I’LL BE UP EARLY TOMORROW: Got to be at the hospital at 5:30, as the Insta-Wife is scheduled for early surgery. (Our daughter is with her grandmother tonight). I spent a few hours there tonight, and she’s in good spirits. I rubbed her feet, and helped her scrub her chest with Betadine.
PATRICK RUFFINI AND OLIVER WILLIS will be on C-SPAN tomorrow morning, 7:45-8:30 (Eastern) tomorrow morning. I’ve always said that Oliver was made for TV.
UPDATE: And Lance Frizzell will be on Teddy Bart’s show tomorrow morning. Listen live here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Caught the last few minutes via streaming video. Oliver: “I’m just not willing to launch a headhunting campaign against someone based on secondhand reports.”
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Oliver emails: “Now, am I willing to launch a campaign based on firsthand knowledge? You bet.”
I never doubted it.
CHARGES OF RATHERGATE CONSPIRACY AGAINST KARL ROVE, from Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY). Charles Johnson has audio and a transcript. If Karl Rove is really this smart, the Democrats are doomed. (Hmm, maybe spreading that idea is the real conspiracy. Somebody ask Hinchey who he’s working for. The truth is out there! . . .)
UPDATE: Comments here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: More thoughts from Roger Simon, with an interesting Karl-Rove-as-Loki angle in the comments. Or is he Coyote?
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: More background on Hinchey, here. He’s “big on gun rights.” Obviously a Karl Rove mole!
SOME PEOPLE ARE WONDERING if a CNN reporter broke the law in the course of doing a story on guns.
UPDATE: A couple of readers think this concern may be premature. We’ll see.
DOING RESEARCH FOR MY TECHCENTRALSTATION COLUMN this week, I ran across MedGadget, a sort of Gizmodo-for-medical-devices. Pretty cool.
HERE’S A VERY POSITIVE REVIEW for MSNBC’s new show, Connected Coast-to-Coast, saying that:
Connected Coast to Coast is surely (and finally) the concept that the founders never even knew they were thinking of when MS (Microsoft) & NBC joined hands for a little experiment called MSNBC. The concept was ahead of its time and MSNBC’s ‘new twist’ was years ahead of the information-flow reality…until the sudden emergence of millions of blogs and bloggers finally brought that vision into focus. So, it is only appropriately fitting that MSNBC is the outlet to first embrace the paradigm that is the new law of information flow.
I haven’t seen the show — they invited me on Friday, but I was otherwise engaged.
SHOW PEOPLE A PICTURE OF YOUR WIFE WITH A LAPTOP, and some of them comment on . . . the laptop! Reader Jason Watts emails:
Is that the Dell 700m? I just set one of those up for a doc at the medical school I work at. I am sold on that model. I have the Inspiron 8600, I was sold on the big wide screen but did not consider the size and weight, especially when you have to carry it across campus with books as well. The 700m is small and powerful from what I could tell. Plus I will hopefully attend law school in a year so the 700m will work nicely for that as well.
Bill Hobbs and reader Robert Berry also emailed last week to ask about the Dell — there’s some sort of coupon promotion going, apparently. I’ve had it for a few months now, and I’m quite pleased. Battery life with the extended-life battery (a must-buy accessory, as far as I’m concerned) is good at 5-6 hours even while using wifi or the Verizon card, which both drain battery power faster (especially the Verizon card). The display is excellent, and there are lots of ports, etc. My only real complaint is the absence of a hardware volume-control knob, and the presence of a 4-pin rather than a 6-pin Firewire port. This works fine, but it’s a nonstandard cable, and though it’ll connect to an iPod it won’t charge it.
Here’s my earlier post on the subject.
UPDATE: Bill Hobbs emails:
I just ordered the 700M with 1.8 gig, 512 mb ram, 80GB hard drive, CD/DVD burner, extended life battery and 4 year warranty with at-home service and 4-year complete care accidental damage warranty. The total was just $1553 before tax because there is a great $600 off coupon floating around. Word to the wise: Google “Dell coupon codes” to find the coupon.
He’ll like it.
THIS COLUMN BY DAVID SHAW in the Los Angeles Times adds to the bloggers-as-lynch-mob meme that a lot of Big Media folks are peddling:
Bloggers can be useful. They did a good job, for example, in bringing the Rather/CBS screw-up to public attention. But some bloggers are just self-important ranters who seem to wake up every morning convinced that the entire Free World awaits their opinions on any subject that’s popped into their heads since their last fevered post.
Unfortunately, when these bloggers rise up in arms, grown men weep — and news executives cave in. That’s much more alarming than anything Jordan said.
What’s funny, though, is that Shaw’s views on the Eason Jordan controversy seem to be exactly the same as those most commonly found throughout the blogosphere:
Although the official word is that Jordan’s resignation was voluntary, I have to believe that the top brass at CNN, instead of rejecting his resignation, as they should have done, gave him a not-so-gentle push toward the door to defuse the increasingly nasty controversy.
