Do say hello to my friend

Irony Metrics

A worthy debut (as expected):

Scott McClellan Agonistes

(Although he is totally lying about at least one of the people
"smarter than him.")

The J-S's farcical featury tour

Of the Quesosphere (thanks to whomever I stole that from).

While it somehow managed a score with its citation to Mike Mathias's excellent, well-focused piece here, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's weekend Crossroads feature "Best of the Wisconsin Blogs" continues in its ill-considered proclivity.

Semi-coherent local radio shouting meathead Charlie Sykes "wins" Best of the Blogs with a five-sentence contribution (that's Sykes's entire blog entry — and the first of the five sentences is a cliché so grotesque even pro wrestling's abandoned it: "It's on.") containing the most uninformative, unenlightening, and downright pedestrian observation of the Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright "controversy" that couldn't be imagined.

Meanwhile, to grab just one example, Mike Plaisted throws down this feisty and typically well-written number, inspiring a lengthy comment thread featuring some of the higher quality back-and-forth to be found 'round these parts yet Charlie Sykes, whose own blog consists of 99% other people's work (except reproduced in all-italics — it's even typographically annoying), gets the accolade: "Best of."

And not Jim Bouman's digital slide show/reportage tour of Pabst Farms (the photo captions alone are "Best of" material).

At least if the J-S selection committee had an intentional sense of humor, it would have honored Charlie Sykes for this April 28 howler:

Went to see Ben Stein's new movie "Expelled," yesterday. Powerful, provocative, and definitely worth a view.

Oh definitely, if you're into bullshit and lies and the embarrassing spectacle of Ben Stein blaming Charles Darwin for the Nazi Holocaust.

Presumably the J-S picks two blogs from the "left" and two from the "right" for its "Best of" edition and on reflection it isn't so surprising that its potential field of nominees in the latter category is slim.

But why on Earth Charlie Sykes would even qualify as a Wisconsin blogger at all is a mystery and, more importantly, with so many thoughtful and talented writers out here, that the J-S would favor a blatantly self-referential corporate plug rather than acknowledge the existence of dedicated, independent local writers is very telling.

Next thing you know, a member of the Journal-Sentinel's editorial board will be making regular appearances on Sunday INCITE!

The best blogs are far too piquant for JRN HQ anyway. It's in the business of journalism, where journalism never lists the ship.

Worst of the local rags

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel runs a feature every weekend called the Best of the Wisconsin Blogs. It's in the hard copy paper too. This week the Best of the Blogs is represented by an incoherent two-paragraph diatribe inspired by the "genius" of Rush Limbaugh, some nonsense about "the Hildabeast" and "Shrillary" and Republicans disingenuously masquerading as registered Democrats.

High calibre stuff, clearly. And so original.

J-S editorial board member Patrick McIlheran, a chooser of the "Best" blogs, once actually compared the substanceless rant's author to H.L. Mencken, one of the finest writers in the American language ever.

Its inclusion is practically an insult. But fortunately most of us don't have to depend on the J-S to tell us who's doing the best writing out here and are likely even pleased not to be included with the allegedly representative samples. Mencken himself would be as pleased.

zOMG Correction!!!1

Damn, I keep meaning to add this dude to the blogroll, but every time I think to do it, I can never come up with a shorter version of "What did [Wisconsin Whackjob State Senator] Glenn Grothman get wrong this week" that doesn't run across into two lines of text, because I'm so anal about having a clean website layout.

Finally — and I can't believe I didn't think of this before — I give you:

Grothman, WTF?

You can't have too many philosophy professors on your side.

Subject to complete awesomeness

A major tip of the hat to my good friend out of the Denver environs, Subject to Complete Defeasance (apparently we both have the same penchant for obscure legal terms). SCD generously takes time away from his hectic schedule as a civil litigator to weigh in with some typically incisive observations on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race:

Having spent the first forty-five years of my life in Ohio, another state in which judges are chosen via head-to-head elections, I can say with some confidence that state supreme court races ain’t what they used to be. In fact, such elections were true yawners once upon a time.

