Posted
6/15/2002 11:18:58 AM
by Edward Driscoll
THE GUARDIAN OF STUPIDITY: Excellent essay by Steve Den Beste on the moral equivalency of The Guardian, and an open letter to it written by the usual American suspects, including: Chomsky, Said, Ed Asner (of course!) and unfortunately, Ossie Davis, an actor whose performances I've always enjoyed. (As is Asner himself, who is one of my favorite actors--I loved him in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, and a host of other roles.)
I realize acting and logic are usually mutually unrelated terms, but I really question the ability of all of the folks on that list to reason. As to why, read Den Beste's essay.
(Found via Group Captain Lionel Mandrake)
Posted
6/15/2002 12:58:45 AM
by Edward Driscoll
THE NEW GENERATION OF BOOK BURNERS: Paul Greenberg in The Washington Times.
Posted
6/15/2002 12:54:01 AM
by Edward Driscoll
PLAYBOY IN BRAILLE: Insert your joke here.
(Amazing what turns up on Ebay, isn't it?)
Posted
6/14/2002 09:13:38 PM
by Edward Driscoll
WE REPORT, WE DECIDE when something just doesn't fit with the diverse news gathering operation that is EdDriscoll.com. You see, we get so much news, so many links, so much interesting stuff, that sometimes, we just don't know where or how to use it.
Such as this item, which we passed on to Group Captain Mandrake. Fortunately, you can stop by his site and enjoy. One warning: you'll probably want to have some Chinese food, or some catnip--or both, about 15 minutes after visiting.
Posted
6/14/2002 06:39:55 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD: Until now, by Nick Schulz at Tech Central Station.
Posted
6/14/2002 06:27:40 PM
by Edward Driscoll
"YOUR MOTHER RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT": Good article about Robert Blake, by Ben Stein.
(Found via Kevin at L.A.P.)
Posted
6/14/2002 10:42:20 AM
by Edward Driscoll
CARGO CULTS: John Derbyshire has an interesting theory on why people misunderstand the U.S.: They're looking at things "bass-ackward":
Another thing, I think, is that pretty much all of the Arab world is locked in a kind of cargo-cult mentality. Cargo cults came up in the Melanesian islands of the South Pacific during WWII. The peoples of these places saw the Americans and British come in and build airstrips. Then, when the airstrips were built, planes started to arrive, loaded with cargo. The Melanesians deduced, not altogether unreasonably given their state of knowledge, that if they built airstrips, then planes would come to them, too, likewise bringing cargo. They accordingly hacked makeshift runways out of the jungle and built mock-up control towers out of grass and mud. Then they sat and waited for the cargo to arrive. You get a cargo-cult flavor in a lot of Third World countries. America has skyscrapers. America is rich and strong. Let's build some skyscrapers — then we'll be rich and strong, too! The idea that the wealth and the strength are rooted in customs, arrangements, laws, liberties, traditions, patterns of thought and behavior and association, and that the skyscrapers are an incidental byproduct, is not well understood. The communist world was a lot like that, too — and still is, where it survives. Pyongyang is full of broad sweeping boulevards and grandiose buildings. There is no traffic to use the boulevards, and the people who occupy the buildings, when they bother to show up for work, are ragged and starving. When the boulevards were laid out and the buildings built, though, most people probably believed that prosperity and national strength — the cargo! — would inevitably follow.
Posted
6/14/2002 09:53:54 AM
by Edward Driscoll
EVER SEE THE NEW YORKER'S MAP OF AMERICA? Drawn by Saul Steinberg, It had Manhattan on one end, Los Angeles on the other, and a small, totally blank area in the middle. Group Captain Mandrake has found a similarly condescending, but far less witty map of how someone thinks the US views the world, forwarded from one of his German fans.
Posted
6/14/2002 09:37:53 AM
by Edward Driscoll
PROOF THAT THERE IS A GOD, according to Orrin Judd: Al Gore gets frisked twice during a recent trip, with one search occurring at Reagan National Airport.
For once, we applaud the efforts of Norman Mineta in the war on terrorism.
