Meet the Blogs.

Brain Terminal's Evan Coyle Maloney recently interviewed Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, resulting in a very interesting Q&A. Milbank then asked if there was some manner in which the Post and the Blogosphere could collaborate. To which I replied:

I'd be very wary about cooperation or collaboration between the Blogosphere and the WP. There is just too much risk of the blogs either being co-opted or influenced to serve the Post's interests. The great value that I find in blogs is independent fact-checking, story follow-up, and critical analysis of journalism. This is activity that is not necessarily in the newspaper's interests. For example, if they were interested in criticizing coverage of a news story, say by the NYT, wouldn't they be doing it? Has the Post dug deep into the fiasco at CBS to confirm or dispute the findings of the Thornberg Report? And has anyone been impressed with CNN/Howard Kurtz's "Reliable Sources"?

By the way, this is should be the policy with the Washington Times as it is with the Post. And I think that current "market forces" appear to "rank" blogs pretty well already.

Frankly, blogs serve an important regulatory function, and as the Dept of Agriculture doesn't (or at least shouldn't) collaborate with meat-packers, nor should blogworld collaborate with the MSM.

Professor Churchill, meet Senator Byrd.

A few years ago Senator Robert Byrd found himself in a wee bit of trouble when he referred to "White ...", well, you know the word he used. Our intrepid scholar Ward Churchill was in spiritual communion with the Senator when he recently referred to whiteness as not a genetic condition but a noxious state of mind. Listen and receive enlightenment here (mp3 file).

The Liberal Crackup, 2005.

Dead Drifts, as part of the election post-mortem, opined that the Democratic Party was at a crossroads, that it presently faces a choice between being a political or ideological party. Martin Peretz, editor of the The New Republic, has developed this theme, suggesting that Liberalism, and by implication, the Democrats, "need(s) to be liberated from many of its own illusions and delusions", such as its flirtation with anti-Americanism from the EU and Islamofascists. Note that TNR charges for this analysis. Dead Drifts provides it gratis, while omitting the unnecessary sniping at Mr. Buckley and Mr. Kirk.


Satire as Thoughtcrime.

One of the golden arrows in the quiver of American arts and letters, satire has been loosed by some of our greatest artists against civilization's most noxious and pernicious foes. Sadly, in our time, certain attitudes regarding certain subjects are sacrosanct, and satire is not tolerated as it dares to use humor to comment on these issues.

Dead Drifts has mentioned an incident involving a beloved local bluesman and disc-jockey, Thayrone X, who was canned by WQKL, a cog in the Clear Channel Communications Media Machine. The putative cause for his dismissal was for playing a song by a satirical songwriter-performer, "Unknown Hinson". The song, entitled, "Trunk of My Cadillac Car", is Hinson's satire of the misogyny found in some country music culture. Thayrone's firing has been applauded by a local women's group, whose representative recently commented:

"There are many ways that our community can help end violence against women, ranging from challenging people who make sexist jokes to volunteering at a domestic violence/sexual assault program.

Furthermore, having all members of a community work toward achieving this goal is absolutely necessary.

Clear Channel Radio in Ann Arbor has decided to work toward this end by refusing to broadcast radio programs and songs that glorify violence against women or any other group of individuals... "

According to this statement merely playing such a song is a thoughtcrime against women. It's useful to recall exactly what satire is: wit, irony, derision, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice, folly and evil. Hinson's act and music follow this definition. Yet self-appointed commissars insist that they - and only they - can define misogyny (alas, blonde jokes are now taboo), can percieve what abets misogynistic violence, and prescribe what is a "proper" attitude in dealing with it. Their cause is not so noble as to justify the subversion of the basic liberty to think as one chooses, and to oppose wrong in a manner that one sees fit.

Mel Brooks once remarked that the most effective way that he could confront the monstrous evil of Hitler and Nazism was to make them look silly and ridiculous. Our culture is richer for his satire, as it is also with Unknown Hinson's.


P.S. If Tim Robbins loves Unknown, why can't we all love him?

If you don't like the message, smear the messenger.

Paul Krugman listened to Alan Greenspan's comments about Social Security, and then went on a powerrant.

Farewell to Diplomad.

The Diplomad, a well-crafted journal of foreign affairs, takes a bow and makes its exit. Job well done!

