Monday, May 16. 2005
Toiletgate American Thinker has a great idea. Sue Newsweek!
Anchorman An adolescent, slapstick, semi-lame movie starring Will Farrell which deserves to go down in history as one of the silliest movies made about TV news and reporting. It is so goofy that it is fun.
Newsweek: Beyond Shame and deep into the danger zone: The MSM blew it again ! Isikoff's turn to get blog-swarmed. The disgusting Koran-toilet story explored and corrected by RWN. and Captains Quarters. and many others. Facts never intefere with the anti-American fanatics, but in this case, people have died and will die, and the ME will never believe Newsweek's apology. If I were a real reporter these days, I would be scared. Error is punished. The motives of the terrorists in Iraq are confusing to the NYT, probably because they do not fit the leftist rebellion model. John at Powerline de-mystifies the issue. Are we certain that democratization in the ME is a good idea? Another point of view, from View from the Right. The Radical Disease at Harvard Law. Time to copy the Pine Tree Revolution? Details by Brewton. Somethings Happening Here, What it is aint exactly clear: Canadian politics. Ideological Purity vs. Political Reality. Radioblogger has Kudlow discussing new trade quotas. We will soon see similar practicality at work with the base closings.
"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do." Dale Carnegie
Saturday, May 14. 2005
1950 Farmall C With the classic short front axle - scarey on hills.
Another ribald tale of good times at Madame Lipsky's.
Giorgio Finogle had come in with an imitation of the latest Russian poet,
The one who wrote the great "Complaint about the Peanut Farm" which I read to
you last year at Mrs. Riley's,
Do you remember? And then of course Giorgio had written this imitation
So he came in with it...Where was I and what was I saying?
The big beer parlor was filled with barmaids and men named Stuart
Who were all trying to buy a big red pitcher of beer for an artiste named Alma Stuart
Whom each claimed as his very own because of the similarity in names -
This in essence was Buddy's parody - O Giorgio, you idiot, Marion Stuart snapped,
It all has something to do with me! But no, Giorgio replied,
Biting in a melancholy way the edge off a cigar-colored paper patterned envelope
In which he had been keeping the Poem for many days
Waiting to show his friends. And actually it's not a parody at all,
I just claimed it was, out of embarassment. It's a poetic present for you all,
All of whom I love! From "The Pleasures of Peace" by Kenneth Koch, who also wrote two excellent books about teaching poetry to children (see link): Rose, How did you get so Red? and one of the best-titled books of all time: Wishes, Dreams, and Lies.
Friday, May 13. 2005
Harvard debates "gender" - a rational discussion emerges from the Summers hysteria. Audio and video versions. But I still don't get it - what the heck is "gender"? Running out of suicide bombers: In Iraq, they are using the mentally ill, and tricking their own people into becoming involuntary suicide bombers - they ask them to transport some bombs from A to B, then remote-detonate them. Surprise! And then comes the really big surprise: There was a slight error in transcription. Instead of 70 virgins in Paradise, you get one 70 year-old virgin. Dang! Condi supports gun rights. "Air Force Academy "Chaplain" Morton’s complaints about too much religion at the military academy is creating waves, and earned her hero status in a report in the New York Times Thursday." In Newsmax New family of rodent discovered for sale in Laotian meat market. Brussels official claims rejection of EU Constitution would be comparable to supporting Nazism. How can these countries willingly sacrifice their autonomy to wacko unelected bureaucrats?
 George Will asks Christians to "practice the magnanimity of the strong rather than cultivate the grievances of the weak. But many Christians are joining today's scramble for the status of victims. There is much lamentation about various "assaults" on "people of faith." Christians are indeed experiencing some petty insults and indignities concerning things such as restrictions on school Christmas observances. But their persecution complex is unbecoming because it is unrealistic."
Read entire.
