Monday December 10, 2001

Quote of The Day

"The decision by the Taliban to surrender Kandahar, its last stronghold, is a tremendous vindication of American political will and military strength."

--London Daily Telegraph editorial

W says they can't cook. No big deal

Somebody Stop Them: Not since Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin formed some loopy organization that asked world leaders to make nice - or something equally lame brained - have we had a truly useless group to hoot at. Our long wait is over with the formation of WordsCanHeal, a group that wants to stamp out "verbal violence and gossip." Some people have too much time on their hands.

Film At 11: One of Osama's ex-wives is a real Chatty Kathy. She's running on about him having himself shot on TV if things take an ugly turn in the caves. (Maybe the violent gossip stoppers should give her a call) We have no problem with him putting on such a show. Fine, fine - go ahead. How soon?

Ground Zero for Gossip Stoppers: No story this morning more clearly illustrates the grave need for Gossip Stoppers than Howard Kurtz' rambling tale of the vicious sniping between the folks at Talk magazine and Alex Kuczynski of the New York Times. The roots of their dispute are murky and boring. The final blow devastating. Talk editor Maer Roshon flat out states the Kuczynski is not a natural blonde like his boss Tina Brown! These are the people that shape our culture. Someone's got to stop them.

Idiot Watch: Over the weekend, peacenik Brit journalist and certified fool, Robert Fisk, got himself beat up in an Afghan village. His account of the assault in this morning's Independent taxes credulity.

Here is countryman Andrew Sullivan's intelligent assessment of Fisk's pathology.

They Told Us So: Remember the first alert Cheney/Ridge/Ashcroft gave us back in September? Papers this morning pick up the Newsweek story that they knew what they were talking about. A suicide bomber was aimed at the Capitol building. We can't wait for the details behind every alert we've been given to bubble to the surface - and they will.

PC Alert: Today's word is that vague assignment of a name for negative thoughts - issues - as in "Britney has issues about her mother's strict rules," "Tory has issues with his supervisor's needs" "Americans have issues with John Walker's loyalties." When you hear issues being used you are hearing someone who doesn't have the guts to be specific because they might hurt someone's feelings. It is conflict avoidance at its most annoying and we have issues with its use. See how catching it is? We would sic the violent gossip police on people who use it but that's not their issue.

-Your Issue Free LComStaff