The Missouri media may be loath to report on it, but Senator Jean Carnahan's incompetence is starting to become an issue in her race to finish out the term to which she was appointed in 2000.
Box Office Mojo is reporting that Mike Myer's latest installment in the Austin Powers series -- Goldmember -- pulled down a sweet $72 million at the box office this weekend, obviously finishing number one. The weepy Road to Perdition finished number two. Oh, behave!
Politicians are being filmed in trucks for campaign ads.
Sanford...said what matters is not whether he owns the truck, but that he lives up to what the truck represents: hard work and reliability.
A computer-generated image of a woman, named Andrea, is scheduled to go online in the English town of Lewisham, helping "digitally excluded" residents with housing benefits questions.
"People like talking to people, not to machines," says Chris Stokes, a consultant with Fujitsu.
Because Thursdays are so cool:
In a last minute update, TNR Online features Michelle Cottle recounts last night's expulsion of Congressman James Traficant, D-OH. It's a nice scene-setter, told with Cottle's dry, observational wit.
Romenesko received a letter from an angry reader claiming that blogging is an ugly word for ugly journalism. The reader's letter alleges bloggers do not check themselves, and do not correct themselves. The writer is very angry and obviously needs to get a blog of her own.
[Link via Romenesko.]
The Washington Post reports late today that the Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe of AOL Time Warner Inc., the world's largest, and most irritating, media conglomerate. The inquiry follows last week's series of Post articles about AOL Time Warner's business practices.
[Link via WaPo.]
Rep. James Traficant, D-OH, was expelled by the House tonight in a 420-1 vote. The Associated Press reports this is only the second time a representative has been expelled since the Civil War. Oddly, the only voter opposing the expulsion was Gary Condit, D-Calif.
[Link via WaPo.]
Italian police shut down a website hosted in New Jersey because the site owner lives in Italy and the site contains material illegal there. Is this right? Is it the wave of the future? Are American companies operating on American soil going to become subject to laws in other countries?
[Link via Eristic]
SFGate has a readable piece on bloggers' reactions to the blogging course to be offered this fall by UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
[Link via Romenesko.]
South Carolina law prohibits tattooing by anyone other than a doctor (a doctor?!?). Ronald White doesn't like that, so he tattooed someone on television as an act of civil disobedience. And now Ken Starr has filed a brief on his behalf in the US Supreme Court saying that the ban violates White's First Amendment right to free expression. <Via How Appealing>
Love him or hate him, but David Horowitz has added a blog to his mag's site. Whether you agree with what he says or not, it's a fun read. Check it out.
A couple in England have been married for 34 years - and have never had sex.
Haven't they ever heard of sex therapy?
[Link via Greeblie]
Canadian mounties breaking the law to catch lawbreakers? And in such an annoying way - say it ain't so! [Link via The Buck Stops Here]
A show just for kitty?
What's next, "Wheel Time" for your pet gerbil? [Link via My Arteries are Blogged]
Military jets escorted a plane to LaGuardia Airport on Tuesday night after a passenger became alarmed over the fact that seven fellow passengers were engaged in "suspicious activity." The seven, members of a well-known Indian performance group, were "passing notes to each other and changing seats." The horror!
A woman suing her attorney for vigorous backend counseling can't collect from his malpractice insurance, a federal judge has ruled.
Insurers are breathing a sigh of relief over the spanking-new decision. [Link via MCJ blog]
A young man lost his father the same day he won an Ozzy Osbourne look-alike contest, 20 years ago. An odd, poignant retrospective about death, sorrow and being a teenager.
A California woman has won a bad writing contest with an entry about romance down the tubes. Well, tube. Sorta.
Apparently Sydney is worried, but should we be? Charles Murtaugh says - maybe, maybe not.
More Kentuckians will get to eat dinner in peace now that a no-call law has gone into effect.
Two supervisors have been fired as a result of the case of Alfredo Montes, 2, found murdered the same day he was supposedly found "happy" by a DCF caseworker.
The Real Fight "will... be between the West and the Post-West, within the West itself. This clash has already taken place within the brain of Western civilization, the American intellectual class." <Via i330.org>
Apparently some of us need the obvious stated. Examples:
"Caution: The contents of this bottle should not be fed to fish." -- On a bottle of shampoo for dogs.
"Warning! This is not underwear! Do not attempt to put in pants." -- On the packaging for a wristwatch.[I don’t even begin to want to know]
"In case of flood, proceed uphill. In case of flash flood, proceed uphill quickly." -- One of the emergency safety procedures at a summer camp.
Lew Rockwell.com is top of the heap in the Alexa.com ranking of libertarian websites.
A father committed suicide yesterday and took his daughter with him after killing his ex-wife on Tuesday.
The oldest (known) woman in the world hasn't had an easy life in Albania. But of all the trials and troubles she's had in 122 years, the one thing that still makes her really mad is that she was forced to marry an older man - in 1894.
Advance planning at its finest: 400,000 larkspurs were planted in January to create this effect in time for the Fourth of July. You gotta love it.
E&P columnist Outing says every journalist should be encouraged to have a weblog.
A tattoo artist and a firefighter get together on a really cool patriotic tattoo.
A Tampa couple are letting eBay bidders decide their expected baby's name.
"Let'em eat rubber" Lizzie Grubman will likely do some time in less palatial accommodations than usual.
The zero tolerance policy for sexually abusive priests is hitting a snag - some won't go.
SUVs could not have originated in any country other than the US, says Hans Eisenbeis in Reason.
Princeton University Professor Peter Singer says Christianity is harmful to animals because it advocates speciesism.
Will Hutton in The Observer (UK) thinks the pernicious Southern conservatism of the former Confederate states is the cause of the current financial crisis at Enron and WorldCom, et al.