Posted
6/14/2002 09:31:59 AM
by Edward Driscoll
JONAH MEETS OZZY: Or at least writes about him, on National Review Online. Here's a sample:
His debauchery makes him pathetic, though endearingly so. "I don't think his fans have any illusions," Doc Coyle, lead guitarist of the metal band God Forbid, explained to the New York Times. "Everybody knows his brain is fried." In a sense, MTV is paying some small penance for the damage it has done to the culture. For years the network glorified the rocker lifestyle without paying much heed to its consequences. For example, Madonna's sluttiness was celebrated as if there were no downside to it. While the lady has the financial resources to compensate for her lifestyle (she brags, for instance, that she's never changed her children's diapers), no amount of money can unscramble your brain. Ozzy may be a sympathetic figure, but even a would-be rock star would hesitate to be in his shoes. But while Ozzy is a useful cautionary tale against drug abuse, the success of The Osbournes should also teach a thing or two to the drug warriors. Drugs, like it or not, are part of the culture; law enforcement alone is inadequate to either their regulation or their eradication. Yes, cigarette smoking is on the wane, in part because of some draconian measures taken by an overzealous government. But smoking's real defeat has come at the hands of a cultural transformation. Similarly, laughing at, and hence ridiculing, drug use is far more useful than one more Eliot Ness lecture about, say, the connection of pot to the war on terrorism.
Posted
6/13/2002 10:06:04 PM
by Edward Driscoll
MORE SOBRAN COMMENTS: While searching for a link referring to Bush and Cheney's Adam Clymer episode, I found this essay by Jonah Goldberg, which discusses the Left and the "the pre-Enlightenment Right", i.e. Paleoconservatives. Check this paragraph of Jonah's out, and tell me if doesn't tie in with Sobran's speaking to a Holocaust err, debating organization:
I argued that the Left has become an enemy of classical liberalism, largely by adopting many of the attitudes of the pre-Enlightenment Right. The Olde Right (Hey! That extra "e" is super classy!) was unapologetically racist, in the sense that racial and ethnic categories were believed to be permanent and at all times relevant. Today it is the Left that speaks of permanent racial categories and how we cannot transcend our own racial or ethnic identities.And it's also the Paleos as well, as witnessed by Pat Buchanan's recent book. The problem is that just as the Left is often thought as being a collective group of Jane Fondas and Noam Chomskys, too many people will read about a former editor of National Review speaking at the Institute for Historical Review on "the Jewish question" (the last person I heard use that phrase had patent leather jackboots and death's head symbols on his lapels) and believe that their worst fears about Conservatives in general will be realized. And Sobran should have thought of this before agreeing to speak there.
Posted
6/13/2002 09:35:06 PM
by Edward Driscoll
GOT PLUMBERS? This story of a Karl Rove leak from Roll Call has been making the rounds of the Internet (I found it on Drudge, Patrick Ruffini has a post about it, etc.), but it's also possible that it's a deliberate leak, designed to remind people that the elections are coming, and if Republicans want the Senate back, they're going to have to fight for it. Tied in with a nationalization of the elections, along the lines of 1994's Contract With America, it could be a good first effort to wake up the troops.
Or it could be an honest screw-up. But it does remind me quite a bit of the Adam Clymer open mike episode.
Posted
6/13/2002 07:11:26 PM
by Edward Driscoll
NFL UPDATE. It's been a while since I've posted anything football-related, so here are a couple of news items:
70 FOR 70: a team-sponsored panel formed to help commemorate the Washington Redskin's 70th season this fall has selected the 70 greatest Redskins of all time.
GANNON ARRIVES AT MINICAMP: Amid speculation he might hold out, quarterback Rich Gannon was on hand Thursday for the Oakland Raiders' final offseason minicamp. This is a make-or-break season for the Raiders--given age and salary cap concerns, their window of opportunity on a Super Bowl won't last too much longer. And they'll have to make their run with a new head coach, which can't help matters.
Posted
6/13/2002 06:40:28 PM
by Edward Driscoll
PASTY WHITE BASTARD: Just after I posted a link to an article in National Review Online about how liberals have abandoned Israel, and conservatives have taken up its fight, do I find that Joe Sobran, a senior editor of NR for almost two decades (the '70s and '80s) will be speaking at what is denied to be Holocaust-denial Conference. And VodkaPundit has opened up an appropriate 64-oz ecomony size container of whoop-ass in response.
I'd love to see Jonah Goldberg or Rich Lowry (the editor of National Review Online and "National Review On Dead Tree", respectively) address Sobran's upcoming speech on the NRO Website.
In the meantime, here's a Jonah column on the various strains of conservatism--and there are quite a few, just as the left is comprised of individuals who go from patriotic All-American folks who identify with FDR and JFK, to flag-burning anti-globalist loonies who've smoked waaaay too much McGovern, Chomsky and Tom Hayden.
