EdDriscoll.com

Posted 8/16/2002 08:44:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS: Steven Den Beste says "The nation of Zambia has decided that it will not accept genetically modified corn. It's available; it's there now; it could be delivered immediately and notwithstanding some people's superstitions there's no reason to believe that it is particularly dangerous to eat it. It is certainly less dangerous to eat genetically modified corn than to eat nothing at all. But the government of Zambia has decided that it's better for their people to starve than to eat genetically modified food." Den Beste adds:

Mass vaccination of animals can stop foot-and-mouth in its tracks without requiring any slaughter, but at the expense of the destruction of any export market. Accepting GM corn to feed your starving will equally help a famine, with the same destruction of any export market. The only way to not lose your export market in both cases is mass death. Which is what the UK chose last year for its animals, and Zambia is choosing now for its people. Which means that thousands, and maybe hundreds of thousands, of Zambians will starve because of the disagreement between the US and Europe over the use of genetic engineering on food crops. Inevitably, Europeans will say that Americans are at fault because they're trying to play God, and the Americans will say that the Europeans are at fault because they're frightened of shadows. It really doesn't matter who is right, or how we got where we are. It no longer matters who is at fault. We have to look forward. No matter how we got to this situation, or whose fault it is, that corn does exist, and the people of Zambia need it, and if their government accepts it then thousands fewer of them will die.

Posted 8/16/2002 06:54:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
SLAP HER, SHE'S FRENCH: I'm sure this film will suck as badly as every Hollywood attempt at a high school film made after Fast Times At Ridgemont High, but it's hard not to like a movie titled... Slap Her, She's French. This film should also do quite well in most foreign cinemas.

Posted 8/16/2002 01:47:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
SUPERFLY: Stayed up too late last night watching Superfly, which along with Shaft are the zenith of 1970s blaxploitation. Not coincidentally, Shaft was directed by Gordon Parks, who was a brilliant still-photographer before becoming a film director, and Superfly by his eponoymously named son, who unfortunately, died in a plane crash in 1979. Looking back on it thirty years on, Superfly's photography is often crude, and the acting worse, although Ron O'Neal, Sheila Frazier and Julius Harris acquit themselves nicely. But Carl Lee, as O'Neal's sidekick, seems to have only one facial expression, somewhere between worried and angry, permanently etched on his face throughout the entire film. The action sequences all too frequently consist of little more than men running down city streets. What makes the film work is the screenplay, which moves along at a nice, and fairly logical clip (with an unexpected interlude for a still-photo montage, brilliantly shot by Gordon Parks Sr.), and... Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack. But of course: it's truly the best part of the film. Clearly working on a limited budget, the filmmakers somehow were precient enough to spend this portion of their funds very, very wisely. Mayfield's music is part Greek chorus, part counterpoint to the action on the film, some of the best music of the 1970s, and the only sense of morality in the film. I'd love to know at what point Mayfield discovered he would be writing music for a film glorifying drug dealers, and decided to insert his own morals into his lyrics. His music makes an otherwise forgettable movie electrifying. Shaft may have had the bigger budget, and was better directed, but Mayfield's score, throughout the entire film, far surpasses Isaac Hayes' soundtrack efforts in Shaft: only Hayes' theme song can stand on equal footing with all of the music that Mayfield wrote, and Johnny Tate brilliantly arranged, for Superfly. Unfortunately, to borrow a phrase from Les Paul, it seems like a good chunk of Superfly's audience "listened with their eyes", and ignored Mayfield's warnings: visually, Superfly is ground zero for "gangsta rap": huge Cadillacs, even bigger lapels and Fedoras, black gangsters "with a plan to stick it to the man", white policemen pushing drugs themselves (paging Maxine Waters!)--so much of rap culture begins here. (And I can't help but wonder if O'Neal's flowing locks were the inspiration for Al Sharpton's impressively coiffed hair.) Too bad they didn't listen to the music--they might have learned something. UPDATE: This review is now also on the Blogcritics site.

