BELIEF, NOT MEDICINE: Howard Fienberg, writing in Tech Central Station thoroughly debunks acupuncture.
IS THERE A NEO-PROHIBITIONISM AFOOT? Eric Peters looks at those MADD mothers and their agenda:
The anti-drunk-driving groups have done a great service in helping to enlighten the general public — and make it socially unacceptable to drive while drunk. But knowing when to say "when" applies just as equally to social and legal policy. Just because we went on a bender in the past doesn't mean neo-Prohibitionism is the answer today. Reasonable people favor reasonable laws.He's right--but too many of the "crazies" seek those levers, and enough get through to be dangerous to the rest of us, unfortunately.And that should satisfy all but the crazies — who should be kept away from the levers of power regardless.
UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has some thoughts.
BLACK MONDAY: Three NFL coaches were given pink slips.
IT WAS ALSO A VERY BAD YEAR, if you scored one of Andrew Sullivan's "awards" for excessive rhetoric.
IT WAS A VERY BAD YEAR, at least for five celebrities whose careers (or at the very least whose credibility) took serious steps backwards in 2002.
TEXAS TUNA: The Dallas Morning News is reporting that "Bill Parcells has agreed to a four-year contract that will pay him roughly $4.5 million per season, and will be announced as the sixth coach of the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday, a source close to Jerry Jones and Parcells said."
UPDATE: ESPN says that it ain't necessarily so. Watch this space (along with ESPN, your local newspaper, sports radio station and Morse code transmitters) for updates.
MORE FUMBLING: Time magazine, in naming 2001 "The Year of the Whistleblower", overlooked an extremely important example, who just happened to be too politically incorrect for their rococo editors.
I'M SURPRISED THEY DIDN'T BLAME REAGAN: The New York Times fact checking department fumbles the ball again.
WILL THERE BE NEW MUSIC BY THE WHO IN 2003? Yes, according to this article. (Of course, I'll believe it when I hear it. It's been 20 years since the last album of original music by The Who.)
(And yes, they'll be new posts from me as well. Between visiting parents over Christmas, and having to get a major article out the door to a dead-tree publication, posting has been slow since Christmas. But expect more soon.)
POSTING WILL BE PRETTY SPARSE on Christmas day. In the meantime, let me take this opportunity to wish everyone:
And I can't agree enough with this message of good will.
THE OMEGA OF ALL GREAT UNKNOWNS: If you haven't read James Lileks' Christmas Eve Bleat, and you're a fan of the original Star Trek who has a broadband connection, you owe it to yourself to check it out (for the background details), and then visit...
God, talk about every ten year old kid's dream. Or at least my dream, when I was ten year's old!
Merry Christmas! Oh and...live long and prosper.
SCHOTTENHEIMER'S REVENGE? I wonder if San Diego blocking Deion's return to football was a little revenge by head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who got nothing but bad blood from "Prime Time" when when Schottenheimer was the Redskins' head coach. In August of 2001, sportswriter Dave Sabo wrote:
Yes, Deion gets the money for nothing, but Schottenheimer has taken away the one thing Deion craves more than cash: the spotlight. Because the ‘Skins own his rights for the next seven years, if he wants to play football again, it’ll have to be for Marty and the ‘Skins.We can easily rewrite the above quote to fit the current news:
Schottenheimer has taken away the one thing Deion craves more than cash: the spotlight. Because the Chargers now own his rights, if he wants to play football again, it’ll have to be for Marty and the Chargers.And it won't be in the playoffs this year.
Sorry about that, Prime Time.
CAN'T DECIDE ON A LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS GIFT? Before you hit the stores, check out my book and DVD reviews on the Blogcritics site and elsewhere.
DEION IN SILVER AND BLACK? Three teams consider spoiling his Christmas wish.
UPDATE: Apparently, one of them did.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The San Diego Chargers claimed him and put him on their "reserve-retired" list, meaning that Deion won't be wearing lighting bolts. And San Diego is out of the playoff race, anyhow.
LOTS OF GOOD STUFF ON THE JOURNAL'S "Best of the Web Today". James Taranto notes how Christmas is "tolerated" by liberal and open-minded regimes such as Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority (and the British Red Cross), and gaining acceptance--believe it or not--in China, new Reuters insanity, and more.
"USEFUL IDIOT": Sean Penn learned little on his Baghdad visit, Clifford D. May writes.
If you haven't read it yet, when you're done with May's essay, you might want to read this New Republic article on what it's like to be a reporter in Iraq as well--the two make interesting (and downright scary) back to back reading.
BUSH SENDS PAGAN YULE MESSAGE. No word if he included Festivus greetings, however.
"A FEEL GOOD EXPERIENCE": Scott Ott reports that "Shoppers Eager to Pay Web Sales Tax".
PAYING THE PRICE: Think the British Red Cross will get the message?
GOVERNMENT WINE: Growing up about a few miles outside of Pennyslvania, I always got a chuckle out of Pennsylvania's exceedingly silly state run liquor stores.
Now they've become Web retailers. There's just one catch, however...
QUOTE OF THE DAY (heck--maybe the century), comes from Glenn Reynolds:
"There's just no room for self-pity when you're contemplating vast quantities of seasoned pork."Tough to argue with that!
NAVEL-GAZING: It's kind of funny to see old "navel-gazers" canard hoisted up when discussing Weblogs. As I've written in the past (actually, about five minutes before this blog went online), that's exactly what I thought blogs were all about a couple of years ago, even though I was routinely reading Virginia Postrel's blog, and (less frequently) Andrew Sullivan's as well.
I didn't even think of those as Weblogs. It was only right around the time of 9/11, when I started reading Glenn Reynolds' InstaPundit blog, which at the time had a prominent Blogger logo, that I began to put two and two together, and it finally dawned on me that Weblogs could be more than just day in the life, or relationship oriented.