Sobran has joined forces with Pat Buchanan and other paleocons, who have to jump through as many intellectual hoops as the left does to come up with positions that just skirt the edge of saying that Jews are evil, that free trade is bad, that the Holocaust either didn't happen, or wasn't as bad as everybody thinks it was, and that the white race is being opressed from all sides--in other words, positions that either mirror images of far-left views, or are (ironically enough) identical to them.
All I can say is, just as I'm glad OJ is no longer employed by The Buffalo Bills or NBC, I'm glad this guy isn't working for National Review anymore.
Posted
6/13/2002 06:26:43 PM
by Edward Driscoll
CAL THOMAS ON BUSH AND PALESTINE:
President Bush knows the game. He understands that the Palestinians could have had their state at any time over the last 54 years if they had renounced violence and their objective of eradicating Israel. Former Israeli communications and policy official Michael Freund noted in last Wednesday's (June 12) Jerusalem Post that Prime Minister Levi Eshkol proposed opening direct negotiations with the Arab states in 1965 in order to turn the 1949 armistice agreements into full-fledged peace treaties.
Posted
6/13/2002 02:25:12 PM
by Edward Driscoll
ASHCROFT PUTS BIG SCARE IN WHITE HOUSE, according to Bob Novak.
Posted
6/13/2002 01:08:26 PM
by Edward Driscoll
DECLARE 9/11 A NATIONAL HOLIDAY? That's the aim of this petition. Frankly I'm torn. Part of me think this country has lots of holidays already, and the best thing we could do to honor the dead, the vast majority of whom were hardworking white collar professionals, is to go to work ourselves on each September 11th. And yet, we have holidays to commemorate those killed in both WWI and WWII, and of course, July 4th is a defacto commemoration of the battles of the Revolutionary War.
Here's a thought: let's see the war on terrorism come to some sort of conclusion (the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the capture of Bin Laden (or positive proof of his death), a Saudi government that doesn't sponsor terrorism, a disarming of Palestinian terrorists, all would be good signs), and then we can think about declaring September 11th a national holiday, celebrating the end, not the beginning of this war.
Posted
6/13/2002 12:03:14 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THEY WERE VICTIMS ONCE: Good article on the Six-Day War on National Review Online, which is when Nissan Ratzlav-Katz believes, as the article says in its subhead, "the American Left turned on Israel".
Posted
6/13/2002 11:51:49 AM
by Edward Driscoll
DATING ADVICE: John Cole gives advice for college-age girls dating thirty-something guys.
I'm not sure about the Frampton reference, but I like what he plays it on. Other than that, anybody with that good a taste in music (Miles, Brubeck, the Allmans) and movies is worth listening to. Particularly when he says:
13. ) Reagan still rules- he scared the living sh*t out of damn near a billion communists. I don't care what your stupid middle school teacher told you. 14.) Liking your Jack Russsel more than you like other people is not only completely rational, but totally understandable.(Found via VodkaPundit.) UPDATE: Just read Cole's blog further, and discovered he was Sgt. Stryker's one-time partner in blogging, Sgt. Schultz! Man, first Stryker reveals his secret identity, then Schultz. Who's next? Batman? Superman? UThant?
Posted
6/13/2002 11:12:46 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SMART JUDGE: A Reuters article on Findlaw says "Judge Keeps Airline Data From Sept. 11 Suspect".
By the way, notice how the Reuters article doesn't use the "T" word--and I don't mean "transgendered."
Posted
6/13/2002 11:08:23 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SWELL. FindLaw has a polling data which says anti-semitism is rising in the US.
I'd like to think that 9/11 and the recent Palestinian insanity would have caused precisely the reverse result. On the hand, recent events such as those at SFSU very much tie in with the FindLaw poll.
Posted
6/13/2002 10:44:41 AM
by Edward Driscoll
THE WOFLOWITZ FACTOR? Matt Drudge links to this article on World Tribune.com , titled "Gulf buildup: U.S. has doubled troops in Kuwait this year".
Earlier this week, Stephen Green wrote that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz seemed to be everywhere, and that his profile seems to rise and fall with the Administration's hawkishness. And Green had other signs and portents.
If I were Saddam, I think I'd be making sure I had several dozen changes of underwear stored away...
