 AM by Gene

Well, at least there was no rioting.

Posted 8:37 AM by Gene

TRANSLATION: Gray-DOHN's new hire will be able to do double what he did for Little Malcolm: that is, compile even MORE meaningless lists!

(Via the intractable Romy)

Posted 8:32 AM by Gene

Speaking of urban legends, Dan Blather's ego refuses to quit. Had he apologized quickly and fully he would still be yapping from the anchor desk; but no, he stonewalled, he rationalized, and finally he "took responsibility" and admitted it was basically someone else's fault. Dan is still the victim of NAZI HEADHUNTERS, and his tombstone will bear the immortal words, "BUCKHEAD DID IT."

Meantime, down in the trenches, the hard-working six- and seven-digit hairspray testers grumble because the people in the corporate stratosphere don't know what it's like to turn MS Word superscripts into IBM Selectric ones.

Posted 6:43 AM by Gene

SAMMY GLICKMAN! TIME TO DUMP JACK'S ALPHABET SOUP DOWN THE TOILET!

Yes, the "Rev." Wildmon is a prunish crank and Roy "The Gay Divorcee" Blunt is a hypocrite; but JACK'S ALPHABET SOUP is a FRAUD and SAMMY GLICKMAN is a BLITHERING TWERP.

And thanks to one of Sammy's overeager types who bowed down before the lord Jack THE CONSPIRACY has a Procter-and-Gamble-666-style controversy stuck to its name. The Conspiracy, unlike P&G, deserves it.

Posted 5:01 PM by Gene

Which gets us to this ode from a Bozellnik to The Superscript Man:

[W]hat we really must admit about history is that it sticks to an unforgiving big picture. Ask your twentysomething friends or your summer interns if they can identify these names: Chet Huntley, Douglas Edwards, John Chancellor, Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner, Frank Reynolds. Rather may be about as well-known as Drew Pearson or Lowell Thomas to the next generation....

Well we remember them enough to know the third on the list at one point insisted his name be pronounced Chancell-OR. But we do remember them, though we're not twentysomething or a summer intern. Chet Huntley said "Good night, David" and sang at a piano bar for American Airlines; Douglas Edwards droned into a radio mike for forty years; Howard K. Smith emceed a Kennedy-Nixon debate and acquired lots of leather-bound books he never read; Harry Reasoner was mildly sardonic and vaguely suggested Barney Rubble; Frank Reynolds died of several diseases so Peter Jennings could take his place; Drew Pearson pounded tables and "appeared as himself in the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still"; and Lowell Thomas showed in tons of ads and emceed This is Cinerama. Why we should further remember them is beyond us, though we must confess they had a dignity, a dignity as vanished as their reporting.

Posted 4:57 PM by Gene

I suppose the sports hacks are calling hockey's playoff a triumph. Certainly it was undeserved for a league that stuck a finger in the fans' eyes. But look at it this way: it took seven games of finals to get to an audience of 5.45 million. Meantime Wrong-Way wasn't the only one who collapsed at Winged Foot; the Open's ratings were the worst in 18 years. Golf has a very shallow bench; and once you get past the NFL, so does professional sport.

Posted 12:17 PM by Gene

A reminder to all those flacks who think movie attendance will go UP UP UP:

Movie theater advertising revenues rose 20.6% in 2005, according to a report released Monday by the Cinema Advertising Council.

Posted 12:13 PM by Gene

And so the dream ends -- with Jim McKay's son finally acknowledging him.

Hasta la vista, courage, and (repeat five times) good night, and good luck.

Did they type this up in Word?

Posted 10:57 AM by Gene

Wherever the RED-STATE SCORPION lurks, so do guilty verdicts.

Who's next?

Posted 10:53 AM by Gene

Surprise:

TALEBAN fighters used women and children as human shields as they tried to escape into the mountains of Afghanistan, British troops claimed yesterday.

Hey Dems! Think we can run screaming from there too?

Posted 10:32 AM by Gene

...Philadelphia-area hospitals in general - including Penn - may provide more care [to dying patients] than is necessary, driving up costs without improving survival, according to the Dartmouth researchers.

In the last two years of life, Medicare spent an average of $38,872 on chronically ill patients in the Philadelphia region. That compares with a national averge of $29,199. This area was the 20th-most expensive of the nation's 307 hospital referral regions, the study found.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Schuylkill is just 330 feet wide at Walnut Street, but by other measuring sticks, Center City and West Philadelphia are far more distant neighbors. The west bank's tangle of rail lines, its grimy industrial remains, the roaring expressway - all have served to further cleave the city.

