Thursday, July 15, 2004

Been Listening to Air America
 
On 1240 AM.  It's nice to have an alternative!  It reminds me of the liberal blogosphere, but in the aural dimension.  What a concept!
Methane and Ammonia
 
On Mars!  Oh my!  (big indicators of life)
Cartoon
 
The one that got away

Monday, July 12, 2004

Amerika Berserk

An illustration of why our problems in Afghanistan are deepening.
Easterbrook Mismeasures Moore

Gregg Easterbrook tells bigger fibs than Michael Moore does (Daily Express, TNR On-line, July 12th). Moore stretches and simplifies, but he rarely lies outright. Concerning whether a B-52 was killing Vietnamese people on Christmas Eve of 1972, who is more likely to be to correct: Moore, who extrapolates from the commemoratory plaque that the bomber wouldn't have encountered a MIG unless it had been so engaged, or Easterbrook, who seems to suggest that the encounter between the B-52 and the MIG was purely accidental. It is possible to celebrate the amazing skill required to shoot down a MIG while also deploring the mission of the B-52: these are not contradictory positions. Easterbrook thinks Moore is anti-American, but maybe Easterbrook is just anti-Vietnamese. Most of the supposed errors people like SpinSanity and others seize upon are of the same sort: small technical omissions that obscure a larger and deeper truth that the rest of us can clearly see if we just open our eyes.