Short Takes

A few quick thoughts, mostly on things approaching but not quite reaching the political.

• I bet Tina Fey has had a very weird couple of months.

• Liveblogging was fun to try, but I'm not sure I'll do it again. If blogging runs the spectrum from fully-composed essays to a twittery stream of consciousness, liveblogging is obviously huddling close to the latter. On the other hand, the blogosphere is also a cultural artifact, with its own customs and traditions and folkways: and I was glad to try liveblogging out. (I wasn't the only newbie to do so.)

• If Lex Luther were real, he'd be Dick Cheney.

• The basic story on the debate is captured in James Fallows's post here. The optimistic take is here.

• How long will it be until the word "maverick" is once again usable in an ordinary context? I fear it may be a generation.

• I honestly don't have the slightest idea what to think about the $700,000,000,000 bailout being voted on in the house today -- opinions from those who know about the topic seem too divided to get a handle on, although even its proponents seem to agree it's lousy bill.

• Bérubé's back. And there was much rejoicing.

• I blogged more in September than any month since I've been blogging. I doubt I'll keep up the pace. Meanwhile, a few posts I liked were buried quickly, so if you missed them, I'll draw your attention to:
- Our Politics Today (my basic reply to the Naderite claim that the Democrats are as bankrupt as the Republicans).
- Some Religious Ideas Are Subject to Scientific Investigation

Those are the two I'd pick out, but, secondarily: if you like a good rant, here's one on flying; this insta-reaction holds up fairly well I think; and while my post on it isn't all that much, Stephen Frug really does like the word "illeism".

• Given that Charles Krauthammer has been described by one of the sharpest observers in the blogosphere as not "just wrong... [but] transcendentally wrong about practically everything he writes," the fact that he just called the race for Obama makes me nervous.