"On a normal day, all the conservatives are blogging about one set of articles and all the liberals are blogging on another set."

About that WaPo article. I like the recognition for Memeorandum (one of my favorite sites):

Both [Newmark and O'Brien] check out a site called Memeorandum.com, which scans the blogosphere hourly to determine which news stories and opinion columns are generating the most Internet discussion. It is here, they both say, that the competing blogospheres, right and left, are most elegantly crystallized.

"It's fascinating," says Newmark.

"On a normal day, all the conservatives are blogging about one set of articles and all the liberals are blogging on another set," O'Brien adds. "Occasionally one piece gets everybody going, but most of the time we aren't commenting on the same things."

Memeorandum.com is fascinating, because it shows how our nation's competing realities are now formed. Bloggers scan for bits of evidence that fit into their existing views and then generalize from there. For example, supporters of the Iraq war will notice an article that seems to suggest some progress -- an insurgent leader captured, a new school opened -- and infer a universe of good news from that piece. Elsewhere on the same day, opponents of the war might find a piece of discouraging news -- an interview with a gloomy Iraqi leader, another suicide bombing -- and infer a mirror-image universe.

Ah, yes. I've noticed that. Memeorandum serves as a lesson to us bloggers, if we can stand to look at ourselves honestly.

Journalists are "sick with anxiety about the Death of Print."

A HUGE WaPo piece fretting about bloggers (with lots and lots and lots about Betsy Newmark and Barbara O'Brien):

Currently, we [journalists a]re worried about bloggers....

[We're] wringing our hands in countless articles about blogging, wiping our brows through endless panels devoted to blogging, scrying through bottomless poll data about blogging, and launching blogs of our own. If you are reading these words in a publication called The Washington Post Magazine, then the bloggers have not entirely overtaken the so-called mainstream media -- yet.

But you're not reading these words in a publication called The Washington Post Magazine, are you?

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

"Most prized of all are long, slimy white worms which are hacked out of mangrove branches and eaten live."

Life in the Tiwi Islands.

The Fame Audit on Lisa Kudrow.

Here. Note: I adore Lisa Kudrow and her new show "The Comeback." Frankly, I don't think Fametracker gets the show very well.

"This week will mark probably the biggest one-week spike in time spent book-reading in human history."

Says Jeremy.

The strategic timing of the O'Connor and Rehnquist retirements?

In today's radio address, President Bush talked about replacing Justice O'Connor:

President Bush gave the nation several clues Saturday about the person he will nominate for a seat on the Supreme Court, except for the most important one - a name.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said his eventual nominee will be a "fair-minded individual who represents the mainstream of American law and American values."

His candidate also "will meet the highest standards of intellect, character and ability and will pledge to faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our country," the president said.

"Our nation deserves, and I will select, a Supreme Court justice that Americans can be proud of," he said, without revealing the name that many are anxious to hear....

Much of the retirement speculation - before and after O'Connor's surprise announcement - had focused on Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who is 80 and ailing with thyroid cancer.

Rehnquist tried to dampen expectations this week, issuing a statement in which he said his retirement is not imminent and that he would continue on the court "as long as my health permits."...

Bush said he and Senate leaders agreed on the need for a dignified confirmation process for his Supreme Court choice....

Consider this:

Before the 80-year-old Rehnquist, who is battling cancer, announced on Thursday that he was staying, there was speculation that Bush was waiting to make a double-nomination - a conservative and someone more moderate - that could defuse a contentious confirmation battle.

"With two, he could have made an effort to please everybody,'' said Nan Aron with the liberal Alliance for Justice. "For this one vacancy, not only does it cause the White House to speed up the process, but there's that much more pressure being exerted on them by radical right groups. They're under much more pressure to placate their radical right base.''

With prospects for a double-vacancy off the table, Bush is faced only with replacing O'Connor, a moderate conservative who sided with liberal jurists in some of the Supreme Court's critical 5-4 decisions.

