SER/CSEB

Greetings from the swanky Harbourcastle Westin hotel in Toronto, my home town. I'm attending the joint meeting of the Canadian Society of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the (American) Society for Epidemiological Research.

I love these conferences. I never expect to see anyone I know, but I always end up meeting some fun people. And did I mention that my profession tends to attract very attractive women? Add that datum to the fact that Toronto is experiencing a heat wave right now and I'm sure you can visualize the conference now.

Oh yeah, the science is pretty good, too. And since I've recently become aware that many of my co-workers read this blog, including members of the senior management team, let me emphasize that I am also well representing my new employer --the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child/Youth Mental Health-- by handing out lots of business cards and pressing a lot of flesh.

I'm in a session on air pollution right now (ahh, the magic of wireless internet), which is not too bad. But as I gor up at 5am to go to the gym, my attention is really strained right now.

I will check in with you later. In the mean time, here's a scary link from my brother. Good thing I'm in Canada!

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Bad Wolves and Nazis

Well the season finale to the new Doctor Who aired a few days ago. Feh.

**SPOILER WARNING**

After a lot of build-up all we got was a standard cop-out deus-ex-machina ending. The "Bad Wolf" references that had cropped up all season were supposed to culminate in the revealing of a titanic baddie. But no, it was just the Doctor's sidekick Rose sending herself messages from the future. You'd think a simple post-it note left in the right place would have sufficed. These people are the masters of time and space, after all! I say again: feh.

Eccleston was a good Doctor, however. Let's hope the new one, David Tennant, is up to the task

**END OF SPOILER**

Saw Batman Begins last night. I'm in agreement with most of the fanboy hype: it's a pretty good movie. Christian Bale could beat Michael Keaton's ass with Bale's cowl pulled over his face. But he's goofy looking; too pale, too bulky. And the fight scenes, while among the most realistic of any superhero movie, were filmed too tightly. Oh well, it's just a dumb movie.

It has been brought to my attention that I've been overusing "Nazi" comparisons of late. I don't think so. It's just that much of the attitude and actions of the current US administration closely resemble that of the Nazis. From Goebbels's fear-based propaganda, perpetual war, mindless patriotism, the discrediting of dissenters rather than of their ideas, a cowardly little leader acting tough with other people's lives, an unspoken but evident war against a specific ethnic group, the monitoring of citizens' activities and curtailment of civil rights, the cultivation of a victimized national identity, the raising of a truly miniscule foe to the status of all-pervasive enemy, the "we can do no wrong" mentality, the embracing of tactics the rest of the world deems immoral, the use of totalitarian iconography and, of course, to the reliance upon military might to solve diplomatic crises all point to one thing: the Nazification of the current US government.

Speaking of Nazis, one Deonandan.com reader who shall remain nameless told me that he was hesitant to post a time-stamped comment to this blog while at work because his boss regularly googles employees' names. Where do we live and what era is it? I am left woozy with this information.

More on Gitmo

In the words of Andrew Sullivan, just when you thought the pro-torture Right couldn't sink any lower, comes this: I Love Gitmo. Forget Jefferson, Rousseau, Hobbes, Nietzsche or any of the other prophetic philosophers of old. Apparently, the man who truly understood the future was Joseph Goebbels, founding father of neo-con strategy and wingnut philosophy.

That such people can exist in such numbers and with such influence in the most powerful (and supposedly "free") nation on Earth is cause for pause. It's indicative of the decaying soul of modern Western society, so caught up in its privileges and excesses that it leaves no room for compassion, empathy or common sense. For a people so in love with the simplistic good-vs-evil dialectic, it is saddening that they do not recognize true evil when it rests its wretched hide beneath their very snouts.

Let's revisit the whole "Gitmo detainees treated relatively gently" meme, so embraced by the religiously fawning Bush-blowjob crowd. Sullivan links us to this description, from an FBI interrogator, of his observations at Guantanamo:

"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor."

I'd like to see these pampered, bloated apologists experience such treatment first-hand and call it "relatively gentle" afterward. If the hard Left is guilty of a childish "America can do no right" attitude, then these assholes are surely guilty of the even more damaging "America can do no wrong" mantra. Self-criticism is always safer than self-glorification, especially when the "self" we're talking about is the most powerful military and economic machine in human history.

