Monday, October 20, 2003

Recommended Reading

Here's a statement by the Libertarian Party on the Rush Limbaugh matter. I shun all drugs including tobacco and alcohol but I agree with this view.

• Posted at 3:30 PM · LINK

Dilbert Dilemma

All this week, as a Halloween stunt I guess, the comic strip Dilbert is being drawn not by Scott Adams but by mystery artists. The idea is that you have to guess who the famous cartoonist is who's illustrating each day's strip. If you go to this page, you can see each strip and find out the answer.

Thanks to Mark Thorson for letting me know about this. And I should further thank Mark who, along with Rephah Berg, is quick to alert me when I make a typo here. If there's one in this message, I'll hear from Mark or Rephah before 10:00.

• Posted at 9:51 AM · LINK

Truth To Tell

It always interests me to see the way political arguments drift and how certain questionable "facts" get established in some minds. Critics of George W. Bush have lately been saying that he lied to America that there was an imminent threat to us from Iraq. Ergo, we had to go to war promptly and not wait for those weapons inspectors to inspect further for weapons. If true, that would be a pretty serious charge, so Bush defenders are arguing back that their president never said the threat was "imminent" and they haul out quotes where his precise words seem to say the opposite.

In a strict sense, they're probably right. And in another sense, it may not matter. Al Gore never said he found Love Canal or that he was the model for Love Story, but his detractors did a good job of convincing a lot of "swing" voters that he did, and therefore nothing he said could be believed. If Bush's foes can work the same full court press on him, the "liar" portrait will stick. In political discourse, we are well past the stage where what someone says really matters. Of much greater importance is how their opponents can spin it, and the Democrats haven't been that good at taking an ambiguous statement or gaffe and running with it. Then again, the Bush administration has given them so much raw material, they may just pull it off.

• Posted at 9:40 AM · LINK

Hamill on Broadway

Our pal Peter David posts this report on going to see Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, a new Broadway play with Polly Bergen and Mark Hamill. I echo all the comments on what a nice, professional guy Mark is.

• Posted at 9:13 AM · LINK

An Extra Dimension

Someone just wrote to ask me a question about 3-D comic books. I referred them to Ray Zone's website. Ray knows more about 3-D comic books than any man alive...and has made more of them happen.

• Posted at 12:16 AM · LINK