|
|
|
"He Is Not Alone In His Assessment"
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 10:37 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Liberal Fascism · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Andrea Billups of the Washington Times writes about advertising and father figures: Todd Wasserman knew he had touched a nerve when he saw the enormous number of responses from readers.No, far from it. The Lost Art Of War
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 07:19 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
In City Journal, Andrew Klavan, whose novel True Crime was adapted for the big screen by Clint Eastwood, writes: During World War II, Hollywood stars like James Stewart and directors like Frank Capra enlisted in the military to combat dictators as willingly as Sean Penn and Michael Moore now tootle down to Venezuela and Cuba to embrace them. More to the point, yesteryear’s studio heads—many of them conservative Republicans—worked in cooperation with a Democratic administration to produce top-notch entertainment supporting the war effort. The result was not only rousing combat tales like 1943’s Sahara, Bataan, and Action in the North Atlantic—all still watchable today—but also some of the finest motion pictures ever made: 1942’s Casablanca and Mrs. Miniver, for instance, and the terrific yet all-but-forgotten They Were Expendable (1945). It was one of the film industry’s finest hours.Indeed they are; read the whole thing. Quote Of The Day
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 07:07 PM · The Making of the President
"McCain wouldn't be my first pick. Then again, none of the candidates were really my first pick. But I think the notion that, variously, conservatism, the country or the party are doomed if he's the nominee or the president is pretty absurd." Latest PJM Political Online
If you missed Pajamas' weekly show on XM's POTUS '08 presidential election channel, tune in here: Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards head for the sidelines, and Bill Clinton dusts off the memories of Jesse Jackson in South Carolina, plus: Does Anybody Remember Laughter?
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 05:05 PM · All You Need Is Ears
Here are two more tracks to add to the CD edition of SCTV's classic Stairways To Heaven album: Update: Here's an even cooler DIY mash-up. "Bloggers National Security Threat!"
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 01:56 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The New, New Journalism
Linking to a recent AP article, James Joyner ponders why bloggers are being considered a national security threat: Let me get this straight:Well, I'd be worried about these tyros joining the Blogosphere, myself. When History Rhymes
Michael Moore, four years ago: “There’s a reason that they’re saying Kerry is the No. 1 liberal in the Senate. It’s because he is the No. 1 liberal in the Senate.”But hey, that was then, this is now. The Five Stages Of Voting In The GOP Primary
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 12:21 PM · The Making of the President
"The Civic Religion That Is Democratic Politics"
By Ed Driscoll · January 31, 2008 11:30 AM · Bobos In Paradise · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
CBS' Harry Smith: In the civic religion that is Democratic politics, the most treasured covenant was passed to the young Senator from Illinois.Well, it's tough to argue with the former half of that equation. As to "the most treasured covenant", and the reality that it was built upon, James Piereson has some thoughts. Totalitarianism With A Smiley Face
Since I'll be busy much of the day assembling the next edition of PJM Political, hopefully this will hold you over in-between posts: Here's a link to the Pajamas article the video references. The World Runs On Blogosphere Time
By Ed Driscoll · January 29, 2008 02:53 PM · The Future and its Enemies
Noemie Emery writes that the world is changing too quickly for the dead tree publishing world to keep pace: "things change so fast nowadays that by the time a book about current affairs hits the market, the reality it is describing may well have ceased to exist." That's always the danger of projecting current trends too far out into the future. It's not at all a new phenomenon, but clearly it is an accelerating one. While Europe Slept
Bruce Bawer writes: It’s very clear what’s going on here – and where it’s all headed. Europe is on its way down the road of Islamization, and it’s reached a point along that road at which gay people’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being directly challenged, both by knife-wielding bullies on the street and by taxpayer-funded thugs whose organizations already enjoy quasi-governmental authority. Sharia law may still be an alien concept to some Westerners, but it’s staring gay Europeans right in the face – and pointing toward a chilling future for all free people. Pim Fortuyn saw all this coming years ago; most of today’s European leaders still refuse to see it even though it’s right before their eyes.Read the whole thing. Somebody Didn't Get The Memo
Fox has wisely ruled that the Super Bowl will be a politics-free zone. Unfortunately, someone didn't get the message, it seems. Something Else To Thank The Gipper For
By Ed Driscoll · January 29, 2008 12:42 PM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · The Future and its Enemies · The Substance of Style · War And Anti-War
Anne Applebaum asks, "Where Did All Those Gorgeous Russian Women Come From?": There was a particular historical moment, round about 1995 or so, when anyone entering a well-appointed drawing room, dining room, or restaurant in London was sure to encounter a beautiful Russian woman. Though the word beautiful doesn't really capture the phenomenon. The women I'm remembering were extraordinarily, unbelievably, stunningly gorgeous.As Applebaum concludes, "Beauty is a matter of luck, but the same could be said of many other talents. And what open markets do for beautiful women they also do for other sorts of genius." And To Think, I Knew Her When...
I first met Mary Katharine Ham when I covered a special Senate briefing for bloggers for the second day of Pajamas Media's existence, back in November of 2005. She seemed so fresh-faced and innocent back then. Who knew that just a couple of years later, she would be destined to become.... The Worst Person In The World. Personally, I blame this tragic denouement on the all-corrosive effects of Las Vegas. What Kind Of Man Used To Read Playboy?
Kay Hymowitz charts the current status of the Decline of Western Civilization with the SYMs--Single Young Males: Maxim asked the SYM what he wanted and learned that he didn’t want to grow up. Whatever else you might say about Playboy or Esquire, they tried to project the image of a cultured and au courant fellow; as Hefner famously—and from today’s cultural vantage point, risibly—wrote in an early Playboy, his ideal reader enjoyed “inviting a female acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex.” Hearing this, the Maxim dude would want to hurl. He’d like to forget that he ever went to school.Obligatory Allahpundit-inspired Exit Questions: Do the trends that Hymowitz describes above dovetail into this--and if so, how are they intertwined? Update: Reader Stephen Shields squares the circle, with a link to this. Judge Bork Could Not Be Reached For Comment
Teddy Kennedy was quoted today as saying: "Through Barack, I believe we will move beyond the politics of fear and personal destruction and unite our country with the politics of common purpose."Pretty ironic, considering it's coming from the man who did the most to bring the politics of fear and personal destruction to modern Washington. Update: The New York State chapter of NOW decides to raise the stakes on Ted, to see who can peg the irony meter higher. Clinton Disillusionment Syndrome
Karl of Protein Wisdom writes: The Clinton strategy of marginalizing Obama as “the black candidate” and claiming that Obama was a Reagan supporter strikes at the very heart of the mulicultural vision, at the very heart of the Left-liberal identity. It cannot be compartmentalized as a defense of progressive ideals or the progressive movement because there is no significant ideological difference between Sens. Clinton and Obama. Moreover, the Democrats’ success in 2006, combined with their belief that this will be a “change” election cycle, makes the environment much different from the 1990s, when the Clintons were seen as first arresting the advance of the Right, later as the only bulwark against a GOP-led Congress. Thus, the relentless, overweening ambition and narcissism of the Clintons and their resort to racial politics is so nakedly exposed that Left-liberals are unable to avert their eyes from it.Read the whole thing. The Return Of Jacksonian Politics
In September, I wrote: As detailed in Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover's Mad As Hell: Revolt at the Ballot Box, 1992, what some may not recall these days about Bill Clinton's "Sister Souljah Moment", was that it had little to do with insulting a two-bit virtually unknown rapper, and everything to do with distancing himself from the failed radic chic 1970-era politics of her backer, Jesse Jackson. It was one of many gestures that allowed Clinton to position himself as much more moderate than the average Democrat presidential candidate, and went far towards cementing his candidacy.For a moment of course, Clinton thought he needed Jackson's imprimatur during the impeachment hearings, but ten years on, Jesse's back to being merely a name to be demagogued by Bill. Will it work? Michael Graham posits that it already has: How to Defeat Obama?But it sounds like the scope of Obama's victory last night may make the Clintons look increasingly small. Still, don't count out what 17 years of battlefield prep can do for you. Phoning It In Since 9/11
Found via Fausta's Blog, Front Page magazine notes that "The David Horowitz Freedom Center has succeeded in putting the feminists and Islamists on the defensive": As David Horowitz and Robert Spencer note in the article below, the DHFC's exposure of the feminist movement's lack of attention to women's rights in the Muslim world has caused many of the movement's most prominent activists to sign a letter protesting that they originated concern for Muslim women. The letter, drafted by feminist writer Katha Pollitt, has been signed by such notables as:Hey, everyone's entitled to an off-decade. Interesting Coincidence
Noel Sheppard of NewsBusters writes: NewsBusters reported in December that Internet behemoth Google had a disclaimer cautioning readers that the website of conservative magazine the American Spectator "may harm your computer."It raises another question--which Websites get stuck with this tag? I noticed the same warning on the libertarian Tech Central Station Website (where I've been an off and on contributer since 2002), when I did a Google search to find Arnold Kling's "Folk Marxism" meme last May. Here's a screen capture from back then displaying that same "This site my harm your computer" warning above two separate TCS links. After seeing that warning pop-up, I immediately sent the above screen capture to Nick Schulz, TCS's editor and publisher to let him know. The warning that Google slapped on TCS quickly went away, presumably after Nick or one of his associates got in touch with Google. And as Noel writes above, Google removed their warning on the American Spectator's site, again, presumably after a friendly email or twenty from the folks at AmSpec. This could be something that one or two mischievous coders in the bowels of the Google cubicles are doing to goof off in-between World of Warcraft sessions. Or it could be some sort of virus or malware installed by someone not associated at all with Google, but designed to trigger Google's warning mechanisms, and thus steer traffic away from non-PC sites that might engender thoughtcrime. But the fact that it's hit at least two prominent libertarian, conservative, free-market, non-leftwing, whatever you want to call them sites is quite a remarkable coincidence, it seems. A Voyage To Lilliput
By Ed Driscoll · January 26, 2008 11:44 AM · The Memory Hole · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
Fresh on top of Hamas' noontime candlelit noontime siesta yesterday, Small Dead Animals spots another case of Middle Eastern fauxtography: the giant killing machines oppressing the "Occupied Territories Of The Little People." This Also Just In
Found via Ace of Spades, National Review's Andrew McCarthy writes: The readers’ representative recounted discussing the matter with Times editor Bill Keller. Tellingly, Keller said he “does not want to single out Greenhouse … because it would appear to be a tacit rebuke in the face of a partisan assault.” And so, at last, we stumble into the truth. The Times is not a newspaper. It is a partisan, self-consciously engaged in partisan battle.This was news when their previous ombudsman at least had the cojones to cop to it in more straightforward language four years ago. No one should be all that surprised, these days. This Just In
By Ed Driscoll · January 25, 2008 08:44 PM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Muggeridge's Law · The New Puritans
"A U.S. study suggests marketing plays a role in how often parents buy fast food for their children." "Lesbian Pair Kissed Over Body Of Girl They Killed"
If someone in Hollywood has been itching to do a distaff postmodern remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, your perfect source material has just presented itself. (Via Hot Air, which wryly dubs the story "Tabloid nirvana attained.") Moderating The Moderators
By Ed Driscoll · January 25, 2008 04:57 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
One of the readers of NRO's Corner has an excellent suggestion: One way our people ought to start standing up to the various debate moderators is to start simply answering their rather biased questions with a repeated stock phrase which clearly identifies who they are.Of course, if you're on the opposite side of the aisle, you can simply ask for the deck chairs to be rearranged at your leisure. That's An Easy One
By Ed Driscoll · January 25, 2008 11:41 AM · Ed On The Radio · The Future and its Enemies · War And Anti-War
Ezra Levant writes: I was interviewed on the XM satellite radio channel "POTUS '08". Click here to hear it. I'm not sure how a radio channel dedicated to the 2008 U.S. presidential election found a way to dedicate 15 minutes to a case of Canadian censorship, where the CBC's several radio channels have been silent on the subject.That's an easy one--Ezra's story went from Little Green Footballs to Hot Air to Instapundit to the Pajamas motherblog, stopping by for a cup of coffee on my blog as well. Since it seemed to resonate so much with Pajamas' bloggers--not to mention readers--it seemed to me that it was a topic we should explore on Pajamas' radio show, even if it's a story only tangentially related to the 2008 election. (Presumably, we'll be back to wall-to-wall election horse race coverage next week.) Darkness At Noon
By Ed Driscoll · January 25, 2008 11:29 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Even more fauxtography from AP and Reuters? On at least two occasions this week, Hamas staged scenes of darkness as part of its campaign to end the political and economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip, Palestinian journalists said Wednesday.Note the sunlight streaming into the room, from behind the curtains. Of course, this is far from the first time Reuters has been caught cooking the books in the Middle East. But hey, maybe Hamas are just big Sunday Night Football fans... Update (1/26/08): Pajamas HQ notes: Since this post went up, TIME has altered the caption on the photograph. Now it strikes a much more “symbolic” note: “Blackout: The Israeli embargo has left the Gaza Strip without electricity. To emphasize its plight the Palestinian Parliament met by candlelight on Tuesday.” I Christen Thee The Crippling Monthly Payment!
