Whether it was the bloody siege in Mumbai or the Wal-Mart worker trampled to death by crazed shoppers on Long Island, this year Black Friday – the first and busiest shopping day of the holiday season – lived up to its name. November 28, 2008Â will be remembered for its post turkey indigestion and a sense of dread that perhaps things are even worse than they appear.
The inanity of broadcast TV news was obvious during this made-for-social-media terrorism event in India.  Indian CNN newscasters are well-schooled in tactics of American counterparts – when you don’t know anything talk faster and louder so people don’t know that you are repeating the same supposition over and over. On the ground bloggers, tweeters, texters, videographers and photographers beat out the mainstream media this time.
So who died. Well my city, Mumbai. Armed gunmen and terrorists held the city to ransom, randomly shooting and killing innocent citizens for no rhyme or reason while the administration and other citizens helplessly watched. Kinda like the school campus shootouts we read in the news that happens in US of A. From Deeply Deeps blog by Deepa Prabhu, Mumbai, India. She “is licensed to tweet” at DDeeps
The Wal-Mart worker trampling on Long Island was the big news buzz around New York on Black Friday.  A mob killing at five in the morning for 20% off on a plastic tub is local socio-economic brutality that trumps events in the sub-continent. Although a CNN online poll showed that 2/3 of all respondents are in total spending lock down for the holidays, maniacs were still camping overnight in cardboard boxes to get into Best Buy on 6th avenue.
The stock market – inured to worldwide economic and political catastrophe – actually posted strong gains for the “holiday-shortened week that saw investors increasingly confident that much of a dire economic outlook is already priced in,” according to MarketWatch. Meaning good times ahead, the economy is back on track, go buy a condo, find somebody who will give you a loan. Yes, there are bargains out there – in stocks and real estate – but who has the money to buy?
Story of the week:
GIANT JERK SHOOTS HIMSELF
BURRESS FUMBLES GUN AND NAILS LEG
 ”Mercurial head case” Plaxico Giant Idiot Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg in a New York night club ( goes from hero to zero). The “Giants’ Super Bowl hero currently in the process of punching his ticket out of town, goes from being an accident waiting to happen to an accident that actually did happen.”
The madness in Mumbai continues as the Internet responds with heightened levels of user generated news and opinion that reveal the best and worst of social media. New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher was my lifeline in the middle of the night as the 
