John Scalzi believes that the real dividing line in this polarized country is not liberal vs. conservative, but rational vs. irrational:

I'm far more comfortable with some conservatives than I am with some liberals, even though my own positions tend more liberal than not. I'm rather more comfortable dealing with someone whose politics I disagree with, but I can see how they got to where they are, than someone who politics are in line with mine but who appear to have arrived at those politics without an intermediary step of, you know, thinking about those politics.

Politics · 2005/03/18 · Comment · Link

Church of the Risen Elvis

Because Atlanta courtroom killer Brian Nichols was read parts of The Purpose-Driven Life by his last hostage, CNN is republishing an interview the book's author did last November on Larry King Live.

The book sounds like 336 pages of merciless flogging, based on the simplistic platitudes that the author, Rev. Rick Warren, inflicts on King ("The middle letter of pride is I, and the middle letter of sin is I"). The middle letter of tripe is I, too, reverend.

But I'm linking to call attention to this comment (emphasis mine):

The problem today, Larry, is not unbelief. The problem is today everyone wants to believe everything. They want to believe it all. I want to believe in reincarnation and heaven. Those are mutually exclusive things. I want to believe in Elvis, and I want to believe in Jesus -- those are mutually exclusive.

One of my favorite science fiction novels, Dreamships by Melissa Scott, is set in a future in which Elvis Presley fandom has shifted from adulation to idolatry. The Church of the Risen Elvis is an established denomination and "Elvis Christ!" a common curse.

As a longtime resident of the South, I could see the King eventually becoming a challenge to the King of Kings, but I didn't know that true believers already had to pick sides.

Science Fiction · Publishing · 2005/03/15 · 6 COMMENTS · Link

All of My Distortions Lack Purpose

Dick Rogers, ombudsman of the San Francisco Chronicle, compares bloggers to the ink-stained wretches in his profession:

Other [bloggers] poke at contemporary issues but toss responsibility out the window. Five minutes with an Internet directory such as www.globeofblogs.com will turn up blogs that don't even bother to guess at the truth. They traffic in falsehood, innuendo and purposeful distortion. Journalism? I sure hope not.

I challenged him in e-mail to name five actual weblogs that run knowingly false and distorted items. I can't think of five, much less find five new ones in a quick skim of a weblog directory.

If he had accused webloggers of being less cautious in their claims than pro journalists, I'd agree. One reason caution flies out the weblog is the ability to learn about and correct mistakes in record time.

I worry less about making errors on Workbench than I did working at a newspaper, because I know people are more likely to call me on them quickly. Every comment thread is an opportunity for a reader to tell the world I'm stupid.

The weblog format also lends itself much better to corrections than a newspaper. All my corrections get exactly as much play as the original gaffe.

Journalism · 2005/03/15 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Mark Pilgrim Monkeys Around

Mark Pilgrim's half-year search for a hobby that doesn't involve electricity appears to have been as fruitless as O.J. Simpson's hunt for the "real killers."

Pilgrim, who's being Michael Corleoned back into blogging on IBM's new PHP weblog, has recently released a script for GreaseMonkey, the Firefox plug-in for editing web content a la autolink.

The script removes everything but links on sites published by Robert Scoble.

Pilgrim also has released a new open source beloved butler that does to Google what it wants autolink to do to the rest of the Web (screenshot).

Like Winer Watcher, Pilgrim's new ScobleFucker is another meticulously programmed fuck-you that could be rewritten to serve a useful, non-malicious purpose.

But as he'd probably ask, where's the fun in that?

Publishing · 2005/03/14 · 10 COMMENTS · Link

A Marine who attended President Bush's speech at Camp Pendleton disagrees with my fashion critique:

Most Marines I talked to didn't even know what that jacket was, they thought is was Pres. Bush's personal jacket he had modified. As for the flight suit thing, he was flying on a Naval aircraft landing on a Naval aircraft carrier, he had to wear one! Hell we gave the Discovery channel guys flight suits when they flew on my ship in 1998.

In retrospect, I should have been skeptical of reporter Dana Milbank's claim that Bush was setting a new trend with his faux-military presidential duds. I still think the jacket was too Lord Farquaad, but Clinton and his recent predecessors also liked to play dress-up, as does President Bartlet.

Of all the photos offered by InstaPundit readers as proof that I should wear a "Jackass-in-Chief jacket," the one from West Wing stung the most. I hold that fictitious liberal presidency in great regard.

Politics · 2005/03/14 · Comment · Link

If you're not already panicked enough about the "overdue" killer flu pandemic, Guardian science editor Robin McKie offers a new periodic cause for alarm.

Every 62 million years, the species of Earth suffer a mass extinction:

After analysing the eradication of millions of ancient species, scientists have found that a mass extinction is due any moment now.

Their research has shown that every 62 million years -- plus or minus 3m years -- creatures are wiped from the planet's surface in massive numbers.

I love the use of "any moment now" alongside a prediction with a three-million-year margin of error.

Journalism · 2005/03/13 · 1 COMMENT · Link

By using a custom style that makes nofollow links blink lime, Phil Ringnalda can see how sites are using the attribute:

I'm surprised by how little use of rel="nofollow" I'm seeing (in blinking lime) on non-blog, non-wiki sites. It seemed like such an obvious tool to use, to micro-manage how you transfer PageRank within your site and to other people.

One of these days, I'm going to sue Phil for usurping the color I've chosen for my links and monkeying around with my content to make it more interesting than I intended. Ringnalda v. Cadenhead will become the web dork's Roe v. Wade.

Publishing · 2005/03/13 · Comment · Link

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