EdDriscoll.com

Posted 7/6/2002 02:09:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE DRUDGE BUBBLEGUM LIGHT IS UP appropriately, for this story, as Drudge's headline is a riot:

MICHAEL JACKSON GOES WILD: CHARGES SONY HEAD CALLED ARTIST 'NIGGER'; SAYS INDUSTRY RACIST Ahh, that would the same industry that put millions upon millions in Jackson's pocket, which allowed him to buy the rights to the Beatles' song catalog, which put millions upon millions more into his pocket, which he blew big chunks of on endless rounds of plastic surgery, hyperbarbic oxygen tanks, and defending himself in court on pedophile charges. Yup, sounds like racism to me. UPDATE, Drudge has added a link to this Washington Post article, which contains these astonishing quotes from Jackson: "If you fight for me, you're fighting for all black people, dead and alive," and "We have to put a stop to this incredible injustice." Sorry if your record isn't selling Michael, because you destroyed your career, but racism isn't the problem. However, it will be fun watching you further self-destruct and implode.

Posted 7/6/2002 01:42:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
JOHN FRANKENHEIMER DIED TODAY, AT AGE 72, according to the Washington Post. Frankenheimer was a director trained during the golden-age of television in the 1950s, who reached his peak in the mid-1960s with the slam-bang combination of The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds, arguably the acting highpoints of Frank Sinatra and Rock Hudson, respectively. And Ronin, with Robert DeNiro, from 1998, was a pretty good late-period Frankenheimer picture. But I suspect The Manchurian Candidate will be his signature film--what a combination of action, science fiction, paranoia and Sinatra. Because of its Cold War theme, United Artists was leary about producing it, until JFK gave Sinatra his blessings ("Great! Who's going to play the Red Queen?" is what Sinatra quoted Kennedy as saying when he told him he was thinking of starring in the movie), but what an eerie foreshadowing of JFK's assignation it turned out to be, which is why it sat on the shelf from late 1964 until its stunning rerelease in the late 1980s. I had the pleasure of seeing The Manchurian Candidate during its initial rerelease at the Ritz in Philadelphia. Its audacity and crisp black and white cinematography put the vast majority of the then-current films to shame. And watching it today on DVD is further proof of just how dumbed-down most of today's Hollywood films remain. UPDATE: Here's an AP article with more details about Frankenheimer's life, which also mentions his drinking problem of the 1970s, apparently as a result of witnessing Robert Kennedy's assignation. Kennedy was staying at Frankenheimer's house, and Frankenheimer drove him to the Ambassador Hotel the night he was killed in 1968.

Posted 7/6/2002 01:02:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
GUNMEN KILL AFGHANISTAN'S VP: Here's the AP story.

Posted 7/6/2002 12:37:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
JULY 4th TERRORISM UPDATE: Group Captain Mandrake links to a story that should be getting more press coverage, and isn't, about a possible surface to air missile that exploded close to an El Al jet. Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds, that prodigal blogger, is back on the block with a post on the FBI's equivocation about how to label the shooter at LAX. And also check out the link below to Steve Den Beste's post on security at LAX--and America in general. UPDATE: The Professor says Al Qaeda's "six-pack of whupass is already out of the fridge".

Posted 7/6/2002 10:16:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
HE'S BACK! The man, the myth, the InstaPundit has returned from underwater adventure in the Grand Caymans!

Posted 7/6/2002 10:14:34 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE BEST BOSSES A PLAYER CAN HAVE IN THE NFL: Dan Pompei of The Sporting News has quite an interesting list.

Posted 7/6/2002 01:24:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE FOURTH OF JULY SHOOTING AT LAX--some thoughts from Steve Den Beste.

Posted 7/5/2002 06:42:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE PENTAGON PAPERS, 2002-STYLE: Little Green Footballs wants to know if the recent New York Times article publishing US secrets about the invasion of Iraq was a real leak, or a plant, designed to (a) scare the hell out of Saddam Hussein, (b) make him guard his left, while we attack his right or (c) both. Check the comments, also.

