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"Dear Senator Obama"
By Ed Driscoll · April 30, 2008 12:24 PM · The Making of the President
Cam Edwards writes, "Well, if it makes you feel any better Senator… this whole episode has been tough for me too": You see, two of my five kids are actually my stepkids. We don’t make a big deal out of it. In fact, they’ve always called me “Dad”. Just like your father, who wasn’t around when you were growing up, my two oldest kids haven’t seen their biological father in years. And like you, they’re the offspring of a white mother and a black father. Our other three kids are as pale as milk, so we’ve gotten our share of odd comments over the years. I’m sure you remember similar comments when you were a kid and were out with your grandparents.In other words, a typical Cook County hack, as Orrin Judd has noted. Yes, I'll Second That "Wow"
Jim Geraghty quotes from "A Story About McCain That Makes You Say, 'Wow!'": [Ret. Col. Bud] Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."That's just jaw-dropping. This Just In
Jonathan Pierce of England's Samizdata reads Andrew Sullivan, so you don't have to, spotting this classic Sullivan moment: It's extremely depressing that the first major national black politician who takes on the victimology of Sharpton and Jackson is greeted by the right with the kind of cynicism you see at Malkin or the Corner or Reynolds. It reveals, I think, the deeper truth: the Republican right only wants a black Republican to do this.As Jonathan writes, "Republicans want to vote for Republicans: who knew?" Go figure! I guess their chief concern is finding "the right man — and the conservative choice — for a difficult and perilous time." "Dude, Where's My Recession?"
By Ed Driscoll · April 30, 2008 10:56 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal
James Pethokoukis notes that the economy grew 0.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008, even with the drag of the Pelosi Premium around its neck: Now that's not a robust number by any means, but it's not so bad given all the worry out there that the economy is headed off a cliff. Before you declare a recession, as many economic pundits have, shouldn't the economy, well, actually recess a bit—if only for a quarter?But what about those rice shortages, eh? You Don't Need A Weatherman...
By Ed Driscoll · April 30, 2008 10:47 AM · Radical Chic · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
With the reemergence of Rev Wright back into the limelight he so dearly craves, the name Bill Ayers has been pushed back into the underground a bit. But this story is a reminder of why his relationship to Obama matters as well: During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up "a gentleman named William Ayers," who "was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol and other buildings. He's never apologized for that." Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama's answer: "The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George." Obama was indeed only 8 in early 1970. I was only 9 then, the year Ayers' Weathermen tried to murder me.Much more here, from Ed Morrissey. Dear Barry
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 09:19 PM · The Making of the President
I'm not at all sure which Chicago paper carries his column, but Iowahawk has excerpts from "Dear Barry: Relationship Advice From Illinois Senator Barack Obama". A sample: Dear Barry:RTWT, as Dear Abby would say if she used four-letter acronyms. One Notch Above Junk
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 05:51 PM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies
Standard & Poor's cuts the bond ratings of the New York Times: Credit-ratings agency Standard & Poor's Ratings Services on Tuesday cut its long-term rating on newspaper publisher The New York Times Co., as its advertising revenue continues to fall.In 2002, NYT stock was worth over $50 a share. And I as mentioned in a recent video, just wait until 2014... Wait, I Thought The Personal Was Political
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 04:07 PM · The Making of the President
Ann Althouse parses Obama's press conference today, and notes that while he denounced Wright's speeches, he backs off on actually denouncing Wright himself. And indeed, Obama seems more perturbed by their timing than anything else. Which dovetails into this curious exchange between Obama and Chris Wallace, which Paul Mirengoff highlights: WALLACE: Did you talk to reverend Wright recently about his decision to make a series of public appearances at this particular point?How is Wright a civilian? When your ideology makes "the personal the political", and in an effort to create a holistic worldview, has politicized everything from religion to light bulbs to national defense, how can there be any "civilians" in politics? You could make a good case that the Swift Vets or those victims of Bill Clinton who spoke out against him were "civilians" in politics--they knew that they would no longer be private citizens, and that by pointing out inconvenient truths about media favorites, they would be publicly trashed, and that their lives could potentially never be the same. In contrast, Wright, gave politicized sermon after politicized sermon to his large clergy, and saw one of his sermons become the title of Obama's book, and others were quoted by Obama in his autobiographies. Over the last week, beginning with his appearance on Bill Moyer's show, Wright seems clearly intent in making the most of his 15 minutes. That doesn't sound like a political "civilian" to me. Related: Heather Mac Donald explores "Poisonous 'Authenticity'". Riding The Culture War's Tiger
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 02:11 PM · The Future and its Enemies · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
Ezra Levant explores the strange case of Montreal's "Bar Le Stud": Pete Vere sends me this interesting case study of the wild animal biting madly. A Montreal gay bar, Bar Le Stud, told a woman named Audrey Vachon that she wasn't allowed in -- it was a men-only establishment, and had been happily operating that way for eleven years. Then the human rights commissions got involved, and Bar Le Stud has copped a plea bargain. We don't know the details of how much money Vachon got paid or -- and you know this was part of the deal, it usually is -- the kind of "sensitivity training" that Bar Le Stud's staff have to undergo.What we accept as the current definition of the culture war may look like a blissfully calm warm-up phase a decade or so from now. Consider the implications of a news story such as this, particularly if, as seems likely, such stories become more and more commonplace. Update: Ezra concurs with my take, and notes: "Even if they don't believe in free speech or property rights for their opponents, liberals should protect the concepts for themselves." Read the whole thing, as they say. I'd Rather Be Mortarboarding
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 12:03 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · War And Anti-War
Jonah, mortarboarding at Gitmo is when detainees are made to put on a cap and gown and listen to back-to-back commencement addresses by alternating Clinton cabinet secretaries and PBS hosts. Most of them crack during Janet Reno.I'd say that by far, this is the definitive example of mortarboarding--with this a close second. But the competition is fierce, with numerous new potential contestants participating each spring. Paging Mr. Rains, Mr. Claude Rains To The Podium, Please...
By Ed Driscoll · April 29, 2008 11:25 AM · The Making of the President
In his latest presser, as Allahpundit notes, Obama is shocked--shocked!--that there's racism being uttered by Rev. Wright, the pastor whose sermons he attended for 20 years, except for the really bad ones, which he never heard, except for those he quoted in his book. Congratulations, senator--you've just entered the same maze of pretzel logic your colleague explored in 2004. Does There Have To Be A Winner?
See-Dubya writes: Who to root against? One is an anti-semitic, state-subsidized, bloated, corrupt friend of despots and thugs and enemy of the West, and the other…Is exactly the same; both float prominently through the poisoned alphabet soup division of Blair's Law, as the UN is P.O.ed at the BBC. Quote Of The Day
By Ed Driscoll · April 28, 2008 11:02 PM · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
The Bard of Jasperwood looks back on the events of the past few days with Lileksian understatement: Interesting how we thought that Romney’s candidacy would lead to a discussion of religion and politics, eh? Turns out that was just the warm-up act.The performance of the main attraction this weekend also places an interesting perspective on this recent quote regarding the citizens of the more remote exurbs of the Keystone State, eh? "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."Nora Ephron could not be reached for comment. Update: "What The Clintons Did For Feminism, Could Obama do for race relations?" O For Fake
By Ed Driscoll · April 28, 2008 02:58 PM · The Making of the President
I'm not sure how much I buy Jim Geraghty's theory that Rev. Wright's antics are setting the stage "For the All-Time Sister Souljah Moment", but the timing is interesting, of course: And now, for a really far-out theory... Wright goes out, makes even more outrageous remarks, and it gives Obama the opportunity to finally sever the ties. A statement like, "I loved this man, but I cannot abide what he is saying now... I am leaving that church and must disavow Jeremiah Wright."Wouldn't it be seen as remarkably transparent? After all, Jesse Jackson's baggage wasn't as obvious a hold on Bill Clinton when he invented the Sister Souljah moment. And Obama already has quite a collection of connect the dot moments, between Wright, Rezko, the New Black Panthers, Ayers, etc. Is it too many to overcome in the general, even with the media's transparently obvious support? And speaking of the media, considering that Bill Moyers and CNN recently gushed over Wright, by throwing the good reverend under the bus (where Obama's grandmother was also last seen) won't he calling into question their judgment too? Of course, given how much they've been played, would they even notice? N For Fake
As Libertas notes, "Yeah, this will make money": [Filmmaker] NICK Broomfield … is under fire for his latest, “Battle for Haditha,” a probe into the 2005 Marine massacre of 24 men, women and kids in Haditha, Iraq, allegedly in retaliation for the bombing death of one jarhead. The flick, opening May 7 at Film Forum, features former enlisted Marines portraying the killers in explicit reenactments of what some call “Bush’s My Lai ,” and is being slammed as a smear job. One group, Defend Our Marines, states … Broomfield claimed he’d show the world the “unflinching truth” about Haditha, but instead had actors improvise phony, obscenity-filled dialogue as they shot innocent civilians. One scene in which an Iraqi is gunned down as he flees through a field is said to be completely fictional. Charges against five of eight Marines involved have been dropped so far.Cue the refrains of "fake but accurate", and "emotional truth" that are sure to come. Most of Broomfield's previous documentaries were feminist-themed movies. As an interviewer asked him, "You seem to focus a lot on strange women in your films": PM: You know, Courtney, Aileen Wuornos, Heidi Fleiss and, uh, Margaret Thatcher. Is that more than coincidence?Hmmm--I guess there was a dearth of "moderately powerful" women in the Middle East for Broomfield to film. Can't imagine why that is, (though maybe Ms. magazine knows) but I suppose covering that story would be a documentary too far, lest he join Theo van Gogh in the great editing bay in the sky. Best make nice, safe, perfectly reactionary boilerplate about the big bad U.S. instead. Last Year's Model
By Ed Driscoll · April 28, 2008 01:00 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
Colby Cosh writes that Bill Clinton is suffering from an enormous case of what Alvin Toffler once dubbed Future Shock: Readers will recall that Clinton's presidential campaigns took place in 1993 and 1997--the age of steam-engines and chaste courtship, when the public obtained the news of the realm by means of telegraph, tintype, and whispered rumours passed along by drunken stagecoach drivers. In that vanished time, no one ever dreamed that a candidate would have to account for fleeting images and haunting "sound bites" blown up beyond all reasonable significance by as-yet-unimagined mediums like "tele-vision". Indeed, little is known about the electoral methods of the period, but it is thought that chief magistrates were chosen by assemblies of eminent citizens who scrawled names on pieces of broken pottery that were then cast into giant ceremonial urns.Fortunately, there's a new museum that's perfect for both Bill, and the sclerotic medium of his all-too-fleeting glory days. (Via 5'F) Has Lileks Seen This?
By Ed Driscoll · April 27, 2008 10:02 PM · The Future and its Enemies
You gotta start someplace, and here's how Americans in the 1930s were instructed to use a then cutting-edge piece of technology....their new rotary phones: (Via Execupundit; phone-blogging from a more recent past here.) Related: Check out the moderne table and chair that Ann Althouse photographed in the Brooklyn Museum of Art--that's one of the swankier tables those 1930s phones would have rested on. Less Is Moore
Along with Michelle Malkin's "Vents", Bob Parks' "Outside The Wire" videos were a definite inspiration last year as I began assembling the elements that would go into my "Silicon Graffiti" video series. And his latest video is a doozy--two guesses as to the subject of Bob's lead story: (Via Eyeblast.TV) Down The Rabbit Hole With The CHRC
By Ed Driscoll · April 27, 2008 07:01 PM · The Future and its Enemies
Found via Mark Steyn, Ezra Levant writes: Nelly Hechme is the innocent bystander whose Internet connection was hacked by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, so their investigators could cover their tracks when they went online under their secret codenames to surf white supremacist websites.Read the whole thing; more here. For our video look at Ezra's run-in with Alberta's local "Human Rights Commission" from back in January, click here. "And If We Can't, He Shouldn't Be President"
Ann Althouse has a great take on the New York Times' recent attempts to run interference for Barack Obama: Come on. There is a serious question here about whether Obama is too left wing. We damned well get to talk about it. If you're going to push us back and call us racists for trying to address an overwhelmingly important political problem with a black candidate for President, then what you are essentially saying is that America is not ready for a black President. And that would be racist. Either we can talk about him vigorously or we can't. And if we can't, he shouldn't be President.Fortunately, Obama himself says that the criticism of Wright is fair game, particularly if longer than 30-second snippets of his fire-and-brimstone sermons are used to place his overtly political remarks into context. So I'd say Obama's approval outweighs the Times' tut-tutting, particularly given the previous established moralistic food chain created by the deciders at the Gray Lady regarding "absolute moral authority". (Of course, 2004's Democratic candidate was even more hand-picked and coddled by the Times. Which may have accounted for, say, just to pick a number at random, 15 percent of his popularity back then.) Update: More from Jim Geraghty, who reminds us that Rev. Wright will be playing extremely slow pitch softball at the National Press Club tomorrow. The Not So Final Countdown, Revisited
By Ed Driscoll · April 27, 2008 01:26 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · The Memory Hole
Given how easy it now is to find previous Final Countdowns, just once, I'd love to see the next Final Countdown met with some skepticism from the press: Mr. Gore/Erlich/Danson/DiCaprio, etc., why should we believe you, when there have been so many earlier doomsday predictions that have never come to pass? (H/T: TB) Related: Via Small Dead Animals, Canada's Lorrie Goldstein opens up an even more recent memory hole: Dear Globe and Mail and Toronto Star:Or as it's been dubbed in States, the Pelosi Premium. They're Not Hiding It Now
Howard Kurtz interviews military analyst and retired Army colonel, Ken Allard: HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Last year, you quit NBC and MSNBC...Allard left the networks in early 2007. Particularly in the case of MSNBC (and tacitly, with stunts such as this at NBC), the two affiliates of GE aren't exactly hiding their position on the ideological spectrum these days. Curiously though, as I've written previously, for such a savvy media critic, Howard never seems to notice these things. Priorities Firmly In Order
By Ed Driscoll · April 27, 2008 12:39 PM · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President · War And Anti-War
Charles Johnson spots "Lefties Seething Over Obama on Fox": The irony here is completely off the scale. These are people who advocate speaking with our real mortal enemies, enemies who chant “Death to America” and kill American soldiers and civilians, but they’re unyielding when it comes to ... Fox News?Freud called it displacement. And That's The Question, Isn't It?