By Ed Driscoll · January 25, 2008 12:49 AM · The Substance of Style
James Lileks sails into the annual Minneapolis Boat Show, camcorder in hand: (Larger version viewable here.) The Banality Of Evil--Filed In Triplicate
We had Ezra Levant on PJM Political today, and even played excerpts from a couple of his YouTube clips. But Iowahawk, somehow, has found the original complaint against Levant. Or a reasonably satirical facsimile thereof. And You Thought Political Blogs Worked Fast
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 09:34 PM · Run To Daylight
He hasn't even gotten the gig with the Redskins yet, but there's already a "Fire Jim Fassel" Weblog. Their motto? "Why waste time"! Funny, He's Never Called Me "Pilgrim" Once
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 08:45 PM · The New, New Journalism
Roger L. Simon: the John Wayne of the Blogosphere? "No One Understands This NASCAR Nation More Than Brian"
As Glenn Reynolds notes: THE NEW YORK TIMES ENDORSES HILLARY CLINTON -- and, because they must want to do him harm, John McCain. (No, really -- Rudy's people are even pointing out the endorsement.)Thus offering the perfect softball for Brian Williams to unwittingly pitch to Rudy during tonight's GOP debate: Back in 2004, Jeff Zucker, the president of NBC told USA Today, "No one understands this NASCAR nation more than Brian." Curious, isn't it, how such a man of Middle America can pay such deference to the Gray Lady? Update: Related thoughts from The Red Hot Chili Pipers!
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 06:12 PM · All You Need Is Ears
Back in early 2006, Australia's John Birmingham profiled Tim Blair, amongst others, in his look at conservative comedy: Blair, the closest antipodean analogue of O'Rourke, is a declared political warrior, with no interest in fairness, unlike traditional satirists such as Patrick Cook or Mike Carlton who are even-handed in their choice of targets. A Blair column is predictable insofar as you know who is going to get whacked - exactly the same people who took a beating in that morning's Miranda Devine op-ed piece. But unlike Devine, Blair consistently rewards attention with little hash cookies of humour such as his obsession with AC/DC's bagpipe player. Does he tour? Does he have groupies? Are they called bag ladies?He does indeed tour--and gets down with his bad, Utilikilted self! Breaking: Dennis Kucinich Drops Out
It's to a far, far better gig that Kucinich goes--because let's face it, Ed Straker can't run SHADO forever. Beware The Alberta Human Rights Commission
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 05:00 PM · Ed On The Radio · The Making of the President · War And Anti-War
Ezra Levant was our special guest this week on PJM Political, in which he discussed his infamous videotaped kerfuffle with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Also on the show were David Frum on his new book, Comeback:Conservatism That Can Win Again, Patrick Cox, who was Fred Thompson's first campaign hire, and James Lileks. Tune in here to listen to the whole show, or here to go straight to my interview with Ezra. Beware The Metric Jihadis!
As David Frum, our guest this week on PJM Political wrote in How We Got Here, the 1970s was an era loaded with bad ideas (not to mention even worse aesthetics). One of the few bad ideas that America dodged was converting to the metric system--but that's not the case in EU-ifed England. Debbie Schlussel warns, "Beware the metric jihadis. Consider me a fellow member of Al Anti-Metricaeda." Saddam Lied, People Died
Robert Bidinotto writes, "So much for the canard that the Bush administration manufactured lies to justify the Iraq invasion": The Bush people didn't lie. They were taken in by Saddam Hussein's lies.Like most fascists, Saddam simply wasn't prepared to have his bluff called, despite the astronomic stakes involved. When History Rhymes
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 01:47 PM · The Making of the President
In 1960, Mort Sahl summed up the race--fought alongside virtually identical political positions--between Richard Nixon, the 47-year old vice president of President and former General Dwight D. Eisenhower, then 70, and 43-year old John F. Kennedy, the son of the 72-year old one-man political machine Joseph P. Kennedy as "Oh yeah? So's your old man!" Tom Maguire writes that the fiercely fought battles between Hillary and Obama boil down to "'You're Black' Versus 'You're The Boss's Wife'". As Orrin Judd writes, "In the absence of ideas, they're stuck fighting over minutiae." Update: The American Thinker looks at a much more bitter and modern version of "So's Your Old Man." The Greatest Hollywood Digital Special Effects Job In History
By Ed Driscoll · January 24, 2008 12:43 PM · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Titled, "Obama: I'm Not a Muslim! Forward This to Everyone You Know", this Wired article contains this unintentionally ironic passage: The Obama campaign announced the debunking effort with an e-mail barrage from John Kerry of Massachusetts, in which the former presidential candidate urges supporters to "e-mail the truth" to everyone on their address books, to print out the facts about Obama's background and post them at work, and to call local radio stations and talk to neighbors.Yes, how did the Swift Vets, on their budget, talk Industrial Light & Magic into digitally inserting Kerry into footage of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations back in 1971, and pay Rich Little for doing an outrageously over-the-top Boston Brahmin accent? (But c'mon Rich--JJJJJennnghis Kahn? isn't that a bit too much? Nobody will believe it!) To complete the ultimate scam, ILM then digitally inserted Kerry, much like Hollywood's Forrest Gump a decade ago, onto the set of the Dick Cavett Show from that same year. And they talked C-Span into running that footage in 2004. Amazing! Update: Related thoughts from Mike Hendrix and Power Line. Bill Comes Full Circle
Playing the role of attack dog on the campaign trail, Bill Clinton snarls at CNN: "Once you accuse somebody of racism or bigotry or something, the facts become irrelevant."as Ace writes, "Irony much? Oh yes, very much." (Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday; I was putting this week's PJM Political to bed.) Better Late Than Never At The Washington Post
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 09:55 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Michael Ledeen writes that the Washington Post may finally be getting it: Monday the WaPo had a front-page story about the "foreign fighters" in Iraq. It was based on the so-called Sinjar documents, captured in Iraq, and detailing the lives and activities of would-be martyrs. It increases the percentage of foreign suicide bombers in Iraq to something like ninety percent.There's a thought. On his Pajamas blog, Michael's thoughts on "The Post, Newsweek, and the Jews" (specifically their commissioning--and subsequent apologizing for--Arun Gandhi and his anti-Semitic rant) are also well worth your time. "No Other Voting Bloc In The Country Faces This Choice"
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 08:22 PM · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
James Taranto links to an astonishing passage in a CNN article that certainly puts the emphasis on the second word of the phrase presidential race: Recent polls show black women are expected to make up more than a third of all Democratic voters in South Carolina's primary in five days.Steve Green responds that identity politics-themed articles such as this are "Why Politics Make Me Drink Reason #478". adding: I dunno. White Republican males had like seven or eights guys to choose from (plus Ron Paul), and they seem to be handling it just fine.HehTM. More on media-induced identity politics from Steve Boriss, who writes, "Media Blinders Impede a Colorblind Society." When You See An Accident, You Know Exactly What To Do!