Posted 7/5/2002 04:29:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE AMERICAN SCHINDLER: Insight magazine has an article called Harry Bingham: Profile in Courage.

Posted 7/5/2002 03:58:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
WEEKEND READING: Need a good book this weekend? Check out Patrick Ruffini's Fourth of July reading list.

Posted 7/5/2002 01:54:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
DICTIONARY BIAS: Sidney Goldberg (AKA, Jonah's dad) weighs in, via The Wall Street Journal. Here's a sample:

Castro is clearly not squeamish about using rhetoric straight out of the Marxist-Leninist handbook, or ruling Cuba the same way. And yet the imperialist bourgeoisie seems to be squeamish about labeling Castro for what he is. The latest edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary calls him merely: "Cuban revolutionary leader, prime minister and president." Sounds rather impressive--you can almost see it on the résumé for a MacArthur genius award. But is Castro a dictator? Apparently not enough of one to define him as such. This is not the only instance of labeling-hesitation in Webster's New World--at least when the "leader" in question belongs to the "revolutionary" left. The dictionary can call Hitler the "Nazi dictator of Germany" but Stalin merely the "Soviet premier, general secretary of the Communist party of the U.S.S.R." Mussolini is an "Italian dictator," but Tito is "Yugoslav Communist Party leader, prime minister and president of Yugoslavia." Franco is "dictator of Spain" and Salazar "prime minister and dictator of Portugal," but Mao Tse-tung is "Chinese Communist leader, chairman of the People's Republic of China and of its Communist Party." And Lenin? "Russian leader of the Communist revolution of 1917, premier of the U.S.S.R." This seems especially unfair, since Lenin's writings openly urged the deadly ruthlessness with which he ruled. Still, a good bourgeois dictionary must not go too far.

Posted 7/5/2002 01:23:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
BLACK MARKET SMOKES: Reason has two articles on how astronomical cigarette taxes have created a thriving black market in New York and London.

Posted 7/5/2002 11:51:51 AM by Edward Driscoll
TATTOOS, GROCERY STORES AND ADAM SANDLER: They all make appearances in James Lilek's Thursday Bleat.

Posted 7/5/2002 11:49:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
TED WILLIAMS DIED TODAY AT AGE 83. ESPN Classic's Web site says, 'There goes the greatest hitter who ever lived'. (And a helluva pilot, too: he was John Glenn's wingman in the Korean War.)

Posted 7/5/2002 11:42:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHO WERE THE NFL'S OFFSEASON WINNERS? Rick Kamla has some thoughts, on Yahoo Sports.

Posted 7/4/2002 11:20:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOTS OF GOOD STUFF OVER AT USS Clueless, if you need a serious post-Fourth blogging fix.

Posted 7/4/2002 11:17:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.: This is probably old news to everybody reading this Weblog, but two (hopefully) unrelated incidents occurred today in Los Angles, including three dead in L.A. Airport shooting and 4 Die in Plane Crash Near L.A..

Posted 7/4/2002 11:09:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANNE FRANK UPDATE: Back in early May, we ran this story from Wired News, called "Judas Unmasked?". Today's Washington Times has an article on how the Search for Frank's betrayer has been reopened.

Posted 7/4/2002 10:03:25 AM by Edward Driscoll

Happy Fourth of July! (Company is coming over, so don't expect much posting today. Thank God, so far, it's been a peaceful Fourth in the US.)

Posted 7/3/2002 11:58:13 PM by Edward Driscoll

YOU WILL BELIEVE A FLAG CAN FLY: Human Events has an article about a gigantic US flag-shaped hot air balloon:

Beyond the awe-inspiring visual aspect of this project, the DiLiberos’ aim is to educate their audience as well. They pass out pocket editions of the Constitution to crowds at balloon rallies and other events, hoping to help Americans better understand their country. "We live in an age where, sadly, students learn very little about the Constitution and even fewer have an understanding of the mindset of the framers. . . [Many students] have no idea why the 1st Amendment set America apart as a nation or why the document as a whole became the envy of the world and the reason that democracy has spread throughout the past two centuries," said Mrs. DiLibero, explaining why the couple wants to pass out as many copies of the Constitution as they can—at least 50,000.