Those types of blogs almost always leave me cold--which is why you rarely see that sort of material here. Of course, describing details of my life, which consists of long periods of sitting behind a keyboard typing, would put most readers to sleep faster than Sominex.
...although I did manage to connect the digital audio output of my PC's soundcard to my home theater receiver yesterday. And my wife and I had sushi for dinner! And I cranked out two reviews for Blogcritics, while watching the Raiders and Broncos, and Jets and Patriots games!
(See what I mean?)
FROM THE WOMAN WHO BROUGHT YOU THE VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY: Hillary Clinton is apparently playing fast and loose with the truth once again. Jay Caruso writes:
She said specifically that two Republican Senators were elected this past November on the Confederate Flag. Problem is, being the coward she normally is when she makes such accusations, is that she didn't name names.She won't be, which is too bad, because the Democrats have racism problems of their own that need cleaning out just as badly as the Republicans removing Trent Lott as senate majority leader.So who was it? Elizabeth Dole? Lindsey Graham? Saxby Chambliss? Lamar Alexander? Which one?
Bill Kristol was going off about this on Fox News Sunday and for good reason. If United States Senators have to be accountable for the things they say and give explanations for what they say, then Clinton is no different.
Chances are, Hillary won't say anything else about this unless asked and for good reason: It's a lie. That's right. She didn't stretch the truth. She didn't exaggerate. She flat out lied, and she should be held accountable for it.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THE GREAT SATAN? Iraq claims "U.S. Prejudges Weapons Inspections", which Charles Johnson calls "the O.J. defense".
Of course, this is from the Middle East, where innocent commuters and 30 year mothers who give birth out of wedlock are routinely murdered, and death threats against authors and are routinely issued. So they know all about pre-judging.
LINDA TRIPP, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Whistleblowers are the Time "Person" of the Year for 2002
As to why these women are the "Person of the Year", and why people like Tripp or Whittaker Chambers are reviled by the Left, see if this review by Orrin Judd resonates.
And yes, it's too bad the PC police won't allow women to be Women of the Year, and men Men of the Year anymore at Time. But then, gender is fluid, men and women are all the same, etc., etc. You know the drill, right?
A ROLE HE WAS BORN TO PLAY: Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), an ex-KKK Grand Dragon, is playing a Confederate General in an upcoming movie.
No word yet on whether or not Ted Kennedy will be starring in a big-budget remake of Sea Hunt, however.
(Link and photo found via Matt Drudge.)
Err, not really, but the Googlebots should love that headline. Actually though, my review of Kissing Jessica Stein is up on Blogcritics.
AXIS OF EVIL, SOUTHEAST ASIA BRANCH: AP reports that "In a defiant declaration that triggered alarm in foreign capitals, North Korea said Sunday that it had begun removing U.N. seals and surveillance cameras from nuclear facilities that U.S. officials say could yield weapons within months.
WHAT DO THEY THINK THE CROSS SYMBOLIZES? The Red Cross has banned Christmas decorations from its fundraising shops in the UK. Group Captain Mandrake has the details.
MORE STRANGE NFL RUMORS: Deion Sanders says he's in discussions to join the Raiders in the playoffs.
UPDATE: Oakland clinched the AFC West division title today, by beating Denver, incidentally.
WE ARE THE 80s: Orrin Judd looks at why the heirs of Ronald Reagan are doing so much better than Margaret Thatcher's, and has a must-see chart for as well.
"THE BLOOD STAYS ON THE BLADE": Jami Bernard of The New York Daily News reviews Martin Scorsese's mega-opus, Gangs of New York.
SPEAKING OF TEXAS FOOTBALL, might the Houston Astrodome be reborn as a casino?
(Link found via Catholic Exchange)
GIVE PANTS A CHANCE: "Big Arm Woman" is looking for trousers that don't give her the plumber's vertical smile (if you know what I mean). I can't say I blame her--this is one of the sillier fashion trends of recent years, which has certainly seen some silly ones.
THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL: Bill Peschel, linking to a New York Times article about upcoming war in Iraq reminds us not to forget Al-Qaeda's attack on the Pentagon:
In times to come, historians will call the attack on the Pentagon -- not WTC II, and certainly not WTC I or Oklahoma City -- as the pivotal event in the war on terrorism. Because to the people in Washington, the power movers and shakers, the Pentagon attack made it personal.
TUNA SURPRISE: Obviously, Dave Campo is going to be fired as coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Who will replace him? One possibility is this fellow, with whom Cowboys owner Jerry Jones met with earlier this week.
UPDATE: Don Banks of Sports Illustrated has some thoughts.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: It's not just gunning for Christmas anymore. The Grinch has stolen Hanukkah as well.
HOME OF THE WHOPPERS: California kooks cook up obesity 'crisis'.
INTERESTING CONTRAST: Lott voluntary resigned almost four years to the day that Bill Clinton was impeached.
Charles Paul Freund has an excellent essay on the overtly racist 28th president in Reason.
Funny, I don't remember learning any of this stuff at the College of New Jersey, when I attended history courses that praised Wilson for his love of big government and parliamentary politics.
LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING: It's not too late to get items before Christmas via Amazon.com--and support this site in the process. Just click here, or on the Amazon button below, and shop away!
If you're done with shopping (lucky you!) then why not drop a few bucks in either of the tipboxes on the left. And in the meantime, we promise not to run any PBS shows to help build pledges!
Q&A: Written shortly before Lott actually resigned as SML, Peggy Noonan has an insightful question and answer session on Lott. Here's a sample:
I believe that Trent Lott spoke at the Thurmond birthday party in racial code words. And a man who does that should not, half a century into the modern movements for civil rights, be allowed to continue as the face of a major political party in politics.Addressing the obvious double standard of politics, Noonan writes:Q: But come on--Democrat Robert Byrd went on Fox and actually said some people are "white niggers," and he's still in the Senate. Jesse Jackson called New York "Hymietown," and they still call him a leader. Mike Wallace made fun of Mexicans and blacks and he's still on "60 Minutes." Mr. Lott's getting a raw deal.