While this is a perfectly acceptable Tom Cruise parody video, I'd say that Mickey Kaus has Tom's shtick down. KSW, all you spectators, KSW! The Media Violence Project
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 03:36 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
A public service message campaign whose time (and Newsweek!) has come. Actor Heath Ledger Dead
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 02:15 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Breaking, as Matt Drudge would say: NEW YORK -- Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence, police said Tuesday, in what might be a drug-related death.The Brokeback Mountain star was 28; his next role was scheduled to be as the Joker in the next Batman movie, where presumably (and somewhat reminiscent of Brandon Lee in The Crow), principle photography had already concluded before his death. A Tale Of Two Photos
Andrea Harris writes: A tale of two photos. Even now, with the truth about the Vietnam War trickling ever so slowly out into the world, I’ll bet most people still accept the “received wisdom” about these famous photographs. I know I had no idea.One of the photos that Neo revisits was previously dissected in an early Jonah Goldberg G-File, back in 1999. But the second, and equally iconic photo I didn't know the real history of either. Meanwhile, over at Opinion Journal video, Bret Stephens suggests that the resurgence of John McCain is due in large part to the desire of a wide swatch of the American public to avoid a repeat of the defunding of the South Vietnamese by the American left and its horrific aftermath: The claim that there was no “bloodbath” in South Vietnam is true only by comparison with what happened to its neighbor Cambodia. On top of the more than 275,000 South Vietnamese who died fighting in the country’s armed forces, at least 65,000 were murdered or shot after “liberation”—the equivalent of three-quarters of a million people in today’s United States. According to the scholar D.R. Sar Desai, the Communist regime forcibly relocated or sent to “reeducation camps” somewhere between one-third to one-half of South Vietnam’s population; perhaps as many as 250,000 died of disease, starvation, or overwork, and the last inmates were not released until 1986. Ironically, the victims included many former members of the National Liberation Front and Vietcong, who realized too late that they had been puppets of the North all along. Another million or so Vietnamese, most of them ethnic Chinese, fled by sea from the new regime; an unknown number died or were lost at sea. They Finally Made Her Go To Rehab
Amy Winehouse, this year's answer to the self-destructiveness of Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin, merged with the frightening visage of Patti Smith at her most emaciated, is "headed for rehab the same day The Sun newspaper ran on its Web site a video of her allegedly smoking a crack pipe." Fred Dropping Out?
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 11:23 AM · The Making of the President
Speaking of the Atlantic, Marc Ambinder writes: Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson has told several Republicans that he has decided to drop out of the presidential race and will make public his intentions by close of business.(Via Hot Air.) Update: It's official--Jon Henke, Thompson's Internet consultant, emailed this campaign statement: McLean, VA - Senator Fred Thompson today issued the following statement about his campaign for President:It's a safe bet that we'll be discussing this further on this week's PJM Political on XM. Gentlemen, Start Your Search Engines
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 11:20 AM · Bobos In Paradise
This sounds like good news: Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors.Surf away, starting here. Akira Kurosawadriscoll
By Ed Driscoll · January 22, 2008 11:04 AM · Ed TV
The following video is a Rashomon-like experience: poignant look at Red State elites on the eve of a tumultuous election year? Hagiographic inadvertent infomercial? Self-indulgent holiday video? All of the above? You make the call! The Times Learned Nothing From The 1970s
By Ed Driscoll · January 20, 2008 01:15 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Speaking of MSM classiness, James Taranto outlines the New York Times' latest self-inflicted wound: As Mark Steyn writes: Have you been in an airport recently, and maybe seen a gaggle of America’s heroes returning from Iraq? And you’ve probably thought, “Ah, what a marvelous sight. Remind me to straighten up the old ‘Support Our Troops’ fridge magnet, which seems to have slipped down below the reminder to reschedule my acupuncturist. Maybe I should go over and thank them for their service.”Vietnam War veteran turned Dallas businessman B.G. Burkett made a second career of rehabilitating the reputation of slandered veterans as a result of a deep institutional bias against the former soldiers of that war in the 1970s that ran from John Kerry to newspaper editors to Hollywood. (See: Driver, Taxi amongst numerous other similarly themed films from the 1970s.) The New York Times, amongst others, have learned nothing from that period, and in the coming years, we may very well need men like Burkett again. Footloose: The Next Generation!
As part of his series with Reason's TV division, Drew Carey notes that the Nanny State has no rhythm: Ad Hominem Much?
Chris Matthews has a bad case of Joe Biden motor-mouth disease, as highlighted in a conversation this past week between Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn: HH: Mark Steyn, speaking of Sunnis and Shias, I want to play for you Chris Matthews last night on Jay Leno’s show. Here is Mr. MSNBC:But Matthews was a model of civility when compared to Arun Gandhi, grandson of India’s legendary leader “Mahatma” Gandhi: Following recent criticism by myself and others about a piece prominently highlighted on The Washington Post’s home page on January 7, which suggested Israel was somehow following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany, the newspaper has issued a rare apology.You stay classy, MSM. Update: Related thoughts from Jewish Journal.com. Sundance, Interrupted
By Ed Driscoll · January 19, 2008 06:25 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Wow, Robert Redford just can't catch a break these days. First his movie tanks ($35 mil budget, $14 mil domestic gross), and now this: PARK CITY, Utah – The Sundance Film Festival has plenty of star power, but Friday night it ran out of the electric kind.Why didn't Sundance simply follow the lead of their fellow leftwingers at NBC, and claim they were intentionally making an important enviro-political statement? Update: Tim Blair spots a belated Gore Effect at Sundance. Where's Col. Klink When You Need Him?
By Ed Driscoll · January 19, 2008 05:16 PM · Muggeridge's Law
Jules Crittenden writes that the more things change in Germany, the more they remain the same. Can we dispatch this young fellow to the Great White East for a few months for a minor attitude adjustment? Schadenfreude Is Painless
By Ed Driscoll · January 19, 2008 02:53 PM · The Making of the President
Ed Morrissey's been on quite a roll lately. In a post today, he explores the most recent example of the left's circular firing squad: There are a few moments where pure schadenfreude can honestly be enjoyed without guilt. Besides Geraldo getting assaulted by neo-Nazis he wanted to exploit for ratings, the second-best example is watching Democrats beat each other up by accusing each other of the voter fraud they insist doesn't exist in general elections. This time, Bill Clinton provides the blue-on-blue action in Nevada:And yesterday, linking to Christopher Hitchens' latest essay, Ed writes, "Identity Politics Is Chauvinism Under Another Name":Today when my daughter and I were wandering through the hotel, and all these culinary workers were mobbing us telling us they didn’t care what the union told them to do, they were gonna caucus for Hillary.Wow -- who would have thought that unions try to organize voters? Isn't that why people like Bill Clinton have sucked up to them for decades? Having a leading Democrat complain about union pressure on members for political action has to be one of the most clarifying and completely hilarious moments in politics since .... well, since Howard Dean flamed out in Iowa and the Democrats picked John Kerry as the nominee. At the heart of Hitchen's argument is this fact: it is just as chauvinistic to vote for someone on the basis of their gender or ethnicity as it is to vote against them for the same reason. It's reflexively a form of bigotry, the notion that a candidate is superior for these superficial reasons, or that different groups should get "turns" at holding power. The latter especially represents the antithesis of individual liberty and equality and instead vaults identity politics into a system in which elites make determinations of power distribution.This post by Glenn Reynolds seems to the above two posts from the good Captain together. Update: Meanwhile, Victor Davis Hanson explores the flipside to Ed's thoughts on the left: Republican Fratricide. The Birth Of The Cool
By Ed Driscoll · January 18, 2008 11:02 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted
Tremendous passage from the late Michael Kelly, found via Cold Fury: Sinatra, as every obit observed, was the first true modern pop idol, inspiring in the 1940s the sort of mass adulation that was to become a familiar phenomenon in the '50s and '60s. One man, strolling onto the set at precisely the right moment in the youth of the Entertainment Age, made himself the prototype of the age's essential figure: the iconic celebrity. The iconic celebrity is the result of the central confusion of the age, which is that people possessed of creative or artistic gifts are somehow teachers-role models-in matters of personal conduct. The iconic celebrity is idolized-and obsessively studied and massively imitated-not merely for the creation of art but for the creation of public self, for the confection of affect and biography that the artist projects onto the national screen.One of the observations that Diana West made in The Death of the Grown-Up is how much of the heavy lifting in the birth of modern culture--with all its pluses and minuses--occurred in the 1950s, though the 1960s gets all the credit. But while Sinatra was indeed a harbinger of things to come, he was also very much a man of his times. In Gay Talese's epochal 1966 "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold" article for Esquire, you can actually see the cool style of Sinatra’s highpoint ebb into the sunset, and the aesthetic of the late sixties being born, when Sinatra encounters legendarily cranky sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison. And as Mark Steyn wrote recently, by the following decade dispatches between the two cultures--the post-war showbiz culture and the anti-war culture of mud--were even chillier: One reason why the Oscar shows of the early Seventies are such a hoot compared to the butt-numbing snoozeroos of today is the tension and sniping between the John Wayne/Bob Hope/Frank Sinatra set and the hipster crowd reading out telegrams from the Viet Cong. Back then, being anti-war meant taking a side. In today’s Hollywood, being anti-war is the only side.Which means, through the paradigm of The Manchurian Candidate and even programmers like Von Ryan's Express, plus his support of JFK and RWR, we can look back at Sinatra as a remarkably patriotic, all-American guy, in spite of himself, his myriad excesses, and nihilistic cool. Maybe it was simply that while Sinatra was indeed cool, he never succumbed to its successor pose: irony. Which, in retrospect, may have saved him from himself, unlike those who followed in his wake. Update: Welcome Libertas and Jules Crittenden readers! When Bylines Collide
