Ezra Klein: The Constitution “is confusing because it was written more than 100 years ago.” Honest, that’s what he said.
But that, Mr. Klein, is why some people major in things other than Political Science, so that we can understand old things. Some of us like to read REALLY old things, written in DEAD languages, and even imagine that we can understand bits of them.
I figure his other statement was just a slip. About the Republicans threatening to read the whole Constitution at the beginning of the next Congress, he says “……it has no binding power on anything.” I’m hopeful Mr. Klein means that the act of reading it changes nothing, because the Constitution sure has a lot of binding power.
People pay this man to write and talk about politics? As opposed to just leading a conspiracy of Democratic* journalists?
Further: a detailed post mortem.
*They’re not Left, they’re just partisan. Much like the professoriate, many of whom are better understood as Reactionaries of the Democratic Center than Leftists.
Category Archives: Journalism
Pardon me for being a cranky, childless, late-middle aged man in the middle of your holiday season . . .
. . . but some people are crazy. Example: AP headline and coverage of the ski lift failure in Maine:
Hospital: Children were injured on Maine ski lift
By GLENN ADAMS, Associated Press – 31 mins ago
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine – A 35-year-old chair lift set for improvements failed Tuesday at a popular Maine resort, sending skiers — some of them children — plummeting into ungroomed snow far below that fell with the Northeast’s recent blizzard and softened the landing.
At least eight people, the children among them, were taken to a hospital after the double-chair lift at Sugarloaf derailed during a busy vacation week at the resort 120 miles north of Portland. [my emphases]
Heaven forfend! Children falling from the sky! Parents letting children ride ski lifts to ski in winter in Maine! (by the way, “The failed lift is 4,013 feet long, gains 1,454 feet of elevation and nearly reaches the summit of 4,327-foot Sugarloaf, the state’s second-tallest mountain. It went into service in 1975 and was modified in 1983, according to Sugarloaf officials.” Sounds like someone got ahold of a press release. From the “officials” at the ski slope.)
Back to your regularly scheduled holiday cheeriness!
Craziest story I’ve read in months
Reply
Escaped crocodile sparked panic which brought down airliner killing British pilot and 19 others
via the comment section at the Right Coast.
The terror and the pity of the Mainstream Media
The Washington Post sells Newsweek for $1 to a 91 year-old with no background in media. Yeah – he’s going to revitalize a faded brand to save it for the Democratic party (his wife is a member of the House of Representatives). “Harman added that his “primary responsibility” will be building a succession plan for Newsweek to hand it over to his children or an outside owner upon his death.”
He’d better work fast – statistically he doesn’t have long.
Funny, the WaPo story doesn’t give the price. The Daily Beast does.
Jon Meacham, fellow McCallie alumnus, will resign. Well, on his watch the magazine collapsed. “The Post Co.’s magazine division — chiefly, Newsweek — earned $31.4 million in 2007 but reported a $47.5 million operating loss in 2009. Newsweek has 1.5 million subscribers, down from its high of 3.2 million.” Not that it’s his fault, entirely – but the switch to even more Democratic-orthodox opinion and less news didn’t arrest the slide.
I am suddenly thinking that my very tall friend is the biggest man in young DC Journalism
And she’s a lady.
Here’s Spencer Ackerman – the man who wants to shove people through plate glass, since slamming them against the wall might offend his friends.
I’m betting on Megan in a cage fight.
More verbal violence from the Journolisters
Really – these immature idiots should all be fired. The Journolisters rejoice in the aftermath of the last election:
LAURA ROZEN, MOTHER JONES (now POLITICO): People we no longer have to listen to: would it be unwise to start a thread of people we are grateful we no longer have to listen to? If not, I’ll start off: Michael Rubin.
. . .
SPENCER ACKERMAN: Let’s just throw Ledeen against a wall. Or, pace Dr. Alterman, throw him through a plate glass window. I’ll bet a little spot of violence would shut him right the fuck up, as with most bullies. [He's a bully? And you're the one wanting to throw him through a plate glass window?]
JOE KLEIN, TIME: Pete Wehner…these sort of things always end badly.