With Al Sharpton threatening to "close this city down", Michelle Malkin asks, why is Al "still welcome in polite society?" As I wrote just this past week, linking to my article on the topic from a few years ago in The New Partisan: From politicians such as Al Sharpton, Robert Byrd and John Kerry to artists such as Michael Moore and Philip Johnson, it's amazing what you can get away with in your salad days as long as you emerge with the right politics afterwards.Michelle writes, "Some readers wonder why I continue to write about the Sharpton-MSM lovefest. Why? Because the enablers deserve to be held responsible and shamed publicly until they stop." Since the modern MSM has not a molecule of shame in their collective nervous system, I'm not sure if that's possible. Besides, as Mark Steyn notes, it suffers from an enormous moral inversion: In a scrupulously politically correct age, it's not offensive to organize a "Kill the police!" demo or to preach that the government invented Aids in order to perpetrate an African-American genocide. You can pull that stuff and still be part of respectable society, hanging out with presidential candidates and whatnot. What's grotesquely offensive is the chap who's insensitive enough to point out such statements and associations.Which is never more obvious in an election year, just as we saw in 2004, when it was the Swift Vets who were demonized by the media for pointing out John Kerry's 1970s-era anti-American demagoguery, not the man actually made those remarks. The MSM once had a monopoly on the past. Today, with that control broken, they get quite cross with whomever points out a leftist's otherwise grandfathered radical chic past. Update: Which may be why, as people abandon the MSM's top down control of information, we've entered "The 'Golden Age' of Web news". A Day At The Races
By Ed Driscoll · April 27, 2008 12:46 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Burt Prelutsky explores the political correctness which has so alienated newspapers (particularly Burt's local paper, the L.A. Times) from their readers, and notes: In the old days, Hollywood was run by a bunch of tough cookies who kept one eye on the starlets and one eye on the bottom line. These days, it appears as if the movies are in the hands of bozos who think there’s something tacky about making movies that actually turn a profit.Does that make Rupert Murdoch Irving Thalberg? You're Spaced Out On Sensation, Like You're Under Sedation
By Ed Driscoll · April 26, 2008 10:41 PM · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
More from the Time Warp files, as NRO's Greg Pollowitz links to a Huffington Post blogger none-too-keen on Keith Olbermann's typically hyperbolic language (and gee, welcome to the club!): Olbermann was discussing the election with Newsweek's Howard Fineman, a frequent guest. They topic was, how can a winner finally be determined in this never-ending Democratic race for the nomination? Of course, the assumption was that it was Clinton that should be shown the door (despite clearly still earning her spot in the race thanks to, um, voters). Fineman said that, all the delegate math aside, ultimately it was going to take "some adults somewhere in the Democratic party to step in and stop this thing, like a referee in a fight that could go on for thirty rounds. Those are the super, super, super delegates who are going to have to decide this."Which sounds sort of like a rewrite of the Economist's infamous line earlier this month, which I quoted in my recent video: The Democrats are all too aware that their civil war could spell disaster. A cavalcade of senior Democrats, including senators Patrick Leahy and Chris Dodd, have advised Mrs Clinton to retire to her room with a glass of whisky and a loaded revolver.Are these the examples of the nuance that the left is so known for? With A Bit Of A Mind Flip, You're There In The Time Slip
By Ed Driscoll · April 26, 2008 07:13 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole
The wheels of progress grind exceedingly slowly at Newsweek, but eventually, the magazine grudgingly catches up with conservative thought: First this week, Eleanor Clift nods in tacit agreement with everything Republicans said about the Clintons in the 1990s. Shortly thereafter, Michael Hirsh runs an article there titled, "How the South Won (This) Civil War". That was a theme that Michael Graham, a southerner currently transplanted to New England, described six(!) years ago, in a book with much less bitter tone (actually, it's quite a funny read) called Redneck Nation. Its subhead also notes..."How the South Really Won the War". Update: Speaking of time warps, Glenn Reynolds flashes back to November of 2004 and notes, "Jeez, they used to at least wait until after they lost the election to start this talk." Saudi Blogger Freed After Four Months Jail
By Ed Driscoll · April 26, 2008 03:52 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The New, New Journalism · War And Anti-War
Reuters reports that "A Saudi blogger detained without charge for more than four months after expressing pro-reform opinions has been released, a colleague said on Saturday": Fouad Farhan was detained in early December after running an online campaign over 10 men arrested since February 2007 on suspicion of financing militant groups, but whose supporters say they are being punished for pro-democracy activity.Of course, for Reuters, one man's extended jail sentence is merely another man's visit to the Breakfast Club. I Think Newsweek Just Unwittingly Endorsed John McCain
By Ed Driscoll · April 26, 2008 11:24 AM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President
During the 1990s, conservatives believed that the Clintons were something out of The Godfather, with endless dark deals and bodies buried (Vince Foster, and even Ron Brown, depending upon how deep down the conspiratorial rabbit hole of the VRWC one went) to stay in power. That was all tut-tutted by the left during the 1990s, but as I recently said, that was then and this is now. In the very liberal Newsweek, the even more liberal Eleanor Clift essentially says that they were right: I'm beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks—including a huge chunk of the media—will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in "The Godfather," where the watchword is, "It's business, not personal."So if Obama runs, he'll be the second coming of Leonard Bernstein's salon, with radical chic terrorists and racist thugs such as William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, and Reverend Wright. If Hillary wins, it will be the second coming of Don Corleone, according to Eleanor. Sounds like an exceptional reason to ride the Straight Talk Express, to me. Henry Luce Just Rolled Over In His (Eco-Unfriendly) Grave
As I noted as soon as I saw it, that recent Time magazine global-warming as Iwo Jima cover is straight out of the "moral equivalent of war" playbook that as been a staple of the left since World War I that Jonah Goldberg described in Liberal Fascism. So it's not surprising that Jonah writes about that cover in his latest syndicated column: Even if Walsh and his bosses at Time were merely trying to be descriptive of American attitudes, they’d still be flat-out wrong. If Americans saw environmentalism as the purest expression of patriotic sentiment — like, say, buying Liberty Bonds during WWI — Time’s declaration might be defensible. But Americans don’t think any such thing.Just as "the moral equivalent of war" traces its roots to WWI, so too does the desire for an "objective" media, as Steve Boriss recently noted. As I've written before, journalism, but big and small, has definitely entered into its post-objective phase. Which is both long overdue and much more akin to a return to its pre-20th century roots than some sort of breakthrough development. Coming Clean On The Pelosi Premium
By Ed Driscoll · April 26, 2008 12:37 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · The Future and its Enemies · The Memory Hole · The Return of the Primitive
David Freddoso writes, "Republicans are jumping on Nancy Pelosi for getting the price of gasoline wrong by nearly a dollar in an interview": I argue today that this is less significant than the fact that her promise to bring down gas prices was already a lie the moment she first uttered it. Pelosi isn't failing to do something about gasoline for lack of leadership or a plan, but because lower gas prices undercut a hugely important plank in the Democratic platform.Unlike Mrs. Pelosi, the more honest San Francisco Democrats will actually admit to that. Harold and Kumar Remain Trapped In Hollywood
By Ed Driscoll · April 25, 2008 06:30 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
"Strap in. You’re in for a predictable 90-minutes." And that's the problem with virtually every Hollywood film these days, isn't it? (Except that most films are nearly twice as long. At least, to paraphrase Alvy Singer, with H&K's new flick the food here is terrible, and mercifully, such small portions, too.) Update: Writing for Pajamas Media, Kyle Smith of the New York Post notes that "there's only one decent political joke in the entire movie"--the direction of which, unintended or not, won't surprise many on the starboard side of the Blogosphere. Nair Runner
By Ed Driscoll · April 25, 2008 01:07 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · Muggeridge's Law · The Assault On Reason · The Return of the Primitive
Couldn't he have have simply let it keep growing naturally to demonstrate the importance of sustained old growth forestry? Wish You Were Here
By Ed Driscoll · April 25, 2008 12:13 PM · All You Need Is Ears · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
I once dubbed Pink Floyd's Roger Waters the Pat Buchanan of British rock: both, in retrospect, would have been quite OK with appeasing Nazi Germany; both are anti-Israel. But Julia Gorin has an excellent suggestion (and yes I'm very late to this) for Waters' next destination on his bringing "The Wall To The Wall" tours. Of course, I could see why Rogers wouldn't want to Meddle there, not when his prospective audience would likely shout "One Of These Days, I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces!" The Final Cut would then be followed by the Great Gig In The Sky, unless Waters plans to Run Like Hell after the gig. OK, I'll stop now, before Brain Damage occurs... Machiavellian Maverick?
With conservatives grudgingly in his camp (barring Bob Barr parachuting in at the last minute) and the far left having decided that, unlike 2004, a Vietnam vet as president just isn't their cup of chai, Jim Geraghty believes that John McCain is triangulating towards the great undecided middle, even as the Democratic primaries (onward to Guam!) continue. On the surface, it may appear that Maverick is once again throwing conservatives under the bus, but as Geraghty writes asks in an earlier post, "Does no one else see what's going on here?" How many other North Carolina Republican Party ads have you heard about this year? Last year? The year before that?Meanwhile, Hillary is doing some triangulating of her own. Progress, Of A Sort
By Ed Driscoll · April 25, 2008 10:53 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · Radical Chic · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
"After 30 years of railing for separation of church and state, Bill Moyers comes to the aid of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright." Glad to see that there's one man of the cloth that Moyers is willing to support! Meanwhile, several names and Webpages mysteriously have begun to go missing on Obama's Website. Perhaps the rapture has arrived there. Related: "In adversity, bitter pundits cling to their Obamessiah." Obama's Response to the Ayers Question Speaks Volumes
Jim Geraghty explores Barack Obama's radical ties with former Weatherman (and I don't mean in the Willard Scott sense) Bill Ayers who, like the fellow that Wretchard linked to on Wednesday, hasn't changed his worldview a jot since 1968, other than no longer literally putting his Semtex where his mouth is. The problem for Obama isn't that his ties to Ayers are so close (that we know of so far). Ayers hosted a party that was, effectively, the first fundraiser for Obama. They served on the Woods Foundation board together, and he spoke on some panels. That's not as close a relationship as with, say, his mentor Jeremiah Wright, but it's a lot closer than most Americans will ever come to a person who set bombs in public buildings.Meanwhile, Tom Hayden, last seen bemoaning the growth of capitalism in Vietnam, notes that Hillary has plenty of radical chic baggage of her own. Nuke The Entire Site From Orbit--It's The Only Way To Be Sure
Newsday's "TV Zone" believes that Katie Couric may land on her feet after bailing from CBS, and replace Larry King when King finally goes off into the sunset after hosting his talk show since about 30 seconds after Philo T. Farnsworth invented the medium in 1927. Replacing King would actually be a good move for Katie, I think, since cheerfully chatting it up with guests suits her talents and perky demeanor much more than hosting the evening news and the institutional gravitas that the latter gig (and its ever-shrinking elderly audience) demands. And speaking of which, Troy Patterson, Slate's in-house TV critic, suggests that euthanasia is the Rather logical conclusion to the CBS news division, post-Katie: I propose that it is time for CBS News to be put down, in the Old Yeller sense of the phrase. It's time to turn out the lights and just start airing Hollywood gossip at 6:30 p.m. The network could follow Schieffer's lead and simply dissolve the thing after the inauguration, maybe keeping 60 Minutes around, either as a commercial-free public service program (because what exec doesn't love a prestige-hogging loss leader?) or under the auspices of CBS' entertainment division (because why keep pretending?). The farewell would be handled with dignified pomp—tributes to Murrow and Severeid and so forth. And if Walter Cronkite is in good health, he could do the honors with a final sign off. I'm serious. That's how bad things are, and that's the way it is.And like Lenin's tomb, the mausoleum has already been built for the curious to view the remains. Progressivism Defined
By Ed Driscoll · April 24, 2008 01:21 AM · Bobos In Paradise · The Future and its Enemies · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
"Wretchard" of the Bellmont Club looks at Paul Auster, whom the New York Times notes, presumably without the intended irony, "is the author of the forthcoming 'Man in the Dark'": Paul Auster's "Vietnam me act crazy" article in the New York Times is that worst of confessions: that kind that is accidentally funny. Explaining his strange behavior on a certain day in the 1960s, Auster says,"I am 61 now, but my thinking has not changed much" since 1968--which is as good a definition of hardened-in-concrete modern "progressivism" as you'll find.Being crazy struck me as a perfectly sane response to the hand I had been dealt — the hand that all young men had been dealt in 1968. The instant I graduated from college, I would be drafted to fight in a war I despised to the depths of my being, and because I had already made up my mind to refuse to fight in that war, I knew that my future held only two options: prison or exile. Chickenhawks, Then And Now
By Ed Driscoll · April 23, 2008 08:25 PM · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
John Hawkins writes: Isn't it funny how the whole "chickenhawk argument" was such a oft-discussed, "crucial" point back in 2004, but today, now that the shoe's on the other foot, not a liberal soul who was making that argument seems to think it has the least bit of validity any more?That's a topic we've also explored here a few times recently. Pacman Joins Cowboys, According To Dallas Morning News
By Ed Driscoll · April 23, 2008 03:40 PM · Run To Daylight
Just off the NFL wire, Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News writes, "Pacman Jones is a Dallas Cowboy": More than a month after the teams first discussed a trade, the Cowboys and Tennessee have reached an agreement, according to a source, on a deal that will send the suspended cornerback to the Cowboys.He'll have to be a model citizen with Dallas, or the Cowboys might want to consider reopening their infamous mid-1990s-era "White House". The News Mausoleum
By Ed Driscoll · April 23, 2008 02:41 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies · The New, New Journalism
If you enjoyed my "Atlas Mugged" article last year on the rise of both mass media in the 1920s, and its successor, new media in the late 1990s, and you enjoyed my recent video on the recently-opened "Newseum" in Washington DC, then don't miss John Podhoretz's exceptional article on "The News Mausoleum", which documents the rise and fall of 20th century mass media, and the opening of the granite tomb they've built for themselves in the first decade of the new millennium. Illinois Nazis--I Hate Illinois Nazis
Soon to be ex-GOP Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle from Indiana speaks with neo-Nazis in Chicago: U.S. Congressional candidate Tony Zirkle is facing criticism from one of his primary opponents, and a host of people on the Internet, for speaking at an event over the weekend that celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday.As the director of the play within the movie The Producers said after reading its script, "Did you know, I never knew that the Third Reich meant Germany. I mean it's just drenched with historical goodies like that!" New Silicon Graffiti Video: This Year's Model
Just in time for the results from the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, here's the latest Silicon Graffiti. It's a reminder that sometimes, in the never-ending search for the next JFK, you have to toss the old one--and his wife--overboard. (Previous editions of Silicon Graffiti can be found here.) The Passion Of The Goracle
Back in the April of 2004, Steve Green of VodkaPundit dubbed The Day After Tomorrow, "The Passion of the Christ for the anti-globalization crowd." We had no idea at the time how right he was, since at least one of its special effects shots has gone full circle, finding its way into a modern-day messiah's cinematic production. George McGovern, Class All The Way
By Ed Driscoll · April 22, 2008 10:47 AM · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Glad to see the fraternity of American wartime pilots is so tightly bonded: Let me tell you what I would say to John McCain: neither of us is an expert on national defense. It's true that you went to one of the service academies but you were in the bottom of the class. It's true that you were a pilot in Vietnam, that you were shot down and spent most of the war in prison and we all sympathize with that and honor you for your courage. But you and I both had these battle experiences, you as a Navy fighter plane, I as an army bomber. I am not going to criticize your war record and your knowledge of national security but I don't want you criticizing mine either.With the latter paragraph, McGovern enters--not all that surprisingly--John Kerry Vietnam Mobius loop territory, as McGovern is implying that McCain could have done more to win a war that McGovern explicitly ran against, comparing, at one point in his '72 campaign, North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh to George Washington. "But In The Debates Their Lips Move In Sync With Their Speech"
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 07:25 PM · The Making of the President
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men. Benjamin J. Grimm Could Not Be Reached For Comment
If Iran nukes Israel, it's clobberin' time under a prospective Hillary presidency: Clinton further displayed tough talk in an interview airing on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. ABC News’ Chris Cuomo asked Clinton what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons.Not that Democrat policies regarding the Middle East are ever written in stone, but for multiple reasons, let's hope we never have to test the validity of this campaign promise. But John Stephenson and Allahpundit wonder who it's aimed it. What's The Matter With Hollywood?
