It's like deja vu all over again. A 7.4 "aftershock" earthquake strikes near the same coastal area of Japan that spawned last month's 9.1 destructor. Tsunami warnings and evacuations follow. The Fukushima nuclear disaster plant so far appears unscathed.

Libya's rebels—surprise, surprise—aren't much of a fighting force. They're mostly dissidents, not hardened guerrillas, and may not have the might to push the war to Moammar Qaddafi's doorstep. At least, that is, the rebels who aren't mistakenly bombed by NATO.

The American government shambles ever closer to shutdown. Late-night budget talks produce more bickering, over unrelated policy issues like reproductive rights and environmental protections. And guess who might not get paid when the wheels stop: THE TROOPS—whom Republicans usually say we're supposed to love unconditionally, with one hand over our hearts (and the other over our mouths).

Nauseating news about a gunman who opened fire at a primary school in Brazil, in a shooting officials are calling "a massacre, a true massacre."

Armenia's internet comes from one lone cable hooked up to neighboring Georgia. A 75-year-old woman digging for copper scraps accidentally severed it with her spade.

In Wisconsin, ground zero for organized labor, a Supreme Court judge loyal to the state's union-busting governor (and likely his union-busting law) has fallen to a progressive challenger. A recount is expected.

Cops in Colorado pepper-sprayed an irate 8-year-old
in February, and now the boy and his family are taking to the airwaves to tell his story. Although the boy says "I probably deserved it."

Rail travel really is more elegant. First, there was the whole hole-in-plane thing over the weekend. Now another sleepy air traffic controller is about to be shit-canned, the FAA revealed yesterday.

Mexican gangs looking to launder billions of dollars last decade found a very willing partner in a very big American bank that's since been snapped up by Wells Fargo. Tens of millions in fines were paid, but no one was ever hauled into court.

The end of Glenn Beck's nightly show on Fox was announced. Who might replace him? Maybe this guy? Or maybe, why not, this guy, since he's apparently leaving the vomitously insipid Today Show?

All this makes me miss the golden age of television.