Posted 10/26/2002 03:23:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
BACK TO THE FUTURE: AP says that Walter Mondale (yes, that Walter Mondale) has emerged as the front runner to replace Paul Wellstone.

Posted 10/26/2002 02:34:50 AM by Edward Driscoll
TABLET PCs: In case you haven't noticed already, Microsoft lately is really pushing tablet PCs as The Next Big Thing. David Strom of Internet Week looks at the tablets' pluses and minuses. I've tested a few tablet PCs--both at CES, and Candlestick Park, when 3Com had the naming rights, and briefly had the stadium running 802.11, and was leasing wireless Hitachi tablet PCs in the luxury suites during 49ers games. Near term, I'm pretty skeptical of tablets achieving real success, but my opinion may be tainted after watching Internet appliances hyped to gills, only to see them quickly fail, a couple of years ago.

Posted 10/26/2002 02:23:52 AM by Edward Driscoll
DOUBLE YOUR FUN: There were actually two attacks on the Internet on Monday, according to Internet Week.

Posted 10/26/2002 12:46:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
PAGING DR. ORWELL: Take a gander at the 1984-style propaganda posters the Metropolitan Police are putting up around London.

Posted 10/26/2002 12:12:43 AM by Edward Driscoll
"YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO", Bill Clinton told Bob Dole when he complained about the demagogic Medicare ads that helped defeat him. Robert Bartley says that the election ethics of Clinton's party are little changed.

Posted 10/25/2002 11:41:50 PM by Edward Driscoll
LEFT-WING BIGOTRY is on the rise, according to Andrew Sullivan:

When a black public person like Harry Belafonte calls another African-American a slave to white masters, you see what I mean. When defenders of feminism call someone who files a sexual harassment lawsuit "trailer-trash," you get the picture. When a gay man can write a column asserting that another man is a "nasty faggot," it's hard to think of how much lower the discourse can get. When liberals denigrate the president as a "boy" or as a "sissy," to quote Maureen Dowd, homophobia doesn't lurk far behind. I remember a brief interaction I had with one Barbra Streisand long, long ago when the Paula Jones suit had just been filed. I asked Ms. Streisand what she thought of the suit. "Oh, she's just a little kurva," she replied, referring to Jones. That's a yiddish expression for "whore." Charming. Again, the simple test here is the following: If a conservative had used these expressions, would it have been denounced by liberals? The answer, obviously, is yes. Imagine if George Will had called Colin Powell a "house slave." Imagine if Pat Buchanan had called Barney Frank a "nasty faggot." Imagine if Trent Lott had called Hillary Clinton a whore. Do you think they'd be invited on "Larry King Live" to further elaborate on their comments?

When you resort to the examples that Sullivan gives above, it says to me that you're losing the argument; you've relinquished your role as moral leader, and you've got to crank up the noise--and the hate--to compensate. Winners don't stoop to that kind of language.

Posted 10/25/2002 11:31:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
WILL IT HAPPEN THIS WEEKEND? Emmitt Smith is closing in on Walter Payton's all-time rushing record. He'd love to get it this Sunday in Dallas, and the porous Seattle Seahawks defense just might (reluctantly) oblige him.

Posted 10/25/2002 11:25:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
RUSSIAN FORCES CONTROL THEATER, according to this AP report. The Russians used sleeping gas in their daring pre-dawn raid, but unfortunately, Reuters reports 130 dead, but no word yet on how that breaks down between hostages and terrorists. Fortunately, the networks were right on top of this story, every step of the way.

Posted 10/25/2002 10:12:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEW PINK FLOYD DVDs COMING NEXT YEAR, according to The Digital Bits Web site, which had these interesting Floydian slips today:

We've got some GOOD news for you Pink Floyd fans. Roger Waters' manager, Mark Fenwick, had confirmed that Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii - The Director's Cut is being prepped for DVD release in March 2003. Not only that, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is going to be released on DVD-Audio on 3/3/03 in honor of its 30th anniversary! We're still waiting for an update on Pulse, so we'll let you know if we hear anything.

Sounds like it should be a good year for Floyd fans in 2003. Now if we could only get Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour reunited, or at least talk Gilmour into getting the rest of the gang back together for a tour...

