Michael B. Duff

Last July, two Christian brothers accused of writing a blasphemous pamphlet critical of the Prophet Mohammed were shot dead outside a court in Punjab.

Gold and stocks are plummeting right now. I think the Cisco debacle put the fear of God into people yesterday.

The initiatives would mark a turning point in Internet policy. Recent administrations typically steered away from Internet regulations out of concern for stifling innovation. But the increasingly central role of personal information in the Internet economy helped spark government action, according to people familiar with the situation.

Second, by law, the Social Security trust fund has to purchase Treasury securities with its tax income. In other words, the trust fund contains a bunch of IOUs but no actual resources with which to pay Social Security benefits. Read about it on page 421 of the budget: "The existence of large trust fund balances, therefore, does not, by itself, increase the government's ability to pay benefits.” These trust fund balances are assets of the program but also liabilities of the Treasury, netting to zero for the government as a whole.

Here's the beginning of the Rachel Maddow interview with Jon Stewart. I am rapidly losing patience with both of these people, but I have to admit this interview is important, and Jon Stewart made some points that are imminently worthy of consideration. More comment later.

Instead, do what journalists do: type "TK" where your fact should go, as in "The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite." "TK" appears in very few English words (the one I get tripped up on is "Atkins") so a quick search through your document for "TK" will tell you whether you have any fact-checking to do afterwards. And your editor and copyeditor will recognize it if you miss it and bring it to your attention.

New name suggestion: The Daily Week

First, every blogger on the Internet wants to be a professional writer, so when Cooks Source ripped off Monica Gaudio and rubbed her nose in it, they were basically declaring war on millions of wannabe authors. Second, there is a tremendous power imbalance between editors and free-lancers. An unpublished author is essentially a medieval serf kneeling before a feudal lord, begging for a boon.