Meta and Meta

Armitage Arbitrage

Turns out that Dick Armitage was Novak's source for Valerie Plame's CIA membership. Which means that Dick Cheney and his minions are more or less off the hook.

Of course, conservative gloating about all this is understandable--if only in the sense that liberal lamentation might be understandable: One expects fans to root for the home team.

Predictably, though, certain, well, hacks are trading on the Armitage revelation to leverage a more ambitious claim, viz., that Armitage's inadvertent leak somehow contravenes the theory (favored ex ante by liberals) that if Karl Rove did leak Plame's information, he likely did so with illicit intent.

I hope such essayists will excuse me if I opt not to join them in reasoning--how to put it?--like an idiot. Theirs is the sort of argument that admits of refutation by ostension. (One need only point to the argument and say, "Look!" QED.) But...okay, let's explicate. The fact that Armitage apparently only negligently betrayed classified information says next to nothing--no, it says just plain nothing--about whether or not Rove similarly had a nonculpable mens rea in the case he also betrayed the classified information. The reason, of course, is motive, which matters not only in criminal investigations but also (I would have thought) in common sense. In short, Armitage had no conspicuous, colorably illicit motive. Rove did. Thus, if Rove divulged the classified information, one would be perfectly justified in drawing a different inference about his intent in having done so.

"Art" Imitates Art

[Treoblogging] I'm in a charming little coffee shop in a charming little town in Washington. Except that the music they're playing is eerily like that characterless, background needle-drop characters in a B-movie are portrayed as playing on their stereo (or dancing to in a bar, or...). A sort of reverse mimesis of musical mediocrity. Or something.

It's like I'm in a B-movie.

Bible Fallow-bility

Two hotels (nice hotels) in two days, and in both the complementary Holy Bible was stuck to the desk.

Goofy Astronomy

I'm sorry, but isn't this all a bit...essentialist? Especially for, you know, scientists?

The Producers

My band recently did a showcase in Nashville for prospective producers for our next record. No, I didn't know you showcased for producers either.

Anyway, it went well. A particularly encouraging sign was when one A-list producer who'd attended helped us load our gear into the trailer after the show. (Not something we're used to seeing.) We told him that if this whole record producer thing didn't work out, we could always use him as a roadie. We told him we don't pay much, but we can promise him an uncomfortable ride across the country.

Turns out, he's going to stick with the producing.

Wie Man Wird, Was Man Ißt

That should have been the title to this.

UPDATE [12.14.07]: Or this. (Via Brian Leiter.)