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 05:05 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Return of the Primitive
Victor Davis Hanson writes that you go into these small artisan garrets in California like Hollywood, and, like a lot of small towns on the West Coast, it's not surprising that when people get bitter, they cling to identity politics and religions such as Scientology: It is more interested in political correctness than profits, as the Iraq War movie bombs attest. Talent is no longer gravitating to Hollywood, but staying put in Europe and Asia. Alternate media, from the Internet to video games to cable television, mean that fewer go to the movies anymore (I went once in the last 12 months). The old bread-and-butter genres—like the Western or the war movie—are either moribund or merely landscapes for political revisionism.A few years ago, Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote a superb essay on the transformation of Hollywood actors from men to perpetual adolescents. And if you work in an industry when one of your leading screenwriters can draft an essay for general consumption that includes the phrase... This is an election about whether the people of Pennsylvania hate blacks more than they hate women. And when I say people, I don't mean people, I mean white men....your product is likely to reflect those values. Even if, as VDH notes, it costs that industry literally hundreds of millions at the domestic box office. Speaking of movies, Glenn Reynolds links to a Popular Mechanics article that wonders when will Hollywood make another intelligent sci-fi movie. That's a topic we also discussed in this post from late 2006. In an industry that adopts to change as slowly as Hollywood (that's not really a knock--it's a titanic enterprise creating multi-million dollar budgeted movies involving armies of craftsmen and actors), most of the reasons haven't changed in the interim. Benign Youthful Indiscretions
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 03:22 PM · Liberal Fascism · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Ace explains "Why Bill Ayers Matters": As Allah snarked earlier, How come Bush's TANG records weren't similarly "tangential' as the left now claims of every character issue involving Barack Obama?As I touched on a few years ago in The New Partisan, from politicians such as Al Sharpton, Robert Byrd and John Kerry to artists such as Michael Moore and Philip Johnson, it's amazing what you can get away with in your salad days as long as you emerge with the right politics afterwards. Related: Dick Morris explores "Hillary's Terrorist Ties". "How Bad Was That WaPo Story On McCain's Temper?"
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 03:18 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
You May Say I'm A Dreamer
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 02:50 PM · Liberal Fascism · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · War And Anti-War
Rich Lowry writes, "Just Imagine": Regarding that Time global warming cover, just imagine if the mainstream media were as exercised about the war on terror and as devoted to crusading to win it. How different would the political environment look?Freud called it displacement... WWIII Began When Albert Shanker Got Hold Of A Nuclear Device
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 02:02 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
Jennifer Rubin reminds us not to taunt happy fun Democrats such as Nora Ephron: The Left is losing it. Not the election. Just any semblance of sanity. From one Barack Obama fan we learn, “This is an election about whether the people of Pennsylvania hate blacks more than they hate women.” And these are Democrats, mind you.This is the religion they cling to--and it does seem to exacerbate their bitterness, eh? No wonder their media keeps this stuff away from the general public. Update: "Nora Ephron's Rage and Hatred". Reading Bill Ayers' Blog
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 01:48 PM · Radical Chic · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · The Return of the Primitive
Cuffy Meigs does the job that old media used to claim to do. Update: More here (and note the accompanying photo) on what is likely to be a bottomless well. But Glenn Reynolds' readers note that John McCain hides a radical affiliation of his own: "Hasn't McCain had a long association with former Klansman and fellow Senator Robert Byrd?"As Glenn writes, Heh.TM "That's The Truth"
By Ed Driscoll · April 21, 2008 01:22 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President
From Whoopi Goldberg, toiling away in the department of stopped clocks: "Well, what’s the matter is the Democrats are an elitist group. That’s the truth." Whoopi's last foray into politics was so elitist, it lost her a lucrative advertising gig. Update: Tim Blair uncovers more elitism involving the Keystone State, as "Chelsea Clinton hits the gay bars in Philadelphia": "I think Chelsea looks better in person and she's got the body and ass of life," said Christoper Murray after wrapping his arms around her and giving her a big hug.No word yet on what "the ass of life" means. Maybe CNN can help. Three Of A Perfect Pair
Jim Geraghty writes the next MasterCard ad: Planned campaign expenditures for television ads with message, "McCain is as bad as George W. Bush": $100 million.Heh. And The Beatification Goes On
Robert Novak describes Obama losing his cool last week during his debate with Hillary: Obama is trying to change the subject, but he lost his cool demeanor when ABC News questioners Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos returned to his San Francisco statement (among other difficult issues) in Wednesday's debate. In watching campaign debates dating back to Kennedy-Nixon in 1960, I never before had seen a candidate criticize the moderator or challenge his premises so often (on at least eight occasions). "Look, let me finish my point here, Charlie," said Obama, after Gibson had interrupted him following a 126-word answer.By and large, politicians already have enormous egos, but few have been deified by their supporters as a sort post-Christian Saint Walking The Earth the way Obama has, coupled with a rapture from the press so obvious even Saturday Night Live could spot it. Given such beatification, I'm surprised that Obama isn't even testier with those who fail to grasp his vision. Related: "Where's Gloria Steinem?" More: Waffles! They're not just for John Kerry anymore. Defining Deviancy Further Downward
By Ed Driscoll · April 20, 2008 12:57 PM · The Return of the Primitive
Back in 1992, the late Pat Moynihan wrote "Defining Deviancy Down": Moynihan argued that deviancy - crime, mental illness, out-of-wedlock births, etc. -- had become so rampant, had so thoroughly soaked into the culture, that we simply had to redefine the abnormal as normal to cope. By setting the bar lower, we comforted ourselves with the notion that the percentage of abnormal behavior was still manageable.The CBS affiliate in Chicago notes that this weekend saw 32 shot, two stabbed, and six dead. Related: "If I want a job cleaning your company’s toilets, I’ll have to present proof of citizenship and swear under penalty of perjury I’m legal, but if I mug you, beat you, and leave you for dead, it’s no questions asked?" And We Know What That Leads To...
This just in: John McCain has a temper! Insert obvious inference here: Update: McCain staffer rebuts: "As it happens, the piece is 99% fiction." "An Artifact Ready For Display Under Glass"
In his look at Old Media, far left scribe Eric Alterman goes from asking "What Liberal Media" (you know that one) to...What Media? Philip Meyer, in his book “The Vanishing Newspaper” (2004), predicts that the final copy of the final newspaper will appear on somebody’s doorstep one day in 2043. [Not 2014?--Ed] It may be unkind to point out that all these parlous trends coincide with the opening, this spring, of the $450-million Newseum, in Washington, D.C., but, more and more, what Bill Keller calls “that lovable old-fashioned bundle of ink and cellulose” is starting to feel like an artifact ready for display under glass.Hey, first you shock them... (H/T: Alan D. Mutter, via Mark Steyn.) Art And Man At Yale
By Ed Driscoll · April 20, 2008 10:36 AM · From Bauhaus To Our House · God And Man At Dupont University · The Return of the Primitive
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Anyone seeking a little comic relief in the wake of Yale University’s alternately sickening and embarrassing “abortion as art” scandal need look no further than Terry Zwigoff’s 2006 comedy Art School Confidential. It’s very loosely based on a comic by Daniel Clowes, which appears in this anthology and is in many ways superior to the film as a satire of the mind-bending pretentiousness and inanity one finds in even the finest fine arts academies.Probably for about the same reason that Roger Kimball describes here: A juror in the obscenity trial over Robert Mapplethorpe’s notorious photographs the S&M homosexual underworld memorably summed up the paralyzed attitude Orwell described. Acknowledging that he did not like Mapplethorpe’s rebarbative photographs, he nonetheless concluded that “if people say it’s art, then I have to go along with it.”Of course, for those who think that a genre of "art" on the cusp of its second century is still "modern", you too can apply to the Yale Art School! Update: Related thoughts from Maggie's Farm; be sure to follow the links. “Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition”
By Ed Driscoll · April 20, 2008 12:33 AM · Democracy In America · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
Mark Steyn notes that, pace Obama, guns and God, and proper respect for both, are what make Red State America a much healthier--and sustainable--place than the Biggest Blue State of 'em all: Europe. Steyn writes, "In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God’n’guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion": I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: it benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today’s Europe — a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism. A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent’s accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? “I am not a warrior, but who is?” he shrugged. “I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.”Will the last person out of San Francisco please turn off the compact fluorescent light bulbs? The Wild, The Innocent, And The Barack Street Shuffle
By Ed Driscoll · April 19, 2008 08:08 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Bobos In Paradise · The Making of the President · The New Puritans
So many on the left seemed perpetually trapped in the past, usually in the 1930s, '60s, or the 1970s, but recently, Jonah Goldberg spotted the slightly more recent epoch that has made Barack Obama so bitter: There’s always been a certain cultural lag time to Barack and Michelle Obama, a kitschiness that’s hard to pinpoint. But I think I’ve got it: They’re self-hating yuppies straight out of the 1980s, which were to the Obamas what the 1960s were to the Clintons.And as Abe Greenwald of Commentary writes, so does someone else with a Brilliant Disguise, whose artistic career peaked just before the decade the Gipper made: It’s true that Obama speaks to the America Springsteen usually writes about. But I’m not sure what he’s referring to in this description. Springsteen’s America is a soot-covered wasteland of junked cars, violent townies, shotgun weddings, racist cops, closed factories, and endless unemployment lines. If you think Obama was tough on small town mentalities, consider the lyrics of Springsteen’s “Born to Run”:Sadly, as Slate of all publications once noted, Bruce's second manager, Jon Landau, who went from Rolling Stone critic to rock Svengali, took that Springsteen away from us, transforming Bruce in his formative years from an exciting quirky apolitical musician to just another leftwing product on the showbiz assembly line.Baby this town rips the bones from your back (And speaking of Slate, nice of them to create a fun anti-Obama ad, which will have a little traction even after this week's PA primary has passed.) This Just In
By Ed Driscoll · April 19, 2008 07:02 PM · Liberal Fascism · Radical Chic · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
HuffPo: "Gingrich: Left Wing Of The Democratic Party 'Admires' American Terrorists". Leonard Bernstein, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could not be reached for comment. If we want to expand the list to Democrats who admire foreign terrorists, we can add Ramsey Clark, Jimmy Carter, Patty Murray, Ward Churchill, Michael Moore, "Pinch" Sulzberger, Chrissie Hynde, Oliver Stone, Margaret Cho and John Kerry to the list as well. John Stephenson has more. Related: "What Will Karl Do?" More: "A Timeline Of Crime For Obama’s Buddy William Ayers". Carter’s Dixie Chicks Moment
Eric Trager writes, "The spectacle of a former U.S. president denouncing his fellow countrymen abroad was a Dixie Chicks moment for the ages" Yesterday, following meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and another Hamas delegation, Jimmy Carter blasted American attitudes regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “My country, the political arena of my country, is almost 100 percent supportive of the Israeli position,” Carter said. “You never hear any debates on both sides much, and most of the information is predicated on that sort of original premise.”Jimmy could relate to that. The Decline And Fall Of Western Civilization, Part II
If there was an Internet sixty years ago, typing the words "media", "rope", "gay" and "New York" into Google would have sent you here, reading about one of Alfred Hitchcock's most underrated movies. Typing those same words into Google these days brings you to this story: CNN personality Richard Quest was busted in Central Park early yesterday with some drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, law-enforcement sources said.His boot? Well that's one word to use, though I thought he was arrested in New York, not London... Much more seriously, CNN has never met a repressive dictator that it hasn't admired, from Fidel Castro to Saddam Hussein, to Kim Jong-il to this latest incident involving communist China. And yet in America, Quest's Central Park quest ends with laughter all around. In most of the nations that CNN admires, it would lead to brutal prison sentences, death--or both. Vote Of Confidence
By Ed Driscoll · April 19, 2008 03:08 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Usually in the NFL, when a floundering head coach gets a late season vote of confidence from the team's owner, it means his demise hasn't been preempted, but merely delayed. The axe then almost invariably falls after the season ends, so that the transition to his successor will be less disruptive to the team, rather than, say, with three or four games in the season to go. Katie Couric just got her vote of confidence from above, which means that that clock may very well be ticking: CBS Corp. Chairman Leslie Moonves paid a surprise visit to the CBS newsroom Friday to support embattled anchor Katie Couric.Of course, as Thomas Sowell noted in 2004 when Brokaw retired (and re-quoted in video form here): During his long tenure as NBC News anchorman, Tom Brokaw took that program from last place among the big three broadcast networks to first place. But he had more viewers when he was in last place, more than 20 years ago, than he had in first place this year. That is because fewer people now watch NBC, ABC, or CBS News. Good!And CBS isn't doing much these days to restore credibility to their already badly damaged rep, it seems. A Pinch Of Hypocrisy
It might seem a bit self-flagellating for the editorial board of the New York Times to bemoan the collapse of Americans’ trust in the press over the last 30 years. But it seems that the media’s fall from grace is undermining democracy.Because undermining democracy is a job best left to the professionals at the Times: In his wonderful book, How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace), Harry Stein lays out the disturbing facts about "Pinch" Sulzberger. (Sulzberger's father was nicknamed "Punch," and the none too flattering nickname for Junior is "Pinch.")And he really hasn't. But hey, first you shock them, then they put you in a museum. And a new one awaits a very Gray Lady to retire to in her dotage. (H/T: JWF) Related: Can't argue with this: "The workings of American newsrooms are some of the least transparent enterprises in the country, and it is easy to believe that the press has one set of standards for government, business, and other institutions, and entirely another for themselves," the Arizona senator said.Indeed. I've Seen This Movie Before--A Couple Of Times
By Ed Driscoll · April 19, 2008 12:01 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
Amity Shlaes, the author of The Forgotten Man, a terrific history of the Depression, brings a reminder of forgotten recent history as well, as she deflates so much recent economic doomsaying: The gloom is so thick that it feels positively German. And that’s just our domestic press. The Brits have long since decided that doom is around the American corner. Covering Bear Stearns Cos., a reporter from the Independent wrote, “Wall Street traders said they had never experienced such fear.”No--and FDR was smart enough not to suggest that a malaise had come over the nation, but you did hear his 1970s' would-be equivalent use very New Dealer-ish language when he equated reduction of foreign energy reliance with "the moral equivalent of war". And Business Week's infamous "Death Of Equities" cover in 1979 certainly had a Depression-era ring to it--only a year or two before the Dow began its rise to its current high of near 13,000. More Shlaes: So why so dark this time?That last point is debatable--16 years ago, another Democratic presidential nominee was also able to make great strides by transforming a temporary pause in the Dow's ascension into The Worst Economy Of 50 Years--which miraculously righted its course the very minute in November of 1992 he won the election. Rags. Petrol. Bodily Fluids.
