Always Get That Burp

One of the best pieces of advice about handling a baby that I've received thus far instructed me to "always get a burp after every feeding." You can almost set your watch by Maya's need to let fly before falling asleep or else you'll be revisiting that requirement in less than 10 minutes. So I'm led to believe that babies are actually quite logical. They have only so many needs at this stage, and if something's missing from the equation you're gonna hear about it. Maya doesn't hesitate to tell us when that's the case. She's a no-spin zone, if there ever was one.

With both Sarah and Maya crashed after yet another satisfying feeding, I'm able to scan the day's news. The shooting in Iraq of the released Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, and the more tragic death of her negotiator, Nicola Calipari, dominates the international news as Italy roils with anger. Sgrena shot off her mouth yesterday about how she thought the shooting by American soldiers was intentional. Baloney. But I don't believe the military's initial spin about all the warnings given. One thing's for certain - we've definitely got some especially forgiving rules of engagement for our soldiers there. Unfortunately, this gives the organizations that have been trying to bring those "rules" to light the high-profile tragedy they've been looking for. However you slice it, this is a major-league mess resulting from a minor-league show of force. War sucks.

The White House has officially granted its first pressroom "day pass" to a blogger. Garrett M. Graff, a DC-based media blogger, had plenty of old-school press organizations take notice of his quixotic quest for access which undoubtably helped him immensely. But it still further legitimizes the larger world of the blogosphere and its right to access the establishment corridors of power. Gannon/Guckert's already taking credit for that advance, while claiming that using "the Gannon standard" Graff's sexual history should be investigated (I won't link to his blog because he doesn't deserve the traffic aid). If JD/Jeff wasn't so deranged he would be sort of funny. Instead he's just sad. Loved Frank Rich's column yesterday wherein he mocked JD/Jeff's bastardization of Hunter S. Thompson's famous "fear and loathing" phraseology, by the way.

While Sarah and Maya continue to sleep I'm going to watch the season 2 premeire episode of "Deadwood" - quite possibly my favorite show on TV. At the very least, Ian McShane as Al Swearengen is crazy brilliant. Hope y'all have your own entertaining distractions on deck for this lovely March Monday.