Dear Fanboy's Notes Subscribers - As of right now, I have migrated off of MT to Wordpress. The blog URI is still http://www.highclearing.com. However the XML feed addresses have changed. There are three "everything feeds" available currently:
You can also get the comments feed. I hope to have a new Fanboy's Notes feed just as soon as I can figure out how to make one.
But this is the last new post you'll ever see on the feed you've been using. I'd hate to lose you, so please update.
Dear RSS Users - As of right now, I have migrated off of MT to Wordpress. The blog URI is still http://www.highclearing.com. However the XML feed addresses have changed. Please choose among the new
options. You can also get the comments feed.
But this is the last new post you'll ever see on the feed you've been using. I'd hate to lose you, so please update.
Department of Manual Trackbacks - At Flit, BruceR revises my gloss on the "proves that X is what they fear most" dodge. He adduces a targeting distinction between "high value" and "high payoff." Hey, I'll accept it.
And Radley points out that, while it is true that, as I noted, the extreme-libertarian Bush Administration did not file an amicus brief in Kelo, it almost did - for the Evil Team.
Oh, Ouch! - Radley Balko finds a report of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales promising that "he'll give the same priority to cracking down on obscenity that he'll give to fighting terrorism."
Given that Gonzales believes in fighting terrorism with torture, this could be one painful war on smut.
Marvel Team-Up - Spider-Man's Greatest Bible Stories. Someone's gonna get in trouble for this one!
Another Cliche Past Its Smell Date is surely Action X proves that __________ is what the __________ fear most, most recently on display in this week's Reason Express:
Even the horrific car bomb that killed over 100 in Hilla tells us that the construction of a functioning Iraqi security force is what the insurgents fear the most.
Once you've said it, you haven't said much. The US assault on Afghanistan proves that an al Qaeda-friendly government in the mountains of Central Asia is what the Americans fear most. And? The massacre at the World Trade Center in September 2001 proves that East Coast office workers are what the terrorists fear most. Really? The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand proves that a popular Hapsburg is what the Serbian nationalists fear most. I suppose that's one way of looking at it.
Stripped of morale-building rhetoric, all the formulation really claims is that Combatants operate against targets on which they place high value. But then, the morale-building rhetoric is the point: the word "fear" makes the opponent sound desperate and our side on the cusp of victory; it also tries to buck up the actual targets. Puff your chests out, boys, they're bombing you because they're afraid of you! There's probably a sense that it's true, but it's also true that "an al-Qaeda-friendly government in the mountains of Central Asia" was what we "feared most" in late 2001. Saying that said nothing about whether we were "desperate," or about our prospects for success. Serbian nationalists probably did fear the emotional connection between the mass of Serbs and the Royal Family of Austria-Hungary. Attacking what they feared most worked out pretty well for them.
Truer Words - About Senator Stevens explanation of his preoposal to regulate cable and satellite broadcasts
Most viewers don't differentiate between traditional TV and cable so they don't know when they might be exposed to objectionable programming, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, head of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington.
Mrs. Offering e-mails
JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!! THAT'S WHY MOST PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE TO CABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exclamation points in original.
Dear Libertarian-Leaning Republicans and Republican-leaning libertarians: I notice that the Bush Justice Department did not file an amicus brief on behalf of the landowner in Kelo. Why do you suppose that is? They could've. The DOJ has broad latitude when it comes to amicus curae and has certainly used it. Not this time, though. Hm.