Clipping blog

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• Clearing the Browser Tabs – Late-Morning Thursday Edition
• The Delivery Presents – Robinson on Reagan, Pethokoukis on the King
• Snottiness in the Pursuit of Journalism is No Virtue

Clearing the Browser Tabs – Late-Morning Thursday Edition Posted: 03 Feb 2011 08:40 AM PST I know. I’m late. I have a reasonably good excuse. Sleep. I needed it badly last night because I hadn’t gotten much of it the couple nights before and my brain wasn’t exactly forming coherent sentences. I like my blog posts to have coherent sentences. Anyhow, I added in a couple bonus links from this morning’s RSS Reader haul to make up for the lateness of the post. We’re cool, then? It’s good? Good. And now, links. Individual mandate? What individual mandate? I don’t know anything about an individual mandate. Can one person make a difference? Yep. Still. This is a skin gun. It is a gun that shoots skin cells onto burn victims so that they can grow new skin. Let me say that again…burn victims can grow new skin. An age of miracles, folks — that’s where we’re living. The City of New York is on the verge of a brand new, more restrictive, smoking ban. George Moneo, no fan of the ban (as I would expect of any freedom-loving American) wonders aloud why the city hasn’t simply banned the sale of cigarettes. You will find his answer difficult to refute. If you’re wondering what we should do with all those people who want to adhere to the Constitution as it is written, you might be interested to know that the progressives have a few ideas. Violently rhetorical ideas. Make it sexy…um…I mean so! Make. It. So. I’ve linked to a couple of Daniel Solis’ art projects before, but he’s also a game designer and his cool little storytelling game “Happy Birthday Robot” is on sale for a limited time. It’s good for parties and especially good for a small group of kids. You homeschool parents out there could get a lot of use out of this and at less than $8 for the PDF or $20 for the print/PDF bundle, it’s very affordable.

The Delivery Presents – Robinson on Reagan, Pethokoukis on the King Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:30 PM PST Episode 76 reminded me of the old Lewis Black comedy routine (back when he was funny) about how he experienced five seasons in four days when he was in Boston in February. He finished the bit with this: And there will come a time mark my words where there will be a season of great big giant frogs that fall from the sky. You’ll be watching Willard Scott on the Today show…And he’ll be standing in front of the Washington Monument dressed like a Chipmunk and frogs will be bouncing off his head. And he’ll be going, “Giant Frogs. Giant frogs. What can I say? Back to you.” What does that have to do with this week’s show, you might ask? Well, I felt like Willard Scott in a chipmunk suit, amazed at what was happening around me. I thought the show would be good — how could it not be with top-notch guests like Peter Robinson and James Pethokoukis — but I was not quite prepared for it to be great. And, folks, it was great without the need for me to do very much at all. It started right from the jump when Peter Robinson playfully scolded me from the jump for calling him Mr. Robinson just minutes after I asked if I could call him Peter and kept right on rolling to the end as James Pethokoukis waxed enthusiastic about Stephen King’s ability to write the best bullies in fiction. You’ll get some tidbits about Ronald Reagan, live in the White House, who would make a good Roland Deschain, and what Stephen King books would be good starters if you’ve never read any of his work before. You can’t get that from just any show, I’ll guarantee you. The Delivery - Episode 76 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Snottiness in the Pursuit of Journalism is No Virtue Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:38 PM PST I enjoy when Stacy McCain breaks out the Brickbat of Humility on a pointy-headed know-it-all. Well, listen up, pal: "In the jargon of the field," this is what we call the blogosphere, and we're not impressed by your awards. Paul Krugman has a Ph.D. and a Nobel Prize, and we slap Krugman around on a daily basis just for the fun of it. Oh, and I'm also an "award-winning journalist," which proves — if it proves anything at all — that journalism awards are a dime a dozen. Hell, I'd probably be using journalism awards for doorstops and paperweights if it wasn't for the fact that I've never had much appetite for wasting the time it takes to fill out those silly application forms. Let me further point out, for the benefit of Wray Herbert and any other Award-Winning Journalists who are thinking about trying their hand at this blogging stuff, that in the jargon of the field, this is what we call "the Internet." People who use the Internet don't just randomly find stories they aren't capable of figuring out on their on. One of the most valuable purposes of the blogosphere is to puncture the pretentions of “award-winning journalists”. As Stacy has told me many times, in his role as my occasional journalistic Obi-Wan Kenobi, good reporting isn’t rocket science. One does not need an award to tell a story in a simple and straightforward way and possession of a dizzying intellect does not oblige a journalist to treat the rest of the world like subhuman Morlocks. If you want a reason why the MSM has been in such decline lately, you don’t have to look much farther than the almost palpable disdain with which so many media figures hold the hoi polloi. We citizen journalists do well to respect our audience; they are what keep us vital. And throwing a Moses Malone-style elbow into the ribs of a snotty HuffPuffer doesn’t hurt either.

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