Posted
6/12/2002 10:49:47 PM
by Edward Driscoll
CARIBOU COFFEE--if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, James Lileks explains why. Here's one hint:
if Starbucks had a board member in favor of some of these things, I think we might have seen the entire chain collapse from a well-organized boycott.This is amazing stuff, and definitely worth reading.
Posted
6/12/2002 09:24:00 PM
by Edward Driscoll
SGT. STRYKER FIELD STRIPS A C-130 DOWN TO ITS COMPONENT PARTS: Well, actually a news article about it. AP or Reuters or Fox or somebody needs to put this guy on payroll as an advisor.
Read this to find out why.
Posted
6/12/2002 09:15:51 PM
by Edward Driscoll
'WTC' MEDIC HANGS HIMSELF: Depressing article found in the New York Post.
Posted
6/12/2002 06:12:25 PM
by Edward Driscoll
BECOMING DISILLUSIONED: Steve Den Beste says he's becoming disillusioned with Secretary of State Powell. I've been for quite some time. And while the Bush Administration is masterful at plugging leaks, they seem equally as scattered in terms of individuals pursuing their own agendas (Powell, Whitman, Mineta, etc.), than presenting a unified team implementing the goals of one man.
Unless Bush himself is really as multidirectional as the all the folks working under him, which I somehow doubt.
Posted
6/12/2002 04:25:30 PM
by Edward Driscoll
TRIPLE STANDARDS: via InstaPundit, I found this post by Donald Sensing, one of several blog posts making the rounds today about the press and Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al Muhajir, aka the suspected "dirty bomber". Sensing writes:
But this sentence from the Post's story made me blink:Compare that story to this comment by Jonah Goldberg on NRO's The Corner about a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine feature on a 13-year-old girl living as a boy:Jose Padilla, 31, who now goes by the name of Abdullah al Muhajir, was in the custody of the U.S. military and was being treated as an enemy combatant, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said.Even though the Post points out that this fellow converted to Islam 11 years ago and changed his name then, for the rest of the story the Post refers to Mr. al Muhajir as "Mr. Padilla." Now, look here. The Post does not call Mohammed Ali, "Cassius Clay." The Post does not call Kareem Abdul Jabbar, "Lew Alcindor." Why the double standard? Could it be, dare I say it, political correctness? Could the Post be using al Muhajir's former name rather than his present name because to use his self-chosen Arabic name might imply that (can it be?) our enemies are Arabs? (And yes, I know that by far most Arabs are not our enemies.) This usage is no aberration. They also did the same thing with Abdul Hamid, whom you probably know as Johnny Walker Lindh.
the author uses male pronouns -- "he," "him," "his" -- throughout. This is standard practice in many quarters these days when referring to girls who believe or pretend they are boys (and vice versa for boys who think they are girls). But it is a deeply political act to do this, betraying profound sympathy for a specific and radical agenda which says sex may be biological but gender is entirely "socially constructed." My favorite sentence in the Times piece: "M. started getting his period two years ago." His period. Logically, this is no different than writing "her penis" or "his womb." But the Times has no trouble with it whatsoever.So gender-confused teenagers are referred to by the names and terminology of their own choosing, as are superstar athletes. But folks accused of war crimes aren't? I guess I missed that page of The Associated Press Stylebook.
Posted
6/12/2002 01:07:43 PM
by Edward Driscoll
FEINGOLD'S SHAME. Rich Lowry posted this today on NRO's The Corner:
I'm just emerging from a mag deadline so excuse me if this has already been pointed out. But has anyone noticed that Russ Feingold is the "The Senator Who Would have Made It Illegal to Act on the Phoenix Memo?" The Phoenix memo, of course, came from the FBI field office there in July 2001, and recommended that the FBI canvas flight schools nationwide for suspicious Arab students. But with his "End Racial Profiling Act of 2001," Feingold would outlaw "a law enforcement agent relying, to any degree, on race, ethnicity, or national origin in selecting which individuals to subject to routine investigatory activities, or in deciding upon the scope and substance of law enforcement activity." So, while the rest of the nation rues the missed clue in the Phoenix memo, Feingold should be glad--the FBI, in passing it up, was already operating on his principles.
Posted
6/12/2002 12:54:38 PM
by Edward Driscoll
"GREENPEACE WILL NOW OPPOSE EVERYTHING". Found via Charles Oliver.