What I don’t understand is why they — and he — caved in so quickly. I wish he’d asked — begged, demanded — that the organizers of the Davos forum release the videotape of his panel. I can only assume that he said what he’s accused of saying and that he doesn’t want those remarks in the public domain, even if they were followed by his quick backtracking.
If Jordan did say American troops target American journalists, he should be ashamed of himself. But he shouldn’t have lost his job.
Well, whether he should have lost his job was always CNN’s decision, of course. But we wanted to see the tape. As I’ve noted before, bloggers wanted the tape made public more than they wanted to get rid of Jordan. CNN, on the other hand, decided it would rather be rid of Jordan than see the tape made public.
The funny thing, though, is that the herd-mentality among media executives will probably make the “bloggers as irresistible force” idea truer, as the result of pieces like this one, than it was before.
UPDATE: Prof. Bainbridge has thoughts on why Shaw’s lynch-mob meme is likely to catch on: “Blaming others for one’s misfortunes is always easier than considring whether one’s own conduct may have caused them. So I expect the MSM to go right on whining about blogs, even if those of us in the blogosphere really don’t have anywhere near the amount of influence we would like to think we possess.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader David Jones emails:
If the blogs are the lynch mob, and Eason Jordan was not guilty of a hanging offense, then CNN’s role is that of the cowardly sheriff who gives in to the mob. So why doesn’t the MSM investigate that? Could it be that the sheriff has something to hide?
Hmm.
SHANTI MANGALA is hosting this week’s Blog Mela. Check out what the Indian blogosphere is saying!
UPDATE: And Tim Worstall rounds up the BritBlogs.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN ENGLAND: “Many hunters claimed to be staying within the law by not actually pursuing foxes, although it was not clear how they communicated that intention to the hounds.”
REPORTS OF LIFE ON MARS, noted earlier, seem to be premature.
JUST TALKED TO THE INSTAWIFE: I reclaimed the Insta-daughter from my sister, who had kept her for the past couple of nights, and we went shopping (Abercrombie!) and out to dinner (sushi!), both her choices of activities. We had a nice evening, while Helen entertained visitors from her family and mine.
We just spoke on the phone today and she sounded good — except that the hospital routine is wearing her down with the constant sleep interruptions. They really do come in every couple of hours, and while some of the stuff makes some sense, I guess — like checking temperature or even EKG — they came in yesterday, and today, at about 5 AM to check her weight. Er, why not a couple of hours later?
The people at the hospital are very nice, but this leads me to wonder what would happen if you did the equivalent of those mental-hospital experiments, where normal grad students tested out as crazy after 6 weeks in a mental hospital. If you took 100 healthy people, then put them in a hospital for 2 weeks of this sort of thing and tested them again, I’ll bet that they’d be significantly worse off. People joke about the sleep interruptions, or about the bad food, but it’s really no joke when you’re in there for a while. I wonder why they don’t do better?
MEGAN MCARDLE: “Incidentally, having read Larry Summers’ remarks now, I think it’s pretty embarassing for academia that this scandal got as far as it did.”
UPDATE: Interesting observation from her comment section: “Larry Summers, politically much more adept than his critics here, seems to have pulled off a great example of ‘rope-a-dope’ by delaying the release of his remarks. The US college professoriate is currently driving its collective credibility off a cliff. Summers helped them along by offering them a ‘door to nowhere’, and they marched right through it.”
ANOTHER UPDATE: David Bernstein comments: “I would add that if Summers’ quite measured comments have gotten him into such hot water, imagine how regular faculty, untenured faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates whose views don’t reflect the politically correct mainstream are treated, and how much their careers can be placed in potential jeopardy.”
It seems to me that this is more reason to encourage intellectual diversification at places like Harvard.
2008: THERE’S A CONDI RICE FOR PRESIDENT BLOG, there’s a Draft Condi website, and you can already buy the T-Shirt. And bumper stickers!
The juggernaut is already rolling.
UPDATE: Another Condi blog! And another! And there’s more here, and here. But not everyone is on the bandwagon.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Geraghty reports from CPAC: “Many folks are wearing ‘I support Condi in 2008′ buttons. Interesting…”
MORE: Blogs for Condi is rounding up examples of Condi-enthusiasm around the blogosphere.
STILL MORE: Even more Condi 2008 stuff here and, especially, here.
WIKIPEDIA WARS: Involving LaShawn Barber. (Via The Baron).
ALTERNATIVE HISTORY: Bill Dyer wonders what would have happened if the RatherGate forgers had had a clue.
ARTHUR CHRENKOFF rounds up news from Lebanon, where all sorts of things are going on.
UPDATE: And here’s more interesting stuff from East Asia.
AUSTIN BAY OBSERVES a historical turning point.
SOME INTERESTING THOUGHTS ON BLOGS AND THE BRITISH ELECTIONS:
For decades the national conversation in most western countries has been directed by a few talking heads. Newspapers play important roles but all the evidence suggests that broadcasters have possessed the greatest potential to frame public debate. British politicians have known that communicating their message depends upon getting the nod from a small number of powerful figures in the broadcast media.
The editor of BBC1′s six o’clock news bulletin can make a minister’s day by putting his department’s latest announcement at the front of the bulletin. Hearing Huw Edwards say something positive about that afternoon’s policy launch will even put a smile on Alastair Campbell’s face. . . .
But the blogosphere will become a force in Britain, and it could ignite many new forces of conservatism. The internet’s automatic level playing field gives conservatives opportunities that mainstream media have often denied them.
An online community of bloggers performs the same function as yesteryear’s town meetings. Through the tradition of town hall meetings, officials were held to account by local people. Blogger communities are going to be much more powerful. They will draw together not only local people but patients who have waited and waited for NHS care. They will organise parents of disabled children who oppose Labour’s closure of special-needs schools and evangelical Christians who see their beliefs caricatured by ignorant commentators.
All this should put the fear of God into the metropolitan elites. For years there have been widening gaps between the governing class and the governed and between the publicly funded broadcasters and the broadcasted to.
Interesting, and since the gap is probably wider in Britain than in America, it’s certainly possible that the impact will be greater — though not, I’d imagine, if the establishment media can help it.
PAUL MUSGRAVE has a roundup of developments in East Asia.
I HAVEN’T FINISHED SUPERLUMINAL yet, as events have intervened. But I’m still enjoying it. When I’m done, I’m going to read The Curse of Cain, an alt-history Lincoln-assassination thriller that’s blurbed (on the advance copy they sent me) as “Civil War fiction’s The Day of the Jackal.” It looks as if it ought to be pretty good. Yes, it’s “escape reading.” But I’ve always been an escape reader.
HERE’S AN INTERESTING PIECE BY JOSEPH CURL on the Gannon/Guckert affair, featuring interviews with a lot of members from the White House press corps who worked alongside Gannon/Guckert. It makes for very interesting reading.
Here’s more from Roger Simon.
UPDATE: More here.
LAST NIGHT wasn’t as uncomfortable as I feared. I wound up sharing the bed with Helen. Back when we were single, we often shared twin beds that were smaller than this, and it was actually very nice, and snuggly, despite the regular “wake-up-for-your-sleeping-pill” hospital style interruptions. I don’t think we’ll trade in the king-sized bed at home for a full, but it was a good way to spend the night, especially at a time like this.
As you can see from the photo to the right, Helen has been keeping herself amused. I’m home at the moment, to pick up some more clothes for her and to rescue the cats from durance vile. I’m heading back over there later, but I’m going to post a few blog entries so that you all won’t be totally bored.
And for those who asked about using the Verizon card in the hospital — given many hospitals’ strict anti-cellphone policies — I asked. They told me that it was OK. The older analog-style cellphones screw up their telemetry, and they don’t like to rely on people knowing what kind of phone they carry. But the Verizon card posed no problems, and it definitely makes you feel less isolated — especially when people are emailing you.
Thanks very much to the many, many people who have emailed. And I have to say — without taking anything away from anyone else — that I’ve been particularly touched by the nice emails and posts from people who are often on the other side of blogospheric disagreements, people like Ted Barlow, Jack O’Toole, Randy Paul, Jeralyn Merritt, and Oliver Willis. Thanks.
A WHILE BACK, I quoted Indian Country Today as saying that Ward Churchill was sought out for his views, which led a few readers to argue that this wasn’t necessarily so. But it’s looking more and more as if it’s the case, though it’s also possible that his claimed Indian ancestry was the real attraction. Either way, the University certainly seems to have been anxious to hire and tenure him.
The Rocky Mountain News reports:
Ward Churchill received tenure without the usual scrutiny at a time when the University of Colorado was anxious to add minority teachers, one player in his hiring said Thursday.
Churchill, who claims American Indian heritage, was tenured in the communications department effective the fall of 1991 – a meteoric leap from a job he had held for more than a decade in a program that provides tutoring and counseling for minority students. . . .
Bowers said Churchill was interviewed by every faculty member in communications. Professors in the department read some of Churchill’s works, but not all of them, he said.
They concentrated on Churchill’s writings about the standoff between the federal government and the American Indian Movement at Wounded Knee, Bowers said.
“He wasn’t writing general theory, he was writing specific cases. But specific cases are of interest to academics,” Bowers said.
Tenure review typically includes an evaluation of the candidate’s published works by scholars from other campuses. That didn’t happen in Churchill’s case, Bowers said.
More here:
Ward Churchill’s quick rise to a tenured position came as a surprise to the former University of Colorado official who suggested him for a temporary faculty position in 1990.
Churchill had been working for more than a decade in a program that helps minority students when then-Vice Chancellor Kaye Howe recommended him for a one-semester appointment teaching Indian studies.
Eleven months later, Churchill leaped to a coveted tenured position.
“This just doesn’t compute for me,” Howe said Wednesday of Churchill’s quick rise to tenure. “I don’t understand that.”
Tenure is usually granted only after a “laborious” process, she said.
Apparently — as Indian Country indicated — they were afraid of losing him:
In 1990, CU officials apparently considered Churchill an expert in American Indian studies.
