I'M A FAILURE! I must be. Otherwise, while he was busily trashing the entire, insular WarBlog community for -- what? Not being as clever a group of writers as, say, the typical ex-Suck.com writer? -- Tim Cavanaugh would surely have found some fault with a throwaway kind word or generous remark I'd made in the pages of Mind Over What Matters, lo these past three months.

Instead, he nails "...the consistently correct Moira Breen," trashes "my very dear friend Ken Layne," and finds fault with "another terrific Matt Welch column." Among twenty-or-so other, non-fraudlent members of the Big-Name Blogger Brigade. Where's Mind Over What Matters? Nowhere! As least insofar as Tim Cavanaugh is concerned,

Aha! Here's the problem! Obviously, I'm not sufficiently sucking up to the right self-aggrandizing people. Tim! It's not too late! I can learn! I'll do better! Look here! See? Watch this:

My self-hating friend Tim Cavanaugh has just written a "laundry-list" style hatchet job that would put Maureen Dowd to shame! Don't miss it!

UPDATE:
Daimnation trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Samizdata trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Instapundit trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Dailypundit trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Little Green Footballs trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Bjørn Stærk trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Tim Blair trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Jeff Jarvis gently trashes Tim Cavanaugh here.
Ken Layne royally trashes Tim Cavanaugh here and here.

And finally, USS Clueless reminds us here that, by calling so much attention to his little chain-yanking stunt, the above-mentioned bloggers have only helped Cavanaugh accomplish exactly what he set out to do. My position, quite the contrary, is that when Mind Over What Matters fails to jump at the slightest provocation, we're letting the terrorists win.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND: "So Osama Bin Laden didn't kill Charles Bishop and Accutane didn't either. What did? Mental illness. That's sad. But it's not news."

So says Richard Blow, writing for the occasionally interesting TomPaine.com. In an article subtitled "How The Press Used Its Own Hysteria To Create An Overblown Tale Of Drama and Destruction," Blow reaches the same obvious conclusion that Mind Over What Matters did one week earlier -- except that where I was just flying on instinct, Blow debunks the Accutane connection with solid research and documentation:

Look at the numbers. According to the Miami Herald and other papers, 147 out of 12 million Accutane users between 1982 and May 2001, an 18-year span, were hospitalized for depression or committed suicide. That's about 1.25 hospitalizations or suicides per 100,000 Accutane users. But the suicide rate among Bishop's age group, 15-24, is about 15 per 100,000 per year. Which makes it sound that if you don't want your kids to kill themselves, you should put them on Accutane, and fast."

By the way, TomPaine.com has just overhauled their entire website, and it's now much easier on the eyes. Thanks, guys.

INCREDIBLE! I've hardly posted a worthy paragraph since the holidays, and still you people keep coming back, looking for more. Bless you all. The long drought is nearly over. My DSL connection is back -- Blogger seems to be working reliably (for the moment) -- at this point, fatigue remains the only obstacle to the resumption of a near-daily posting schedule. Stay tuned...