Mount Rudy Erupts

"Arizona Senator John McCain got things rolling with a statement released just minutes after the announcement that the man who for many years was the face of evangelical politics in America had died from an apparent heart attack at age 73.

" 'I join the students, faculty, and staff of Liberty University and Americans of all faiths in mourning the loss of Reverend Jerry Falwell,' said McCain. 'Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country.'

"Distinguished accomplishment? Would that be when Falwell regularly featured segregationists Lester Maddox and George Wallace on his Old Time Gospel Hour television program in the 1960s? When he condemned the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and referred to the civil rights movement as 'the civil wrongs movement'? When he opposed sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime in the 1980s? When he produced an infomercial in the 1990s accusing President Clinton of orchestrating murders of journalists and political critics, even though he would eventually admit that 'I do not know the accuracy of the claims'? When he attacked Teletubbies character Tinky Winky as a gay recruitment tool? When he asserted that the Antichrist 'must be, of necessity, a Jewish male'?"

Yeah, he lost me with that Teletubbies thing.

Gonzo-gate continues to build, with this Washington Post report that the AG's team considered firing 26 U.S. attorneys. After all this time, they still haven't gotten out the full story?

Finally, you've all been reading reports and studies unveiled for slow-news Mondays for years. Slate's Jack Shafer says the Fourth Estate is being badly used:

"Newspaper journalists hate working weekends, so they keep a vigil all week for a special kind of crap that they can write up on Friday and bank for publication on Monday. The crap must be as nonperishable as a MoonPie, preferably linked to a 'study' or 'report' that won't be 'released' until Monday but one the press can get a sneak peek of by Friday.

"Serving a steaming heap of Monday crap (May 14) are many of the nation's top dailies. They report that for the first time since man dropped from the trees, scampered across the savannah, and started shopping for stuff online, clothing sales on the Web have eclipsed those of computer hardware and software. Aren't you glad you know?

"The source of this finding is a study prepared by Forrester Research at the behest of Shop.org--the Web wing of the National Retail Federation--and scheduled for release Monday. Shop.org's flacks obviously distributed a preview of the report to the press corps, otherwise newspapers couldn't have dressed up this industry handout as genuine news in Monday's editions. Papers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Financial Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Times, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the St. Petersburg Times printed original pieces on the topic by staff reporters, and at least a dozen other publications ran the Associated Press or Reuters version of the story.

"How significant a business story was Shop.org's report? The Wall Street Journal ignored it."

He's right, of course, except that in this case, I found the study kind of interesting. Maybe that's because I'm so tired of going to stores and not finding what I want or in my size that I've vowed (as of this week) to do all future clothes shopping online. I suspect I'm not alone, especially in the guy world.