Here and There, August 19

Mark Steyn writes about Elvis Presley. Meanwhile Tim Blair asks "how many handshakes separate you from Elvis Presley?. I am no more than 3 handshakes away from The King. I was once in a German class with Elvis' first-cousin once-removed, opera singer Robert Presley . Robert never met Elvis, but Robert's father had.

All Hail Marx and Lennon. Groucho Marx also died 25 years ago this month.

How does Google work? I have no idea, but if you search for arab blog, the top 3 hits (in order) are: Andrew Sullivan, James Hudnall and me. A sincere As-salaam aleikum to all of my Arab visitors.

My neighbor Bill Quick, author of the excellent Daily Pundit blog, is available for a new gig. Hire him before your competition does.

Mike Silverman gives us a an Idiotarian Dictionary

Eric the Counterrevolutionary says that journalists should stop pretending to be objective. I agree. Along with the pretense of "objectivity", journalists should reject the pursuit of "balance". I see these concepts as similar, but different. "Objectivity" is the attempt to focus on facts in the absence of moral judgment. "Balance" is acknowledging differing viewpoints, and granting equal validity and/or consideration to the various viewpoints. After all, who among us would even want to read journalism that is "balanced" about, say, pedophile priests, Hitler or female genital mutilation. That's not to say that journalists shouldn't be honest, thorough and fair, which they certainly should be. But every journalist is biased in some way or another about every story that they write, and that's legitimate. They should simply be honest about what those biases are.

The Associated Press reported over the weekend that Blacks Rally D.C. for Reparations. Saying that "Blacks" were rallying suggests that this is a movement that has overwhelming support among Americans of African descent. The reality is that the descendents of people who were slaves in this country 140 years ago are about as likely to get reparations as the descendents of the slaves of the Roman Empire are likely to get reparations from Italy. How many people take the reparations movement seriously? I haven't seen any poll numbers, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that most Americans who are descended from African slaves probably agree more with D.C. Thornton or Oliver Willis on this issue than they do with Louis Farrakhan.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 19, 2002 10:50 PM