That divide could begin to narrow next year, when the University of Pennsylvania embarks on an epic riverfront redevelopment project. It is expected to take more than two decades, cost $1.94 billion and, as high hopes go, ultimately meld Center City and West Philadelphia into one big, lively city core.

Endorsed by the university trustees on Thursday, Penn's plan is to revitalize 40 acres from Walnut Street to just below South Street on the campus' eastern edge. On what is now an eyesore of a site, office towers, condos and research centers would rise amid new athletic fields and recreation spaces, shops and restaurants. There is even talk of an elegant pedestrian bridge arcing the Schuylkill....

The riverfront revitalization will be the most visible part - but only a part - of Penn's eastward expansion. A new 400-bed residence hall is planned for 33d and Chestnut, and a nanotechnology research center for 32d and Walnut. Below South Street, Penn's medical school and health system also have long-term plans to expand east, with an estimated 1.55 million gross square feet available.

The cost of all planned construction: $6.7 billion.

Are these stories related? NAH, don't think so.

Posted 9:22 AM by Gene

No. 1: Connie's -- GAG was written by a co-creator of SEE IT N -- THE DAILY SHOW.

No. 2:

Of her singing, she gloated, "It makes Maury cringe."

As well she might.

(Via the inevitable Romy)

Posted 6:48 AM by Gene

DAVID REHR (whoever he is) says 98 PERCENT OF TV IS GRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!!!!!

DR. EVIL! YOU HAVE COMPETITION!

And GREAT THINKING from SUPERMARIO:

"Society is constantly shifting and evolving, for better of [SIC!!!!!] worse."

So if it's shifting for the worse let's not do anything, right Mario? No wonder you weren't prez.

Posted 6:43 AM by Gene

With the incredible number of ways cell phones can annoy and distract it's a wonder more outfits haven't instituted a no-cell-phone policy -- and not just in the office.

Hey OKAY!!!!! I like the way you play with the size of my window when you run a pop-up ad!

Posted 6:30 AM by Gene

ANOTHER RÉSUMÉ: Somebody devotes SIX PAGES to some show-biz big shot ogre and former Norman "The Force of Right" Lear partner named Pinocchio who apparently hasn't consented to an interview in fifty years, and we STILL love him -- because he's in show-biz!

A NEUHARTHISM OF THE WEEK AWARD TO MEG!

Posted 5:41 PM by Gene

Right next to each other on G000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000GLE NEWS:

A source, very close to AlterNet commented: "If Imelda Marcos had had a daughter, her name would have been Connie Chung."

Rather’s seen “Good Night and Good Luck” five times

They both have that VIDEO.

P. S. Now I know that couple's cheesy: they didn't hire a PIANO PLAYER.

Posted 5:29 PM by Gene

Where would we be without Stale.com?

Where are we with it?

Posted 5:23 PM by Gene

One of these things is not like the other:

Stocks in doghouse

M&A set for record

Posted 5:20 PM by Gene

Mayor Noggin has had ENOUGH!

I guess he would being safely re-ensconced into power.

Posted 5:19 PM by Gene

Gosh, Rosie's Nephew's scab-picking was original.

Posted 5:15 PM by Gene

[O]pposition to the effort in Iraq is greatest in a few very large metropolitan areas.

Just one problem: they run the country.

Posted 5:12 PM by Gene

Jeez -- and I'm sure many of the members won't mind me saying that -- the British Vicarage and Tea-Time Club may split into several franchises.

I'm all for competition. Maybe it'll improve the food.

Posted 2:24 PM by Gene

Every once in a while, some gullible hack has to write some story calling eBay a "jackpot."

We prefer to think of eBay as a casino -- and lately the house has started having trouble winning.

Posted 2:07 PM by Gene

Connecting the Dots: A Failed Experiment in Punditing:

And he was officially finished with it, writing: "Rather than continue to coddle the Court's delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved and the need for regulation eviscerated, I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed." The question isn't whether executions can be made painless: it's whether they're wrong. Everything else is just quibbling. And most of the quibbling simply boils down to trying to make the wrong seem right. (June 18)

The Institute for Women's Policy Research is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group supported by foundation and government grants. In its most recent assessment of the overall condition of American women, it named Mississippi the worst state in the country. It was also named the worst state for women in 1998, 2000 and 2002. It ranked 49th in terms of women in elected office, and at the bottom of the list for health and well-being, including the incidence of diabetes and deaths from cancer and heart disease.

