Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden introduce bill that would require Internet marketers to provide legitimate return addresses with their crap: “This bill will help to keep legitimate Internet traffic and e-commerce flowing by going after those unscrupulous individuals who use e-mail in annoying and …

Rupert buys largest satellite television provider: leverage ensues: Murdoch’s News Corp. agreed to acquire control of Hughes Electronics Corp., DirecTV’s parent, in a $6.6 billion cash and stock deal announced Wednesday. Murdoch would transfer control of DirecTV to his Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary, which includes the Fox News Channel. ….DirecTV’s …

Interesting look in NY Times at the growth of entertainment and communication services: it is not the cost of the machines that has most altered household budgets. Instead, all that cheap computing power embedded in scores of new gadgets and married to communications networks has resulted in a growing number …

It doesn’t get much more surreal than this deranged buttplug waving his arms and flapping his lips about Iraqi invincibility even as reality closed around his bubble of smug fantasy. Who? Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, Iraqi Minister of Information (currently on administrative leave), of course. This site is dedicated to him. …

The rescue of captured American Pfc. Jessica Lynch seemed a real and psychological turning point in the war: the unambiguously good news of the rescue itself, but also the reassuring, stirring good will and bravery of Iraqi lawyer “Mohammed,” who risked his own life to aid an American. This at …

The legendary Nigerian drummer has died at 76: Babatunde Olatunji, 76, the Nigerian drummer whose 1959 Columbia Records album, “Drums of Passion,” helped introduce African music into the American mainstream, died of complications of diabetes April 6 in Salinas, Calif. He taught at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., …

I have felt such kinship and respect for Christopher Hitchens since 9/11 that I may decide to hate Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger as much as he does – I may start smoking, and take up heavy drinking again also. Or maybe I’ll just enjoy him gloating a bit: So …

Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris think so, and fear it may be a huge impediment to democracy: A comparison of the data yielded by these surveys in Muslim and non-Muslim societies around the globe confirms the first claim in Huntington’s thesis: Culture does matter—indeed, it matters a lot. Historical religious …

Michael Lewis says ignore the vain, obstructionist pansies (the men, we still like the women): We detest only a certain breed of French male, particularly the French male who lives in or near Paris and who realized, at a sickeningly young age, that the way to get ahead was inside …

This was a trap – rather than resolve the problem in a proportionate manner, the RIAA clearly decided to make an example of four college student with a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. For this they are contemptible scum. Curtis J. Tompkins, the president of Michigan Technological University is no more happy …