David Brooks had me going there, with the first several paragraphs in his column today. He had me thinking a new David Brooks had suddenly emerged, as a butterfly from its chrysalis, with powers of insight and perception the old David Brooks could only dream of having.

Dear, sweet Pat Robertson. Such a gentle, kindly Christian gentleman:

Fourteen were killed at Fort Hood, not thirteen as reported all week long. Which official is correcting the death toll? I am. On the authority of being a mother who is multi-paragravida, meaning one who has given birth more than once, and on the authority of being a grandmother of five souls, I can, I think, count straight about this particular tragedy. Francheska Velez was a 21-year-old woman, shot to death...

Interesting to note that Sky News is using YouTube to host their entire “News Corp will block Google” interview with Murdoch… …Picking up where Kathy left off this morning, The Guardian questions this Murdoch quote from that Sky News Australia interview: “We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it’s not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the...

The day the Wall came down: Bewildered East German border guards puzzle over whether to shake the hands of their former adversaries from the West, on November 9, 1989. Yes – today is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. A reading of this op-ed by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev shows, however, that the wounds that divide Russia and the West – and even Europe’s...

The entire world is puzzling over the mortifying attack by U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan on his fellow soldiers. According to Luis Lema of Switzerland’s Le Temps, whatever was going through his head – the lessons learned will not be encouraging. For Le Temps, Luis Lema seems to agree with Senator Joe Lieberman that the act was one of terror when he writes in part: “Here we...

In an interview with SkyNews Australia, Rupert Murdoch continued to insist that Google (and other search engines) are “stealing” his content and that newspapers should never have “given away” their content for free. And he hinted that News Corp. would soon block search engines from indexing their web sites and would successfully challenge the “fair use” of links in court....

To those who’ve finally wanted to see it happen — it has happened: America’s political controversy culture which permeates the way politics is packaged in much broadcast and old and new media, and influences the country’s tone of discussion has finally gotten spanked…by none other than former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. They two former President were reportedly...

Reality Raises It’s Head and the Media Wakes Up About the Obama Administration’s Middle East Failure By Barry Rubin There’s something big happening in the air regarding American media coverage of the Obama Administration. With the Washington Post in advance, the New York Times waking up the tiniest bit, the Los Angeles Times trailing far behind, and a lot of other newspapers getting tough, reality...

Israel-Monsters and Arab Cartoonists By Daryl Cagle The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians still looms large in political cartoons around the world, with an endless flow of cartoons from Arab countries showing monster-Israel assaulting, eating, crushing or somehow decimating the poor Palestinians. The dove of peace has been killed by Israel in every imaginable cartoon — crushed, squeezed, stabbed,...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Judge Oscar Magi: Repercussions over his decision to convict 23 CIA agents of kidnapping on Italian soil are already being felt. Italians today may be proud that their system of justice hasn’t spared intelligence agents of the world’s mightiest power, but the children of ancient Rome are well-acquainted with the consequences that are sure to follow. In regard to Thursday’s convictions by an...

You can listen to the speech here. The Roanoke Times covers it here. It will be televised by C-SPAN. I am persuaded my hope has been realized; this was not the typical celebrity journalist comeback it might have been. Instead, it sounds like Blair was a wise choice for the Journalism Ethics Institute keynote lecture. +++++++++++++++ Jayson Blair, who resigned from the New York Times in 2003 after he was caught...

JUST WESTERN BLUSTER BEFORE THE INEVITABLE DEAL? Could it be that at the end of this tortuous process of negotiating with Iran, the United States and the West will arrive at some sort of entente with Tehran that leaves America’s current Arab allies out in the cold? That is precisely the prediction of Le Quotidien d’Oran Kharroubi Habib, who sounds this clarion call to his Arab brethren to prepare for...

You know my penchant for using regular Americans’ letters to the editors of their hometown newspapers to make a point or to support a position or issue. Of course, such is not an entirely objective method, but what is, and who is…. Anyway, here are two gems from today’s Austin American-Statesman: Re: Oct. 29 article “Cheney will back Hutchison.” Former Vice President Dick Cheney...

Get ready for another apology. GOP House bigwig Rep. Cantor has criticized conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and says the party needs more inclusive rhetoric. (”He must be a RINO!!”). Quick: calll your bookie and make your bets on when Cantor will apologize now: Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the U.S. House, said his party needs to be inclusive and criticized some comments...

I’ve given President Barack Obama a long leash in his efforts at governing and now must concede his biggest mistake in changing how Washington works is his staff’s petty feud with Fox News. This running story has legs and they must be chopped off at the knees. This dog must sit, lie down, whacked on the behind with a rolled newspaper and attend obedience school. The latest bark from the White House...

The TV screen today looks like the vision of a demented performance artist. You can click from images of wildly cheering crowds in a Manhattan canyon celebrating what 25 young man did on a baseball field to talking heads and replays of a massacre of other young people in Texas and then suddenly to an Orlando, Florida office building for the familiar confusion in the first moments after another shooting spree. This...

Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro has done something no one else has: He has obtained the first convictions involving the CIA practice of ‘rendition.’ For those interested in reading the Italian coverage of yesterday’s first ever convictions for the U.S. government’s practice of ‘renditioning,’ this is the write-thru from the Corriere Della Sera, which includes a number of...

Photo Credit: Ben Sklar/Getty Images Investigators and journalists are now slowly fleshing out some details about yesterday’s Fort Hood military-base massacre that left 13 people dead and dozens wounded — and about accused shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The big question is “why” — a question increasingly asked as more tidbits slowly emerge. The detail that is and will get the...

This MSNBC.com headline certainly won’t help the feeling that many Americans have that the wealthy get taken care of and the rest are left to hang: Amid shortage, big NYC firms get swine vaccine Rules allow company docs to request vaccine, distribute to high-risk groups NEW YORK – Some of New York City’s largest employers – including Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and big universities...

“An Uncommon Love,” sung by Carole King and K.D. Lang

Pro-regime demonstrators lampoon President Obama at the site of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran on the 30th anniversary of the storming of the facility. Continuing with our coverage of the 30th anniversary of the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran, this editorial from the state-run Web site of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting responds to the question of why it occurred. Laying out it’s position...

In the annals of sexual politics and odd couples, none could ever match the possibilities of mating Maureen Dowd and Rush Limbaugh, a power pairing that would have made Mary Matalin and James Carville look like America’s Sweethearts. The image comes to mind from Dowd’s column yesterday, recounting a four-hour dinner at Manhattan’s 21 Club back when she was “a reportette” and El...

“V” for Vilification: Liberal Paradise, Obama Nightmare by Rick Moran Want to piss off the left? Everybody watch every single episode of the new ABC mini-series “V.” Drive the ratings through the roof. Make the show the hottest cultural happening since Seinfeld. Copy the hairstyles. Ape the fashion. Start bidding up the action dolls on Ebay. And most especially, actually...