I do use Slate and the other sources you mention, mostly because they strike me as articulate and intelligent. I also read the Post, the WSJ, the Christian Science Monitor, and excerpts via Google News from all over, including some of the most rabid right-wing gibberish you could possibly imagine. I am biased toward those voices which use creative rhetoric rather than the crude and barbarian Slander Direct as a means of expressing their perspective. Friedman, Dowd and their fellows at the NY Times meet this criterion of creative communication a lot more than, say, Limbaugh or Hannidy do.

There are certain things about conservatism that I respect and appreciate, when it is practiced, but the ranting reactionary version of imperialism that is voiced by some characters in the pundit world is not of that stamp.

I prefer people who communicate thought; for example, Doug R and Bearded Bruce often make that effort.

By the way, President Bush recently said something I found genyuinely funny at the Press awards conference he went to. He said he was feeling greatly relieved, because he had survived the White House shake-up. I think this is the first time I ever laughed with him instead of at him.


A