Posted 8/16/2002 01:05:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
BE AFRAID. BE VERY, VERY, VERY AFRAID: This may be the scariest thing I've ever downloaded off the Internet. Alien, The Blair Witch Project, Psycho and The Shining have nothing on this clip. Small children, and those with weak hearts probably shouldn't watch this. You've been warned. (Link via VodkaPundit.)

Posted 8/16/2002 12:29:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
CATS AND DOGS: If you had asked me five years ago if I'd agree more with Camille Paglia than Brent Scowcroft, I probably would have laughed in your face. But there's more that makes sense than doesn't in this post by Paglia on Andrew Sullivan's blog, where Paglia is guest-hosting, while Sullivan takes a month-long vacation (sounds a bit like Johnny Carson in his heyday! Will Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, and the Muppets be guest hosting when Sullivan starts taking the inevitable Monday off?). And Scowcroft sounds like he's lost it. Strange times, indeed. (Both links via Patrick Ruffini.)

Posted 8/16/2002 12:03:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE AXIS OF MUDDLE: Good Wall Street Journal editorial on Saudi indecision.

Posted 8/16/2002 10:39:08 AM by Edward Driscoll
KOREAN AIR JET MAY HAVE NARROWLY MISSED DISASTER ON 9/11: Interesting post on the newly reactivated Sgt. Stryker's Daily Briefing:

In a nutshell, USA Today is now reporting that on Sept. 11th the crew of a US-bound KAL 747 indicated they were being hijacked. The flight was not only directed to turn away from Anchorage and the Alsaka pipeline oil terminal at Valdez; it was intercepted by Anchorage-based USAF F-15s and forced to land at Whitehorse, Canada. During the time the airliner was inbound to Alaska, civil and federal authorities evacuated hotels and federal offices in downtown Anchorage and ordered tankers in port at Valdez out to sea. Also during this time, military authorities debated asking for permission to turn the Eagles loose to shoot the 747 down.

Posted 8/16/2002 10:22:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
LAW & REORDER: FOXNews.com says that "retiring U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson is returning to his acting and legal roots as the new chief prosecutor on NBC's Law & Order". Which might be lots of fun to watch. Law & Order prior to Chris Noth and Michael Moriarty leaving, was one helluva show, with tightly plotted scripts, a novel structure (always rare for TV), and great atmosphere. Post Noth, and especially post all the spin-offs (coming this fall: "Law & Order: Special Parking Tickets Unit"), Law & Order has just seemed flabby and soft. Maybe Thompson's Steven Hill-like presence will inspire the writers to return to the show's roots as a tough, gritty cop show, instead of a platform for the social issue of the week. (Probably not, but one can hope.) Fortunately, the early, kick-ass episodes of Law & Order are frequently repeated by A&E I really enjoy watching them. And apparently, lots of other people do too, as Universal is releasing the first season of the show on DVD this fall.

Posted 8/16/2002 01:25:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
ELVIS PRESLEY, CONSERVATIVE: That's what the Opinion Journal says, adding:

The critics who gleefully zero in on the glaring gap between the Nixon-deputized antidrug crusader and the addict whose prescription drugs ended up killing him miss the point. Elvis may have been a sinner, but he and his music were too much steeped in a Pentecostal upbringing ever to deny the reality of sin itself. In short, he was a nice Southern boy who got in way over his head. In a recent interview about his novel "Elvis in the Morning," William F. Buckley noted that Elvis might even be thought conservative today, ironically opposing a 1960s culture of liberation that in some senses he helped create and that ended up killing him. Which only tells us that American culture changed far more than Elvis ever did.

It's a good article, and I completely agree--in retrospect Elvis was very much a conservative, and "a nice Southern boy who got in way over his head". By the mid-70s, when I was a young suburbanite first listening to rock music, Elvis was fat, bloated and headed towards the abyss. Which is why he was never a teenage hero of mine--but I can't help wondering what I'd think about him if I was growing up in the 1950s--like the musicians he influenced: The Beatles, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Albert Lee, and a zillion others.

