The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Outlaw Josey WalesJeff Goldstein

by Smitty Worth a ‘Heh’: But who should be his co-star?

‘The Cetaceous-Like-Homunculus’

It’s been a while — too long, really — since we’ve made fun of James Wolcott. I stumbled across the picturesque phrasing of Dan Collins at Piece of Work in Progress (quoted in the title), describing the author of this infamous expression of environmentalist misanthropy: “I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, […]

Excellent Bits From Protein Wisdom And The Ace Of Spades

by Smitty Sophistry: . . .language divorced from its anchor (intent) and set to semiotic drift results, predictably, in cynical, self-serving, largely recursive narrative enclosures, with desire — a will to power — coming to stand in for meaning, creating illusory “truths” out of self-interested consensus. That is, mob rule. Or, as Ronnie James Dio […]

GOP Hopefuls Will Halt No Whine Before Its Time

by Smitty Alternate title: “GOP Hopefuls Note Budget Gallipoli, Neglect To Engage”. Via Protein Wisdom, we have Charles Gasparino in the New York Post: Sure, the candidates offered vague praise for Ryan after the plan’s release on Tuesday. Mitt Romney said Ryan is “setting the right tone for finally getting spending and entitlements under control.” […]

Facts Are Stubborn Things

Following up on this morning’s radio debate with Little Miss Attila, I found myself interrogated in the comments by Attila’s ally, Darleen Click of Protein Wisdom, who now wants to debate women in the military. This endless appetite for argument — the women’s point being that any man who criticizes feminism qua feminism must be wrong […]

‘Not Only Wrong, But Dangerous’

Now I see where it started. In the process today of updating readers on his long-running feud with Patterico, Jeff Goldstein linked back to the Nov. 5, 2008, post that started it all. Goldstein linked and quoted Patterico’s post-election assertion that Barack Obama “is fundamentally a good man and a patriot who wants to make […]

What Part of ‘Asserting Private Knowledge’ Is So Hard to Understand?

One of the most dangerous things a journalist can do, in terms of libel, is to claim to have private knowledge of wrongdoing by someone. That is to say, don’t assert that a person is a drunkard or a wife-beater because of what you were told or claim to have witnessed privately. Unless you’ve got […]

‘Other’? I Mean, Really? ‘Other’?

Greg at Rhymes with Right took an online questionnaire and discovered that, under “gender,” the choices were “male,” “female” and “other,” with a blank available for the ambiguous respondent to fill in . . . ?? Insert punchline here. My own objection is to the use of “gender” instead of “sex.” As an old editor […]

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