Mass Quantities of Randomness (plus today's boring news)

Let's see, what's the top news today? Yahoo gives me these fantastic choices: "One Killed in Baltimore Boat Capsizing," yawn. "Iraqi Constitution May Be Signed Monday," big whoop. "Bush, Kerry Spar Over Economy, Taxes," sounds exciting. "14 Palestinians Killed in Gun Battles," what else is new?

Not much shaking there. Let's try Google. Eh, not a big improvment. Some stuff about the Passion, and a very Fark-like headline from the San Jose Mercury News: "After Owens deal, hilarity ensues."

Gee, weren't there front page articles about jobs yesterday? The fact that there aren't enough being added and it's going tohurt BUsh this election season? I could have sworn that was on the front pages yesterday... Checking the Noow Yawk Times and I see some different stuff, "U.S. Team Is Sent to Develop Case in Hussein Trial," (uhm, if we went to war against the guy, shouldn't there have been a case already developed?), and, "In Sweeping Critique, Kerry Condemns Bush for Failing to Back Aristide." Hmm. Was Aristide really that great of a guy? I wonder. I tend to bite my tongue on the Haiti issue since I don't know enough history about the country to comment, though that doesn't stop other people who are in a situation similar to my own. In my view, until somebody can prove that the Bush administration orchestrated the riots to get Aristide out of office, their fault is limited at best. Sure, Bush may have wanted Aristide out of office and he may not have provided him help for staying in power, but it looks to me like Aristide is at fault for losing his grip on power, and I think some people would play both sides of the fence and criticize Bush if we sent troops in to protect the guy, especially if those troops started dying. A small, unstable nation goes through yet another coup, honestly, what the fuck are we supposed to do? Fuck, we helicoptered Aristide out of there before his former subjects could chop him up into itty-bitty pieces, and some of the rioting died down afterwards. Sounds like we did the best we could in a completely fucked situation. Can't everybody just file this is the "Shit Happens" department and move on?

Now I guess with that last paragraph, I could be accused of praising the Bush administration. Fine. I mean, I'm all for beating the guy over the head, but it just seems stupid to do it with the Haiti issue. What options did he have? What options would Gore have had if he were in office? I'm pretty sure Gore would have done the same thing.

Right now, I'd be more worried about the riots in Venezuela from opponents to President Chavez, who has done some questionable things lately. Not like the front pages would tell you that. (Not like I have mentioned it until now, but I've a very, very off week.)

Maybe I can look at osme international headlines to find something interesting. Hm, the BBC is disappointing, mostly a rehash of the same stuff from the other places. At leas they have a top headline about Venezuela, and hey, David Crosby got busted for pot. Didn't see that one coming.

I'm bored. This news bores me.

One more BBC headline of interest, and this you could use to beat Bush over the head with, "Bin Laden 'evaded Pakistani raid'." Gee, I wonder how the sneaky bin Laden could have done that. The Bush Campaign Administration only advertised for a month that they would be leading a massive operation to find bin Laden, nothing says, "Run away! Run far, far away!," quite like telling your enemy what you'll be doing and when you'll be doing it. But hey, whatever gets Bush the votes, right?

If you're still reading, The Observer has a couple stories of interest. There's a brewing row in the government over whether or not it was legal to goto war in Iraq, and a story looking at American political battlelines now that Kerry is the candidate. The article includes this interesting paragraph:

In a country this size, who decides the issues? It sometimes seems that what the journalist Eric Alterman has dubbed the 'punditocracy' - the media sages and myriad Dobbses who fill the columns and news shows - do. As Ralph Nader pointed out after his candidacy in 2000: 'In essence you don't run for President directly, you ask the media to run you for President. Reaching the voters relies almost entirely on how the media choose to perceive you and your campaign.'

I also can't believe he got away with this line:

It's dinner time on the slow train to Miami where, the book says, you get to meet people. In the dining car I sit opposite Debbie. She's mid-40s, lean, tanned to a turn and has an accent like 10 New York Jews.

And this line:

The railway is a good way to see that other America - the poor tend to build close to the tracks. Judging by the view from the Silver Meteor, three-quarters of Americans live in trailers.

Over at the Independent, this is the first headline I see: "Revealed: Shocking new evidence of the dangers of GM crops." In the article, the second thing I see is, "Genetically modified strains have contaminated two-thirds of all crops in US." And they are calling Russian president Putin a "dictator."

Well,I'm not as bored now, at least that's something different. Hindustan Times doesnt provide much of interest to me. I suppose I could look at Australian Broadcast Company or some news services from China, Pakistan, or Japan, but I'm just not feeling upto it right now. Plus I'm still living in the stone age with a dial up line, and I have to logoff soon because morning is here and people might want to call.

So I'll make my last stop Fark. Ah, here's one truly Fark-esque headline: "Hoping to take the challenge out of police work, crooks snap pictures of themselves stealing SUV, video game, DVDs, and clothes. Then leave camera in SUV." And ooh, a Star Terk reference I got! Now I feel like a geek. Maybe it's time to go. Checking email before I logoff.. Wah. Still no reply from tha cute, incredibly interesting, sometimes Loaded Mouth reading girl... I shall go sulk now.