The laugh, as they say, is most definitely free. Thanks, B. W.

On the other hand, semi-regular Cringe correspondent B. H. has this to say:

There is the down side to Murdoch's strategy: loss of readership. If there is no way of seeing what kind of stuff Murdoch's sites offer, fewer will venture there and fewer still pay for a pig in a poke.... Others keep touting the popularity of Fox News, that it has the largest audience. So did the Coliseum of Nero's time. Those viewers are after spectacle, such as listening to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck. There's a reason why disaster movies always hit big.

My two cents: I deliberately avoided ranting about the content of Murdoch's sites, aside from noting their right wingishness. But to some people, anyone who doesn't express their adoration for Fox News is some kind of bomb-throwing radical. This is why it's almost impossible to have a reasonable conversation on important issues in this country; everyone has been pushed to extremes, often by the media, when the truth is almost always somewhere in the middle.

In other news, reader M. A. just bought an HP Mini with Starter pre-installed, which he says does not allow him to change his desktop themes. He has a simple question: Why not? He says he's asked on Microsoft's forums and got nothing but "corporate doublespeak" in response: