BuzzMachine

Card-carrying
: TV reports that the white van hauled away by police proudly displays a National Rifle Association bumper sticker on the back.

How perfect.

Is it live or is it cable news?
: I’m watching all the news channels cover the arrest of a driver in a white van at a gas station in Virginia getting on the phone. Now I’m watching the helicopter chase the flatbed truck carrying the van away, OJlike.

As has been the case throughout this story, the cable news networks quickly run out of footage to show, so they keep repeating the same scenes over and over (here’s the van; here’s the van getting on the truck; here’s the truck driving away…).

The problem is, you don’t know whether you’re watching a live scene or tape. They should say.

It’s about credibility.

Now you know blogs aren’t hip anymore
: Doonesbury blogs. (Thanks, Scott)

Front and center
: Why is Sheriff Charles Moose still the point man and spokesman in the hunt for the sicko sniper attacking Washington?

The slime has struck in multiple states. Isn’t this now a federal issue?

Shouldn’t the head of FBI be standing out there in front of the cameras? Shouldn’t he be leading the hunt? Shouldn’t his boss, Ashcroft, be bringing his forces to bear to stop the man or men who are stopping the capital of the world’s last superpower dead in its tracks?

Why aren’t they? Because they know they will mess up this investigation just as they have their fruitless hunt for terrorists and anthrax killers.

They’re just as happy to let Moose take the heat.

Knowing when to shut up
: I had added to the post below regarding Iraq last night, but because part of Blogger was down, it did not appear until this morning (thus my motivation to move to Movable Type).

So I repeat myself with the addendum to that Iraq post:

: You see, sometimes it’s important to know when to shut up.

If I had something to add to the Iraq debate — in facts or reporting or perspective or wisdom — I’d add it; I’d have added it long since.

But I don’t. So I should get points for adding nothing.

For if we are not careful, weblogs will turn into catalogues of “what I think about…”

When people could publish their own web pages, they too quickly became catalogues of “my CD collection.” As if anybody should care.