By the time we got to Chengdu, I was settling in to a pretty nasty cold, and we were also a little sore from train travel and hiking and general travelers malaise. So when we saw a sign up at our hostel advertising massages for RMB 40/hour, we were easily convinced. We took a bus across town to the recommended place and walked in to what would resemble a storage unit to most folks back at home. But that’s what a lot of shops, etc are like here in cities, where space is at a premium. A lot of them even have metal doors that slide down when they’re closed, just like a storage unit. So we filed into the room and took our places at the massage tables. Soon it turned out that the RMB 40 was just for starters, we had all manner of add-ons to choose from. Lest you get the wrong idea, they weren’t the happy ending sort of add-ons. “Chinese Medicine… good for you” is what they said. Here’s what I looked like when they were done with me.

ouch

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At President Bush’s recent speech at Fort Carson, the press was prohibited from speaking to troops. I guess we wouldn’t really want to hear what they have to say anyway. I mean, they’re just the tools, and tools don’t need to think. Read about it here. After that, read more about Elaine Johnson here.

Since I’ve been unapologetically delinquent lately, I’m going to ease back into this thing. For now, take a look at Andy Rooney’s commentary from last night. While you’re at it, read what he had to say about the U.N.

Back in May, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting published a study on the news coverage of and leading up to “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” The conclusions of the study, which covered evening newscasts on six channels for the first three weeks after the bombing in Iraq began on 19 March, are unsurprising but disturbing nonetheless. Among other things, the study shows that, while 27 percent of Americans were against the war at the time, only 3 percent of the sources used by the networks were anti-war and they were overwhelmingly comprised of “one-sentence soundbites.” According to the authors of the report, “not a single show in the study conducted a sit-down interview with a person identified as being against the war.” You can read the entire report here. Take some time to browse the rest of FAIR’s site while you’re at it.