Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Over at En Banc, a nice law-student-run blog, the authors are getting worked up about the idea that someone, perish the thought, might cite to a blog, which is ephemeral, off-the-cuff, and perhaps not quite as carefully thought out as the better student note. I can sort of see where some of this comes from, as I recall that part of law school pathology is the feeling that takes hold that citations are sacred, special, eternal. (The limits to that particular fetish become clearer in academe when you start trying to find stuff other people have cited, and it's not there; when you find that law review editors have mangled your footnotes; and particularly when you find an entire paragraph of your writing, sans attribution, in someone else's published article. But I digress.)

But whatever you may think this reflects about law student views of footnotes, this seems to reflect a very odd view of blogs, at least as compared to other web content. So, to the suggestion that there was something odd, revolutionary or disturbing about citing to a blog in a dead tree law review, I responded,

Those of us who write about high-tech stuff have been citing web pages in dead tree law journals — including both Harvard's and Yale's — for years now.

To me, a blog is just another web page.

That produced this reply:

Prof. Froomkin, I do, however, find it very interesting that you find there to be no difference between a blog and a Web page. Web pages are generally static or — such as in the case of newspapers — reproductions of off-line material. Blogs, on the other hand, are the wholesale creation of new material.

And that made me feel old. Web pages are generally static! Web pages are the reproduction of off-line material! Blogs are not web pages?!?

I'm sorry, but under the hood, it's all HTML to me. A blog is just a style of web page, produced by particular types of front-end tools. [Yes, there is a link rot problem, but that's common to blogs and other web pages.] Back in the day, I used to mutate my homepage all the time. By hand-coding the HTML. On a 386 chip. Over a slow phone line. To an unresponsive server. Barefoot. In the snow. But tell the young people of today that ….. they won't believe you.

Lyn Nofziger, the bare-knuckle Ronald Reagan pol, has a blog, Musings.

It's a weird combo of first-class tactical political insight (aka “stuff I agree is correct”), generally bad poetry (under the name Joy Skilmer), and stupid and only sometimes funny gags, all spiced with gratuitous, mean, and sometimes vicious hatred and anti-democratic and anti-liberal bigotry.

Until Karl Rove gets a blog, this may be the best insight into the canny Republican political operative's mind we are likely to get, although Nofziger, being an ideologically pure libertarian (on economic issues only; on social issues, especially gay rights, he's pretty much a grumpy troglodyte), is a very unhappy Republican these days.

Here's how Nofziger describes himself on his homepage

I'm Lyn Nofziger and this is my website. If you're looking for a female exhibitionist with a digital camera you've come to the wrong place.

On the other hand, if you want some conservative opinion laced with exasperation, an occasional limerick or other piece of doggerel, or are interested in the books I have written you're in the right place. All you have to do is click on “Musings.”

The odds are you've never heard of me, which is all right because I've probably never heard of you either, so let me tell you a little bit about myself. (If you want to know more you can always go to your favorite book store and order my political memoir—it is not a biography—which is called “NOFZIGER.” If you want to know less, stop now.)

I am a Californian, a World War II army veteran, a former newspaperman, a politician and the author of four—going on five—Western novels. I make an occasional political speech, write an occasional political column or op ed piece and complain a lot. If you visit this page from time to time you will be able to see what I complain about.

In more detail, I spent 16 years as a newspaperman, including eight as a Washington Correspondent for the Copley Newspapers of California and Illinois.

I served in Ronald Reagan's governor's office and White House and in Richard Nixon's White House. I have run and participated in numerous political campaigns, including five for president, and have won some and lost some. Once I even worked at the Republican National Committee.

I am a Republican because I believe that freedom is more important than government-provided security. Sometimes I wish I were a Democrat because Democrats seem to have more fun. At other times I wish I were a Libertarian because Republicans are too much like Democrats.

What I actually am is a right-wing independent who is registered Republican because there isn't any place else to go. In the future I expect to be critical of both parties and their leadership and a lot of other people and things, too.

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