Posted
6/12/2002 12:35:37 PM
by Edward Driscoll
BRITISH ATTACKS WERE PLANNED FOR 9/11: Found on CNS.com today:
Osama bin Laden's terrorist network reportedly had plans to attack the British Parliament building and the Big Ben clock tower on the same day it engineered strikes on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. However, according to the Jerusalem Post, the would-be hijackers, who were scheduled to leave London's Heathrow Airport on Sept. 11, 2001, were prevented from carrying out their attacks because news had already spread of the strikes against the U.S. and all flights from London had been grounded. The newspaper spoke with Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside al-Qaida: Global Network of Terror," Gunaratna told the Post that Afroz Muhammed, one of the would-be hijackers in Great Britain, was subsequently arrested in India, where he confessed to being part of the foiled plot. Afroz also attended flying schools in Great Britain, Australia, and the United States, in preparing for the 9/11 terrorist mission, according to Gunaratna, who is a scholar with the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrew's University in Scotland. He told the Jerusalem Post his book was based on intelligence sources and the testimony of former members of Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network. (Editor's note: CNSNews.com spelling of al Qaeda differs from the title of Gunaratna's book)See also this Reason article, posted late in the day on September 11th, which talked about the terrorists' goal (they weren't yet identified as Al Qaeda) of escalating their terrorism to dominate the television news cycle.
Posted
6/12/2002 12:26:05 PM
by Edward Driscoll
YESTERDAY'S TOMORROWS: When I posted the "Rachel Redux" piece below, this was the Reason magazine article on books that got the future right and wrong that I was thinking of.
Sorry it took a little while to find.
Posted
6/12/2002 12:23:47 PM
by Edward Driscoll
PROFILING WORKS: That's Jonah Goldberg's take in syndicated column.
Posted
6/12/2002 10:30:30 AM
by Edward Driscoll
VODKAPUNDIT MEETS MSNBC: Read Stephen Green's take on MSNBC and their recent signing of Bill Press and Pat Buchanan (or "Patty-Patty Buch-Buch", as Dana Carvey once called him on SNL's version of "The McLaughlin Group").
FLASHBACK: Here's my take on Buchanan, complete with vintage "golden-era" EdDriscoll.com mojo...
Posted
6/12/2002 10:08:28 AM
by Edward Driscoll
CAMPUS VISITS: What to look for, and how to read between the lines when visiting a potential campus with your son or daughter in this article by Winfield Myers on National Review Online.
Posted
6/12/2002 09:57:27 AM
by Edward Driscoll
RACHEL CARSON REDUX: Here's Instapundit.com's take on Carson and DDT, complete with a built-in vintage Instapundit flashback.
UPDATE: Orrin Judd emailed me the original New York Times review of Silent Spring and said "check out the credulousness of the original NY Times review". He also sent the link to his review of the book. Here's a howler from the Times' review of 1962:
Poisoning people is wrong. Yet, for the sake of “controlling” all kinds of insects, fungi and weed plants, people today are being poisoned on a scale that the infamous Borgias never dreamed of. Cancer-inducing chemicals-remain as residues in virtually everything we eat or drink. A continuation of present programs that use poisonous chemicals will soon exterminate much of our wild life and man as well. So claims Rachel Carson in her provocative new book, “Silent Spring.”One of the most enjoyable features Reason did in 1999 was to look at the hysterical quotes made in doomsaying books of the 1960s and '70s, and see how wildly offbase they were. Keep that article in mind when presented with the latest crisis du jour that requires immediate governmental action.
Posted
6/12/2002 09:35:42 AM
by Edward Driscoll
ISRAEL CAPTURES TEN BOMBS AT ARAFAT COMPOUND: World Tribune.com is reporting:
Israeli forces seized 10 bombs being prepared for attacks in Israeli cities as security agencies braced for a new wave of Palestinian suicide attacks. The bombs were found in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in the headquarters of the Force 17 praetorian guard headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.(Found via The Drudge Report.)
