It’s a cliche now to say "we will never see his kind come our way again," but it’s clearly true about Johnny Carson, who died yesterday at the age of 79. He had become an icon reflecting his generation in an era when broadcasting was at its height; his comedic style was shaped by radio and early television  — in contrast to today’s late night hosts who grew up watching television and are imprinted by years doing comedy clubs as they struggle to build audiences...

The website INBB has  apparently been doing some citizen journalsim recently — and reached some troubling conclusions about a radical Islamic Yahoo group that it suspects is up to no good: In the days leading up to the Iraqi election, a propaganda war continues to be fought on the Internet by radical Islamics. However, one apparent major purveyor of terror appears to be off line – at least for the moment. Yahoo group Global Islamic Media (GIM) which has been on and off line...

Yes, it’s that time of the week again…when we do our stint as a Guest Blogger on Dean’s World. Just click on THIS LINK and you can visit us there. Our regular posts resume here on Monday morning, possibly as early as late Sunday night.

….at the newly redesigned website Digital Dissent. It’s the brainchild of Justin Delabar, a moderate Democrat, who has joined forces with a Libertarian and a Republican to create a SPECIAL kind of open source politics blog. Delabar writes: The internet is a land of bitter partisanship; it’s all about Republicans v. Democrats, Conservatives v. Liberals, Libertarians, Socialists, Greens, etc. v. Everyone. Why not create a site that attempts to bring these groups together to discuss,...

Fasten your seat belts for tons of controversy and discussion over some scientists’ startling conclusion: Earth’s mass extinction 250 years ago was caused by global warming: New Delhi, Jan 21 : The biggest mass extinction in the history of earth some 250 million years ago was caused by global warming and not by the impact of asteroid or comet as earlier believed, new evidence has indicated. In a paper published by Science Express, the online version of the journal Science, yesterday researchers...

Then, here are a batch.

Now my world is shattered. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m a total cynic. First, someone claimed there was no Santa Claus. Then they told me the truth about the East Bunny. And that Dennis Kucinich and Alan Keyes were actually cartoon characters based on people living on Mars. But now THIS???? Heroic fights to the death between enslaved gladiators never happened, according to a controversial new theory. QUICK: SOMEONE TELL RUSSELL CROWE… The research, which disputes...

Blogger Arthur Chrenkoff does a highly popular Good News From Iraq post regularly. Aside from being read on his site, it’s linked all over, applauded in some quarters, denounced in others and also runs in the Wall Street Journal. He recently decided to do an experiment: he decided to study the coverage and see how negative it is. And here’s what he found.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the son of departing Secretary of State Colin Powell, and one of the most controversial FCC chiefs ever, is leaving the building. But before there are celebrations in some quarters they might ask: who comes next? And will Powell’s critics consider the next person worse? Here’s ABC’s report: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell, who opposed tight regulation of telecommunications but backed unprecedented fines against broadcast...

  I did a quadruple take when I read this one — and if I were President George Bush I would ponder the word "hubris" because if you’re a Republican and Peggy Noonan  criticizes your speech then you must have hit some flat or sour notes. There have been lots of reactions to Bush’s inauguration speech  and many — but not all, by any means — have been along  ideological lines. But when Peggy "Ms. Savor of 2004" Noonan says the speech...

Here’s a collection of some Bush inaugration jokes edited down from this web collection and this one. Note one thing, though: in comedy a comedian often finds a stereotype or a perceived characteristic, then runs with it (I LOVE all political jokes by the way. And to readers who will inevitably write demanding anti-Kerry jokes: the comedy cycle is now back on the Bush administration…comedy goes in cycles): The White House announced that Ruben Studdard is going to perform at one of the...

Marvel Comics got itself caught up in the web of Spiderman and has been ordered by a court to cought up Big Bux to Spiderman’s creator Stan Lee: E-online reports this on Lee’s triump in court: A court in New York has ruled that the 82-year-old creator of Spider-Man is due millions of dollars in unpaid profits from Marvel Enterprises for the success of the Spider Man franchise and other Marvel Comics-based films over the past seven years. U.S. District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet found...

…"He met his wife at a dance for inflatable singles." Well, sometimes life imitates joke.

The Watcher of Weasel’s Council has voted and picked its two winning posts for this week. The council member winning post is Dr. Sanity’s WMD and Death By Chocolate Cake. The non-council member winning post is Welcome Neighbor! by Varifrank. The full list of entries is here.

It increasingly seems likely that New York Senator Hillary Clinton is in the 2008 Democratic nomination presidential sweepstakes as she continues to solidify her positions towards the political center and center-right via actions such as this: On the eve of the presidential inauguration, US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton last night embraced an issue some pundits say helped seal a second term for George W. Bush: acceptance of the role of faith in addressing social ills. In a speech at a fund-raising...

No matter how gloomy the occasional violence-filled headline, the Washington Post today confirms that there is an underlying desire for democracy and elections. BAGHDAD, Jan. 20 — An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey. The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent...

Or is it a classic case where dreams don’t live up to reality? Introducing the Apple MacMini (I thought I ate something called that at McDonald’s).

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo…whoops, his blog is all in lower case so: skippy the bush kangaroo has a MUST READ post here that crystalizes the let’s-circle-the-wagons mentality of a not-unanimous part of the administration’s supporters. Ever since it came out that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams had been paid $250,000 to shill the Education Department’s policies (and get Education Bigwigs on his shows) there has been a steady effort to — and we detest the journalistic...

….a song and dance courtesy of JibJab. (The Real Dummy thanks Southerner Daily News for the tip.)

An interesting footnote to 911 and the debate over the role of Saudis comes to us from the Crossroads Arabia blog: WASHINGTON, 20 January 2005 — The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, three Saudi princes, several Saudi businessmen and Saudi financial institutions were dismissed as defendants on Tuesday in lawsuits accusing them of supporting Al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks. Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Casey cited the report by the Sept. 11 Commission, which found no evidence that Saudi...

President George Bush’s inaugural speech basically tells Americans — and the world — that no matter what, the U.S. will not lose sight of the ball in play here and abroad: protecting and nurturing freedom. Remember that very few inaugural speeches have a shelf life beyond a few weeks (or less) after the inauguration. Yes, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR and JFK may have had some of the more memorable ones, but in general an inauguration is a time when the newly sworn-in-President...

We will do something more extensive later with a roundup, but our initial reaction is here.

NOTE TO READERS: It turns out that the story about Michael Moore’s bodyguard being arrested on gun charges IS NOT TRUE. The source story came from Fox, which took it off their site. Remember what we constantly remind readers and bloggers on our posts: most blog posts are based on the assumption that the source material is true; this one wasn’t. However, there were many readers who were interested in raising various issues surrounding gun control in the comments boxes. They spent a lot...

Did you know that SpongeBob Square Pants is an evil influence on kids? Well, according to Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, you should have because he is: On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. "Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday...