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Archive for November, 2003

Metaphysics, plastic Christs and MLK?

November 25th, 2003 by danimal

I’m offering a stiff drink to the first person who extracts a coherent point from Earl Gosnell’s commentary in today’s ODE.

It’ll be a daunting task. You’ll have to tie together a line like “We burn crosses by removing them,” suspicions that every MLK Boulevard in the nation will be ruled unconstitutional because MLK Sr. changed his name to venerate Martin Luther, mumblings about an alleged NAACP/Eisenhower conspiracy, and this conclusion:

Do we disregard practical ways to please God and relate to our fellow man, where the rubber meets the road, just because we have a plastic Jesus on the dashboard and a King’s name on a road sign?

That’s some incisive commentary, boys. Of course, by Gosnell’s own admission, “living in Eugene means that not everything we do has to make sense.” But this thing is so incoherent, and apparently related to race somehow, that some portion of the letter-writing cadre is bound to cry racism.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

November 25th, 2003 by danimal

They may consider it outdated and bizarre in Kentucky to require people to bathe at least once a year, but I’ll wager they’ve never smelt a Cuthbert show in late August.

Compare And Contrast

November 25th, 2003 by olly

This has picked up minor (as in: more hits than we can reasonably aspire to) blogosphere fame.

I am not impressed. Even as a non-lawyer, I know what’s better. When I’m hauled up before the DHS, I don’t want some random guy from Harvard improvising my defense to the strains of “New York State Of Mind“.

The Prescience of Robert Palmer

November 24th, 2003 by Timothy

You might as well face it….

My Bologna Has a First Name…

November 24th, 2003 by Chris

…It’s M-E-X-I-C-A-N. Now I’ve heard of smuggling drugs, and smuggling human beings across the US-Mexico border. But deli meat!? What is this country coming to when people are willing to purchase illegal deli meat? Have we no shame?

Time To Start Reading The Onion Again

November 24th, 2003 by olly

Deep-fried goodness from TNR, where the tellingly named Rebecca Onion examines the Elizabeth Smart and Jessica Lynch cash-in books. Apparently, they are bad enough to justify desperate measures:

This writer calls upon Al Qaeda to kidnap a pretty, 25-year-old blonde female–preferably one with an MFA from Iowa who also happens to speak Arabic.

(However, Onion criticizes Rick Bragg for being too far removed from the situation and having to build a composite account from eyewitnesses, without pointing out his valuable recent experience in this area.)

(Hat tip: Sho.)

Civil Rights Under Attack!

November 23rd, 2003 by Timothy

In Slovenia. I think this is completely shameful. What’s even more shameful is people calling America a “police state.”

UPDATE: And now the Dems are complaining about a Bush campaign ad, and demanding it be pulled. I’m sorry, but that’s just stupid. The language in the ad might be a bit charged, but it’s certainly accurate. The Dems are attacking Bush for attacking the terrorists, [ But most of them voted for the war, didn’t they? –Ed. Yes, they did, but I’m neither Kaus nor Reynolds so you need to go home now.] and I don’t think it’s unfair to point that out. Gee, the war is going to be a campaign issue and the carping from Democrats might hurt them if it’s pointed out in a campaign ad? I never would have guessed.

To Whom It May Conern

November 22nd, 2003 by Timothy

Mr. Dean, Mr. Bush, Members of Congress, Senators, and other protectionist ninnies:

Please repeat after me, “Protectionism is bad. It causes undue harm to the consumer and raises prices. The trade imbalance with China is not a problem and it doesn’t have anything to do with exchange rates. I pledge to abandon my sinful, protectionist ways and pursue policy that makes some goddamn sense.”

(Hattip: Bruce Bartlett)

Dear Dems who are busy harping on the economy, particularly jobs: Steve Verdon has the facts. He also has this wonderful post on one my my favorite things Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem.

