Opinions on the Web

The editorialist whom I disagree with the most but still enjoy reading is James Taranto, whose "Best of the Web Today" gets published every weekday on the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal site. Maybe I can still stand to read him because I mostly skip past the "hard news" first half of his column, just giving a cursory look at the items where he summarily pooh-poohs anybody whose causes he doesn't believe in, and just read the bits where he points out inane or poorly-written headlines. Those are pretty funny. Taranto's got that Ivy League smartass thing going for him, where he's a good writer with a real sense of wit whom I think is probably something of a jerk but would probably be fun to hang around with because he can diss people with such panache.

Also, he only posts once a day, which gives the impression that he may actually have a life away from his computer, unlike Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, who never seems to leave his machine. Instapundit's a great resource just for the sheer volume of news links he posts, but for somebody who self-righteously claims to not be a conservative (instead self-identifying as a libertarian), he sure seems to suck up to Bush a lot. It is the ultimate breadth-but-no-depth news and opinion site, though.

Also: I should commend the Opinion Journal's John Fund (not to be confused with John Frum) for his ongoing pursuit of the story of the Taliban spokesman who's now attending Yale. I have to wonder how a Taliban official like Mr. Rahmatullah got clearance to enter and live in this country. Either somebody at the State Department was asleep at their post, or this guy cut some sort of deal with them. I'll bet he's done more for terrorism than half of the people held at Guantanamo.

Update: Despite the Ivy League smartass attitude, Taranto points out today that he's an alumnus of "third-tier Western university" Cal State Northridge.