The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

An Elbert Hubbard Moment

If you work for a man, in heaven’s name work for him! If he pays you wages that supply you your bread and butter, work for him—speak well of him, think well of him, stand by him and stand by the institution he represents. I think if I worked for a man I would work […]

They Won’t Work for Tina Brown

Jonathan Alter today added his name to the list of Newsweek writers who have left since the magazine’s merger with the Daily Beast. As Politico reports, Howard Fineman is now with Huffington Post, Michael Isikoff has joined NBC News, Fareed Zakaria is at Time magazine, and Evan Thomas is at Princeton University, while Jon Meacham, […]

On This Caption Like Sweet On Cherry Pie

by Smitty (h/t Maggie’s Farm) Or, as Ron Paul said, End the Fed. Also available for the mighty Kindle, which gadget I have been enjoying immensely here by the Hindu Kush. I don’t know how to link Amazon URLs to Stacy’s tip jar, but we really need to support him financially so that he can […]

This Is The Part Where I Point And Laugh At Alan Schroeder

by Smitty At the risible SOL/PuffHo, Alan Schroeder has published “Why Republicans Should Not Sponsor Republican Debates“. Two ‘graphs in, I realized this would have to be a long-form fisk. Emphasis mine throughout. Schroeder Smitty According to an internal e-mail intercepted by Politico, the Republican National Committee is hoping to sponsor its own series of […]

New York Times Sends an 11-Year-Old Girl to Interview the Jonas Brothers

Or the equivalent thereof: Shridar Pappu’s profile feature on “Washington’s New Brat Pack” pulses with so much fanzine breathlessness you might think it was February 1964 and the Beatles had just landed in New York: In only a few years, these young men and others like them have become part of the journalistic establishment in […]

Wolcottism

Someone wrote a brief Onion-style satire in which residents of New Orleans expressed dismay that “Japanese were missing a golden opportunity” for looting in the wake of the tsunami there. Little Miss Attila linked that without comment. This compelled James Wolcott to cite Attila as an example of conservatives “transmitting in their usual racial code.” Really. You have […]

‘Arab Savages’ and Other Things No One Can Write About in 21st-Century England

No matter how savage any Arabs may be: A Melanie Phillips blogpost on the [U.K.] Spectator website which referred to the “moral depravity” of Arab “savages” is being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission. The online comment piece, headlined “Armchair barbarism”, focused on media coverage of the murder of five members of a Jewish family […]

Revolving Doors: Freire Exits Examiner, Joins NMS; Klein Exits Spectator, Joins Examiner; Hot Air Is Hiring (Not Me)

One of the things that has always amazed me about D.C. is how frequently young people change jobs here. You go to a cocktail reception and run into a think-tank guy you met at a reception six weeks ago: “Hey, how are things at [name of think tank]?” And he says, “Oh, I’m at [name […]

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