A: If you compare him with others maybe he is, but why compare him with others? Trent Lott is the majority leader of the Senate. That's big. Jesse Jackson is a freelance fraud, he's not a leader, he's not a holder of high office in a great democracy. Bobby Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, who was once a member of the KKK (Tip O'Neill is said to have had a private nickname for him, "Sheets"), is not a leader either; he's a weird throwback. And Mike Wallace doesn't represent the United States; he represents Mike Wallace's ambition.
Q: But isn't there a double standard here? Democrats get slapped on the wrist for using racial and religious epithets, but Republicans lose their jobs over it. It's not fair.Read the whole thing.A: Maybe it isn't fair, but think of it this way: The history of the Republican Party on race is mixed. Yes, that's true of the Democrats too, but Democrats are perceived today as sympathetic to the movements for freedom that have marked the past century, and Republicans are not. This has some implications. It means Republicans have to go out of our way to show that our hearts are in the right place. But there's another thing that is even more important. If we are tougher on ourselves, maybe that's good. Why shouldn't we be tougher on ourselves?
If the Democrats all too often treat race as if it were a card to be played in a game, and if the Republicans in contrast attempt to struggle through the issue and be serious and go out of their way to expunge the last vestiges of the old racial ways, isn't that something we should be proud of? History is watching. It will know what we did. What will history think if it sees a new seriousness on race from the Republican Party? I think it will say: Good. And I think that matters.
Senator Patty Murray (Democrat from Washington, by way of Afghanistan), anti-American idiot.
I remember in the late 1990s and as recently as July of 2001, when, in a case of unwittingly updating Godwin's Law for the 21st century, several people (not the least of which were Bill Mahr, the host of Politically Incorrect and NAACP chairman Julian Bond) made cracks about "The Taliban wing" of the Republican Party. But I don't recall even Trent Lott praising Osama bin Laden, unlike Murray.
I'm only surprised she didn't make her speech from Baghdad.
VIRGINIA POSTREL HAS some first thoughts on Lott's resignation as SML, and several excellent links, as well.
LOTT'S OUT: He's stepped down as SML, but remaining as Senator from Missouri.
Bill Frist is next in line to replace Lott as senate majority leader.
Duane Freese of Tech Central Station zeroes in on how Trent Lott's remarks about Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrat Democrats of '48 were disseminated:
the real heat in the Lott affair has been generated by new media.The result is a badly wounded Lott--who may be in worse shape than anyone anticipated...Some of that has come from the left, in particular liberal blogger Josh Marshall, who zeroed in on Lott's remarks at the start.
But what gave the story currency beyond another left-of-center smear was the focus upon the issue by the likes of libertarian InstaPundit Glenn Harlan Reynolds; conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan, and National Review Online, in particular Jonah Goldberg and David Frum. And the conservative news and information center, Town Hall online, has provided a forum for the most thoughtful, and most scathing, commentary.
The fire generated in those places simply has not allowed Lott to get away with saying what he did about a Thurmond victory in 1948, failing at first to apologize for it, and then trying to pass off his remarks as simply a poor choice of words.
Such excuses ring hollow when, with a little exploration on the Drudge Report, you can find that Lott withdrew from an event a couple months ago honoring Harry Belafonte after the singer and liberal activist publicly called Colin Powell a "house slave."
In light of that recent event, Lott's own past and Thurmond's historic record, it boggles the imagination that he could even "wing" words about a Thurmond presidency being preferable for the nation only because he wanted to be nice to the old man.
But perhaps the most important element of the Lott story is the way in which conservatives used the Net and new media in order to hold a leader to account - something that would have been impossible just a few years ago.
WILLIE HORTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE: The New York Times reports that inmates are going free to help states reduce deficits.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST these two stories on Canada...and then shed a little tear its citizens, whose economic future has just been sold up the river by "based on a 'gut feeling'" by their prime minister.
(The dreaded Blogger archives are screwing up again, so scroll down to the very appropriately titled "MY FAVORITE MARTIAN RUNS CANADA".)
STEVE, BARRY AND PAT--are all going to meet down at the Krauthammer Ranch!
SIX DEGREES DEPARTMENT: Virginia Postrel links to this Lawmeme brief that seeks an exception from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act so that reviewers such as those at Blogcritics can use DVD clips to illustrate their points.
Go to page 15 of the brief...and see who's quoted!
DAVID FRUM ON WARD CONNERLY: A must read.
HEY, REMEMBER WHEN MICHAEL JACKSON dangled his baby off of a balcony? look who was below them...
PUT ME DOWN FOR THIS ONE AS WELL.
Charles Johnson writes, "Saddam Hussein is ordering the murder of scientists (and their families) involved in his WMD programs, to get rid of the evidence". This was almost exactly the plot of Fatherland.
And here I thought Hussein was strictly a Stalinist!
LOOKING FOR BIG MO: Jay Bryant finds curious parallels between the timing of the Trent Lott debacle, and the dustup over Newt Gingrich's contract with HarperCollins, eight years earlier, "almost to the day".
There's much truth to Bryant's column--of course it didn't help, as Bryant himself writes, "Ol' Trent throws them a gopher ball, right down the middle". But Bryant believes that Republicans can get momentum back on their side again.
STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN: Wow--what a movie! Nina and I saw it at the Camera Three in San Jose, with a very small audience of die-hard Motown fanatics. If this film is playing near you, and you care at all about the wonderful music released on the Motown label, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
Here's Roger Ebert's review of the film, and here's Eric Olsen's.
Particularly recommended to fans Motown's late, legendary bassist, James Jamerson.
UPDATE: And here's an article about one of Motown's recording engineers, Bob Olhsson.