Guantanamomo

(Note: Before reading this post, please consult the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

Bush supporters continue to prove that they are fucking idiots. More than fucking idiots, they're soulless and seemingly brainless bastards. I'm through using polite language for people who advocate murder and torture in the name of increasing their own comfort level. Nazi postergirl Ann Coulter, in her latest article, says of the treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, "America's gulag" (Amnesty International's term):

"American soldiers make do with C-rations. Dinner on an America West flight from New York to Las Vegas consists of one small bag of peanuts. Meanwhile, one recent menu for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo consisted of orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit crepe, steamed peas and mushrooms, and rice pilaf."

Oh, I see. In Coulterworld, detainment at Gitmo is a luxury most working Americans would dream about experiencing! Instead of complaining, the prisoners should be paying hard cash for the experience!

Republican Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said of Gitmo: "[Its inmates] have never eaten better. They’ve never been treated better…courtesy of the American taxpayer!"

Thankfully, that great American-Canadian Eric Margolis wrote in response, "One wonders if Hunter plans to spend his next vacation there. It’s a great, all-inclusive resort, with programs like sleep deprivation, intense noise assault, cigarette burning, water torture, beatings, humiliation, religious insults. Deluxe wire cages are even included in the package. And what food!"

Meanwhile, the Internet's conservative echo chamber pipes up with the predictable gems, like this steaming turd from regular Deonandan.com reader/contributor Darth Vadum: "The interrogation techniques used at Gitmo are relatively gentle." Gentle? Compared to what? Decapitation?

Relatively gentle? Jesus H. Keerist. As part of a training exercise, a US soldier masqueraded as a detainee who was acting "uncooperative" and, for his troubles, was beaten so severely he suffered traumatic brain injury. A US soldier! He is, of course, suing. Yeah, relatively gentle. Just imagine how they treat a fellow who can't cry "Uncle".

Amnesty International, as everyone knows now, has gone on record as declaring the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to be inhumane. They are not the first to make this assertion. Every few months another independent organization makes a similar finding, and each time the story barely survives a news cycle. What is special about this time is that Amnesty is famous for conveniently overlooking American atrocities. For them to have finally bitten the bullet and turned their critical eye on the activities of the nation which is home to most of their supporters implies that the misdeeds have become too widely known and undeniable. Don't believe what the Bush supporters are spinning for us now: Amnesty does not make shit up. Their investigations are certainly leagues more efficient and above board than, say, the anaemic US military investigations into wrong-doings at Abu Ghraib.

As always, Charley Reese brings sanity to the debate:

"The fact is, the Bush administration has created a gulag, as Amnesty International recently charged. Certainly it is not on the scale of Stalin's, but a series of prisons in Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan and in other, hidden places where people are held indefinitely without charges and without access to even humanitarian organizations can be fairly called gulags."

Vadum adds this ridiculous justification in his blog entry, letting us know that he in fact is aware that maltreatment is going on at Gitmo: "Besides, those interned there are not lawful prisoners-of-war. They are unlawful combatants who are outside the protection of the laws of war."

Well that makes it all okay, doesn't it? You know, slavery was within the bounds of law when it happened on US soil, too. Does that make slavery okay? Under Nazi law, concentration camps were perfectly legal. Does that mean we must forgive the Nazis? When those who write the fucking laws do so to conveniently keep their misdeeds within the law, then the law means jack squat. The term "unlawful combatant" is a bogus piece of shit whose meaning has been massaged to assert minimal legal protection of the rights of non-Western soldiers --which is what the Afghan insurgents were, by the way: soldiers. Let us not forget --as so many Bush apologists would like-- that in the opening days of the Afghanistan war, the civilized world had to pull the Bushies kicking and screaming to even allow the Geneva Conventions to be applied in the so-called "War on Terror." These are not a people interested in law or its fair application, only in how to subvert it to service their own needs and agenda. Nixon's got nothing on Bush The Younger.

