Correlation is not causation? Sure, whatever.

After heavy coverage of the shift to a new Iraq policy in January and February 2007, the TV coverage began to closely track the rising and falling death rates for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. When the number of U.S. fatalities jumped in May, TV coverage jumped, too. When U.S. casualties began to steadily decline, TV coverage of Iraq dramatically decreased.

While the amount of coverage has shriveled, the tone remains more negative than positive.....

Back in December, NBC’s Tim Russert conceded that the media were less interested in covering a successful U.S. mission in Iraq, telling anchor Brian Williams that “with the surge in Iraq and the level of American deaths declining, it is off the front pages.”

This is not neutral news judgment, but a great favor to anti-surge Democrats, since TVÂ’s lack of interest in Iraq spares them the chore of defending their now-discredited opposition to the surge. Does anyone think the media would have let John McCain off the hook had the surge failed as spectacularly as it has succeeded?

Not so much, no.

Meanwhile, the media is finally doing so truly thoughtful examination of itself as regards the question of its own biases. Yes, they're finally getting around to examining if the press has been biased against Hillary Clinton.

It always amuses me -- okay, angers me -- that the press is willing to examine every single possible allegation of bias except for their most persistent and severe one. The press regularly asks absurd questions -- "Is the press too anti-black? Too anti-gay? Too anti-feminist? To anti-Muslim?" etc. -- the moment an identity-politics group makes such an silly charge.

The answer to all these questions is, of course, "No." The press, being liberal as the day is long, is positively pre-disposed to any and all minority groups, particularly those which are important elements in the liberal political coalition. But they are willing to castigate themselves periodically for being, ahem, not quite pro-gay-marriage enough.

Meanwhile, the truly damning charge against them -- that they are nakedly partisan actors who skew their reportage always to favor one political party and disfavor the other, while absurdly insisting they cover politics fair and balanced, straight down the middle -- is always dismissed as being so ridiculous as to be beneath answering at all. You've actually got Neal Gabler, a twisted little dwarf, arguing on Fox News Watch every week (at least, when he worked there) that the media were actually biased in favor of conservatives. Other damaged, dwarfish bridge-trolls such as Paul Krugman periodically echo this outlandish conceit.

Think about it: the media is willing to entertain the possibility that it is actually institutionally racist against blacks while it angrily and arrogantly dismisses the possibility it may be slightly liberal and hence anti-conservative.

Me thinks the lady doth protest too much, eh? One would think the racist charge would be the one dismissed out of hand, so incendiary it is; and yet they're actually willing to ponder whether they are, in effect, effete Klansmen in the service of the Greater New York Metro Area Kleagle.

Yet that possibility they're willing to discuss openly, while it's simply ludicrous that they might be somewhat predisposed to one party's politics than the other.

Explanation? Simple. They know they're not terribly anti-black so it's a relatively easy and unemotional topic for them to chitter about. It's relatively easy to discuss flaws you know you're innocent of.

But when it comes to the anti-conservative bias... suddenly they're quite emotional about the charge, angry and petulant such an outrageous accusation is made in the first place.

A cynic might conclude they're simply unwilling to concede flaws they know they truly do possess, meanwhile making up for that by offering false confessions to a welter of sins they know they're not guilty of at all.

Posted by: Ace at 01:00 PM | Comments (73)
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"I am from France"

They don’t call it Gay Paree for nothing. This week marks the annual Paris Fall fashion week in which clothing designers from far and wide display their new lines of practical, ready to wear fashion. This year, possibly because of fears of an economic slowdown or concerns over the destruction of the planet’s fragile ecosystem, the designers have chosen a more practical, more realistic approach to their designs. Finally the fashion elite have heard the voices of the common folk who have demanded that their clothing be utilitarian, functional and with just a tiny bit of “I don’t know what”. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 12:51 PM | Comments (72)
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Global warming is to blame, of course. It's only melt-y icicles that fall and kill people.

Plummeting chunks of ice is an annual hazard for pedestrians in Russia during the spring when the sun finally melts thick layers of ice and snow which build up on roofs over months of freezing temperatures and darkness.

I want to make an Al Gore joke here but I got nothin'.

Oh this pretty good: Al Gore is a great fat douchebag/moron and I woudn't piss down his throat if his heart were on fire.

