Being in Washington, DC, I was stuck how many people (people I know and people I do not know) now know that I love fried eggplants. The secret is out.

Only when I travel, I get to be subjected to US visual media. I confine myself to US print media, as the irritation is more contained and I am spared the faces of the rulers. But as I watched some US TV news yesterday, I was shocked: shocked at the extent to which Michael Jackson's story overshadows what is going on Iraq, and shocked at the extent they downplayed the demonstrations in UK (imagine: 100000 (some estimate put the figure at 200000) on a weekday: that is huge for London), and shocked at the extent they (mis)covered the demonstrations against globalization in Miami. One MSNBC anchorperson refused to air the scene of demonstrators in London taking down an effigy of Bush. CNN covered the demonstrators in Miami with such hostility and bias, and only allowed the Police to define the demonstrators. CNN, MSNBC, FOX News: they really are the same: the coverage is the same, the themes are the same, the sensationalism is the same, and even the hairdos are the same. The US has not given up on Ahmad Chalabi: the New York Times quoted some official the other day to the effect that this international embezzler (on whom a US-press CIA leaked report about him stated that people in Iraq either did not know him or felt a strong urge to puke when hearing his name) may become the first prime minister of post-Saddam, US-run Iraq.