Let's make some things clear. Some of those interned in Guantanamo may in fact be dangerous criminal types. But many of those interned were in fact picked up at random by Afghan warlords who were paid $10,000 per head. Those who have so far been released are clearly innocent of any wrong-doing (why else would this paranoid Administration release them?) --yet they were imprisoned and tortured (yes, sleep deprivation, white noise and illegal imprisonment itself qualify as torture) for years without redress. Years. If the detainment of a handful of genuine bad guys justifies the inhumane treatment of God-knows-how-many innocents over a period of years, then we are equally justified in locking up Ann Coulter and every other 30-something blonde because they resemble Karla Homolka and hence might just be serial killers.

Don't fall for this bullshit, people. Don't let the USA, and hence Canada and the other indistinguishable Western allies, become the USSR of old. Don't let fear, curmudgeonliness and bigotry let slip the spirit of the laws which define a people's morality. Don't let an in-bred President and his amoral henchmen subvert and make hollow the previously meaningful national mantras of freedom, fairness and civility.

I give the final word to Charley Reese:

"Look, we have laws against terrorism. If there are prisoners in Guantanamo who are guilty of terrorism, charge them, bring them to trial, convict them and put them away. If they are just prisoners of war, then obey the Geneva Conventions. I fail to see how this could possibly threaten our national security."

Back to O-Town

Sitting on the sidewalk in front of Grand Central station in New York city, waiting for the bus to La Guardia airport. My big news is that I broke my 2 year caffeine embargo this morning by having a cup of masala chai to quell my hangover migraine. (Actually, I had a swig of coke back in Uganda, too, but what happens in Uganda stays in Uganda.)

The migraine was the result of a great night of post-conference excesses at a cheesy Broadway pub... that, combined with an 8:am meeting this morning to strategize funding a documentary film about our tsunami relief project in Sri Lanka. Watch this space for more on this topic as it develops.

I adore the SAJA events. I always return home energized and inspired as both a fiction writer and freelance journalist. We'll see how long this motivation lasts!




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Greetings From NYC

Mobile blogging once again, this time from inside the opening plenary of the 2005 conference of the South Asian Journalists' Association at Columbia University. So far, so good.

Nothing pressing to share with you, except on the flight here from Ottawa, I bumped into my friend Stasia and her friend Kerri, of to a debauched weekend in Manhattan! Ahh, it must be good to be blonde. Here they are in the plane:


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New York, New York

Good morning, my droogies. In a few hours I'm off to New York to attend the annual convention of the South Asian Journalists' Association. My apologies to my friends in the Big Apple; I probably won't get a chance to visit any of you since my few free timeslots have been filled by family!

I will leave you with this: just as we thought some headway was being gained against the Forces of Evil --what with expanded powers having been denied the Patriot Act-- comes news that the inhumane "modern gulag" at Guantanamo Bay is being expanded. And who gets the $30 million contract for the expansion? Well, Halliburton, of course. You know, the Cubans should just quintuple the rent on that place.

Bogus, Dude, Bogus.

As is widely known, the US military is so strapped for front line personnel that it has been radically modifying its recruitment strategy. Now this NY Times article reports that not only are recruiters drumming up business in public schools without parental permission, they are solely targeting less affluent schools (read: poor people and minorities). Why? Because, as the article states, "The kids in [rich white] schools are not the kids who fight America's wars."

Now this is interesting. Former Bush team member Morgan Reynolds now claims that the collapse of the World Trade Center towers was "bogus" and likely the result of a controlled demolition rather than solely a terrorist strike. If true, clearly this is the greatest conspiracy in modern times. Whether true or not, Reynolds has clearly got to stop using words like "bogus", or else lay off the wacky weed.

Is the reign of the boy king coming to an end? Have American law-makers finally regrown their testicles? "Despite a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers voted 238-187 to block the part of the antiterrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects." Finally, a victory for the forces of light! Besides, everyone knows that terrorists only read this book.

Lastly, Terri Schiavo's autopsy report has been published, confirming that she was indeed pretty much brain dead all along. Examiners further found that she was completely blind, which means that those much ballyhooed videos of her looking around and seeming alert were exactly what neurologists were telling us: deceptive randomness. But God forbid the wingnuts would accept anything, you know, scientific. Still, a sad situation all the way around.

Doctor What?

