Month: May 2007

Did you see this New York Times article about Clinton trying to reverse the original war vote?

Here’s paragraph 7:

Mostly, Mrs. Clinton appeared to be trying to claim a new leadership position among the Democratic presidential candidates against the war in Iraq.

..and from there it spends the next several paragraphs talking about the politics of her propsal.
It nicely demonstrates many of the liberal criticisms of the MSM:

1) There is zero evidence this was done for political reasons, and none is presented. It never seems to occur to the authors that it could possible be a sincere belief.
2) It reinforces the horse-race of politics over the substance. What happens in Iraq is important. It affects millions of lives. Once again, that is ignored to leave room for foolish speculations on the motivations of obviously power-mad cretins intent on controlling our country.
3) It reinforces the double-standard that Clinton faces, where particularly everything she does is because she’s an unprincipled weasel. You will have a hard time finding any coverage about her, particularly in the “liberal” New York Times that doesn’t paint her in this way, examining everything in terms of calculated political motives. This is what builds the bigger narrative. Not coincidentally, it is how the last two leading Democratic candidates, Gore and Kerry, were both painted; flip-floppers of no true convictions.

(MSM is blog shorthand for the MainStream Media. Now you’re in the know.)

I reread Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy this week. It’s generally considered one of, if not the, best Science Fiction series ever. I read it many many times growing up, I spent countless hours with a good proportion of Asimov’s 500-plus books.

And now it’s not as fun. The characters are ridiculously one-dimensional, and the writing is so bare as to be naked. I still remember the two key twists which takes a lot of fun out. I know enough about Roman history that it seems a lot less creative (it’s loosely based on the rise of the Roman Empire). It’s the same for many of my old classics. The books I like are still primarily plot-driven, but I need them to have some literary merit also.

Isaac Asimov was a great writer, and an incredible person, and now I can’t read his books. I’ve destroyed one of my own heroes.

Blech.

Yep, s’been a few weeks since I posted. I wish I had an interesting reason, but the truth is that I just didn’t have much to say. I have a couple political posts coming up, and then I’m travelling for a while. Here’s more random links.

Why you shouldn’t wear ties to work. This makes me laugh everytime. Also, you shouldn’t throw paperclips at the office.

Sick, sick, sick, funny funny, sick, sick Japanese gameshow.

Four crushes. Very funny.

A very nice write-up on the inconsistent epistimological standards of creationism. It’s actually very interesting and readable. Here’s a short cartoon version for all you illiterates.

The world’s biggest diamond mine. These pictures blew me away.