Taro cards

-- January 30, 2011

I got tired of reading the thousands of repetitive, confused words about Egypt. The reporters sound as befuddled in trying to predict the future as I am, and equally confused about analyzing the past. They seem to have forgotten Tunesia, and can be expected to drift away from Cairo in the near future. In a long list of foreign stories, nothing more from Tunis. El Baradei, dismissed a couple days ago, seems to be rising in the headline scale of viability.

This short attention span bugs me. I rummaged around Amazon and found a 2008 book available on the Kindle, "Inside Egypt", which was banned in Egypt by Mubarak when it came out. The first chapter explains more than all the coverage I've seen so far. 

So I resume my self-appointed task of assessing the NYT. An unassuming story story in the business section tells about "{news} outlets like Politico, Talking Points Memo and RealClearPolitics, which are already planning to smother the 2012 campaign trail ..." The story sounds offended that the competition from the web might take over the boys' bus.

Meanwhile, the wise columnists (at least Rich and Collins) are intent on warning us that Michele Bachmann is a clear and present danger. Now, there's a soft target if there ever was one.