“Ward is certainly being courted by other universities as a significant Indian scholar and teacher. It would be a shame to lose him because of a standard which may be irrelevant in this case,” Howe wrote Middleton in an e-mail, referring to Churchill’s lack of a doctorate. . . .
The documents released by CU do not explain why Churchill was able to avoid the normal process for getting tenure, which gives a high measure of job security to faculty. Scholars have questioned Churchill’s conclusions for years, and some have suggested he lied about being an Indian to land his job at CU.
I’ll bet the CU folks wish they’d lost him to another school now.
UPDATE: Ouch. That smarts.
THE VERIZON WIRELESS CARD is great when you’re stuck in a hospital. Helen, who is recovering well from her procedure, just finished checking her email and surfing. Checking my own email, I just noticed several readers pointing out that there’s all sorts of interesting stuff happening in Lebanon:
The multi-sectarian Lebanese opposition Friday demanded Syria end its military presence and called for dismissal of the government.
“In response to the policy of intimidation and terrorization by the Lebanese authorities and the Syrian authorities, the Lebanese opposition declares the launching of the democratic and peaceful uprising for independence,” the opposition said in a statement.
Very interesting. There’s also this delightful twist: “Lebanese opposition declares intifada.” Heh.
Meanwhile, I observe that hospitals are boring and uncomfortable places, something that I have noticed before, and suggest that every room should have a comfy chair and a high-speed Internet connection. This room, alas, has neither. Fortunately, I brought my own Internet connection. I wish I’d brought a chair, too . . . .
UPDATE: Yeah, one of these, maybe.
TERM LIMITS for Supreme Court justices? I don’t know what I think about this idea.
J.D. LASICA LOOKS AT ETHICS, BLOGGING, AND JOURNALISM, and Tom Maguire explores media convergence and the Washington Post.
More on the Post, here. And here’s a roundup of media / blog relations that seems to cover all the bases.
HOSPIBLOGGING, CONT’D: I’m back in the cafeteria, while they move Helen to a room. The results, unfortunately, weren’t great: Her rhythm problems were worse than expected, and not amenable to ablation. They’re keeping her in the hospital until Monday when she’ll get an implantable pacemaker/cardioverter. The good news is that those things are available and — as several readers have emailed me — quite good. The bad thing is that she needs one. She came through the procedure fine, and is in good spirits. And thanks again to the literally hundreds of people who have emailed their good wishes.
PETER INGEMI EMAILS:
Remember this? “I make the following prediction: In 20 or 25 years (it might not even take that long) all the people who were saying that the war was wrong and Iraq was wrong will talk about how America brought democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan and how they were a part of it.”
Exhibit A, from Jay Nordlinger in NRO:
“I was reading an op-ed piece by Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post, and he began by quoting Jon Stewart, the comedian, who said, “We did it! We had the election. And now we can say to Iraq, ‘Goodbye!’”…If it had been up to Jon Stewart and his ilk, that election in Iraq would never have taken place.
“We did it!” indeed.
Heh. Success has a thousand fathers. With people coming forward to claim paternity, I guess we know we’re succeeding.
UPDATE: Reader Thomas Castle says that the Jon Stewart quote is out of context:
You probably didn’t see the episode in question, but you should know that your quoted comments on Jon Stewart are totally out of context. On that episode, which I saw, Jon Stewart basically asks Fareed Zakaria, How can those of us who opposed this thing from day one respond when we see joyous Iraqis casting their first votes? He openly and honestly states he was always against it, yet is happy for them nonetheless. This is a perfectly respectable and refreshingly honest position coming from someone who’s been very critical of the Bush administration (and rightly so).
I didn’t see it, but if the above quote is misleading I’m happy to correct the record.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Several readers disagree with Castle. Here’s the video link, so you can make up your own mind. Watching it myself, I don’t think that Stewart’s “we” was really taking credit, but I think you could read it both ways, and I’m not at my best in terms of that kind of judgment at the moment.
WAS DEMOCRATIZATION A POST FACTO ARGUMENT for the liberation of Iraq? Norm Geras notes that some people are saying so, but he points out that they’re wrong.
MILLIONAIRES AND POLITICIANS: Arnold Kling looks at a conflict in values.
THE UNITED NATIONS IS POLLING BADLY:
Thirty-seven-percent (37%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the United Nations. That’s down from 44% in a November survey.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Americans also believe UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan should resign. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults finds that 26% disagree and say he should not resign. Another 37% are undecided.
Just 54% of Americans are following news coverage of this story “very” or “somewhat” closely.
Among those following the story very closely, 63% believe Annan should resign. Twenty-eight percent (28%) say he should not.
The oil-for-food scandal is taking its toll on the international institution. Forty-two percent (42%) believe Saddam Hussein used the program to bribe nations such as France and Russia. Just 12% think he did not use it for bribery.
UNScam is taking its toll.
ED CONE notes that Ward Churchill has a bit of a thing for Eichmann.
THEO VAN GOGH’S MURDER: Here’s a report that Norwegian Intelligence says there was an Al Qaeda connection.
THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE RECIPES is up! And there’s still plenty of time to plan dinner.
ROGER SIMON HAS DOUBTS that the Volcker Commission will get to the bottom of the UNScam oil-for-food scandal.
KNOW THY ENEMY: BLOGS! Frank J. offers advice and information for journalists and public figures.
I WAS A DUPE FOR THE KERRY CAMPAIGN: Who knew?
I REALLY LIKE THIS PICTURE from Fletch. But I’m a little suspicious of this one. Er, and this one, too . . . .
HOSPIBLOGGING: Last week it was Ed Morrissey; this week it’s me. The Insta-Wife is here for a heart catheterization — they’ll be doing an electrophysiology study and, perhaps, an ablation to deal with some rhythm problems that have been giving her trouble. As usual, this has started at an ungodly hour. She’s already back being prepped; I’ll get to see her before she goes in.
Blogging may be light, or may not — it’s not like there’s much else to do around here, besides read old magazines (Remember “Bennifer?” They live on in hospital waiting rooms . . . .).
UPDATE: It’s now about 7:15 and they’ve wheeled her off. Thanks to all the people who emailed with prayers and good wishes. And thanks to Jeff. Capt. Ed emails that he hopes hospiblogging isn’t the next big thing. I agree. Even tireblogging is better!
ANOTHER UPDATE: It’s now a bit after 8. I ducked out and grabbed a bit to eat, blogging from the cafeteria, and now I’m back in the waiting room. (Rule Number One in these situations is to seize opportunities to take care of your own needs for food, etc., when you can, since you’re often stuck where you can’t.) They just called to say that things have started, and that she’s doing fine. Thanks again for all the emails with good wishes and support.
MORE: Now it’s 9:40. They just said that everything’s going well, but that she’ll be in for a while longer. I think I’ll go get some coffee — I’ve been up since before 4 a.m.
BATESLINE has responded to the legal threats from the Tulsa World. This post includes a letter from the Media Bloggers Association’s general counsel, Ron Coleman.
I’M NOT SURE WHY, exactly, but this week an awful lot of people have sent nice emails, and donations, saying that they appreciate InstaPundit. Thanks. I appreciate them a lot.
I’M QUITE A FEW PAGES into Superluminal, which I mentioned earlier, and liking it pretty well so far.
ED MORRISSEY has an article in The Weekly Standard.
WHAT HAPPENS IN AMERICA, stays in America. And that’s how it ought to be.
EAT YOUR HEART OUT, Ward Churchill! That was after my earlier days in the business.
IS IT JUST ME, or does “somewhere between meltdown and release” sound kind of, well, hot?
HERE’S A UKRAINE UPDATE from Le Sabot Post-Moderne.
MICKEY KAUS: “Advantage: VodkaPundit!” Indeed.
COLBY COSH on Arthur Miller: “When I think about the man who wrote plays about how capitalism thwarts human aspirations, and then got married to Marilyn Monroe, I’m afraid about all I can do is giggle.”
INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS in Lebanon.
I THINK THE ANSWER is “fairly typical.”
TOM MAGUIRE suggests that Maureen Dowd needs to hire a good blogger.
THE MANOLO TAKES ON the Castro. Heh.
UPDATE: I don’t know what The Manolo would say about these shoes. Well, actually, I think I do. . . .
A WHILE BACK, I linked to Megan McArdle’s pooh-poohing of the Media Matters claim that Brit Hume misrepresented FDR’s statements on social security. Now Al Franken is charged with misquoting Hume.
UPDATE: Kevin Drum says no.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Nick Schulz weighs in:
Lastly, rather than being an attack on the New Deal — “destroy”ing FDR’s America, as Krugman alleged — the kinds of changes initiated by the Bush administration can just as easily be considered an expansion of the welfare state. Up until now, the welfare state has given Americans only income support. Bush’s proposal would have it give Americans the opportunity to accumulate wealth, as well. But it is an expansion of the welfare state that reduces the public’s dependence on the state — which may be why some of FDR’s self-styled heirs hate it so.
Of course, none of this would be an issue with my proposal for Social Security reform.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Matthew Henken is excessively optimistic about the state of our political discourse: “My first thought on reading your headline was, ‘Al Franken was quoting David Hume?’”
MORE: Steve Verdon has a request for Al Franken.
LIFE ON MARS: Phil Bowermaster wonders why this story isn’t getting more attention:
A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water. . . .
What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth.
If it’s not green-skinned alien babes — preferably with White House press passes — the Big Media folks probably don’t care much. Still, as Phil observes: “If, like me, you suspect that there is probably life elsewhere in the universe, what does it say about how abundant life may be if we just happen to find some on, oh, you know…the next planet over? ”
On the other hand, as this report from Jules Crittenden notes (and as Phil suggests, too) it’s partly a case of caution lest the story not pan out.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans claiming initial jobless benefits fell unexpectedly by 2,000 last week to the lowest level in more than four years as the U.S. labor market continued to strengthen, a government report showed Thursday.