Posted
6/12/2002 09:21:31 AM
by Edward Driscoll
DIGITAL FILMMAKING: Found via The Digital Bits, this article from the Star Wars Web site says that for Episode III, its producers are planning an even more advanced version of digital filming:
"The Sony 24p camera that we used for Clones had a resolution of 2.2 million pixels," explains McCallum, "but Sony is developing and working on a 10 million pixel camera. We're really hoping they'll get that together in time for us, even if it's just a prototype." "Plus, there's a whole new generation of lenses that's competing with the Panavision lenses. Isis is coming out with them, Fuji has a third generation and Canon is coming out with some interesting product. We're excited about the competition and what's going in the marketplace. With these new cameras and lenses, we're going to get a new heightened level of reality that film cannot capture." The added detail captured with the new equipment will bring the greatest benefit to audiences watching movies projected digitally. "Even the current generation of digital projectors can interpolate anything that's given to them," says McCallum. "When we first started we had a Mark 4 Texas Instruments projector... now they're already on the Mark 8." "For the first time, the movie industry is in the same world as the computer business. Every 18 months we're getting twice the value at half the cost."If I'm reading this right, I'm not sure how thrilled I'd be as a theater owner, having to replace my projection equipment on a regular basis. But I can definitely see the advantages of shooting in digital, and then playing back in film, particularly as more detailed cameras become available.
Posted
6/12/2002 01:04:51 AM
by Edward Driscoll
GOING LIMP: Steve Den Beste belies that that Microsoft/Apple Wars are just heating up, and that Microsoft may win by simply "Going Limp".
Posted
6/12/2002 12:58:09 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SHOULD THE PRESIDENT ASK FOR A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST IRAQ? Mona Charen asks the question, and has some opinions.
Posted
6/11/2002 11:14:31 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE CLAUDE AWARDS: Hot on the heels of breaking the Tom Clancy/Sgt. Stryker connection, Sneakingsuspicions.com has a new award program for silly headlines, named after Claude Rains, and his wonderfully "shocked, shocked!" character Louis Renault from Casablanca.
Posted
6/11/2002 10:50:06 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE CARSON SHOW: Ronald Bailey of Reason deconstructs Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the 1962 book that brought you environmentalism run amok:
40 years after the publication of Silent Spring, the legacy of Rachel Carson is more troubling than her admirers will acknowledge. The book did point to problems that had not been adequately addressed, such as the effects of DDT on some wildlife. And given the state of the science at the time she wrote, one might even make the case that Carson's concerns about the effects of synthetic chemicals on human health were not completely unwarranted. Along with other researchers, she was simply ignorant of the facts. But after four decades in which tens of billions of dollars have been wasted chasing imaginary risks without measurably improving American health, her intellectual descendants don't have the same excuse.
Posted
6/11/2002 10:02:30 PM
by Edward Driscoll
POLICE DOG ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING: Life becomes more and more like The Onion every day.
Posted
6/11/2002 08:11:04 PM
by Edward Driscoll
A PEACEFUL, EASY FEELING: Little Green Footballs performs what InstaPundit might dub a thorough Fisking of the spiritual head of Hizbullah. Click on it, and prepare to be astonished by the amount of bat guano running rampant inside the cranium of Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Posted
6/11/2002 07:28:39 PM
by Edward Driscoll
FINANCIAL ABUSE BY CHARITIES: On the forward viewscreen today at the USS Clueless.
Posted
6/11/2002 07:23:28 PM
by Edward Driscoll
JOANNE JACOBS' SITE NOW HAS PERMALINKS! And lots of great content. Stop by readjacobs.com today.
Posted
6/11/2002 07:18:46 PM
by Edward Driscoll
IN THE LAND OF THE ROCOCO MARXISTS: Found via InstaPundit, this is one scary article about political correctness run amok at Iowa State University.
Posted
6/11/2002 02:38:50 PM
by Edward Driscoll
GREAT DRUDGE JUXTAPOSITION: Two headlines, one on top of the other, on the Drudge Report:
Knife fight breaks out after meeting of Atlantic City Democrats...
House Dems Sue Bush Over ABM Treaty...
Posted
6/11/2002 01:29:37 PM
by Edward Driscoll
HOW TO SPOT A TERRORIST IN THE MAKING: Ken Layne, in this FOXNews.com essay, has the answers.
Ken should write a follow-up: how mom and dad can de-program their young Osama-wannabe once they've spotted him.
(Found via InstaPundit.)
Posted
6/11/2002 11:45:17 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SEPARATED AT BIRTH? If you're a reader of the blogosphere (and haven't found this already via VodkaPundit, do yourself a favor and click here....
Posted
6/10/2002 06:22:53 PM
by Edward Driscoll
FROM THE "YOU CAN'T DODGE EVERY BULLET" FILE: Remind me not to hang out anywhere near Sgt. Stryker in the near future...
Actually, I've offered to buy Paul a beer or three if his Beers Across America tour brings him anywhere near San Jose, which it looks like it might, based upon the spiffy new map on the top of his Web site--and I certainly hope he takes me up on it!