Posted 7/3/2002 11:28:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
ADVANTAGE: EDDRISCOLL.COM! July 3rd Drudge Report headline: Princeton bioethicist argues Christianity hurts animals... July 1st EdDriscoll.com post: PETER SINGER UPDATE: The infamous Princeton Professor says that Christianity is harmful to animals. I don't beat the biggies (Matt, Glenn, etc.) to the punch very often, but it's fun when it happens!

Posted 7/3/2002 10:54:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
TEN GREAT REASONS TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY, courtesy of Dinesh D´Souza. Here's an excerpt:

(1) America provides an amazingly good life for the ordinary guy: Rich people live well everywhere. But what distinguishes America is that it provides an incomparably high standard of living for the "common man." We now live in a country where construction workers regularly pay $4 for a nonfat latte, where maids drive nice cars, and where plumbers take their families on vacation to Europe. Indeed newcomers to the United States are struck by the amenities enjoyed by "poor" people in the United States. This fact was dramatized in the 1980s when CBS television broadcast a documentary, "People Like Us," which was intended to show the miseries of the poor during an ongoing recession. The Soviet Union also broadcast the documentary, with a view to embarrassing the Reagan administration. But by the testimony of former Soviet leaders, it had the opposite effect. Ordinary people across the Soviet Union saw that the poorest Americans have TV sets, microwave ovens and cars. They arrived at the same perception that I witnessed in an acquaintance of mine from Bombay who has been unsuccessfully trying to move to the United States. I asked him, "Why are you so eager to come to America?" He replied, "I really want to live in a country where the poor people are fat." (2) America offers more opportunity and social mobility than any other country, including the countries of Europe: America is the only country that has created a population of "self-made tycoons." Only in America could Pierre Omidyar, whose parents are Iranian and who grew up in Paris, have started a company like eBay. Only in America could Vinod Khosla, the son of an Indian army officer, become a leading venture capitalist, the shaper of the technology industry and a billionaire to boot. Admittedly tycoons are not typical, but no country has created a better ladder than America for people to ascend from modest circumstances to success.

This is a wonderful article. Do yourself a favor, and read the whole thing.

Posted 7/3/2002 10:49:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S STEPSON ARRESTED IN MIAMI. Naturally, he was in Florida to attend a flight training seminar.

Posted 7/3/2002 10:44:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
ENGLISH IDIOCY: Margaret Thatcher statue decapitated, UK proposes compulsory ID cards. Both links via the Drudge Report.

Posted 7/3/2002 09:27:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
RESEARCHERS PROBE RESEARCHERS WITH TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS. Reuters says "Researchers Probe Shyness and Internet Link". Meanwhile, Group Captain Mandrake gives Reuters his award for the week's corniest headline.

Posted 7/3/2002 08:05:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE 4-3 DEFENSE AND OUR NATION'S ECONOMIC HEALTH: One area where the Steelers could have competition is in their defense, as Sports Illustrated says several teams will be copying their 3-4 alignment. By the way, somebody should do a comparison between weak economies and the 3-4. When was the 3-4 defense last prominent? During the dreadful 1970s. During the next twenty years, the awesome power of the 4-3 defense paralleled the steamrolling stock market set in motion by Ronald Reagan and Paul Volcker. Clearly, for the sake of the nation's economic health, the NFL owes it to us to outlaw the 3-4!