By Ed Driscoll · April 18, 2008 10:16 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · The Return of the Primitive
The decline and fall of Western Civilization, high and low edition: First, found via the Corner, here's a slice of life amongst the down and out of Commerce City, Colorado, as "Parents Fight Over Which Gang Toddler Should Join": A couple fighting about which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join caused a public disturbance that resulted in the father's arrest, Commerce City police said Thursday.Funny, when I was kid, my parents argued over whether I would join Kiwanis or the Rotary Club. In the past, it was theorized that advanced education was a way out of the lower classes. But the Ivy League is rushing headlong to level the playing field, as this satiric IowaHawk post highlights: Learn art the Yale way, through their exclusive DYNAMIC TRANSGRESSION™ method! Got a body fluid? Then life's your canvas! Which is certainly a reminder of one of James Lileks' key tenets: "If art contains s***, we should take it at its word." IowaHawk's post is titled "Close Cover Before Striking", and it's based on the ads one used to find on packs of matches. I wonder what ad was on the pack Virginia Woolf used to fight the heteronormative patriarchy back in 1938? (70 years ago--which is a reminder at how ancient and clapped out so many "modern" and "transgressive" poses truly are.) "Newspeak Is Ingsoc And Ingsoc Is Newspeak"
By Ed Driscoll · April 18, 2008 02:05 PM · The Newspeak Dictionary
From a story invented by a Mr. G. Orwell for his first generation analog blog about 60 years ago: You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words -- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.'Over at VodkaPundit, a more high-tech Blog (though a fair amount of Victory Gin is available upon request, I hear), Will Collier notes that last Monday, "Thesaurus.com went down for a long stretch, and after it came back up, a remarkable number of words were gutted of synonym entries, and some were missing entries altogether." Update: And speaking of Orwellian, though on the other side of the aisle*, Allahpundit looks at Ron Paul's fans to stop the world and get off: "How curious that their plan for the libertarian paradise calls for a quasi-communal organization via co-ops." Read More » The Man Who Fell To Earth
David Brooks writes: Back in Iowa, Barack Obama promised to be something new — an unconventional leader who would confront unpleasant truths, embrace novel policies and unify the country. If he had knocked Hillary Clinton out in New Hampshire and entered general-election mode early, this enormously thoughtful man would have become that.With the inevitable leftwing radical chic baggage, to boot. Because Those Attacks Worked So Well In 1980 And 1984
By Ed Driscoll · April 18, 2008 12:38 PM · The Making of the President
The Exurban League explains why attacking John McCain because of his age, only about 11 years older than Hillary this year and John Kerry in 2004, isn't the greatest strategy. In an era where Philip Johnson (whatever his myriad flaws) was designing skyscrapers until his death a couple of years ago at age 98 and Les Paul is playing every Monday night off Broadway at age 92, and the Rolling Stones still tour, despite Keith Richards' lungs and liver being the equivalent of a 246-year old man, 71 isn't exactly the equivalent of Methuselah. And besides, "American voters love snarky college students insulting their war-hero elders", as the Exurban League's Jon writes. On the flip-side though, it's safe to assume that McCain will exploit his expected opponent's youth and inexperience, just as Hillary already has. Maybe even using the same video: "I For One Welcome My New Pinhead Overlords"
Heh: ![]() Click here for our recent interview with "Day By Day" artist Chris Muir on PJM Political. Incidentally, if Robert Plant is coming back and can't bring Jimmy Page, could he bring Robbie Blunt with him? Those first few post-Zeppelin solo albums before the "Tall Cool One" and Unledded eras were pretty darn nifty. Birds Gotta Fly, Fish Gotta Swim...
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 08:38 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
...And the left has to be the aggressors in the culture war. Which is why I disagree with the take that Daniel Henninger makes in the above video, and here: Remember the culture wars? This week the Democrats sued for peace.I think it was Ann Coulter who said that during a presidential election, both parties campaign as Republicans, but only one side actually is the Republicans. Whoever said it, it's certainly accurate--the culture war may temporarily go to ground during an election year (although not even then: which side released Fahrenheit 9/11, the (grossly inferior) remake of The Manchurian Candidate and the enviro-apocalyptic The Day After Tomorrow in 2004?) but that doesn't mean that it ends, as Obama's "What's The Matter With Altoona" speech in San Francisco last week so aptly demonstrates. The Joyful Ennui of Enervating Bitterness
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 06:29 PM · Ed On The Radio
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, it's not surprising that people get bitter, they cling to guns or religion, and they tune into the latest edition of PJM Political, featuring Mark Steyn, Michael Yon, James Lileks—and more! (You have no idea how close I came to using the above uber-pretentious late-1980s high-MTV era-inspired title on the actual PJM post.) A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 02:43 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Bobos In Paradise · The Making of the President
Proof that your 1970s-era leather jacketed populist hero to the working man persona may be looking a bit threadbare these days--when you actually say with a straight face, “I’ve found enormous sustenance from Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd”. Update: Bruuuuuuce! is Reason #4 of the 20 Reasons Why Frank Martin Is Bitter. And I'm even more bitter than he is over Reason #17: 17. I now own 'Blade Runner' in 5 different DVD formats.Heck, in addition to owning multiple DVD copies, and writing about the movie for Pajamas, I've owned it on VHS, and two different laser disc versions. And reading in Billboard around 1987 that there was this new company called Voyager with something called a "Criterion Collection" that had released Blade Runner as a letterboxed laser disc (back when letterboxing was new and controversial!) and was planning to release a letterboxed 2001: A Space Odyssey later that year is why I bought my first laser disc player. I mean, you go into these small colonies near Clavius and the Tycho Magnetic Anomaly and, like a lot of small earth colonies in the Sol Sector, it's not surprising that when people get bitter, they cling to laser discs, DVDs, or (via Lileks) space age prunes... Ambassador To The Court Of Arkansas
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 02:18 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President
Immediately after the election in 2004, Rush Limbaugh was fond of quoting this exchange between David Westin, the president of ABC News, and Tina Brown, from her now long-since-canceled CNBC show (subscription required, but this gives you the gist of things): RUSH: So, anyway, she's got David Westin on the program, and she says, "David, would you have a reporter/producer live in any of these communities?" She's talking about the red states of America here, folks. "Would you have a reporter/producer live in any of these communities and saturate themselves in these cultures so that they get more stories from those communities?"While we're waiting for those foreign correspondents to don their Willis & Geiger safari jackets and grab their Shure SM-58s and minicams, Robert Ferrigno, found via Mark Steyn, has an excellent suggestion for an ambassador to lead them into the vast unknown that is the American Heartland. This Just In
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 12:00 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President
As Allahpundit notes, one hilarious result of last night's debate, is that the left has suddenly decided that George Stephanopoulos "is unacceptably partisan": If nothing else good comes from all this, at least it’ll have opened a few eyes to left-wing media bias by putting Hillary’s supporters temporarily, and bizarrely, in the position of Republicans. Why yes, Jeralyn, Keith Olbermann is “the most shameless ridiculous hack on TV.” If Hillary wins the nomination and he jumps back face-first into the tank for her, will that still be true?The all-is-forgiven tone that's inevitably coming between now and late August will be as amusing to watch as these examples of blatant hypocrisy have been. Related: "Little Tyrants Upset Over Debate", but then all of these cries of "pull the bastards' license!" is leftover rhetoric from the 1920s and '30s, when terrestrial broadcast frequencies were thought to be scarce, and the government stepped in, creating the FCC to allocate them. Today, with 500 DirecTV channels, a couple of hundred satellite radio channels, 100 million blogs, and a babillion videos on YouTube and the like, we know that bandwidth is certainly not in short supply. More: Here's an excerpt from Tim Robbins' beclowning speech at the NAB convention a couple of days ago: "Just when we were close to a national news media providing a general consensus on what the truth is,” he added, “along comes the Internets [sic] that allows its users a choice on the kind of news it [sic] watches and the YouTube [sic]. My God, we’ve got to stop them.”Close? Dude, in the early 1970s, your side controlled four television networks (the big three and PBS) and most big city newspapers, which by then were virtual information monopolies in their respective regions. As I wrote earlier this week when Politico referred to the 2004 election being hijacked by "the right-wing freak show"--i.e. bloggers and the Swift Vets: To be fair, there was certainly a neatness to the liberal conformity of the 1960s and 1970s, when three television networks and a handful of newspapers controlled the news. Breaking up those information monopolies would seam like a freak show to a particularly nostalgic mind, just as many senior citizens pine for the simplicity of an era built around Bell Telephone, three TV networks and three primary car manufacturers.Why does it seem like all self-styled progressives want to turn back the clock on progress? Besides, at least they can relive those monolithic mass media glory days in their own museum! NSFW Update: If you enjoy your schadenfreude with enormous slabs of cheesecake on the side, Doc Weasel's post on this topic may be worth it for the--thoroughly NSFW--photos alone. Does This Mean Hurricane Katrina Was Pearl Harbor?
