Google

About a week ago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown suggested in a UK Telegraph column that allowing hospitals to harvest organs from dead patients without their prior consent or their families' post-mortem consent might be a good idea. Mr. Brown's occasion for bringing up the topic was telling, and perhaps explains why Brown's proposal got very little coverage in the US:This year will be the…

A funny thing happens if you Google the name of one of America's leading conservative magazines: a warning comes up stating, "This site may harm your computer." Think I'm kidding? A screen-capture of the first page of Google web search results for "American Spectator" follows, although readers are strongly encouraged to investigate for themselves (image is blurry due to space constraints):

Well, here is a sad commentary on the fellow travelers over at Internet mega-corp, Google. Their Christmas graphic eschews that evil "Ch_ _ stmas" word giving us a bow and candy cane, instead. Apparently, Google doesn't want to cause any outrage by using the words "Merry Christmas." Yet, the communists over at China Daily's on line news/propaganda site doesn't seem to have the slightest problem…

In 2005, I sensed that journalists in general prefer to call this time of the year in commerce that of "holiday shopping" instead of "Christmas shopping," but that when it came to people losing their jobs, they preferred to describe layoffs as relating to "Christmas."My instincts were proven correct that year and in 2006, so I chose to track the same items this year to look for any noticeable…

The improving situation in Iraq is driving certain congressmen and congresswomen to rhetorical depths I don't recall ever seeing. Though there have almost surely been other instances of offensive excess on the House Floor over the Iraq War, we've recently been treated to at least the following: Pete Stark (D-CA), October -- "You don't have money to fund the war or children,'' Stark said. "But you…

When Larry Summers suggested in early 2005 that, as paraphrased by Slate's William Saletan, "innate differences between the sexes might help explain why relatively few women become professional scientists or engineers," the outcry was immediate, furious, and went to saturation level virtually overnight. The controversy ultimately led to his resignation a year later as Harvard President. On…

In 2005, I sensed that journalists in general prefer to call this time of the year in commerce that of "holiday shopping" instead of "Christmas shopping," but that when it came to people losing their jobs, they preferred to describe layoffs as relating to "Christmas." My instincts have been proven correct for two years running, as you can see below from the results of three different sets of…

Economic growth for the third quarter, which was estimated at 3.9% a month ago, was revised upward to 4.9% by the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The BEA announcement is here. This of course explains why a Google News search I just did on "recession" has hundreds and hundreds of articles talking about a possible recession, including 481 in the first 20 listings (/sarc). Key…

As the Christmas shopping season went into full swing in 2005, I sensed that journalists in general have a strong preference for using the term "holiday shopping" instead of "Christmas shopping" when covering business and commerce, but that when it came to people losing their jobs, they preferred to describe layoffs as relating to "Christmas." My instincts have been proven correct, as you can see…

Of course, the expectations game can be frustrating, and we won't know for sure until the actual report is released Thursday at 8:30 a.m. But there appears to be remarkably good economic news ahead. Naturally, it is getting the barest of coverage from an Old Media business press corps that seems intent on talking the economy down. First, a week ago Monday, MarketWatch's Greg Robb, in an article…

A Google alert this morning brought an article about a speech in which NBC's Lester Holt claimed that he and his MSM colleagues "are perfectly capable of putting [their] personal bias aside." Holt went to state that "the level of organized attacks against news organizations from the blogosphere and even from competitors in recent years is unprecedented and disturbing."Less than an hour later…

Having ignored Veterans Day since 1999, Internet behemoth Google has finally chosen to commemorate this holiday by decorating its logo (h/t NB reader Brian Snyder). As NewsBusters readers are aware, this has been a source of contention for conservatives that believe Google at times uses its emblem to make political statements. For instance, the company refuses to commemorate Memorial Day, and…

Someone needs to tell me why this news about discretionary income isn't as significant as I believe it is. But first, three warnings: 1. I'm not about to spend the $250 needed to read the full report from the Conference Board that backs the story (their "about" page is here). 2. I don't feel totally comfortable with how the statistic is measured -- "Households with discretionary income, as…