YOU TALKIN' TO ME? Orrin Judd puts Taxi Driver into a historical context:
If Taxi Driver is a great film--and I think it probably is one--it's that visceral way in which we identify with Travis Bickle's need to explode that makes it great. What with the Guiliani years, the Disneyfication of Times Square, and the after effects of 9-11, many folks, especially younger ones, may not recall what a Godforsaken place, in a nearly literal sense, New York City was in the '70s. But it was a place that made you think, at least a couple times a day, about lashing out senselessly.Somehow I doubt that Scorsese is much of a fan of Rudy Guiliani, but he unwittingly gave him a huge compliment on morning TV a couple of years ago when promoting his then current movie, Bringing Out the Dead. He said (and this is not an exact quote), "The film is set in the early 1990s, and we had to put more trash on the streets to make it historically accurate." Guiliani, for whatever his faults, left New York a far safer city than the one he inherited. It will be interesting to see what shape it's in when Mike Bloomberg is done with it.Youngsters trying to understand why Ronald Reagan holds such a singular place in conservative affections might want to think of Taxi Driver in these terms: it not only captured the spirit of a certain time and place but seemed quite possibly predictive of the American future. That's not to say that it isn't anymore, just that we've been given a chance to avoid it.
READ IT FOR THE ARTICLES: I have no idea who Simone Koo is, but she's had the excellent taste to link to this site.
...Oh, and did I mention that she has a pretty snazzy photo page as well?
LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING: It's not too late to get items before Christmas via Amazon.com--and support this site in the process. Just click here, or on the Amazon button below, and shop away!
If you're done with shopping (lucky you!) then why not drop a few bucks in either of the tipboxes on the left. And in the meantime, we promise not to run any PBS shows to help build pledges!
"GONE IN DAYS": US News reports:
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, under pressure from colleagues and the White House to give up his post instead of face a January vote of confidence, may give in as soon as this weekend, predict key Senate Republican aides. In fact, they're already discussing Lott's post-majority-leader career, suggesting that he might be handed the chairmanship of a key committee for "doing the right thing," says one aide.Part of me thinks it could happen before Friday, if only because Friday is the traditional day to dump news you don't want widely disseminated. Republicans are going to want Lott's resignation as incoming senate majority leader to heard loud and clear.
...Or we'll hear about it Friday at 5:30 p.m. Your guess (unless your last name is Lott, Nickles, Rove or Bush) is as good as mine.
PIPES ON PBS: The taxpayer-supported network will be showing a documentary titled "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet" during the Christmas holidays. Daniel Pipes writes:
The U.S. government should never fund a documentary whose obvious intent is to glorify a religion and proselytize for it. Doing so flies in the face of American tradition and law. On behalf of taxpayers, a public-interest law firm should bring suit against the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, both to address this week's travesty and to win an injunction against any possible repetitions.He's right. Read the whole thing.
USEFUL IDIOTS: Roger D. Carstens on Iraq and Sean Penn:
I am all about learning about strategy, policy, and the regional implications of war against Iraq. I just think that the wrong place to do that is in Baghdad. Being led about by duplicitous Iraqi authorities will not bring one to a series of satisfactory conclusions about the use and efficacy of diplomacy and military force. In visiting Iraq, was Penn allowed to visit the torture cells, where countless prisoners spent their last painful moments on earth? Was he brought to the sites where young girls were raped before their fathers as a form of political punishment and intimidation? Was he flown to the Kurdish villages, where thousands perished in Saddam's chemical attacks against his own citizens? Of course not. In truth and fact, Penn's sanitized trip was devoid of the things that he really needed to see.Too bad Penn didn't take Dan Hanson's advice.
Off course, all of this could have been avoided, had he simply paid more attention in Mr. Hand's class.
THE SUREST SIGN OF A PROPER DOG: AP photo caption reads, "President Bush grabs his dog Barney after it came into the room and frightened area children as Bush participated in the White House children's story hour, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington."
Barney wouldn't be a real dog if it didn't frighten the odd kid. I was so proud of my dog Willie--at age 16 and a half, and only a couple of weeks before we had to put him to sleep, he frightened a little child on a walk. (I don't know about Barney, but the worst Willie would actually do was lick the kid to death.)
Besides, Barney's a Republican dog. He's supposed to scare little kids and old people--it's in his contract!
(Willie recovering from a run in with a Volkswagon Rabbit at age 2. He lived a long, healthy and incredibly crazed life once the cast came off.)
HOW IMPORTANT IS ONE WORD? Noah Shachtman writes in Tech Central Station that "there's been a quiet, important shift in U.S. national security policy, from defending against 'probable' threats to defending against 'describable' threats, regardless of how likely they are. The emphasis on high-tech terror is part of this shift, which began in the early days of the current administration, and has only accelerated during the war on terror".
Shachtman quotes John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, who says, "These are not James Bond movie villains, imagining the most complex means to an end. They look for the simplest plan."
Read the whole thing. We may be out-thinking the enemy when it comes to anticipating his next move.
RIGHT ON THE MONEY: Excellent post by Andrew Sullivan on Trent Lott, the Democrats and race. Too many good points make it too long to post in its entirety here, so read the whole thing.
"POLITICAL PHYSICS": Matt Drudge has a sneak peak at a New York Times article that says:
"One outside adviser with close ties to the administration said Lott had become a "walking pinata" and that the Mississippi Republican's departure from the Senate leadership had now become inevitable.The article says, "Another sign of Lott's growing political problems were private discussions among some of his colleagues to find an alternative position for Lott, other than his current leadership role. Such a position, such as a committee chairmanship, might help keep him from resigning his seat in the event he is dislodged as leader, the paper claims in its lead story.""Political physics has set in -- it's only a matter of time," the adviser said. "The best scenario is for Lott to come to the obvious conclusion himself and avoid a painful confrontation."
But if he does resign, Jonah Goldberg has details on how Lott's successor would be picked.
I didn't--couldn't--watch Lott on BET. But from everything I've read, it sounds like Lott did an excellent Gary Condit impersonation.
