I think they insulted you, too.
Every conceivable belief is on the scene, but the collective prose, by and large, is homogeneous: A tone of careless informality prevails; posts oscillate between the uselessly brief and the uselessly logorrheic; complexity and complication are eschewed; the humor is cringe-making, with irony present only in its conspicuous absence; arguments are solipsistic; writers traffic more in pronouncement than persuasion . . .
Ouch. That wounds me.
Well, it would wound me if I cared what this guy thought about me and my blog. Or if I didn’t know this criticism was coming from a media organization that embraced the blog phenomenon with their Law Blog and Tech Blog and the rest of the WSJ blogs.
Put’s most of the editorial in perspective, doesn’t it?
The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps.
I agree, to some extent about the significance of most blogs. There are a select few that do have the power to influence, and millions more who think they do but don’t. I’ve met bloggers who think they’re important, and I never have the heart to tell them normal people could care less.
But what really irks me about this piece, what really gets me going….I, for one, am getting really tired of people in the news business contending that only ‘Journalists’ can practice true journalism. Is there some sort of professional proficiency exam one must pass to practice journalism and call oneself a ‘Journalist’? Something similar to the Bar Exam or the CPA Exam? There’s a state licensing board that reviews credentials and qualifications and issues a license permitting oneself to be called a ‘Journalist’?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
So what makes someone a ‘Journalist’? That requires defining what journalism really is. To do so I turn to my friend Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, a ‘Journalist’ is
Journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists.
I can name seven bloggers off the top of my head that do just that. I’m sure y’all can add more to that list. These bloggers can’t call themselves ‘Journalists’ why? Because they don’t work for a traditional news agency isn’t a good enough answer for me. The WSJ and the rest of the MSM will have to come up with something better than that.
This is thinly veiled elitism at best, and complete popycock at worst. You want to talk about being disillusioned when it comes to significance? Most ‘Journalists’ in the traditional (MSM and elite) media are more so than any blogger.
Grab the tissues folks, this one’s a real tear jerker.
For four hours Wednesday, a mystery Santa and his elves cruised through Phoenix, anonymously doling out crisp $100 bills to those who needed a lift. Santa wanted to be known only as a 61-year-old businessman from Kansas City, Mo., but his “sleigh ride” is part of a tradition started by another Secret Santa 27 years ago.
“It’s spontaneous and it’s unexpected,” Santa said.
“All we’re doing is making (their life) better for one day.”
All Santa asked in return is that recipients do something nice for someone else during the holidays.
As we rush around looking for the perfect gift this Christmas, it’s nice to be reminded Christmas isn’t about ’stuff’, it’s about being kind and loving to our fellow man. Whether it’s $100 bills handed out at random, the loose change in your pocket finding it’s way into a red kettle, or simply saying ‘Please’and Thank You’ with a little patience to overworked store clerks, every little bit counts.
How cool is this? A reproduction of the original Form 1040, smartly framed for the discriminating tax professional.
Gosh, with this and the SCOTUS bobbleheads on my Christmas list, I guess I really am a geek.
Men who shake hands like women.
You know the kind I mean - where you are left wondering if the gentleman wanted you to brush your lips across the back of his hand and I felt like I crushed the guy’s fingers.
Gross. Shake hands like a man dammit.
Peggy Noonan puts words to my unease with Senator Obama becoming President Obama.
Sen. Obama’s rise is not about a stand or an issue or a question; it is about Sen. Obama. People project their hopes on him, he says.
He’s exactly right. Just so we all know it’s projection.
He doesn’t have an issue, he has a thousand issues, which is the same as having none, in the sense that a speech about everything is a speech about nothing. And on those issues he seems not so much to be guided by philosophy as by impulses, sentiments.
A Democratic politician guided by impulses and sentiments rather than philosophy. A bit redundant, don’t you think? That’s the very definition of a Democrat.
He’s a savvy politicaian to say the least. There’s a genius to his method. Taking a pronounced stand on any issue would alienate somebody. Least this way people think he stands for the same things they do.
What ever happened to the great statesmen of the Democratic party? Men who put philosophy and principles before themselves. In the current field of contenders for 2008, I see none.