First-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid dropped for the third consecutive time, to 302,000, in the week ended Feb. 12 from 304,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said. It said there were no special factors to account for the drop in claims.
Last week’s decline marks the lowest level since October 2000, before the economy tipped into recession.
Sounds good to me, anyway. (Via Ace).
MY SOCIAL SECURITY COLUMN YESTERDAY led a couple of readers to recommend Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman’s book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. Summed up, Kurzweil suggests that if you do things we know will help you live longer now — chiefly diet and exercise stuff, though I think he gets a bit carried away on supplementation, etc. — you have a chance of lasting long enough to benefit from more significant life-extension technologies in the future.
True enough, at least within limits. It’s hard to see how this could be put to work on a society-wide basis, though. And I’d be against efforts to try, as the health-Nazis are already out of control.
MOLLITER MANUS IMPOSUIT:
WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail. What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.
“We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs,” one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. “I’ve never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view.”
Another said: “I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot.” Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: “Sod off, Swampy.”
Apparently, they went in without a plan, and found the inhabitants less receptive than they had expected.
UPDATE: Reader J.P. Hrutky likes the “Sod off, swampy” line: “I think that this is a nice neat rally cry. Bumper stickers, anyone?” Heh.
GREYHAWK OF THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is back from Iraq.
STAY-AT-HOME DAD JAMES LILEKS Fisks the Newsweek story on stay-at-home moms:
When it comes to expectations about gender and roles and accomplishments and the latest theories about childrearing, I have a secret mantra:
I don’t care.
I know, I know. Easy for me to say. But shout it out loud! I DON’T CARE! Feels good, no? Now meet my hero. Don’t miss the last line. They don’t get it. Even if they ordered it and put it on their platinum Amex, they wouldn’t know where to have it delivered.
You know, in retrospect, I wonder if some will think this is somehow anti-women. Can’t help that. But the entire article seems anti-women, to me. I live in a world of moms, and their sense of ingenuity and amusement are a constant source of delight.
Read the whole thing.
UPDATE: More on the Newsweek article, from a working mom, here.
CANON UPS THE STAKES, and lowers the prices in the Digital SLR competition.
Competition: I love that! More here.
NOBODY TELL ATRIOS, but my secret is out. And James Lileks’.
UPDATE: The Insta-Wife’s take: “You look good as a stripper!” Heh. Indeed.
BLOGS AND MEDIA: Elizabeth Spiers has some thoughts inspired by the Popular Mechanics conspiracy-debunking effort.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from Hugh Hewitt — who seems determined to instruct the Wall Street Journal folks in the error of their ways — and from Peggy Noonan (no party-line approach at the WSJ!) as well:
“Salivating morons.” “Scalp hunters.” “Moon howlers.” “Trophy hunters.” “Sons of Sen. McCarthy.” “Rabid.” “Blogswarm.” “These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people.”
This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!
Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It’s the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.
When you hear name-calling like what we’ve been hearing from the elite media this week, you know someone must be doing something right. The hysterical edge makes you wonder if writers for newspapers and magazines and professors in J-schools don’t have a serious case of freedom envy.
Heh. Read the whole thing.
ED CONE says that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is in a state of sad decline.
“ONCE I WENT INTO MY PAJAMAS I felt a strange motivation for writing:” Iraqi blogger Omar proves that the magical power of sleepwear to promote blogging crosses national boundaries . . . .
IT’S SUSAN ESTRICH VS. MICHAEL KINSLEY in the Washington Examiner. And both Cathy Seipp and Charlotte Allen have related thoughts.
UPDATE: Here’s the full-length text of Estrich’s letter.
BILL HOBBS ANALYZES TRAFFIC and observes:
For another, it means that the mainstream media would be wise to cultivate relationships with bloggers, rather than attack them. MSM newspapers should encourage bloggers to link to stories, and teevee news stations should make their stories and video packages easily linkable.
UPDATE: Michael Silence says that Bill is comparing apples and oranges. That’s right (and he’s using Alexa rankings, which I regard as somewhat dubious). But I think his bottom-line point still holds, and in fact I think Michael agrees with that, too.
Meanwhile, it’s worth reading these observations by Stephen Green.
LIFE ON MARS: Some further thoughts over at GlennReynolds.com.
WHY THE TORTURE ISSUE HASN’T RESONATED:
But it isn’t just administration secrecy that explains why Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo haven’t helped the Democrats politically. Some Democrats say torture may in some cases be necessary, although no Democrat has claimed that the depravity in the Abu Ghraib photos was one of those cases.
Last June, in the immediate aftermath of the Abu Ghraib revelations, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a hearing of the Judiciary Committee, “If we knew that there was a nuclear bomb hidden in an American city and we believed that some kind of torture, fairly severe maybe, would give us a chance of finding that bomb before it went off, my guess is most Americans and most senators, maybe all, would say, ‘Do what you have to do.’”
Schumer added, “It’s easy to sit back in the armchair and say that torture can never be used. But when you’re in the foxhole, it’s a very different deal.”