Posted 7/3/2002 07:52:15 PM by Edward Driscoll
STEELERS HAVE SCHEDULE ON THEIR SIDE THIS SEASON: John Clayton of ESPN.com says the Steelers are a great team with an easy schedule--which could take them all the way to San Diego:

the schedule could favor a Super Bowl matchup of the Steelers and the Bucs, with the Packers also knocking on the door. Why the Steelers? Their strength-of-schedule is the second easiest at 110-130 behind the Texans at 113-143. Only five times do they face teams with winning records in 2001, so the key is getting through early games against the Patriots and Raiders. Naturally, there is no guarantee that teams that were bad last year would be bad this year. And vice versa. But assuming teams don't improve dramatically, the Steelers have an edge. The Ravens are two of those games against winning teams, and the salary cap forced them to break up their roster. The Bucs are the only other team with a winning record that the Steelers face.

Posted 7/3/2002 06:28:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
SACRAMENTO VERSUS BELTWAY DRIVERS: Paul Palubicki contrasts and compares.

Posted 7/3/2002 04:41:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
PIGSKIN: Kevin Holtsberry, already a very good blogger on political and news issues, has added Pigskin - a football blog, to his site. Here's his preview of the 2002 season. Nice to see someone else covering the NFL in blog land!

Posted 7/3/2002 04:30:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEA FINED 800,000 FOR MISAPPROPRIATING UNION DUES, according to this FoxNews.com story. UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Joanne Jacobs has some thoughts on this.

Posted 7/3/2002 04:10:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE NEXT SCHOOL CHOICE BATTLEGROUND? California, according to this article on CNSnews.com.

Posted 7/3/2002 04:06:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
CELEBRATE THE FOURTH TO "STICK IT TO THE TERRORISTS", says Michael Bloomberg. I like it!

Posted 7/3/2002 03:59:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
PUTTING THE DRIFT IN MIDRIFF: Is there a more appropriate critic than Joe Bob Briggs to review Cher's Madison Square Garden concert?

Posted 7/3/2002 01:27:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE MINETA PLAN TO FIGHT TERRORISM: UPI reports on an 80-year-old woman strip-searched at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after her knee replacement set off metal detectors.

Posted 7/3/2002 10:20:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
A NEST OF BURGLARS: John Derbyshire uses Rudyard Kipling's poem, "Recessional", written at the height of England's power in 1897, to remind us to avoid a similar fate for America.

Posted 7/3/2002 09:53:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
A NATION ON THE BRINK: Michael Ledeen writes on Iran on National Review Online.

Posted 7/3/2002 09:49:24 AM by Edward Driscoll
E.T., PHONE GLENN: The InstaPundit makes a case for alien communications on Tech Central Station, while he searches for alien life under warm tropical waters.

Posted 7/3/2002 09:39:30 AM by Edward Driscoll
BAIT AND SWITCH: California Democrats against democracy, on Tech Central Station.

Posted 7/3/2002 12:43:15 AM by Edward Driscoll
LINK TO ME, BABY! I just updated the Frequently Asked Questions page to include a question on linking to this site, and a copy of the mini-banner that Group Captain Mandrake helped me to design, and is now on his blog, as well as The Brothers Judd's blog. Feel free to use it, along with our URL, to link back to this site. (And drop me an email--always nice knowing who's linking to you!)

Posted 7/3/2002 12:08:48 AM by Edward Driscoll
ANOTHER GREAT BASSIST DIES: Jazz bassist and Bebop pioneer Ray Brown, at age 75.

Posted 7/2/2002 10:59:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
TOUGH LOVE: Steve Den Beste gives us a bracing, slap-in-the-face-dose of reality when it comes to AIDS and Africa. How bracing? Here's one paragraph:

I honestly think that at this point nothing at all can prevent a catastrophe in sub-Saharan Africa. It's gone too far. This patient can no longer be saved; all we can do is to watch him die.

Read the rest, and then weep for the nightmare of the current AIDS epidemic in Africa--and what's to come.

Posted 7/2/2002 10:41:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHEN A SUICIDE BOMBER FAILS: Suzanne Fields writes an amazing study of one suicide bomber who had a change of heart.