Posted 10/25/2002 06:30:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
EX-US PRESIDENT ASKS ENEMY TO INFLUENCE ELECTION: New evidence has come to light that an ex-US President, at the height of a long protracted war against a totalatarian regime which had killed millions of innocent lives, asked that regime to influence the election of the extremely popular President who had previously defeated him:

Even when he was out of office, Herbert Hoover still tried bitterly to encourage Berlin to do damage to his enemies during an election. As von Ribbontrop recounts, in January 1944 the former president dropped by his residence for a private meeting. Hoover was concerned about Roosevelt's potential for a third term, and went on to explain that Berlin would be better off with someone else in the White House. If Roosevelt won, he warned, "There would not be a single agreement on arms control, especially on poison gas, as long as Roosevelt remained in power."

Of course, the above never actually happened (although it would make a great Robert Harris thriller). However, according to an article by Peter Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, something very similar did happen--at least twice--with Jimmy Carter and our Cold War enemies, the Soviet Union:

On repeated occasions, according to numerous Soviet accounts, Carter encouraged Moscow to influence American politics for his benefit or for the detriment of his enemies. Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin recounts in his memoirs how, in the waning days of the 1980 campaign, the Carter White House dispatched Armand Hammer to the Soviet embassy. Explaining to the Soviet Ambassador that Carter was "clearly alarmed" at the prospect of losing to Reagan, Hammer asked for help: Could the Kremlin expand Jewish emigration to bolster Carter's standing in the polls? "Carter won't forget that service if he is elected," Hammer told Dobrynin. According to Georgii Kornienko, first deputy foreign minister at the time, something similar took place in 1976, when Carter sent Averell Harriman to Moscow. Harriman sought to assure the Soviets that Carter would be easier to deal with than Ford, clearly inviting Moscow to do what it could through public diplomacy to help his campaign. Even when he was out of office, Carter still tried bitterly to encourage Moscow to do damage to his enemies during an election. As Dobrynin recounts, in January 1984 the former president dropped by his residence for a private meeting. Carter was concerned about Reagan's defense build-up and went on to explain that Moscow would be better off with someone else in the White House. If Reagan won, he warned, "There would not be a single agreement on arms control, especially on nuclear arms, as long as Reagan remained in power." While Carter's commitment to the principles of democracy, peace, and human rights is genuine, he has failed to grasp that good intentions are not enough. A commitment to championing human rights is no substitute for enacting policies that actually secure them — nor should it be an excuse for trying to manipulate an American election.

If the above is true, imagine if Hoover really did go the Nazis--or Nixon to the Soviets, to try to swing an election? (Link found via Dean Esmay, who also links to a very interesting post by John Weidner on the same subject.)

Posted 10/25/2002 04:23:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
WILL ALAN PAGE REPLACE PAUL WELLSTONE? Orrin Judd's sources are tracking who will be the next Democratic candidate for senator from Minnesota, and say that Page (a Hall of Fame lineman from the Vikings' glory years with Budd Grant and Fran Tarkenton) and Walter Mondale's son Ted are the frontrunners.

Posted 10/25/2002 02:52:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
RICHARD HARRIS DIED TODAY AT AGE 72: The 72-year-old actor had been receiving treatment for Hodgkin's Disease at University College Hospital in London, where he was pronounced dead at 7:00 p.m.

Posted 10/25/2002 01:38:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
PAYING FOR THE WAR: Larry Kudlow says the US economy can afford it.

Posted 10/25/2002 01:32:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
HERE'S SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO. Jonah Goldberg writes:

If it hasn't happened already, we can expect that someone on the Cynthia McKinney/Nation of Islam fringe will soon be declaring that Johnny Muhammad is a Lee Harvey Oswald-style dupe whom the Bushes set up to further distract the country from the elections and to paint black Muslims in a bad light. After all, the guy does have three names, which is the only essential ingredient for a murky, government-backed assassin, right?

Goldberg also has some thoughts on the upcoming election, especially in light of Paul Wellstone's death in a plane crash today.

Posted 10/25/2002 01:21:40 PM by Edward Driscoll
SHOULD THE US GO IT ALONE IN IRAQ, under current UN resolutions and without further UN deliberation? the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece today authored by former NSC General Counsel Paul Stevens, analyzing United States authority to continue military action against Iraq under current UN resolutions. While it's only available to subscribers of the Journal, earlier this month, the Federalist Society released a white paper on the same topic, also authored by Stevens.

