“We are not free-riders and we would consider it libelous for you to make that claim outside correspondence intended to settle a minor difference of opinion.”
-Newser CEO Patrick Spain goes postal on The Wrap for complaining about lack of linkage in stories they ran in full, for free. Newser editor Caroline Miller responded-with a post with no link at all to The Wrap. Newser’s Michael Wolff was basically just snide, though at least he linked! Here’s the thing. Why is everyone just such a huge bitch? (And no, that’s not “libelous.”)

The environmental organization Green Calgary feels really strongly about the problem of vehicles being left idle. (They’re against it.) It is unlikely that you will think about the practice the same way going forward. I do not want to know what they would compare an oil leak to. [Via]

There is a new trailer just out for I Am Love, which is pretty much about Tilda Swinton running around Milan with hot guys in great outfits. (Both her and the guys.) I am going to go watch it AGAIN NOW, SO LONG!

“Don’t the Jews eat our bread? Fine, we eat their matzah.” Interesting story in Haaretz about food politics in Israel.

I’m not looking at the Wikileaks release of video and other documentation of the death of a group of people, including two Reuters reporters, at the hands of US soldiers in New Baghdad in July of 2007. But it seems like stuff that should be out there, particularly as it was leaked from folks in the military, so good for them.

It has got to be frustrating for John McCain: Not two years removed from being his party’s standard bearer in the presidential election, he now faces a stiff challenge from the right for the Senate seat he’s held since 1986. McCain is so desperate to court the Tea Party types who will vote in the Republican primary that he has gone so far as to claim that he “never considered myself a maverick,” despite the ample evidence to the contrary. On the one hand it is sad to see an old man make such a fool of himself in the twilight of a long career. On the other hand, it could be kind of fun to see what else we could get him to repudiate. I bet if there were enough votes in it he would deny that he had ever been anywhere near Vietnam.

“Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman has pulled ahead in the California governor’s race after contributing a record-breaking $39 million to her own campaign, a Los Angeles Times/USC poll showed on Monday.”
–Well, yes. That’s just what the people like in a ruler. I mean, governor.

In an Easter miracle, the power of local news was used to liberate a wolfdog from his watery prison. Or else it just got loose on its own. Either way, go wolfdog!

One of the things I miss the most about the 90s was that, back then, the word “insider” was used properly.

“Suddenly, Salinger wheeled around. ‘What are you looking at? Answer quick, without thinking!’”
–Oof.