Yeah, when you’re to the left of Charles Schumer and Oliver Willis on the torture issue, you’re, well . . . aligned with me. And that’s not going to get you anywhere politically.
BE VERY AFRAID: Jerry Brown is blogging. I think he’ll turn out to be well-suited to the medium.
(Via Doc Searls).
I must say I find it utterly repugnant for a political figure to make a big public show of upgrading his marriage to a “covenant marriage.” I don’t particularly approve of the trend of private celebrations that involve some married couple renewing their wedding vows. (What are you saying about vows if you have to renew a vow?) But for a state governor to participate in a spectacle like this, thrusting his private life into a gigantic rally, is just appalling. . . . How utterly unromantic and tasteless! And what a ridiculous notion of the role of government in the lives of individuals!
Indeed.
UPDATE: John Scalzi has further thoughts.
A “FAKE BLOG” from the Associated Press? Ouch:
AP have obviously and spectacularly failed to understand what ‘syndication’ means in the blog sense or what a blog actually is. And what’s worse, the entries I’ve read so far are just not very good. Whilst it’s true that I have read drivel less interesting in my years as a blogger, this poor copy of Wonkette is written by someone who is supposedly a professional writer and it really should be better.
It’s not as easy as it looks . . . . (Via Wizbang).
IN RESPONSE TO JOE CONASON, Professor Bainbridge crunches the numbers. And asks a question about news judgment.
THE OTHER DAY I MENTIONED JOHN GARTNER’S NEW BOOK, The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a little) Craziness and (a lot of) Success in America. Now Daniel Gross has a review in Slate, concluding: “Gartner is right that hypomanic first movers matter a lot, and that we need a few more. But we shouldn’t forget the huge contributions of the more sober-minded folks who follow behind and pick up the pieces.”
THE WILL COLLIER / STEVE LOVELADY DIALOGUE continues.
THIS ARTICLE from The Australian on blogs, Eason Jordan, etc., isn’t bad, but the headline — as Reckers notes — is probably wrong: bloggers were far more interested in seeing the Davos tape than in getting rid of Eason Jordan. But my opening quote on the media reaction is this:
“THEY’RE scared spitless,” says Glenn Reynolds. “But they shouldn’t be.”
They are. And they shouldn’t be. I just listened to the WSJ’s Bret Stephens on Hugh Hewitt’s show, and his basic line seemed to be that everybody screws up, so nobody should be criticized too harshly.
Well, everybody does screw up, and there’s nothing unforgivable about screwing up. What’s unforgivable is either deliberately misleading, as with the Rather bogus-document story, or following a screwup with denials and stonewalls as with Rather or Jordan. The defensiveness with which a lot of Big Media folks are responding to this topic suggest to me that either they’re unable to imagine a swift and open correction, or that their work is even worse than we think . . . . At any rate, as I said on Charlie Rose, they could easily incorporate bloggers as unpaid fact-checkers and assistant editors, improving their product and making friends. All they need to do is get off those high horses for a while.
UPDATE: Davos insider and blogger Lance Knobel weighs in on what’s going on:
Although the Forum has long claimed non-plenary sessions are off the record, this is followed far more in the breach than the observance. Much of the reporting from Davos comes out of so-called off-the-record sessions, without the journalist obtaining the consent of all involved. Further, most people recognise that it is futile to claim an event attended by more than a few people can truly be off the record. Larry Summers, when he was deputy Treasury secretary, told me in Davos that the first thing he learned in Washington was that any conversation with more than two participants would never be off the record (a lesson he has had to relearn recently). . . .
What certainly could have happened, shielding the Forum from embarrassment, was for Eason to have asked for the recording to be released. Even in more formal off-the-record situations, if the participants agree after the fact, material can move to on the record.
As several people have commented since the Eason resignation, what was on the tape must have been as bad or worse than reported. I suspect the Forum would have released the recording on Eason’s request, but no such request was forthcoming because of what would have resulted.
I suspect the same thing. (Via Dave Winer). And, by the way, I should mention that I have more on the Jordan / blogs fallout over at GlennReynolds.com.
MICHAEL SILENCE IS CELEBRATING DIVERSITY: It looks better than when I did it . . .
TRAFFIC CAMERA UPDATE:
Red light camera programs in at least 19 cities across the country are likely to be shut down this year following actions taken by courts and legislatures in the past two weeks.
State legislatures threaten programs in Virginia, where 7 cities use the technology; Texas, where one city uses stoplight cameras; and Utah, where there are no cameras, but a strong push to install them. The courts threaten the programs in eleven North Carolina cities and could prompt significant refunds for ticketed drivers in California, where 39 cities use the technology.
These things are a longstanding InstaPundit topic, and I’m glad to see them fading away in so many places. Let’s hope this is a trend.
ANOTHER NEGATIVE REVIEW for Thomas Wood’s Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, this time from Max Boot in The Weekly Standard. I mentioned some earlier negative reviews here.