Posted 10/25/2002 02:21:15 AM by Edward Driscoll
NAME CHANGE: Along with regime change, Sidney Goldberg (Jonah's dad) suggests it could give Iraq (and Iran) a fresh start--and I agree.

Posted 10/24/2002 10:40:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
MY HOW TIMES CHANGE: Eric Olsen notes "Stupid Celebrity Tricks" in a once patriotic Hollywood.

Posted 10/24/2002 05:36:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORE ON IRAQ AND FOREIGN JOURNALISTS: Check out these paragraphs from the CNN article on Iraq expelling foreign journalists:

Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive, said the planned expulsion is "a draconian measure that will sharply curtail the world's knowledge about what is happening in Iraq." Jordan said CNN stands by Arraf and all of CNN's Iraq reporting as "accurate, fair, and forthright."

If half of the things reported in the New Republic story we linked to last week on how Iraq manipulates its coverage are true, how on earth can Jordan say that with a straight face? (Insert obligatory Orwell reference of your choice here.) And then there's this one:

Jordan dismissed as "absurd" Iraqi government allegations that CNN is a U.S. government propaganda service. Jordan added that "while CNN remains committed to reporting to the extent possible from Iraq, CNN will not compromise its journalistic principles in exchange for CNN access to any country."

Ted Turner must be laughing his butt off over anyone thinking that CNN is a U.S. government propaganda service.

Posted 10/24/2002 05:24:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
SADDAM HUSSEIN IS EXPELLING ALL FOREIGN JOURNALISTS: Joanne Jacobs suggests that "this is a great opportunity for CNN and others to stand up for their integrity by leaving Baghdad and refusing to return under Saddam's terms". Think they'll do it? Me neither.

Posted 10/24/2002 03:55:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
HERE COMES THE SPIN regarding the muslim sniper angle, says Charles Johnson. (Incidentally, sorry for the lack of coverage on the sniper, especially after manning the Blogosphere's late shift early this morning. I'm trying to wrap up an article today. InstaPundit and LGF have tons of coverage and links today. But you probably knew that already.)

Posted 10/24/2002 03:49:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
IS HOCKEY THE KILLER APP FOR BROADBAND? The National Hockey League says that 76 percent of the 12 million monthly visitors to NHL.com log on from a broadband connection.

Posted 10/24/2002 11:35:45 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE CLEAR WINNER: U.S. Senate candidate Douglas Forrester debated last night against an empty chair on a New Jersey radio station, as his Democratic opponent, Frank Lautenberg, declined to appear. No word yet if Wilson, that volleyball-cum-thespian from Cast Away will enter the race as a last minute third party candidate.

Posted 10/24/2002 01:50:33 AM by Edward Driscoll
MORE ON THE SNIPER: AP has a photo of the suspect, and more details, while Stephen Green says that the sniper's situation is the direct opposite of the IRA's in the early 1980s. UPDATE: AP says that two men were arrested early Thursday in connection with the serial sniper attacks. They were found inside a car at a rest stop off I-70 in Federick County, Md., at 3:19 a.m., according to Larry Scott, an agent for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Arms. UPDATE: I just turned Fox News on, before calling it a night. They're saying that a rifle (possibly the rifle) was apparently found in the car.

Posted 10/23/2002 11:38:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
SADDAM RECALLS CHILDREN OF HIS ENVOYS: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has ordered all his diplomats posted abroad to send their children back to Iraq, according to a U.S. intelligence report. It would be nice to see a few of the diplomats defect, rather than let their children serve as human shields and bargaining chips for the hopefully soon-to-be-living-the-rest-of-his-short-a**-life-in-agonizing-pain-tyrant here. (With apologies to Ving Rhames and Quentin Tarantino.)

Posted 10/23/2002 11:29:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
STIRRED, NOT SHAKEN: VodkaPundit reviews The Thin Man, a film released almost immediately after Prohibition ended, and starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, several half gallons of Tanqueray, and a couple of fifths of Noilly Pratt. Oh, and Asta, too! By the way, for more on The Thin Man, and its place in Martini history, be sure to check out Barnaby Conrad's The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic, a terrific look at the great American cocktail, and how to make them.

Posted 10/23/2002 11:07:13 PM by Edward Driscoll
McZEPPELIN! A 25-foot-high inflatable Ronald McDonald is at Large in South Wales. Sounds like a whale of a Filet of Fish story to me...

