Of All The World's Natural-Resource Shortages...

...The Wall Street Journal chose to focus on band names. The Journal has long been deservedly famous for the quirky story it puts on A1 each day -- aka the "A-hed" -- which has sadly become more infrequent since Rupert Murdoch's ownership began. But this one from last month was forced in its attempt at cheekiness, if not blatantly unnecessary.

Sure, there are 1,900 bands playing this week at the South by Southwest conference in Austin and more than 6,500 names added each month to AllMusic.com's database. That doesn't mean it's unbelievably challenging to come up with a good band name. In fact, if you and your band aren't creative enough to come up with one that fits your style and sounds cool, you probably shouldn't be a band.

The Journal has also long been deservedly famous for strictly separating its stridently conservative editorial board from its insightful, even-keeled reporting -- though, again, that has also declined under Murdoch's ownership. As innocent a story as this one was meant to be, perhaps its news desk should be devoting more time to water, timber, coal, oil, climate change, etc, rather than how scarce good band names are supposedly becoming.