You're not alone on Pearlstein/Perlstein; see also BdL. There's lots, lots more juicy stuff about Humphrey (and esp. his relationship with LBJ) in Perlstein's Nixonland, forthcoming next year.
Also see Max.
I had this very thought yesterday.
As had I. I've never seen anything like the last three days, and was joking half-heartedly with my wife about global warming and how we were getting the first tranche of our come-uppance. We're not in KSR territory yet, but yesterday it surely felt as if we were beginning to get there.
Michael Froomkin had a couple of good posts on this a little while ago (forgive me if I don't dig them up; packing to go to Ireland). The gist of his argument is that you can't get there from here - legislating for network neutrality isn't going to work very well, and what you'd really need to do is to revisit the regulatory decisions that made it possible for monopolies or duopolies to dominate the local broadband access market, Thus you'd allow real competitive forces (rather than the schmarket schompetition that I suspect the Politech guy is trying to defend) to prevent anyone from filtering out stuff that users find valuable; in a real marketplace they could simply take their business elsewhere. Yochai Benkler goes a little further - he argues that the best way forward is to regulate to allow as many municipal wireless networks tapping into the backbone as possible - again circumventing the telcos and cable companies. None of which is to distract from the boneheaded stupidity, greed and dishonesty of McCurry and his paymasters - I suspect that he's blustering so much because he knows he's making shitty arguments in bad faith.
The Human Rights Watch report that spurred the NYT story should be read in its entirety. Particularly revelatory is the story of the officer who tried to get some guidance or action from the senior people in his chain of command. Nobody cared until he tried to go to the senate with his story. Then they tried to confine him to base to stop him meeting with senate staffers.
"Wide boy" now means something more like what us Irish folk would call a chancer, someone who's a little dodgy or untrustworthy. There's a bad Nik Kershaw song from the 1980's, Wide Boy, which helps provide the context.
Where would Stephen R. Donaldson be, without Dave Langford to point out the piquant and singular charms of his prose?
Not to mention Langford's efforts to popularize the sport of clench racing.
(although I'll admit that I quite enjoyed Donaldson's "Mirror of her Dreams" duology).
Now it's not all as good as that. The teacher who got me hooked on Weber described his work as "vast swathes of sociological stodge, shot through with occasional flashes of Nietzschian brilliance." While I've come to appreciate the sociological stodge too, there is an amount of it that you have to wade through to get to the political wisdom. But when it's good, it's really good. Weber was a strange kind of liberal (with some quite anti-liberal views), but his view of politics as an irresolvable conflict, and his particular take on political heroism are extraordinary and wonderful. He has the number of the neo-cons down cold. Claiming that you're doing everything for a worthwhile ultimate end (promoting democracy worldwide for the neocons) is worth nothing, nothing, unless you're prepared to accept the difficulty and compromises of politics. In the end, it's a kind of quite fundamental dishonesty. Real political heroism isn't cheap rhetoric or the embrace of lofty positions; it's the painstaking, unflashy work of reconciling your ultimate ends, worthwhile as they may be, with a world which isn't suited for grand abstract projects.
As Simstim says, his essay on science as a vocation (also available online) is well worth reading too. Advice for people like me, who are teaching the social sciences, that if we fail to recognize that part of our duty is to recognize the truths that are uncomfortable for our political position, we're failing in our vocation.
Weber's essay on Politics as a Vocation makes it clear that journalism of a certain kind is an important form of politics.
Since the time of the constitutional state, and definitely since democracy has been established, the 'demagogue' has been the typical political leader in the Occident. The distasteful flavor of the word must not make us forget that not Cleon but Pericles was the first to bear the name of demagogue. In contrast to the offices of ancient democracy that were filled by lot, Pericles led the sovereign Ecclesia of the demos of Athens as a supreme strategist holding the only elective office or without holding any office at all. Modern demagoguery also makes use of oratory, even to a tremendous extent, if one considers the election speeches a modern candidate has to deliver. But the use of the printed word is more enduring. The political publicist, and above all the journalist, is nowadays the most important representative of the demagogic species.
Plenty of sharp, tough observations in there amid the sociologese. This seems apposite for Sarah and for all of us during these grim days.
Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth--that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that a man must be a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that steadfastness of heart which can brave even the crumbling of all hopes. This is necessary right now, or else men will not be able to attain even that which is possible today. Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he shall not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or too base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say 'In spite of all!' has the calling for politics.
Yep, _Der Spiegel_ is not only respected for good reason for commentary and investigative journalism, but has a nice leftwing edge to its muckraking. Good going.
There's a bit of language play there that may escape non-UK/Irish readers. "Jammy" in "jammy first-timers" means 'possessed of undeserved luck.' It's almost never used afaik except as part of the phrase "jammy bastard." Mr. Clare clearly doesn't like undeserving first-timers very much.
The National Journal's Hotline had an item on this today - http://blogometer.nationaljournal.com/archives/2005/08/810_infinite_ju.html - I suspect that's one of the reasons that a lot of rightwingers are getting their knickers in a twist.
Looks like someone at Wikipedia has had the same idea as Patrick ... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pope_Benedict_XVI&direction=prev&oldid=12526972
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