12:23 pm - Sunday, May. 02, 2004
News 5/2/04
Sundays are a big news day in our house. Simon says it is his civic duty to watch Meet the Press, so we do. Sometimes we follow it up with the McLaughlin Group, where Elenor Clift just called the Iraqupation "the most ill concieved military campain since Custer".

This weekend we looked up pictures of the abused Iraqi prisoners online. It is different a few days after the news broke, but that first day it was rather difficult. No big news organisations were covering it; Simon says he saw them on TV today. Admittedly, the men are naked, but the pictures we did see had the appropriate bits blurred. This should be all over the news folks, it was bad. I heard someone on NPR say "What have they left for the devil to do?"

In other news, the Harper's weekly said "Scientists at NASA were ordered not to speak to reporters about The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster movie in which global warming triggers an ice age, because officials were worried about political damage to the president, who has refused to take the threat of climate change seriously. [New York Times] "

Nice.

Meet the Press was all about the guy whose wife was exposed as a CIA agent (presumably) because he revealed damaging information about the administration. He said many people in the press wouldn't speak out against the administration for fear of getting sent to "Guantanamo", meaning they'd be shut out and left without means of defense.

Really nice.

Harpers also said "Est�e Lauder died.", then later "The CEO of McDonald's dropped dead of a heart attack." I love how they sprinkle these blunt obituaries throughout their more lengthy observations. I also love how she died, but he dropped dead.

Harpers said "federal [New York Times] authorities confirmed that a man in Westchester County, New York, contracted avian flu last fall; there was no evidence that he was ever in direct contact with birds." Further on there's " a [New York Times] highly radioactive nuclear fuel rod was missing in Vermont.".

From the news I get a sense of frustration, disgust, outrage, and fear. Ok, so there was one giggle. Sometimes I think I'd rather be an ostrich.

Hey, go back to the "Small Stories" page - I put some images in there and in the last entry.