The first Kinsley Award nomination goes to the New Republic‘s Michael Crowley. Over at Slate Crowley ponders the U.N. oil-for-food scandal and concludes: “Everyone here deserves some blame for Saddam’s outlandish thievery. But what was the ultimate damage? . . . The greatest tragedy of the oil-for-food program may be that, for all its Byzantine corruption, we never realized just how effective it was.”

The principal defect of Kinsleyism is that it makes a fetish of counterintuition, nearly to the exclusion of every other virtue. This often makes for entertaining reading. It also often leads to obvious wrongness. Conventional wisdom is conventional because, more often than not, it’s right.

Anybody can be wrong on any given topic. But it takes a particular combination of intelligence and intellectual unseriousness to arrive at wrong conclusions in the manner which the Kinsleyite does.

So from here on in, I inaugurate the Kinsley Award, for the shunning of truth in the pursuit of cleverness.

Besides being my wireless carrier, Sprint is also full of pretty good people. After a call for phone cards went out a few days ago, Galley Reader J.M. sends along this internal notice from Sprint:

Team, some of you have been receiving notes and/or hearing of requests about [the need for phone cards are Walter Reed] . . .

For your information and to share with other Sprint employees, Sprint Prepaid Solutions has prepared a generous donation of approximately 2500 prepaid cards for the special needs of our troops in Walter Reed. Their request has not fallen on deaf ears here at Sprint. Russ Everhart and the promotions team are taking the lead at identifying a contact at Walter Reed to handle the distribution, and Jenny has prepared the cards and extended the expiration dates. Russ and Luke are working out the details associated with the public relations aspects of the donation.

Concurrently, Prepaid Solutions is working to find corporate and business partners who are willing to make a donation as part of our American Red Cross program. Our unique program with ARC enables a far broader range of corporations to help when previously they had not clear options or mechanisms to help our troops.

So far as I can tell, Sprint hasn’t mentioned any of this publicly–they aren’t looking for applause. While I admire that a ton, this company (and the employees who made this happen) deserves some pretty serious kudos. (And so does Hugh Hewitt, who got this ball rolling.) It sure makes me feel good about using Sprint PCS. If you’re looking for a wireless phone this Christmas, you should consider giving Sprint your business.

Social mores have taken a sudden, unimaginable turn: Italy’s Paris Hilton reveals that, in an attempt to cover up a botched plastic surgery, she lied and told the press she had herpes.

I’m not sure what, exactly, this says about the culture. But it must be something big.

Again, not that you care, but my review of Return of the King: Extended Edition is up now.

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Verso spring 2005 catalogue has just arrived, and, in light of the commander-in-thief’s recent reelection (just barely!), the latest offerings from “The imprint of New Left Books” is sure not to disappoint:

There’s Professor Michael Mann’s Incoherent Empire, which Choice describes as “a devastating critique of the confused, dangerous, self-interested, and antidemocratic imperialistic policies of the current Bush administration.” Meanwhile, the main themes of Afflicted Powers are “September 11, blood for oil, permanent war and illusory peace, the U.S.-Israel relationship, revolutionary Islam, and modernity and terror.” This book is written by a group called Retort, “a gathering of antagonists to capital and empire, based for two decades in the San Francisco Bay Area.” (I don’t suppose there’s a term for “antagonists to capital”?)

And finally, out in paperback this April, is Bushwomen: How They Got Their Man in the White House by Laura Flanders from Air America Radio. “[I]t’s a terrific read and just what we need–an accessible account of the far Right’s drive to power, and the women who front it,” says Susan Sarandon. (Yes, the Susan Sarandon!) Verso calls it “the only book to unmask the most powerful women in the U.S., and to reveal what W really stands for.” (I’m guessing “white.”)

Spring can’t come soon enough.

Picking back up on their budding feud from a few weeks ago, Mickey Kaus continues his jihad against Andrew Sullivan, blaming Sullivan’s desire for a clash of civilizations on–surprise!–gay marriage. [What else could it be based on? –ed Beats me.]

But wait, there’s more!

Kaus not only pulls on Sullivan’s hair, he swings his purse (again) at Peter Beinart. Is Kaus still so smart he’s wrong? Yes!!! He says:

“Maybe Democrats will ultimately have no choice other than dissembling or declaring a clash of civilizations. But why race to that point? At the moment, I don’t see why we can’t have a Democratic party that openly a) refrains from force-feeding gay marriage to the public b) has room in it for patriotic Iraq War skeptics and c) as a consequence of a) and b) is better positioned to wage an effective military and ideological battle against Islamic terrorism.”

What has Kaus’s flackseed-oil-enhanced superbrain missed? Umm, September 11? In case he missed it, a not-insignificant-portion of one civilization has already declared war on Western civilization in general, and the progressive end of liberalism in particular. In many ways, Bush is fighting a war in defense of Big-D Democratic values.

If Democrats want to continue to oppose Bush while he fights on their behalf, they need only look to Europe to see where that road leads. Is this what Kaus wants? Surely not. [But he’s really, really smart, right? –ed You bet!]

Not that you care, but I have a mini-review of the Barney Cam series over here.

My good friend Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, recently gave an interview for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. His commentary is as deeply disturbing as it is informative. Gedmin talks about his personal encounters with anti-American and anti-Israeli critics, many of whom claim to champion the cause of tolerance while at the same time yelling at him and telling him to go home. Once, Gedmin confided to me, a man in a car rolled down his window and shouted to him up close, “Du Arschloch!” (You a–hole!)

“Can you believe that?” he asked. I replied, “It’s unbelievable. This guy doesn’t even know you and he’s using the informal tense!”