Since the early days of this site, a recurring theme has been that no satirist is able to improve upon real life for its pure absurd absurdist absurdity. Which is what makes this Iowahawk parody, titled "As Casualties Mount, Some Question The Emotional Stability of Media Vets" so delicious: Accounts of media psychopathy, while widespread, have until now been largely anecdotal. In order to provide a more focused and systematic study of the crisis, Iowahawk researchers set out to identify and tabulate criminal arrests and convictions of current and former journalists. While by no means comprehensive, this 10-minute project yielded a grim picture of a once-proud profession now in the grips of tragic, drunk, violent, child-raping rage.What's astounding--and deeply troubling--is that while Iowahawk's tone is satiric, the myriad of links embedded in his post go to story after story of actual troubled journalists melting down, one after the other. With so many examples of veterans of this profession leading troubled lives, one wonders if recruiters should be barred from college campuses to prevent their trolling for new enlistees into such a dangerous, personality destroying field. When Worldviews Collide
Regarding the distaff side of "progressivism", Amy Alkon writes, "For people who are supposedly about seeing women 'as people first,' these feminists sure are all about pussy!" Kaithy Shaidle sizes up the other half of the equation: Funny too how, for men who envision themselves as all enlightened and cerebral and highly evolved, male progressives so often reveal their main concern to be the satisfaction of transitory base appetites, which they view to be the cure-all for every societal ailment.James Taranto explores the moment when both worldviews collided ten years ago, with disastrous results for all concerned. Hari-Kari In The Editing Room
According to Hot Air, Jon Stewart's Daily Show is getting calls to release the full, unedited 18 minutes of their interview with Jonah Goldberg yesterday. This was boiled down to six minutes to air on TV. In and of itself isn't that isn’t that remarkable, except for the frustrated pseudo-apology that Stewart offers at the start of the clip, and the choppy footage that follows. ("At least Michael Moore is subtle when he does that", one of Jonah's readers quips.) It does seem For Pajamas' weekly PJM Political show on XM, I've had to edit numerous interviews for space requirements (particularly in the early days of the show, when I still learning the proportions and ingredients, and overbooked guests in fear that XM wouldn't appreciate gaps in the show--or worse, 55 continuous minutes of Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 tunes on their presidential election channel.) But I also created the "Director's Cut" posts to upload the full length versions of those interviews if they aired in a truncated format. And if we can do it at Pajamas, there's simply no reason that Comedy Central, with a lot more manpower at their disposal, can't as well. Well, there is a reason, and it's not one that's very flattering to the Daily Show and its host. On the other hand, all of the controversy isn't hurting Jonah's book sales of course--it's currently #2 on Amazon. Update (1/18/08 11:42 AM): Leftwingers explode as Jonah's book is number one on Amazon. "Canada Trains Diplomats On Torture"
By Ed Driscoll · January 18, 2008 12:44 AM · Muggeridge's Law
Well that's not exactly what I'd call what's happening to Ezra Levant, but if the lawsuit fits... Apocalypse Now: North Versus South In 2008
By Ed Driscoll · January 17, 2008 01:40 AM · An Army Of Davids · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Future and its Enemies
Five years ago over at Tech Central Station, I described, using the terms that Virginia Postrel created in The Future and its Enemies the ongoing civil war in California, between the dynamists of Silicon Valley up north, and the stasists in Hollywood down south. The computer industry creates software that empowers individuals to blog and produce their own music, video, and other multimedia applications. Hollywood, in the form of both the movie and music industry, wants to keep content in their control as much as possible. Roger L. Simon writes that just as with the original Civil War, the south isn't likely to win this one, either. Americans Slam News Media On Believability
By Ed Driscoll · January 17, 2008 12:11 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Your medium is dying, Charles Johnson informs the legacy media: Sacred Heart University in Connecticut has conducted a poll on Americans’ opinions about the news media—and the amount of distrust is surprising even to me: Americans Slam News Media on Believability.Steve Boriss explores the moment ten years ago when it became increasingly obvious to the American public that much was wrong with those mandarins. Your Dog Wants Steak
By Ed Driscoll · January 16, 2008 11:27 PM · Muggeridge's Law
With a tip of the fedora to the denizens of Fark, it's pretty obvious that's the inevitable outcome to this perennial story of the naughts. This Just In
Fast breaking news from UPI: "Rove belittles Democratic candidates." Update: More from the Architect, at The Hill. Hotline TV Wraps Up Michigan
National Journal's Hotline is releasing a series of well-produced vlogs to their own page on YouTube. Here's their wrap-up of the GOP frontrunners yesterday in Michigan: (Their preview of yesterday, with hosts Amy Walter and John Mercurio recreating the cold of Motown and the sunny cocktail spirit of Las Vegas via green screen and props is also a fun video.) Cutting To The Chase
Roger L. Simon writes that the presidential election all comes down to one simple question: While watching the endless pundit blather on TV tonight after the Republican Michigan Primary and Democratic Nevada Debate and reading the various opinion meisters commentaries online, I had one of those rare zen moments of simplicity. It all comes down to a simple question:IndeedTM. I Just Have To Look Good, I Don't Have To Be Clear
This just in--the anchorwoman's an airhead!
Any time you start to doubt yourself, and wonder if you're fit for the big leagues of American thought and opinion, you can just read The Times and be thankful that the standards of the big leagues aren't so high.As video blogging becomes increasingly accessible, if anything, the Professor's advice is even more useful to those who want to opine in front of a camera, rather than a keyboard. Not Taken In By "The Abominable Dr. Paul"
By Ed Driscoll · January 15, 2008 04:42 PM · The Making of the President
As Charles Johnson writes, Robert Bidinotto, the editor of the New Individualist magazine to which I've written for from time to time (including the "Atlas Mugged" Blogosphere piece), "has been one of the few libertarian bloggers who tried to sound a warning about The Only Man Who Can Save America, and today he’s feeling vindicated: The Ron Paul controversy — a postmortem." North By Northwest To Alaska
By Ed Driscoll · January 15, 2008 04:28 PM · The Assault On Reason · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
In his recent videotaped interview with Pajamas' Richard Miniter, Tom DeLay quipped that he heard John McCain "was running as a Republican this year." The Celluloid Mobius Loop
By Ed Driscoll · January 15, 2008 10:47 AM · Hollywood, Interrupted
England's First Post e-zine writes that "Veteran directors are showing their younger peers how to tell stories." But it unintentionally illustrates why movies have increasingly lost the ability to do just that--tell stories. Or as I wrote in January of 2006: Over four years ago, on the weekend before 9/11, John Podhoretz explained a big reason why modern movies by and large stank: it's the writing, stupid, to paraphrase James Carville. During Hollywood's golden era, moviemakers knew that while they could craft iconic images, they weren't the best source of original narratives:And as that First Post article highlights, those original sources are still diminishing in the rear view mirror.Since the movies are a visual medium, most of the energy and enthusiasm of moviemakers derives from a command of the camera and an ability to manipulate images. What they don't know very well - what they've never known very well — is why one given story is better than another given story. The Bonfire Of The Multicultural Vanities
Orrin Judd compares and contrasts 2000 and 2008: There's a very simple question you can ask to gauge the racial character of the race: what are three policy changes Senator Obama has said he will pursue if elected?She can't, and as Matt Bai recently noted, "The most dangerous place to be in the rest of the country is between the Clintons and an elected office." The result, which has caused the Clinton attack machine to aim left instead of right for once, hasn't been pretty, as we've all seen. David Brooks writes: All the habits of verbal thuggery that have long been used against critics of affirmative action, like Ward Churchill [Err, that should be Ward Connerly, as Betsy Newmark, and not the Times' layers and layers of fact checkers noted--Ed] and Thomas Sowell, and critics of the radical feminism, like Christina Hoff Summers, are now being turned inward by the Democratic front-runners.As Brooks writes, "This is the logical extreme of the identity politics that as been floating around this country for decades. Every revolution devours its offspring, and it seems the multicultural one does, too." Dave's Still Thinking It Over
By Ed Driscoll · January 14, 2008 09:51 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted · Oh, That Liberal Media! · War And Anti-War
Douglas MacKinnon ponders what David Letterman will do in January of 2009, when he doesn't have fellow boomer George Bush to attack nightly: In now a famous “You Tube” moment, Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel, went on Letterman to be the recipient of the host’s rude and sophomoric antics. As the segment shifted into high gear, O’Reilly asked Letterman a pointed and direct question: “Do you want the United States to win in Iraq?”How thoughtful do you need to be? it's an A or B question: do you want the US to win, or Al Qaeda, the Baathists, and Iran? Letterman, who, 20 years ago, was once the master of postmodern irony, became its unintentional victim as he unwittingly echoed Jack Benny's classic gag when he retorted to a fictional mugger shouting “Your money or life, pal!” on his old radio show: "I'm thinking it over!" But then, as Bill Kristol writes in today's New York Times, much to its ombudsman's chagrin, "It’s apparently impermissible for leading Democrats to acknowledge — let alone celebrate — progress in Iraq." Update: Related thoughts from James Bowman: Just look at the campaign on behalf of Darfur. "It’s not a political issue," says superstar heart-throb George Clooney. "There is only right and wrong."Following the Letterman thesis, that's not very thoughtful at all, George. Slouching Towards Orthodoxy
By Ed Driscoll · January 14, 2008 04:58 PM · Bobos In Paradise
Orrin Judd has some thoughts on Joan Didion's career arc: Actually, what's most striking about Ms Didion's work is how good the early stuff was--Slouching and the White Album--and how bad the later, as she became just the sort of trend-sucker she'd previously warned against. Thus, where you'd think someone so smart might have learned something from opposing Ronald Reagan's war on Marxism in Latin America in the '80s, she instead opposes liberalizing the Middle East too. It's a rare enough life arc, but she went from an interesting young conservative to a depressingly orthodox liberal as she aged.She's not alone, though in one sense: with the exception of Tom Wolfe himself, few of the New Journalists he touted in the mid-1970s aged very well. Long Live Rock!