Posted 10/23/2002 10:34:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOUD EXPLOSION HEARD AT MOSCOW THEATER: AP says "It was not clear whether the explosion was inside the theater or outside".

Posted 10/23/2002 10:33:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
SNIPER WARRANTS ISSUED: Little Green Footballs and InstaPundit have a roundup of the details.

Posted 10/23/2002 10:24:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE NIGHTLY LILEKS LINK: In the middle of a stomach flu of apparently pan-galactic proportions, James Lileks still has the energy to describe what makes the DC sniper so different from 9/11:

We don’t dress up our children in dynamite belts - and they think this makes us weak. We shield our children from death, not marinate them in its bloody juices, and they think this means we lack conviction. Morons. Come after our children, and you don’t know what you’re in for. You heard the part about awakening a sleeping giant? The sleeping giantess is the one you want to look out for, because she’ll tear off your head and lactate down your throat. Do not mess with American moms. If it is Islamic terrorism, it will be delightful to watch the root-causers explain this one. They could get away with writing off 9/11 as karmic justice, because it was so large, so theatrical, so massively calamitous that it instantly took on symbolic meaning. And symbols are always up for grabs. But shooting a dozen people at random is something the mind grasps and understands at once.

Here's the key difference:

everyone has stood in the open pumping gas, watching the numbers race, hoping we can hold it under twenty bucks, waving to the kid strapped in the backseat, wondering when the gas station started playing oldies through the loudspeaker - jesus, “My Eyes Adored You?” Haven’t heard that one in - [crack] [/life] This even the stupidest root-causer gets. But I doubt they’ll admit it. They’ll have to draw a direct link between American foreign policy and some poor guy getting his head opened up at a 7-11. It will require meta-meta-meta thinking so elaborate, so vaporous, so consumed with the sins of the West that they’ll look like someone pissing off the parapets of the tallest building in Cloud-Cuckoo Land. I think they’re up to the job.

The sad thing he's right. But it may be sometime before "the root causers" get up enough nerve to actually say it in public.

Posted 10/23/2002 08:12:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
CLEVELAND BROWNS OWNER DIES: Al Lerner was 69. "Lerner underwent surgery in May 2001, reportedly to remove a brain tumor. In June, he said he had been in and out of the hospital during the past year", according to this AP report. Lerner was one of the 1998 recipients of the Horatio Alger Award--and I'd say he personified it:

The son of an immigrant candy shop owner, Lerner was a tough-minded kid, whose first job selling furniture paid him $75 a week. He saved enough to enter a deal to purchase a Cleveland apartment building. His real estate empire grew, and he went on to acquire banking interests in Baltimore. In 1991, he spun off the MBNA Credit Corp. from debt-ridden MNC Financial in Maryland with a stock offering that raised $995 million. He ended up with a 10 percent stake in MBNA and became its chief executive. Lerner also was chairman of Town & Country Trust, a Baltimore-based real estate investment trust that owns and manages residential properties. His friend and business partner, Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance Corp., once described Lerner as ``the Michael Jordan'' of the investment business.

Posted 10/23/2002 05:55:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
LINE OF THE DAY (as posted in a music forum): "Chief Moose is expected to emerge from HQ at any moment and make a statement. If he sees his shadow, it means six more weeks of investigating."

Posted 10/23/2002 05:43:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
CORRUPTION CORRUPTS: Jonah Goldberg dissects Lord Acton's famous aphorism (no, that not a male follicular fashion worn by Don Cornelius), "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men":

Now, it's obviously true that Acton, an eminent 19th-century liberal, had an abiding problem with powerful men who let their power go to their heads — but that's not really what he was talking about. He was talking about the tendency of people to say, "But Hitler built the autobahn," or "Think of all the good things Bill Clinton did," or "Remember that Nixon created the EPA." He wasn't necessarily offering as a rule of thumb that as you get more powerful you get more corrupt. Rather, he was saying that as you get more powerful the standard you are held to by historians must be more, not less, exacting. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, but that's an argument for another day. Today, the "power corrupts" syllogism has — like so many other things — been translated into a credo of personal morality. It insists that power makes you a bad person — i.e., self-aggrandizing, cruel, megalomaniacal, blind to all moral distinctions, and so on. And that just isn't true. If it were, history would simply be the story of bad powerful men. And, while there most certainly were plenty of bad powerful men, there was also, for instance, George Washington. He might have become a king if he'd wanted, but he chose not to. He could have stayed president for life, but he chose not to. And, as NR's Richard Brookhiser has chronicled, Washington remained a decent man, courteous to a fault in fact, as he grew in influence and power. Likewise, Abraham Lincoln — at whom certain libertarians love to throw the Acton quote — may have suspended habeas corpus, but the evidence seems fairly lacking that he was a corrupt man or that he grew more corrupt as he grew more powerful. Last I checked, Jimmy Carter didn't become noticeably more praetorian for having had the arsenal of democracy at his disposal.