SURVIVING THE THIRD RAIL: Donald Luskin says the election gives new life to privatizing Social Security:
Most Republicans who backed Social Security reform in their campaigns won — often by surprisingly large margins, and against opponents who were violent reform opponents. Most who came out against Social Security reform lost.Between the Post's and Clinton's remarks, Luskin says that "the conventional wisdom has completed a tectonic shift".How significant is this win in the "referendum on Social Security"? Quite simply, the debate will never be the same again. As NRCC spokesman Steve Schmidt told the Washington Post last September, "In order for there to be an honest debate on Social Security, Democrats have to lose this election. Only after they've lost another election where they've put all their chips on the Social Security issue will honest-minded Democrats step forward to work on the issue."
Indeed. We recently saw two Social Security reform breakthroughs that would be been unthinkable a month ago. First, the left-leaning Washington Post editorial page opined that "this may be the last chance to talk calmly about Social Security for a long time, and it shouldn't be squandered." Warning against "ideology and politics" on both sides, the Post noted that all reform solutions have huge costs, but warns that there are "huge costs to the preservation of the status quo."
Then former president Bill Clinton addressed a Democratic Leadership Council event in New York, saying "If you don’t like privatizing Social Security, and I don’t like it very much, but you want to do something to try to increase the rate of return, what are your options? Well one thing you could do is to give people one or two percent of the payroll tax, with the same options that federal employees have with their retirement accounts; where you have three mutual funds that almost always perform as well or better than the market and a fourth option to buy government bonds, so you get the guaranteed social security return and a hundred percent safety just like you have with Social Security."
If that sounds familiar, it should — Clinton's vision is virtually identical to the first of the three proposals put out by the President's Commission.
PAGING DR. ORWELL: AP reports that:
Secretary of State Colin Powell is assuring the Arab world the Bush administration's demand for regime change in Iraq aims at disarmament, not ousting President Saddam Hussein.Maybe that explains the Orwellian parsing of words here. Although I suspect this is simply Powell doing his usual role of good cop to Bush's bad cop in the Middle East."If he cooperates, then the basis of changed-regime policy has shifted because his regime has, in fact, changed its policy to one of cooperation," Powell said in an interview with a London-based Arab newspaper released Monday by the State Department.
Powell said the policy of regime change in Baghdad was inherited from the Clinton administration by the Bush administration.
(With good and bad being relative, and often interchangeable terms, of course.)
UPDATE: Steven Den Beste recently had some comments on the enigma that is Powell.
(Incidentally, I linked to the above AP report because it showed up on my Yahoo home page. Now that Drudge has linked to the same article from the Washington Post, expect the usual hell to break loose.)
WE'RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT'S 1969! Steve Den Beste Fisks Boston Review's New Democracy Forum, whose purpose is to "foster politically engaged, intellectually honest, and morally serious debate about fundamental issues of the day -- both on and off the agenda of conventional politics -- and to say something about how we might better address them."
All of which of course is stuck in rhetoric straight out of the 1960s.
GANGS OF NEW JERSEY: The Asbury Park Press (yes, the town named itself after Bruce Springsteen's first album), reports that it's a serious phenomenon:
It pits "supergangs," such as the Bloods and Crips and the Chicago-based Latin Kings, against a growing army of Garden State gang investigators, task-force members and intelligence gatherers.Of course, as one of Glenn Reynolds' readers comments about growing crime rates in general, the growing trend to make law enforcement PC probably isn't helping matters. Although, considering the tone of New Jersey's "poet laureate", these guys should feel right at home.Law-enforcement officials stress the gravity of the struggle:
The gangs, whose members number more than 10,000, according to the State Police, have established a beachhead in New Jersey. These gangs, some of them supergangs that germinated in the New Jersey prison system a decade ago, have spread not just to the cities, but to suburban towns and even schools.
"The gang problem in New Jersey is rampant and growing," former Union County Prosecutor Thomas V. Manahan said earlier this year before leaving for a post with the state police. "You're not saved by your address. Just because you live in a sleepy little community doesn't mean it isn't percolating below the surface."
Living in denial
Gang investigators say they are working to prevent gangs from blending further into the fabric of New Jersey's municipalities as they have in Los Angeles and Chicago, where gangs boast tens of thousands of members. But the challenge appears daunting.
The Internet has allowed the tentacles of the supergangs to extend deeper into suburban neighborhoods, according to Keith Bevacqui, a New Jersey State Police detective sergeant and gang investigator.
But there is something else that has fueled their emergence.
"There's a lot of denial of gang activity," said Sgt. William Paglione, deputy commander of the Middlesex County Violent Gang Task Force.
"Nobody wants to admit we have a problem, and the truth is every town in America has a problem," said Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Cindy Glaser. "It's everywhere. It's just that epidemic of a problem."
LOTT'S A GONER, says Virginia Postrel, adding, "This is the end. Don Nickles is too canny to call for Lott's ouster unless he knows Lott can't win a vote of Senate Republicans."
RADICAL CHIC, THE NEXT GENERATION: Meet Chesa Boudin, Rhodes scholar. His parents are in jail. Why? Because they were members of the Weather Underground:
Boudin's parents are Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, who were members of the violent 1960s radical group the Weather Underground. They are in prison for their part in the murder of two police officers and a guard as the result of a robbery of a Brinks armored car in New York at the late, unradical date of 1981. The Times, while having space to describe the origin of Chesa's unusual name—Swahili for "dancing feet"—apparently didn't have room for the names of the men murdered. They were Sgt. Edward O'Grady, police officer Waverly Brown, and Brinks guard Peter Paige. You can read more about them at www.ogradybrown.com. Nor does the Times mention the obvious point that the nine children left fatherless that day—the youngest was 6 months old—have also missed the pleasure of having their fathers see their accomplishments over the years.Does Boudin disavow his parents' actions? Quite the contrary:
"We have a different name for the war we're fighting now—now we call it the war on terrorism, then they called it the war on communism. My parents were all dedicated to fighting U.S. imperialism around the world. I'm dedicated to the same thing."Disgusting--but read the whole thing (it gets worse). As John Ellis (from whose blog I found Boudin's story) says, "The Values of The New York Times--It's not often that they are so perfectly captured."