Move over, Ford, Dow Chemical, Enron...

Perhaps the message of Rathergate and Easongate is pretty simple: the MSM is an entity which is not immume to the normal laws of behavior of corporations or large human organizations. Despite the claims of priestly conduct, journalists are subject to error and bias and require oversight - just like lawyers, doctors, stock brokers, and meat packers. The MSM has demonstrated this necessity for other human organizations and institutions, now the shoe is on the other foot and they are, of course howling in pain. This is completely understandable behavior.

This oversight should not be the domain of government - certainly not! - but can be provided by ... competition. And we're now entering an era where competition to provide information and to check facts on a rapid global scale is possible. To call all the bloggers involved in the Jordan fiasco morons and vigilantes would be like, well, saying all columnists are like Maureen Dowd. And that's not fair.

Longing for Old-Timey Journalism.

The MSM is now launching the counteroffensive against the blogosphere for bringing Eason Jordan down. Bill Press, former columnist and Dem operative, and who now sports a "Kiss Me, I'm a Journalist!" button, believes that the ultra-right bloggers were out to get CNN (I guess after exxing-out Dan Rather). Press, appearing on "Realiable Sources with Howard Kurtz, David Gergen, and Jeff (BuzzMachine) Jarvis, ranted on how bloggers aren't real journalists.

Well , Mr. Press, I offer my examples of what is and what is not journalism. These description may disagree with yours.

An Example of Real Journalism:

Des Moines, Iowa - The cat owned by Mr. and Mrs.
Stanislaw Dupa of 101 Maple Street was found dead today, apparently struck by an automobile sometime last night. The Dupas normally let "Pooky" outside for a few minutes each night, "to powder her nose", said Mrs. Dupa. However, last night Pooky did not return to the door, and a frantic search into the early hours of the morning failed to find the cat. Pooky was found on the side of nearby State Route 56 after daylight. The Dupas say they are not sure whether they will get another cat to replace their beloved Pooky.

Example of MSM Journalism:

Des Moines, Iowa - Irene Dupa sips coffee at her kitchen table on a Monday afternoon, the strong plainswoman seeming to restrain a torrent of grief, doubt, and fear that entered her life this morning.

Irene's companion, Pooky, a mixed Siamese-Angora, was found dead after mysteriously vanishing Sunday evening. Authorities' questioning now centers on Irene's husband Stanislaw Dupa, the last family member to see Pooky alive, and who claims to have no knowledge of her demise.

Yet a troubling chain of events, perhaps coincidental, yet perhaps more sinister, may link Mr. Dupa's supressed rage, his failing business, Bush Administration policies, and Des Moines' historical insensitvity to animal rights.

Carla Zlagg, spokesperson for the Central Iowa Animal-Womynist Alliance commented, when informed of the tragedy, "it's clear that people who seek a dignified life for all creatures should become informed on the basic facts of this case. Mr. Dupa is an independent meat producer, and faces increasing competition from the factory farms sponsored by George Bush's cronies. Men such as Dupa were never taught about dealing with feelings and stress, and in this part of the country, much violence is focused on animals. But there is no excuse for violence of this kind. Our group can provide support in a nuturing, safe environment if Irene feels she is at risk."

Calls to the White House on a possible link to Pooky's death were not returned.

Totalitarism 101.

The Belmont Club, possessing some of the best historical-political analysis to be found on the Web, provides an excellent discussion on how the totalitarian mind views human beings as mere columns of a ledger.

Let us keep in mind -

"Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals could believe them" - George Orwell

Zimbabwe's Nightmare.

The Post reports on the "Madness of President Robert":

By Craig TimbergWashington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday,
February 12, 2005

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 11 -- The Zimbabwean
government, backing off forecasts of a bumper harvest, announced Friday that 1.5 million people were in immediate need of food aid, especially in the country's drought-stricken southern provinces.

The state-controlled Herald newspaper in Harare, the capital, reported that the government planned to spend about $8
million to buy and distribute more than 15,000 tons of corn meal, the staple food in southern Africa, in the weeks leading up to nationwide parliamentary elections March 31.

The announcement drew immediate criticism from opposition
leaders, human rights activists and other government critics who warned that in the previous two national elections -- in 2000 and 2002 -- President Robert Mugabe's ruling party used food handouts to garner votes. Mugabe has been in power since 1980.