Interesting essay, and well worth checking out.

Posted 10/23/2002 03:36:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BIRD OF PREY: No it's not the latest technology from the Romulan Empire--it's the latest aircraft from Boeing--and sleek and stealthy to boot.

Posted 10/23/2002 03:29:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOTE: BLOW DRY BEFORE PLAYING. Check out David Letterman's Record Collection. Of course, these comments by Dave (or his crack team of writers) sum it all up best:

Meow meow creepy meow meow meow cat with partial mastery of the English language meow meow rabies meow demonic possession meow meow meow trolley roadkill meow.

I think once you've said that, you've said it all. UPDATE: Political (and WWF) wonks take note: there's a surprise appearance by Jesse Ventura in there, singing his 1984 solo classic, "The Body Rules". Perhaps Governor Ventura will resume his singing career, now that his time in politics appears to be winding down.

Posted 10/23/2002 02:22:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
TERRORISTS SEIZE MOSCOW THEATER, up to 1000 taken hostage, but "children and Muslim members of the audience have been reportedly released", according to this BBC News article. The suspects claim to be Chechen rebels, apparently led by a nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev. UPDATE: InstaPundit has more, including how this could alter Russia's opposition to our attacking Iraq.

Posted 10/23/2002 02:17:40 PM by Edward Driscoll
POSSIBLE SIGN OF AIRLINE SANITY: USA Today says that passengers may soon be able to use their cell phones. At least two companies, AirCell and Verizon Airfone, are developing technology to let passengers use their cell phones without disrupting airplane electronics or ground cellular service. Of course, "soon" is a relative term: don't expect to see such service until 2004, according to the article.

Posted 10/23/2002 01:05:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
CUBA LIBRE: The U.S. is quietly working for regime change in Cuba, too, according to The Brothers Judd. (We'll make a very large pitcher of these when Castro finally falls.)

Posted 10/23/2002 01:01:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL MAY BE ON AN AEROFLOT PLANE AT JFK, according to this story in the Rocky Mountain News. The FBI "ordered to keep its distance from the passenger terminals", and is only letting passengers off in small groups. UPDATE: False alarm, fortunately.

Posted 10/23/2002 11:59:48 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS AGE AN ISSUE IN NJ SENATE RACE? It should be--it's certainly been raised as an issue (JFK--too young? Reagan--too old?) in numerous presidential campaigns.

Posted 10/23/2002 11:26:40 AM by Edward Driscoll
WEASEL WORDS: MSNBC backs out from calling Little Green Footballs racist and hateful. Or do they? That's the beauty of weasel words, as Mark Steyn illustrates in his letter to MSNBC in support of LGF. Of course, there's another byproduct of all of this: quite frankly, I had never heard of MSNBC's Weblog coverage before their attempt to slander LGF. Now they're all over InstaPundit, LGF, and other blogs that I read. Of course, with this kind of gutless reporting, I doubt I'll be going back to them very often. UPDATE: For some background on Charles Johnson, the man behind LGF, check out this post by Eric Olsen on Blogcritics. ANOTHER UPDATE: ScrappleFace reports that other bloggers have been begging MSNBC, "smear me, too!"

Posted 10/23/2002 11:13:41 AM by Edward Driscoll
STRONG EARTHQUAKE RATTLES ALASKA: 6.2 is the preliminary magnitude.

Posted 10/23/2002 02:38:17 AM by Edward Driscoll
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003: Take a sneak peek.