OK, LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT: Hi-tech arms could finish off the war in Iraq in a week, remove a tyrannical dictator from office, bring peace and freedom to his former subjects, many of whom are oppressed women and gays, and create a nuclear-free zone in the process.
And someone has a problem with this??
ASTONISHING: Rich Lowry writes that "On the CNN program Early Edition, Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, said his party would have acted by now had one of its leaders been at issue. "If Tom Daschle or another Democratic leader were to have made similar statements, the reaction would have been very swift," Mr. Dodd said. "I don't think several hours would have gone by without there being an almost unanimous call for the leader to step aside."
These three folks should be out of a job by tomorrow then.
HAZY REASONING: Jacob Sullum looks at Nurse Bloomberg and his proposed ban on smoking in New York City bars and restaraunts:
It's an odd judgment in a country where miners, fishermen, lumberjacks, and boxers are still permitted to risk injury and death, judging for themselves whether the compensation they receive is adequate. Just as there is a demand for coal, fish, wood, and prizefights, there is a demand for smoker-friendly bars and restaurants. To insist that no one be allowed to fill it is arbitrary and tyrannical.Sullum says, "Personally, I won't miss the smoke, but I'll miss the freedom that made it possible."In a free society, there ought to be room for bars and restaurants that welcome smokers, staffed by employees who are willing to tolerate the smoke in exchange for higher pay, better tips, or otherwise superior working conditions. By ruling out such voluntary arrangements, Bloomberg is forcibly imposing his one best way on a city famous for its diversity.
This smoke-free fanaticism is spreading. Pioneered in California, comprehensive smoking bans are expected to be adopted soon in Boston and Chicago as well as New York.
Exactly.
WHY HAVE THE SERBS become the stock villains of choice for Hollywood? Tim Cavanaugh of Reason explains why, in a dead-on essay.
"A respected Saskatchewan Indian leader said Friday Hitler did the right thing when he 'fried' six million Jews during the Second World War."
Oh, Canada!
THE BELLESILES-LOTT CONNECTION, as discovered by Glenn Reynolds.
NICKLES CALLS FOR VOTE ON LOTT: Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the outgoing GOP whip who nearly challenged Trent Lott for Senate leader in this fall, has called for new leadership elections. Perhaps finally seeing the handwriting on the wall, Lott told Newsweek that "My term runs through 2006. I intend to serve it, whatever happens."
I hope something happens.
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO BUILD A DECENT ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT? Sgt. Stryker has some thoughts.
Sarge writes:
The first and most important step is to unload the Boomers and the baggage they bring to the table. They had their day and it's time to put them out to pasture. This is a new generation fighting a new war and it's time to bring new ideas appropriate to the world as it is, not as it was. The Boomers have had a stranglehold on the philosophies and ideas propagated throughout the anti-war movement, but what they're saying are merely variations of the same things they were going on about almost forty years ago and have nothing to do with the world today. How much history has passed and how much has the world changed since the 60's? Then why cling to their old, tired and irrelevant ideas? If the anti-war movement is ever going to get moving, then it needs to release itself from the ideas the Boomers have straight-jacketed it with for all these years. This is the 21st Century. We face a world far more complex and are dealing with issues far outside the desiccated worldview of the Boomers. Until the anti-war crowd realizes this, it will remain an anachronism.I don't know--given that many of those same Boomers are now teaching college, it will be quite some time before their ideas are "released".
Vietnam is doubly instructive here--it was the high-water mark of the anti-war movement, which gained traction because the US military was ineffective in Vietnam, partially due to using tactics developed 25 years earlier in World War II. (And yes, that's a gross simplification, and Robert McNamera, Westmoreland, and Johnson's rules of engagement didn't help things. But you get the idea.)
But each component of the military radically changed its tactics after Vietnam. The anti-war movement is still stuck in a 30 year old timewarp.
And it's got to feel strange for them, to find the military's thinking more modern than theirs.
UPDATE: This crowd isn't helping them much.
GORE SAYS HE ISN'T RUNNING: Patrick Ruffini and his readers analyze why.
IT'S NOT FROM ATARI: Sgt. Stryker reports on Supertyphoon Pongsona, which hit Guam this past Sunday with 180 MPH winds, destroying at least 7,000 homes, and leaving 35,000 homeless.
NO NUKES--BUT DON'T DISARM IRAQ! Charles Johnson says that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has gone "Through the Looking Glass": they're petitioning Britain’s High Court to stop the UK from disarming Iraq.
This sounds like another crippling case of hypocrophobia...
BE ALL THAT YOU CAN B-CUP: The Army has got to put this in their recruiting commercials:
A Western military attache told me how grenades and rockets were often retrieved from beneath the odd burqa. Women must be checked during routine arms inspections and this presents a quandary: how to be culturally sensitive conquerors and not offend the folks you liberated last year and now want to disarm.I love it.Some etiquette is evolving. Now American female soldiers start gun raids in Afghanistan by bounding out of helicopters and stripping down to their sports bras. Only then do they take village women aside to be searched. It is a quick way to prove their femininity to Afghan elders unaccustomed to seeing women in trousers. I reckon it must leave quite a few of the old boys slack-jawed and goggle-eyed.
"STUNNING": Andrew Sullivan has some prescient comments about Lott's speech in this post. Read it in its entirety, it's too long for me to post here. And then scroll up to the comments from one of his readers.
