I've put comments back online. Enetation seems to have sped back up a little bit, and I really like having a little bit of interactivity on this page. If you find that this page starts to load slowly again, let me know, and I'll take 'em off for good. In the meantime, enjoy!

Media Beat: "Wag the Puppy" -- New Twist in Media War

"The more that Iraq dominates front pages, magazine covers, news broadcasts and cable channels, the less space there is for such matters as the intensifying retirement worries of many Americans, the Wall Street scandals, and specific stories about entanglements that link Bush or Dick Cheney with malodorous corporate firms like Enron, Harken and Halliburton."

THIS IS THE MOST STUPID THING I'VE EVER SEEN.

"Support for the First Amendment has eroded significantly since Sept. 11 and nearly half of Americans now think the constitutional amendment on free speech goes too far in the rights it guarantees, says a poll released Thursday."

Los Angeles Times: A Shot Across the Bow From the Darkness

"The opinion released Thursday details more than 75 cases in which the Justice Department supplied false information to the court to carry out secret searches. These are only the cases that the Justice Department itself has located and admitted to. Moreover, the court rejected Ashcroft's effort to change its role in a way that would allow him to effectively circumvent the 4th Amendment in future searches of citizens."

Where you spend your money defines your priorities....

Texas has increased the budgets of their penal system much more rapidly than they have advanced their spending on higher education. The message? If you're young, and not white, you have a better chance of landing in jail than college.

a quote from the article:

"We have to fight the crime issue by being tough and smart. No one questions that we are being tough enough. We may be coming up short on how smart we have been..."

via fark

Yahoo! News - Internet Addiction May Be Form of Stress Management

"Procrastination, low productivity, social withdrawal and relationship difficulties" were common among those spending an unhealthy amount of time on the Web, report researchers led by graduate student Richard Davis of York University in Toronto, Ontario.

Duh.

Living in the Blog-osphere

" Indeed, with a new blogger joining the crowd every 40 seconds, Weblogs are officially the explosion du jour on the Net. Most estimates peg the current number at a half a million Weblogs, depending on how you define the term, but “my suspicion is that there are even more,” says Cameron Marlow, an MIT graduate student who’s studying the phenomenon. "

So we're about six months behind the curve. Not too bad. The trick is to change it to six months ahead.

I've been trying to set this blog apart from others by introducing only content that I personally think to be high quality. My philosophy is that if you give people something significant to chew on, they'll come back. How am I doing? Let me know.

AlterNet: November Surprise?

"I think this war will happen, and I think it's likely to be right after the midterm elections or sometime in winter 2003," says Chris Toensing, editor of MERIP Report, which tracks the Middle East.

ABCNEWS.com : Report: Millions Behind Bars in U.S.

"One in every 32 adults in the United States was behind bars or on probation or parole by the end of last year, according to a government report Sunday that found a record 6.6 million people in the nation's correctional system."

Podiatrist plans to destroy mosques, foiled by police

Apparently, this cat has enough bombs to level his apartment complex. Got caught by police that were called by his mother, who had requested that they come by for a "safety check". Hmm. At least no one got killed.

Finally, after two months, Google and Yahoo have added this site to their directory. Hooray! Now, let's just hope people will occasionally stop by.

Delaware police compile database of future suspects

"Police in Delaware are trying to get a head-start on cracking crimes before they happen by setting up a database that contains a list of people who officers believe are likely to break the law."

via fark