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 11:18 AM · Liberal Fascism · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · War And Anti-War
As Jonah Goldberg has noted in several places in Liberal Fascism, and reiterated to Salon magazine: What appealed to the Progressives about militarism was what William James calls this moral equivalent of war. It was that war brought out the best in society, as James put it, that it was the best tool then known for mobilization ... That is what is fascistic about militarism, its utility as a mechanism for galvanizing society to join together, to drop their partisan differences, to move beyond ideology and get with the program. And liberalism today is, strictly speaking, pretty pacifistic. They're not the ones who want to go to war all that much. But they're still deeply enamored with this concept of the moral equivalent of war, that we should unite around common purposes. Listen to the rhetoric of Barack Obama, it's all about unity, unity, unity, that we have to move beyond our particular differences and unite around common things, all of that kind of stuff. That remains at the heart of American liberalism, and that's what I'm getting at.See also, the cover of the latest edition of Time magazine, which takes Jimmy Carter's 1977 speech that explicitly equaled the reduction of foreign energy reliance with, as Carter said in his speech, "the moral equivalent of war", and puts the now-expected green spin on it. Sadly, it's probably not a belated April Fools' Edition. (Note that Time probably doesn't call for this particular scheme, which would no doubt save quite a bit of power and resources.) Update: "Imagine the designs that were rejected"! New Silicon Graffiti: "...Then They Put You In A Museum"
By Ed Driscoll · April 17, 2008 08:00 AM · Ed TV · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The New, New Journalism
Rock & Roll has a museum in Cleveland; and Jazz has a de facto museum in Manhattan's Lincoln Center. What does the traditional news industry opening a museum of its own in Washington DC say about its viability in the age of Blogs and the Web? Complete with cameo appearances by Mick Jagger and Orson Welles, my latest Silicon Graffiti video is online, using old media's recently completed museum honoring--who else?--themselves as a launching point: The video references the nifty EPIC 2014 multimedia presentation from 2004, which you can view in its entirety on its homepage, and more of my own videos can be found here. (Bumped to top.) Radical Chic: The Next Generation
By Ed Driscoll · April 16, 2008 11:47 PM · Radical Chic · The Making of the President · The New, New Journalism
"Halle-frickin'-lujah", writes Mark Hemingway, "Someone in the mainstream media finally mentions the William Ayers connection" during the Democrat debate Wednesday night: Obama knows the unrepentant domestic terrorist much better than he's letting on, and Hillary calls him on it. Obama worked with him for years and was even serving on the board of directors of the Woods Fund with him at the time he made his infamous remark in the New York Times about not regretting setting the bombs.Speaking of Radical Chic: The Next Generation, as Tom Wolfe has noted in innumerable interviews, when he showed up at Leonard and Felicia Bernstein's infamous 1970 Park Avenue fund raising cocktail party for the Black Panthers, he had his reporter's notebook out and was openly taking notes and jotting down the conversation in plain view for all to see. (Wolfe wrote for New York magazine back then, in that publication's long-bygone era.) It was only when his article hit the streets that the Bernsteins hit the fan, as they apparently never realized the backlash that would result from their fund raiser amongst people who didn't share their punitive far left politics--which would soon have a name, thanks to Wolfe's article and subsequent book. Which is very reminiscent to the way that a Huffington Post blogger observed firsthand and recorded the audio that would become known as Barack Obama's Bittergate, as Betsy Newmark writes--and rather than pasting in virtually her entire post, go over and read the whole thing. All The World's A Stage
By Ed Driscoll · April 16, 2008 08:58 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Return of the Primitive
In all genres of show business, there's an enormous amount of snobbery. For example, the theater world often looks down on movie performers, and the movie industry is awfully snobbish towards those who work in TV. So it's always nice to see one group of professional actors honoring a fellow actor who happens to work in a different medium. Update: More from Scott Baker and Liz Stephans on Breitbart.tv's B-Cast Internet news show, including audio and video segments of the speech that Tim Robbins asked not to be published. Proving that once again that legacy journalists and the phrase "off the record" are almost always unrelated concepts. I Was Told That There Would Be No Math
By Ed Driscoll · April 16, 2008 08:20 PM · Muggeridge's Law
"The Democrat Math On Republican Filibusters: February 29, 2008= 72 Vs April 15, 2008= 65." Is the the proverbial New Math in action? Incidentally, I thought it was typically the minority party did these sort of photo-op stunts, not the party in power. Austin City Limits
Austin Bay goes video, with an extremely slickly produced multimedia piece on the consequences of withdrawing from Iraq. "It's Not Elitist; It's Clearly Snobbish"
Jonah Goldberg parses the difference between "elite", "snob", "arrogant", and other nouns and adjectives that are fun to put Dr. Evil’s patented air quotations around: In his telling Pennsylvania was once Belgium on the Susquehanna — cheese parties, Sam Harris book clubs etc — and it can be again if only these people get good enough jobs to lay down their guns and bibles. As just about everyone has observed by now, this is a fundamentally Marxist way of looking at the world and Obama deserves to be called on it.Or as Mickey Kaus writes: I'm convinced that the great achievement of Republicanism over the past decades was getting average Americans to think that it was the Democrats who were the snobs. The person who convinced me of this (in a highly persuasive lecture) was Thomas Frank.Kaus notes, that Frank's theories "are on the verge of convincing millions of average Americans that the Republicans were right, at least about the likely Dem nominee." What's The Matter With Liberals?
By Ed Driscoll · April 15, 2008 11:08 AM · Bobos In Paradise · The Making of the President · The New, New Journalism
Dean Barnett writes, "Several commentators have suggested that Obama's moment of sloppy candor repeats the thesis of What's the Matter With Kansas, and thus the book has a new lease on relevance": In truth, as execrable as it was, Frank's book offered a much more tightly argued position than the one offered by the supposedly brilliant senator who has deigned to lead the American people.Read the whole thing; elsewhere, Bill Bradley explores "The secret story of how Obama's gaffe made its way to the Huffington Post, of all places, and how it might affect campaign coverage from now on." Update: Mickey Kaus makes a great point, via a comment submitted by one of his readers: Alert emailer M wonders why Obama is applying a Tom Frank analysis--of working class voters who vote Republican--to Pennsylvania, since unlike Kansas, Pennsylvania is a blue state that "hasn't voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988." And the most economically distressed parts of the state are the most Democratic, despite all the clinging to guns and God that's going on. In short, Obama's explaining something that doesn't happen. ... I suppose one answer is that Obama wasn't explaining why Pennsylvanians wouldn't vote for a Democrat but why they might not vote for him--a black, liberal Democrat. But Obama says he's explaining why small-town Rustbelt voters don't buy the idea that government can help them, which sounds an awful lot like not buying Democratic ideology generally.It's a false consciousness! Obama: Inconsistent Words, Remarkably Consistent Behavior
By Ed Driscoll · April 15, 2008 10:42 AM · Bobos In Paradise · Radical Chic · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President
Found via Liberty Peak Lodge, Thomas Sowell writes, "Like so many others on the left, Obama rejects ‘stereotypes’ when they are stereotypes he doesn't like but blithely throws around his own stereotypes about ‘a typical white person’ or ‘bitter’ gun-toting, religious and racist working class people": However inconsistent Obama's words, his behavior has been remarkably consistent over the years. He has sought out and joined with the radical, anti-Western left, whether Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers of the terrorist Weatherman underground or pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli Rashid Khalidi.George Will adds: Obama does fulfill liberalism's transformation since Franklin Roosevelt. What had been under FDR a celebration of America and the values of its working people has become a doctrine of condescension toward those people and the supposedly coarse and vulgar country that pleases them.And Noemie Emery traces leftwing elitism back to the days of Adlai Stevenson--brought up to date via Thomas Frank's What's The Matter With Kansas: In Our Country, Michael Barone traces this strain back to 1956 and the second campaign of Adlai E. Stevenson, who, when told "thinking people" were for him, said, "Yes, but I need to win a majority," and when praised for having educated the voters, said that too many had not passed the course. "Stevenson," Barone says, "was the first leading Democratic politician to become a critic rather than a celebrator of middle-class American culture--the prototype of the liberal Democrat who would judge ordinary Americans by an abstract standard and find them wanting," and since Stevenson, there have been many such. Hart and Michael Dukakis were brought down by this failing, as was John Kerry, whose 2006 swipe at George W. Bush and those forced into the armed forces brought this response from some servicemen: "Halp us, Jon Carry--We R Stuck HEAR N Irak."Heh, Indeed.TM John Kerry, Limited Government Libertarian!
By Ed Driscoll · April 14, 2008 11:31 AM · Bobos In Paradise
As P.J. O'Rourke once wrote, "The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take 100 of its most prominent numskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm". And kudos to John Kerry for really living up to that premise! "Is Global Warming The Left's Version Of Rapture?"
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 02:56 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · Liberal Fascism · The Assault On Reason
Michael Goldfarb writes: Last night's episode of Bill Maher's Real Time featured evangelical atheist Richard Dawkins (the very poor man's version of Christopher Hitchens), explaining why scientists can't be certain of much of anything:I don't think you can really dub them secular these days, now that they've found an alternative religion to embrace wholeheartedly.I think any scientist would be unwise to commit himself to saying there definitely is not anything. I mean, I can’t definitely commit myself to saying there are no fairies. I’m pretty sure there are no fairies. [laughter] But, I think it would be unscientific to do what the extreme religious people do and say, “I know there is a god.”It's an interesting contrast to comments by NASA scientist James Hansen earlier this week complaining about a high school textbook that didn't portray global warming as a fact rather than a theory:Hansen has sent Houghton Mifflin a letter stating that the book's discussion on global warming contained "a large number of clearly erroneous statements" that give students "the mistaken impression that the scientific evidence of global warming is doubtful and uncertain."So Hansen is certain that global warming is real and the greenhouse gases are the cause. As are Bill Maher, Barack Obama, Al Gore, and every other luminary of the left. Immediately following his interview with Dawkins last night, Maher proceeded to mock Christians for their skepticism of global warming (or indifference, as he would have it), explaining it as a result of their belief in the Rapture. But hasn't the left embraced global warming as their own version of the Rapture? They do not harbor any doubt, but believe with the fervor of religious conviction that the end of civilization will come as a result of consumerism. And they seem completely unaware that in believing this, they have shed the very skepticism that is supposed to define the secular left. Viewing The 1960s From 1970
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 02:33 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Democracy In America · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
Ann Althouse looks back to Time magazine's January 5th, 1970 issue, which declared "The Middle Americans" as Time's Men and Women of the Year: Their car windows were plastered with American-flag decals, their ideological totems. In the bumper-sticker dialogue of the freeways, they answered Make Love Not War with Honor America or Spiro is My Hero. They sent Richard Nixon to the White House and two teams of astronauts to the moon. They were both exalted and afraid. The mysteries of space were nothing, after all, compared with the menacing confusions of their own society.Ann writes, "Read the whole, awesome essay — and marvel that we've been talking about these things for the last 40 years": Barack Obama's recent comment about the bitterness of left-behind small-towners may seem like the latest line of dialogue in a long, long conversation.I'm not sure what's to marvel about--Obama's rhetoric in his less guarded moments is merely another byproduct of one of the more curious aspects of what Time, almost four decades ago, called "the liberals, the radicals, the defiant young" (who are not so defiant now, merely trapped in a leftover haze of conformity): their absolute inability to advance their mindset beyond the first days of Starting From Zero. "Viewing The 1960s From My 60s"
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 01:10 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole · The Return of the Primitive · War And Anti-War
Burt Prelutsky looks back to the period of his youth with a gimlet eye, which is much more than Dick Cavett could ever do: I can’t look at Petraeus — his uniform ornamented like a Christmas tree with honors, medals and ribbons — without thinking of the great Mort Sahl at the peak of his brilliance. He talked about meeting General Westmoreland in the Vietnam days. Mort, in a virtuoso display of his uncanny detailed knowledge — and memory — of such things, recited the lengthy list (”Distinguished Service Medal, Croix de Guerre with Chevron, Bronze Star, Pacific Campaign” and on and on), naming each of the half-acre of decorations, medals, ornaments, campaign ribbons and other fripperies festooning the general’s sternum in gaudy display. Finishing the detailed list, Mort observed, “Very impressive!” Adding, “If you’re twelve.”Cavett utters bromides from 40 years ago, from another war that the left abandoned midway through in an effort to score partisan points and gather insider power while genocide occurred thousands of miles away--and massively escalated, once the American left had their way and we abandoned our allies--and thinks it's witty? Well, I guess it is--if you're twelve. Update: The 1960s never end at Politico either, where two former Washington Post journalists declare the Swift Vets, who accurately reminded voters of John Kerry's 1970s radical chic past (part of which occurred very publicly on the Cavett show back then) as part of "the right-wing freak show". As John Hinderaker writes: If there is a "freak show" on the fringes of American politics, it can be found on the Left, at fever swamps like the Daily Kos and Democratic Underground that specialize in conspiracy theories and hate. It's interesting, though, to find out how former mainstream reporters--Harris and VandeHei formerly wrote for the Washington Post--feel about those who have broken the liberal monopoly on the news.To be fair, there was certainly a neatness to the liberal conformity of the 1960s and 1970s, when three television networks and a handful of newspapers controlled the news. Breaking up those information monopolies would seam like a freak show to a particularly nostalgic mind, just as many senior citizens pine for the simplicity of an era built around Bell Telephone, three TV networks and three primary car manufacturers. Conspiracies So Vast
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 12:31 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Radical Chic · The Future and its Enemies · The Return of the Primitive
Matthew Sheffield writes, "If you've always thought her music was hackneyed and dull now you may have another reason to dislike Alicia Keys: she's apparently a racist conspiracymonger", as this AP report highlights (ellipses in Matthew's post): There's another side to Alicia Keys: conspiracy theorist. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter tells Blender magazine: "'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other."[...]Matthew adds, "All this nonsense really should come as a surprise to Keys's mother, Teresa Augello, who is white. Is this just a phase? In any case, it's hard to see how a white entertainer or a religious-oriented entertainer making statements like this and it not doing significant harm to their career." She's not alone of course; Keys' remarks regarding her profession sound much like those expressed by Rev. Eric Lee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who featured prominently in several recent articles over on the main Pajamas site this past week, including this one: “In a very small part of my presentation, I referenced a meeting I had with Rabbi’s and other community leaders. A Rabbi stated in that meeting that the close relationship between the African American and Jewish communities had been disconnected after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. I further referenced in my speech that my response to the Rabbi was that the Black Power Movement emerged after the assassination of Dr. King and it was a direct response to the negative characterizations of African Americans through the silver screen, TV and the music industry, industries that are influenced by many in the Jewish community. I then stated to the Rabbis that the Black Power Movement was our effort to define for ourselves our own identity rather than be defined by anyone else. I then indicated in my presentation that I told the Rabbis’ that before a genuine coalition could be rebuilt between our communities, there would have to be dialogue and efforts made to deal with the negative characterizations of African Americans.”But Keys' and Lee's conspiratorial ravings ignore a crucial element of the success of "Gangsta" rap: nobody twisted the arms of performers to record those records, or to strike thugish poses in videos and magazine covers to promote them, or consumers to purchase them. As Mark Steyn wrote last month regarding another prominent conspiracy theorist: The Reverend Wright believes that AIDs was created by the government of the United States — and not as a cure for the common cold that went tragically awry and had to be covered up by Karl Rove, but for the explicit purpose of killing millions of its own citizens. The government has never come clean about this, but the Reverend Wright knows the truth. “The government lied,” he told his flock, “about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”Rather than conspiracy theories about "the government and the media" as Keys believes, the latter "influenced by many in the Jewish community" as Lee believes, and the former fermenting "genocide against people of color" as Wright believes, where are the calls for personal responsibility, by three people who are all voices of influence in their respective circles? (Onion video originally found here.) "What's More Likely? And Which Is Worse?"
