Writing an article about a bunch of GQ editors playing LeBron James in a 5-on-1 basketball game is a pretty promising premise. If you read it, prepare to be disappointed.
Via Josh, Roger Simon's Politico piece comparing the role of race in Burris being seated to the role of gender in Caroline Kennedy not yet being appointed makes no sense at all. I'm not sure it's right on its factual claims about what's happened, and if it were its analysis still wouldn't be supported. The Senate making a decision about whether or not to seat an appointee and Gov. Patterson making a decision about who to appoint just aren't relevantly comparable.
Everyone likes a story about Somali pirates, right? This one even includes some new purportedly justifying facts, outside of the usual ones about illegal foreign use of Somali fisheries. Strange not to mention U.S. support for the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia and the connection between that and the piracy. Oh, and the purportedly justifying facts decidedly don't. The lack of state power to prevent illegal dumping of toxins in Somali waters and the lack of state power to prevent piracy in Somali waters are symptoms of the same problem (lack of state power), but the dumping of toxins doesn't justify the piracy. And how could the in-group egalitarianism of 17th century pirates possibly be relevant? It's unfortunate too, because I kind of like Johann Hari.
Rounding out things I'm complaining about today, the comparison in the first three paragraphs of this Daily Howler post is actually offensive, and the column it's criticizing isn't bad at all. That is, the last four paragraphs of the Dowd column really aren't factual claims which she needs to support.I actually read a bunch of good things today too, I'll get to them with my next post.
# posted by washerdreyer @ 1/14/2009 04:32:00 PM