Am I the only one who is thinking that there is a behind-the-scenes strategy going on about the Rehnquist retirement and its timing in connection with the O'Connor retirement?

For a long time we've been expecting to hear of a Rehnquist retirement. Then instead, the O'Connor retirement is announced, unleashing an intense political debate in which the Democrats revealed what some of their demands and strategies would be. Then, the rumor of an imminent Rehnquist retirement heated up, and the Democratic demand firmed up: Bush can make good on his promises to appoint a strong conservative for the Rehnquist seat, but he needs to replace O'Connor with a moderate. With the Democrats cards thus exposed on the table, Rehnquist announces he's staying as long as he can.

Can this retirement-withholding be a deliberate attempt to help Bush resist the Democrats' demand (and also to resist his own urge to appoint his friend Alberto Gonzales)? If there is no second appointment, Bush feels more pressure and has more ability to replace O'Connor with a strong conservative.

Later, after the tough confirmation battle is played out and Bush has filled the O'Connor seat with a conservative, Rehnquist can retire. At this point, Bush can replace him as well with a strong conservative. The Democrats will not only be tired of fighting, they will have lost the basis for a "package deal" argument.

They will cry: You've already appointed a conservative, so now you should give us a moderate!

A moderate to replace Rehnquist, the towering figuring in the history of judicial conservatism? Never!

"The Triumph of his Will."

Our local free newspaper the Isthmus, has a big cover story title "The Triumph of his Will," a story -- I didn't read it -- about some guy's will. Why would anyone think that was an acceptable title?

Maybe my clever commenters can come up with equivalent examples of titles of evil works of art being used as headlines for imaginary, exceedingly tame local human interest stories.

UPDATE: In a similar vein, one often sees the name of something profoundly serious used in jokey titles. One that is done so often it's also offensive for being trite is "the Battle of the Bulge" to refer to weight loss.

The color of movies.

Martin Scorsese just came out with two lists of ten films that have the best use of light and color.

English Language Films

1. Barry Lyndon (1975, Dir. Stanley Kubrick; Cin. John Alcott)

2. Duel in the Sun (1946, Dir. King Vidor; Cin. Lee Garmes, Ray Rennahan, Hal Rosson)

3. Invaders From Mars (1953, Dir. William Cameron Menzies; Cin. John F. Seitz)

4. Leave Her to Heaven (1946, Dir. John M. Stahl; Cin. Leon Shamroy)

5. Moby Dick (1956, Dir. John Huston; Cin. Oswald Morris)

6. Phantom of the Opera (1943, Dir. Arthur Lubin; Cin. W. Howard Greene, Hal Mohr)

7. The Red Shoes (1948, Dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; Cin. Jack Cardiff)

8. The Searchers (1956, Dir. John Ford; Cin. Winton C. Hoch)

9. Singin’ in the Rain (1952, Dir. Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly; Cin. Harold Rosson)

10. Vertigo (1958, Dir. Alfred Hitchcock; Cin. Robert Burks)


International Films

1. Contempt (1963, Dir. Jean-Luc Godard; Cin. Raoul Coutard; France/Italy)

2. Cries and Whispers (1972, Dir. Ingmar Bergman; Cin. Sven Nykvist; Sweden)

3. Gate of Hell (1953, Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa; Cin. Kohei Sugiyama; Japan)

4. In the Mood For Love (2000, Dir. Wong Kar-Wai; Cin. Christopher Doyle, Mark Lee Ping-bin; Hong Kong)

5. The Last Emperor (1987, Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci; Cin. Vittorio Storaro; Italy/United Kingdom/China/Hong Kong)

6. Red Desert (1964, Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni; Cin. Carlo Di Palma; France/Italy)

7. The River (1951, Dir. Jean Renoir; Cin. Claude Renoir; India/France/United States)

8. Satyricon (1969, Dir. Federico Fellini; Cin. Giuseppe Rotunno; Italy/France)

9. Senso (1954, Dir. Luchino Visconti; Cin. G.R. Aldo, Robert Krasker, Giuseppe Rotunno; Italy)

10. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964, Dir. Sergei Paradjanov; Cin. Viktor Bestayev, Yuri Ilyenko; Russia/Ukraine)

This is clearly a very idiosyncratic list. Just look at the dates: Scorsese is pointing to the films that influenced him in his impressionable years. We already knew how gaga he is for "Duel in the Sun" (a cheesy Western sometimes referred to as "Lust in the Dust").