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 03:36 AM · Bobos In Paradise · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President
From its headline on, this entire post by Ace on the Obamavania train wreck is well worth your time, but here's an excerpt to whet your appetite: Video of Hillary playing the elitist card against Obama -- and successfully.As Betsy Newmark notes, Kirsten Powers hit the nail on the head: In a liberal world (including most big city newspapers, the big three TV networks and CNN), Obama's folk Marxism sounds "totally normal, and outside of that world I don’t know that he appreciates how it sounds." Iran Mosque Blast Kills 11, Wounds Almost 200
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 02:30 AM · War And Anti-War
AFP reports 11 people killed and at least 191 wounded in the aftermath of an explosion that "ripped through a mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz during evening prayers by a prominent cleric, officials said on Sunday." Mystery surrounded the cause of Saturday's blast, which some officials insisted had been triggered by an accident but others said could have been caused by a bomb.Who puts on a war "exhibition" with live munitions--and apparently in considerable amounts? Charles Johnson adds, "Very few details yet, but one suspect would be the MEK: Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (Iranian rebels)." Sailing The Lonely Planet In The Ship Of Sin
By Ed Driscoll · April 13, 2008 02:19 AM · The Memory Hole
Back in the fall of 2005, when the media were inventing all sorts of lurid stories in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I wrote: In 1981, Janet Cooke was a Washington Post reporter who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning story of an eight year old heroin addict. She was eventually forced to return the prize, when when it was discovered that Cooke cooked the books and invented Jimmy out of whole cloth. (Walter Duranty's Pulitzer is still on the books, incidentally.)And travel writers, apparently: The Lonely Planet guidebook empire is reeling from claims by one of its authors that he plagiarised and made up large sections of his books and dealt drugs to make up for poor pay.Incidentally, no word yet on the completion date of this very different travelogue. The Ominous 49th Parallel
By Ed Driscoll · April 12, 2008 01:32 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · Liberal Fascism · The New Puritans · The Return of the Primitive
From The Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff (though also quoted here, not surprisingly): The only person who is still a private individual in Germany," boasted Robert Ley, a member of the Nazi hierarchy, after several years of Nazi rule, "is somebody who is asleep."Ghost of a Flea's take on academia up in the 49th parallel (to namecheck a superb movie about a much more humanitarian Canada long since gone), sounds remarkably ominous itself: People wonder why I quit university teaching. Imagine an office - all your colleagues and all your supervisors and anyone with a say in your tenure prospects, your research funding and your publications - where everyone organizes their careers in such a way that a "human rights" commission would have no reason to object. Their teaching practices, their research, their political views; everything they think and do including and especially their "private" lives from the television they (do not) watch to the fast food they (do not) eat to the sex lives they (do not) allow themselves to have. Even the concept of a "private" life dismissed as reactionary and/or illusory and in any event subject to the scrutiny of any undergraduate with internet access and a grudge. That is the life I escaped.Can't say I blame him--though I imagine life in America's elite universities probably isn't much different. Like the man said: "1984 -- A user manual for lefties; a warning for the rest of us." (H/T: SDA) Blue On Blue: "Rockefeller Hates George McGovern"
By Ed Driscoll · April 12, 2008 04:02 AM · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
The collateral damage from Jay Rockefeller's botched attempt at carpet bombing John McCain continues to escalate. Katie's Exit Visa Being Readied?
By Ed Driscoll · April 12, 2008 03:38 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
This is interesting: The "Katie's leaving CBS" story's exit date seems to have moved up a notch, from early next year, to possibly within "the next few weeks", according to this New York Times article. (Gee, the paper of Jayson and Duranty covering the home of Cronkite and Rather--there's a trust-inspiring combination, if there ever was one): Though some people close to Ms. Couric, as well as some professional associates, said Thursday they believed that it was now likely she would not remain as anchor through the election, and might even leave in the next few weeks, that point was adamantly denied by the senior executives closest to the decision.Err, no. Or as Mark Steyn recently told Hugh Hewitt: MS: Well, I think the news division, they’re talking exactly the wrong thing. They want to outsource the news gathering to CNN so they can spend all their money on the next big glamorous front man who sucks up all the budget, and has fantastic hair, and a fantastic wardrobe. And the reality is that that’s an antiquated, outmoded version of news. It was outmoded when Dan Rather did it, and nobody, that is never coming back. You can’t find a new Walter Cronkite. Those days are over. And I think this…so I think until you’ve got content driving that news bulletin, until there’s a reason to switch it on…because right now, if you’re interested in news, the last place you’d go to it is the CBS Evening News.Newspapers already have their museum. And with Medium Cool having long since become Medium Sclerotic, it's high-time tubercular blue television news was entombed there as well. Yes He Can...
...Put his left Salvatore Ferragamo in his mouth and twist: You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.Four years ago, when another Democratic Senator running for the White House demonstrated that he was, in his own way, equally far out of touch with middle class voters, he at least did so by not knowing what to order on a cheesesteak (also involving Pennsylvania, in a nice example of retroactive synchronicity), or in a Wendy's, which Mark Steyn so memorably described. Or by not understanding that the average guy doesn't fly off to another state for a weekend of windsurfing whenever the mood strikes. Talk about a rookie mistake: Leave it to Obama to make John Kerry's Brahmin hauteur seem earnestly goofy in retrospect. Update: The timing of Obama's latest gaffe, immediately on top of this YouTube collection of audio clips from Obama's own readings of his books, which has been making the rounds through the Blogosphere this week, doesn't help matters. We Can Be Heroes, If Just For One Day
By Ed Driscoll · April 11, 2008 12:07 PM · Liberal Fascism · The Assault On Reason · The Future and its Enemies
David Bowie's mid-1970s song "Heroes" was about two people personally fighting back against a monumental communist evil. The Berlin wall namechecked in the song is happily gone now (I have a tiny piece of it on a shelf in my study), but the freedom-crushing spirit behind it lives on, in smaller but still sadly pervasive forms, from people who should know better. And so does the spirit of rebellion, because, after all, dissent is the highest form of patriotism. As Tim Blair writes, "Remember these examples when next confronted by epic stupidity in your own world. We can be heroes, too." Quote Of The Day
By Ed Driscoll · April 11, 2008 01:36 AM · An Army Of Davids · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies · The Long Tail · The New, New Journalism
"Three guys in a garage create YouTube, and we've got 800 people in Chicago who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground!"Sam Zell, owner of the Tribune Company, which publishes the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, and other Jurassic-era publications your grandmother still reads because the thought of turning on a computer makes her knees shake. The NPR article on Zell also includes a subhead titled, "Journalists as 'Overhead'". Which illustrates that the author can't comprehend that unlike a government-subsidized operation, the owner can't force taxpayers to bail him out if readers aren't footing the bill: "This is the first unit of Tribune that I've talked to that doesn't generate any revenue. So all of you are overhead," Zell said during the late February meeting with editors and reporters for the company's Washington bureau.No, reporting the news is a key function in a democratic society. But the medium in which consumers receive that news is subject to change, as other dinosaur media conglomerates are discovering the hard way. And as that YouTube allusion from Zell highlights, news isn't exclusively a top-down business anymore. Related: "Will there always be print newspapers? The editor of The Washington Post said he thought so, though others might think he's in denial: In November 2007, former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw predicted the print edition of The Washington Post would “probably” be dead in 10 years. But Downie disagreed.Arthur C. Clarke could...41 years ago: Newspapers will, I think, receive their final body blow from these new communications techniques. I take a dim view of staggering home every Sunday with five pounds of wood pulp on my arm, when what I really want is information, not wastepaper. How I look forward to the day when I can press a button and get any type of news, editorials, book and theater reviews, etc., merely by dialing the right channel.Meanwhile, this rather less exploratory prediction from Downie is definitely a two-edged sword: Mid-size market newspapers may be in trouble, according to Downie. The small community newspapers and the newspaper titans – like the Post and The New York Times – will in some part be immune to the evolution of media, as it makes it way in a digital age.Yes, it seems quite reasonable to assume that the Times will be immune to the evolution of news--that was one of the predictions made in this classic multimedia presentation beamed back from 2014. "Recession Hits Hollywood"
The Internet Movie Database reports: The current economic downturn is drying up traditional financing for many film producers -- from those turning out low-budget indies to those making big-star vehicles, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Thursday). "Projects that would have sailed through easily a year ago are stalled in development. Movies that are practically in preproduction are falling apart at the eleventh hour," the trade publication observed. It cited a number of projects that had been in development by established producers that have fallen apart for lack of financing, including an Oliver Stone-Antoine Fuqua biopic about Colombian drugs overlord Pablo Éscobar and a Tim Robbins-directed feature called The Heretic. William Morris agent Cassian Elwes, one of the top agents among independent filmmakers, told the Reporter: "I think as we go into a tougher economy some films won't get made." He added: "And probably shouldn't get made."Gee, you don't think Hollywood brought any of its current bad times on itself, huh? Naaaahh. Good Times, Bad Times
By Ed Driscoll · April 11, 2008 01:23 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole
Kate of Small Dead Animals compares the glories of the economy under Bill Clinton with the dank Hoovervilles of Dubya. Both Ends Burning
I've been a bit surprised to see ascots appearing in my latest Brooks Brothers catalogs; I think it's still a look that's far too affected, even for me, but Betsy Newmark wonders if we aren't seeing the aura of a penumbra of its comeback: According to USA Today, we are seeing glimmerings of a comeback of the ascot. A handful of guys in the public eye are wearing them. The most public practitioner is American Idol contestant, Michael Johns. While I really like Johns and he's my favorite on Idol, I hope he starts to resist such advice from the Idol stylist as this:With the unfortunate death of Robert Palmer in 2003, doesn't Bryan Ferry currently have the absolute lock on that job description? (At least as frontman--Charlie Watts is often the best dressed drummer since Tony Williams.)And yet: American Idol contender Michael Johns sang a bluesy number last week while wearing a pink-and-purple Alexander McQueen ascot, chosen by Idol stylist Miles Siggins. The contestants need "a recognizable brand, and I was thinking dandy rocker," says Siggins, who has picked out a vintage ascot for Johns to wear this week."Dandy rocker?" You gotta be kidding. The Forgotten Plan
By Ed Driscoll · April 11, 2008 01:03 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · The Future and its Enemies · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
Jesse Walker lists FDR's 1932 campaign promises, which makes the father of centralized government sound remarkably laissez faire (sorry to use a possibly NSFW word if you're working for Starbucks): In 1932, a classical liberal could easily conclude that Roosevelt was closer to his views than Hoover, an old progressive who had displayed a lifelong love of central planning and government-enforced cartels, a man who bragged during the campaign that he had responded to the Depression with "the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic." Among other things, President Hoover had jacked up spending, installed agricultural price-support programs, pressured businesses to follow Washington's wage dictates, and created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. But by the time a cerebral hemorrhage cut short FDR's fourth term, the federal bureaucracy's power had grown so enormously that Hoover was widely remembered as the last apostle of laissez faire.As Jesse writes, "A candidate's campaign persona: There's the true Forgotten Man.", a reference to Amity Shlaes' seminal book on the period. And as Shlaes recently wrote, with an eye towards November of 2008, "the 1930s have plenty to tell us, yes. But the real challenge isn't deciding who resembles Hoover. The challenge is for both parties to figure out how to avoid a whole era of mistakes." We Came And Partied, For All Mankind
Saturday night is Yuri's night, as Glenn Reynolds notes. Hopefully someone will drink a toast for these fellows, who may have actually preceded Yuri Gagarin into space--if not safely back onto terra firma. Quote Of The Day
By Ed Driscoll · April 10, 2008 01:13 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · Muggeridge's Law · The Return of the Primitive
"There’s really nothing like a dose of condemnation from a moral relativist."But are you sure she really fits the bill? I Question The Timing
By Ed Driscoll · April 10, 2008 12:11 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Making of the President · The Return of the Primitive
Yesterday I interviewed Jim Geraghty for this week's PJM Political show on XM Satellite Radio on the topic of the dramatically coarsening leftwing rhetoric. In the space of two months, we've gone from MSNBC's David Shuster referring to Chelsea's parents "pimping her out", to Randi Rhodes calling Hillary a F***ing Whore, to the Economist's modest proposal: The Democrats are all too aware that their civil war could spell disaster. A cavalcade of senior Democrats, including senators Patrick Leahy and Chris Dodd, have advised Mrs Clinton to retire to her room with a glass of whisky and a loaded revolver.And now this combustible moment happens (which fortunately, for once this year, isn't aimed at Hillary) but too late to ask Geraghty about it. And this is still the preseason, when typically only us wonks care about politics. Like the NFL, the general public won't really be focused on the presidential election until September--but unlike the NFL, fans in the bleachers won't be exempt from taking hits, which look to be bruising. No Joy At The Tiffany Network These Days
Earlier this week, we saw the reports in the New York Times that CBS was going to outsource their news to CNN. CBS denied the report, but hot on its heels is an article in the Wall Street Journal that they may outsource their anchorwoman. (Subscription may be required, though the full article seems to be readable, at least for now, if you go in via the Google News portal.) In any case, it can't be much fun inside the halls of Black Rock, particularly when a certain pair of clickety stiletto heels is heard approaching, as the Journal notes: After two years of record-low ratings, both CBS News executives and people close to Katie Couric say that the "CBS Evening News" anchor is likely to leave the network well before her contract expires in 2011 -- possibly soon after the presidential inauguration early next year.And speaking of Dan, his little-watched cable network has scored an audacious interview for an upcoming show. Courage. (Or Hope. Or Audacity. Or whatever the sign-off du jour from RatherLand is these days.) Canadian Blogosphere Under Attack
By Ed Driscoll · April 9, 2008 11:37 AM · Liberal Fascism · The Future and its Enemies · The New, New Journalism
Silencing Canadian bloggers into submission, one lawsuit at a time. Much more from Kathy Shaidle, who's one of the bloggers being sued: Richard "The Boy Named Sue" Warman has finally filed his statement of claim.Read the whole thing--including ways to help. Future Events Such As These...Will Affect You, In The Future
By Ed Driscoll · April 9, 2008 10:59 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · The Memory Hole
Brent Bozell writes that PBS is a bit like Criswell--it wants to forecast the future (and making things up just as wildly), but with no accountability when reality fails to materialize as forecast: Ted Turner was not only interviewed, but celebrated on PBS – on April Fool’s Day. The prank was apparently on PBS. It was as if Turner had a subversive mission, to prove that PBS isn’t just for smart people. True to form, Turner walked off a cliff of rhetorical excess on the “Charlie Rose” show, charging that global warming was going to grow so severe, that in a few decades, most of humanity would be extinct. “We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten -- not ten, but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.”Why should old media, which never met a far left hustler it didn't like, be expected to start policing itself now? Update: The BBC holds itself accountable on its global warming stories, in its own, sadly not-so-unique fashion. "Indeed, Queen May Be The First Truly Fascist Rock Band"
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 06:54 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Liberal Fascism · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Memory Hole
Jonah Goldberg goes F-Spotting: I don't know why I didn't think of this before. Behold a new sport for readers. Send me your examples of people just using "fascist" to describe things they don't like. For example, Kevin Costner in Bull Durham: “Quit trying to strike everybody out. Strikeouts are boring and besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls. They’re more democratic.”Here's an oldie-but-a-goodie from 1979 by music critic and veteran Bruce Springsteen hagiographer Dave Marsh in Rolling Stone magazine: Whatever its claims, Queen isn't here just to entertain. This group has come to make it clear exactly who is superior and who is inferior. Its anthem, "We Will Rock You," is a marching order: you will not rock us, we will rock you. Indeed, Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band.As an audience member (and Queen was my first rock concert, as I recall, with Billy Squier opening), I would not have presumed to have rocked Queen. It seems reasonable to assume that when one plunked down money to see Queen, one presumed that they would be the core element of the experience which would be doing the rocking during the concert. How that made Freddie Mercury and company fascist, I cannot fathom, but like the man said... Incidentally, in 1992, Rolling Stone magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary with a lavish party at the Four Seasons in Manhattan, a restaurant whose interior was designed by Philip Johnson. "If You Haven't Noticed, News On TV Ended A Long Time Ago"
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 01:55 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
As uttered by CNBC's David Faber, unknowingly echoing a point that Tom Wolfe made almost thirty years ago. Who says that the dinosaurs couldn't have spotted their own demise? Tempting The YouTube Gods
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 12:19 PM · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · The New, New Journalism
You can come back baby, because Well except when the powers that be at YouTube pull the video of course; related thoughts here. 30 Seconds Over The Memory Hole
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 11:09 AM · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Following up on our recent posts on Howard Dean and Gloria Steinem in 2004 and today, in 2004, leftwing Democratic Senator Tom Harkin attacked Dick Cheney for not serving in Vietnam by inventing an aerial service in Vietnam that never happened. Today, leftwing Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller attacks John McCain...for his aerial service in Vietnam--and in the consequence insults every soldier flying a bomber or fighter-bomber today. Like I said, morphing attacks from the left are just business, nothing personal. (Incidentally, I'll bet Maverick just loves being Blue Falconed by a fellow member of the Senate...) Wonder If This News Will Grow Legs?