Err, don't bet on it--at least in its current form: IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.Meanwhile, over at Blogingheads.tv, Michael Hirschorn of VH-1 and Jon Fine of Business Week bemoan what they call "The last days of the rock star". A fascinating subtext of their conversation is that both are unhappy over the media's continuing fragmentation, as the Long Tail grows longer. In Hirschorn's case, it's awfully ironic: In the decade before the World Wide Web began riding on top of the Internet in the early 1990s, cable television was the Long Tail of the 1980s, as narrowly-themed channels such as his own VH-1 began to demassify the Big Three television networks, ending their 35 year uncontested run. It's Now Official
By Ed Driscoll · January 14, 2008 01:58 PM · The New Puritans
The anti-smoking brigade's work is now complete. (Forewarned is forewaxed: Accompanying photo not for the faint of heart.) Dial P For Politics
Flashing back to the mid-century when Alfred Hitchcock helped to make Hollywood great, William Katz explains what the Master of Suspense could teach us about the 2008 election. Hollywood Ending
By Ed Driscoll · January 14, 2008 12:05 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Tatiana Siegel of Variety writes: Longtime Hollywood publicist Julian Myers will turn 90 soon. And he worries the end may be near ... for Hollywood.If the strike doesn't kill it, its current product is certainly hastening its demise. Update: "Hollywood doing without the Golden Globes? Why, it’s just like the Fall of Saigon!" Bad News Down Under
By Ed Driscoll · January 14, 2008 11:12 AM · The New, New Journalism
Tim Blair, the man who put Australia on the Blogosphere's map, and whom I met at the infamous Pajamas pre-launch party back in November of 2005 writes: Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.It better--Tim's gynormous carbon footprint is all that stands between us and the next Ice Age. (And needless to say, our thoughts and prayers go out to Tim for a full a speedy recovery.) No Upside For Oprah
Robert Novak looks at "Women Versus Oprah": The absence of Oprah Winfrey from the frantic four last days of the New Hampshire primary campaign after her heavy schedule in Iowa backing Sen. Barack Obama may be traced to heavy, unaccustomed post-Iowa abuse of the popular entertainment superstar by women.Not surprising, given their employer, the hosts of NBC's Tonight Show have had political views that have uniformly fallen somewhere on the left, from Steve Allen to Jack Paar to Johnny Carson to Jay Leno. But as I mentioned to Tammy Bruce when she appeared on PJM Political last month to discuss Oprah's endorsement of Obama, I don't recall reading that any of them deigned to officially endorse a presidential candidate. By injecting herself into the presidential race, Oprah knew she'd alienate at least half her audience--and doesn't seem to mind. Sophomoric "Lifestyle"
By Ed Driscoll · January 13, 2008 03:53 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Oh, That Liberal Media! · War And Anti-War
Warner Todd Huston writes: Lifestyle magazine, a publication that serves Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley area, published a nice story this week reporting how a long awaited veteran's cemetery is finally underway in Buck's County, Penn. Oh, the story seems nice enough, but there is one problem. The photo accompanying the story shows a soldier, circa WWII, in near silhouette trotting across a wintry field, rifle in hand. That there is a photo of a soldier from WWII tacked onto a story about a new veteran's cemetery isn't the problem. The problem is that the photo is of a Nazi German soldier from WWII and NOT an American soldier! This is a shocking mistake that reveals many things about the folks at Lifestyle Magazine.As Huston notes, even beyond the botched photo, "the first paragraphs of the story are a bit odd. A story about the final resting place of our honored veterans is begun with two paragraphs about a Kris Kristofferson song!" License To Chill
As Mark Steyn writes, "in Canada today you're only entitled to your opinions if [Alberta 'human rights agent Shirlene McGovern] says you are". Update: At the Belmont Club, Richard Fernandez writes: Whether or not Ezra Levant is declared "innocent" or "guilty" by the Canadian Human Rights Commission of publishing the "Mohammed Cartoons" is beside the point. What is at issue is whether or not a Canadian government agency has the competence to punish someone for what in saner times would be considered a routine exercise in free speech. It is the legitimacy of the Canadian Human Rights Commission that is on trial here. They themselves are in the dock and they have put themselves there.Note the accompanying video that Richard most appropriately links to. The Favre Side
By Ed Driscoll · January 13, 2008 11:52 AM · Muggeridge's Law · Run To Daylight · The Making of the President
Found at Theo Spark's: In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Packers this coming Sunday. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. During this period of time she became familiar with the definition of a corner blitz, and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers offense. A survey of Packers fans shows that 50% of those polled supported the move.Actually, I'd take Deanna and Brett in the White House over the return of Hillary and Bill, any day. News From 1955
By Ed Driscoll · January 13, 2008 11:25 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Muggeridge's Law · The Memory Hole · The New Puritans
"Obesity now a 'lifestyle' choice for Americans, expert says": "Obesity is a natural extension of an advancing economy. As you become a First World economy and you get all these labor-saving devices and low-cost, easily accessible foods, people are going to eat more and exercise less," health economist Eric Finkelstein told AFP.I need a "health economist" to tell me this? Fifty years ago, in those less enlightened times, less obssessed with counterknowledge, this was called "common sense." Bipartisan Consensus Reached
Mark Steyn and Timothy Noah concur: "change" is an utterly meaningless word in presidential politics. Meanwhile, via Kathy Shaidle comes your quote of the day: "Barack Obama is a powerful speaker. So is my Bose Bass Amp."As Kathy writes, "Yeah, it's only January, but seriously: do you think this can be topped"? News From 1979
As I've written before, there was a time when Woody Allen's self-deprecating shtick was endearing. These days, one's infinitely more likely to agree with his low assessment of himself: New York filmmaker Woody Allen has confessed he does not understand why so many of his films are revered and he has been labeled an influential director.Which movie would that be? Manhattan in 1979? "For Every Emile Zola, There’s A Harold Pinter"
In a post that dovetails remarkably well with the material mined by Jonah Goldberg, Neo-Neocon writes, "there’s a long history of literary 'useful idiots,' people whose critical faculties seem to stop where their art ends. For every Emile Zola, there’s a Harold Pinter": I was reminded of all of this recently when reading the book Partisans by David Laskin. It’s mostly a glorified gossip sheet about the group of writers who were connected to the influential journal Partisan Review during its formative decades, the 30s and 40s. Partisans follows their closely intertwined lives from then through the 60s and beyond; they were an especially active group, however, in their earlier years (and yes, that activity included playing an almost endless game of musical beds).Yes, it's remarkable what an order from Stalin could do to focus the mind. Sister Souljah Is Officially Over
Back in September, I wrote: As detailed in Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover's Mad As Hell: Revolt at the Ballot Box, 1992, what some may not recall these days about Bill Clinton's "Sister Souljah Moment", was that it had little to do with insulting a two-bit virtually unknown rapper, and everything to do with distancing himself from the failed radic chic 1970-era politics of her backer, Jesse Jackson. It was one of many gestures that allowed Clinton to position himself as much more moderate than the average Democrat presidential candidate, and went far towards cementing his candidacy.Amazing how the Democrats' PC Identity Politics Playdough Fun Factory this campaign finally caused Bill to come full circle. “The Unending Valse Macabre Of Our Times”
Mark Steyn weighs in on Ezra Levant's interrogation. Update: As does Glenn Reynolds, with an assortment of links that, as usual, are well worth your time. Inside Canada's Star Chamber
By Ed Driscoll · January 12, 2008 12:43 PM · The Future and its Enemies · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
War takes many forms--in some case, no immediate physical violence is necessary, merely a government seeking appeasement with its enemies via the courts. As Charles Johnson writes, this is must-see video of a "Canadian Publisher Persecuted for Mindcrime." It's also an excellent sneak preview of an even more famous show trial yet to come. Update: Much more at Hot Air. Be sure to follow the links to Ezra Levant's site itself. More: As with Steyn's upcoming trial, "the punishment is not the verdict but the process." By the way, for those who have the software to download YouTube clips and want to archive Levant's videos of his show hearing, I'd save them sooner rather than later. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them quietly disappear from YouTube some time in the not too distant future. Grand Theft Kodak
By Ed Driscoll · January 12, 2008 12:11 PM · Muggeridge's Law
If you're going to steal a car, don't take photos of yourself with the camera in the glovebox: The Views They Kept To Themselves
By Ed Driscoll · January 12, 2008 11:50 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
"Why is it", Burt Pretlutsky wonders, "that nobody is asking Barack Obama about his religious convictions? From what I’ve gathered, they’re far more fascinating than Mitt Romney’s." The answer of course, is for the same reason that virtually no one in the legacy media uttered the words "Winter Soldier" on camera to Senator Kerry in 2004. But don't let that stop you from reading Burt's column. The Canton Connection
Daily Dollup blows the lid off Diebold rigging New Hampshire for Hillary. (Don't let Kucinich see this--he might think it's real.) Update: Don't tell Bill Maher this is a joke--it would be like putting a stake in his heart. Bobos In Classrooms
By Ed Driscoll · January 12, 2008 01:28 AM · All You Need Is Ears · Bobos In Paradise · God And Man At Dupont University · The Long Tail · The Return of the Primitive
Back in the mid-1970s, Jimmy Page told an interviewer that "I always thought the good thing about guitar was that they didn't teach it in school." In other words, for Page, and his fellow British guitarists growing up in the late 1950s, rock and roll and the blues were genres you had to be dedicated enough to learn on your own. Found via Bloggingheads, David Brooks writes that "Miami" Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's longtime rhythm guitarist (and eventually, owner of the Bada Bing Club) would like to see that changed: It seems that whatever story I cover, people are anxious about fragmentation and longing for cohesion. This is the driving fear behind the inequality and immigration debates, behind worries of polarization and behind the entire Obama candidacy.Education used to do this as well. Not so much, anymore. But back to the main point of Brooks and Miami Steve. Jazz was essentially frozen in amber as a creative force once Lincoln Center hired Wynton Marsalis to be its "Musical Director of Jazz." Miami Steve wants to do the same thing to rock. And it's not like education isn't already dominated by Present Tense Culture. (Or, for another way to look at Brooks' column: this just into the New York Times: Pop culture is fractured and demassified, something that Alvin Toffler predicted 28 years ago.) Too Late The Nanny?
Could nanny statist Mike Bloomberg still enter the race? John Fund says...maybe: Maybe it's the Cheez-Its talking. "Long Live Mussolini! Long Live Socialism!"
In the latest issue of National Review "On Dead Tree" (online, but subscription required), the cover has a now familiar smiley face with a tiny little moustache on it. Inside, Jonah Goldberg writes: During the fight over the Contract with America, Rep. Charlie Rangel complained that “Hitler wasn’t even talking about doing these things.” (This is technically accurate in that Hitler wasn’t pushing term limits for committee chairmen and “zero based” budgeting.) When Newt Gingrich invited black congressmen to Capitol Hill social events, Rep. Major Owens responded by declaring, “These are people who are practicing genocide with a smile. They’re worse than Hitler. . . . We’re going to have cocktail-party genocide.”In February of 1945, in the midst of the death rattles of the Nazi's collective existence, after the allies bombed Dresden, Robert Ley, the head of the Nazis' Labor Front, wrote: "After the destruction of beautiful Dresden, we almost breathe a sigh of relief. It is over now. In focusing on our struggle and victory we are no longer distracted by concerns for the monuments of German culture. Onward!...Now we march toward the German victory without any superfluous ballast and without the heavy spiritual and material bourgeois baggage".And as Jonah notes in his book, when Mussolini, his mistress and Nicola Bombacci, Mussolini's longtime confidant (and previously, a friend of Lenin's) were executed after being captured in April of 1945, Bombacci shouted, "Long live Mussolini! Long live Socialism!" Despite, an intense (dare I say fascistic?) effort by the left to attack it unread, Jonah's book is currently number #6 on Amazon. (I wonder what Patrick McGoohan thinks of that?! If you haven't read it yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. Freddie's Golfing Mart
For a positive snapshot of race in America, compare and contrast: Barack Obama is currently leading Hillary Clinton in the total number of delagates he needs to win the Democrats' presidential nomination. In contrast, Al Sharpton is reduced to shaking down a TV channel that's located at number #605 in the ozone layer of your DirecTV dial, and watched by about 150,000 viewers. (That's less than Breitbart.TV): Broadcaster Kelly Tilghman has apologized. Tiger Woods has accepted it. But the Rev. Al Sharpton says it isn't good enough.Or faking a hate crime. Or one of your followers burning down a business after you demonized it. To bring things full circle, here's another questionable statement. As Dan Riehl writes, "Thank God he's a Democrat, or this might actually be racist." Ms.'s Missing Advertisement
By Ed Driscoll · January 11, 2008 09:55 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · Radical Chic · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Scott Hinderaker of Power Line writes: The American Jewish Congress submitted this understated advertisement about the status of women in Israel to Ms. Magazine. Underneath the attractive photographs of Israel's foreign minister (Tzipi Livni), Supreme Court president (Dorit Beinish), and speaker of the Knesset (Dalia Itzik), the ad reads: "This is Israel." I think it is fair to say that in most parts of the United States it would be deemed an utterly innocuous ad.Yes, that's certainly a tough one to figure out. Update: Meryl Yourish writes: What time is it, folks? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time. It occurs every day of the week that ends with a y.Read the whole thing. I Wonder If This Scares CNN?
