I’m in the blogwatch it’s the one across the hall

If you don’t answer I’ll just ring it off the wall…

The Agitator: Garry Trudeau comes over to the Dark Side. Fukuyama slammed again: “In sum, we have two positions here. Position (A) advocates military restraint and the resumption of economic activity with Iraq. Fukuyama calls this ‘isolationist.’ Position (B) advocates bombing the hell out of Iraq, and continuing the ban on doing business with them. This, apparently, is ‘robust international engagement.'” And Charles Taylor + Al Qaeda. Oh, and a good quick slap at USDA dietary recommendations.

Jane Galt: Lighthouses and economics and government provision of services–good stuff. Plus, she shows how inappropriate her username really is with this post on welfare. I’m not sure if we agree–she’s outlining a framework for evaluating where the danger areas for private charity and government welfare lie, rather than discussing which approach works best when, or what policy conclusions should be drawn from the framework, and I get the sense that I would weight the balance more heavily toward private charity than she would–but her analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of government and private provision for the poor is really clear-sighted. More on this later, maybe next week.

Jesse Walker has year’s-best movie lists for… 1972, 1982, and 1992. But not 2002. Interesting stuff, though I really, really disagree about “Frenzy.” In fact, Walker’s capsule summary of the movie captures exactly what I dislike about it! “Hitch’s most modern movie — this is the second-to-last film he made, and the first with any nudity or genuinely graphic violence — is also remarkably traditional, a straightforward thriller starring one of his most familiar characters: the innocent man wrongly accused.” The way that I would put this is: “crude.”

Light of Reason: Two intriguing posts about Objectivism and aesthetics: here, in which Arthur sketches an approach to art that doesn’t fit my image of Randian dogmatism, and here, in which he makes abundantly clear how I got that image in the first place. I’ll be writing more on this later too.

Noli Irritare Leones: For the feast of the Holy Innocents, a post on child soldiers. Lots of links, check it out.

EDITED TO ADD: I can’t believe I forgot about the Old Oligarch’s big, fierce post on Wiccans, the winter solstice, and what Christianity does and doesn’t do to pagan holidays.

Unqualified Offerings: In the middle of a very “I have heard the bloggers singing, each to each… I do not think that they will sing to me”-type post about various disputes between and about various left-wing bloggers, UO has a few paragraphs about political parties that appeal to louts and loutishness. Those paragraphs are much worth your time. The rest is not so much my thing. I guess I’ll just say that I approve strongly of lots of extremist positions, but that’s different from using ranting rhetoric. The point is to try to get other people to be extremists too, guys, and that’s easier if you’re not yelling at them. IMO.

EDITED TO ADD: The Yale Free Press Blog is back! I assume this is because of winter break. I hope that the blog will fall into disuse, or at least less-use, during the semester, not because I want less YFP blog but because during the semester one has, you know, real people to talk to. “The shortest, gladdest years of life” as they say.

Via Electrolite I found Real Live Preacher, the blog of, you got it, a real live preacher. Definitely worth a look.

And The Agitator is right–this Gene Weingarten piece about his father is moving.