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 10:29 AM · Radical Chic · The Making of the President · The Memory Hole
Last year, Ryan Lizza, the senior editor at The New Republic wrote: After many lectures like this, Obama decided to take a second look at Wright’s church. Older pastors warned him that Trinity was for “Buppies”–black urban professionals–and didn’t have enough street cred. But Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity’s guiding principles–what the church calls the “Black Value System”–included a “Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness.’”Which means, if TNR (cough...Beauchamp ...cough) is correct, then, as Charles Johnson notes, "the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is an ex-Muslim, Nation of Islam style." Which may also explain another radical chic connection: in 2000, Obama said that "I don't think there are a lot of ideological differences," between himself and former Black Panther Bobby Rush. And watch for anyone who comments on these stories to be demonized, despite the fact the passage quoted above came from TNR, the house organ of ancien régime liberals. But as Jim Geraghty noted last week, when the far left can call one of their own--and a former first lady and sitting US senator to boot--"a whore", it's all just business, nothing personal. Infidels Are Cool believes that "This is just another blow to the Obama campaign. The American people are not ready to hand the reigns to someone who’s associations are beyond sketchy." I'm not at all sure about that myself, but as Charles Krauthammer recently noted, the only reason these details are so sketchy is that "Saint Obama awaits his Michael Kelly". Katie Couric, Uber-Videoblogger?
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 09:50 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Jonathan C. Movroydis at The New Nixon Blog makes a great observation about the state of the legacy media: Consistently, The Ancien Régime of news media has been a target of the blogosphere for journalistic faux pas, to which the archetypal MSMer retorts: “you guys comment on the news we report on.”Unless Katie is writing her own in the field news segments, the idea that she's a "journalist" is of course silly--she's a newsreader, as the British correctly use the term, who is paid to add her inflections to copy written by a large staff of writers and producers (hey, somebody should make a video that references this sort of thing!), just as an actor is hired by a film company to put his or her inflections on dialogue written by others. And there's nothing wrong with that--except that in the past, America got a little crazy in how it lionized its more stentorian newsreaders of the past. CBS questions the accuracy of the recent Times article--and who doesn't these days at Walter Duranty and Jayson Blair's favorite newspaper of "record"?. But if CBS actually did go ahead and outsource its actual reporting and news gathering operations to CNN, will this make Katie America's highest paid video blogger--albeit using a much more sclerotic legacy medium, rather than YouTube or Brightcove? Or is she that already? (Via Uncorrelated.) New Silicon Graffiti Video: Mugging For The Camera
About a week ago, I spotted an interesting contrast in the widely disparate tone of how two similar news stories were covered by their local TV stations: Note the extremely positive style in which the local TV news station in Blue State generally "anti-War" Bobos In Paradise Santa Rosa, California reported the story of an elderly Army vet who defended himself against a robbery attempt. Then compare it how one now infamous ex-reporter in the generally more conservative area of Dallas reported the story of another elderly Army vet who defended himself against multiple robbery attempts.That's the subject of our latest Silicon Graffiti video podcast, complete with a quote from Glenn Reynolds, and a cameo appearance by Liz Stephans and Scott Baker of Breitbart.TV, via an excerpt from this clip. (More video blogging found here, incidentally.) Late Update 1/15/09: After a large initial flurry of traffic and then months of quiet but study activity, this video had quite a checkered history in the waning months of 2008. You can read about the efforts to banish it from YouTube, here. The Very Definition Of Blair's Law
By Ed Driscoll · April 8, 2008 01:25 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies · The Memory Hole
Tim Blair's aphorism defines "the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force." In the Jurassic world of the dinosaur media, that definition exquisitely summarizes the proposal by CBS to outsource its news gathering operation to CNN, thus bringing together the news division which brought you the biggest trainwreck moment of 2004 (not to mention 1968!) with the news division that, prior to 2003, brought you long-running coverage of Iraq personally approved by Saddam Hussein and his apparatchiks. (And note the story was broken by the New York Times, which isn't in the best of health in its dotage, either.) The Crotch Inspector
By Ed Driscoll · April 6, 2008 01:37 PM · God And Man At Dupont University · Liberal Fascism · The New Puritans
Jacob Sullum writes that "There are two kinds of people in the world": The kind who think it's perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible. The first group includes officials at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, who in 2003 forced eighth-grader Savana Redding to prove she was not concealing Advil in her crotch or cleavage.Add the zero- Coming Soon: Superfast Internet...Or Digital Sweatshops Without End?!
By Ed Driscoll · April 6, 2008 10:48 AM · An Army Of Davids · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies
Jonathan Leake, the science editor of the Times of London writes that the Internet "could soon be made obsolete": The internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.I'd be happy--well, temporarily at least--with this speed Internet, which I wrote extensively about in 2000 through 2002 for various publications, let alone what the Times is describing. But they can't fool me. When Glasgow University's Prof. Britton says, "future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine", it's all just hegemonic code for digital-era sweatshops without end, as the other Times across the pond notes. (Geez, hyperbole much, boys? Incidentally, the superfast Internet article was found via the pieceworkers slaving away inside the digital-era sweatshop housed on Maggie's Farm.) Update: Ed Morrissey shouts from the hilltops, "Finally — I belong to a victim class!" Preach it, Brother Ed, preach it! Bloggers of the world unite--you have nothing to lose but your Sitemeter stats! Collapse Into Crass
Jim Geraghty wonders how the far left reached the point where Air America hostess Randi Rhodes could call a former first lady, sitting US senator and first viable female presidential candidate "a f***ing whore" (train wreck video here, for the curious): In and of itself, it’s shocking, but it’s otherworldly when we think about what Hillary Clinton has meant to liberals for most of the past sixteen years.As Jim writes, the GOP "may be the stupid party, but they're also the decent party." His comments remind me of the contrast in tone that Steven Den Beste highlighted immediately after the 2006 midterms: 2000, Democrats: "We wuz robbed!" "It's 3 AM: Do You Know Where Your Campaign Is?"
By Ed Driscoll · April 6, 2008 02:03 AM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Ed TV · The Making of the President
Mark Steyn writes: Jeepers, will all business during the Clinton Administration be transacted at 3 AM? Is it some union-negotiated flex-time deal? “Home foreclosures mounting”? We’d better wake the President.As Jim Geraghty, or possibly someone else at NRO recently noted, the ideal response from a prospective President McCain would be to seriously ream anyone on his staff who wakes him at 3:00 AM over a domestic financial "crisis"--there's a reason why they call the time when the sun is visible "bankers' hours". (The acceptable alternative response would be, "Call Kudlow, dammit!", but that's a whole 'nother story.) But hey, like I said, it's always 3:00 AM somewhere... Don't Try This With Your Sikorsky, Kids
By Ed Driscoll · April 6, 2008 01:16 AM · War And Anti-War
Btsigblog has a "Credit for the Army chopper pilots": Outstanding job by a great young pilot from Pennsylvania! Can't add anything else to this... the picture is worth 10,000 words! If you don't think our military pilots earn their pay, you need to take a look at this picture. This photo was taken by a soldier in Afghanistan of a helo rescue mission. The pilot is a PA National Guard guy who flies EMS choppers in civilian life. Now how many people on the planet you reckon could set the ass end of a chopper down on the roof top of a shack, on a steep mountain cliff, and hold it there while soldiers load wounded men in the rear. If this does not impress you... nothing ever will.Indeed. But don't miss the accompanying photo. Off Into The Sunset
By Ed Driscoll · April 5, 2008 10:04 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Charleton Heston has passed away at age 84; Matt Drudge links to a statement issued by his family: To his loving friends, colleagues and fans, we appreciate your heartfelt prayers and support. Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played. Indeed, he committed himself to every role with passion, and pursued every cause with unmatched enthusiasm and integrity.Far more than that. More at Libertas. "Who Says San Francisco Doesn't Honor Veterans?"
In another chapter from the lost history of the 1930s, the American Spectator's Daniel J. Flynn looks at the strange legacy of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Who says San Francisco doesn't honor veterans?It's also worth looking back and asking, what if they had won? (Via Eyeblast.tv) Their Geriatric Majesties' Request
By Ed Driscoll · April 5, 2008 10:52 AM · All You Need Is Ears · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted
In the Weekly Standard, Sonny Bunch writes that Martin Scorsese's Shine A Light, his Rolling Stones concert movie, is no Last Waltz. Cold comfort for those of us who also thought the latter was more than a little overrated--or to be more charitable, hasn't been well served by the passage of time. (Speaking of which, don't miss Bunch calling the modern sixty-something Stones "leather Muppets"! And for a great Rolling Stones concert movie, you can't go wrong with the classics.) Back In The Tank? When Did They Ever Leave?
Charles Krauthammer writes that the battle on the left to be presidential nominee boils down to "The Fabulist Vs. the Saint": As National Review's Byron York has pointed out, when Clinton supporter Lanny Davis said on CNN that it is "legitimate" for her to have remarked "that she personally would not put up with somebody who says that 9/11 are chickens who come home to roost" or the kind of "generic comments (Wright) made about white America," Anderson Cooper, the show's host and alleged moderator, interjected that since "we all know what the (Wright) comments were," he found it "amazing" and "funny" that Davis should "feel the need to repeat them over and over again."Krauthammer writes that the media are "back in the tank." But when are they not? The MSM is the same MSM it's been for at least the last 50 years, if not even longer. It's just a matter of which Democrat they've put their money on. Where's Ben Hecht--Or Even Lou Grant--When You Need Him?