STEPHEN BAINBRIDGE has questions for conservatives on Social Security reform: “I’m open to persuasion (and remain ideologically inclined to favor private accounts), but I would really appreciate some serious answers to these questions before making up my mind.”
UPDATE: Ramesh Ponnuru responds.
CONSERVATIVES AGAINST THE INDECENCY BILL: You can’t question the right-wing credentials of guys whose site used to be named “CrushKerry.com,” but here’s post in strong opposition to the legislation:
One of the problems is that politicians get so juiced up to out-moralize one another, they forget this is supposed to be America. There’s lots of great countries where the state controls what you are able to watch. Move to one of them if you hate Janet Jackson.
As for me, I use the remote control.
Me too.
LOOKING FOR HEALTHCARE BLOGGING? There’s not much of that here, but I do offer a pointer to Grand Rounds, where health care professionals blog about health care.
DANIEL DREZNER HAS A roundup on Syria.
THE L.A. TIMES corrects a correction. Good for them!
MORE COOL WEB VIDEO: Amazon has the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trailer online, which is pretty good. I think Amazon is being very smart, as their video features are bound to lure a lot of traffic.
UPDATE: For some reason that link isn’t working for some people. But you can find the video on Amazon’s main page.
CARNIVAL-O-RAMA: This week’s Carnival of the Vanities is up, with blog posts on all sorts of things, by all sorts of people. And don’t miss the second installment of the Carnival of Education. Plus, don’t miss the Iraqi bloggers’ roundup at the Carnival of the Liberated.
I don’t participate in Carnivals — I just send traffic. I’m sort of a barker, I guess.
UPDATE: And the Red Ensign Standard is a sort of Carnival of Canadians.
INTERESTING PIECE FROM NEW YORK MAGAZINE by Spy founder Kurt Andersen on the new liberal guilt:
But now our heroic and tragic liberal-intellectual capaciousness is facing its sharpest test since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Back then, most of us were forced, against our wills, to give Ronald Reagan a large share of credit for winning the Cold War. Now the people of this Bush-hating city are being forced to grant the merest possibility that Bush, despite his annoying manner and his administration’s awful hubris and dissembling and incompetence concerning Iraq, just might—might, possibly—have been correct to invade, to occupy, and to try to enable a democratically elected government in Iraq.
At a media-oligarchy dinner party on Fifth Avenue 72 hours after the elections, the emotions were highly mixed. The wife of a Democratic Party figure was (like me) unabashedly hopeful about what had happened in Iraq. Across the table, though, the wife of a well-known liberal actor was having none of it; instead, she complained about Fahrenheit 9/11’s being denied an Oscar nomination. And a newspaper éminence grise seemed more inclined to discuss Condoleezza Rice’s unfortunate hairstyle than the vicissitudes of Wolfowitzism. It was the night of the State of the Union speech, but as far as I know, no one (including me) ducked out of the dining room to find a TV. Who really wanted to watch Bush take his victory lap?
Read the whole thing.
EIGHT YEARS OF EMAIL, analyzed.
PASSIVE RESISTANCE? “When colleges ask applicants about their race or ethnicity, the forms always say that the question is optional. Increasingly, students are exercising their option — and not answering the question.”
Or maybe they just don’t think it’s that relevant.
HMM: “TEHRAN, Iran – An unknown aircraft fired a missile on Wednesday in a deserted area near the southern city of Dailam in the province of Bushehr where Iran has a nuclear power plant, Iranian state television said.”
UPDATE: Now they’re saying it was a fuel-tank drop.
But is it true that it is “now documented” that 50% of bankruptcies are caused by health problems?
The conclusion is based on a study in Health Affairs. Reviewing the study, it appears that the estimate that 50% of bankruptcy filings are precipitated by a “serious medical problem” cannot be supported based on what that study actually examined.
He offers a rather lengthy critique.
TOM MAGUIRE WRITES on how the lefty blogosphere can conquer the world.
REAL SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM: My TechCentralStation column is up.
THE CHARLIE ROSE blog show is airing now, at least where I am. The Syrian Ambassador comes first, though.
UPDATE: Trey Jackson has posted some video excerpts.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Jim Geraghty liked the show, and has nice things to say about Joe Trippi.
RATHERGATE UPDATE: More disarray at CBS.
UPDATE: Much more here, from the New York Observer:
Five weeks later, the crisis is not yet behind Mr. Moonves. And far from resolving the problem of the network’s credibility, the independent report commissioned by CBS appears instead to be leading to a confrontation, with defenders of both the ousted CBS staffers involved in the debacle and top CBS management asserting two different truths from the same document.
Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers—his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West—haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves’ remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name.
Mr. Howard, those sources said, has hired a lawyer to develop a breach-of-contract suit against the network. Ms. Murphy and Ms. West have likewise hired litigators, according to associates of theirs, and all three remain CBS employees and collect weekly salaries from the company that asked them to tender their resignations.
This seems likely to end badly for all concerned.
A “FIRST AMENDMENT WEDGIE” in Maryland: I think a lot of press folks are discovering the gap between what they think the First Amendment ought to cover, and what it actually does cover.
