Politics is raising my blood pressure too high today, so I give you these non-political links:
1. Kieran Healy of Crooked Timber has not read many good books this year. But I have not read more than him, so I am not smarter.
2. Slate has proof that the code name for the mission to capture Saddam, "Operation Red Dawn", was actually named after the early 1980s Patrick Swayze movie "Red Dawn"--it's not a coincidence. I am so proud yet so ashamed of our armed forces.
3. Ezra Klein of Pandagon has a good post on "those African bankers/widows/relatives/finance ministers/elves/Townhall columnists who send you E-mail asking for your assistance in recovering 30 million dollars lost during the great unicorn invasion of eleventy hundred?" I can't add much to that description, but I would advise people who send me those emails to stop titling them "LEGITIMATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL"--it somehow seems defensive.
4. Roger Clemens announces he's "still retired right now." This fake retirement thing is becoming an epidemic in sports. It's very awkward, like hugging someone goodbye at a party and then seeing them 10 minutes later.
UPDATE:
5. This one is somewhat political, but I have deemed it Blog Post of the Week, so I am posting it anyway:
Amygdala, via Ted Barlow, on the War on Straw--the trend of using stupid comments by stupid political opponents of yours to prove that all your political opponents are stupid:
Sites to avoid trolling and citing: Democratic Underground; Lucianne .com; any blog's comments section.See, it's arguing against straw because random people you've never heard of who are foaming at the mouth, scientific studies reveal, turn out not to be spokespeople for a given Party or position.
I still don't understand the concept of "straw" or "strawman" in this context...is there a widely accepted defintion?
Posted by: Edward | December 16, 2003 at 02:16 PM
From Merriam Webster's online (http://www.m-w.com):
"Main Entry: straw man. Function: noun. Date: 1896
1 : a weak or imaginary opposition (as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted."
Now, Sullivan his fellow warriors are quoting real people so they'd argue that it's not a straw man argument. But they are deliberately choosing the worst & weakest comments on the worst sites to generalize about the entire Democratic party, or the entire group of people who opposed the Iraq war, or "the Left". (Overuse of the term "the Left" is a pretty good tip-off actually.)
In that sense--it's a straw man argument. Or, if you want to be picky, the functional equivalent of a straw man argument. Either way, it's just about worthless.
People on the left do plenty of this too, but they examples I've seen are more likely to rely on statements by an actual politician, or a prominent blogger, or a widely watched or read media person.
Posted by: Katherine | December 16, 2003 at 02:33 PM
An eloquent post about Johnny Cash.
Posted by: rilkefan | December 16, 2003 at 02:55 PM
Re. No #2:
At least they didn't call it "Operation Dirty Dancing".
Posted by: James Casey | December 16, 2003 at 02:59 PM
Thanks for that rilkefan...beautiful read.
Posted by: Edward | December 16, 2003 at 03:52 PM
Thanks. You are obviously highly brilliant and perceptive and very tasty. Er, have very good taste.
I shall eagerly await the $50 you send to every Blog Post Of The Week!
Er, that's what you do, right? I'm sure I read that somewhere, and they wouldn't let it be in print if it weren't true!
(At least feel free to scroll around at my site and see if you can anything else amusing or interesting; I'm quite sure that in no time at all I can piss you off!)
And, really, thanks; nice compliment. Appreciated.
Posted by: Gary Farber | December 16, 2003 at 03:56 PM
Uhh, Gary, you do know about the $100 posting fee on Obsidian Wings?
Posted by: rilkefan | December 16, 2003 at 04:16 PM
What is Gary talking about?
Posted by: Edward | December 16, 2003 at 04:23 PM
Edward, Gary IS amygdala. See Katherine's point 5.
Posted by: rilkefan | December 16, 2003 at 04:25 PM
ahhh...thanks...
Is it a good blog?
Posted by: Edward | December 16, 2003 at 04:38 PM
Hey James, your comment inspired a truly epic effort at procrastination on my part. (now the first post.) Thanks!
Posted by: Katherine | December 16, 2003 at 04:50 PM
Procrastination is the most noble cause there is.
Posted by: James Casey | December 16, 2003 at 05:43 PM
Rilkefan, thanks for the link. He was one of a kind.
I just picked up the final album from June Carter Cash and would recommend it to anyone who liked Johnny's American Records series. "Keep on the Sunny Side" is worth the price alone.
Posted by: MattK/D1 | December 16, 2003 at 05:43 PM
"Red Dawn" could've been worse. We could've named it "Operation Ghost," and have it end with Saddam leaving the spider hole to possess Whoopi Goldberg's body and make out with Demi Moore.
Posted by: Matthew Stinson | December 16, 2003 at 09:06 PM
"Is it a good blog?"
God, no! Don't look at it Your eyes! They'll burn!
Posted by: Gary Farber | December 16, 2003 at 10:26 PM
"Procrastination is the most noble cause there is."
Words I've dedicated my life to.
Posted by: Gary Farber | December 16, 2003 at 10:27 PM
"Is it a good blog?"
Well, it just got added to the blogroll...
Posted by: Moe Lane | December 16, 2003 at 10:36 PM
"Is it a good blog?"
Well, it has something bound to infuriate everyone for one reason or another (me with jelousy at the prodigiouness of the posting, f'rex). So I would say yes.
Posted by: angua | December 17, 2003 at 01:52 AM