Folly and News in cyberspace....

It must be the new changes at work, which among other things, have thrust a lot of good new work on me (albeit with a short amount of time).

But at any rate, today's stuff from the blogosphere looks like pretty thin swill at this early hour.

Sombebody at Kos is berating Wolf Blitzer, who for once in his life is merely playing devil's advocate.


Joe Carter completely doesn't get the phrase "religious beliefs are inadmissible in academic explanations.” And I simply have no interest today in explaining why, and his refusal to understand why - from a religious point of view- would vindicate the use of the phrase. (The writing by Scalia linked by Carter is also an interesting read for its unintentional self-referentiality.)


Wal-Mart is still evil. And with an outdated business model, too.

Wal-Mart is taking a page from the modern political playbook. Under fire from well-organized opponents who have hammered the retailer with criticisms of its wages, health insurance and treatment of workers, Wal-Mart has quietly recruited former presidential advisers, including Michael K. Deaver, who was Ronald Reagan's image-meister, and Leslie Dach, one of Bill Clinton's media consultants, to set up a rapid-response public relations team in Arkansas.

When small-business owners or union officials - also employing political operatives from past campaigns - criticize the company, the war room swings into action with press releases, phone calls to reporters and instant Web postings.

One target of the effort are "swing voters," or consumers who have not soured on Wal-Mart. The new approach appears to reflect a fear that Wal-Mart's critics are alienating the very consumers it needs to keep growing, especially middle-income Americans motivated not just by price, but by image.

The first big challenge of the strategy will come Nov. 1 with the premiere of an unflattering documentary. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" was made on a shoestring budget of $1.8 million and will be released in about two dozen theaters. But its director, Robert Greenwald, hopes to show the movie in thousands of homes and churches in the next month. The possibility that it might become a cult hit like Michael Moore's 1989 unsympathetic portrait of General Motors, "Roger & Me," has Wal-Mart worried.

Another Republican behaved badly towards women while Republicans are pushing Samuel Alito. Which is just fine with the Bush regime, which sees no need for a shake-up of their operation. But evidently, for once, Kristof gets it.


Argentina is not happy with George W. Bush.

Chinese stocks are tanking.

I'm off on travel today. All in all, it should be a productive day as there isn't really any news of substance. Having said that the market will probably tank, North Korea will probably launch missiles, and a high-ranking Bush administration official will be either caught in a compromising position with a barnyard animal, or said official will resign and be replaced by a barnyard animal.

But I could be wrong.