It’s been covered widely, but apparently some muckety-muck real journalist for the Washington Post said, to a graduating journalism class:

Good jobs in journalism have become scarce as newspapers shrink and die, broadcast media fragment to smaller niche audiences and the public appears more and more willing to receive its “news” online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants.

Oh, if only he would have quipped thus a year earlier! We would have had Underpants Media!

(Other reactions from actual Pajamas Mediatricians Michelle Malkin and Ace.)

Diana crash probe makes ‘extraordinary’ headway: investigator:

The probe into the Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana is benefiting from a computer-generated reconstruction and is making “extraordinary” headway, the top investigator said in remarks.

Sir John Stevens told the Daily Express that revolutionary technology has allowed police to construct a virtual reality film of what happened when Diana left her hotel in Paris in August 1997 until the time the car crashed.

Maybe we have higher standards here, but I should think some headway ought to be made in the first, oh, five to seven years after an automobile accident investigation begins.

The latest sign that a bubblegeddon might be upon our markets: The Segway IPO:

And Segway Inc. President and Chief Executive James Norrod, hoping to parlay the growth into a payday for the original investors in the scooter, has made grooming the company for an initial public offering in the next few years a top priority.

Gauging Segway’s prospects in an IPO is difficult, as the company will not reveal its yearly revenue or whether it is profitable. Norrod will only say that “tens of thousands” of Segways have been sold around the world, and that the company’s revenue has been growing by at least 50 percent over each of the last few years.

Time to adjust the portfolio away from equities and back into guns and liquor.

One more reason to vote Nugent for president in 2012: he scares the lesser Brits.

Although somehow, my choice of post titles and election years belies a certain dismay with the Republican Party’s prospects in 2008.

Judge tosses out zoning that blocked Aurora hospital:

A Waukesha County judge ruled Thursday that the City of Oconomowoc illegally rezoned land to block construction of a hospital by Aurora Health Care.

In response to the ruling, Aurora – the largest and, critics contend, most expensive health care system in southeastern Wisconsin – immediately moved to extend its reach into affluent western Waukesha County.

I’ve written about this before. It’s good to see, though, that eventually, occasionally, right-minded citizens cannot EJM (Ends Justify the Means, now a verb of its own coming soon to a blog near you) to thwart the encroaching tentacles of the health care menace. Even if it’s from one of those eldritch, foetid for-profit companies.

Cptlism fthagn.

Red Cross warns blood donors of possible ID thefts in Midwest:

About 1 million blood donors in the Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross were warned last week that personal information about them could have been stolen earlier this year by a former employee and might have been used in identity thefts.

The former worker had access to 8,000 blood donors in a database she used in her job, all of whom were notified by mail of possible identity theft problems on March 17, according to the agency. But after the original warning letters went out, the Red Cross decided to expand the identity theft warnings to all 1 million donors in the Missouri-Illinois region because of concerns that she may have accidentally accessed other records in the larger group.

They don’t need your Social Security Number to take your blood. But by asking for it and putting it in their computers, they made it available to someone with less than honest intentions who would work for them for minimum wage.

Remember, just say no to SSN, boys and girls.

Star Trek blade seized:

THIS five-foot martial arts sword capable of beheading a man was recovered by shocked cops in a house raid.

The terrifying Batleth weapon is identical to one wielded by Klingon aliens in the Star Trek sci-fi films.

Officers seized the three-handled sword — which has huge pointed blades at either end — at a home in Gloucester.

It would be funny if, deep down, I wasn’t afraid that these brilliant ideas–seizing all knives and knife turn-in amnesty programs and the eventual outlawing of the fetal position as a defense because it offends those who’ve had abortions–were impossible here.

You know that extra room in your house? The city of Chesterfield, Missouri, has taken control of it, or at least who can room in it: Council approves ban on renters in houses:

Although they added an exception for foreign exchange students, Chesterfield lawmakers approved legislation that prevents homeowners from renting rooms in their houses.

City officials – and some residents – have insisted the practice can lead to excessive crowding, parking difficulties, more transients, and other neighborhood nuisances.

Other residents, who spoke to the City Council on May 15, protested that renting rooms can be a valuable aid to young students and elderly homeowners.

