News!

Israel continues to bomb Beirut into oblivion in their quest to eradicate Hezbollah militants. This is either the beginning of World War III or a 'limited, local conflict'. We might remind Mr. Rosner that both previous world wars began as 'limited, local conflicts'.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has secured a promise from Israel to allow humanitarian flights into Beirut. I've always been puzzled when a nation will blow their neighbor to smithereens and then turn around and give or 'allow' humanitarian aide. We've done the same thing many times.

And now this: Arlen Specter is preparing to sue the president over 'signing statements'. Signing statements are addenda that the president attaches to the the bills that Congress submits to him for approval. I view them as a presidential 'yes, but...'. They have little real meaning because they are not constitutionally outlined and would probably not hold up in court. Why bother. At least the Republicans are sticking together about as well as the Democrats. Ha! Did I hear someone say 'third party'?

Microsoft is now struggling to do what it does best: take someone else's idea, improve it and make zillions of dollars mass marketing it. Microsoft is deveolping the Zune music player to compete with Apple's IPod. There are several problems in this scenario for Microsoft: First, There's not a lot they can do to improve on the IPod idea. Second, the IPod has already become popular, ubiquitous and entrenched in the market. You can buy 'em at Wal-Mart for pete's sake!Third, the name . Zune?

Finally, the understatement of the week: Christie Brinkley's estranged husband says, "I'm stupid" for cheating on his supermodel wife of ten years with an 18 year old employee. He's 47 - almost old enough to be his conquest's grandfather - and it's not the first time. Apparantly this guy was carrying on with a nineteen year old singer when he married Brinkley. Stupid indeed.