I just moved onto 16th Street in the District of Columbia. About half a mile north is the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church. Insert your own joke here.

President Bush went to Philadelphia and gave a little speech on Independence Day. Of course, this will be on the tv news and in the papers tomorrow. Is this news though? Does every political photo opportunity deserve major coverage? I guess White House correspondents have to write about something. It certainly seems like news when a correspondent stands outside some historic building and repeats the President's words. But wouldn't we all be better off if they tried reporting instead of parroting?

The best show on television remains Junkyard Wars. It pits two teams of geeks against each other to build machines from scrap -- hovercraft, rockets, and in the finale, car crushing machines. It expects intelligence and wit from its audience.