"I was afraid I might inadvertently write something harmful," Justice Breyer said. "People read every word. Everything you do is important. There is a seriousness to every word, and you really can't go back. Precedent doesn't absolutely limit you. In almost every case, you're in a wide-open area. The breadth of that opening, getting up to speed on each case, constitutional law as a steady diet, the importance to the profession. ..." His voice trailed off, and he shook his head. "My goodness!" he exclaimed.

Court Veteran Remembers a Scary Start - New York Times

Hundreds of federal search-and-rescue workers and large numbers of boats, aircraft and bulldozers were offered to FEMA in the hours immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit, but the aid proposals were either ignored or not effectively used, newly released documents show.

Also: George Bush doesn't care about black people.

What really happened at FEMA during Hurrican Katrina?

Oh baby.

Anti-abortion marchers think its their last march

] Economists have long been interested in why some
] countries are rich and why some countries are poor.
] Differences in labor productivity, inflation, and saving
] and investment rates are traditional economic
] explanations for variations in wealth across countries.
] But when these explanations fall short, researchers
] sometimes turn to noneconomic factors. Two such factors
] are a country’s legal and social institutions.
] Religious factors can also help explain variations in
] economic growth, many economists are increasingly
] finding. In particular, in countries where large
] percentages of the population believe in hell, there
] seem to be less corruption and a higher standard of
] living.

Interesting read...

Fear of Hell Might Fire Up the Economy - Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

] "I think that bloggers have put the issue of
] professionalism under attack," said Thomas McPhail,
] professor of media studies at the University of
] Missouri-St. Louis, who argues that journalists should be
] professionally credentialed. "They have no pretense to
] objectivity. They don't cover both sides."

This article seems to be pissing people off. I think its good. If the press isn't spinning you you're not doing something useful.

The New York Times - The Internet: Web Diarists Are Now Official Members of Convention Press Corps