The war expands to the republic of Georgia; Skilling says he’s innocent; foot-and-mouth disease breaks out again in Britain; home sales soar despite recession; inventor of voice-mail leaves final message.
LIES, DAMNED LIES AND BOOZE: Here’s why I almost don’t bother reading stories any more that announce “startling” new statistics about some social “problem” or other. The story blared all over the papers recently was that teen drinking makes up about a quarter of all alcohol consumption. As the New York Times points out today, that’s baloney. The number is probably around 11 percent – with the 25 percent coming from a loaded sample, skewed to teens. The quote from a spokesperson for the do-gooder group, the Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, tells you the thinking behind the exaggeration: “It’s very unfortunate. We didn’t reweight the data. But we think the 11.4 percent number is way too low, since there’s so much underreporting.” Unfortunate? It’s a LIE – designed to advance an agenda. But the lie is defended because the “cause” is just, and, in any case, the busy-bodies believe there’s underreporting. Oh, that’s all right then. This is the same mentality that gives us a surging epidemic of “hate-crimes” where none exists; and it’s the same mindset that goes out to prove resurgent HIV infection, even when there’s scant evidence to support it. My advice is to ignore most such studies. The occasional report that’s honest is vastly outweighed by the self-serving, puritanical propaganda that these groups exist to spew out. Now, I’m gonna pour myself a drink. Or five.
BOOK CLUB:As we reach the end of our first book, you pose four questions to the author Bob Kaplan, about democracy, patriotism, the meaning of evil, and the necessity to back authoritarianism at times. Bob answers.
GREAT INSULTS: Who says they’re dead? Here’s the irreplaceable Lucianne Goldberg going off on David “There’s a Gray Poodle Near My Nipple” Brock:
Why two of the media’s more prominent scribes, Frank Rich in the NY Times and here, Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post, have decided that serial liar David Brock is worth their attention is best left to assorted shrinks. Brock’s new book will come and go and he will be left with “career issues.” This confused, sick puppy may want to check on the cut off age for the Chippendale’s Japanese touring company. That’s about all there will be left to him to pay the rent.
Thanks to Mickey Kaus for noticing this first.
MEDIA CONDESCENSION WATCH: “During seven years of planning, state and local leaders looked longingly into their Olympic future, half promising, half hoping that Salt Lake’s 17 days with destiny would change forever the profile of a city known best as the Mormon capital of the world and of a state known widely for its staggering conservatism and homogeneity, owing to the influence of the church. Yet it remains far from clear to what degree, if any, those enduring aspirations might be achieved.” – Michael Janofsky, New York Times. Look, I don’t want to live in Utah – but why is it self-evident that “staggering conservatism and homogeneity” are qualities to be abhorred and recovered from? And what is this unsubstantiated prejudice doing in a news story?
THE POINT OF A VACCINE: From everything I’ve read, I’d say the chances of a viable vaccine for HIV are still remote. But something like a vaccine could indeed be useful to reduce disease progression in the already infected, as this article suggests. Above all, science is beginning to destroy the dichotomy of HIV prevention and HIV treatment. Increasingly, HIV treatment works as HIV prevention. How? Because effective treatment can bring viral levels down to levels that make infection of others that much harder. It’s win-win. Better to drop the tired old debate about whether we need to put more resources into prevention rather than into a cure by understanding that the two are intricately connected.
THE BUSH REVOLUTION: Here’s a cogent, smart and prescient piece of analysis from Stratfor on how the current administration is transforming America’s role in the world – largely for the better.
DEVIL IN DETAILS: My eye caught the recent cover of Details for some unaccountable reason today. It has one Josh Hartnett in full, dark-eyed splendor posing on it. I’ve no doubt this ostensibly straight guy’s magazine picked up some female and gay male readers this month. But the headline shows the inevitable confusion of a mag trying to get gay readers while pretending to be strictly hetero. It reads: “Josh Hartnett Dated Gisele and You Didn’t.” Now ask yourself: why would a straight guy want to read about a pretty boy who is more successful at bedding beautiful babes than he is? Why, further, would he be interested in looking at semi-pornographic pictures of another man – the like of which are liberally plastered inside? Perhaps it’s playing to straight-guy insecurity. (That would also account for the cover line: “Your Unit and You: How You Measure Up to the Other Guy.”) But perhaps it’s more indication of how men’s magazines, after a brief dalliance with honestly including gay male readers, now feel quite happy to exploit gay men’s dollars while insulting their intelligence and writing excruciating, bizarre prose for their straight readers. At least I didn’t buy the thing. But I enjoyed the pictures.
The Dish 