Virginia Postrel writes:
I guess Lott figures if Bill Clinton can brazen out Monicagate, he can do the same. He may be right. But Trent Lott's no Clinton, segregation's no Monica, and Senate Majority Leader has no term limits. Do Republicans really want to tell voters that the only way to get Trent Lott out of the leadership is to give Senate Democrats a majority?The Clinton reference is right on the money--Lott is trying to hold onto power and perks, for purely selfish personal gains, even though he's got to know--and I admit that Lott is the working definition of "dense"--that he's damaged goods of the worst order.
One big difference though: Clinton had virtually the entire DNC national apparatus to defend him (Remember Al Gore's infamous "history will show..." speech at the foot of the White House about five minutes after Clinton was impeached?). As Sullivan writes, in Lott's case, "all you've got is Sean Hannity and Pat Buchanan in your corner, and a damning silence from your colleagues, and a public denunciation from your own president".
LOTT HAS FOUND A NOVEL WAY to extricate himself from this whole mess.
P.J. O'ROURKE ONCE WROTE that "The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take 100 of its most prominent numskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm".
Yesterday we noted that the 108th Congress will include two senators who were once segregationists: Fritz Hollings of South Carolina and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, both Democrats. Reader Steven Allen writes:Add into that group Lott, Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle, and Hillary, and the wisdom of O'Rourke's line becomes even more obvious.You're forgetting Sen. Zell Miller, who was executive secretary to Gov. Lester Maddox of Georgia (1967-71). Maddox became infamous in 1964 when he and his customers, with pick handles and a gun, chased African-Americans from his restaurant, the Pickrick. Other than George Wallace, Maddox was the most famous segregationist governor of the 1960s.I'm sure one reason Miller isn't inclined to switch parties is that he knows that as a Republican, he would no longer be given a pass over his "seg" past.
USEFUL TO A POINT: Dead on target (heh-heh) cartoon found by Charles Johnson.
ON TO THE REAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The reviews for Star Trek: Nemesis are not looking good. Ebert didn't like it, and this fellow really didn't like it.
(WaPo review found via Group Captain Mandrake.)
LOTT STAYS ON. Insert epithet of your choice here.
UNEXPECTED BOMBSHELL: No word yet on whether or not Trent Lott has resigned as Senate Majority Leader. But Matt Drudge is reporting that "Kissinger Resigns From 9/11 Commission", adding "Former Secretary of State cites controversy over private sector clients... "
Here's a link to the Kissinger story.
BELLESILES UPDATE: Melissa Seckora of National Review Online writes that "Columbia has revoked its Bancroft prize from former Emory professor Michael Bellesiles, according to Columbia's provost, Jonathan Cole. (Here's an AP story on it.)"
Will someone tell the Ninth Circuit?
"A HOUSE OF HORRORS" is how John Facenda once described Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium in an early 1980s NFL films highlight reel, and it's only gotten worse. Sunday will be the last time it's used in regular season.
ESPN's Sal Paolantonio writes:
The horrid turf, the rats running through the team's weight room, the dank, cramped locker room, the drunken brawls in the stands, the seats with obstructed views, the bathrooms that were simply bad news -- whatever you want to say about Veterans Stadium, it aroused vile passions almost from the day it opened -- Aug. 16, 1971, when the Eagles played the first pre-season game there.Having been to numerous Phillies and Eagles games there (not to mention two Pink Floyd concerts in 1987), I can attest to all of that. Its concrete architecture might have been Le Corbusier's wet dream, but its concrete turf and awful fan (read: customer) accommodations will not be missed.From the beginning, the Vet was viewed as an unflattering "cookie-cutter" stadium, a multi-purpose concrete bowl, devoid of any kind of architectural charm. The early 70's were a time when the municipal policies of fiscal restraint and urban renewal often resulted in a compromise which served neither purpose. And that's what happened here -- and in Cincinnati with Riverfront Stadium and Pittsburgh with Three Rivers, the sister stadiums to the Vet.
But unlike Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, where the stadiums graced downtown river vistas, Veterans Stadium was exiled to a neighborhood of warehouses and abandoned lots and had all the charm of a forgotten concrete outpost far from the historic center of Philadelphia.
VACANT LOTT: Add The Claremont Institute to the list calling for Lott to step down as Senate Majority Leader. Although their comment that, "The Founders' purpose in establishing the United States Senate was to elevate the characters of its members so that, following deliberation, it could act on behalf of the whole nation", implies that about three-quarters of the Senate would have be ousted, if held to that standard.
STIMULUS AND RESPONSE: Roll Call says, "Emboldened by Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) win last week, Democrats are prepared to prevent the Senate from organizing in January unless Republicans agree to near-equal committee funding in the 108th Congress."
David Frum writes, "I fear something else too: That Lott will try to save himself by jettisoning the conservative agenda in the Senate."
To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, would somebody please have The Conversation with Trent Lott, before the next Senate is a carbon copy of the Jeffords Gang?
Joanne Jacobs has a post that includes a link to a recent Suzanne Fields essay about "ethnic theme houses", a euphemism for segregated college dorms.
Diversity, for the Left, has long been an oxymoron in regards to thought. Today, it's easier than ever to receive a college education while only being around people who look--as well as think--exactly like you do.
HOWELLING MAD: Brent Bozell on Howell Raines, executive editor of the New York Times:
Over the years, the Times has kissed the rings of oppressors from Fidel Castro to Daniel Ortega to Leonid Brezhnev. Now they’re concerned about oppression – at a golf club? To somehow suggest that opposing Hootie Johnson's club rules is comparable to facing down the hoses of Bull Connor in the segregated South is beyond laughable. It echoes the off-kilter liberal moral sensibilities of the Clinton years, when the White House crusaded against the evils of cigarette makers and Microsoft, while Osama bin Laden plotted in the desert largely untouched.