Posted 10/23/2002 12:22:43 AM by Edward Driscoll
VIVA ESPANIA: James Taranto, in the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today section writes:

"The Spanish government has cancelled a state banquet in honour of President Mohammed Khatami of Iran after Tehran insisted that he would not sit down to a meal with wine on the table," London's Daily Telegraph reports. Khatami had said that for religious reasons he would not eat at a table where alcohol was served. A Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman says Madrid canceled the dinner to ensure that "the Spanish custom of drinking wine with meals was not dishonored."

Posted 10/22/2002 07:11:54 PM by Edward Driscoll
ATTACK ON INTERNET CALLED LARGEST EVER: The Washington Post says "The heart of the Internet sustained its largest and most sophisticated attack ever, starting late Monday, according to officials at key online backbone organizations". The attack lasted for about an hour. "FBI officials would not speculate on who might have planned or carried out the attack."

Posted 10/22/2002 04:35:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
WOODY'S MOM WAS RIGHT: "Brooklyn is not expanding!" she said in Annie Hall. Neither is the universe, apparently. In any case, Dr. Flicker's advice to Woody Allen (or "Alvy Singer" as he was known in Annie Hall) is empirically correct: it's not going to happen "for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we're here!"

Posted 10/22/2002 02:54:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
MONTANA SENATOR JUMPS BACK INTO CANDIDACY after homophobic smears from his opponent's campaign. I have no idea what Mike Tayler's chances are, but I think jumping back in is a pretty smart move--he can now through all of the smears back in his opponent's face and use them against him. And using a "I'm standing up for what's right" approach has got to work better than being replaced with a surrogate candidate.

Posted 10/22/2002 02:32:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
PO-MO AND ANTI-MO: Interesting observation by Patrick Ruffini:

Today's Democratic Party can best be understood as the product of an uneasy marriage between post-modernism and anti-modernism. This is a combination you see frequently in university environments that pride themselves for being on the cutting edge of society — but nonetheless favor medieval juntas in Baghdad, Havana, and Ramallah while finding fault with modern democracies like the United States and Israel. Some of our hippest Americans are liberal Democrats, and yet, if you look closely, the party has spent the last few elections campaigning on a very old Depression-era ideology. It's no coincidence that the two characters in that outrageous DNC Social Security cartoon were, on the one hand, a cool dude clad in jump suit and shades, and on the other hand, a doting grandma.

And speaking of medieval juntas, here's an essay we found via Charles Johnson that begins with the following provocative statement: "the ideas of Benito Mussolini, the founder of Fascism, are remarkably similar to the ideas of modern-day Western Leftists".

Posted 10/22/2002 12:03:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE POLITICIZATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL: It's the first half of James Lileks' Bleat today. Nina and I don't have kids, but I really pity those parents who have to send their kids to public schools and have to deal with the crap that Lileks describes. What an incredible brainwashing they have to come--and it will probably only get worse. The worst case of brainwashing I can remember from high school was my senior year history professor who taught us that Eleanor Roosevelt was "if not pretty a handsome looking woman...", FDR single-handedly beat the Depression, and that Harry Truman was one of our smartest presidents. Can you say...biased? But that sounds like an episode of Rush Limbaugh compared to what Lileks' daughter will face when she runs headlong into the Minneapolis School System:

I suspect that the educational establishment regards the insertion of these issues at every available opportunity to be part of their mission; far from wondering what the Million Mom March has to do with a class on establishing sleep schedules, they see these issues as indistinguishable from basic parenting skills. A good parent teaches ABCs; a good parent marches for peace; a good parent realizes the importance of five-point restraint carseats; a good parent subscribes to the MMM position on guns. The personal is the political, after all. And oh-so vice versa. Still, I bit my tongue. In some peculiar way, I felt as if bringing this matter up in the group would be as inappropriate as the materials themselves. Then, looking through the new handouts, I saw a thick sheaf titled EARTH PLEDGE.

“I pledge allegiance to our Earth, (the planet on which we live). And to fresh air, pure water, healthy dirt, life-giving plants and all the animals! One Earth - four oceans - seven continents - thousands of lakes and rivers! And I accept my duty to be an honorable citizen of this Earth, with respect and consciousness towards all.”

On the back, a note from author Patricia Hauser: “This Pledge, written to the rhythm of the Pledge of Allegiance, was originally composed to develop and enhance planetary consciousness in the hearts and minds of the wonderful second and third graders in my class. “At our daily ‘Morning Meeting,’ the Class ‘President’ of the week reads the Earth Pledge with each line being repeated by the entire class. . . . Whenever global events are brought up in class, someone volunteers to locate the continent and country in which the event is occurring. This begins the expansion process and realization that we, on Mother Earth, are all in this together and what each one of us does makes a difference.” “Printed on recycled paper.”

