From a purely narrative point-of-view, Anna Nicole Smith has suffered the perfect end. A tabloid death to punctuate a tabloid life. Cue the music for True Hollywood Stories, we have a great American tale here.
More so than any other modern celebrity, Anna Nicole epitomized the commoditization of fame. With no discernable talent, man-made D-cups and [...]

From an article by by Abbas William Samii (an analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses) at The Weekly Standard:
The Iranian cabinet decided in mid-January that it would try to reduce consumption by introducing gasoline rationing, and reports from the provinces reveal that rationing is already taking place. The measure will not be popular among [...]

I thought this was pretty funny:
The leader of a Grenada police band that performed Taiwan’s national anthem at the inauguration of a China-financed cricket stadium was temporarily relieved of his music duties.
Inspector Bryan Hurst will not lead the Royal Grenada Police Band while investigators determine how his ensemble came to play the anthem of Taiwan [...]

With the hoopla of the current political pendulum swing in motion, let’s not overlook the significance of an Independent who had a pretty darn good showing last night … Joe Lieberman
Proving the adage, “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” Lieberman is looking to be in the most stalwart position ever in his political career.
Throughout [...]

I’ve long argued that most forms of extremism harkens back to one’s own psychological issues. I’m reminded of the psychological theory that suggests that the psyche is similar to a tube of toothpaste. The gist of the argument is that a tube of toothpaste works well when the cap is removed and pressure is applied [...]

I am, of course, pleased by New Jersey’s top court recognizing what I consider the obvious: that same-sex couples deserve the same legal and tax benefits as heterosexuals.
But what really interests me is not the whole debate over whether same-sex unions should be allowed; it’s that the debate provides a near-perfect example of how a [...]

Okay, so I’m not sure why we’re suddenly all atwitter about North Korea demonstrating it has nukes, since we’ve credited them with nukes for years.
And there’s a possibility they don’t actually have them.
But assuming they do, it would be churlish not to try to lay out some ideas for a solution.
The blogosphere is abuzz with [...]

What do you think of this?.
SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. � The village chapter of the NAACP has filed a complaint accusing the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic of religious discrimination for closing on Saturdays.
The complaint, filed Sept. 6 with the state’s Division of Human Rights, alleges that the clinic’s practice of remaining closed Saturdays in [...]

I hate to do what the media says I should be doing, and to stop doing what I’m doing when the media says to stop. (I hate being seduced into using “media” as a singular word when it’s plural, dammit! One medium, collective media. Even just knowing that is a generational marker, [...]

We live in a world that likes to focus on flash…the best news is breaking news that portrays the latest tragedy…whether that be a plane crash, a shooting, or any of a number of calamities. At the same time, slower burning, less inflammatory catastrophes unfold at a reliably steady pace each day. The question is [...]

There are more signs that the wheels may be about to fall off the economy and the Federal Reserve seems a bit nervous about how to best insure that doesn’t happen. The prevailing question at the moment centers on whether to continue the long string of rate hikes in order to keep inflation in check [...]

Late breaking news on the latest terror plot foiled …
A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit “mass murder on an unimaginable scale” has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.
It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled in hand luggage on to as many [...]

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intends to withdraw as a candidate for Congress

Polls are showing Lieberman struggling to win his state’s upcoming primary.
Two primaries next week will tell a lot about the strength of the hard-left wing of the Democratic party. In Connecticut, moderate Sen. Joe Lieberman faces a challenger whose single issue is opposition to the Iraq war. In Georgia, ultraliberal Rep. Cynthia McKinney [...]

I figured this was the most likely outcome:
Judge dismisses phone records lawsuit
Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T Inc. from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.
“The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed [...]

Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain recently spoke at the Manhattan Institute and outlined his positions on major issues in an off the cuff Q&A session after his speech. Below is a heavily edited summary of his positions taken from an article in The New York Sun.
Evolution
He noted that he didn’t say that intelligent design [...]

Hezbollah guerrillas stage rocket attack within Israeli territory in response to Israel’s bombing of a Beirut airport.
Two rockets struck the northern Israeli port of Haifa Thursday as the crisis over the abduction of two Israeli soldiers deepened.
The missiles were fired from inside Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said, in a sharp escalation of [...]

Just curious …
Is the Plame Game still viewed as real news?
What I’d really like to know is how much the entire investigation cost taxpayers — now that would be real news :- )

Late Breaking News …
Train blasts in Indian financial capital of Mumbai.
U.S. officials said the blasts followed a pattern of initiated by two Islamic terrorist groups — Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed — who focus on the territory of Kashmir, whose control is disputed by India and Pakistan.
Kashmiri separatists were blamed for twin car-bombings that killed 53 people [...]

Leave it to the Times to take positive economic news and put a negative spin on it.
What starts out as subtle needling i.e. Bush announced the news versus a lower level official …
Bush himself announced the deficit — a task that has in the past been left to lower-ranking administration officials. The figures show that [...]