Lost Translations
I've decided after some thought to ax Translations from the Marchron lineup.For one, it's just tough to find things that fit the criteria. I planned on it being a twist on a fisking, but you can't just whack any old thing that comes down the pike. The reason why fisking is called "fisking" is because Robert Fisk's articles combined factual inaccuracy with exquisite moral condescension, a package that screamed for somebody to expose their idiocy point-by-point. David Von Drehle's Washington Post article had that last week, and I'd like to think I scissored him up pretty good. But items like that only come around sporadically. I don't wade too far into the murky depths of the left-wing cesspool; I don't currently have a blood pressure condition and I'd like to keep it that way. So I have to get it through my usual channels or not at all.
Here's a good example: the only thing I found that remotely looked promising this week was a transcript of Ted Kennedy's speech on Iraq at Johns Hopkins (via RCP), but the substantive things would take time I don't have for research to rebut, and I'd feel weird pausing every paragraph to say "ha ha, alcohol, overweight, Mary Jo Kopechne, hardy har har." Say what you want about Ted Kennedy — I'm certainly no fan of the guy — but that speech is the wrong time and place to dress him down. (Ew.)
(That 1994 speech in which Kennedy sounded like he was chewing on his own tongue, repeated on Rush Limbaugh ad nauseam? It's still fair game.)
Second, I feel uncomfortable putting words in someone else's mouth. For some purposes, like jokes, I don't feel so bad. But I certainly wouldn't want someone else transcribing every word I wrote and twisting it to make me look like an SS guard in the Neocon Cabal. There's a danger of, as Geraghty warned, imparting too much of my own viewpoints into what was said. By using words such as "sounds like" and "seems" or by asking rhetorical questions, I can impart any dastardly emotion I want into any statement made and still maintain some plausible deniability. "I like puppies." That sounds like "I hate cats." He seems like someone who tosses cats over a balcony for kicks. Does he really want to murder sweet innocent kitties? Lord knows I subjected myself to plenty of that reading the left's straw-clutching following President Bush's inaugural speech. I don't want this to be the blogging equivalent of someone saying "I'm just sayin'": "I ain't sayin' she's ugly, I'm just sayin' she really ain't that attractive."
I'm kicking around a few ideas for a replacement. I'll probably come up with something by the weekend.
posted by Marsh @ 1:38 PM
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