Funmurphys: the Blog

Cream of the Crop, Tip of the Top

Now that I've had a chance to catch up on my blog reading, I can see why my traffic numbers go up when I don't post. So here is what you should be reading instead of me.

Scott at Scrappleface has insightful reporting about Turkeygate.

And while we're on the subject of Turkeygate, why does Dana Milbank still have a job as a reporter? He distorts, he misquotes, he's smug, he's arrogant, and he elevates the trivial and buries the important; all in all, he's the best example of what's wrong with reporters today. Harsh? Read this snarkfest about nothing and then decide. OK, I snuck some of my own stuff in, hoping you woudn't notice.

And back to Scott, who nails reporters with this gem:

"When informed that he had won the award today, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I want to thank all the news organizations that ran the story about this award. Because we know there are real news stories; important things folks should know. We also know there are unreal news stories; that is to say we know that an unnamed source planted a made-up story with an unwitting reporter. But there are also unreal non-news stories -- which is what professional journalists write while they're waiting to be hand-fed another insignificant leaked memo by an unnamed know-nothing nobody."

Kind of like Mr. Millbank's story above.

Geitner Simmons is blogging about a nation of regions -- it isn't fair, he get's to go to really neat conferences -- and the pictures alone are worth the price of admission (if he charged any). As always, great, thought provoking stuff at Regions of Mind.

OK, back to the press: Cori at Ranting Profs could ask "are they really this stupid?", but being polite, doesn't. I, ill mannered lout that I am, ask it.

Perhaps it was my lack of manners that cost me victory, but here is a caption contest I lost. Apparently the Sophorist went with quality over quantity.

Check out what Michael Chrichton has to say about enviromentalistism as the new urban religion. If anything, I think he's a little harsh on religion. (Found at the Sophorist)

If you aren't reading Rich Galen's dispatches from Iraq, you ought to be. I laugh, I cry, and then I have to blow my nose loudly. I suppose I just enjoy reading somebody on the web who is both older and fatter than I - no mean feat.

We reverse the normal order, and go from the sublime to the ridiculous: more than 13 million viewers tuned into the debut of The Simple Life and thus got to see Paris Hilton wear her jeans so low that her crack had to be fuzzed out, along with Nicole's mouth when she said naughty words. All I can say is, I feel sorry for the people who they are staying with and I hope they got a lot of money to put up with the two gals. The number of viewers went up with the second show, which illustrates some pithy saying about how you won't go broke underestimating the intellengence of the American TV watcher.