Wednesday, Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online, argued in a Star Opinion page essay that following the Constitution "means no writing in nonexistent constitutional rights from the bench — like that of privacy."

Perhaps these denizens of the right should reread the Constitution.

The process was continuous. Something could be altered over and over. The fixing applied to newspapers, books, films, cartoons, in fact, any kind of literature or documentation. I asked here Tuesday if such a process could happen today. The answer, of course, is yes because of the proliferation of computers and the Internet.

Many of the ideas and concepts Orwell wrote about have become grist for the mill of challenging whatever one does not like. Big Brother, for example, has been used to describe government-approved laws, rules and regulation, or the tactics of a police force, or an employer who monitors people's use of the Internet or the company's phones for personal use. Religion has long had a tradition of rooting out thoughtcrime — perhaps thoughtsin would be a more apt word to use, but the concept is fairly similar, the belief that people need to do penance for thinking certain thoughts.

Ever since the original Proposition 13 passed, special-interests groups, disgruntled citizens and wanna-be politicians have used the initiative process for self-serving gain — trimming taxes, locking in budget allocations, recalling a governor and just generally tinkering in areas where they have little expertise.

For example, after the verdict was read and Jackson and his entourage were in their black SUVs heading back to his Never Never Land ranch near Los Olivos, news helicopters followed the caravan as it spend along Highway 101. Would it have been better if those news organizations covered the solemn return of this nation's war dead?

I admit that I do not read blogs as much as I should. But then neither do many other people. A new Pew Internet Project study shows that blog readership hasn't yet reached the point where the threads of conversations blogs start can be considered the talk of the land.

The facts: Newsweek reported in its May 9 issue that interrogators desecrated a copy of the Quran at Guantanamo Naval Base, the facility where detainees from the war against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in Afghanistan have been held. The report sparked outrage in Afghanistan and, in the ensuing demonstrations, at least 15 people died and scores were injured.

Over the last two weeks, insurgents have killed more than 400 people and the rate at which the attacks have been going, scores a day, that toll might easily reach beyond 500 by the weekend. Iraqi civilian casualties haven't been talked of much until this recent spate of bombing. The full toll of ordinary Iraqis killed since the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 has been estimated at between 6,000 and nearly 100,000, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The offer: If the Republicans withdraw one nominee and back off plans to change Senate rules on filibustering, Democrats would help confirm at least two of President Bush's blocked nominees. Frist's response Tuesday was the equivalent of "drop dead."

It would be nice if this signaled a softening of GOP smugness, but most likely it is merely politics as usual.

Do you realize how responsible you are for the current high price of gasoline that you probably curse loudly when you fill the tank?

Someone should tell that to Senate Republicans.

Enough circumstantial evidence exists to suggest a formal investigation needs to be undertaken to find out who passed along the flawed intelligence and whether some administrations officials might have deliberately twisted it.

And Bolton is determined to advance Bush's polices. In his opening statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bolton said, "If confirmed, I pledge to fulfill the president's visions of working in close partnership with the United Nations." Has he seen the error of his previous comments about the United Nations or was he merely restating his previous beliefs in a more palatable way?

The intense coverage given these two events makes me wonder, not for the first time, about the priorities of my chosen profession — journalism.