This is, I have no other words for it, sad.

It’s a sport only for the fleet of thumb with a ruthless dedication to punctuation.

And while competitive text messaging may not have quite gained Olympic status, the hundreds of mostly teenagers who took part in the US championships in New York Saturday could think of little but the 25,000-dollar prize money.| MORE ›

Well, the wall through Baghdad proves to be an utter disaster. First we had locals protesting the construction of it, now we have al-Maliki ordering the US to halt its construction:

Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia leader, stepped in as Sunni communities complained that their neighbourhoods were being turned into ghettoes that could choke off life in their areas. “I oppose the building of the wall, and its construction will stop,” he said during a visit to Egypt yesterday.| MORE ›

Forbes reports:

An Olympic Airlines plane made an emergency landing in Munich, Germany, following a bomb alert, the airline said.

An unknown caller contacted police in Athens, claiming there was a bomb on the Olympic flight travelling from Athens to Brussels via Strasbourg, carrying 134 passengers, an airline spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse.

The Greek airline ordered the pilot to land in Munich, where the plane was being examined, she said.| MORE ›

There is a fascinating discussion going on at The Dail Telegraph about Britishness, patriotism, etc. The editor:

Monday is St George’s Day and, to celebrate, we are inviting you to join a Telegraph debate on patriotism and Englishness. As part of the discussion, Billy Bragg, the songwriter and author, will be answering your questions on this website.| MORE ›

Now this is cool:

Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.

Ramey said the man told her he would leave. “I said, ‘Oh, no you won’t,’ and I shot their tires so they couldn’t leave,” Ramey said.

She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.| MORE ›

It seems that Newt Gingrich once again succeeded in pissing American ‘liberals’ off, this time by saying that “liberalism” is responsible for the VA Tech massacre.

He said (h/t Think Progress):

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the broader context? After Columbine, you gave a speech where you blamed 35 — blamed the shootings on 35 years of liberalism.| MORE ›

Ah, yeah, merciful and all that.

Strange concept of peace and mercy some people have.

It seems that the infant death rate in Mississippi and several other southern states has risen in the last couple of years.

For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has risen in Mississippi and several other states.| MORE ›

The always hilarious Jon Swift has a great post up in which he defends Alberto Gonzales(‘ habit of forgetting trivial matters).

His most impressive and convincing argument?

Shoo… I can’t remember. Ah well, check it out for yourself, Joan, no, John, no well, youknowwho does a great job defending the much criticized US Attorney General.

Another essay by D.H. Lawrence for one of my favorite readers.

NO OTHER book of Nathaniel Hawthorne is so deep, so dual, and so complete as The Scarlet Letter: this great allegory of the triumph of sin.

Sin is a queer thing. It isn’t the breaking of divine commandments. It is the breaking of one’s own integrity.

For instance, the sin in Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale’s case was a sin because they did what they thought? it wrong to do.| MORE ›