Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists - New York Times

Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists - New York Times: "Mr. Crichton, whose views in 'State of Fear' helped him win the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' annual journalism award this month, has been a leading doubter of global warming and last September appeared before a Senate committee to argue that the supporting science was mixed, at best.
'This shows the president is more interested in science fiction than science,' Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, said after learning of the White House meeting. Mr. O'Donnell's group monitors environmental policy. "

Bush and Michael Crichton? A perfect match that makes my cry. I can't help but pay some attention when fiction meets politics, but this is just oh so sad. And the Gas award for journalism to a fiction author--priceless.

A Valentine's Day Poem

I Adore You as Much as the Nocturnal Vault...

I adore you as much as the nocturnal vault,
O vase of sadness, most taciturn one,
I love you all the more because you flee from me,
And because you appear, ornament of my nights,
More ironically to multiply the leagues
That separate my arms from the blue infinite.

I advance to attack, and I climb to assault,
Like a swarm of maggots after a cadaver,
And I cherish, implacable and cruel beast,
Even that coldness which makes you more beautiful.

Charles Baudelaire
— Translated by William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

What's been keeping me away...

Home searching, then home purchasing, hoop-jumping, packing. Nail-biting, teeth-grinding, finger crossing.

First-time home buying certainly has a way of raising the anxiety level. So, don't expect much from me until we close...then move...then unpack...then relax.

Shooter and Scooter

Bush Did Not Learn for Several Hours That Cheney Shot Hunter - New York Times: "Mr. McClellan was questioned intensely by the White House press corps today about why the White House never released the information itself and why it was left to a private citizen to report to the world that the vice president of the United States had been involved in a shooting. They also seemed frustrated that Mr. McClellan could not tell them exactly when Mr. Bush learned that the vice president himself had shot Mr. Whittington."

So, the same week we find out that Scooter Libby's "superiors" told him to leak classified information one of those superiors accidently shoots a friend. Accidentally? Do we really need this guy as the second in command when he can't even make sure that he doesn't aim his shotgun at his friend?

Some people will want to say this story is a "non-story," but it's not everyday that the Vice President of the United States shoots someone. The man is in the ICU--certainly more than a flesh wound.

More on the Frey nonsense

Frey Says Falsehoods Improved His Tale - New York Times: "Overall, his portrayal in 'A Million Little Pieces,' is of a person who 'I created in my mind to help me cope' with drug addiction and recovery. He said most of the invented material 'portrayed me in ways that made me tougher and more daring and more aggressive than in reality I was, or I am.'"

This story won't die. In between rushing to finish my thesis, working like a dog, and trying to find a home to buy, I've been spending an inordinate amount of time arguing about this story. First, I have to say that this is so completely overblown. No one would care if this hadn't been an Oprah book. And do we really think that no other memoir has been filled with this much bullshit? And do we expect anything else from a crack addict?

I've only read about the first twenty pages of the book, and I haven't bothered to read the Smoking Gun piece, so I can only comment about what I've read in media reports and on the whipping Frey took on Oprah. It seemed pretty obvious to me within the first few pages that the book is purposefully fantastical. I think that there are stylistic clues to tell us that we might not want to believe all that we read. Now, he's done a horrible job of defending himself, but I don't think he did anything dispicible. If it had been me I'd have told Oprah that she can believe whatever she wants to believe. I'd have let her think that it might all be bullshit. I only hope that this author's note makes some sense of what he did.