On I Didn’t Do ANYTHING

November 22nd, 2003 by Timothy

“We were just standing there, totally peacefully,” she said. “I was honestly looking this guy in the eye with a peace sign, and then all of a sudden, boom. There was no provocation.”

Yes, two posts in 15 minutes at 4am…but I just couldn’t resist this one.

NEW ISSUE ONLINE!

November 22nd, 2003 by Timothy

If you haven’t noticed, Issue III is up and the reviews are in:

“Hideous right-wing propaganda”

– NY Times

“Terrible capitalist pig-dog propaganda from the obvious patriarchial oppressorship”

– The Insurgent

“I bloody love it!”

– Andrew Sullivan

On an unrelated note: This is one of the poorest excuses for journalism I’ve seen in a long time. (Hat-tip: Ryan “Yurksinbag” Earley)

From The Usually Dormant "Be Nice To The Emerald" Department

November 21st, 2003 by olly

It’s not exactly damning stuff, but I thought this was a good idea. Money quote:

Foster said when classes or school responsibilities conflict with their office hours, it’s understood the hours are “going to get tromped.”

So I can schedule my office hours to conflict with my classes, and use that to justify not keeping office hours? I wish I’d thought of that sooner.

In Case Anyone Hasn’t Seen The Weekly Yet…

November 21st, 2003 by olly

I figured this should be posted, even though the link’ll be out of date in a week’s time.

Props to Bobbie, on the whole. (I grudgingly concede that zany old Scott Austin makes for a better headline than we do.)

Blogging: It’s Too Loud And I Can’t Hear The Words

November 21st, 2003 by olly

I’ve been making an effort to avoid taking links directly from the ubiquitous Professor, but… ah, who am I kidding. Here is John C. Dvorak, of PC Magazine, being cantankerous about the blogging phenomenon.

This trend [towards dominance of Big Media blogs by professional writers] is solid. A look at Columbia Journalism Review’s recent listing of traditional-media blogs shows everyone getting into the act: ABC News, FOX, National Review, The New Republic, The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and so on. The blogging boosters, meanwhile, are rooting like high-school cheerleaders over this development. To them, it’s some sort of affirmation. In fact, it’s a death sentence. The onerous Big Media incursion marks the beginning of the end for blogging. Can you spell co-opted?

This I do not get. What impact does NRO’s Corner have on the blog I put up devoted to how cute my cat is? (Note: this is a purely rhetorical question.) If I want to read professional commentary on the issues of the day, I can do that. If I want to read Random Guy’s thoughts on the future state of Cascadia, I can do that. If I want to inform the world that my cat is cute, I can do that with equal ease. And if I want to see pictures of moldy pumpkin ears, I can do that too – because Dan does have permalinks working, I just didn’t notice them when I wrote the first draft of this post. Who or what has been co-opted here?

Similarly, Dvorak cites a study by Perseus Development estimating that most blogs have an audience of about 12. Is this a problem? If there’s more – vastly, terrifyingly more – content out there, isn’t that a good thing regardless of whether or not most people care about it? And again, who cares if MSNBC and Fox News put up blogs? How exactly can someone be crowded out of this market? Except by one group, singled out by Dvorak for particular criticism…

It’s no coincidence that the most-read blogs are created by professional writers.

That’s right. It’s a sinister conspiracy to get people to, um, read them and interact with them, by disseminating their work for free on the Web? Well, I’m glad we finally saw through that evil scheme. Jesus.

Where socialism will get you

November 19th, 2003 by danimal

All leftists who rant about “corporate power,” please take note:

The Swedes apparently put more trust in IKEA than in their own government.

Sympathy For The Sniper

November 19th, 2003 by olly

I’m having a hard time with this one.

Are the members of the jury back there supposed to be vultures, or friendly aliens? Why is the tree stump labelled “INEVITABLE FUTURE”? Other than a slightly tenuous John Muhammad-Thanksgiving turkey analogy, what the hell is the point of the caption?

Still, poor old John Muhammad. After all, it’s not like he killed that many people.