Mark Steyn and unfair comparisons.

Back here, I opined that there was something just a little weird about the synchronicity of conservative attack poodle Mark Steyn showing up in the Globe and Mail, and the Washington Post hiring a new right-wing blogger in order to provide a counterpoint to, um, lucidity and reason. It turns out this was an unfortunately unfair comparison on my part.

Over here, you can learn about Ben Domenech, the WaPo's new blogger who, as you can see, is best described as a total dingbat and nutbar, whereas Mr. Steyn is ... oh, fuck it. What was my point again?

HOMEWORK FOR MY READERS: I'd dearly love to find online copies of a couple of Steyn's pieces of utter hackery. First, of course, it would be nice to find his opinion piece from yesterday's Globe ("The cost of not whacking Saddam was too high," written, of course, from the perspective of someone who clearly had no intention of being part of the actual "whacking" but content to write about it from the relative safety of being out of range).

And there's an earlier piece, "The civil war that wasn't," originally here but, sadly, now archived and inaccessible. Apparently, in that piece, Steyn makes joyous fun of all of those doomsayers who have the audacity to suggest that Iraq is headed for civil war. My request to find a copy has nothing to do with the overwhelming desire to rub Steyn's insufferably pompous nose in it. No, it's purely academic. Really.

BY THE WAY, I'm guessing that this Steyn piece from 2003 is not something he's going to be trotting out on his resume any time soon.

REGARDING BEN, I was trying to be polite. Jane has no such social compunctions.