Posted 8/15/2002 06:22:00 PM by Edward Driscoll
CAREER ADVICE: So You Want to be a Martyr? These pamphlets, found via Little Green Footballs, will help answer many of the questions that precede such a complex career decision.

Posted 8/15/2002 04:56:00 PM by Edward Driscoll
BEASTS OF THE EAST: Tom Friend of ESPN Magazine says the NFC East is the class of the NFL this year.

Posted 8/15/2002 03:17:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE FINE ART OF GENOCIDE: Critics uncritically buy addled view of Hitler the aesthete.

Posted 8/15/2002 03:12:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME: Hooters is considering launching an airline.

Posted 8/15/2002 01:42:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLY LIKE AN EAGLE: Randall Cunningham will retire as a Philadelphia Eagle prior to a preseason game against Baltimore next Friday. (Cunningham was a backup QB last year for the Ravens.) In his prime, Cunningham was an immensely talented quarterback--a true triple threat: he could run, pass, and even punt (which he did at least once) with equal ease--and had some great years with the Eagles, and one absolutely astounding year, in 1997, with the Vikings, after sitting out a year in his first retirement.

Posted 8/15/2002 01:00:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
ESTONIA, CAPITALIST SUPERPOWER? They seem well on their way, according to this Samizdata post.

Posted 8/15/2002 12:56:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS: A free energy market in works when proper free market conditions are created, as Texas has proved this summer, according to Samizdata.net.

Posted 8/15/2002 10:59:09 AM by Edward Driscoll
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Rachel Ehrenfeld, in National Review Online shows how Yasser Arafat made his first billion.

Posted 8/15/2002 01:07:13 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE MINISTRY OF SILLY HAIRCUTS: Eric Olsen, writing on Blogcritics says that "after 10 lean years in the U.S., [the recording industry in England] is proposing extraordinary measures to restore its stateside standing. Essentially, by early next year it wants to establish a rock and pop embassy-cum-trade mission in New York to be called the United Kingdom Music Office." Yeah, I guess making better music would be too much hard work.

Posted 8/15/2002 12:37:17 AM by Edward Driscoll
TRANSNATIONAL PROGRESSIVISM: Steven Den Beste finds a fascinating article that puts the disparate pieces together: anti-globalism, multiculturalism, the International Criminal Court, and several other "isms". Den Beste says, "It also ties in with the entire idea that nations should have high taxes, central control and heavy social spending. These things don't seem to be related, but they all express the same fundamental political philosophy." Den Beste adds:

Transnational progressivism is fundamentally authoritarian; it believes in the rule of the enlightened few over the unwashed masses, for their benefit. They are stupid and cannot be permitted to make up their own minds, and the enlightened few will do the right thing for them despite themselves. It is profoundly repugnant to every value I hold as a Jacksonian and a supporter of the fundamental principles on which the American system was founded.

It's a brilliant post--like reading a Toffler book in miniature. "Now I know why they hate us," Den Beste says. Read his post and you probably will understand, too.

Posted 8/14/2002 05:24:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
VISION QUEST: The Brothers Judd Blog says that the Hubble Telescope is creating a golden age for cosmology, allowing scientists to "see" the beginning of the universe. Meanwhile, the blind are having their site returned via technology--as InstaPundit quotes from this Wired article, "It used to be a religious miracle, but now it's a scientific miracle."

Posted 8/14/2002 04:55:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
MR. REYNOLDS GOES TO WASHINGTON: And does not like what he sees .

Posted 8/14/2002 04:39:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
CASHED OUT: A cattle rancher in Bozeman, Montana had an automatic teller machine installed in his tombstone before going off to the big ATM in the sky:

Cattle rancher Grover Chestnut died earlier this year at the age of 79. However, before he cashed in, he installed an ATM at his tombstone and gave ten heirs debit cards, and told them [they] were allowed to withdraw $300 per week from the grave. It may sound like a grave waste of money but sources say Chestnut figured the tombstone ATM was the best way to make sure his grave had regular visitors.

