I want to illustrate a point of journalistic style, using a contemporary bit of news. The point of style concerns the attribution of political party membership. Here is the correct style for reports concerning a Democrat.
A former aide to James E. McGreevey said today that he had three-way sexual trysts with the former governor [...]
Posted on March 17th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: humor, politics | 2 Comments »
A NY Times article about the Democratic party superdelegates included this amazing paragraph:
The delegates said they hoped to avoid being portrayed as party elites overturning the will of Democratic voters. They spoke of having some power broker — the names mentioned included Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee; former Vice [...]
Posted on March 16th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: politics | 6 Comments »
If you are into cryptography and computer security, you know Bruce Schneier as the author of Applied Cryptography. In that case, you might find this hilarious. Otherwise, maybe not.
Posted on March 16th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: humor | No Comments »
A post on David Thompson’s blog brought this article to my attention.
DAKAR, Senegal - The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots.
Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world’s Muslim nations are considering taking legal [...]
Posted on March 16th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: religion | 1 Comment »
Here’s a clip of Jeremiah Wright, now famous as the pastor of Obama’s church. Some people say that Wright’s remarks are racist.
The Anchoress thinks otherwise.
What is going on here is a profound slight-of-hand, or an illusionist’s expert misdirection. You are being told to think you’re seeing one thing, when you’re actually seeing another. [...]
Posted on March 13th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: personal observations | 2 Comments »
Some feminists claim that women are underrepresented in university mathematics, engineering, and hard science departments. This is (of course) evidence of bias. And they have a solution.
The idea of “title-nining” academic science was proposed by Debra Rolison in 2000. She has promoted Title IX as an “implacable hammer” guaranteed to get the attention [...]
Posted on March 12th, 2008 by pwyll
Filed under: politics | 2 Comments »
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