Current Affairs

I think this is just so sad. Elian Gonzales, another little Castroite. It's no surprise at all that the report would be on "60 Minutes." Any bets on how sympathetic the program will be to Elian's Miami relatives? They're reactionary conservatives, you know. Just never got Castro's perfect society.

It's going to keep getting harder to get away from it all when it's much easier to take it all with us. This study from my alma mater shows that the communications revolution goes even deeper than we've realized. It turns out that everybody -- not just the young or the technically savvy -- multi-tasks. This is creating quite a buzz in the news business, as you might imagine.

Finally, after all these years, a new way to dispose of our earthly remains. I'd request that for myself, but I'd be afraid they'd use me to fertilize some pig farmer's corn field, and then where might I end up? Maybe I can have myself ground up and mixed with some nice French Roast, passed around to all my friends in one-pound bags. Even though I'd be gone, they could still wake up in the morning and have a steaming cup of Leo.

With all the reporting related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, you surely know by now that, if a disaster strikes, you should be prepared to be on your own for up to 72 hours. Here's the kit you should have tp make sure you are.

Thank God someone is paying attention to the towels.

Thank God for weathermen and Louis Farrakhan. Without them, we'd never even get close to the truth. Personally, I like the theory that George Bush directed Rita toward Texas to get the evacuated survivors of Katrina that he missed the first time around.

Anytime an improved source of news and information comes along, the despots are there, clamping down. It won't work this time, though, will it? The Internet is one of the forces (increased free trade is another) that will topple the tyrants everywhere. Once people get a taste of what liberty will bring thing -- whether it's more knowledge or a middle-class lifestyle -- they will not be denied.

You just can't trust those Hollywood stars to keep their word. I'm still waiting for Alec Baldwin to move to France, as he promised to do if Bush won his first term.

Evan Bayh has now come out against John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court. Well, not against, exactly. From a Bayh office press release:

Regrettably, therefore, I cannot vote to confirm, not because I oppose John Roberts, but because we simply do not know enought about his views on critical issues to make a considered judgment.

News-Sentinel staffer Jon Swerens is in Mississippi, helping out at the Biloxi Sun-Herald, also owned by N-S parent company Knight Ridder. Jon has been blogging from Biloxi, with interesting observations and good photographs of a devasting storm's aftermath.