BuzzMachine

:Gasp!
: Back after 9.11, I made fun of folks who went out to buy gas masks.

Now I wonder.

Congress just appropriated $4 million to buy gas masks for New York police.

Gas masks have been distributed throughout Congress.

The Pentagon is training its workers to wear masks.

Saudi Arabia is importing gas masks for its people.

Hey, what about us?

What happens when the toxic cloud comes? Our officials and protectors get to stand there watching us gasp and die. This isn’t like the mask that comes down on an airplane — put on your own mask first and then assist children — this means they live and we don’t because they have masks and we don’t. What’s wrong with this picture?

I’m going shopping.

Searchopoly
: The search roll-up continues as Overture, which just bought AltaVista, now buys FAST, the very good but never well-exploited Scandinavian engine.

Word bursts
: Very nice work from Daypop on its new Word Burst feature: Here is what blogs are talking about now; here’s where the buzz is.

The laziest protest
: In my day — the anti-Vietnam Moratorium days — when we held a protest march we marched.

These kids today are so lazy.

They want to “win without war” by marching without marching:

On February 26th, you can join a massive march on Washington without leaving your living room. The Virtual March on Washington is a first-of-its-kind campaign from the Win Without War coalition.

Working together, we will direct a steady stream of phone calls

World Union
: Listening to them today pushing their new UN resolution, it occurred to me that Chirac and Schroeder are acting as if we are all members of the European Union and need to pay attention to their politicking on Iraq. But we’re not. The UN isn’t the EU and isn’t ever going to be. The world is a looser place. They need to remind themselves of that.