...

"They want to control the food and politicize it," said
Pius Ncube, the Catholic archbishop of Zimbabwe's second-largest city and one of Mugabe's most vocal critics. "They'd rather kill people for the sake of power." Ncube said the announcement was part of a strategy that began last May, when Mugabe called on international food donors to leave Zimbabwe. "We are not hungry . . . Why foist this food upon us? We don't want to be choked. We have enough," Mugabe told Britain's Sky News...

...

The government also has limited the purchase and transport of corn meal by individuals. Roadblocks have been set up on main roads, and Zimbabweans caught carrying more than two or three of the bags can face fines or imprisonment...

[Zimbabwen] agricultural output has plummeted since 2000, when Mugabe sanctioned violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms. Many once-productive fields have turned brown and are overgrown with weeds. As recently as 2002, the World Food Program fed more than half the population.

...

In Rhodesia man exploited man; in Zimbabwe it's the other way around...

Exit Jordan.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reports on the resignation of CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan, and makes a very interesting observation:

"...Even as he [Jordan] said he had misspoken at an international
conference in suggesting that coalition troops had "targeted" a dozen journalists and insisted he never believed that, Jordan was being pounded hourly by bloggers, liberals as well as conservatives, who provided the rocket fuel for a story that otherwise might have fizzled..."

A remarkable admission that the MSM's investigative journalism ceases at a brother's frontdoor.

Re: The Nutty Professor

There isn't much more I can add to the Churchill fiasco not stated earlier and more eloquently by David Horowitz or Mark Goldblatt...other than to remind us that we protect the freedom of a third-rate intellect to make an ass of himself in order to guarantee the right for first-rate intellects to speak freely.

Oh, the Savings we will Save!

W has released his budget. OK... I'm thinking of freshly run-over kittens in order to restrain laughter while I read: there is going to be a big fight over cutting about twenty some-odd billion in domestic spending (flax subsidies, paving West Virginia once again, a compilation of the oral history of mimes in America, etc) out of a budget of 2.7 Teradollars.....Bwahaahaahaaahaaa! Sorry, I wasn't strong enough. Ahem....we are in deep, deep kimchee if we can't cut more than 1% of the budget and not have to commit political suicide.


Everybody's want, er need, is vital. Sir, please lead on real cuts, and we might just follow.

We want a purple finger, too!

Even a BS detector with dead batteries would peg its meter when
waved over the following statements from the Sunni Party-Poopers.
I've added some translations of some of the more laughable face-savers:

Conciliatory Line Carries Conditions

By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 5, 2005; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 -- Influential Sunni Arab leaders of a boycott of last Sunday's elections expressed a new willingness Friday to engage the coming Iraqi government and play a role in writing the constitution, in what may represent a strategic shift in thinking among mainstream anti-occupation groups.

The signs remain tentative... But in statements and interviews, some Sunni leaders said the sectarian tension that surged ahead of the vote had forced them to rethink their stance.

Translation: "This boycott thing blew up in out faces, and we're getting posteriors handed to us. Please help us save face, and just forget about all those car bombs and dead fellow countrymen. It was just one of those things"

..."We are taking a conciliatory line because we are frightened that things may develop into a civil war," said Wamidh Nadhmi, the leader of the Arab Nationalist Trend and a spokesman for a coalition of Sunni and Shiite groups that boycotted the election. "The two sides have come to a conclusion that they have to respect the other side if they want a unified Iraq."

Translation: "We can't steal the county back through killing the rest of you, and you're winning, so we offer you a draw."

He cautioned, however, that "perhaps it will not succeed."

The Association of Muslim Scholars, one of the most influential groups, sent mixed signals this week -- saying it would respect the election results, while arguing that the new government will lack the legitimacy to draft a constitution. But the sermon Friday at the association's headquarters, the Um al-Qura mosque, was decidedly conciliatory...

A decision by Sunni Muslim and other anti-occupation groups to engage the new government and help draft the constitution would mark one of the most important shifts in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's fall in April 2003 (bold inserted)...

