Stupid New York Times health coverage

Unbelievably, this article about high autism rates in Somali communities in the US manages to present a full description of the viewpoint of the anti-vaccine advocates without noting that the science is settled against them. The article says that the vaccine "theory" has "weaknesses" - but doesn't list any, only citing the case of one child who had seizures before being immunized.

Here's a theory - Donald G. McNeil, Jr. is deliberately misleading his readers. This theory has a weakness - Bob Somerby probably says he's just an idiot.

Reading a Tell

See Bob Somerby on reading a tell here. Also another in a rather tragic series of devastating links to Josh Marshall burning his reputation at both ends.

[I've used the label "learning to read" (which I intend to use a fair amount in the coming weeks, having been thinking about that for a while) because the phrase is such a nice metaphor and because the skill is essential in reading as in the more typically relevant forms of interaction.]

Shaming Calvin Trillin

In this 2004 verse on the war, Calvin Trillin provides a good example of what Bob Somerby is talking about in today's version of his eternal refrain: the entire media had it in for Gore. Trillin's first verse starts:

We chose, in this millennium's first test,
Between two lesser heirs, who at their best,
If they'd been born as sons of other pops,
Might hope to be elected sheriff, tops.
(At school, Bush was a dunce, there's no denying.
Young Gore did not stand out--and he was trying.
A frat-house honcho, Bush reprised that part;
Young Gore portrayed a piece of chain-saw art.