Our friends across the pond notice that our reporters are finally asking the tough questions.

And that's a good thing. About damn time.

Check this out.

Video of Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera reporting for Fox News out of New Orleans, finally losing the Fox spin and getting real about the horrible situation and the compassion that's needed.

I think it's too early to look for a silver lining, but if there is going to be one I hope it's that the problem of poverty in America gets thrown in the face of the complacent by these reporters who've finally discovered, it seems, what it is they're supposed to be doing--reporting, holding those in power accountable, and making injustice impossible to ignore.

If you're not following the incredibly courageous and harrowing blog play-by-play of the ground situation in New Orleans being published by The Interdictor, you should. Warning though--if you think the government and the national guard are doing a compassionate and capable job helping people down there, this might upset your equilibrium.

...that not all conservatives are like this.

Please. I really want to hear it.

Please?

This is a long one. Buckle in.

South African inventor creates "rapex," the anti-rape condom.

I do not answer email from this site. The main reason is simply that I get millions of spam emails a month directed to anybody@scottstandridge.com and I have neither the time nor the energy to wade through it all. Moreover, I'm prefectly happy with the s1ze of my P4ck4ge!!! and do not feel the need to 1NCREASE MY LOADD so I can SH00T l1ke a pr0nst4r!!!! So knock off that noise. Seriously.

Anyway, one of my passtimes is to google the names of old friends, relatives, people I went to school with, what have you, to see if they show up anywhere. It occurred to me that if by some weird chance someone were to do the same to ME (and were to actually find me and not one of my many dopplegangers), that he or she might want to contact me somehow.

I usually try to come up with a personal essay or something to post, but I've been depressed and uncreative lately, and this made me laugh. So I share it with you.

A Moving Personal Essay. By a Goat.

Enjoy.

If there's anybody out there who cares, here's a quick heads up--I'm turning off the "auto-publish comments" function on this blog. I'm getting spammed to hell and back over the weekend with "Texas Hold 'Em" links, and it's easier for me just to leave them languishing in non-published hell than to have to delete 20 of them every Monday morning.

So if you decide to comment on my blog, or on one of my stories (and by all means, please do), be advised that it won't show up immediately--not till I read it, approve it, and foist it on the public. Don't worry though. Instant gratification ain't all it's cracked up to be.

I just wanted to let both my loyal blog readers know that I have found religion. No, not that religion. One that much better explains the world and everything in it, and offers much greater rewards for its followers.

I refer, of course, to Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.