Good luck kids (and parents): you'll need it.

Posted 10/21/2002 08:16:23 PM by Edward Driscoll
US REFINES PLAN FOR WAR IN CITIES: Given that over the past year, the Bush administration has run enough fakes, misdirections and gadget plays to make Tom Landry blush (were he alive), I'd take this article with a grain of salt, but it's an interesting look at how urban combat has developed since World War II.

Posted 10/21/2002 07:28:50 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHY ON EARTH IS PAUL VOLCKER (one of our heroes for his inflation destroying efforts as head of the Federal Reserve Board in the early 1980s) campaigning on behalf of England joining the Euro??

Posted 10/21/2002 05:25:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
NFL ROUNDUP:Cris Carter ends retirement, joins Dolphins; Quincy Carter benched as Dallas QB; Rams cornerback Aeneas Williams will miss the rest of the season after surgery; and Packer QB Brett Favre won't need surgery on his sprained left knee, and the Packers are optimistic he won't miss any games. That and more bite-sized NFL nuggets are contained in this AP article. For more on Carter's benching, check out this Dallas Morning News story.

Posted 10/21/2002 03:02:18 PM by Edward Driscoll
LAW OF THE LEFT: Let me see if I understand how things work: is it that anything you say that attacks Israel specifically, or Jews in general is fine, and not considered hate speech? But anything you say that points out how dangerous the murderous extremes of radical Islam is, can be labeled hateful? Just checking. (Incidentally, I think Charles Johnson does one helluva job with his Little Green Footballs site. It's my first stop for Middle Eastern links.)

Posted 10/21/2002 02:53:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
"THE BUFFALO SIX" were indicted today on charges of supporting terrorism by training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. No word yet on what this fellow thinks of the verdict.

Posted 10/21/2002 02:04:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
MAHMAHMAHMY SHARONA! Did you know that Sharona Alperin, the woman who inspired the Knack's monster hit single in the early 1980s, has her own Web site at www.mysharona.com, with a cool Flash intro (guess what the background music is)? Neither did I, but now I do. And now you do too. (Spotted on the Internet Movie Database's homepage.)

Posted 10/21/2002 01:52:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
DAN ROONEY: On air or land, the man whose father built the Pittsburgh Steelers is one of NFL's most prominent owners. (The Steelers play the Colts tonight on Monday Night Football.)

Posted 10/21/2002 01:19:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
POWER HOUSES: Wired looks at home automation, both of the rich and famous, and the working man. For a look at how we used our "smart home" on September 11th, 2001 click here.

Posted 10/21/2002 12:48:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
"ZEAL FOR JESUS": Virginia Postrel reports on how the Dallas Morning News covers religion:

A lot of reporters would understand American culture better if they read the DMN's religion coverage, which treats religion as a normal part of human affairs, like business, sports, fashion, or politics. The oddities, controversies, and scandals occur in a larger context; they don't define the entire endeavor. Covering American religion as it really exists means quoting sources whose assumptions strike nonbelievers as weird, but the alternative—pretending America is a secular country (or a Catholic one, another media illusion)—is simply inaccurate.

Posted 10/21/2002 10:49:49 AM by Edward Driscoll
"YOU DO IT BECAUSE YOU CARE": When Mrs. Mariam Sese Seko, widow of late President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire write you to help transfer her husband's 30 million dollars, you swing into action immediately, right? Well, this fellow did...

Posted 10/21/2002 01:21:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
GUN CONTROL'S TWISTED OUTCOME: Reason looks how (surprise!) restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.

Posted 10/20/2002 11:45:22 PM by Edward Driscoll
"DEAR BRITISH IDIOTARIANS", Perry de Havilland requests your presence at Samizdata.net for a news update, followed by a swift kick in the trousers. (Link found via Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, who also does his bit for reducing the English idiotarian population, by way of intense debate, followed by a soigné soupcon of satire.)

Posted 10/20/2002 04:27:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
THAT '70s SHOW: Remember the fiscal crisis that rocked Manhattan in the mid-1970s (leading to the classic New York Daily News shock headline, "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD")? The Daily News says it could happen again: the city is facing a budget gap of as much as $6 billion in the next fiscal year.