About a minute into the latest B-Cast by Liz Stephans and Scott Baker of Breitbart.TV (whom we interviewed a few weeks ago on PJM Political), they casually mention that their previous show attracted about 400,000 views. In and of itself, that's an impressive number for a newscast. (Any show on MSNBC would be considered a hit if it pulled those numbers.) But consider the extreme economy of scale going on here: As of 2005, CNN in primetime attracted less than 700,000 daily viewers, but with a budget of zillions of dollars and a ton of real estate, technicians and on-air talent. In contrast, the B-Cast is, I believe, run out of an office in Pittsburgh by two people with one set, a couple of cameras, laptops for the on-air talent (in other words, Liz and Scott) to cue those cameras and YouTube clips, and I guess another computer or two to record the sum of all those parts and upload the show to Andrew Breitbart’s news aggregation site. The hosting of the video itself is supplied by any one of numerous online video hosting sites, which helps to reduce what was once a significant expense: the high-bandwidth, and associated costs, of online video. As I've written before, watch for more and more micro-TV stations to pop-up on the 'Net, using a variety of formats, from green screen and virtual sets to the Breitbart.TV model, to England's 18 Doughty Street Website, which is Internet TV on a fairly large scale. But still far more streamlined than traditional over-the-air and cable networks. I wonder if the executives at CNN and other networks are aware of the growth of Internet TV, and if it bothers them? Blogs are much easier to start of course, which is why newspapers are acutely aware of the Blogosphere, and their fear is palpable in their their often hysterical reactions to the Internet over the last decade. But as traditional television ratings hit new lows, and more and online video content goes live on the Web, could we see a similar reaction from the TV networks? We will when advertisers latch onto online video programming in big numbers. When something like the daily Breitbart.TV show opens and closes with ads from Toyota and Proctor & Gamble, we’ll know once and for all that after sixty years, traditional TV really is just another legacy medium. Update (1/12/08): Liz Stephans of Breitbart.tv emails, "Scott was referencing the traffic to the site -- Breitbart.tv as a whole", not the individual B-Cast show itself. While we regret the error made above, the basic points remains valid, I think: all those video clips viewed by those clicking into Breitbart.tv means time spent away from CNN, FNC, and traditional television. And a show like the B-Cast is proof that a quality long-form news show can be made, with smart use of the right technology, at a cost infinitely lower than the traditional networks spend. Devouring Their Own
By Ed Driscoll · January 10, 2008 04:48 PM · Ed On The Radio · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
While Bill Bradley has a cogent and reasoned post-mortem of New Hampshire in this week's edition of PJM Political on XM Satellite Radio's POTUS '08 channel, others aren't as reserved. Some on the left blame Diebold for Obama's loss--which would implicate Hillary's campaign in a pretty giant conspiracy, if true. Others? Well, as Michelle Malkin bluntly puts it, "Chris Matthews: New Englanders are lying bigots." But both examples are predicated on ideas hatched in fever swamps. What is it with the left's ability to divide and conquer their own constituents? Update: And speaking of New Hampshire and fever swamps... More: Related thoughts and links via Glenn Reynolds. Do The Huck Rap!
By Ed Driscoll · January 10, 2008 02:59 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Making of the President
Sure John McCain may have picked up this key Hollywood celebrity endorsement, but how can he top the sheer animal power of this? Gaia Left My Heart In San Francisco
Cinnamon Stillwell encounters "Apocalyptic Environmentalism on the Streets of San Francisco": Weather used to be the only safe subject for those trying artfully to avoid the twin topics of discord: religion and politics. But, these days, merely remarking that "it's a nice day" or "stormy weather we've been having lately, eh?" is enough to elicit a tidal wave of doom and gloom. And it matters not whether it's hot or cold outside. All variations in temperature, I'm told by these self-described experts, stem from "global warming."The Care Bear Stare strikes again! Time Is On Putin's Side
City Journal's André Glucksmann writes: Time knows that many will find its choice of Vladimir Putin for Man of the Year shocking—but any publicity is good publicity! The magazine presents a peremptory defense: the Man of the Year “is not a boy scout,” he is not a democrat, but he numbers among the very powerful, those who shape the world’s destiny “for better or for worse.”Maybe they've confused him with FDR. The Presidential Race Meets Identity Politics
Jonah Goldberg notes how much the 2008 presidential race is driven by identity politics and populism over ideas and substance: The winners of the Iowa Democratic caucuses stacked up in reverse order of experience, with the seasoned Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden scraping the bottom and the relatively inexperienced John Edwards and Barack Obama rising to the top. So much for “the issues” and “competence” driving voters’ decisions.And for more on history’s ultimate examples of identity politics and populism, be sure to check out Jonah's new blog to promote Liberal Fascism. Kate Smith Was No Slouch, Either.
By Ed Driscoll · January 9, 2008 03:15 PM · Muggeridge's Law
"Study: Obesity linked to less productivity." Really? That would be news to Alfred Hitchcock, who directed 66 movies, and Orson Welles, who directed 40 films. Or Rush Limbaugh, who has generated bazillions hours of radio. Just NBC Our Bias!
By Ed Driscoll · January 8, 2008 01:28 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Over at Hot Air, "NBC reporter admits it’s 'hard to stay objective' when covering Obama." Not that NBC was cooly detached in their coverage of Hillary, as well. You don't think that the fourth-ranked network has a bias towards the...Nahhh. As Directed By Akira Kurosawabama
It's official: Barack Obama is the Rashomon candidate: In short, he's everything and anything you want him to be. Like the undefined Senator Kerry at the start of 2004, project away, voters! Update: Barack to the 1960s: Hillary says Obama's no MLK (though claims she's LBJ), but the NYT says he could be RFK! As Always, CNN Lives Up To Its Slogan
The Most Busted Name In News--yet again. For a look at whom the viewing public actually considers the most trusted name in news, click here. The Farnsworth House
By Ed Driscoll · January 7, 2008 09:43 PM · From Bauhaus To Our House
If you can get past the presenter, who with his sandals, T-shirt, stubble and unctuous gestures looks and sounds like he's 30 going on 12, ("Right--back to being a grown-up!" Paging Ms. West; paging Dr. Dalrymple) there's some tremendous video of Mies van der Rohe's seminal all-glass house, completed in 1951, here: Mies designed this house before Philip Johnson's Glass House, but Johnson's house--built at the height of his "Mies van der Johnson" period--was completed first. But Mies's plan, with its floating appearance and the patio built ajog from the house proper has much more tension and dynamism than Johnson's square glass box. (Incidentally, I needed to scale the video down to fit the blog. For a larger version of the clip, click here.) Seven Of 2008
By Ed Driscoll · January 7, 2008 04:47 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
How Jeri Ryan of Star Trek: Voyager fame inadvertently changed history. (Worth clicking for the photo alone...) Update: High traffic to the above link has temporarily blown out the WPRI.org server. The post (and photo) is also available here. "Will 2008 Finish What 1968 Began?"
By Ed Driscoll · January 7, 2008 03:10 PM · Bobos In Paradise · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
Heck, if President Reagan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11 couldn't finish off the sixties, why should this election? Tugging On The Strongest Links
By Ed Driscoll · January 7, 2008 01:21 PM · The Memory Hole
Vox Day (he of the bitchin' tonsure; his hairstyle looks a bit like the design on the Washington Redskins' helmets of the early 1960s) interviews Jonah Goldberg on Liberal Fascism, which debuts tomorrow: What did you mean when you said that it's not an Ann Coulter book in your interview on the Glenn & Helen Show?My take (which I'll discuss in depth in an upcoming issue of the New Individualist is that Jonah was extremely successful, find out for yourself here. The Bill Clinton/Jay Gatsby Connection
"Gay Patriot West" makes an interesting observation about both Bill Clinton and the left in general: Had he lost the 1992 election, would Democrats have treated him like they treated previous losers such as Michael Dukakis? I once saw the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee at the Getty here in LA. Alone and all but unnoticed, he rode the tram from the parking structure to the museum itself, just like any other passenger. A man who once attracted the attention of the free world as he ran for the White House, could not even attract the attention of his fellow passengers.I think GPW's right that that's the expected outcome when putting personalities above ideas and issues in an election. It's also why John Kerry could so quickly be discarded after 2004; and why Democrats invariably seem to prefer fresh faces that voters can project anything upon over seasoned vets as their presidential nominees. Would You Rather Read Garfield?
By Ed Driscoll · January 7, 2008 12:35 PM · The New, New Journalism
![]() "Day By Day's" Chris Muir is holding a fundraiser to offset his bandwidth costs. To keep his cartoon going, and its women in various stages of undress, contribute here.
Wow! I Could Have Had A V-8...With Budweiser!
