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the zeitgeist checklist: What Washington is talking about.

Zeitgeist Checklist: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty EditionWhat Washington is talking about this week.

By Christopher Beam
Posted Saturday, March 10, 2007, at 7:47 AM ET

(Continued from page 1)

C'est la Mort
Death. French intellectual and slippery Postmodernist Jean Baudrillard dies, although he would probably disagree. Despite his disdain for shallow media culture and "hyperreality," he will always be remembered as the guy responsible for The Matrix. Zut alors! Speaking of things that aren't real, Captain America "dies"—scare quotes not because he's fictional but because knowing Marvel, they'll probably resurrect him next month with a titanium exoskeleton or angel wings or something.

Nowak Ventures Into Vast, Unexplored Territory of Layoffs
Space. NASA dismisses Lisa Nowak, making her the first American astronaut ever to be fired—the Alan Shephard of pink slips. She will return to active duty with the Navy, where driving 1,000 miles in a diaper to pepper spray and kidnap a romantic rival is acceptable behavior, apparently.

Comfort Feud
Japan. Under pressure from the United States and Asia, Japan investigates whether women were forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers at World War II-era brothels known as "comfort stations." You have to admire the Japanese knack for euphemism—when someone throws himself in front of a Tokyo subway car, it's called a "human accident." As long as they're looking into past abuses, China wonders if Japan could also address that whole Rape of Nanking thing.

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Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
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