Archive for November, 2007

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE: How to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

DEFINING AWAY VICTORY: Hey, whatever it takes.

THE ULTIMATE HD PACKAGE? A bit much for me, but some people think it’s laughably cheap.

UPDATE: Jonathan Gewirtz emails:

Wouldn’t you much rather have the .50 cal than the HD system? In ten years the M2 will be worth more than you paid for it while today’s fancy-shmancy television system will be obsolete junk. Also, TV is a waste of time but everyone can always use a good gun. This decision should be a no-brainer!

That’s assuming you don’t already own a machine gun, of course.

MICHAEL YON EMAILS: “Just returned from the Syria border back to Mosul. It would take a conspiracy to hide the progress in Iraq.”

He’s also got a new dispatch posted on his time with the British last year.

I LINKED MY LIBEL IN THE BLOGOSPHERE piece yesterday, and shortly thereafter SSRN went down for maintenance. It’s back up now, so here’s the link again if you missed it.

ADVERTISING AGE: “CNN seems intent on finding its few remaining Republican voters and driving them into the arms of Fox News.”

Plus, “At CNN, November is planting season.”

UPDATE: Bob Krumm: “This is crystal clear evidence that CNN has hired the New Republic to do its fact checking.” Ouch!

GRIM ECONOMIC NEWS:

The U.S. economy expanded at the fastest pace in four years during the third quarter, growing at a real annual rate of 4.9%, the Commerce Department said Thursday in making its second estimate of growth for the three-month period. . . . Real GDP has increased 2.8% in the past year, close to the economy’s long-run potential.

Well, it’s grim news for some people. Wonder how much attention it will get? (Via JWF).

UPDATE: More here: “I don’t expect this revision to break out of the business pages.”

50 NERDY PICKUP LINES. “If I was an enzyme, I’d be helicase so I could unzip your genes.”

“NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, get Kasparov.”

JOSHUA ZADER has thoughts on hatred, partisanship, and personal integrity.

FRANK WARNER: “The quietest November since Saddam was toppled.”

AN L. SPRAGUE DECAMP CENTENNIAL. This post, alas, focuses largely on fandom at the expense of his writing. His writing was excellent, and I’m told by science-fiction authors who knew him that he was a delightful person. And he’s the author of this sadly accurate statement: “After forty, it’s just patch, patch, patch.”

They seem to be reissuing his magic and time-travel stories. I’m glad to see that, as his work deserves to be preserved.

FROM VIRGINIA POSTREL, a look at science and objectivity. With some thoughts on journalism, too.

JUST HEARD A LENGTHY NPR STORY ON THE YOUTUBE DEBATE, with a live followup from Mara Liasson — and it omitted any mention of the planted question issue. Hmm. If Fox hosted a Democratic debate and many of the most pointed questions turned out to come from Republican activists, but Fox didn’t disclose that, do you think it would pass unremarked?

HANDS-ON TOYS: This looks like it would make a cool present for the right kid.

I REMEMBER WHEN THIS FIRST HAPPENED, but here’s the denouement: “Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has entered a plea days before he was set for trial on assault and battery charges over allegations he pushed a United Airlines baggage employee at Dulles International Airport. As part of the deal he will write a letter of apology to the baggage worker.”

A ROUNDUP ON LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE from Stephen Green. Excerpt: “What we really saw tonight was CNN playing out its own agenda in front of a couple million viewers and seven or eight candidates, without anyone calling them on it.” Planted questions and all . . . .

STARSHIP TROOPERS gets closer.

HORTICULTURE JOURNALISM 101 — a gallery of CNN/YouTube plants. “Abortion questioner is declared Edwards supporter . . . Log Cabin Republican questioner is declared Obama supporter; lead toy questioner is a prominent union activist for the Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers.”

Other than that, they were just “ordinary Americans.”