If I were from Mars, I would wonder why human beings concentrate so hard on what I once heard a human being refer to as the “real estate” of the body… those ‘parts’ without armor that occur at the joining of their legs and torsos. Modern humans seem to focus on this one tiny area on their bodies to the exclusion of all the rest of the body. What about the ears? The head? The brain?...

It is indeed becoming pathetic. The blogosphere and the media is going berserk over the reported death of the Al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri. But it is typical of the trivialization of the news. The manner in which the media is panting over this bit of news, at the cost of other ‘real’ news, is reflective more of a drowning person ready to clutch at any straw to keep afloat!!! These...

John Kenneth Galbraith, the distinguished economist, who was the US ambassador to India, once described the country as ‘functioning anarchy’. Others have described India as ‘functioning democracy’. One of the best known British journalists in India is Sir Mark Tully, who has made India his home. In an article in The Independent, he writes: “India is renowned for its inefficiency....

From moderate cartoonist Tom Briscoe:

I have been reluctant to join the David Broder lynching party. First, the guy obviously has lost a step or two and is in the twilight of a distinguished career. Second, I never thought that he was as important as he is given credit for, but that’s because “Dean of the Washington press corps” is about the same as “Dean of a Midwestern cow college” to me. But I’ve been doing...

So much for all the talk about how talk radio and American culture entered into a more respectful era when it comes to racial sensitivies. The talk about how times had changed already seem quaint since the New Era lasted not even two weeks. Rush Limbaugh is now embroiled in a new controversy involving literally playing the comedy race card about a Democrat named Barack Obama running for President. Watch and...

(Photo Courtesy N. Ram — The Hindu) Writing is a an art and a craft. Some are born with it. Others have to struggle to become good writers through hard work and perseverance. To put it in a bit of Shakespearean language: ‘It blesseth him that writes…and blesseth him that reads…’ Many people do not realise but an invisible relation/bond develops between the writer and the reader....

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

Time is trying to whittle down a list of 200 influential people to 100 people — and they want everyone’s help. They also want to know who should have been on this list that wasn’t (besides ME, that is..). CLICK HERE to help them out. PS. Sanjaya Malakar is #11 — which shows our civilization is lost. (At least Perez Hilton is only #15.)

What will editors and bloggers now do on a slow news day? Rosie O’Donnell is leaving “The View.” UPDATE: Her announcement is HERE. Some sites have confirmed it, it’ll be announced soon and the key question becomes: what will happen to “The View’s” ratings now that viewers know they might not watch a tongue lashing or an acrobatic foot-in-mouth manuever? And what show...

Telling Truth To Lies on Capitol Hill re Falsified Stories about Her Captivity in Iraq Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense –shouldn’t he be called to ‘The Hill’ to answer about his oversight, or lack of it, on this matter? and not one more time let ‘the who, what, why, where, how and when’ of this seeming ‘failed publicity stunt’ fall to his subordinates…...

Politico says he did, but I don’t agree. Find out more here.

Not so long ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that the “war is lost” — the Iraq War, that is — and aroused the ire of the warmongering right. (As Media Matters pointed out, Reid went on to say during the same press conference that “the surge is not accomplishing anything” and that “the war, at this stage, can only be won diplomatically, politically,...

There are few examples of right wingnuttery more pungent than the argument that WMD were found in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, but due to the gross negligence of the Bush administration they were smuggled out of the country by insurgents and are now in the hands of the U.S.’s mortal enemies and that everybody — White House and Democrats alike — is so embarrassed that they’re joined...

Like many an aspiring young journalist of my generation, I wanted to be like David Halberstam when I grew up. The prolific Halberstam, who died yesterday at age 73 in a car crash in Menlo Park, California, was one of a small handful of reporters who saw through the deceits and obfuscations of U.S. military commanders in Vietnam early in the war and wrote that the corrupt South Vietnamese government would be...

To watch some vintage TV ads please click here… There was a time (not long ago) when the readers/viewers attention was riveted more towards the advertisements than the news/programmes while reading/watching newspapers/magazines and television. But times are changing. Now as the newspapers and the TV opt more for the dramatic and jazzy approach of the ads, many ad practitioners fear, ironically, that...

Is the New York Time’s Maureen Dowd to blame — or is it John Edwards? Here’s one view.

Anyone can overstay their welcome — particularly a swarming news media during a major, history-making, terrible event. And so it goes at Virginia Tech too: You’ve seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene. And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end. It’s calling on hundreds of reporters to...

Those Terrible Virginia Tech Cartoons By Daryl Cagle When a lunatic killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University earlier this week I knew what to expect from political cartoonists, who don’t react well to tragedy. Some of the cartoons seemed insensitive, as today’s generation of jokesters struggled to respond to a story with no lighter side. I have some sympathy for the editorial cartoonists who...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

My old friend Will Bunch is one of the best bloggers around. This is in no small part because he is a very fine reporter and writer and has honed his Pulitzer Prize-winning skills breaking big stories over two-plus decades in the newspaper business. Will never has been content to rest on his laurels. He has worked tirelessly not only to save his own imperiled newspaper (and my longtime former employer), the...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

For a critique of Michelle Malkin — specifically her argument for concealed weapons — see here. It deals with the Virginia Tech shootings and addresses issues raised in this post. From a different perspective, and with a different tone, Heraclitus looks at these issues in a separate post here. ********** As expected — because it is always so — a media event has become a media orgy. I’m...

The bomb attack on the federal building in Oklahoma City 12 years ago today ushered America into the modern age of terrorism. But for me it was a professional nadir and resulted in a cautionary tale worth telling and retelling. I was covering the O.J. Simpson criminal trial full time when a rental truck loaded with more than two tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil was detonated by anti-government militia...

So once again the bar on murder has been raised in the United States. There almost seems to be a steady race to set a new Guinness Book Of World Records listing on the largest number of merciless murders because periodically “the worst shooting in the United States” is a new one with a higher body count. The latest is the Virginia Tech massacre, which is now the largest mass murder in American history,...