Because I am the Uber Geek (made up, as Mischa once noted, of the parts from lesser geeks), I am of course also a big fan of the British cult series, Doctor Who. The latest incarnation of the Doctor is played by Christopher Eccleston, who brings a quirky touch of class and dramatic flair to the role. Eccleston's is the 9th Doctor and this season is the show's 27th, spanning over 4 decades.

The new series, while initially slow to capture me, nonetheless managed to weave a fascinatingly layered cloth of adventure narrative. While remaining true to the concept of the classic series, it has taken the Doctor into the modern era, managing to sustain the show's campy charm despite the use of state-of-the-art special effects.

And unlike prior incarnations, the new series has had each show build toward a season-ending climax. And you know how much I appreciate good planning in a TV show. Like Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactica, this new Doctor Who was broadcast with all the shows already written, and an ur-plot already synthesized. At each of the Doctor's stops this season, he's been faced with the phrase "Bad Wolf." We now know that the "Bad Wolf Corporation" has taken control of future Earth's media and has somehow subverted what should have been the glorious peak of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire and turned it into a soulless hell of reality TV gone amok. With the season finale to be broadcast by the BBC this coming weekend, the Daleks --who were thought to have been destroyed in the mutually terminal final war with the Time Lords-- have reappeared in force, having been protected from annhilation from the "Bad Wolf."

But who is this "Bad Wolf"? Fanboys across the 'Net are saying it must be the Doctor's arch-nemesis, The Master, or else the Daleks' progenitor, Davros. Me? My money's on the mysterious and silent Face of Bo. You heard it here first, fellow geeklings.

Soaking Wet

What's the point in having invested in hundreds of dollars in water proof shoes, rain paints and funky rain slicker if, on the season's first rain storm, I still get soaking wet? Hmm? Is water supposed to just go right through this stuff? Grrrrr.

I Summon Thee, UFO

There's a dude in Las Vegas who calls himself Prophet Yahweh and from his website, it's clear that he's a bit of a nutbar. The Prophet's real name is Ramon Watkins and he's a typical "I know the true plan of the Lord" sort of nut. Watkins also claims to be able to summon UFOs at will, by reciting Hebrew prayers he has deciphered from the Old Testament.

Okay, fine. But what makes Prophet Yahweh interesting is that he has apparently proved his ability on live television! As you can see in this video clip, ABC News in Las Vegas took him up on the challenge, naming the time and place of the summoning and only giving Prophet Yahweh 30 minutes notice. Yet he somehow managed to produce what looks like a UFO! Apparently has predicted a whole month of paranormal happenings, according to his press release here.

I don't pretend to know what we're looking at in the video clip. Many theories abound. But Prophet Yahweh has produced several more summonings on demand, and if you join his Yahoo! group (as I have), you can download more clips and delight in the Prophet's fascinating (insert sarcasm here) insights.

The Prophet has predicted that before July 15th, he will produce a UFO so close to downtown Las Vegas that no one will be able to doubt its substantiveness. Time will tell. In the mean time, though I wish the Prophet no ill will, it's nonetheless interesting to note his ad on Yahoo! Personals. Hey, even prophets need love, right?

While a quirky self-styled prophet summoning UFOs to the Las Vegas desert is always interesting, North American media has not been as sanguine toward an on-going invasion of Brazil and Mexico by what appear to be entire fleets of UFOs. Maybe this is an optical illusion or experimental military aircraft (my money is on ball lightning) or maybe it's the real thing, but google "Mexico UFO fleet" and see what you get. Here is film footage of one of the encounters.

Welcome to Deonandan.com, all UFO news all the time.

PS. Thanks to all the Ottawa types who made my Springtime martini evening a success. I wish to also thank and plug the makers of Hangover RX ---it works!

Whoohoo!

Remember, homies and homettes, always treat yo momma right. Or else Mr. T will give you a talkin' to.

Here's a fun site: www.passedoutwookies.com. It revels in digital evidence of passed out, drunken dumb-asses. My favourite images are this one and this one.

Here's more evidence of European cultural superiority: the Germans are building temporary love shacks for the expected rise in prostitution in the wake of an upcoming sporting event. Brings a tear to my eye. Sniff.

And to my Ottawa droogies: don't forget, party at my place this weekend!