WHOLE LOTTA NOTHING: Trent Lott needs to be replaced as Senate Majority Leader. Jonah Goldberg writes:
Trent Lott only does two things well, freeze-dry his hair and say stupid things. He mishandled impeachment, mishandled the 1998 elections, mishandled power-sharing with the Democrats after the 2000 election and mishandled Jim Jeffords straight into the Democratic Party.I agree. On the other hand, this is just pathetic.One reason so many conservatives are denouncing Lott is that he's never given conservatives much reason to trust him or care about him. He's a deal-cutter who seems to stand for nothing except massive amounts of pork to his home state and, occasionally, sticking up for Jim Crow.
Already, many conservatives assume that Tom Daschle's muted support for Lott was paid for with some political concession. If incoming House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (or other Southerners like Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey et al) made a similar gaffe, conservatives would have bled in defense of the guy -- not only because he isn't racist, but because Delay stands for more than process and pork. But while DeLay stands for principle, Lott stands for little. And what he does stand for, we don't need.
"IT WAS AN ENTITLEMENT": National Review Online on liberal media bias:
From birth, they expected a thoroughly liberal media: It was an entitlement. And now there are all these . . . interlopers (or "fifth columnists," about which more in a minute). In the weeks following the Republicans' surprise victory in the November election, there's been a whole lot of whining going on. Pardon us if we don't get teary-eyed over these charges of conservative media bias.Exactly.*** Liberal critics enjoy listing the conservative outlets (or outposts, you might even call them): Fox, the Washington Times, the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Drudge. (It doesn't take long to go through them, which is why critics list them all the time.) Fine. How about a trade? We'll take the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, CBS, NBC, ABC (news and entertainment divisions, thank you very much), Time, Newsweek, NPR, PBS . . . And then there's the movies, the teachers unions, the universities . . .Again: Pardon us if we don't tear up.
GUNNING FOR THE COURTS: Balint Vazsonyi of The Washington Times sums up the latest ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, those same folks who tried to ban God from the Pledge of Allegiance:
We have been very fortunate most of the time. As yet, our system works. [Judge] Stephen Reinhardt can write all the opinions he wants. While others are overturned, Mr. Reinhardt's opinions are generally dismissed by the Supreme Court, not even dignified with an explanation.But there could be a time when the Reinhardts of this world — and since the 1960s their numbers have grown steadily — would acquire physical power. Heaven forbid, but the citizenry may find itself with a government that moves the people "to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government." As in 1776, that may be possible only with the use of firearms.
Yes, but why does anyone need semiautomatic, so-called assault weapons? Perhaps no one needs them. Yet the history of smoking teaches us a bitter lesson. Where the enemies of freedom mean business, give them the tiniest opening, and they will rule the field in no time.
Make no mistake. Smoking was not about health. It was about freedom. Gun control is not about protecting schoolchildren. It's about transforming this republic into a country like all others, where only the government possesses weapons.
And once that happens, the judge's robe can turn into a military uniform at the drop of a hat.
As indeed it came to pass countless times in countries we call civilized.
LARGE COKE? WILL THAT BE COLUMBIAN OR BOLIVIAN? The New York Post reports that "Four people were arrested over the weekend for allegedly selling cocaine with Whoppers and fries" at a Mundelein, Illinois Burger King.
Clearly, this is part of a national trend in the cut-throat fast food industry to provide a more full service fast food restaurant experience to their customers.
"KILL KURDS, NOT MUMIA!" Napoleon Cole, writing on the Wall Street Journal's Web site, is having fun crashing the "peace" party:
I pull up alongside a lone 50-something protester walking with his sign folded so I can't see it.Hollywood apparently (unwittingly) agrees with Cole's slogan."Hey, did I miss the protest?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where any other pro-Saddam things are going on?"
"No I don't. I'm not sure if I understand you. Do you mean pro-Saddam or antiwar?"
"Either. I mean, same crowd, right?"
"I suppose . . ." He thinks for a second. "I don't much care for your generation. You've got the message all wrong. This is all so stupid."
"Where do you get your signs printed up? I want to make a sign that reads 'Kill Kurds, not Mumia.' How much do you think that would cost?"
I'm not sure if he ended up thinking that I was an actual protester or not, but nonetheless I ruined his day. It showed on his face as he walked away.
FISCAL CONSERVATIVES LIKE SNOW--Bush's choice of former CSX Corporation CEO John W. Snow as the new Treasury secretary, that is.
MY VOTE'S FOR NUMBER TWO, AS WELL.
Orrin Judd links to a peculiar Chicago Tribune article pining for "the Super Car" (aka a Yugo that could get 80 miles per gallon, aka Al Gore's wet dream), and wondering "what went wrong".
Nice to know some folks miss John Kenneth Galbraith's goal of a centrally planned economy. It certainly worked so well for the USSR and Japan, as Ronald Bailey wrote in Reason:
Take a look at John Kenneth Galbraith's 1967 paean to planning, The New Industrial State (Houghton Mifflin), in which he asserted: "High technology and heavy capital use cannot be subordinate to the ebb and flow of market demand. They require planning and it is the essence of planning that public behavior be made predictable--that is be subject to control."And let everyone drive government-mandated Yugos. In the meantime, don't buy too big a car--Big Grandparent is watching!Galbraith, too, has heirs--most notably, Robert Reich and Lester Thurow. In his 1980 book The Zero-Sum Society (Basic Books) Thurow suggested that "solving our energy and growth problems demand [sic] that government gets more heavily involved in the economy's major investment decisions....Major investment decisions have become too important to be left to the private market alone." Thurow ended with this revealing claim: "As we head into the 1980s, it is well to remember that there is really only one important question in political economy. If elected, whose income do you and your party plan to cut in the process of solving the economic problems facing us?"
Ultimately, the neo-Malthusians and the zero-summers are pushing the same egalitarian agenda: Stop growth and then divvy up the static pie.
UPDATE: Speaking of cars, Glenn Reynolds and Mickey Kaus spent the afternoon testing doing a little test driving. The cars they checked out aren't quite "super", but they're not too shabby, either.