Kill viceroy Bremer, Kofi Annan, or Lakhdar Brahimi and Osama bin Laden will reward you with gold worth around 125,000 gees -- or so the New York Times reports.

I don't know if the copy editors at the New York Times or the Associated Press -- where this so-called story originated -- fell over laughing afterward. Is it possible, the day after tomorrow, to keep the jokes coming and the staff in stitches, they will report Elvis is alive and well and living in a residency motel on the outskirts of Buffalo, New York?

Okay. Let's get serious and assume this story is on the up-and-up. How would Osama get the money to the assassin or assassins who managed to sneak inside Saddam's old palace and kill Bremer? Is it possible there are Osama redemption centers in Baghdad and the would-be killer or killers need only stroll in and collect the lavish reward? Is there a big time disconnect here? Is this story so absurd and implausible that millions of people will now consider the New York Times on par with grocery store tabloids or the Drudge Report?

Nope. Because people believe this kind of stuff about Osama.