UPDATE: Remind me not to hang out anywhere near George Kennedy either.
Posted
6/10/2002 04:14:07 PM
by Edward Driscoll
BUSH SECURITY PLAN PARALLELS CLINTON-GORE PROPOSAL, according to this CNS.com story.
Posted
6/10/2002 03:53:42 PM
by Edward Driscoll
EINSTEIN WRONG? Group Captain Lionel Mandrake links to a BBC story that says he might be.
He (he being Einstein, of course. The original Group Captain Mandrake's role in almost preventing the destruction of the world is secure) wouldn't be the first modern scientific icon to lose his luster based on further research and new developments.
(See also the paragraph about the current status of the old boys of science burried near the end of this essay by Jonah Goldberg.)
Posted
6/10/2002 03:29:55 PM
by Edward Driscoll
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRD: Continuing the theme he explored with the Gobbler, James Lileks visits the American Indian-themed Thunderbird Hotel of Minneapolis. Those of you with delicate rococo PC sensibilities, you've been warned...
Posted
6/10/2002 02:37:29 PM
by Edward Driscoll
A MALAISE BREWING IN ISLAM: Flyover Country links to this recent essay in the Bucks County Times.
Posted
6/10/2002 02:29:00 PM
by Edward Driscoll
"THE ASH-HEAP OF HISTORY" One of President Reagan's most important speeches was made in June of 20 years ago, according to this Patrick Ruffini essay.
Posted
6/10/2002 02:14:32 PM
by Edward Driscoll
IT SOUNDS LIKE VICTORY: USS Clueless on What makes a good Air Force.
UPDATE: And (thanks to InstaPundit for mentioning it) here is his essay on what makes good civilian pilots, complete with an incredible photo of one in action.
Posted
6/10/2002 01:28:14 PM
by Edward Driscoll
LES PAUL CELEBRATED HIS 87th BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY. If you're in Manhattan, it's not too late to attend his birthday concerts tonight at the Iridium Jazz Club (unless they're both sold out--call before going).
With Segovia gone, my vote is still with John McLaughlin as the guitar's all-around techical master. But it's tough to argue with Les's history as the living pioneer of the electric guitar and whose namesake is one of the great instruments of all time.
If you can't make the gig, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the duet that Les made with Chet Atkins, Chester & Lester--you'll be glad you did.
Posted
6/10/2002 01:21:13 PM
by Edward Driscoll
SPEAKING OF TECH CENTRAL STATION, it has a good article on the increasing irrelevancy of the US Post Office, and not surprisingly, why it's become an increasing sinkhole of red ink and taxpayer dollars.
Wouldn't it be nice if the decade ended with a privatized mail and rail passenger system? Don't stop thinking about tomorrow...
Posted
6/10/2002 01:13:10 PM
by Edward Driscoll
TECH CENTRAL STATION NOW HAS A EUROPEAN TERMINAL: Stop by today, especially if you're actually in Europe and need a bracing alternative to the enviro-weenie-socialt propagranda that often passes for news there.
(And I doubt they'll call Osama Bin Laden a "dissident" very often, either.)
Posted
6/10/2002 01:06:16 PM
by Edward Driscoll
JOHN GOTTI DEAD AT AGE 61: Here's the AP story. Will Reuters refer to him as "the late dissident", "political prisoner", or "social activist"?
Of course not. So why does Osama Bin Laden get a free ride?
Posted
6/10/2002 12:53:33 PM
by Edward Driscoll
THE LEADING PROVIDER OF MORAL EQUIVALENCE: Nasty little example of Reuters' bias, found via Little Green Footballs:
Let's see. Osama Bin Laden has called for the death of Jews and Americans, and said it was his duty to acquire nuclear weapons for a holy war against the West. His organization is responsible for numerous terror attacks. He turned Afghanistan into an unprecedented training ground for international terrorism. He's on videotape gloating over the 9/11 atrocities. But to Reuters, he's merely a "dissident."As with the Orrin Judd piece below, read the comments as well.
Posted
6/10/2002 12:31:52 PM
by Edward Driscoll
HEARTLESS WHEN YOUNG, NOW BRAINLESS WHEN OLD: Orrin Judd on the bogus Lincoln quote author Kevin Phillips fell for. (Read the comments as well.)