Posted 8/14/2002 04:34:50 PM by Edward Driscoll
UNITED WAY: The Washington Redskins are suspending their partnership with it.

Posted 8/14/2002 04:30:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
MASSACHUSETTS BATTLE BREWING Over Bi-Lingual Education, according to this CNSNews.com article.

Posted 8/14/2002 04:23:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
WELL, HE IS AN HONORARY DITTOHEAD: Conservatives Use JFK Legacy to Praise Bush, Hammer Dems.

Posted 8/14/2002 03:58:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
PAGING GAVRILO PRINCIP: Dissidents 'injure' Saddam's son in Baghdad shooting, according to this UK Independent News article.

Posted 8/14/2002 03:51:04 PM by Edward Driscoll
OFF TO THE BIG WHAM-O PLANT IN THE SKY: Tres Producers has a long post about Ed Headrick, the inventor of the Frisbee, who died recently at 78.

Posted 8/14/2002 02:42:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
SLEAZY: The Miami Herald says stealth troopers are nabbing speeders by posing as construction workers and surveyors.

Posted 8/14/2002 11:43:15 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE GRAY DAVIS, BROCK YATES, CARRY NATION CONNECTION: On Tech Central Station. UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds (thanks for the link today!) has a post today about other Gray shenanigans.

Posted 8/14/2002 10:40:15 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHY DO I FEEL LIKE STERLING HAYDEN? Group Captain Lionel Mandrake is now writing for Sgt. Stryker, in addition to maintaining his own blog, which began while GCLM was visiting Northern California and staying in my guest room (and helping me sort out the HTML coding to get this blog off the ground). Mandrake is now back in England, 6000 miles or so from here. The Sarge is currently stationed at Travis AFB, 70 miles north of me. Which means I must be at ground zero of the harmonic convergence of the blogosphere's equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. Or something like that. Anyhow, be sure to stop by the Sarge and the Group Captain's sites today--and tell 'em we sent you.

Posted 8/14/2002 01:37:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
WILLIAM SHATNER IN SPPLAT ATTACK: I have no idea what it means--but how often do you get to use "William Shatner in Spplat Attack" as a headline?

Posted 8/14/2002 01:13:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
BUILDING THE CONSENSUS FOR AN ATTACK: Group Captain Mandrake finds a second English newspaper that wants to attack the US. Didn't you boys learn your lesson with the Bay City Rollers? The Spice Girls? Elizabeth Hurley? (OK, I'll give you that last one.)

Posted 8/14/2002 01:07:25 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHERE'S HANK STRAM AND BUD GRANT WHEN YOU NEED THEM? NFL Players union accuses Vikings, Chiefs of collusion while negotiating contracts with their first-round draft picks. Keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!

Posted 8/14/2002 12:17:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
GREEN LANTERN: Veteran New York Jets receiver Wayne Chrebet somehow makes the catches.

Posted 8/13/2002 10:18:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Neal Stephenson, by way of InstaPundit:

The twentieth century was one in which limits on state power were removed in order to let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up and turned the century into an abattoir. . . . We Americans are the only ones who didn't get creamed at some point during all of this. We are free and prosperous because we have inherited political and value systems fabricated by a particular set of eighteenth-century intellectuals who happened to get it right. But we have lost touch with those intellectuals.

Posted 8/13/2002 10:11:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
MYSTERY CARTOGRAPHY: Rather than naming Israel, Mercedes Benz simply removed all the names of countries from their Middle Eastern map. As Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs says, "They must be really afraid of a huge loss in Arab business if they put Israel on the map�so afraid that they�ll risk the negative reaction they�re bound to get by removing everything." For another geographically-challenged German auto builder, see our previous post about BMW's similar map strangeness.

Posted 8/13/2002 09:51:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOT-SO-DIRE STRAITS: Nice interview with Mark Knopfler, guitarist for Dire Straits ("Money For Nothing", "Sultans of Swing") and soundtrack composer (The Princess Bride, Wag the Dog).

