70 Things You Might Not Know About Leonard Cohen: Via Amy Alkon.

09/20/2004 11:23 PM  | 

Sabine Herold's Solution: Here's another fun interview with the hawkish young French libertarian it-girl Sabine Herold, who I profiled last year. As usual, there is much to hi-five her about (for example, on Chirac: "Oh my God, he's just a grandfather -- he's too old and he should retire"), mixed in with strident naivete. For instance:

Q. So you share U.S. President George W. Bush's mission to spread freedom everywhere -- if necessary by military means?

A. You can pray that a dictator like Fidel Castro will step down, but it won't work. If you really want to free these people, you have no other means but intervention.

For those, like Herold, who are eager to see the U.S. use the means of its lethal military for the noble ends of eliminating dictators, I'd just like to know: How can we pay for it?

09/20/2004 11:18 PM  |  Comment (1)

Um, That's Part of the Problem: Apparently tonight on NBC Nightly News, they were doing some segment on CBS' lame apology, and the NBC person said something like "journalism experts say this is a good start, but doesn't go far enough."

Then they showed a talking head, a Mr. Alex Jones (presumably, this guy), and he was identified simply and solely as a "journalism expert."

Here's the problem: There is no such thing as a journalism expert!! In fact, as far as I'm concerned, the word "expert" should never be used by a newspaper or newscast. It confers a kind of super-authority & superiority that people just don't have or deserve, especially in areas as contentious and open to interpretation as journalism (or history, or politics, or whatever). It says, this person is probably right, when in fact, as we've seen with Rather's pompous insistence on CBS' legendary something-or-other (reputation? rigor? what was it again?), such a claim of factual superiority can and will be used as a crutch or a smokescreen, hiding the fact that the expert is full of dukey. Sure, there are specialists, who study or practice or just dwell on journalism and everything else under the sun. But that has little or no relation to the question of whether any particular thing they say is right. In fact, in my six-plus years of paying pretty close attention to what American journalism "experts" have been saying about my racket, I would contend that they are just as often wrong.

09/20/2004 11:15 PM  |  Comment (1)

Scioscia Screws the Pooch: After having spent the weekend witnessing the Anaheim Angels convert 13 poorly hit singles in 18 innings against 2 triple-A pitchers and 9 mediocre Texas Rangers relievers into exactly 0 runs, I had in mind a long, number-filled post here explaining in unimpeachable detail just how and why Manager Mike Scioscia -- who I've always liked -- single-handedly caused my home 9 to miss the playoffs. But I don't have the time or stomach, so I'll just say that Scioscia Blew It.

He had an obviously exhausted and banged-up starting unit of mostly singles hitters who were producing precious few major league swings (and in the cases of corner outfielders Guillen and Guererro, nothing approaching major league defense), and he had a swollen bench that included the best power hitter in the minor leagues, a guy with 398 career homers, and (for yesterday's game) a guy slugging over .600. Not only did he go with the sucky & struggling starters, he refused to pinch-hit for any of them, even when it was Darin "I did have that one good season, didn't I?" Erstad, swinging like a Bat Girl against various submarine-throwing left-handers, with the game (and the season) on the line. I try to keep my fan-hood problems to a minimum here, but I fear the rage will continue spilling over into non-baseball areas if I don't include this brief note.

Could be worse, of course. I could be a hockey fan

09/20/2004 03:15 PM  |  Comment (7)

'But in the backlash [against] that thinking, many have overcompensated': Words to remember. (Via Baseball Primer)

09/20/2004 02:45 PM  | 

Making Things With Sound -- a Fascinating 23-part Songwriting Interview With Doktor Frank: Preamble here, first installment here, and links to the first 14 on interviewer Ben Weasel's homepage.

09/20/2004 02:20 PM  |  Comment (1)

Congratulations on the Well-Deserved Emmy, Jason Ross! I take back that midget joke I told behind your back this morning.

09/20/2004 01:59 PM  | 

Here's My Go-to Electoral College Poll-Map: If you've seen any better ones, please nominate in the comments.

09/20/2004 12:11 PM  |  Comment (2)

Hi! What are you doing down here?