Posted 10/20/2002 03:35:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANDREW SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A BLOG CHALLENGE. But you'll need a strong stomach, and a lot of patience, to participate in it.

Posted 10/20/2002 02:54:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
"THE BAD GUYS ARE WINNING" IN EUROPE, according to libertarian Samizdata. UPDATE: Steven Den Beste also has some initial thoughts.

Posted 10/20/2002 02:38:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE YARDBIRDS: My review of Alan Clayson's new biography of The Yardbirds is online at Blogcritics. "Stroll On" over and check it out!

Posted 10/20/2002 12:19:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE VIRTUE OF AYN RAND: There's a negative review of Ayn Rand's 1975 book, The Romantic Manifesto by James Russell in Blogcritics today. While I haven't read that particular book of Rand's, I've read a bunch of them, and posted the following in the comments section. Since it touches on topics that may be of interest to our regular readers, I figured I'd repost it here as well:

James, While I'm far from an Objectivist, in college, Ayn Rand was my introduction to any kind of political/philosophic discussion that leaned towards the right of what liberalism evolved into in the 20th century, as it was for many people who eventually came to identify as libertarian, conservative, or a bit of both. In the essay directly preceding yours on [Blogcritics], Dean Esmay quotes Lionel Trilling in 1950, who wrote:

In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition. For it is the plain fact that nowadays there are no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation. This does not mean, of course, that there is no impulse to conservatism...but [they] do not, with some isolated and some ecclesiastical exceptions, express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.

That was the environment that Rand wrote in. As Orrin Judd wrote (and he's no Randian, himself, incidentally), in his sympathetic review of Rand's "The Virtue of Selflessness" (which was the first Rand book I read, incidentally),

In considering the philosophy of Ayn Rand, it is always important to keep in mind the prevailing intellectual climate against which she was forced to push. Though her absolutist vision of individualism may appear overly harsh and dogmatic to us now, it may well have been a necessary counterweight to the general acceptance of statism in the West in the wake of the Great Depression. At a time when European nations succumbed, disastrously, to the various allures of fascism, communism, and socialism, and even the United States experimented with the big government programs of the New Deal and Great Society, maybe her rigid espousal of freedom was a required response.

As far as racism, Rand herself wrote:

Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage - the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.

Incidentally, Rand's writing changed considerably over the years. After she completed her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged", she never wrote fiction again. And several her closest associates claimed she suffered from severe bouts of depression in her last decade. So that may explain some of the extreme harshness of her later stuff. You might want to check out some of her early books, as well as the 1999 documentary film, "A Sense of Life", available on DVD, which serves as a pretty good (if whitewashed) introduction to her life and the environment she wrote in. That's my take on Rand. Of course, my wife sums her up in a slightly more terse style: "Ayn Rand was a cranky old bitch with some good ideas, but she's her own worst enemy in presenting them." Ed

Posted 10/20/2002 11:34:27 AM by Edward Driscoll
GUERILLA POLITICS are the order of the day in New Jersey, as Republican Senate candidate Douglas Forrester challenges Democratic rival Frank Lautenberg to make good on his "any place, any time" debate pledge.

Posted 10/20/2002 12:51:21 AM by Edward Driscoll
CHILD'S PLAY: My profile of Hollywood screenwriter Don Rhymer, and the home theater that he had installed in his home, largely for his children, is now online on the Audio Video Interiors Website:

In the 1990s, the phrase "do it for the children" became so much of a cliché that even The Simpsons made fun of it. But Don Rhymer and his wife Kate really did build their media room and its attached study for their three kids, ages 11, 14, and 16. "We really wanted our house to be the house, because you never know where your kids are going to be," Rhymer says. "So our attitude has always been, we'll just keep upgrading our systems so that the kids will want to stay here, rather than staying in someone else's basement, and doing God knows what."

Given how expensive and uncivilized many movie theaters have become, there's no doubt that more and more families will chose to install media rooms where they can keep an eye on their kids and what they watch, as well. Incidentally, if you've never read it, Audio Video Interiors is an extremely handsome, Architectural Digest-style full color publication that was the grandaddy of the home theater movement. The Rhymer profile should be at your local Borders, Barnes and Noble, or speciality store--be sure to pick up a copy!