The Official Beverage Of Hell--soon in liquor stores everywhere! The Crying Game
Hillary lets a glycerin tear flow--since it's on the eve of New Hampshire, does this count as her Edward Muskie moment? If so, Power Line's Paul Mirengoff writes that it could work to her benefit, unlike Muskie's waterworks: They say that, as in baseball, there's no crying in politics, and Ed Muskie came to a bad end in New Hampshire in 1972 after he appeared to cry in public. But the video of Clinton doesn't necessarily cast her in a bad light, and could even help her with female voters, upon whose support she's more dependent than ever.And for more news from 1972, George McGovern, who back then was comparing Ho Chi Minh to George Washington, reminds us that in contrast, he just doesn't like the cut of Dubya's jib. Update: The Anchoress predicted Hillary's Iron Eye Cody impersonation last week; Tammy Bruce has video of the Other Clinton Crying Moment. "In 2000 It Was All About Him; In 2008 It's Much The Same Story"
By Ed Driscoll · January 6, 2008 01:01 PM · The Making of the President
Reviewing For Love of Politics Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years by Sally Bedell Smith in the Weekly Standard (edited, needless to say, by the eeeeeeevil Bill Kristol), Noemie Emery has a lengthy, detailed and exceptional look at the three-headed hydra of the 1990s: Bill, Hill, and Al. The Agony And The Obamacy
By Ed Driscoll · January 6, 2008 10:38 AM · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
Everybody else has already linked to Ezra Klein's description of Obama as savior, but just in case you missed it, it's a classic: Obama's finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don't even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it. He is not the Word made flesh, but the triumph of word over flesh, over color, over despair. The other great leaders I've heard guide us towards a better politics, but Obama is, at his best, able to call us back to our highest selves, to the place where America exists as a glittering ideal, and where we, its honored inhabitants, seem capable of achieving it, and thus of sharing in its meaning and transcendence.Naturally, a potential leader so radiant and beatific needs his sinister opposite, enthroned in a sulphuric abyss: That's odd...I heard [the New York Times' corporate jet] was already booked this Friday picking up Bill Kristol from hell.Wow--I am getting old--I remember when it was the right that embraced evangelicalism and a fire-and-brimstone worldview. Related: "It's the secular Left vs. the Christian Left." A Streetcar Named Satire
By Ed Driscoll · January 6, 2008 10:28 AM · The Making of the President
Light rail: no matter how useless it is, it's no joking matter, dammit. Update: David Freddoso explores L.A.'s disastrous desire named streetcar. Exponential Toboggan Sledding With Helen Thomas
By Ed Driscoll · January 5, 2008 09:55 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Long Tail · The New, New Journalism
As Michelle Malkin writes: The deterioration of journalism–from Janet Cooke to Stephen Glass to Scott Thomas Beauchamp to Staged News Galore to Rathergate to Reuters-gate to More Fake News Galore–isn’t the fault of individual MSM reporters, editors, or shoddy journalism schools.Business and Media Institute quotes Thomas as saying: “What I really worry about is that I think the bloggers and everyone, everyone with a laptop thinks they’re journalists,” Thomas said. “And, they certainly don’t have our standards. They don’t have our ethics, and so forth. There’s a deterioration,” she continued. “Reporters laid down on the job in the run up to this [the Iraq] war.”So if it's all those darn bloggers that caused, as Helen put it, big journalism's "deterioration" back in 2002 and 2003, let's run the numbers and see how are bloggers are impacting its downhill slide today. Back in early 2004, I estimated the number of bloggers in the US at around 7,300,000 for a Tech Central Station article. That's an impressive number, but less than four years later, my, how quickly the neighborhood has grown! These days, Technorati tracks--say it with me now in your best Dr. Evil voice--over one hundred million blogs. And with Blogospheric growth that exponentially powerful, just imagine how much more intense the suckage of old media is today, as opposed to just five years ago. Actually, no need to imagine it. Just read their product. Dean Simmons?
By Ed Driscoll · January 5, 2008 02:02 PM · Bobos In Paradise
The truly sad thing is that Huckabee can probably outplay both of these guys on bass guitar. When Your Mojo's Gone, The Memory Hole No Longer Works
Hillary gets booed. And this is one time she can't overdub them out, as she--or her admirers at Viacom--did immediately after 9/11. (H/T: IP) Toyota Topples Ford--GM Next?
Flip Pidot notes a huge milestone in the automotive industry: For the first time since the Great Depression, Ford Motor Company (F) is not the second-largest automaker in the country.In Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg writes, "There's a reason liberal economists joke that General Motors is a health care provider that makes cars as an industrial byproduct." Evidently, Toyota hasn't forgotten what business it's in. Well, There He Goes Again
By Ed Driscoll · January 5, 2008 12:09 PM · The Making of the President
Did Obama just win one for the Gipper? Just in time for New Hampshire, Bill O'Reilly provides Obama his equivalent of the "I'm paying for this microphone"/Adam Clymer is an ***hole moment. Not to mention hours of material for Keith Olbermann. He's Probably Just A Big Fan Of The Temptations
Roger Simon writes that "You don't have to be Sigmund Freud to see" that Bill doesn't want Hillary to win: Last night in NH, he grinned into a TV camera and introduced Hillary and his daughter as "My girls..."Why would he stop now? Bill's been causing the feminist movement's internal logic to be remolded into new Playdough Funhouse Factory shapes since about 1998. Or maybe 1992. Or maybe 1980. Or maybe... It Can't Happen Fast Enough
By Ed Driscoll · January 5, 2008 01:16 AM · From Bauhaus To Our House
WCBSTV in Manhattan reports: Amtrak workers are threatening to strike. The railroad and its unions are struggling to reach new labor agreements. Workers could walk off the job at the end of January.Don't toy with my emotions like that. Digital DeLay
By Ed Driscoll · January 5, 2008 01:07 AM · The Making of the President
It's Hammertime at Pajamas HQ: Former House majority leader Tom DeLay sizes up the Republican presidential hopefuls and tells PJM’s Richard Miniter that none of them measure up to his ideal leader of the free world.Fun interview--and Delay is far from the only conservative underwhelmed by the lack of conservative street cred contained within the GOP's 2008 candidates. Nihilism In the Strangest Places
Libertas reviews The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, and directed by (uh-oh) Rob Reiner: Edward Cole (Nicholson) is a multi-millionaire who specilaizes in the hostile takeovers of public hospitals in financial trouble which he in turn privatizes. He’s a bit of a shark whose mantra is two to a room, a mantra that comes back to haunt him after he falls ill. To avoid a public outcry of hypocrisy Edward is wheeled in next to auto mechanic Carter Chambers (Freeman), a man just diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.Back at the start of the often appropriately named “naughts”, Thomas Hibbs explored in his book Shows About Nothing that Hollywood's love of nihilism can appear in the strangest places--not just the expected (exploitive horror films such as Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear) but in product such as the long-running and much beloved TV sitcom from whence Hibbs' title derives, war movies, and films such as this one, and seems so ingrained into the L.A. culture, no one even notices it anymore: The desks a script must pass over before receiving a greenlight are numerous and that not one rational mind saw this as the outrageous wish fulfillment fantasy for narcissists it is, is beyond comprehension. Not only was it impossible for me to sympathize with Carter, I was disgusted with every smile on his face because it was at the expense of a woman forced to deal with the death of her husband of forty-five years alone, and worse, rejected.As Libertas's "Dirty Harry" writes: With this his fifth dud in a row, maybe Hollywood will finally figure out what to do with director Meathead, and that’s to put him in a room with Barry Levinson and Lawrence Kasdan, two other directors way past their prime, and use them as script readers: anything they choose to direct goes in the trash thus saving the studios hundreds of millions.Don't bet on it. Race And The Race
Michelle Malkin asks, "Will the MSM quit fear-mongering now?" Ok. Now that Barack Obama has won a resounding victory in 94.9 percent white Iowa, will the MSM and the Dems stop yammering about racist, un-diverse voters already? The bigotry concern troll act is getting old and tired. Not as old and tired as Hillary Clinton’s campaign. But close.Later in her post, Michelle answers her own question--of course the MSM won't quit their fear-mongering of this issue, and given the ideological makeup of both the MSM and Obama's supporters, it's fascinating to watch punitive liberalism devour its own. But even that isn't all that new a development. Ed Meets The Godfather
By Ed Driscoll · January 4, 2008 11:07 AM · Ed On The Radio
Just had a great interview with Steve Forbes, which, barring any huge breaking developments, should air as a segment of next weeks' PJM Political. And this week's show? It airs tonight at 7:00 PM eastern/4:00 PM pacific, but you--yes you!--can hear it now. Need need to thank us--just consider it part of the rich assortment of swanky free virtual swag that provide our readers here at Ed Driscoll.com on a regular basis... "All My Love, You Corn-Sucking Idiots"
By Ed Driscoll · January 4, 2008 09:20 AM · The Making of the President
Steve Green goes Full Metal Stolichnaya on Iowa Republicans. H.G. Wells Would Understand
By Ed Driscoll · January 4, 2008 08:41 AM · Liberal Fascism · The Future and its Enemies · The Memory Hole
In the New York Sun, Ronald Radosh pens an extremely positive review of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism: Not only is it a slander to yell fascist at the right; Mr. Goldberg presents a strong and compelling case that the very idea of fascism emanated from the ranks of liberalism. As he argues, contemporary liberalism descended from the ranks of 20th-century progressivism, and "shares intellectual roots with European fascism."Read the whole thing--and barring more excitement from Iowa or some similar breaking news, Glenn Reynolds and Helen Smith's recent interview with Jonah should air tonight at 7:00 PM eastern on XM's POTUS '08 channel in the last segment of PJM Political. Obama 1, Hillary, Black Democratic Establishment 0
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 09:04 PM · The Making of the President
This could be interesting: It’s been speculated that a big reason so much of the black vote stayed with Hillary thus far is because they didn’t think Obama could win. That fear is dead now, with South Carolina shaping up to be a proving ground.And as the Moderate Voice notes, "Obama 1, Black Democratic Establishment 0". Glenn Reynolds adds, "Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson can't be liking this too much." Meanwhile, Betsy Newmark writes, "This has got to be the death knell for the John Edwards campaign": He just doesn't have the money to compete at the level that will be necessary from here on out. He's going to fade away as the rest of the primaries progress. And where will his supporters go? I would bet that most of them are not going to go to Hillary.While Hillary's campaign is far from DOA, Betsy suggests, probably quite accurately, that "The Clinton campaign has got to be sweating bullets now." Related: Another reason why Hillary's campaign advisors might be sweating bullets? The liberal media's love of declaring the primaries a fait accompli, even as they're just getting started. Brent Bozell writes, "the media’s jackrabbit speed in declaring the race over helps accelerate the whole process and take the old-fashioned patriotic appeal out of primary elections where voters matter." Iowa: "A Mormon in the Dog House?"