David Brooks feels religion is essential in public life: "On Sept. 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln gathered his cabinet to tell them he was going to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He said he had made a solemn vow to the Almighty that if God gave him victory at Antietam, Lincoln would issue the decree." Read entire. Martin Marty asks for hospitality when faiths collide: "With good reason some are learning to adjust their visions and are beginning to determine how they will relate to the rest of the globe. In a world of 6.2 billion people, 2 billion are identified with Christianity, 1.25 billion with Islam, 836 million with Hinduism, 367 million with Buddhism, and 15 million with Judaism. These are but five of some 10,200 "distinct religions" known to today's mapmakers and chroniclers. Read entire: Click here: Religions Strangers as Menaces, by Martin E. Marty Morals aren't facts. Bill Schardt and David Large examine the remarkable influence of Tolstoy's The Gospel in Brief on Wittgenstein's writings on ethics, esp Tractatus: "...The above argument means that there cannot be ethical facts because the rightness or wrongness of an action cannot be determined by any examination of the world. Hence the truth or falsity of a statement such as 'it is wrong to murder people ', cannot be determined in this way. Ethical or moral statements are not propositions; they are not truth functional in the way that real propositions must be. As ethics is not propositional it cannot, therefore, be put into words. It is, instead, transcendental (Tractatus 6.421), and as such must be passed over in silence (Tractatus 7). Propositions can express nothing that is higher than themselves, i.e. nothing beyond states of affairs of the world (whether true or false), and so there can be no propositions of ethics." Read entire. Fr. Neuhaus on "America as a Religion": "That America is guided by Providence is a belief deeply entrenched in the seventeenth-century beginnings, the constitutional period, Lincoln’s ponderings on our greatest war, and Woodrow Wilson’s convictions about the inseparable connections between freedom and American destiny. The belief has never been absent from American public life and discourse, although in the last half century many, and not least religious thinkers, have tried to discredit or marginalize it. In recent years, however, the idea of a providentially guided America has been making a comeback." Read entire at First Things. The Cross The history of the cross as a symbol, going back to the Egyptian ankh, symbolizing "the creative essence of life.".
Taranto yesterday on why the Dems "clients" don't vote for them: Every time the Democrats lose an election, they make a big show of asking questions like these. Then, the next time they lose an election, they once again wonder why the "working class" has forsaken them. Maybe it's as simple as: because they were listening. Read entire. Tut died of gangrene. Stop whining about your medical bills - you have better medical care than Pharoah. Click here: Print Story: Tutankhamun died of gangrene on Yahoo! News The Union-Leader shrewd on filibuster: "PRESIDENT BUSH and U.S. Senate Republicans have the far better case in the matter of Democrats refusing to allow judges to be voted on in a straightforward, up-or-down fashion. The problem is that Republicans aren't very good at public relations "spin" — and the Democrats have a ready ally in much of Big Media. But if the Republicans don't wise up and have the guts to stop the Democrats' current misuse of the filibuster, they will find that a President Hillary Clinton and her pals will have no such problem in suddenly "discovering" that the Founding Fathers never intended judges or other Presidential appointments to be blocked in this manner." Read entire editorial. Meanwhile GOP pulls even in the PR war. It's live ammo - remember that. The UAL pension mess explained. Thanks, Prof. Bainbridge.
"Any ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for." Grace Murray Hopper
Thursday, May 12. 2005
Another side of the Gary Keillor issue: Gwynnie thinks he's a sanctimonious twit: From Opinion Journal - I'm Open-Minded, You're a Stupid Jerk
There's something amusing about the obnoxious way in which some people trumpet their own open-mindedness and tolerance. Consider these two passages from an essay by Garrison Keillor in The Nation: I enjoy, in small doses, the over-the-top right-wingers who have leaked into AM radio on all sides in the past twenty years. They are evil, lying, cynical bastards who are out to destroy the country I love and turn it into a banana republic, but hey, nobody's perfect. . . . The reason you find an army of right-wingers ratcheting on the radio and so few liberals is simple: Republicans are in need of affirmation, they don't feel comfortable in America and they crave listening to people who think like them. Liberals actually enjoy living in a free society; tuning in to hear an echo is not our idea of a good time. If this were true, nobody would listen to NPR, watch "Fahrenheit 9/11"--or, for that matter, read The Nation.
More on Bolton's enemies: One Janice O'Connell, a Cuba apologist on Sen. Dodd's staff. Bolton was clearly targeted, like Delay, as part of the ongoing pissing contest in DC. Novak has the details. Thanks, Powerline. Always thought the Americans with Disabilities Act was insane. Right Thinking provides more reason to think so: a day care center run by the blind. When was common sense outlawed? Stix rips Ellison's neo-feminism, in a piece entitled This is Your Brain on The New York Times: A sample: Feminism’s contradictions. Back in the 1970s, feminism routinely condemned motherhood. But in recent years, yuppy feminists have discovered that children can be status symbols, just like expensive cars and summer homes (or at least, time-shares) in the Hamptons. Having or adopting a child shows the world that you can “have it all,” even if you rarely see the tyke. After all, what are illegal aliens for? Ellison is writing on the joys of motherhood for women who either have no children, or who neglect their children, but wish to get credit for their illegal nannies’ labors. Read entire in Intellectual Conservative.
Campus News, #2 The rebels seem to have won at Dartmouth. This bodes well for sanity in academia, since colleges take their cues from the Ivies just as the MSM take their cues from the NYT. Watch for petition candidates with websites and blogs to storm the barricades at other universities. Ain't it amazing what can happen when people have a real choice?