Posted 7/2/2002 10:17:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOLDBERG SAYS GORE'S A GONER. But it's going to be a long couple of years (or less, if he loses in the primaries) while the Al meltdown occurs in slow motion. By the way, sorry for the lack of posting today--I spent much of the afternoon helping my wife move into her new office.

Posted 7/2/2002 01:57:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE, PART 27,632: Joanne Jacobs links to an article that says that in order to punish a young man for an affair with a woman of higher status, a tribal jury in Pakistan ordered the gang-rape of his 18-year-old sister. And yes, you just read that correctly. As Jacobs says, "can a society this barbaric really survive in the 21st century?"

Posted 7/1/2002 10:30:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
ARAFAT'S ORGANIZATION THREATENING TO ATTACK U.S. TARGETS--VodkaPundit has the links.

Posted 7/1/2002 08:28:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORE INFO ON THE JET COLLISON OVER GERMANY, via the Drudge Report.

Posted 7/1/2002 05:52:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
PHIL THE SYPHILIS SORE: Michelle Malkin finds more California insanity.

Posted 7/1/2002 05:46:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME: What to give that representative of Mobutu Sese Soko the next time he emails you for investment advice. (Found via Joanne Jacobs.)

Posted 7/1/2002 05:24:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
YOUR TAX INCREASE IS IN THE MAIL: Grover Norquist on the U.S. Postal Service on National Review Online. NRO's home page calls it the "snail-mail tax". I like that!

Posted 7/1/2002 04:55:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
ORIENTAL: Did you know it was an offensive word? Neither did I. But it's being banned by Washington State government. Protein Wisdom has the link, buried in their rather pithy take on the situation.

Posted 7/1/2002 12:33:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE PINK PISTOLS: As National Review says, "They’re here, they’re queer, and they’re armed." Interesting to note (obligatory local angle comment), that they were essentially born in San Jose:

Pink Pistols borrowed its name from the headline of a March 13, 2000 Salon magazine article by Jonathan Rauch, an openly libertarian columnist for the National Journal who happens to be gay. He urged armed self-defense as an antidote to anti-gay violence. He dramatically illustrated this matter with the case of Tom Palmer, a Washington-based think-tank scholar. Palmer and a male friend were in a rough section of San Jose, California when a gang of 20 hoodlums started taunting them. "Hey, you f***ing faggots!" one yelled. "When we're done with you, they'll never find your bodies." Palmer and his pal ran for their lives, with the thugs in hot pursuit. Palmer pulled a semi-automatic handgun from his backpack. He stood and waved it beneath a street light. His tormentors swiftly retreated. "There's no question in my mind," Palmer said, "that my friend and I would have been at least very seriously beaten, and maybe killed."

Posted 7/1/2002 12:26:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
THANKS--Patrick Ruffini has permalinked me. Stop by his site today!

Posted 7/1/2002 11:54:57 AM by Edward Driscoll
WE'VE HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE: William Pace, head of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, says:

The start of the court's jurisdiction signals the beginning of "the greatest institution of peace ever created,"

League of Nations, anyone? UN? Kellogg-Briand? UPDATE: Little Green Footballs has additional links, including Robert Kagan in the Washington Post, which is a must-read.

Posted 7/1/2002 11:24:21 AM by Edward Driscoll
"FIRE ROADS" IN FORESTS BANNED BY CLINTON, according to this article in Human Events.

Posted 7/1/2002 10:20:11 AM by Edward Driscoll
PETER SINGER UPDATE: The infamous Princeton Professor says that Christianity is harmful to animals. I wouldn't take Singer too seriously, however (unless I was a parent with a son or daughter attending Princeton, of course). While most of us like our animals as pets or as dinner, Singer believes we should have a more...intimate...relationship with our furry friends. You know, I loved my dog, who passed away last year at the age of 16 and a half. But needless to say, not in the Singerian way. Defining deviancy down, anyone? UPDATE: What would Singer think about this?