RIP Tim Russert

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Meet The Press Anchor Tim Russert died today while at work.

Tim Russert, NBC News's Washington bureau chief who was renowned for his tough questioning of politicians, died of a heart attack after collapsing while at work today. He was 58.

Russert was perhaps most famous for his probing questions of politicians on the Sunday morning talk show ``Meet the Press.'' He was also a best-selling author whose books included a tribute to his father, ``Big Russ and Me.''

Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw announced Russert's death on the air, telling viewers about Russert's childhood growing up in Buffalo, New York, his love for his family and his tremendous work ethic. Brokaw said Russert was ``one of the premier political analysts and journalists of his time.''

``The news division will not be the same,'' Brokaw said.

Russert took over as anchor of ``Meet the Press'' on Dec. 8, 1991, and since then it has become the most-watched Sunday morning interview program in the U.S. and the most-quoted news program in the world, according to the network's Web site.

He was born in Buffalo on May 7, 1950, and graduated from John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio. He earned a law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland.

He worked for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo in Albany from 1983 to 1984 and was a special counsel in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 1982.

He was married to journalist Maureen Orth, a writer for Vanity Fair magazine and had a son, Luke.

Our sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Further commentary this weekend.

Hot Air also notes his passing

So does Flopping Aces

A Green Death

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If you're like me I know that you have been tormented by the following thought: How can I see to it that when I finally take the dirt nap my corpse won't be just one more big mess with which Mother Earth has to deal? Well, we can all breathe a sigh of relief as you'll see by playing the video above, that an eco-friendly death is now possible. Your stinky old corpse can now moulder away in an environmentally acceptable fashion. Just think how impressed the neighbors will be when they see that you've cared enough to die green! This is the answer to that one last big worry and gives a whole new meaning to Rest In Peace.

This is certainly the future of dying!

Death Outlawed - Why Didn't We Think Of That?

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The Press Association ran the following story today under the headline, The wages of dying:

The mayor of a French village has threatened to punish locals if
they die, because there is no room in the overcrowded
cemetery.

Gerard Lalanne issued an edict telling the 260 residents of Sarpourenx that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be
buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish". It added: "Offenders will be severely punished."

"It may be a laughing matter for some, but not for me," he
said

Print this post and carry it with you. Whenever you hear some dolt say they only wish the rest of the world thought better of the US, take it out and give it to the putz while reminding him (or her. I'm no sexist!) that much of the rest of the world is a lot like Monsieur Gerard Lalanne.