With respect to Paul Wolfowitz’s testimony before the House Armed Services committee, Editor and Publisher sez:

Gaining less attention was that he [Wolfowitz] identified the media as part of the problem in Iraq. “Frankly, part of our problem,” Wolfowitz said, “is a lot of press are afraid to travel very much. So they sit in Baghdad, and they publish rumors.”

Snarky question: why might they be afraid to travel? Snarkier question: “rumors” like the presence of WMD in Iraq immediately prior to the March 2003 start of the war?

I guess this all revolves around whether one believes Iraq is a “quagmire” or not. Cases to be made on both sides, I suppose, but there seems to be this attitude among the Administration that when the media reports that things are not all puppies and butterflies in the Middle East, it [the media] is somehow fostering an untrue belief that we are mired down. An If-you’re-not-with-us-you’re-against-us mentality, even. Dangerous to get locked into that kind of thinking, n’est-pas?

So, with the growing trend of low-carb “designer” products, I shouldn’t be surprised that the growers are joining in on the fun. I’m sure they’re just out to save the reputation of the carb-loving potato, but c’mon… this just sounds scary.

Actual quote from one of the professors responsible for this monstrosity: “The potato doesn’t look or taste like anything that’s now on the market, and it’s not a genetically engineered crop. “When it comes to beautiful potatoes, this one is a real winner for growers and consumers.”

If low-carb foods taste anything like non-fat foods, count me out!!

Work-related true story: my boss’s legal assistant just took a cold call from someone who wanted to schedule an appointment with Jay today. Jay’s over at court on a hearing which will probably go all day, which Maria tells the caller, and might not be back until close of business, so there’s no guarantee he’d make the appointment or even be able to return her phone call.

“Why’s he at court?” caller asks.

“He’s at a status conference,” Maria explains.

“They don’t have those on LAW & ORDER,” caller snaps.

“That’s a TV show, ma’am,” Maria says.

“I KNOW it’s a TV show, because I’m watching TV when I see it,” caller says. “Are you saying they don’t follow the law on LAW & ORDER?”

…

Via boingboing: pictures from the annual Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL, home of the Superman Museum run by Metropolis resident Jim Hambrick.

Val and Carl: we are TOTALLY doing this next summer…

Guess I don’t have to feel bad about missing this summer’s Lollapalooza tour, then.

Although I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Lisa Schwarzbaum’s review of PAY IT FORWARD for Entertainment Weekly, it appears that my new favorite is Christopher Hitchens’s savage… hell, I don’t know if “deconstruction” accurately sums up the complete and utter shelling Hitchens lays down on Michael Moore and his new film FARENHEIT 9/11, but it’ll have to do for now.

Maybe “mutilation”? “Nuclear Assault”? “Literary Armageddon”?

Read for yourself, and laugh along: Unfairenheit 9/11 – The lies of Michael Moore.

Set to be introduced by your friend and mine, copyright-infringing Senator Orrin Hatch: the INDUCE Act, which some commentators believe is so broad as to outlaw currently existing and commercially available digital media technologies like DVD burners, file-sharing networks and digital video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV. The gist is that anyone who intentionally induces copyright infringement (which includes providing technologies or tools that could be misused by pirates, scalawags and ne’er-do-wells) would be in violation of the Act and presumably subject to the penalties of copyright law; the intent is that such draconian potential penalties will prevent the advent of copyright-infringing technologies.

Let’s see… where did I put that copy of the Constitution… oh yeah:

Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power… [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;… [and t]o make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Nope, nothing in there about suppressing or stifling the creation of new technologies. Whaddayaknow?

As part of the massive price-fixing class action lawsuit against the major labels that resulted in pretty much everyone in America receiving a claim for thirteen dollars, it appears that libraries across the country will finally be able to fulfill the intense demand for the Bee Gees’ 2001 album, THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN, as well as many other dust-covered bottom of the bin finds.

(A computer glitch is getting the blame, but come on — you know that this was just a good way to get rid of valueless inventory…)