ERIC ALTERMAN, AUTHOR, WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA: Fucking Nascar retards…
Not that I like car racing enough to stand up and walk to the window to watch a car go by, but referring to those who do like the sport as “retards” makes me wonder what NASCAR enthusiasts might make of Mr. Alterman’s preferences. What a tool. I wonder if he thinks of himself as serving the people. Because you know, a lot of (the) people like NASCAR.
The Democratic-Media Complex exposed
This is beautiful. Especially piquant – their feeling that what they do “serves the people.”
Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks-in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”
Someday the whole Journolist archive will be out and available and we’ll see more of these things.
About those Illegal (Russian) Immigrants
About the Russian spies – go to Jules Crittenden for a great media and blog roundup – and be sure to read this footnote on the nomenclature of illegals in context:
* “Illegals,” holdover Cold War spy talk for undercover agents operating on false pretenses, is in fact a hurtful use of the term in these more enlightened times. NYT more sensitively refers to them as “so-called illegals.” The claims made in affidavits would suggest these people were illegal immigrants who happened to be using fraudulent documents and may have engaged in some illegal activity. Advocates for illegal aliens lately have informed us those can be legitimate lifestyle choices that, rather than being prosecuted, should be supported by allowing people to obtain government papers such as driver’s licenses without having to produce supporting documents, and that people who lack legal authority to be here should be allowed to move freely, work, attend schools and receive government benefits. So in keeping with current fashion, these accused Russian agents should more correctly be refered to as “falsely documented espionage workers.”
National Geographic and Metal Detectors
My parents told me that the National Geographic Channel was premiering a show about the Staffordshire Hoard last night, so I tuned in. It was pretty good, despite the title: Lost Gold of the Dark Ages. BIG SIGH. But other than some pretty badly fitting helmets on the re-enactors, I didn’t mind it much. Lots of good interviews. Right in the middle was an advertisement from the manufacturer of the very metal detector used to find the hoard – you too can pull riches from the earth!
One of the causes of our creep towards dynastic politics might be a press that cares about the offspring of politicians. Had you heard of Luci Baines Johnson? Goodness knows I hadn’t, until CNN informed me that she’s been hospitalized. Though I am briefly sorry for her and her family, I wonder why we need to expend pixels (not ink and paper, at least), on the younger daughter of a man who became president by accident about the time I was born and decided not to run for a second term more than 40 years ago.
I mean, her illness hadn’t even made it to her wikipedia entry, where I found out that she and her sister were both given names so they had the same initials as their father. How – um – Texas, and not in one of the charming ways.
Now that’s a masthead!
The Wasp
To lash the rascals naked through the world
To lash the rascals naked through the world
A Federalist, anti-Jefferson, newspaper, very important to American freedom of the press and libel law (Hamilton argued about truth and intent in the trial). I’m listening again to Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton – good book!
Not that I watch a lot of Rochester TV news, but I’d love to know who ducked the Massa story
Massa’s 2006 campaign alarmed Clarke. “This guy’s running for congress and he’s molesting people!” He called a TV reporter in Rochester, NY, and told the stories of Massa’s gropey tendencies. The reporter got Tom Maxfield to confirm the allegations, but then he told Maxfield he was going to fly him out and get him on camera. That spooked Maxfield, and he backed out. The reporter abandoned the story, despite having confirmation of serious misconduct by a man running for congress. Clarke emailed the reporter this week–”you should stick to weather and traffic,” he told him.
Word choice and BAD journalism
Is it possible to write a good article that uses the verb “tout” twice within 5 paragraphs?
I don’t think so.
Read it for yourself and see.
I pass over the sad fact that one of the two touted as a replacement for the dead congressman is the widow. Do you tout widows?
Jon Stewart and Keith Olberman. Tackiness award goes…to the man paid to be a “journalist.”
Messianic Hopes Disappointed
Heh.
No, really, Hah!
What is it with people who actually put their hopes in politicians? You’d think that a social scientist might have shown a touch more skepticism – if you didn’t actually know that almost all employed American social scientists were already registered members of only one party and therefore have their hearts broken over and over again by the sad fact that something like a minority of their countryfolk always ever with them.