Jack Shafer’s piece, “Honey, They Shrunk the Newspaper,” is generally right about a lot of things wrong with the electronic editions (vs. the standard Web site versions) of The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times — and what’s right about them. (Here in miniature is what an electronic edition looks […]

The T-word — “torture” — was studiously avoided by all in more than three hours of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Treatment of Prisoners in Iraq. Except, that is, for Sen. Edward Kennedy, who forthrightly spoke of “torture and abuse.” The closest Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld came to using the T-word was when he said […]

The tale read ’round the world: Woman harnessed like a donkey (London Evening Standard), Elderly Woman ‘Ridden Like A Donkey’ by US Troops (The Scotsman), Troops put harness on 70-year-old woman (The Australian). As reported by the Associated Press in London, it begins: “U.S. soldiers who detained an elderly Iraqi woman last year placed a harness […]

I presume you’ve seen this by now, but in case you haven’t: “Disney may block anti-Bush film.” The film at issue is Michael Moore’s latest, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which is to have its premiere later this month at the Cannes International Film Festival. The New York Times quotes Moore’s agent as saying that Disney CEO Michael Eisner […]

The chart that explains it all for you: A state by state tabulation of the average IQ, income and winning presidential candidate in the 2000 election, according to the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. The matrices are a product of The Test Agency, a well-known British publisher and distributor of psychometric tests, testing software and management training. ——————AVG IQ—AVG Income——-’00(1) Connecticut………113………$26,979……….Gore(2) Massachusetts…..111………$24,059……….Gore(3) New […]

It’s embarrassing: The U.S. State Department plans to delay the release of a human rights report (which was due out today) because, as one official put it, the report describes actions taken by the U.S. government to encourage respect for human rights by other nations, and releasing it now (in light of the American abuse […]

Since we were just speaking of freedom of expression, here (thanks to a link from Romenesko) is Ted Rall’s cartoon about the late Pat Tillman, which was killed by MSNBC.com. The news site’s editor in chief says he killed it because it’s unfair and tasteless. The “It” list, which ranks “hottest” celebrities each week according to readers’ picks, […]

None of the accounts we’ve read of Fidel Castro’s two-hour May Day speech in Havana’s Revolution Square — variously reported in The Kansas City Star, which had the most interesting account, the Financial Times, and Channel News Asia — mentioned the Cuban president’s personal remarks about the war in Iraq. Courtesy of the public relations office […]

The PEN American Center has called for the current occupant of the White House “to abandon Patriot Act politics” and lead “an open, bipartisan evaluation of individual provisions of the Act that are scheduled to end by 2005, including Section 215, which opens records of individual reading activities to government scrutiny.” Good luck. Section 215, […]

The author William S. Burroughs used to say that nothing happens in reality unless a writer writes it first. I take his meaning in a metaphorical sense, but he was speaking more or less literally. So was the poet Wallace Stevens in a signature poem, “The Idea of Order in Key West”: And when she […]

Two very different kinds of reviews, and we love them both: Martin Bernheimer’s quick dissection of “Die Walküre” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Clive James’s probing analysis of “Cyrano de Bergerac” at the National’s Olivier Theatre in London. Bernheimer’s lede: The Ring fanatics are here and night after night they’re filling the house. These […]

If you haven’t heard by now, this is a reminder: “The country’s largest owner of television stations … has ordered its eight ABC affiliates not to carry tonight’s ‘Nightline’ broadcast, in which the names of hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women killed in Iraq will be read as their photographs appear on-screen.” “Nightline” anchor Ted […]

Is someone at CNN reading us (and taking notes)? You decide. CNN flashed these words across the tube on Thursday morning: “not under oath,” “no stenographer,” “no transcript,” “no recording.” Straight Up on Wednesday morning in < FONT color=#003399>LIP SERVICE: “Not under oath. Not in public. No recording. No transcript. Two note takers only.” Both […]

Give the BushCheneySloganator a try: “It’s unpredictable / I hope you have the time of your life.” If you’ve heard this joke before (and even if you haven’t), forgive us: George W. Bush, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso have all died. They arrive at the Pearly Gates more or less simultaneously. Einstein is the first to […]

Romance Mathematics Smart man + smart woman = romance Smart man + dumb woman = affair Dumb man + smart woman = marriage Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy Office Arithmetic Smart boss + smart employee = profit Smart boss + dumb employee = production Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion Dumb boss […]

To our regret, we missed “The Jesus Factor,” which knocked a friend of ours out of his chair the other night. But not to worry: “Frontline” says the whole thing will be posted Saturday online. Here’s a taste: “On the day that George W. Bush was sworn into his second term as governor of Texas, […]

The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about whether U.S. citizens may be imprisoned without trial or legal representation if they’re declared by the little fucker to be “enemy combatants” in the war on terror. The righter-than-rightwing editorial page of The Wall Street Journal warned the court not to let its “sense of its own importance” lead it to […]