Posted 8/13/2002 05:38:13 PM by Edward Driscoll
BAD SCREENPLAYS: Captain Scott, who works in the film industry when he's not blogging from his swank Electric Love Bunker, has some choice words about them. And screenplays really have gotten bad. I can't tell you how many films my wife and I came out of over the past few years where one of would say, "OK film. But it really needed another rewrite or two before shooting started." I don't know what it is about Hollywood, where it's assumed that it's OK to spend tens of millions of dollars knowing that the screenplay isn't tight. Partially it's the studios' fault, for greenlighting films before their scripts are ready, and partially it's the writers' fault. In the old days, screenwriters looked to books for their inspiration. Today, more often than not, they look to cannibalize, deconstruct, and rewrite old movies--or worse--old TV shows for their ideas.

Posted 8/13/2002 02:36:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST: What it's necessary to believe, in order to be a dove on Iraq.

Posted 8/13/2002 01:13:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
A NON-DENIAL DENIAL: U.S. Navy Retracts Denial of Arms Shipment to Gulf, according to this Reuters "we never met a terrorist we didn't like" article.

Posted 8/13/2002 12:39:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
CORNEL WEST UPDATE: Matt Feeney has an update to the Cornel West/Larry Summers smackdown in National Review Online. Feeney writes, "a puff piece on West in Sunday's Washington Post provides evidence that West was directly responsible for the escalation of hostilities that turned the meeting into a national incident. And this evidence comes from West himself", adding:

According to his own account, quoted in the Post, [after Summers accused him of shirking his classroom responsibilities, West told Summers], "So already, I knew you had what I call an a priori approach to 'the Negro.' You don't need evidence. You just accuse." By "an a priori approach to 'the Negro,'" West meant that, in dealing with black people, Summers uses a set of racially grounded guiding assumptions that help him stamp unambiguous, invidious meaning on ambiguous scraps of evidence. In other words, West accused Summers of being a racist. Indeed, he suggests that he "knew" ahead of time that Summers was a racist. The Post then notes, "The meeting went downhill from there...." As well it might have! Imagine standing before the intellectual and emotional fury that is Lawrence Summers and accusing him of being a racist. It's surprising that the room didn't, at that moment, just burst into flames.

Posted 8/13/2002 11:22:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHO SAYS CRIME DOESN'T PAY? The Jerusalem Post says Arafat's wealth is estimated at 1.3 billion US dollars. OK, so Bill Gates becomes a billionaire by selling software, and he's vilified for being greedy and evil. Arafat becomes a billionaire through terrorism--through killing innocent civilians--and he's considered by many to be a hero? I feel dazed and confused, indeed.

Posted 8/13/2002 11:06:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
NEGATIVE PERFECTION: Kevin Holtsberry has an excellent review of Martin Amis' new book, Koba The Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million on Blogcritics.com. Here's a sample of Holtsberry's review:

This is what turned Stalin from a petty if brutal dictator to what Amis calls "negative perfection," his simply inability to accept reality. Amis explores this "negative perfection" and all its base, degrading, and horrifying fullness. He discuss the forced famines, the concentration camps, Stalin's seeming attempts to wipe off the face of the earth anyone and anything that displeased him. Stalin's obsessions and maniacal actions literally warped the foundations of civil society in the Soviet Union until they snapped. Soon truth had no meaning and survival seemed almost random luck. Amis illustrates this tragic and absurd situation when discussing the census of 1937. Apparently their was a national census in 1937, the first one since 1926. Stalin felt that the population should be 170 million. The Census Board reported their findings - 167 million. Stalin's policies of forced famine and concentration camps was having too great an effect on the population. Stalin's reaction? Have the Census Board arrested and shot! Their crime: "treasonably exerting themselves to diminish the population of the USSR."

Posted 8/13/2002 10:27:05 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE AMTRAK ABORTION: Amtrak Halts Most High-Speed Trains in the Northeast Corridor to look for cracks in their Acela locomotives' shock absorbers.

