July 25, 2008
That's Not How They Cover News in Phoenix, Tacoma, Philadelphia, or Atlanta
My favorite part of this leaked memo (wherein a LA Times editor prohibits bloggers from covering a well-known politician's philandering) is the closing.
As presented by Mickey Kaus...
From: "Pierce, Tony"
Date: July 24, 2008 10:54:41 AM PDT
To: [XXX]
Subject: john edwards
Hey bloggers,
There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair. Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumors or salacious speculations. So I am asking you all not to blog about this topic until further notified.
If you have any questions or are ever in need of story ideas that would best fit your blog, please don't hesitate to ask
Keep rockin,
Tony
You'd Think Someone Would Have Vetted All 17,576 Possibilities by Now
Sometimes license plates get unfortunate three-letter combinations.
An exercise for the reader: How many of the 17,576 would a reasonable person find offensive? FUC, FUK, ASS, DIK, and a few others are gimmes. There are some judgment calls -- I'm going to claim that DAM is not (because of the structure that controls the flow of some waterways) but your mileage may vary.
This might be fluid: 15 years ago I don't think WTF would have stood out the way it does now.
Right of Publicity 101
No, a fast food chain may not refer to a well-known rapper by name in its ads, without that rapper's permission.
Yes, doing so dilutes his brand, and he's entitled to compensation for it.
Yes, somebody in advertising just saw his career end (unless the whole point was that the free publicity would be worth more than the damages paid out).
July 24, 2008
Chess: Draw of the Day
(with diagrams)
[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.07.15"]
[Round "1"]
[White "John C."]
[Black "Matt B."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[WhiteElo "1714"]
[BlackElo "1651"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nde2
Ng4 8. Qd2 Nxe3 9. Qxe3 Be6 10. f4 g6 11. O-O-O Bg7 12. Nd5 Bxd5 13. Rxd5 Nc6 14. Qd2 Qb6 15. c3 O-O 16. g4 Qc7 17. f5 Nb4
18. g5 Nxd5 19. Qxd5 Qc5 20. Qxc5 dxc5 21. f6 Bh8 22. c4
Rfd8 23. Bg2 b5 24. Nc3 Rd4 25. cxb5 axb5 26. Nxb5 Rc4+ 27. Kb1 Rb8
28. Nc7 Rcb4 29. b3 R4b7 30. Nd5 c4 31. Ne7+ Kf8 32. Nc6 Ra8 33. Kb2 Rd7 34. Bf1 cxb3 35. Bc4
bxa2 36. Ka1 Rd6 37. Nxe5 Ra7 38. Bb5
Rxf6 39. Nd7+ Rxd7 40. gxf6 Bxf6+ 41. Kxa2 Rd2+ 42. Kb3 Be5 43. h3 Rd4 44. Bc6 f6 45. Ba8 Kg7 46. Kc2 h5 47. Rd1 Rc4+ 48. Kd2 Rc3 49. Rh1 Rg3 50. Ke2 Kh6 51. Bc6 Kg5 52. Kf2 Kf4 53. Bd5 g5 54. Ke2 g4 55. hxg4 hxg4 56. Rf1+ Kg5 57. Be6 Kh4 58. Rh1+ Rh3 59. Rxh3+ Kxh3 60. Kf1 Bd4 61. Bf5 Kg3 62. Be6 Kf3 63. Bf5 g3 64. Bh3 Kxe4 65. Kg2 Kf4 66. Bd7 Bf2 1/2-1/2
July 22, 2008
Today's Variety of Links
(mostly political)
The Obama Internet fund-raising forward seems to be a complete fabrication. While we're here, does this really even count as a gaffe? If the next president serves two full terms then he'll leave office late January 2009, or eight years, six months from now. Since 8.5 > 8, "eight to ten" is a perfectly reasonable shorthand for "eight-and-a-half." Don't stoop to this kind of fluff when there's much more compelling anti-Obama case to be made on substance.
On the other hand the Irena Sendler story is true. Even at that it's not Al Gore's fault that the Nobel committee chose him over a worthier nominee; it's the same group that chose Rigoberta Menchu (now known to have faked her autobiography), Mikhail Gorbachev, Le Duc Tho, Jimmy Carter, and of course Yasser Arafat.
Speaking of Gore he recently suggested a very bad idea.
The best rebuttal to this post about Tony Snow and 401K plans would seem to involve some logic similar to that of Pascal's Wager. If you save a lot and die early, what's it to you? You're dead either way. But if you under-save and life long, oy.
Maybe as a non-Catholic I don't have the privilege to enjoy this as much as others would, but the Onion man-on-the-street responses to pope decries materialism are fantastic!
Tax rate factoids: As of 2005 the richest 1% of Americans had 21% of the income and 39% of the tax burden; the richest 5% of Americans had 36% of the income and 60% of the tax burden.
I've been thinking about my biggest reasons (in pecking order) to vote for McCain rather than Obama, and in particular the thought experiment of which candidate to support if everything else were equal but they had each other's positions on Iraq. (Given their biographies and primary campaigns maybe there's no way for that even to make sense.) I think we're at the point where their domestic views (mainly taxes and health care) would matter more to me.
And finally... it did my heart good that the comments to this drunk driving simulator story included the obvious WKRP reference so quickly.
If You Like (Baseball) Offense
A good time to go to a game is the Monday or Tuesday after the All-Star Break. (Why is an exercise for the reader.)
(Does not necessarily apply to any game involving the A's.)
July 21, 2008
Decisions That Do(n't) Constitute Media Bias
The first I heard of this NY Times kerfuffle was from the linked-to Volokh Conspiracy post (by Jim Lindgren) that I just read a few seconds ago.
The Times does a lot of things that reflect bias (I've mentioned before my amusement at some of their framing choices, as for example when Republicans "attack" but Democrats merely "criticize") but in this case I see nothing wrong with putting both candidates on an even footing (aside from the unavoidable "one or the other had to be published first").
Letting both candidates set their views out is quite different from putting one on the spot and then giving the other a "rebuttal" as such.