Besides, the single occupant isn’t high enough density. If you’ve got a spare room in your house, the city of Chesterfield will put a retail outlet of some sort in it, since that’s the best use of your downstairs bedroom from their perspective. And they’ll stick you with the bill to make your walk-out basement ADA-compatible.

In a shocking turn of events, the prosecutors are eager to begin:

Those who violate the law will be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to three months.

Tim Engelmeyer, the city’s prosecuting attorney, favored the bill and recently told city officials in an E-mail that the law would “protect the integrity of our neighborhoods.”

As a bonus to eroding property rights, it will also generate revenue! What’s not to like about it?

Other than the erosion and generation parts to the benefit of a government, I wholeheartedly support bending the dangerous individual to the will of the community.

Time to dump some textbooks into the Milwaukee River, what with unelected representatives levying their own taxes:

A budget endorsed Tuesday by the Milwaukee Area Technical College Board would increase the school’s tax levy 5% in the coming fiscal year, outpacing inflation and contradicting the growing anti-tax sentiment in the state.

After breathing a sigh of relief that the Legislature had failed to pass constitutional tax and spending limits earlier this month, the board backed a budget that would increase spending about 6.3%, based on current projections.

The $309 million MATC has budgeted for 2006-’07 represents a 32.4% increase from its spending at the start of the decade and tops the rate of inflation for that period by roughly 14 percentage points.

Contradicting the anti-tax sentiment? I’d say not; these bureaucrats are actually acting on it and feathering their nests while they can, because taxpayer relief of some sort will pass in Wisconsin, accidentally, one of these days, and the tax districts want to make sure that they get as much loot as they can before they’re leashed. And if it never comes to pass, well, it’s even better, as it’s a precedent for ever-inflating percentages into perpetuity.

Over at Boots and Sabers, Owen thinks it’s wonderful. He’s being sarcastic.

This kid has skills:

A Boston defense attorney was nearly strangled to death in a courtroom yesterday by his shackled client – an accused killer whose case he had unsuccessfully sought to drop.

That’s the sort of talent one can leverage into a long NBA career.

Bonus flashback: My 1997 riff on Sprewell: The Cynic Express(d) 1.11: Barbarians at the Gates.

(Link seen on Wizbang!)

In Illinois, Rod Blagojevich wants to privatize the lottery:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Tuesday proposed selling or leasing the state lottery to raise $10 billion as part of a plan to reform Illinois schools.

His proposal includes $1.5 billion for school construction, performance pay for teachers and the consolidation of school districts.

As a libertarian, I stand in favor of all fornicating, liquoring, and gambling. As a matter of fact, I would do Rod one better: instead of offering a government-sponsored monopoly on number-running, why not let everyone do it?

Sorry, I guess getting the government to give up one of the things it’s seized from the syndicates is a start toward a libertarian paradise.

But that it comes from Illinois, and Blagojevich, irkles me.

Because you’re not going to hear that particular rest in the grand anti-free market symphony conducted by our revered leaders in the media and legislatures.

Whereas the Chicago Tribune quotes a helpful, neutral expert (registration required) who suggests improvements for workplace productivity:

“If you’re watching video, you’re probably not working,” said Vimal Solanki, director of product marketing at McAfee Inc., a software vendor whose products to block Web access are selling briskly.

Not to be outdone, the makers of Stadium Pal not that if employees are going to the bathroom, they’re probably not working, either.

(Link seen on this little blog out of Tennessee run by an obscure academic. Click through! He could use 1/10th of my traffic.)

Ginned-up story of the day: Using Internet for drug deals is not unusual, authorities say:

While the wide array of drugs seized from a student’s car this week at Lutheran High School South struck authorities as unusual, the suspicion that a supplier used the Web to get them here was not.

No word on the obvious use of that dangerous technology the automobile in the lead, but there’s that demon Web.

Authorities indicate that with a broad enough band, you can download drugs right into your computer:

Investigators said they have indications that some of the seized drugs were obtained from Bosnia via the Internet.

But thanks to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for recycling this story from 1995 and reprinting it. One must wonder if a glance through its archives would have found a story a little over a hundred years ago explaining how madams were using stagecoaches to get women to their cathouses.