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 06:47 PM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · Radical Chic · The Making of the President
Tim Graham writes, "the folks at Barack Obama's church are telling the supposedly anti-Obama, anti-Jeremiah Wright news media to back off", attempting to connect Wright with Martin Luther King: AP reporter Christopher Wills added that Otis Moss, Wright's replacement at Trinity, is still treating Wright as a prophet straight out of the Old Testament, even if the words he used sounded more like annoying 20th century socialist boilerplate:Is Wright a fiery, Marxist, racist preacher, or merely a fiery, Marxist, racist journalist?The Rev. Otis Moss III, who is replacing Wright when he retires June 1, defended Wright's comments. And as far as attempting to tie Wright to MLK, Juan Williams is having none of it: "What would Jesus do? There is no question he would have left that church." Welcome To The Snark Ages
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 04:06 PM · Bobos In Paradise
It’s been said before that we live in an age of irony, and irreverence is king", Brent Bozell writes, adding that Washington Post writer Linton Weeks recently coined "the irresistible term 'Snark Ages' to characterize it": Even today, the counter-culturalists, now aging academics holed up in university English departments, see sentiment as an enemy. Weeks cited Temple’s Joan Mellen, who demeaned sentiment as “friend to the status quo, and to passivity. A formidable enemy, of moral no less than of artistic integrity, in art as in life, in these beleaguered times it is best quickly identified, and then scrupulously avoided.”Or as Mona Charen wrote a few years ago: But we can't change the channel, because this isn't just a television invention. This is our culture. This free-for-all, libertine, conscienceless Maypole dance is what we've created from once-strong roots of Puritan rectitude. A nation once lampooned for its innocence now wallows in smut of every kind.Exactly. The Show Trials Of "Soviet Canuckistan"
Writing at Pajamas HQ, Kathy Shaidle directs her Five Feet Of Fury towards the Canadian Human Rights Commission: Next time someone threatens to “move to Canada” over real or imagined Patriot Act overreach, present him with this scenario:Kathy adds, "Pat Buchanan’s comical nickname for my country, 'Soviet Canuckistan,' is proving more accurate than he ever imagined." Like I said in my first Silicon Graffiti video this year, think of it as totalitarianism with a smiley face. Back And To The Left
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 11:30 AM · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Making of the President · The New Puritans
In the Grauniad, Oliver Stone asks, "How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?" I don't know--how does anyone recover from a substance abuse problem and successfully rebuild his career in a brutally competitive industry? STONE: I think drugs are very much a part of my generation's experience. We were not only the Cold War generation, we were the drug generation, And marijuana, with its origins in the Sixties, was good. It was a force for good. As was acid. It transformed consciousness. And in Vietnam, it certainly kept us sane.But assuming that Stone's movie hits theaters before November, it might serve as a key teachable moment for the left. It could reinforce the lesson they've been so gently trying to teach voters these past eight years, so that they won't elect another president this fall who both didn't serve in Vietnam, and who has admitted a youthful dalliance with not just alcohol, but other controlled substances as well, as ABC's Jake Tapper wrote last year: In his 1996 memoir, "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," Obama wrote candidly about his high school-era drug use: "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though."And note that Obama may still continue to ingest what most on the left consider the most dangerous, evil, vile drug on the planet, as Tapper noted yesterday. (HT: LGF) Update: Related thoughts from BeldarBlog: Recklessness is a quality that Americans voters should and do try to weed out of their presidential candidates, if you'll excuse that pun.Found via Glenn Reynolds, who quips, "Call it coffin-nailgate." Heh, indeed.TM When Susan Sontag Met Fascism Up Close And Personal
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 01:30 AM · From Bauhaus To Our House · Liberal Fascism · The Memory Hole
Last week, when I began assembling the B-roll footage and still photos for Wednesday's Philip Johnson video, I had a pretty good handle on what was readily available on the 'Net (and had ready access to any still photos I'd need from my own collection of books on modern architecture, if they weren't already online). Last July, I linked to a video containing shots of the Glass House, and I knew that clips of Charlie Rose interviewing Johnson were online. But stumbling across this YouTube clip was quite a moment of serendipity:
Sontag's 1975 essay, "Fascinating Fascism", was a necessary attack on Leni Riefenstahl's attempt to rehabilitate her image 30 years after the defeat of Nazi Germany. But did Sontag know, when she was standing next to Johnson on top of the world in his Seagram Building offices, that she was standing next to someone who would have been thrilled to be another Albert Speer? Zimbabwe's Funny Kind Of "Plague"
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 01:08 AM · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Future and its Enemies · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
Charles Crawford comes to the Blogosphere with a pretty amazing C.V.; his bio notes that he recently retired from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office "after nearly three decades in the UK's Diplomatic Service, most of it spent serving in or dealing with communist and post-communist Europe." And in a recent post, he spots the BBC putting all of the pieces together in its "coverage" of Zimbabwe: According to the BBC it has been 'plagued' (origin of said plagues not described) by the world's highest inflation, as well as acute food and fuel shortages.Sounds like the Beeb's "Powerfully Corrosive Internal Culture" hard at obfuscatory work, yet again. How The West Was Won
Ace spots this amusing Reuters item: If you are male and a Led Zeppelin fan, chances are you may be leaning toward voting Republican in the U.S. presidential election, according to a survey of rock radio fans released on Wednesday.Gosh, never saw that one coming! The Repercussions Of Hollywood's Decade-Long Narcolepsy
Midway through a routine 1942 programmer shot on the backlot of Warner Brothers and certain to be immeasurably improved forthwith with that certain Touch Of Esther, Humphrey Bogart bitterly sighs, "I bet they're asleep in New York. I'd bet they're asleep all over America." Well, they've certainly been asleep in Hollywood since 9/11/01. As I wrote a while back, Hollywood essentially wrote this decade off, creatively. And the repercussions for such narcolepsy are mounting. First up, Ryan Vlastelica of Market Hubs asks, "Are curtains coming down on movie theaters?" Hollywood is able, at the end of most Decembers, to proclaim the previous year its most successful ever. While true, at least on the surface, it masks a long-term problem: People just aren’t going to movies much anymore.Which is why Shawn Levy's "Film Criticism Death Watch" post on the Oregonian's blog shouldn't be at all surprising. Of course, when Levy writes, "the idea of fewer platforms for varied voices depresses me", he's discounting the notion that, thanks to the Blogosphere, film criticism is actually infinitely more democratic than ever, even as he's typing his thoughts into his newspaper's blog. He's right that there probably won't be many more Pauline Kaels, individual critics whom Hollywood actually loses sleep over (or buy off with a meaningless back-office studio gig as Warren Beatty actually did to quiet Kael), but for those who want to get some outside assistance into the decision as to whether or not to plunk down $30 to $40 for tickets and concessions for a night at the movies, there are plenty of opinions available. Some of which actually vary from the Official, Accepted Hollywood Party Line, as hard as that is to imagine. The Very Definition Of "Slow News Day"
By Ed Driscoll · April 4, 2008 12:34 AM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The New Puritans · The Substance of Style
Marion Berry Leaves DC For Wyoming
By Ed Driscoll · April 3, 2008 07:17 PM · Muggeridge's Law
But what's a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?
Begun, The Wiki Wars Have!
The latest podcast edition of PJM Political on XM Satellite Radio is now online: As host Bill Bradley notes, John McCain+David Letterman=Comedy Gold! Plus: Advantage: Gutfeld!
By Ed Driscoll · April 3, 2008 02:23 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Assault On Reason · The Memory Hole · The Return of the Primitive
Only a true satiric master can beat the nigh-impossible odds that Muggeridge's Law imposes, especially when one of the participants is the nutty grandparent in cable television's attic. (Alongside Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Helen Thomas, Phil Donahue, and...hmmm: Whom The Gods Destroy, they first build lionizing PBS specials around.) Add nutty Ted's latest mutterings to this one from a quarter of century ago, and it's yet another example of the Not So Final Countdown. (Which is still probably better than this Final Countdown!) No, This Is Not A Belated April Fool's Punchline
By Ed Driscoll · April 3, 2008 12:31 PM · Democracy In America
Arlen Specter talks tough to Senate Democrats. Exile On McCain Street
By Ed Driscoll · April 3, 2008 12:14 PM · All You Need Is Ears · Muggeridge's Law · The Making of the President
One of these two people is 96 years old. Or maybe both... Of All The Gin Joints, In All The Towns In All The World...
By Ed Driscoll · April 3, 2008 11:58 AM · Hollywood, Interrupted · Muggeridge's Law · War And Anti-War
Further proof of Pajamas' global influence: Madonna wants to remake Casablanca, but set in Iraq. I told Roger no good could come of this, but would he listen? Nooooooo..... Besides, another trashy wanna-be femme fatale (who's about as fatale as an after-dinner mint, as Michael York said in Cabaret) already beat her to the punch, though sadly not in the literal caged Celebrity Deathmatch sense that the phrase conjures up. But of course, the definitive modern remake of Casablanca has already been done--and done right. How can Esther improve upon David Soul as Rick and Scatman Crothers as Sam? Silicon Graffiti: The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Philip Johnson
By Ed Driscoll · April 2, 2008 08:00 AM · Bobos In Paradise · Ed TV · From Bauhaus To Our House · Liberal Fascism · Radical Chic · The Memory Hole · War And Anti-War
By the time of his death in 2005 at the venerable age of 98, Philip Johnson was arguably America's best known architect, having designed his famed "Glass House" in 1949, and worked with Mies van der Rohe on Mies's Seagram Building a few years later. The former was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997; the latter dubbed "Building of the Millennium" by the New York Times. But Johnson's puckish demeanor in his later years, which earned him decades of good cheer from fellow Manhattan elites, hid a dark journey through the liberal fascist politics of the 1930s, which culminated in his cheering on the Nazis as they marched through Poland in 1939. "We saw Warsaw burn and Modlin being bombed. It was a stirring spectacle", he would write to a friend at the time. At the start of the 1930s, Johnson was an admirer of the socialist-leaning architects of Germany's Bauhaus, as he founded the newly born Museum of Modern Art's architectural department, and helped put modern architecture on the map in the US. Apparently after witnessing a Hitler rally in Potsdam in 1933, Johnson was immediately attracted to the Nazis. That moment sent Johnson on a seemingly strange journey: shortly thereafter, he would leave MoMA to seek employment with first Huey Long and then Father Coughlin, before ultimately winding up cheering the Nazis on at the start of WWII. During that same period though, while Johnson openly admired the Nazis, he befriended the last director of the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, even as the Nazis were shuttering the design school's doors. Returning to MoMA in the 1950s and establishing himself, via his famed Glass House, as a known architect in his own right, as Hilton Kramer noted in the mid-1990s, and Anne Applebaum shortly after Johnson's death, Johnson did a near-thorough job of tossing his radical past down the memory hole. At the least, most of his fellow Manhattan elites didn't lose too much sleep over it. And yet, comparing Johnson's past with the lost history of the 1930s described in Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism, in retrospect Johnson comes across as a sort of dark version of Woody Allen's Zelig character, appearing alongside several of the fascist left's most important figures in both the US and Europe during the Depression. (More video blogging found here, incidentally.) "Either No One Reads The Village Voice, Or My Watch Has Stopped"
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 08:18 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Hollywood, Interrupted · The Making of the President
Is David Mamet a canary in the coal mine for the 2008 election? That's what Daniel Henninger posits. As the above title implies, Henninger also notes that while Mamet's coming out party in the Village Voice has been widely noted in Europe, America's old media have been maintaining radio silence--at least as of when Henninger shot this segment. (Incidentally, welcome to our 13,000th blog post as we enter into our sixth year in the land of pixels and snark, according to my blog software.) This Not An April Fool's Joke
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 07:37 PM · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media! · The Return of the Primitive
Or at least I don't think it is, given Muggeridge's Law and everything, and the fact that Time did a similar story almost concurrently: "Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico." I bet this news makes Emo Girl even extra super sad. But then, what doesn't? More seriously, there's an interesting Death of the Grown-Ups slant on this story: compare how soberly Time magazine covers a story like this with how its fellow newsweekly kept a safe healthy distance when reporting on another youth phenomenon over 40 years ago. That's something I touched upon regarding their coverage of another faddish story, here. A Funny Kind Of Hooverville
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 04:23 PM · Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal · Muggeridge's Law · Oh, That Liberal Media!
Let's see: original Depression: Dow Jones Industrial Average bottoms out at 40 as huge unemployed swatches of the country live in Dickensian hardship. Men in breadlines wear suits and ties, largely because they have no other clothes. The 21st century New American Depression that England's Independent has stumbled across? The Dow closed today at 12,654.36, unemployment is at 4.8 percent, and Nike's stock is doing quite nicely as the firm makes a comfortable profit selling $150 basketball shoes to parents and their kids across the country who have the disposable income to afford them. But why is a British newspaper trying to muscle in on territory that's traditionally exclusive terrain for American journalists during an election year? Shouldn't they be investigating a protracted economic malaise that's far closer to home? A Cool And Logical Analysis Of The Bicycle Menace
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 04:08 PM · Bobos In Paradise · Muggeridge's Law · The Return of the Primitive
Andy Bowers of Slate believes he has found "America's Stupidest Bike Lane"; my much more curmudgeonly immediate impression is that it's a multiple-choice question with thousand upon thousands of correct answers. "It's Hard Living Up To Moses"
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 02:31 PM · Hollywood, Interrupted
Speaking of only human, Charlton Heston larger than life on the big screen, is apparently in bad shape these days back in the real world. Demonized by the left since the early-to-mid 1980s, it will be interesting to see if there's a career reappraisal when he sadly passes away. Outtakes From The Zapruder Film
By Ed Driscoll · April 1, 2008 02:15 PM · Muggeridge's Law
OK, so President Bush is an evil genius who deliberately plunged three planes into giant office buildings (oh wait, the Pentagon crash never actually happened, right?), but he brilliantly covers his tracks by appearing to be stupid enough to get conned into photo ops that wouldn't pass muster in a Poli-Sci 101 class? Just checking. (So what are you saying?--Ed That he's human, neither a blithering moron, nor an Ian Fleming-ish super-genius. All national politicians are photographed so much during their careers that occasional bad photos are simply part of the gig.) Easy Riders, Raging Nannies
UPI reports, "More die because helmet laws repealed": U.S. motorcyclist fatality rates have increased in states that repealed their universal helmet laws in the past decade, researchers said.The nanny state doesn't understand that freedom is also the freedom to potentially stupid things. Or as P.J. O'Rourke once said, "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." Blackout Conditions Observed
I have no idea what the calendrical significance of the current date is, but wow, even Michelle Malkin's Website is going dark today... |
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