I’m taking license to share something off-topic.

Out here on teh Internets, it is often observed, we are heavily reliant on Ye Olde Newspapers for source material. Now, their track record is far from lovely, especially on the “nukey”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/politics/02nukes.html “germy”:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/10/world/threats-and-responses-inspections-us-says-iraq-retools-rockets-for-illicit-uses.html “chokey-to-deathy”:http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/international/worldspecial/21CHEM.html beat, to say nothing of the occasional “headline about missiles”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1946/_wp_-blows-nk-headline. This stuff is technical, leaked intelligence is fragmentary, official sources have agendas, and so forth. But we rely on them anyhow, albeit with a critical eye. Couldn’t do without them, really.

So let us pause to acknowledge “the further downsizing”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032702292.html of what should already be called the _Washington Post-It_. It’s like having a family member undergo a second or third amputation. You might not always appreciate their behavior, but it’s ever-so-painful to watch them being cut to pieces.