The institute ranked Mississippi worst in the nation for reproductive rights.

Protesters have vowed to shut down the state's sole remaining abortion clinic, which is in Jackson.

Sometimes you don't even have to state an opinion.

You just have to state the facts. (January 24)

Computer? What's a COMPUTER?

Posted 1:52 PM by Gene

The Web is the best thing for perverts since keyholes.

Hmmm, I wonder what THE RUPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s subliminal message is: NOT ME?

Posted 11:56 AM by Gene

Another eulogy for blogging:

To be fair, the commenters reacting to Pontificator's post did get around to more important topics, like Byron York's cellphone. "For the record, Byron York's cellphone rang during the Plame panel," said QuickSilver. Shayera said it rang either "two or three times. And I'm sure about that." QuickSilver just had to know if York checked his caller ID before he answered it. He did, says Shayera of the man she called Byron "big hair" York. "I was two tables back and to the right, so I had a perfect view."

QuickSilver, Shayera, we salute your reporting. Stellar stuff. Thanks for showing us the way. Thanks for not just working it out in workshop, where the words disappear into the ether. But for putting it down, in black and white, where it can be read forever by the netroots, who need something to read while "Crashing the Gate," as Kos put it. And we can talk about this and so much else on Daily Kos. About the netroots and People Power and Byron York's Byronic locks and cellphone habits. And we can talk, and talk, and talk some more, even when we've run out of things to say.

Posted 11:35 AM by Gene

Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.

The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

Okay, let's go back to the good ol' days of MALARIA and TYPHOID and DYSENTERY and TB -- diseases brought on by our CLEAN LIVING!

(Via ArtsJournal, which occasionally goes into overdrive hunting down such tripe)

Posted 11:22 AM by Gene

MORE MONUMENTAL SPORTS WRITING:

"I just can't believe I did that," Mickelson said early Sunday evening, his face still glassy with sweat after making [SIC] a double bogey on the 72nd hole to turn a one-stroke lead into a monumental -- and history-changing -- collapse.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSTORRRRRRRRRRRRY-CHANGING! LIKE BUNKER HILL! LIKE PEARL HARBOR! LIKE...WRONG-WAY CHOKING AT THE OPEN!

HISSSSSSSSSSSSTORRRRRRRRRRRRY-CHANGING!

Posted 11:15 AM by Gene

So THAT'S the problem -- CONGRESSPOOP RESPECTED X. MARINE isn't LIBERAL ENOUGH!

More such noble thinking and KOS will elect more Democrats!

Posted 10:40 AM by Gene

LAST GRAF:

For the first seven weeks of Hollywood's extended summer season, grosses are up 0.2% but attendance is down 2.8%. The season's next key release comes Friday, when Sony Pictures' comedy "Click," starring Adam Sandler, opens at more than 3,500 theaters.

Posted 9:59 AM by Gene

Which led to a link to this story. We can see why a Wall Street Journals writer might hope baseball goes all-subscription-model. But then you don't hear that much about baseball anymore (except for negatives like Barry Bonds*) -- and come to think of it, we don't hear much about the Wall Street Journals either.

P. S. This is possibly the first day we've ever linked to TWO Wall Street Journals stories -- and the last for three years.

Posted 9:46 AM by Gene

And yet another hack cries in his beer. John "Nobel" Updike's "hit" is but this year's version of Tom "Catch Phrase" Wolfe's "smash" of '04, which after a fast marketing-driven best-seller-list start is now remembered (if at all) as a winner of the Bad-Sex-in-Literature Award.

Marketing may overcome flacks, but it cannot overcome posterity.

(Via MediaBistro)

Posted 9:06 AM by Gene

Another problem where Congress can show its cowardly incompetence: the GAMING biz.

Posted 8:48 AM by Gene

And in more news-hack hero worship:

Helen Thomas says White House reporters were more lapdogs than watchdogs during the buildup to the war. CNN's John King tells Peter Johnson: "I just don't buy it, but I say this carefully because Helen is a god [SIC!!!!!] in our business...."

And she looks it.

