Yes, it's the Hello Kitty Stress Test. Actually, just taking the test calms me down.

Again, the ridiculous arrogance of bloggers. Ken Layne is quoted in this SFGate story on bloggers saying:

With the Internet and a dozen all-news channels, your average news junkie has the same resources as a paid journalist or columnist.

Um, no he doesn't. A paid journalist has things called "sources" who he "interviews" to find out news. Or does Layne think that every peice of information in existence is written up in a press release?

On his site, Layne says hes' "been a reporter, editor and columnist since the mid-1980s" and covered "dirty cops, City Hall, fires..." and a host of other stuff.

Huh. Did he get his dirty cop news from press releases, wire reports and other reporters, as he implies "paid journalists" do? Where on the Internet do I go to find the orginal source material on the fire?

Linking to other people's reporting is not the same as reporting yourself. Where exactly does Layne think the stories everyone links to come from? Moron.

Deconstructing "Goodnight Moon."

Magpie: "Goodnight Moon" -- A pleasing story, but one is left to wonder, why exactly does that old lady keep whispering "hush?" Is she a symbol of the post-modernist reader, who must "hush" the bedtimes stories of the past?

Carmen: And why is there an uneaten bowl of mush?

Magpie: "Goodnight nobody" is a call to man's inherent aloneness. No matter how many mice and kittens we may possess, we are at heart, nobody.

Carmen: and the red balloon?

Magpie: nuclear war. The Rabbit knows from Nena.

Carmen: And the great green room is preparing us for an appearance on Letterman.

Okay, normally I find Mickey Kaus pretentious and annoying. But this line is pretty funny:

Ordinarily, "Media Exec Forced Out" is only moderately more newsworthy than, say, "New Jersey Mayor Indicted" or "Italian Government Falls."