Back in Business

Back online and, with having had to resort to television and a few newspapers to get a glimpse of current events, I can fully attest to the fact that I don't know much of what's going on in the world right now. Still, I found some of this stuff relevant, for a variety of reasons:

*Eric Alterman vs. Alex Cockburn

*Something expected (nay, predicted) :

Distortions and lies are par for the course throughout Let Freedom Ring because, without them, Hannity wouldn't be able to make the continual stream of over-the-top accusations against liberals: They "loathe and ravage so many of our core values and traditions"; they "told us global warming and gays in the military were top priorities, well above securing our nation"; and "after we defeat our last foreign enemy, we will still face threats to our freedom, largely from left-wing extremists in our own country."

On "Hannity and Colmes," Hannity often seems to roll over the timid Colmes with his bluster. When his words are frozen on the page, though, there is no disguising what they are: poorly argued propaganda."

*"The growing clamor for ethnic cleansing"

*"Media Images of 'Hunks' Spur Body Anxieties in Men"

*"Project Censored presents the 10 big stories the mainstream news media ignored in 2001"

*"Accusations that big business is hijacking the earth summit and pushing its own agenda of free trade and privatisation in developing countries overshadowed the first official day of the conference yesterday."

The above is mostly random stuff that I've run across. It's not indicative of what's been going on over the past week (saber rattling on Iraq, mostly), just what caught my eye.