Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
It’s time for another installment in the “things I find interesting” series of posts I’m doing about the Israeli/Hezbollah war. This is not meant to be a compilation of everything regarding the war, just those things that struck me as fresh takes, or unusually clear takes, on current events. As
Continue readingIsrael used to win wars because she was smarter than her enemy. I’m not so sure now. Israeli intelligence was deeply asleep when it was unaware of Hezbollah’s ability to tap into her computer, when it was surprised by the tunnels under her borders, and when it didn’t know that
Continue readingThis is an NPR story about a “how to” Jihad book that ended up published on line. William McCants, a West Point scholar, discusses the larger principles in the book, including the admonition to manipulate the press better. I wondered if Steve Inskeep, as he conducted the interview, realized
Continue readingOne of today’s most emailed NPR stories discusses a book by Robert Jensen, a professor of media ethics and journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. In his book, Jensen purports to explain why all white people are in fact racists. I haven’t listened to the story, nor have
Continue readingLong after I thought the Walt/Mearsheimer anti-Semitic smear had been laid to rest, our good friends at the government-supported (that means taxpayer-supported) National Public Radio have given it a new, national forum. Has else to explain the endless interview Steve Inskeep gave Walt and Mearsheimer on today’s Morning Edition. I
Continue readingA familiar plaint on the right side of the blogosphere — and certainly something that crops up frequently in my posts — is media bias. I tend to address it in bits and pieces. That is, one thing or another offends me and I comment on it. A more sophisticated
Continue readingI periodically check out Yahoo’s Most popular news stories site, which only seems to carry articles from the Left side (and Ann Coulter, although I never know how she creeps in there). When I checked just now, the most emailed story was an AP story entitled “Scientists okay Gore’s movie
Continue readingIf we were to repeat the past, I bet you’d find this story in the New York Times, circa July 1944 A secret code breaking group that both Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt authorized has broken a German code and has been using that information to gather intelligence about
Continue readingBetter thinkers and writers than I have tackled Bill Keller’s letter to the public justifying his blithe release of security secrets. One thing he wrote, though, stuck in my mind, and I haven’t read anyone yet who has commented on this point: It’s not our job to pass judgment on
Continue readingSome time ago, I blogged about the UC Santa Cruz chancellor, Denice Denton, who was profiled in the SF Chron because of her very questionable expenditures — including getting a cush, pricey job for her lover. It turns out that she wasn't only someone who used power unethically, she was
Continue readingWell, it's official and it's dreadful: The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca,
Continue readingA few weeks ago, I noted that astute bloggers had figured out that the NY Times' Bob Herbert has been stuck in a rut for years, often recycling sentences and, even, whole paragraphs. It turns out Herbert isn't the only Times writer who has dug himself a shallow little rhetorical
Continue readingIt seems as if, just about every week, one of the MSM outlets has a story about an Israeli attack on the Palestinians. You know, the stories where you hear that this bomb builder, or that Hamas leader, was killed while driving in his car. Or perhaps you'll hear that
Continue readingIf you've been wondering about the unique magic of a Frank Rich column, Mark Goldblatt sums it up for you, as part of a larger, tongue-in-cheek article about what makes liberals tick: To consider the question of what makes a liberal a liberal, I’ll need to slide on my special
Continue readingWhen Tina Brown took over The New Yorker, it got hip, edgy and, to me, boring. We continue to subscribe, though, in large part because Mr. Bookworm has always subscribed. And I still read it because it's there, which is how I got to read two movie reviews that give
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