Posted
6/10/2002 12:16:49 PM
by Edward Driscoll
SAW ENIGMA LAST NIGHT, a film completed in 2001, but only released in the US this year. It was produced by Mick Jagger,soon to be "Sir Mick". (Fair is fair, Your Majesty--if I pee on a gas station wall and bed Bianca Jagger, can I be Sir Ed?*) and Lorne Michaels (he of Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World and Tommy Boy fame), written by Tom Stoppard (based on a novel by Robert Harris) and directed by Michael Apted, who not only has excellent chops as a director, he's used to working with temperamental pseudo-intellectual rock stars!
All kidding aside, it was a pretty good film, if not a great one (I would have preferred more on how the Enigma machines were actually cracked and slightly less of the romantic subplot), and highly recommended to anyone who prefers their heroes to have more brains than muscle. Frankly, I had forgotten the Robert Harris connection, until after the film, when the plot started giving me serious Fatherland flashbacks--both have similar structures--one man and one woman working together against the system, and uncovering a deeply hidden secret that could change the war effort.
I also get the feeling that Harris is either a closet conservative, or at least sympathetic to a conservative view of history--he really seems to enjoy sticking it to the Soviet Union--which needless to say, is just fine with me. And his books are gripping enough to convince HBO to back a brilliant retelling of the evils of detente, and Mick Jagger to produce a film on the dangers of communism. And Enigma is also just slightly more accurate in its history of the German's Enigma code machine and its capture by the Allies than U-571 (although that's not saying much), and its "big secret" is more subtle than Fatherland's but just as potentially huge in its implications--and as much as the Enigma's producers tried to slap a happy ending on it, for anyone who thinks, it's impossible not to consider how "the big secret" could have changed history, especially at Yalta.
Oh, and guys--Saffron Borrows is rampantly babelicious, and Kate Winslet is also pretty darn cute--although she looked like a zaftig clone of Rachel Wiesz in this film.
Enigma is playing at our local art house, and possibly yours as well, but don't let that put you off--this is a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours.
*My apologies to Ring Lardner Jr. for my paraphrasing of one of my favorite lines from MASH.
Posted
6/10/2002 10:09:31 AM
by Edward Driscoll
AIRPORT SECURITY: Norman Mineta should be ashamed to read this example (which may or may not be isolated) on security at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, via Rod Dreher on National Review Online's The Corner Weblog:
My family and I just returned from Europe via Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, which deserves great credit for making nervous passengers (us) feel better about security. We had our carry-on bags X-rayed once, and when the grommets on my boots set off the walk-through scanner, the security guard gave me a thorough patting-down that was much more serious than anything similar I've experienced in American airports. Believe it or not, our carry-ons were X-rayed again at the boarding gate (as were everyone's), and each passenger was personally, and politely, questioned in some detail about what we did in the Netherlands. The Dutch pulled this off cleanly and efficiently, and we were grateful for their professionalism and thoroughness. On the other hand, this only makes one more aware of the scandalous sloppiness and laxity at American airports -- particularly at JFK (which, by the way, is a dirty, dowdy, and altogether crummy place; how embarrassing that JFK is the first look foreign visitors have of our country).I didn't think JFK looked all that bad when I departed from it last Tuesday, but there's no doubt that American airport security is really bad. And items like this one, and this one, make it sound like it's not going to improve anytime soon.
Posted
6/10/2002 09:56:00 AM
by Edward Driscoll
OUR NEW ALLY: Meet Eritrea, courtesty of this National Review Online article.
Posted
6/9/2002 01:57:41 AM
by Edward Driscoll
SPORTS AND ITS TELEVISION COVERAGE: There's trouble a-brewing, according to this Washington Times article:
"I think in the next five years you're going to see [team] bankruptcies," said Tim Lieweke, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns parts of six of MLS' 10 teams, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, and several European soccer and hockey teams. "Arenas will close. You're going to see a league or two that's going to Armageddon." MLB arguably is leading the charge to disaster. Commissioner Bud Selig has worked hard to sell the idea that the game has enjoyed a "renaissance" since the 1994-95 strike by players. But underneath the spin lies serious trouble: a labor war brewing with the players, sagging ratings, baseball's still-active attempt to eliminate two franchises, the competitive and fiscal imbalance between rich and poor teams, and the leagues' overall grim financial state. Mr. Selig said MLB lost $519 million in 2001. Baseball fans have responded with a collective shrug this season: Nine stadiums have already posted record lows.
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