Politics

GUN CONTROL, MEDIA BIAS, AND ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE….Glenn Reynolds posted this approximately two minutes after 60 Minutes aired this evening: JUST SAW AN ENORMOUSLY DISHONEST “60 MINUTES” PIECE on ballistic fingerprinting. It somehow neglected this report indicating that the technology isn’t good enough even to satisfy anti-gun California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Instead, it made it […]

WAR WITH IRAQ….I’ve gotten a lot of email critical of my post on Thursday suggesting that Colin Powell had indeed made a strong case in his UN speech. This administration has lied about everything, they ask, so how can you be so credulous as to believe their latest dog and pony show? I’d like to […]

FRANCE AND THE WAR….The latest French-German idea for avoiding war with Iraq is to send in lots of UN troops: The plan, which is expected to be formally introduced as soon as Thursday, calls for the open-ended deployment of U.S. troops outside Iraq to maintain pressure on the regime, but it would otherwise take control […]

IS THE MEDIA LIBERAL?….OR JUST CONFUSED?….Newspaper stories about poll results are always great fodder for people looking for media bias. After all, every poll has dozens of questions, but the headline usually has room to highlight only one. So which will it be? Well, the Los Angeles Times conducted a follow-up poll last week after […]

FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN NEW YORK….This editorial in the New York Sun has already gotten a lot of attention, but you know what? It can’t get too much. The Sun apparently thinks thinks that free speech should stop where anti-war sentiment begins: Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly are doing the people of New York […]

THE VALUE OF INTELLIGENCE….Was Colin Powell’s testimony before the UN last Wednesday believable? Or was he just waving around bogus ? but unverifiable ? data in an attempt to stampede the UN into action? William Arkin writes in the LA Times today that he thinks Powell was being truthful: Among the pieces of evidence Powell […]

WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA?….Eric Alterman’s latest book, as if you didn’t know already, is called What Liberal Media?, but I have a feeling a better title might have been Enough Already, OK? His basic case, it seems, is that sure, maybe conservatives had a point when they first started complaining about liberal media bias 30 years […]

URL UPDATE….Kieran Healy has a new address: http://www.kieranhealy.org/blog/ Adjust your bookmarks.

JOHN LOTT UPDATE….Mary Rosh has just become a TV star! On Capitol Gang tonight, Al Hunt’s “Outrage of the Week” was John Lott’s use of his Mary Rosh sock puppet to defend himself on the internet. This story has now been in the Washington Times, Washington Post, US News & World Report, and Capitol Gang, […]

HUMANS IN SPACE….The New York Times editorializes today (tomorrow, actually) that although focusing on space stations in low earth orbit is misguided, we should keep the manned space program anyway: It is important to maintain the human spaceflight program, but it should be focused more sharply on the ultimate if distant goal: human exploration of […]