MSNBC - 5 soldiers, 4 civilian contractors killed in Iraq - I'm not racist, I'm not a bigot, but if we wiped out the Middle East with a few nukes, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me. Seriously, I'm starting to hate these people.

MSNBC - Angry as They've Ever Been - Really fascinating interview with the director of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute on the killing of Hamas's spiritual leader. This was not a shrewd Jewish decision.

MSNBC - Sapp agrees to seven-year contract with Raiders - "'We feel he’s got a lot of football left in him and will make a positive contribution to the Oakland Raiders’ defense the next couple of years,' Gigantino said."

Soooo... you think he'll be worth having for the next couple years... but you gave him a seven-year deal? I know I sure can't see Sapp being too effective for much longer. Big fat guys have a short shelf life.

CNN.com - City installing coin-operated breath test machines in bars - Mar 19, 2004 - "Rockford resident Luke Leech, 23, said some people might use the breath testers for their entertainment value."

Frankly, that's the first thing I thought of using them for.

MSNBC - Setting a Bad Example: "Every single American ally in the Coalition has to consider now that their own countries are in even greater danger from terrorism than they were a week ago, thanks to Spain's surrender. And in the long run, so is Spain."

CNN.com - Student charged with firebombing SUVs - Mar 17, 2004 - "A 23-year-old graduate student has been indicted for firebombing or vandalizing 125 sports utility vehicles in the Los Angeles area last summer, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

"William Cottrell, who was denied bail by a federal judge during a brief court appearance, faces more than 70 years in prison if he is convicted on all nine counts..."

Blowing up SUV's just sends them to the junkyard, where they add to the mountains of trash already threatening our environment. Toxic chemicals are also released into the environment as cars burn. To top it all off, the victims use their insurance money and go buy another SUV, so you solved nothing.

MSNBC - Easy Victory: "'We don't need any more radical fluctuations in the economy, we don't need any more financial crises. We need some kind of hope in tomorrow,' said Alexei Stepanov, 24, a pro-Putin student studying management, as he manned a snack-laden table selling jumbo vodka shots for about 30 cents inside a Podolsk polling station." What?!

Yahoo! Sports - NBA - Knicks sign Vin Baker for rest of season - That's right, I'm back to referring to the Knicks in the collective tense. I don't know about this move. He kind of screwed Boston over... like two months ago. Not to mention my fantasy team. He's got so much potential though, you can't really turn him down. Now's the best time for the Knicks, since no one on the team really knows anyone else yet anyway.

MSNBC - Senate passes $2.36 trillion budget - "Senate approval came after Republicans fought off a mountain of Democratic amendments. Many would have trimmed tax cuts on the richest Americans and shifted the money to health care, schools, firefighters or other popular programs."

Does anyone else hear that? Because it sounds a lot like: "Republicans worked extra hard to make sure money stayed in the pockets of rich people and out of our hospitals, schools, and public services." I don't even understand how Republicans have support any more.

MSNBC - Madrid bombings tied to Muslim extremists?: "In London, the Arabic newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility for the bombings issued by a self-proclaimed 'Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri' acting in the name of al-Qaida."

Me so smart.

MSNBC - At least 190 killed in Madrid train explosions - "Spain blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the worst terror attack in its history, but a senior U.S. intelligence source told NBC News that that conclusion might be wrong and that the CIA was looking for any connection to the al-Qaida terrorist network."

Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about, but the "ETA" doesn't sound like the kind of group that would be capable of something this well-planned. They've never done anything close to this big before. Al-Quaida has reason to hate Spain (they supported the U.S. in the war on Iraq, and in Afghanistan), and they'd love few things more than to punish someone for taking the Great Satan's side.

Intelligent Design?� A Special Report from Natural History Magazine - Apparently, someone came up with this before I did. Like... way before.

MSNBC - Internet providers sue over unwanted e-mails - "The legal actions by Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc., Earthlink Inc. and Yahoo! Inc., represent the first major industry actions under the "can spam" legislation that went into effect Jan. 1." It's a great deal for these big corporations -- it makes them look like the good guys to their customers because they're protecting them from spam; meanwhile, stopping spam would save them millions of dollars in server and bandwidth costs.

CNN.com - Gates: Buy stamps to send e-mail - Mar. 5, 2004 - "At perhaps a penny or less per item, e-mail postage wouldn't significantly dent the pocketbooks of people who send only a few messages a day. Not so for spammers who mail millions at a time." - It doesn't matter -- Tell people they have to pay for something they used to get for free, and the backlash will be huge against any politician who dares approve this idea.

Yahoo! News - North Korea Seen Unwise to Wait for End of Bush - "North Korea's state controlled media have not commented at length on Kerry, but they have cited approvingly the U.S. senator's criticism of Bush's rejection of bilateral nuclear deal-making with Pyongyang.

Bush was never in favor in North Korea -- which came close to hosting what would have been an epoch-making visit in 2000 by his predecessor Bill Clinton (news - web sites) -- because the Republican leader put that rapprochement process under review when he took office."

North Korea is not a country we want to deal with the way we did Iraq. They make no effort to hide the fact that they've got real nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and thousands of our troops could and likely would die if we invaded. However, the Bush administration seems to know of no other way to deal with "rogue" nations, and Kim Jong Il has made it pretty clear that he understands that. Nothing constructive will ever happen in North Korea with Bush in office.

MSNBC - Woman stabbed after Valentine breakup - This is sick.