Ray Tries To Sound Smart

Before I forget, I've finally posted an interview I did with Books In Canada last fall. Read it here.

Wacky News

Got a lot to talk about today. Let's begin...

• This from Rotten.com. This guy (check out the photo) was let into the US by immigration officials, despite carrying a bloody chainsaw. He later killed someone. Meanwhile, this guy was not. Can you spot the difference? Remind me again how racial profiling is supposed to make Americans safer.
  
  
• Part and parcel of pervasive systemic racism and Muslim hatred in the USA is the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq. As (hopefully) everyone knows by now, the invasion was planned and intended months or years before it happened. The whole ultimatum to Saddam thing was a farce. Now there's evidence that the actual war started months before it was truly declared. These bastards are liars and murderers, plain and simple.
  
  
• And yet why has no one but Ralph Nader suggested impeaching the criminal Bush regime? They have murdered innocents and lied to the public and continue to spill blood and treasure for no good reason. Bush's approval rating is now 20 points below that of Clinton when he was impeached. What does it take?
  
  
• Despite clear evidence that systemic racism exists in America, I'm still not a fan of affirmative action when it comes to college admissions. I think it once served a purpose when certain groups were being intentionally barred from higher education. But, as someone who works within the academic sphere, I have not seen sign of such overt barriers. Now this study shows that affirmative action in America "works", i.e. it does promote larger numbers of certain ethnic groups in US colleges than would have otherwise been seen. But it strikes me as an accomplishment at the expense of merit. Interesting, too, that the study says that without affirmative action, almost all college positions would be taken by Asian students. I tells ya, it's a brown and yellow world. Insert toilet humour here.
  
  
• Here's an, um, "innovative" idea: vaginal teeth. The idea is to provide a clamping device within the vagina to bite back rapists. Stupid, stupid, idea. This is not prevention; it's escalation. If a violent man is already raping you and suddenly his willy gets injured, what's he going to do? Run away? No, he's going to beat you to a bloody pulp. And eventually he's going to learn to switch orifices.
  
  
• This story is about a man who is prosecuted under Texas's fetal protection law for deliberately causing his girlfriend's miscarriage, even though she wanted him to do it. She, on the other hand, cannot be prosecuted because she has a legal right to abortion. So let's get this straight: it's legal for her to have an abortion but not for someone to give her one, even with her consent? How's that for an end-run around Roe vs Wade?

In Harm's Way

The right wing apologists bristle every time a comparison is made between Bush II and the Nazis. Let them bristle; the comparison is apt, from the empty uber-patriotic dialectic to the Goebbel-esque manufactured state of fear. And now we get this fascistic PSA, seen on the MARC train from Baltimore to DC:

What more needs to be said? Reminds me of an official sign I saw on the highway in Boston last year: "Do you know if your neighbour's gun is locked?" And another highway sign I saw on the Washington beltway 2 years ago: "Report drievrs' suspicious behaviour to homeland security!" The Orwellian mood and iconography are so prevalent that they're no longer even noticed.

Any Star Trek fans out there? Well, I used to be one; not so much anymore, ever since the evil duo of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga started disassembling Roddenberry's utopian vision a decade ago. There's a series of fan-produced shows available for free download at NewVoyages.com. The shows take place during Captain Kirk's 4th year of his original 5 year mission. The production value is simply incredible-- better than the original series. The acting is wooden, of course, and sometimes sinks to laughable. But if you can get past that, you might just enjoy what they offer. If you really know your Trek lore and trivia (and you must, to really appreciate what these people have done) then the second episode, titled "In Harm's Way", is a genuine Star Trek tour de force. I'd even say it's better than the last two Star Trek movies. So take a chance and download an episode. Hey, it's free.

What the Fudge

"The problem with normal sex is that it leads to
kissing and pretty soon you've got to talk to them."
-nomarriage.com

By "normal sex" the author is referring to the variety that does not involve the exchange of funds. Hey, I didn't write it.

So there's now a website dedicated to the scholarly analysis of science fiction. Well, why not? Regular readers will recall that I have some experience in this matter. I suspect, though, that the site will devolve into a series of Batman movie reviews.

