Still More Noted

by Cliopatria

Steven Berlin Johnson,"Five Things All Sane People Agree on About Blogs and Mainstream Journalism (so can we stop talking about them now?)," StevenBerlinJohnson.com, 1 August, responds with common sense to Nick Lemann's"Amateur Hour," New Yorker, 7 August. Thanks to Emily Gordon at Emdashes for the tip.

Eduardo Moisés Peñalver,"Are Illegal Immigrants Pioneers? The Irony of American History," Commonweal, 5 May, argues that ignoring the law in population resettlement is an old American tradition. Thanks to Dale Light of Light Seeking Light for the tip.

For those, like Jim Lindgren and me, who have Scott McLemee and Rick Perlstein to thank for introducing us to George Scialabba's essays, he's a regular contributor to the Boston Review, Dissent, the NYRB and the Boston Globe, where his most recent piece is"Far, far away: An endless void or a guiding hand?"

"2006 Super-Villain Edition," New York Press, 19-25 August, features the 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers. Goodness knows, the competition is keen enough. Scroll down for 2005's Top 50. Thanks to Kevin Morrissey at VQROnline for the tip.

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Oscar Chamberlain - 8/14/2006

Peñalver makes an excellent point in his article. Americans have made highly selective use of the law, accroding to their values and their desires. Illegal immigration and "squatting" are two good examples.

One of their commonalities is that the majority of people doing both were and are hardly anarchistic in their behavtion. James Willard Hurst in his opening to Law and the Conditions of Freedom gives an example of squatters setting the local ground rules for law and government. Likewise most illegal immigrants want to live a fundamentally legal existence with both the benefits and responsibilities of law.

Contradictory? Yes. Hypocritical? Arguably. Very American? Oh yes!

Harold Henderson - 8/12/2006

On reflection, both Johnson and Lemann seem not to read enough blogs, and not to be critical enough of the mainstream media. There's no substitute for Brad DeLong, Dean Baker, and Cliopatria, for instance. And the standard he-said, she-said of the MSM frequently manages to subtract from the sum total of human knowledge. http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/daily-harold/