Then came tort “reform.” Chambers of commerce, manufacturers’ associations, insurance companies and various front groups pretending to represent concerned citizens found that, for surprisingly little money, they could purchase corporate legislation that severely restricted access to the civil justice system and severely restricted recovery for those who could obtain access. Result: the proponents of such legislation keep more of their treasure.

The fly in state tort “reform” legislation ointment was state courts. Most state constitutions (not Colorado’s, sad to say) confer a right to trial by jury in civil cases. Some state supreme courts, though by no means all, take those provisions — along with equal protection, due process and separation of powers principles — quite seriously. Result: in some states, components of tort “reform” legislation get shot down as unconstitutional.

Excising that fly from the precious, precious ointment of tort “reform” involves stacking the state supreme court with “pro-business” jurists, i.e., judges who aren’t really judges at all but rather business interest hacks. In states with head-to-head judicial elections, that essentially means buying supreme court seats.

I often link to SPD's top-flight blog with the caveat that he's occasionally moved to side-splittingly hilarious outbursts of scatological profanity — I like to think of him as the François Rabelais or the Henry Miller of blawggers — and I warn off the faint of heart.

(If he happens to choose from either of the foregoing high compliments for his "vanity wall," I expect he'll select the one that includes the cleverly inserted nod to our mutual fandom for '70s prog-rock geniuses and multi-instrumentalist wonders Gentle Giant.)

However, seriously, nobody — nobody — can brief a case quite like SCD. Among the innumerable examples of SCD's amazingly concise and equally entertaining restatements of the most complex cases you can imagine is his latest, a truly superlative discussion of Hall St. v. Mattel, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling delivered last Tuesday:

Least necessary SCOTUS decision ever?

Now that, as my good friend Atty. William Tyroler might say, is masterful.

Found a blog

The Real Charlie Sykes.

Talking Heads — Found A Job

Milwaukee's loss

Is Philadelphia's gain:

Please excuse The Docket's unexplained recent hiatus. Chief blogger Derrick Nunnally has moved on to report for the Philadephia Inquirer, but we will try to continue highlighting items you've come to look for here.

That's from yesterday's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Proof & Hearsay weblog, which covers the courts.

It's fortunate for Mr. Nunnally, I assume, but it's a drag for us. He did a fine job, was comprehensive in his coverage, and always wrote with wit and style. Good luck to Derrick in Philly, which has more crime, but less Mike McGee.

folkbum senior

Jay Bullock's dad is in the hospital. Jay runs the massively popular Wisconsin blog folkbum's rambles 'n' rants and has been a kind and generous supporter of this writer since pretty much day one, for which I'm grateful. Here's wishing folkbum père a speedy recovery.

You can drop Mr. Jay a positive and hopeful thought in this thread.

Top Ranking

h/t wisconsinvote.org.

Easy Skanking — Bob Marley & The Wailers

The Shark owes me one

As in a commensurately prominent retraction, or a correction, or something, for this here. I didn't even write any of this stuff, it's a quote from another blog. I thought that was pretty clear. Yet the Shark has gone and attributed the whole shebang to your humble correspondent. Comes now the defendant to call shenanigans!

All's I said was that it was "interesting," which turns out to be even more true because the Shark wrote a whole blog post about it.

I reckon a heck of a lot more people read Prof. Esenberg's blog than read mine, many of whom probably wouldn't follow his link or check his comments. And even if they did, if Esenberg couldn't tell that I never wrote those three paragraphs, then they likely couldn't either, because Patrick McIlheran says Esenberg is the smartest man in Milwaukee County, and Patrick McIlheran is never wrong. Even when he's proved wrong he's still right. So I can't catch a break over here.

