This is hilarious (Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal)

[T Roosevelt]

The World of Null-A

The science fiction writer A.E. Van Vogt wrote a series of execrable novels set on an earth that was "the world of null-A.:" "A" stood for "Aristotelian logic," according to which yes/no questions had yes/no answers. Is a flounder a fish? Yes. Is a bicycle a fish? No. But on the world of null-A, by some process that I never and that I believe Van Vogt never understood, logic was "non-Aristotelian."

I now learn that National Review writer Donald Luskin comes not from the Theta Quadrant but from the World of Null-A. I asked the question, "Is Donald Luskin an enthusiastic endorser of the budget proposals that George W. Bush released a week and a half ago?" He wrote something that I interpreted as a "no" answer. I said so. He then went ballistic, and said I was lying. So I changed what I had written and said that Luskin gave a "yes" answer--and he went ballistic again, saying that I had compounded my lie.

Now there are yes/no questions that don't have yes/no answers that are true: "Is 'no' the answer to this question?" is the simplest one. But I did not think "Is Donald Luskin an enthusiastic endorser of the budget proposals that George W. Bush released a week and a half ago?" was one of them.

UPDATE: This is highly, highly amusing: I now have six emails from Luskin dittoheads denouncing me for lying and falsely claiming that Luskin is not an enthusiastic supporter of Bush economic and budget policies, and eight emails from Luskin dittoheads denouncing me for lying and claiming that Luskin is an enthusiastic supporter of Bush economic and budget policies. I'm tempted to introduce them to each other.

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[Jim Sagle]

1. If ol' Brad called A.E. Van Vogt's writing execrable, then

ol' Brad ain't nuthin' but shit.