Show and Tell

WaPo columnist Michael Kinsley, tongue firmly in cheek, does a masterful job of pointing out how sleazy was last week's New York Times "story" about John McCain.

I have no evidence to suggest that the New York Times suggested with no evidence that Sen. McCain was having an affair. I was merely pointing out that by running an article that goes on at great length about some meeting eight years ago, and that seems to have no point except to imply that Sen. McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist, the newspaper may have created for some people (not me, of course) an appearance of suggesting that Sen. McCain had enjoyed an affair with a lobbyist...

...the most distressing possibility of all: that in this very article I may be creating the possibility that some people might worry that other people might think that I have created the appearance of suggesting that the New York Times has created the possibility that some people might worry that other people might think that McCain has created the appearance that some people might worry that other people might think that there could be an appearance that McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist.

So... What Do You Do With That?

Most economists, I think, often face the question, "What do you do, exactly?" It's a fair question. And Tim Harford - who calls himself "The Undercover Economist" - implicitly offers some answers to those questions in a WaPo article.

Dallas

Drudge today splashed big headlines about security being loosened at a huge Barack Obama speech in Dallas. Now, I understand that the Secret Service are professionals, and I assume they knew what they were doing.

But the location... hmm... Dallas... presidential security... what is it about Dallas?

Shocking Editorial

I don't know what's more shocking: the subject of Bob Herbert's editorial in NYTimes today, or my response to it.

The usually tangled Herbert hits hard on the tepid public response to a disgusting crime by one of New York's finest:

According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse. The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.

Shocking.

Several orders of magnitude below, it's shocking that Bob Herbert wrote a column the entirety of which I agree with. He slams the justice system for often picking on the young victims of pimps, rather than the pimps and johns themselves. It's a no-brainer that a teenage girl owned by a pimp should be cared for, not incarcerated, by the state, and the pimp should be sent to the Big House.

Of course, this is Herbert, and in his Herbertitude he manages to pick the most inapposite example to prove his point: in this case, the justice system seems to be functioning perfectly, apart from the corrupt cop who (allegedly) perpetrated the crime.

The ; Lives!

This NYTimes story scores high on unintentional humor (though I'm not really sure it's unintentional):

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train. "Please put it in a trash can," riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency's marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, "that's good news for everyone." ... Geoffrey Nunberg, a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, praised the "burgeoning of punctuational literacy in unlikely places."

I, for one, use semicolons frequently; the ability to juxtapose thoughts in writing as seamlessly as in speech is invaluable.

Saddam on Factions

Cory retells a telling tale from the Saddam Hussein administration. Here's a teaser:

Saddam rocks up to his ministers one day after the first gulf war and says he's going to retire... "i'm going to leave and whoever can do what i ask will inherit all my wealth and power." the ministers, suddenly interested, agreed to the challenge, after which Saddam told them that if they failed, they'd be shot. then Saddam asked his minister of war to bring a bag and some mice. "Why a bag and some mice?"

The rest is here.

The Most Important Issue of 2008

Thanks to reader Mr. Dough for the link to Cobb, who posts a valuable video clip about the top election issue.

In related news, I plan to lobby my Arabic professor to change our composition topic from, "The Most Important Event In Your Life" to "The Least Important Event In Your Life", which would be infinitely more creative and substantially more interesting.