Not a classic joke, I guess.

Thanks to RobG.

Posted by: Ace at 12:39 PM | Comments (18)
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Follow the money.

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (35)
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Two great pictures flagged by Hot Air.

Hmmm... what do you think they're trying to tell us here?

<
St. Obama, wreathed by opalescent Godlight

Hillary Clinton, as the walls sweat blood which forms a
portrait of Satan/Karl Rove

I think I'm leaning towards the candidate endorsed by the Prince of Lies.

Good links in this post about the claims of McCain playing the race card against Obama, versus Obama actually playing the race card against everyone.

A liberal I know -- and a Hillary partisan -- has been complaining for months about the sneaky but effective way Obama plays the race card. I don't know if he's just annoyed that his candidate is losing, or if there's something there.

I guess now that Obama is the nominee I'll watch more carefully.

Posted by: Ace at 10:23 AM | Comments (43)
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A reminder that in order to receive your meaningless bribe* economic stimulus package payment, you need to file your 2007 tax returns.

* my payment is not a meaningless bribe. I just meant all the other ones.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:02 AM | Comments (30)
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Oh, of course not, darling.

And just because you spend all day spreading mortar between bricks, it doesn't make you a mason. Labels are sooooo restrictive.

Jen reads a book about the joys of "Solo Sex." It's blurbed thus--

All manner of techniques are discussed, safe, and questionable. He (Dr. Litten) brings up the curiosity that all men seem to have about other menÂ’s genitals and self-pleasuring practices, and how sharing masturbation with a friend does not make one gay.

A review in Cracked -- "Five Books That Can Actually Make You Stupider" -- notes the rather obvious:

We're not sure exactly how repressed the author is or how cruelly his burly father crushed his dreams of being a dancer, but once you've got two men naked, having handsex together we've got a different word for that. The ability to even write the phrase "sharing solos" and not see a problem indicates a level of psychotic self-denial that would make Nixon look like a weeping Oprah guest. The progression from "play with yourself" to "play with yourself and other naked men" puts you close to the most important naked-man-based revelation since Archimedes.

"Shared Solos." Now that's my kind of euphemism, audacious as hope itself.

Obligatory Re-Link (NSFW): Excuse me, have you two met? I think you'd get along famously.

Meanwhile... In Italy, a court rules men are not allowed to touch their genitals in public, at least not "ostentatiously."

Is there any other way?

Posted by: Ace at 09:02 AM | Comments (43)
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Unserious.

Posted by: Ace at 08:05 AM | Comments (28)
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George Will, hitting McCain on his greatest weakness:

Although his campaign is run by lobbyists; and although his dealings with lobbyists have generated what he, when judging the behavior of others, calls corrupt appearances; and although he has profited from his manipulation of the taxpayer-funding system that is celebrated by reformers -- still, he probably is innocent of insincerity. Such is his towering moral vanity, he seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others.

Such certitude is, however, not merely an unattractive trait. It is disturbing righteousness in someone grasping for presidential powers.

Posted by: Ace at 07:49 AM | Comments (65)
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There's this story here about the rise of autonomous military robots.

What struck me about this piece is a quote from University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey

...detachments that will include 150 soldiers and 2,000 robots.

The use of such devices by terrorists should be a serious concern, said Sharkey.

Captured robots would not be difficult to reverse engineer, and could easily replace suicide bombers as the weapon-of-choice. "I don't know why that has not happened already," he said.

But even more worrisome, he continued, is the subtle progression from the semi-autonomous military robots deployed today to fully independent killing machines [PA: the obligatory SkyNet reference]...

Putting on my thinking cap, I can think of several reasons why terrorists aren't using "suicide bomber" robots.

1. Morons are cheaper than robots
2. You need skilled labor to build robots. AK-47 firing skills aren't all that portable
3. You need a LOT of money, a lab, specialized materials, and lots of computer geeks to build a viable robots. Some Junkyard Wars contraption rattling down the streets of Baghdad or Paris strapped with a bomb vest tends to draw attention.
4. Robots need to be transported. COP: "Nice bomb-bot you got in the back seat sir. Taking that shiny new beauty out for its first trial eh?"

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:02 AM | Comments (52)
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