Maybe in the comments you can come up with some alternatives. Is there a movie that springs my mind for its color? Not really. Those extra-vivid Technicolor movies like "Vertigo" and "The Birds" crowd out more subtly colored recent movies that I find more appealing. Any ideas?

Teenager jailed for burning the flag.

But apparently he wasn't trying to express any ideas. Does he still have a free speech defense against the statute that penalizes "desecrating a venerated object"?

High school is too easy.

Say the students. So, then, the teachers are slacking, right?

The doomed lobster, Hermione.

Here she is, friends. She is doomed. We were just squealing and shooting photographs a la Annie Hall. And now I'm furiously writing this post, so that you can see our dear Hermione, while she still crawls the face of the earth, before she reaches apotheosis, in the form of our elaborate, Nina-cooked blogger dinner.

The guest of honor, the sacrificial lobster:



UPDATE: RIP, Hermione.



ANOTHER UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers. And here's a picture of me at the dinner, taken by Tonya, whose birthday we were celebrating.



MORE: Here's Nina's explanation of how to make that soup. And here's Tonya's post which contains, among other things, the full list of amazing dishes Nina cooked up for us.

Are you into comparative heat?

Texans are:

I think that the heat in Texas is like playing baseball with a father who burns in fastballs that sting your hands, making you proud you can take it; and the heat back East is like a mother who makes you wear too much clothing.

State Street crowded with bargain seekers.

It's Maxwell Street Days time again. Here's a quick look at this year's shopping extravaganza:



Here's last year's much more in-depth coverage of the event. I usually try to avoid the crowds, but today I needed to get to a café, where I sat with an espresso. Ever notice how the baristas of today can scarcely believe anyone would order just an espresso? A single espresso? I got out my small stack of exams from my summer class and, looking up once in a while to watch the people pass by, I graded question 1.

The new new food pyramid.

A Madison window:

Two big plaintiffs' lawyer victories in the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the court invalidated the pain and suffering damages cap that the legislature had put on medical malpractice cases. The law violated equal protection under the state constitution.

Today, the court said that a child injured by eating lead paint could sue the paint manufacturers. According to the dissenting Justice Wilcox, this makes Wisconsin the only state that holds the manufacturers liable in such cases.

"We are all responsible for it in a way."

Please, more -- much more -- of this:

[Sir Iqbal Sacranie, t]he head of the Muslim Council of Britain says he wants to take "concrete steps" to make sure atrocities such as the London bombings are never repeated....

"We are all responsible for it in a way", he said, because "very little had been done" to tackle elements in the community carrying messages of hate....

Sir Iqbal said Islamic scholars in the UK are to make a strong statement later at the London Central Mosque.

It would be "so powerful and strong" it would leave no-one in any doubt about the Muslim communities' attitudes to such atrocities, he said.

"That statement is going to re-define the position about what Islam has to say about acts of atrocity, acts of murder and criminality."

At long last: the "Let It Be" DVD!

And just think of all the extra footage they have to choose from in stuffing the discs with "with tons of lost and bonus features."

A military commission is enough...

And there will be no entree into federal court for Gitmo detainees, according to the D.C. Circuit court, as is well explained by Tung Yin.

UPDATE: Here's the NYT article:

The panel emphatically overturned a decision on Nov. 8 by a federal district judge in Washington, James Robertson, who had ruled that in setting up military commissions to try the detainees President Bush overstepped his constitutional authority and improperly brushed aside Geneva Convention provisions on the handling prisoners of war.