..The shift in thinking appears to have arisen from a calculation that the election may have created a new dynamic in Iraq, as the country slowly moves past an emphasis on the U.S. occupation and more toward the blueprint of a future state. The groups do not speak for the insurgency, but the Association of Muslim Scholars, in particular, holds great sway in the Sunni Arab community in central and western Iraq, where there are signs of grass-roots discontent over the boycott.

This is the meat of the article: everyday folks in this part of Iraq have had their fill of mindless violence and poser warlords. They were sold a bill of goods about the election boycott and now realize they have been cut out of a say in their future. And they've formed a posse, with pitchforks and torches...

...The insurgents "made fools of us," said Mahmoud Ghasoub, a businessman in Baiji, a restive northern town. "They voted to disrupt the elections but failed. Now we have lost both tracks. We did not vote, nor did they disrupt the elections."...

The tide is turning.

Roundup for 12 January 2005:

Is Al Qaeda's permit in the mail?

The National Park Service, in a spasm of true stupidity, has granted the Leninist-Anarchist group ANSWER a permit to disrupt the inauguration at some prime real estate along the parade route:

A Wide Variety of Protest Planned for Inauguration (washingtonpost.com)

Perhaps the Secret Service is applying the "Roach Motel" strategy, trying to concentrate all of the vermin in one location where they can be carefully monitored. I doubt it will play out like that, not with droogs like these:

...Anarchist Resistance said it will stage a "festive and rowdy march" from Franklin Square. A message posted on its Web site says: "There's nothing left to salvage in this empire that is the U.S. government. It's time to bring it down." ...

Doesn't this kind of statement fall under sedition laws - go directly to Gitmo, do not pass the welfare office, do not collect food stamps?

So how is it that...

Pathogens like ANSWER can spew their anarchist dreck, and their masked goon squads can bully those bystanders who happen to object to their offal, but a good guy like Thayrone X, host of the rockingest R&B radio show on Earth, gets canned by Clear Channel Communications for playing a song by the musical psychobilly satirist Unknown Hinson?

A simple and perhaps naive question about the American economy:

During the Christmas shopping hubbub, I conducted a simple experiment - I went into department and specialty stores in our local mall, and examined a cross section of consumer goods that people were certain to buy. Things like household stuff, consumer electronics, clothes, and "cool stuff" gadgets at places
like the Brookstone store. I then looked at the manufacturing label on them. The result of my highly unstructured and uncontrolled experiment: the United States apparently doesn't manufacture any consumer goods any more. The are very few exceptions, such a some brands of washers, refrigerators, etc. But they are the very obvious exceptions to the rule.

So exactly what is it that we supply to the domestic and world markets that generates the enormous wealth to maintain our standard of living and benefits?
The automobile industry is in a shambles, where domestic vehicle manufacturers have steadily lost market share to worldwide makers, and American parts suppliers are in really deep Kim Chee. We don't make steel or other basic unfinished products. IT development and services are now moving overseas, and in any case most middle-class folks cannot be employed in these types of industries. So exactly how do we generate our wealth in a way that allows participation by the majority of the working population of the country?

21 Dec 2004: Damn bad news from Mosul.

I can't add anything to the news reports and the riveting account from Chaplain Lewis.

Please pray for our guys, that God will extend a loving hand to protect them. And that the media harpies just shut up for an hour or two as we mourn our dead in reverent silence. God, give us strength to sustain us in our ordeal. Give people around the world the courage to stand up for what is right, a chance for an oppressed people to seek their own destiny. In the time where we celebrate your glorious Son's birth, bring peace and hope to a part of the world where evil, fear, and death have ruled for far too long.

Oh Come Emanuel (and save me from this nightmare)!

God is wising me up. I have this year developed a profound distaste for the dreck that is America's current expression of Christmas. The incessant droning of "holiday music" on radio and in stores numbs one of any emotion that it was supposed to encourage, and will of course, stop precisely at 12 midnight the day after Christmas. The computer-driven tape loop will then be switched to the generic drivel, and not another tune proclaiming the glorious birth of Christ will be slid into the loop for another 365 days. Because, you see, Christmas - as defined as the time to buy things, travel, party, buy things, take time from work, and buy things - is over on December 26. Then it's time to think about New Year's, and the things to buy for that and whose going to be crowned first in the BCS. And then...white sales! Hum.....bug...!