Posted 8/13/2002 01:40:13 AM by Edward Driscoll
ANDRE PREVIN UPDATE: Well, since I recently posted about Andre Previn's score for Rollerball, which was picked up for the inaugural edition of Blogcritics (scroll down for link), I might as well add this update from A Dog's Life, who says that the old boy recently, and secretly, got married.

Posted 8/12/2002 09:56:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
CHINA HOLDS REBELS IN SOVIET-STYLE ASYLUMS, this London Times Online article says, adding:

Beijing's use of psychiatric detention is now on a par with the treatment of dissidents in the mental asylums of the Soviet Union, according to a new study.

None of this is very surprising to anyone who's followed China with even a cursory interest, but it's nice to see light being shown upon it.

Posted 8/12/2002 08:58:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
HEY, BLOGCRITICS.COM IS ACTIVE! Stop by there today. UPDATE: And read my Rollerball soundtrack review, which I wrote last week with Blogcritcs in mind.

Posted 8/12/2002 08:17:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
MINETA IN A NUTSHELL: Radley Balko's post on his newly redesigned blog really sums it up.

Posted 8/12/2002 04:39:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
THINK DIFFERENT: Mike Martz, the head coach of the St. Louis Rams does. (Note: no Apples are harmed in the making of the above article. It just seemed the most appropriate headline for my link.)

Posted 8/12/2002 04:24:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOGISTICS IS EVERYTHING: Steven Den Beste has a long, but engrossing post on the USS Clueless Blog about how America won WWII, with an obvious subtext: this is how we'll win the war in the Middle East as well.

Posted 8/12/2002 04:07:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
WEAPONS INSPECTORS NOT NEEDED, say the Iraqis. But somebody should inspect the weapons on these folks.

Posted 8/12/2002 04:05:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
PROSECUTE THE PA UNDER RICO: That's the topic of this post on Little Green Footballs.

Posted 8/12/2002 03:58:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
POSTMODERNISM KILLS, says Stanley Kurtz in National Review Online.

Posted 8/12/2002 03:01:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
STAY HEALTHY: It's NFL Training Camp Rule 1, according to this AP story. UPDATE: Even J.C. Watts injured his hamstring at the Washington Redskins' training camp!

Posted 8/12/2002 02:44:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S NOT 1973 ANYMORE, and somebody needs to tell that to Alan Greenspan, says Orrin Judd.

Posted 8/12/2002 02:07:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
BLOGCRITICS.COM: I recieved a press release from Eric Olsen of Tres Producers, who says that Blogcritics.com is planning to debut tomorrow:

Eric Olsen http://tres_producers.blogspot.com/ and a consortium of over 100 of the web's best writers are excited to announce the launch of an innovative new music/book review site, Blogcritics.com, tomorrow August 13. Besides reviews, essays, fantasias and the like on a tremendous number of CD's, artists, and books, we are honored to welcome RECORDING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA (RIAA) PRESIDENT CARY SHERMAN TO A LIVE CHAT ON BLOGCRITICS.COM tomorrow, August 13, AT 11AM EASTERN TIME. Mr. Sherman will be answering questions about the future of the industry in these changing times. For more information on Blogcritics.com and the launch, please [click here].

Oddly enough, I'm apparently in the top 100 that Eric refers to in his press release!

Posted 8/12/2002 02:01:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST? Matt Drudge links to this AP article titled, "Bankruptcy fears heighten at United after US Airways filing; stock sinks".

Posted 8/12/2002 01:41:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
HEAVY METAL: Carry a metal version of the Bill of Rights, complete with the Fourth Amendment in red in your pocket, next time you fly, if you want to have fun with the security folks at the airports, says The Comedian on his Weblog.

Posted 8/12/2002 01:00:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
COLORING THE OBITS is the lead item in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today, and should be today's required reading, for an example of just how badly newspapers (and politicians) can distort the truth, when they have a preconceived agenda in mind.