What to do about Luis Posada Carriles? Mr. Carriles is the Cuban exile responsible for bringing down a Cuban Airliner and other terrorist activities while trying to assassinate Castro He is seeking asylum in the United States and we better not let him stay. Our options are: to be tried here or extradited to Venezuela. Jail time is better than execution and everyone knows that Chavez will not be granting anyone a fair trial who has committed any act against his mentor Fidel. Click here: A Single Standard for Terrorists - New York Times
The nonsense behind those color code terror alerts revealed by Ridge. Alien prisoners in the US: The numbers and the cost. A Necessary War but maybe not a Good War? Wheatcroft reflects on the myths of WW11. Click here: Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / how_good_was_the_good_war Kingdom of Heaven discussed by Chrenkoff. PC can kill. The perils of political fashion, as outlined by Zinmeister. Click here: The American Enterprise: Political Fashion Can Hurt, Even Kill : Just as we were assembling this special issue of The American Enterprise on political correctness, the Associated Press transmitted a story across the nation about the latest fashion in marking tests and homework at public schools. For generations, teachers have corrected answers and offered suggestions in red ink. "But that approach meant the kids often found their work covered in red," the story noted. And some parents objected. "Red writing, they said, was 'stressful.'" So schools have put red on the blacklist.
What are schools thinking? Red corrections worked for me. My self-esteem is my own problem, by the way. Plus self-respect is earned, not given. And self-esteem is a meaningless concept, psychobabble. Maybe I needed more red ink - I love incomplete sentences.
Email from a Friend in CT Yesterday Bird Dog: Sitting on my back deck this AM stuffing envelopes for Ducks Unlimited with my ears wide open. Here's what I am hearing: red-eyed vireo, black and white warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, baltimore oriole, cape may warbler, parula warbler. All singing just for me! CF
Campus Update Shame on Columbia and shame on Pres. Bollinger. Their ROTC decision is not only disappointing, but it makes no sense. Opinion Journal: In April 2003, Columbia held a student referendum on ROTC. Two-thirds voted to bring it back. This led the university senate to appoint a 10-member panel to examine the subject; it split down the middle on the question of readmitting ROTC "as soon as is practicable." What are these people thinking? Are they stuck in the 60s? But maybe we shouldn't be too bothered by this. Throughout America, schools such as the University of Missouri continue to graduate outstanding young men such as Lieutenant Edens. He may not have earned an Ivy League degree, but he did earn a nation's respect--which is more than most of Columbia's faculty can ever hope to get. Read entire. But kudos to Dartmouth for their more mature decision-making. Removing politically-correct speech codes seems to be a new trend.
Parula Warbler A common eastern tree-top migrant, more often identified by voice than by eye. Nice looking tiny bird, though. Northern variety likes to nest in dead man's beard, southern version in Spanish moss. Read more about this warbler.
Does Al Libbi Matter? Some say not. Make up your own mind. Zarquawi Letter: Sounds discouraged. Text here. WaPo poll on "nuclear option" here. But who cares? Polls aren't elections. They aren't even news. They are filler, just like here.
In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all. Dylan, from Love Minus Zero/No Limit. Lyrics here.
"Battle is not a terrifying ordeal to be endured. It is a magnificent experience wherein all of the elements that make man superior to the beasts are present: courage, self-sacrifice, loyalty, help to others, devotion to duty." Gen. George Patton
Wednesday, May 11. 2005
The Battle in Iraq Here and here and here. Zarqawi may be dead.
Delay Won't Go Delay is a tough SOB and no lefty cabal will drive him away. The story is already old. But if you need info on who takes these lobbyist junkets, here it is, FYI, Nancy Pelosi: Surprise! And here's the $ comparison: Dems win again! We're not saying these trips are bad. We don't know. We just don't like the pious hypocrisy.
One Year Ago The MSM priorities: (Courtesy of Cox and Forkum)
 Talk Radio
I love Garrison Keillor as a precious addition to my life. It is a treat when I can hear him coming through from Northeast NPR on Saturday night, and his books are masterpieces of warm, penetrating yet empathic humor, like a perfect psychiatrist, uncle or grandfather. He has fine, eclectic taste in music, and his singing voice has the same sort of sweet quavering frailty we heard in Jerry Garcia's. I don't agree with his politics, but he's from Minnesota so he can't help it. Still, I don't get why he seems to hate Bush, who seems to be the only person on the planet that this gentle man despises. He points out that local talk radio has been around since the advent of radio, and he claims no fear of conservative - he calls it "right wing" - radio. But he prefers the local chat. (Photo from Lake Wobegon Trails courtesy of Ludwig Photo)
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