REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
Archive for 2010
July 27, 2010
JOHN SCALZI likes his Droid X.
“Shut up” seems to be a favorite talking point of Journolist defenders. But I don’t think non-members need to accept their message discipline.
Journolist was a terrible idea from the start, not so much because it enabled the promotion of “lock-steppedness” and a progressive party line across media organizations (though Salam more or less concedes that it did), or because it fostered an “us vs. them” mentality (which it also obviously did). It was a bad idea, mainly because it took a process that could have been public, democratic and transparent and gratuitously made it private, stratified and opaque. This was an odd move for “progressives” to make when confronted with the revolutionary openness of the Web. It’s as if they’d looked at our great national parks and said hey, what we really need is to carve out a private walled enclave for the well connected. Invited to a terrific party, they immediately set up a VIP room.
It’s all about the VIP rooms with these people. For them, “private, stratified and opaque” isn’t a bug, it’s the desired end-state every time.
VIDEO: Jane Austen’s Fight Club.
PROF. JACOBSON: If This Doesn’t Motivate You For November, Nothing Will.
QUESTION: “If there are only 39,697 African-American farmers grand total in the entire country, then how can over 86,000 of them claim discrimination at the hands of the USDA? Where did the other 46,303 come from?” Plus, a Shirley Sherrod question.
BYRON YORK: What Does It Take To Be A “Hero” Of JournoList?
Related: Peter Wehner: JournoListers Risked Their Integrity. Risked? “What we have, in short, is intellectual corruption of a fairly high order. From what we have seen and from what those like Tucker Carlson and his colleagues (who have read the exchanges in detail) say, Journolist was — at least in good measure — a hotbed of hatred, political hackery, banality, and juvenile thuggery. . . . Journolist provides a window into the mindset of the journalistic and academic left in this country. It is not a pretty sight. The demonization and dehumanization of critics is arresting. Those who hold contrary views to the Journolist crowd aren’t individuals who have honest disagreements; they are evil, malignant, and their voices need to be eliminated from the public square. It is illiberal in the extreme. . . . Those who participated in Journolist undoubtedly hope this story will fade away and be forgotten. I rather doubt it will. It is another episode in the long, downward slide of modern journalism.”
WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: “Crisis” in Availability of Wireless Spectrum Is a Myth.
HONDAJET MOVING CLOSER TO DELIVERY. Well, good. I thought it was cool when I visited the plant.
CONSIDER IT STIMULUS: Justice Dept. parties with tax dollars — arcade games, bowling, and skateboarding!
MAURICE STUCKE: Reconsidering Competition and the Goals of Competition Law. Hayek is discussed.
FRANK TIPLER ON The Difference between ‘True Science’ and ‘Cargo-Cult Science.’
KATIE GRANJU: Help us learn more about what happened to our son.
IT’S NOT HOPE, SO IT MUST BE CHANGE: Consumer Confidence Falls, Lowest Since February.
IN THE MAIL: From David Weber, Mission of Honor.
LET THEM EAT TAXES: On Stephen Green’s Hair Of The Dog. Mara Liasson, “the smartest excuse-maker on TV?” Plus a bonus reference to Q-SKY radio in LA.
PORKER OF THE MONTH: Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
BYRON YORK: Dems fear GOP oversight of Obama administration.
ROGER KIMBALL EMAILS:
Today, Encounter Books publishes Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations: A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnibus, which I edited together with Linda Bridges, Bill’s long-time assistant at National Review. I hope you’ll pick up a copy. Buckley’s anti-statist message is a necessary beacon in these dark times. as is his nimble, supremely civilized manner of dispatching his opponents and celebrating his friends and avocations. The book also boasts a splendid preface by George F. Will and a marvelous cover that goes a long way towards capturing Bill Buckley’s contagious delight.
The folks at Powerline (speaking of things necessary, nimble, and supremely civilized) graciously asked me to say a few words about the book on the occasion of its publication. I was delighted to do so and direct readers to my column there.
Check it out.
HOLDING FIRE: “House Republican leaders intend to keep their powder dry as the public ethics trial of embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) unfolds. . . . Republicans are employing a don’t-get-in-the-way-of-your-enemies-when-they-are-destroying-themselves strategy, the same game plan Democrats employed as Republicans grappled with ethics scandals in 2006.”
SOME fusion power news.