Well, not me. I going to raise my voice in song in the bloody streets of Saline on December 26, and everyday afterward:

For unto us a child is born...and his name shall be called wonderful,
counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Roundup for December 13, 2004

Kyoto! Kyoto!

There's some serious partying goin' down in Lookout, Buenos Aires (as reported in the Grey Old Lady):

...delegates from more than 190 countries have gathered here both to celebrate the enactment of the Kyoto Protocol...

however,

..Many delegates and experts concede that the pact, negotiated in 1997, is deeply flawed and that years of delays in finishing its rulebook mean that many adherents may have trouble meeting their targets for emissions cuts...

Oh really? So just the ridiculous bureaucracy spawned by the treaty has made it impossible to enforce? We also learn that:

...Its impact will also be limited because it exempts developing countries, including fast-industrializing giants like China and India, from emissions restrictions, and lacks the support of the United States, the world's dominant source of the heat-trapping gases...

Well, we've all heard about the fact that the US didn't sign Kyoto. That doesn't mean that we won't restrict our greenhouse gas (GG) production; in fact US GG production has stayed relatively flat for the last few years. But I wonder how many are aware that India and China can go and burn hydrocarbons as if it were ...going out of style. We know that the West could go and work wonders in GG production, and it won't amount to a whit if China and India grow their emissions to nightmare quantities.

Roundup for December 11, 2004

Hummer-Armor, Part II:

Michelle Malkin (insert tiger growl here!) doesn't get hung up on where the question regarding Hummer armor originated - it's still a valid question. She provides a good summary of things so far. The WSJ has an excellent editorial that hits the nail on the head.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh is an administration apologist/shill about this.

The issue is not the origin of the question, it is that this a problem that's been killing guys in the field for over a year, and this is just too damn long to wait for a solution through the military acquisition & procural process. FIX IT, NOW.

Start your day off with inspiration from the Founders...

The Federalist Patriot provides a daily quote from the Founding Fathers, such as

"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin


Realistic Prognostication about the NID:

The WSJ carefully sets all the emotions aside and tells us what is likely to happen with the National Intelligence Directorate.


Terror's Secret Weapon: Illegal "Nannigrants"

Jeesh. With the stealth and efficiency that would make a sniper green with envy, another illegal alien takes out a promising public servant. Jeers to the White House for not fighting for a good man. When will we focus on a nominee's qualities to get the job done?

A Real Plan to Save Social Security...

As a former civil servant, I participated in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), where the Federal Government, inmy name... are you ready... INVESTED IN THE STOCK, MORTGAGE, AND BOND MARKETS! (cue "Psycho" theme here).

I'm happy they did. I did quite well during the Roaring Nineties, and yes, I took a hit when the Clinton Bubble burst. Yet my TSP account still does much, much better than if the money, say, was snatched up and replaced by worthless IOUs to pay for increased wealth-sapping federal spending.

David Brooks makes the arguement that we can pay for Social Security by putting the contributions to work to generate wealth in our capitalist economy.

Roundup for 8 Dec 2004:

Let's hear it for democracy!

Spc. Thomas Wilson exercised a basic right of democracy - holding elected leaders accountable, in this case Don Rumsfeld as proxy to the President:

..Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld...

Rumsfeld's reply was...weak. And he doesn't get much sympathy from me. IEDs have been blowing our guys up for well over a year now, and there's no
real excuse for failing to get highly armored Humvees into the field.

Where were these concerns a few weeks ago?

Now that the 911 Intelligence Bill is a "slam dunk", now we hear questions about whether it will help at all (NBC news and WaPost):

...The compromise legislation approved by the House yesterday in response to the Sept. 11 commission's findings represents a historic reordering of the $40 billion intelligence community.

But some experts say it is not at all evident how, or even if, the changes would help America's spies obtain secrets and aid analysts in determining the intentions of terrorists bent on striking again or worrisome nations developing weapons of mass destruction...

..This new player is confounding to intelligence experts trying to see how all the new pieces would fit together with the existing system and whether the changes would make anyone safer...

Perhaps we should ask those experts in intelligence, the Jersey Girls?



Home Run Kings...

Hank Arron 755
Barry Bonds 703*
Babe Ruth 714

* undetermined number hit while using performance-enhancing drugs.