Blog Rodeo

Lots of good stuff on lots of blogs this week, so I'm lumping them all here with minimal comment. Your job: read 'em all. Get to work.

Jay Manifold of A Voyage To Arcturus looks at the cost benefits between jet travel and rail travel. Social engineers continue to push rail as an alternative to cars and planes. Rail comes out a very poor second in Jay's opinion. He has a chart, too!

A Little More To The Right tells you "How to be a Democrat / Liberal." Pretty funny.

Kevin of The Smallest Minority has a long, detailed and passionate post where he looks at the Democrats through the idea of "the anointed." He shows how reasoned argument using evidence will not work with some of them and wonders what to do. Quoting Thomas Sowell, he asks "How do the anointed manage to survive - and, indeed, flourish - after being wrong so often?" Good, good stuff.

Fans of Star Trek have to ask: "Have the Chinese been watching it too?" [Hint: Look at the logo in the back.]

I'm a fan of "Engrish," that mangled form of English that only Asian nations like Japan, Korea and China can produce. You've no doubt run across it when trying to read the manual for your made-in-Asia consumer electronics. Here is what happens when someone ill-equipped for the job did the English translations of the "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" DVD. Bend the hands!

A former Astute Reader who nows has his own blog, Goobage looks at Federal and State Goob. He delves into the numbers regarding Federal and State level government spending. It's eye-opening, to say the least, how much government takes from us. He has the numbers, too, lots and lots of 'em, with lots and lots of zeroes involved. Not for the faint of heart.

No particular post to point to at Conservative Zone. Just lots of conservative commentary by a good friend, with a side serving of stories about life with mental illness. Both parts make for a slam-bang whole. Always recommended.

Poynter Online is an website for journalists. They host Jim Romenesko, which is a necessary read for those who monitor news reporting and journalism. I stumbled on this post:

The other day, a reporter asked me, "What is narrative, anyway?"

I should have had a ready answer at my fingertips (but it was early in the morning and I hadn't opened my can of Red Bull).

I mumbled something about an attempt to impose order on the chaos of the human condition (as I said, it was early and ...).

Then it occurred to me that we throw the word "narrative" around pretty freely these days. Yet here was a veteran, sophisticated reporter who was keenly interested in producing this thing she heard everyone talking about, but honestly wasn't sure what it meant.

There follows a long, long list of thoughts on, and definitions of, "narrative" from all sorts of journo types. What fascinates me is how reporters, whose job is "who, what, when, where, why and how" worry about creating a narrative. The answers are a disturbing view into how the news you see every day is put together.

I rediscovered LIberty Larry's website. He's a Memphis Libertarian and has his own list of recomendations in the recent Memphis elections. I know, late; but his thoughts about Chumney and Flinn apply still.

And finally, Hatamaran offers a list of "New Medications for Women Only." Damnitol, Buyagra, Peptobimbo.... Today's laugh.