OK, here's a sad story about how international pimps use superstition to keep their ho's in line. This is very low and disgusting behaviour, of course. However, it does suggest the question of when it is appropriate to intervene when someone has made choices based on their own religious beliefs. The Nigerian women in the story continue in a life of prostitution because they believe that if they don't, a Voodoo ritual will necessitate the deaths of their parents. How does one rationalize an intervention on libertarian grounds? See what I'm getting at? If a Jehova's Witness wishes to die rather than get a blood transfusion, I say that's his right. How are these two religious choices different?

Sorry if I'm not being my (supposedly) eloquent self today. I had too much sugar yesterday and am still woozy. Mmmmm.....fudge.

Flame On!

Unsurprisingly, the remaining Nixon hard-liners are whining about the "treachery" of Mark Felt, aka Deepthroat. This was a baaad time for Felt to come forward, since the USA is back in the Nixon mindset, with an imperial President free to do what he wants and smear whom he wants.

This is interesting. Remember how one of the 2004 US federal election issues was whether there was too much medical malpractice litigation? The right-wing argument was that such litigation was driving up doctors' insurance premiums and thus increasing the overall cost of health care. Bullshit, of course. This study suggests that the true reason for rising insurance premiums is in fact poor investments on the part of insurance companies. There may in fact be too many medical lawsuits, but that's a vital right in a free society because it means the truly screwed have recourse. So don't let some corporate apologist talk you into blaming the wronged consumer for the high price of medical care. The real culprits, as always, are the arrogant investment bankers. (I welcome the flame war that is no doubt brewing.)

Helloooooo!!!

Why has no one been commenting on this blog in the past few days? Have my entries become so banal? Or is it the smarmy new profile photo that turns you away? I feel so rejected! Sniff!

Maybe this'll bring y'all back. My cousin Ajay sends us this blog that we sort of enjoy, mostly because the writer talks about poop a lot.

No? Then how about news that Bill Maher is at it again. Maher, of course, lost his TV show after he dared suggest that terrorists are not cowardly. (They're not, by the way.) And now the blowhards are on him again because he had the nerve to say (about army recruitment), "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Ay ay ay.

For those of you eager to remain current in today's fast changing world of coolness and language, I give you the online ebonics tutorial. Word!

Meanwhile it seems the next Survivor will be filmed among the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. Long time Deonandites will note that I and my family have spent much time among those ruins (photos here and here). It ain't that remote or stressful. The hardest thing will eb warding off the jaguars and lugging water. Pisses me off, though, that a TV show will be shot at a World Heritage Site for non-educational purposes. Still, you know I'll be watching.

Check this out. It's a computer reconstruction of what King Tut probably looked like! Looks like somebody's prison bitch.

Darth Vadum sends us this film about how George Bush gets his speeches.

And finally someone (mind you, it's Ralph Nader) puts forward a structure for impeaching the imbecile George Bush!

Deepthroating the Washingtonienne

So Deepthroat was FBI honcho Mark Felt. Bit of an anti-climax, no? I was hoping it would be Pat Buchanan or Dianne Sawyer, though Woodward and Bernstein had long ago confirmed that their shadowy source was indeed a man, and neither Sawyer nor Buchanan qualify on that count.

I'm pissed at this story. Why? Because it was poorly produced. Felt should have gone to "Woodstein" with his intention to go public, then let the Washington Post string out the annoucement with a series of teasers, culminating with a prime-time TV exclusive. Everyone would have made a lot more money (which is apparently the reason Felt decided to go public) and we all would have been happily caught up in the hype. I feel cheated out of some good old fashioned hype. I could have blogged about this for days leading up to the actual announcement! I feel so, so cheated.

Now, instead of story of the year, Felt's confession will be off the front pages by the end of the week, a sad and meaningless postscript to perhaps the greatest journalism story of all time.

Meanwhile, remember everyone's favourite ingler, Jessica Cutler the "Washingtonienne"? Well, her book is finally out. It's a standard roman-a-clef, which means its fictionalized content is nonetheless reflective of Cutler's actual sordid sex life. If some generous soul out there wishes to express his or her gratitude for my many years of entertaining blogging, feel free to buy me a copy.

(See, when Cutler's identity was revealed, that was a great media moment. Felt's announcement, while historically important, was a feeble and empty PR event in comparison.)