As long as Prof. Esenberg's post is hanging up there at the top of his index page, as it has for 14 hours now, my hard earned reputation is in tatters. And I'm not even a limited purpose public figure!

New Milwaukee blog

Brazen Maverick, under the proprietorship of a Marquette law student with degrees in political science and philosophy (my kinda guy). I don't know the fellow, but he was kind enough to add your humble correspondent to his blogroll, which means he's aight.

Check him out (but prepare for a shock to your rods and cones).

I would have had the same double major myself, but I tried to squeeze that last philosophy course into my final semester, giving me an 18-credit load leading to a superfluous 126-credit total.

And I would have stuck it out, except the course was "The Medieval Problem of Universals," and so I ended up withdrawing just under the withdrawal wire (which left about three decidedly masochistic students in the class, if I recall correctly).

Masochistic on account of the material and not the instructor, I hasten to add. I'd had Prof. Mondadori for a previous course, and he was remarkably brilliant and hugely entertaining, not least for his frequent references to René Descartes as "that poor sod."

Anybody up for some severe brain-hurt,* get Five Texts on the Medieval Problem of Universals, Paul Vincent Spade, ed. (Hackett). Ouch. Comparatively, reading Spinoza is like reading Danielle Steele.

* Less so if you're already schooled in Aristotle, which I'm not.

Back atcha, James Rowen

Jane Hampden's series on Milwaukee Public Radio about local bloggers continued yesterday by featuring an interview with James Rowen, who maintains the most excellent, informative, and thought-provoking The Political Environment.

Rowen's journalistic and political résumé indicates that he's "been everywhere, man," as Johnny Cash happens to be putting it on my iPod at the moment. Mr. Rowen was also kind enough to mention your humble correspondent when asked to name a few of his blogosphere recommendations. "A lot of people have cited that blog," replied Ms. Hampden, "that mysterious blog." But I haven't heard from her yet, despite what I've been told is my sexy radio voice.

Additionally, Mr. Rowen's son is currently running for an aldermanic seat in Milwaukee's 3rd District. That election takes place on February 19, the day of Wisconsin's presidential primary. Given that the Democratic nominee appears unlikely to shake out today, the 19th could be a momentous day nationally, and here's hoping a big turn-out favors Sam McGovern-Rowen.

Yes, that George McGovern; Sam is George's grandson, and the eldest McGovern will be in town next Tuesday. I'm a bit too young to remember Senator McGovern's own bid for the presidency, my impressions of the man coming initially from Hunter S. Thompson's masterwork, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, but I'm not as young as James Rowen thinks I am either!

The Other Side shares a nifty George McGovern reminiscence here.

Other Side of His Dugout

One of my intarnets buddies, T.R., proprietor of a blog called The Other Side Of My Mouth, has completely (and surprisingly, to me at least) revamped his virtual presence. Now it's going to be all about baseball, which is cool, but I must say I'm going to miss his politically minded shenanigans and hilarious photoshopping.

His last on topic missive, this one, was just about the funniest thing I'd seen all weekend (I watched an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm last night). But, I can certainly understand all that jazz getting tiring. Best of luck with the new format, T.R., and I'll continue to keep checking in. Might even get interested in baseball again.

In Effect effectively checks out

But not permanently, hopefully.

One of the more thoughtful and well written contributions to the Wisconsin blogosphere (which perhaps isn't saying much, given that the BNN local feed features roughly 90% regurgitant wingnuttery) is going into semi-retirement.

The proprietor of In Effect, Seth Zlotocha, who has been entertaining and informing on local issues for nearly two years, is heading back to the real world in pursuit of a doctorate in history.

While we'll all be the poorer without In Effect's regular observations, we shouldn't be so selfish as to wish to deny Seth's pursuit of more meaningful goals.

So, best wishes to Seth Zlotocha in getting that advanced degree.

The one saving grace is that Rick Esenberg will be afforded fewer opportunities to misspell Mr. Zlotocha's name.