"The president found that Hamdan was not a prisoner of war under the Convention," Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote for the panel in today's ruling. "Nothing in the regulations, and nothing Hamdan argues, suggests that the president is not a 'competent authority' for these purposes."...

President Bush has declared all Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters to be unlawful enemy combatants, and as such not entitled to be treated as legitimate prisoners of war.

Critics of the administration have argued that the military commission trials do not afford all the legal protections that courts-martial do. But in the appeal upheld today, the administration argued that the commission trials were fair - and not incidentally a vital part of its war on terrorism - and that since the stateless Qaeda terror network had never signed the Geneva Convention, its members were not entitled to the protections afforded prisoners of war, which include the right not to be put on trial for hostilities....

The appeals court said Congress had given the president all the authority he needed in a resolution passed just after Sept. 11, 2001. "It is impossible to see any basis for Hamdan's claim that Congress has not authorized military commission," the court ruled....

The court accepted the administration's argument that Mr. Hamdan - who has denied that he is a terrorist - does not fit the definition of "prisoner of war," and that Al Qaeda is not covered by the Geneva Convention.

"Every time Andrew Sullivan rattles his tip jar..."

Glenn Reynolds gets more donations, he says. And what about me? I have donation buttons too, you know. It would be nice if my readers made the gesture of appreciation for me too. Sullivan suggests a basic pledge of $20 for the "occasional reader" and a $50 for the daily reader, which, he helpfully points out is less than a dollar a week. True fanhood he goes on to say is demonstrated by amounts in excess of $50. These are ambitious suggestions! I'm just quoting them for your contemplation.

"The Real World" confronts the war in Iraq.

I saw that the new episode of "The Real World" is mostly about the roommates arguing about the war in Iraq, so seeing I had the show TiVo'd, I watched it, thinking -- what? -- that there might be some interesting debate about the war? Some insight into what young people today think about it? Something... bloggable?

So one roommate -- Rachel -- served in Iraq. We see her telling her some of her war stories... well, actually, just saying that in Iraq, she had to dig a hole to "poop" in. Then there's a cut to cast member Nehemiah saying:

I've just had it up to here with her bragging and boasting, because I'm against war, and for me to just sit back and hear her brag about it all the time and ... I'm going to react to it because I have an opinion, just like she does.

But the two just get into a fight about whether it's harder to be in prison or harder to serve in Iraq. This is a silly comparison. It may be safer and easier to be in prison, but it's involuntary and degrading. War and prison are just different, in obvious ways. In any event, it has nothing to do with whether the war is right or wrong.

Later, Rachel clashes with roommates after she takes it upon herself to pressure them to get up and get moving early -- as it's done in the Army. They try to tell her nicely not to be so bossy, but she's all about how things are in the Army. Chez Althouse, Chris says: "She needs to stop talking about how things are done in the Army." It's just not that relevant to how people need to act outside of the Army. I start to suspect that the producers, off camera, keep telling her to really play up the Army angle. She was cast to play a character, not just to hang out in a cool house.

Now we see them at the kitchen table and Nehemiah's calling Bush "a robot" and asking, "What's the whole war about?" But instead of seeing them debate about the war, we see knuckleheaded Nehemiah telling Rachel she wasn't even in the war, because she was a nurse. She blows up and goes on about the injured men she tended to and the dangers she faced. Later, another roommate helps Nehemiah understand that he was wrong to express his opposition to the war like that, and then we see Nehemiah and Rachel in a snuggy-kissy scene where they each apologize to the other.

And that the treatment of the war in Iraq on "The Real World -- Austin," and the episode is padded out with the usual crap where they go to bars, get drunk, display affection, and have minor misunderstandings that are soon patched up with a little whining and hugging.

Pretty much exactly what you would have expected.