December 2003

There were 170 posts published in December 2003 (this is page 10 of 29).

Founding Father Soul Mate

Who knows how accurate this comparison is, but according to this test, I’m like:

John Adams
You are right more often than not, but can be irritating enough about it that people will tune you out even when they shouldn’t. You enter a room more concerned that everyone acknowledge that you’re right than that everyone like you. You tend to make few friends, but those you do make are closer than family.

I don’t view myself quite that way, and I may have a strong Hamiltonian side. But that’s how the results pan out.
Via Voluntarily in China.

Threatening Democracy

Ha Ha. Bill O’Reilly–who I’ve long thought would make a good dictator–goes off the deep end after Drudge exposed that sales of Who’s Looking Out for You trail those of a “smear merchant”:

Responding to an exclusive yearender DRUDGE dispatch, which presented NIELSEN’s Top 20 BOOKSCAN list of 2003 sales, O’Reilly called the DRUDGE REPORT a “threat to democracy.”
“I mean you can’t believe a word Matt Drudge says,” O’Reilly told the cameras. “Now you’ve got the Matt Drudges of the world and these other people, Michael Moore and all of these crazies, all right, no responsibility… that is a threat to democracy, I think.” O’Reilly warned: “They’ll just spin it and twist it and take it out of proportion every which way.”

Yes indeed. Those who dare communicate over the Internet without a proper authority to cut off their figurative microphones as needed are dangerous to America.
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Via Say Uncle.

Off-Line

I’ll be away from the computer for much of the day, so probably no updates until late afternoon/evening.

Credibility

People have criticized Dean, with some justification, for floating 9/11 theories he hears “other people” talking about. Yet they themselves seemingly have no problem passing on unconfirmed, bogus tales of Al Qaeda/Iraq connections.
What’s the difference?