Atlantic: The 50 Worst Columns of the Year

Nate Silver was biased against Romney. His politics are no secret.

His work, and its reliance on statistics, was not biased for or against anyone.

But Silver's views are well known.

 

Always a poor argument. Saying "the dictionary's first definition is" only proves that one doesn't know how to use a dictionary. Nearly every dictionary lists definitions by the order in which they arrived in the language, not by the order of what the word is most likely to mean now. You can find it in the front pages under something like "order of senses." (Not to mention the fact that words have more than one meaning, and the second or eighth definition is just as valid as the first, and certainly is more current.)

Example: If the first definition was the "right" one, then "culprit" would still mean "the accused," not "the guilty." When that libel suit is served on you because you called someone the "culprit," when guilt has not been proven, see how far that "first definition" defense gets you.

Here's how Merriam-Webster Online describes it. Same as most dictionaries: "The order of senses within an entry is historical: the sense known to have been first used in English is entered first."

There you go. Strike "the dictionary's first definition is" from your arsenal of arguments.

 

I did look again.

And I saw a lot of liberals on the list and many others I would have trouble characterizing as liberal or conservative. Would you characterize Albom's "50 Shades of Gray" column as conservative or liberal? I would not classify it as either.

 

Punk + thug = pug

Tell your pup he'd better be representin'.

 

It could have been worse, for some. Peggy Noonan has long lived in a dream world; her WSJ piece late last week about how it's a dark/dangerous world -- obviously written in the light of the Newtown massacre -- was incredibly awkward and tone-deaf. She contorts herself in grotesque positions that the likes have David Brooks (another serial offender) has only dreamed of.