Wow.

Here's a great exegesis of David Frum's book, Dead Right. It just takes apart a large section of contemporary "conservative" thought.

Link swiped from Patrick Nielsen Hayden's Electrolite.

Grrr -- Deliberate dumbing down.

I was reading Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, and he was using the term "lede" a lot.

I always get a bit twitchy about that. It's a variant spelling of "lead", as in "the lead paragraph of a news story."

But thinking about it, I realized another reason why spelling "lead" as "lede" is just plain offensive -- leaving aside my delicate orthographic sensibilities. See, the alleged reason for spelling it that way is because then it becomes obvious that you mean "lede" and not, say, the metal lead. In other words, it's a flag to your copy editors you mean the word just as an internal reference, and it shouldn't get out the door.

The problem, of course, is that this assumes your copy editors and/or proofreaders are blithering idiots who can't tell what you mean unless you misspell it for them.

Your copy editors. Your proofreaders.

Think about it.

Grrr.