Posted 8/12/2002 12:49:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHO WATCHES NFL PRESEASON GAMES? Kevin Holtsberry asks in his Pigskin football blog, adding "the potential for injuries and watching rookies is practically the only excitement". I suppose the only other novelty would be seeing those teams with new coaches, new uniforms, and/or new stadiums. I usually tune in, (although I don't always make it into the second half of a game) because I'm an NFL junky and it's the first ray of light after the long off-season, and pro football is really the only sport I follow. But I understand that the preseason is really a waste of time. Once, long ago, preseason games helped to promote the NFL, when it was struggling to achieve the attention that other professional sports received. Up until the late '60s or early 1970s, NFL preseason games were barnstorming events, with teams often playing in small towns far from the big NFL cities. But that was a long time ago. With the NFL now essentially the number one sport in America, and with DirecTV's Sunday Ticket, where virtually any game is watchable by anyone, that function really isn't needed. Although I do like the idea of the Hall of Fame game, and I'm sure the NFL likes to promote the sport in Japan, Europe, and Mexico. I wouldn't be averse to a two game pre-season and an 18 game regular season. Nobody likes the pre-season, except the owners, because they get to keep all, or at least much more of the gate, unlike the regular season, when revenue-sharing rules apply.

Posted 8/12/2002 11:23:38 AM by Edward Driscoll
CAUSE A RIOT, GET A COLLEGE COURSE: I guess it's back to business as usual at SFSU.

Posted 8/12/2002 10:51:32 AM by Edward Driscoll
NEW YORK 11 MONTHS AFTER: Instapundit links to this Russ Smith "Mugger" essay, who says that New York is far from "over it". Having been there last week to visit relatives and friends in the area, I agree. Nina and I met a friend for dinner Friday night in lower Manhattan, and all of us felt slightly spooked when we looked out of an 11th story window and saw a low-flying plane or helicopter orbiting the night skies several times. Of course, it was nothing. But how many people, on the morning of September 11th, 2001 watched a low-flying plane and thought, "of course, it's nothing"?

Posted 8/12/2002 10:32:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
BYOT: It's bring your own toupee night this Wednesday as an Ohio minor league baseball team plans to have Jim Traficant Night! (Rumors of special guest appearances by former senator William Roth and Sy Sperling are just that--rumors.)

Posted 8/12/2002 09:34:37 AM by Edward Driscoll
STARVATION ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: Tres Producers says a recent decision by Domino's Pizza could cause just that!

Posted 8/11/2002 11:59:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
DEFENDING TRAILER PARKS is the subject of this article in Reason.

Posted 8/11/2002 11:38:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
SGT. STRYKER PROBABLY PREPPED THE PLANE: Group Captain Mandrake has cool video of a C-130 (I didn't say huge!) landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier.

Posted 8/11/2002 11:33:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
IMPEACH NORM MINETA, says Instapundit.com, who even has links to bumper stickers with that slogan.

Posted 8/11/2002 11:31:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
NFL PRESEASON INJURIES: The Seattle Seahawks' Trent Dilfer is out indefinitely with MCL sprain. Meanwhile, Terrell Davis had a swollen left knee that forced him to miss the Denver Broncos' preseason opener. According to this page, Davis has "hinted at retirement" as a result of this injury.

Posted 8/11/2002 11:21:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT'S BUGGING THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS? Michelle Malkin says it's spraying against the West Nile virus. Better to protect mosquitos than humans is the radical environmentalists' viewpoint. Screw that. Like the folks in Starship Troopers would say, dead bugs are a very, very good thing.

Posted 8/11/2002 11:17:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
REBUILDING THE MIDDLE EAST: Mona Charen says "If we hope to diffuse the fury of the Arab-Muslim world, we must be prepared to stay awhile and remake those societies", and adds:

Hold your e-mails. Sure, this may sound imperialistic. But it really isn't imperialism � no more than remaking postwar Germany and Japan was. By introducing democracy, pluralism and freedom to those countries, we didn't create colonies, far less possessions. We simply liberated the people from detestable governments.

Exactly. And it's time to do it again.