Where are they in the Republican party for that matter?
(via Tim Chapman)
Time Magazine’s ‘Person’ of The Year is everyone? What kind of namby pamby wussification of America crap is that? Picking everyone so you don’t have to pick just one? This is like saying ‘You’re all winners in my book’.
I have to make a presentation to the Board of Directors tomorrow of various tax planning strategies. Do you think I’ll be able to get away with saying, “Well Mr. Big Cheese, all these plans are winners. They will all matter to the organization.”? Hell no. He’s going to ask me which one I think is the best.
Everyone’s a ‘Person’ of The Year? Screw that.
The story of the woman leaving her kid with the valet while she and her little pooch popped in to Neiman Marcus is all over the news out here.
As a mom of a toddler, this story makes me angry. I try not to judge other parents on how they raise their kids - I know how tough it is sometimes. But this one makes my blood boil. I hope this woman spends some time in PMITA prison. If you’re not comfortable leaving your dog in the car, you shouldn’t be comfortable leaving your kid in the car. And if she was truly a savvy shopper, she’d have known Neiman’s delivers. Clearly, Darwinism should’ve applied to this woman and she never should have been allowed to reproduce. Or shop. Either one.
I can’t seem to get one major thought about all this out of my head though. Is it really a dog if it fits in my purse and I can drop kick it like a football?
Today’s WaPo has a rather interesting article discussing tax breaks for specific companies that were included in the tax package passed by the 109th Congress recently - The Tax relief and Health Care Act of 2006. According to the WaPo, select companies were given tax relief in the form of suspensions of import tarriffs. That’s not unusual. Suspending import tarriffs is common, and we all know the Internal Revenue Code is a tool in which to reward and punish those big evil corporations.
What I need some help with here is the reaction of Rep. Jack Kingston (R- GA). Remember, that’s an ‘R’ next to his name:
“This is just good old-fashioned pork,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), vice chairman of the House Republican Conference for the 109th Congress. Kingston described the suspensions as a stealthy version of the congressional earmark — a term for a measure that directs the government to spend public money on behalf of a particular special interest.
“A lot of members of Congress are just clueless as to what is going on,” Kingston said. “You can spend money away or you can tax-credit it away. Either way, somebody else is going to pick up the difference.”
That’s an ‘R’ up there by his name, right? I’m really confused now. I’m not a sophisticated DC type, but I always thought ‘good old-fashioned pork’ was Congress using my tax dollars to spend on special pet projects - things like $50,000,000 for an indoor rain forest in Iowa and $20,000,000 for school reform in Texas.
How did giving taxpayers a tax cut become ‘good old-fashioned pork’?
Rep. Kingston was right - members of Congress are clueless. Starting with him. Suspending a tarriff isn’t a tax credit. It’s not requiring a certain tax to be paid for a specified period of time. If the tax isn’t paid to the U.S. Treasury, Congress can’t tax-credit it away. They can’t spend it either, for that matter. The money remains right where it belongs - in the hands of those evil corporations. You know, the ones that hire people and pay wages and buy supplies and services and generally keep the economy chugging along.
If Rep. Kingston, and the rest of the ‘R’ folks in DC can’t seem to remember those tax dollars they’ve been spending belong to taxpayers, and one of their core principles is to return as much of those dollars to those that paid them, they’re in for an even bigger spanking at the polls in 2008.
What is it with news outlets writing up the obvious, and passing it off as news? Is there truly nothing new and noteworthy going on in the world?
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich raised the stakes for Democratic White House hopefuls yesterday, jumping into the 2008 race with a challenge to his own party — end the war in Iraq.
The Ohio Democrat making his second bid for the presidency called himself the only true antiwar candidate, saying the U.S. should defund the war immediately and bring the troops home.
And in other news today, scientists have made a breakthrough discovery leading them to believe Earth is spherical in shape and not linear as previously thought.
I am resisting the urge to send the author of that piece the following email:
Dear Washington Times Reporter,
DUH.
Warmest Regards,
Farrah Whitworth-Rahn
This one. And damn proud of it.