Dept. of Good Rhetorical Ideas

Via Kevin Drum, a funny Jane Galt post about how to make the "full disclosure" notes in magazine-grade opinion writing into a force of good instead of evil.

The most egregious name dropping in a full disclosure notice I've seen recently is in this Jim Lewis piece in Slate about a series of pornographic art movies (not overly safe for work):

I should make a fuller-than-usual disclosure. [Director Larry] Clark is an old and close friend of mine; in fact, I collaborated with him on the story for his first movie, Kids, and gave it its title.

I was half-expecting Lewis to go on to disclose that he also wrote and directed Kids, and furthermore that he is in fact Clark, but instead he settles for just namechecking two of the other directors under discussion and one of the film's producers. Color me still unimpressed.