No Straw MenEnlightened discourse proscribes arguments that are weak or imaginary, like straw, set up only to be confuted summarily.

links for 2008-05-19

• Facebook Ads Don’t Rock - Bob Gilbreath, Challenge Divided
  Last week I walked a mile in the shoes of a Facebook advertiser and can now officially criticize Facebook as an option for marketers who seek the Holy Grail of digital marketing.
• May 15: District Trust Charities Party @ Rookery - Washington Planner, Kristen Soltis
  f you’ve read Wonkette over the last year or two, or are generally a young professional in Washington, DC, you probably know what Smith Point is.
• The Cult of the Presidency - Gene Healy, Reason
  “I ain’t running for preacher,” Republican presidential candidate Phil Gramm snarled to religious right activists in 1995 when they urged him to run a campaign stressing moral themes.
• An E-Commerce Empire, From Porn to Puppies to Piety - Brad Stone, New York Times
  Though most Internet buffs have probably never heard of him , Mr. Gordon, 62, played a significant role in the birth of electronic commerce.
• Everyone Cheats in Sports - Mark Bowden, New York Times
  Weeb Ewbank, head coach of the Baltimore Colts, had ample reason in 1958 to believe the Giants were spying on him, because he had been spying on them the entire week before the game.
• McCain Campaign’s New Conflict-of-Interest Policy Forces Resignations - Mike Allen, Politico.com
  The officials who have left include Doug Goodyear, who was McCain’s top liaison to the Republican National Convention; Doug Davenport, regional campaign manager for mid-Atlantic states; Eric Burgeson, an energy policy adviser; and Craig Shirley, a promi
• Fortune 535 - Sunlight Foundation
  Sunlight has calculated the average net worth for each member of Congress in 1995 (or their first year in Congress, for those individuals elected after 1995)
• MySpace Layouts - Pyzam.com
• How Harpers Sensationalizes Blogger Outreach - Steve Field, D-Ring
  The DOD has made great strides in reaching out to and engaging online influencers. These new online opinion leaders are a key audience to communicate with—and the Pentagon should be applauded for including them in their communication planning, not vilif
• Pentagon Cuts Off Access to YouTube, MySpace for Troops - Robert B. Bluey, Redstate
  I wonder what boneheaded bureaucrat came up with this decision: According to Stars and Stripes, the Department of Defense is blocking access to popular sites such as YouTube and MySpace for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan so it can “boost its network effic
• The Story of Obama, Written by Obama - Janny Scott, New York Times
  Senator Obama understands as well as any politician the power of a well-told story. He has risen in politics less on his track record than on his telling of his life story.
• Blunt Federal Letters Tell Students They’re Security Threats - Scott Shane, New York Times
  A German graduate student in oceanography at M.I.T. applied to the Transportation Security Administration for a new ID card allowing him to work around ships and docks.
• Denise Richards: It’s Complicated - EOnline.com
  Opening up her life for the first time Denise Richards lays it all on the line.