• “What if you drew arrows from here to theocracy?” Oh man, Jon Stewart was in fine form last night, pulling out that Glenn Beck impression of his and making it even better than it was before. Beck is still crazy but occasionally says sensical things these days. This clip is 13 minutes, but it’s the best 13 minutes you’ll spend all day. source

• Were the job cuts needed? After a report came out yesterday on the unofficial Gannett Blog noting the executive pay of the company’s chief executives, there’s definitely some deserved anger due to the number of layoffs that the newspaper company had. Truth is, though, their salaries, while high, are only a dent in a much larger pie, and from one perspective, they did their jobs well.

Executive salaries vs. 2009 job cuts

• 6,000 number of jobs that were lost throughout the company in 2009 through cuts and layoffs; many workers were also furloughed
• $4.7M the amount Gannett’s chairman and CEO, Craig Dubow, made in 2009, up $1.6 million from 2008 (including a $1.5 million bonus)
• $4M the amount president and COO (and former CFO) Gracia Martore made in 2009, up $2.6 million from 2008 (with a $950,000 bonus)

Would lower executive pay help? Not really

• $240M the amount the laid-off workers’ collective salaries would be if they were each paid $40,000 per year, around average for journalists (though some are paid higher)
• $700 the amount each laid-off worker would get if that $4.2 million difference between 2008 and 2009 executive pay was spread out evenly amongst them

Where the cuts helped most: Stock prices

• 907% the increase in stock price since 2009

Uncomfortable reality

• » The business consideration: Truth of the matter is, from an investing and financial perspective, Craig Dubow and Gracia Martore look very smart for cutting off some of the dead wood, even if it screwed over thousands of journalists as a result.
• » The real problem? Same as many other newspaper conglomerates: Gannett’s simply too big. It holds jurisdiction over many markets large and small, and as a result of heavy debt burdens from the financial crisis, it and companies like it, including McClatchy and Tribune, have had to make some tough decisions to protect the whole beast. Seems like all these mergers and buyouts had the effect of damaging local newspapers and local journalism. Financial sense and editorial sense are two different senses. source

• The immediate goal I have is to stop these fraudulent babas and gurus. I want people to make their own decisions. They should not be guided by ignorance, but by knowledge.
• Indian Rationalists’ Association skeptic-in-chief Sanal Edamaruku • Regarding the attempt by Pandit Surender Sharma, a well-known tantric guru, to kill him on an Indian TV show. Clearly, since he’s talking about the experience, he survived, and he’s ready to gloat: “He was over, finished, completely destroyed!” Edamaruku, whose goal is to push Indian mysticism out of society, has built up the Indian Rationalists’ Association to 100,000 members over the last 25 years. He’s not a playa, he just crushes a lot. source

• one the number of beefy men doing time for drug convictions that have beaten Bernard “Bernie” Madoff
• one number of broken noses said beefy man gave the notorious financial scammer back in December
• none the amount of selection Madoff has in prison movies; he’s forced to watch “Lethal Weapon” AGAIN source

• NO and neither does the killed trainer’s family source

• People saying they’re going to spit on you and all this. That’s just not fun.
• Rep. Bart Stupak • Regarding the Senate version of the health care bill that he’s been pushing against due to its language on abortion. The House version, which Stupak had a hand in pushing, has stronger language. Regarding the updated bill, he claimed that he could wrangle 12 representatives to support him, but that’s looking less likely due to the hard work Obama’s putting in to woo these specific voters. Oh, and the fact that it’s almost exactly the same language. source

• Curation, personalization, centralization – Digg wants to be your hub again. For a couple of years, Digg was THE place to go to hear what’s hot, as well as a solid way to drive traffic to your site. Nowadays, it’s a total niche and it’s hard to get your articles noticed in the abyss. Facebook (especially) and Twitter work way better. Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, in his column for CNN, talks a little more about Digg, whose new social buttons his site is testing. It sounds like Digg’s at least trying to get their mojo back. But will it work? Let’s just say we’re excited to see it. source