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 07:28 PM · The Making of the President
Huckabee and Obama win big--if possibly pyrrhic--victories in Iowa. Of the former, and his victory over Mitt Romney, Matt Lewis writes: FOX is speculating there was a 46 percent Evangelical turnout in Iowa, which obviously benefited Huckabee. There didn't seem to be a whispering campaign, or any sort of anti-Mormon attacks, but there is no doubt that Christian-conservatives got behind Mike Huckabee in Iowa tonight.Speaking of Huckabee, Ed Rollins gives a remarkably pugilistic victory speech to Chris Wallace; Michelle Malkin writes, "When a campaign guru is garnering more attention for himself than his candidate, it spells trouble." Oh I don't know--that nice Mr. Carville certainly captured a fair amount of media attention for himself, and look how well his candidate turned out... Update: With his huge shinola-eating grin, John McCain looks like he's about to make a tasty snack out of Huckabee in New Hampshire. More: Politico agrees, writing that in Iowa, Romney "played hard here and appears to have lost by a significant margin." And "with John McCain surging in New Hampshire and only four days to recover, the pressure is on." Hey, You Don't Know Where That Finger's Been!
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 07:20 PM · The Making of the President
The Glenn Beck/Hillary Clinton connection...Revealed! (Hillary photo via Ed Morrissey. Obligatory Airplane! reference in title via Lloyd Bridges.) Update: Hillary's concession speech--"As thrilling as watching Michael Dukakis play computer chess." Saving Private DJ
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 07:00 PM · War And Anti-War
Black Five on "Operation Puppy Love": "Warning! This Is Not Underwear!"
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 06:53 PM · Muggeridge's Law · The Future and its Enemies · The New Puritans · The Return of the Primitive
Do not taunt happy fun trial lawyers; heed the important safety warnings that Laurie Kendrick has assembled. Gonzo Huckabeast
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 04:57 PM · The Making of the President
Obviously, Mike Huckabee is not the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. But Ed Rollins, his campaign chief, is doing a pretty spot-on impersonation of Hunter S. Thompson, as he stars in "Fear and Loathing In Des Moines." Decline Of Legacy Media, Western Civilization In Two Sentences
"Please do not bring any alcoholic beverages into the newsroom. Let’s go out like the professionals we have been these last, difficult weeks." Ben Hecht, Lou Grant and Ben Bradlee would simultaneously weep upon reading that, except they were real men (Well, OK, Grant was fictional, but you can't have everything, as they say in Cairo) who didn't do that kind of stuff. America's Official Presidential Sniff Tester
Who better than Iowahawk himself to educate voters on the important role our nation's 29th state plays in presidential politics: Iowa is a Microcosm of America. A one-day national presidential primary (as some analysts have recommended) would be prohibitively expensive for all but the most well-funded candidates, and make 'dark horse' campaigns virtually impossible. Democracy is better served by a small scale contest that allows for grassroots candidates to build momentum, while representing the country as a whole. Luckily, Iowa is an almost perfect miniaturized 1/100th scale model of the United States. For example, Northeastern iowa is filled with gritty and glitzy urban financial centers like Dubuque, "Iowa's New York." Iowa's Missouri River West Coast teems with hi-tech Gay entertainment centers like Sioux City ("The San Francisco of Iowa") and Council Bluffs ("The Malibu of Iowa"). With its fashionable supermodel nightclubs and machine gun-wielding drug lords, far southeastern Keokuk is our Miami Beach. And, in the center of it all, there is Des Moines, which is famous as "the Des Moines of Iowa."Read the whole thing, then drop by this week's edition of PJM Political for more Iowa-tastic politics! Update: As if Iowahawk's introduction isn't enough, he's also live blogging the rich futuristic psychosexual fission that is the Iowa Caucus. No Conservatives, Dammit!!
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 12:12 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
The New York Times' hiring of Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard for their op-ed page happened while I was on vacation, so I didn't get a chance to blog about it. But Fred Seigel has a thorough article on the topic, including, of course, the left's 19th nervous breakdown upon hearing the news: For conservatives, long accustomed to self-serving liberal pieties about tolerance, the orgy of outrage at having to face an alien point of view was wonderful to behold, and no one enjoyed it more than the man at the storm’s center. As Kristol put it to Politico.com, with the obvious relish of the skinny guy on the beach who gets the girl in the fourth panel, “I was flattered watching blogosphere heads explode.” (This provoked a new round of outrage: “Lawd, this is one son of a bitch I detest,” a typical posting hissed. “Smarmy prick. I’m sure that amuses him even more.”)Outside of the Timesmen, is there anybody--on the right or the left--who was surprised by the left's temper tantrum? Rosenthal's naiveté helps to illustrate an astonishingly parochial mindset inside the Grey Lady. Kudos to Bill Kristol for getting the gig though--especially since the MSM in general far prefers fake Republicans over real ones. Viva Las Lileks!
By Ed Driscoll · January 3, 2008 12:08 AM · The New, New Journalism
The Bard of Minneapolis travels west to Sin City for his Christmas vacation and dispatches a hilarious and well-illustrated Bleat. I wonder if he'll make it back out this September for the second Blog World Convention? Programmed For Love
This Houston Chronicle article really takes Alvin Turing's test to new heights: If you're younger than 35, you'll probably live long enough to put David Levy's prediction to the test. Levy says that by 2050 we'll be creating robots so lifelike, so imbued with human-seeming intelligence and emotions, as to be nearly indistinguishable from real people. And we'll have sex with these robots. Some of us will even marry them. And it will all be good.Hey, somebody should make a movie about that! Blogosphere Traffic Compared: Port Versus Starboard
By Ed Driscoll · January 2, 2008 10:38 AM · The New, New Journalism
Simon Owens notices an interesting traffic pattern: It has long been understood that the largest liberal blogs have generally produced more web traffic than the largest conservative blogs. But I have noticed a general trend over the past few months that I didn’t want to write about until the end of the year. After surveying the traffic stats of many major political blogs, I found that web traffic for several major liberal blogs either declined sharply or stayed the same while major conservative blogs saw a sharp increase in traffic.Tim Blair suggests it may due to the presidential race: "the Republican nomination contest is relatively open, while at this stage the Democrat contest is a two-horse race. More viable candidates = more debate = more posts = more traffic." Even as the Blogosphere counts its numbers, Canada's CTV, on the cutting edge of societal evolution, notices that there is indeed this hot new trend called blogging that's just poised to take off! For a generation that has traded in pens and paper for wireless laptops and PDAs, blogging has become the new journaling, with millions spilling their guts in online forums that are available for anyone and everyone to read.Geez, talk about news from 2002. Kurtz Objects: Aren't 99% Of Reporters Fair And Nonpartisan?
By Ed Driscoll · January 2, 2008 09:33 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Howard Kurtz is an excellent writer and a great source of inside baseball info regarding the media, but he has the same blindside that numerous other journalists have when it comes to his profession, where they simply can't see the forest for the trees, no matter how many times it's pointed out to them. Dana Milbank of all people (he of the Cheney Derangement Syndrome, which caused him to go on TV dressed like Johnny Carson's old Floyd R. Turbo character in the wake of Cheney's hunting accident) tried to point out to Kurtz yes indeed, there's no such thing as an objective, unbiased media, and that the media is becoming increasingly balkanized. (And as anyone who's read this blog for any length of times knows, to me, that's not a bad thing.) But in response, Kurtz lowered the blinkers over his eyes. Or as Tim Graham puts it: Out of kindness to his Washington Post colleague, Howard Kurtz dedicated a second segment of CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday to the Post's Dana Milbank to plug his new book, Homo Politicus. While Milbank wrote that the media's split into liberal media and conservative media, Kurtz objected that CBS or the New York Times would be considered liberal or favorable to Democrats, that it's unfair to compare conservative editorial pages or opinion journals with "mainstream" media like CBS.This despite RatherGate, and all the evidence from previous elections, but particularly 2004. This despite the New York Times' ombudsman's mea culpa that year that "Of course" the Times is a liberal paper. This despite Mary Mapes' admission that she didn't know any of the Internet players on the right. Or the many journalists, usually at the tail-end of their careers, who come clean about their profession. I tried to bring up a couple of these issues when Howard appeared on PJM Political this fall to discuss his book Reality Show and you could just hear the hackles going up in response. On the other hand, if I had to work every day at the Washington Post and CNN, (the latter born of original sin thanks to Eason Jordan's multiple low points as a journalist) I'd probably take a see-no-evil approach to my colleagues as well. The Ref Should Have Called This Before The First Bell
By Ed Driscoll · January 2, 2008 09:23 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal
Via Copious Dissent, Milton Friedman debates far left Canadian author and econocrank Naomi Klein: The March Of The Candidates
By Ed Driscoll · January 2, 2008 12:33 AM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Something tells me that this could double as B-Roll footage for the politicians stumping in the Iowa cold this week: (Via Blue Crab Boulevard.) You Can't Spell Iowa Without Eye, I Guess
By Ed Driscoll · January 1, 2008 04:56 PM · The Making of the President
![]() Check out the photo of Huckabee currently on Drudge--when did Matt hire Luis Bunuel to be his photographer? Update: His close shave complete, Huck heads for Hollywood--and an appearance with Jay Leno. Deep Inside The Satellite Radio Industrial Complex
By Ed Driscoll · January 1, 2008 03:38 PM · Ed TV
Secrets of XM revealed! (A big thanks to Joe Mathieu of XM's POTUS '08 Channel, for giving me a tour of the facilities on the day before Thanksgiving.) "There Is No Marine Academy"
By Ed Driscoll · January 1, 2008 03:19 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President · War And Anti-War
The New York Times runs a correction; clearly the answer to their woes is even more leftwing groupthink. Acoustic Ladyland
Kathy Shaidle of Relapsed Catholic, and more recently, her Five Feet of Fury blog, has an e-book out: The year was 1987. My then-housemate, the vegan lesbian stripper/art student, was off to protest the new Witches of Eastwick film as defamatory.More details here. (Richard Miniter's recent post at his Pajamas Express blog dovetails nicely with the theme of the excerpt that Kathy has posted.) |
![]() Since 2002, News, Technology and Pop Culture, 24 Hours a Day, Live and in Stereo! (And every Saturday on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.) What They're Saying
"I like Ed a lot personally, but how can you say anything bad about a man with a hat?"--Roger L. Simon Navigation
Support the Site
Search
Archives
February 2009January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 Etcetera
![]() Bookmark Me! Blogroll Me! ![]()
Syndicate this site (XML)
Powered by
Site design by
|
Copyright © 2002-2008 Edward B. Driscoll, Jr. All Rights Reserved |