Posted 8:36 AM by Gene

The hacks are in their self-pity mode again. One of them is blaming the dimwit zillionaire of Ain't It Cool News for DESTROYING movie CRITICISM. The fact is, if he did it (doubtful), he had mentors. Nobody told Gene Shalit to turn movies into a ONE-LINER LAFF RIOT, or the ink-stained Messrs. Siskel and Ebert to have their thumb bones fused up so they could dance into a TV studio and make their own zillions above the title. They were Ain't It Cool News before the Internet, and without the grunge sensibility. There's really no difference between these several types of flackery, only that the newer dimwit probably couldn't recite the life stories of Erich von Stroheim and Fritz Lang. And whatever drool-inducing drivel Mr. Ain't wrote didn't seem to help MMMMMMMMMM-IIIIIIIIII-THREEEEEEEEEE's box office, suggesting even his target audience doesn't take him seriously. Several of Mr. Ain't's alleged rub-outs were also victims of buyouts and (in the Trib's case) a mere switching of positions (prodded in part by the fact that GENE SISKEL'S SUCCESSOR wasn't BRINGING HOME THE BACON). Of course we don't doubt news hacks would dumb down their properties to attract readers. And there's a problem with that idea too: it doesn't seem to be working.

(Via the usual ArtsJournal.com)

Posted 7:25 PM by Gene

Doesn't anybody here wanna win this game?

And this was "shocking" too!

Any word used by DA POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and DA NOOZ and DA GREG is not worth using.

Posted 7:18 PM by Gene

Greg is shocked -- SHOCKED -- by events in IRAQ:

'WASH POST' OBTAINS SHOCKING MEMO FROM U.S. EMBASSY IN BAGHDAD!!!!! DETAILS INCREASING DANGER AND HARDSHIP!!!!!!!!!!

How 'bout it, Greg? Worse than HIROSHIMA?

Posted 1:09 PM by Gene

As The TWO BILLS go off hand-in-hand into the sunset, curing all the world's ills, there is still time for joking:

Did you hear the one about Bill Gates at the Pearly Gates? Of course you didn't, because I just made it up.

It goes like this: Some years in the future, Bill heads for his final reward. He pulls up at the reception desk, where all his earthly deeds are placed in the balance.

"In the last few decades, I've been solving humanity's biggest problems," he explains modestly. "Through my foundation, I've wiped out malaria and AIDS, cured cancer, ended Third World malnutrition, and sent a billion poor children to school."

"Hmmm, very good," replies the gatekeeper, peering closely at the heavenly scales. "Your charitable works are most impressive. On balance, they just about make up for Microsoft Word."

The TWO BILLS are Boomers to the core, and in reflecting on their profound work we must ask, what will they leave behind? IE and the meaning of IS. They should reflect that they wouldn't be around but for global cataclysm. Who had more impact? Hitler and Tojo for starting a war -- and FDR for finishing it? Or the TWO BILLS with their blend of monomania and bathos, forcing people every day into their trivial pursuits?

Moreover this is the 37th year of THE ME DECADE, which Boomers have dominated utterly. Who can ponder any year of the decade without cringing? The Twenties (to give an example) were a majestic time, and those who lived through it can point to dozens of lasting achievements of the mind and the spirit with pride -- Lindbergh's heroism, for one. What can we look back to in this age? Disco? Leisure suits? Dallas? Friends? Oprah? [C]RAP?? Tonya and Nancy? Reality TV? Please! How apt that the defining moments of the decade have been abject catastrophes: the great national nervous breakdown of the seventies, 9/11 toward the end. Only the late eighties, with their false hope of world liberation, broke the trend, and no one saw Islam coming. We can look back to the Revolution and the Civil War and see heroes. When the future looks back at us, with swine like Nixon and cowards like Carter and caricatures like The TWO BILLS leading it, it will laugh, and sneer.

Posted 12:48 PM by Gene

I said it three weeks ago, I'll say it again: I don't care what PAUL DRECK and the PRESS AGENTS say -- every movie that was supposed to do a BILLION in biz has been a disappointment. The summer B. O. was supposed to be up 12 TO 15 PERCENT!!!!!!!!!! Likely it's half that. And admissions are virtually unchanged from last year, and still below 2004. This weekend numbers 2 and 3 went DOWN Friday-to-Saturday -- just like the X...just like DVC!!!!!!!!!!. No, I DON'T care what PAUL DRECK and the PRESS AGENTS say. People are getting wise to this business, and in their own peculiar manner they're STAYING AWAY.