The New Yorker...not just for rich, educated theater-goers anymore. Oh wait, yes it is -- check out their subscriber demographics.

NJ teen foils kidnap attempt with cellphone camera -- disturbing story, though with a good ending. Will parents now rush out to supply their children with this until-now-totally-useless technology?

These survey results make my brain hurt -- the First Amendment goes "too far" in protecting basic rights? Huhhhh??? Do you know anyone who answers telephone surveys? I don't, and what I think this means is that polling statistics are culled from the demographic that doesn't have CallerID, and they are very confused about basic constitutional law. America has "too much" freedom of the press (?!), but we need more coverage of the government's suspect War on Terror? uh, how are we supposed to get that coverage then, from those ultra-informative White House Press Briefings, or god forbid a Presidential press conference? Let me not even get into the whole "under God"-in-the-Pledge-of-Allegiance thing...what portion of that 68% who think it doesn't violate the establishment clause know that the phrase was added in the 1950's after a lobbying effort by the Knights of Columbus (a kooky Catholic men's group, for those who don't know)? and how comfortable would they be if, say, the Nation of Islam similarly lobbied for a change to "under Allah"? yeah, that'll be constitutional, sure it will.

Ding dong, the witch is dead -- Poindexter to resign from the Pentagon. Next time they need a trusty footsoldier, maybe they should pick one who wasn't convicted of lying to Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal. Just a suggestion.

"A special badness all its own" -- let's all enjoy some of the really really bad reviews for Gigli, the J.Lo/Ben "Potatohead" Affleck flicks that starts losing money tonight. as i said last night to Amy when she asked how to pronounce the title, "Who cares? It's gonna suck.'