Posted 5/10/2003 09:04:11 AM by Edward Driscoll
URBANE LEGENDS: Terence P. Jeffrey cautions in The Washington Times, to be wary of whoever the press dubs with the "U" word:

The Sunday London Times cast into question not only the quality of Scotch Mr. Aziz drank, but also his urbanity itself. The "seemingly urbane deputy prime minister," sniffed the Times, "was exposed as a lover of Glasgow's Grand Old Parr blend." Yet, whichever label he drinks, Mr. Aziz is only the latest in a long line of dictators' front men who have impressed the press with their urbanity. A 1999 report in the Ottawa Citizen recalled that Joachim von Ribbentrop, a onetime resident of that Canadian city who later became Adolf Hitler's foreign minister, was "urbane, polished" and "always superbly tailored." A 1984 profile in The Washington Post said Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, an acolyte of Josef Stalin, was "invariably urbane and sophisticated." The New York Times ran this subhead on a 1986 obituary for Maoist Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai: "Urbane, infinitely patient." Even Yasser Arafat had a mannerly lieutenant. A 1983 piece in The Washington Post referenced "Arafat's normally cool and urbane deputy Rahman." Cuba's dictator, the most famous cigar lover on Earth, needed no whiskey swigging substitute when, in 1979, he wanted to deliver his message to the world. He became his own courteous spokesman. "It was a far more polished and urbane Fidel Castro who addressed the U.N. General Assembly," noted U.S.News & World Report.

Jeffrey ends his article with a perfect example of someone who the vast majority of the press would never be caught dead using the "U" word to describe. Naturally, it's the one former world leader who might actually deserve the word.

Posted 5/9/2003 02:34:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
PROTESTING THE PROTESTORS: Greenpeace is planning a "Run for Your Life" 5K road race at Liberty State Park in New Jersey on Saturday. But the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) will conduct a counter demonstration "alleging that the environmental group has committed 'eco-manslaughter' through its support of international policies limiting development and the expansion of technology to the developing world's poor", according to CNSNews. The protest makes a nice bookend to the award that Greenpeace won last year in Johannesburg, when they were handed the "Bulls**t Trophy" (yes, that's the trophy's real name) by African and Asian farmers, for their contribution to the "preservation of poverty" in developing countries.

Posted 5/9/2003 01:06:46 PM by Edward Driscoll
REMIND ME NOT TO FLY AIR CONGO ANYTIME SOON: 200 sucked out of plane when a cargo door failed.

Posted 5/9/2003 10:00:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
LANDING ON THE LINCOLN: One point about President Bush's landing on the USS Lincoln that I don't think I've seen mentioned is how it ties in with Karl Rove's strategy of keeping the president somewhat out of the public eye. Unlike Clinton and Gore, who seemingly never saw a photo-op they didn't like, because Bush has had less media exposure, when he does a showy move such as landing on aircraft carrier--its impact is magnified that much. The contrast between Clinton and Bush provides yet another lesson for future presidents.

Posted 5/9/2003 09:52:26 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS THERE AN AL QAEDA CONNECTION IN ITALY? Charles Johnson writes, "Investigators analyzing computers seized from an Italian mosque discovered photos of the World Trade Center downloaded on September 4, 2001, and pornographic images used to encode Al Qaeda messages in a process known as steganography."

Posted 5/8/2003 04:00:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
DON'T STOP THE CRIME, IF YOU CAN'T DO THE TIME: A UK farmer who shot to death a burglar and was convicted of manslaughter for his troubles continues to rot in an English prison, having had his parole request rejected Thursday by the British High Court. For a brief look at how England has gotten to this despicable point, see this 2002 essay by Paul Craig Roberts.

Posted 5/8/2003 01:51:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
A QUOTE THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES: "Here in France I feel at home", says Madonna, as she thanked the country for opposing the liberation of Iraq.

Posted 5/8/2003 10:16:08 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE DREADED "D" WORD: Has the Fed finally figured out the dangers of deflation? Possibly, says Orrin Judd. But is it too late?

Posted 5/8/2003 10:04:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
HAS TED NUGENT JUST DUG HIMSELF INTO A HOLE he can't get out of? Eric Olsen has details on Blogcritics.

Posted 5/8/2003 09:50:58 AM by Edward Driscoll
LIFE IMITATES TOM WOLFE, PART II: Why is the University of Massachusetts considering retiring its Minuteman mascot? The school's athletic director says it's because of "gender, firearms and ethnicity issues".

Posted 5/8/2003 09:47:23 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE FIFTY STATE DREAM: GOP'ers believe they can take all 50 states in the 2004 presidential election, according to Deborah Orin in the New York Post.

Posted 5/7/2003 05:44:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
LIFE IMITATES TOM WOLFE: Clarence Thomas is called "unworthy" of giving the graduation speech at the University of Georgia Law School. (He's apparently going to be allowed to speak, however.) Meanwhile, Antioch College saw nothing "unworthy" about allowing convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal to give a (pre-recorded) speech at its commencement, back in 2000. Tom Wolfe's upcoming novel may have just had its ending written for it.

Posted 5/7/2003 11:38:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
LAWYERS PROVE IRAQ/AL-QAIDA CONNECTION: ABCNews.com reports, "Judge Awards $104 Million in 9-11 Case".

Posted 5/7/2003 11:23:51 AM by Edward Driscoll
HART'S WAR: Gary Hart chose not to run for the presidency, but he's quickly bounced back, thanks to Donald Rumsfeld. Well, that's what Scott Ott writes, at least...

Posted 5/7/2003 10:42:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
WAL-MART BANS THREE MEN'S MAGAZINES: Maxim, Stuff and FHM, all of whom go to extremes in terms of how close they can get to showing nudity. I'm sure their editors are furious, but when you push the envelope, don't be surprised when someone pushes back.

Posted 5/7/2003 10:36:51 AM by Edward Driscoll
CENTENNIAL: Mark Steyn looks at Bob Hope at age 100:

Success on that scale breeds a particular kind of contempt. Younger comics who for 30 years have despised Hope as a pro-war establishment suck-up forget that he more or less invented the form they work in: the relaxed guy who strolls on and does topical observational gags about the world we live in. When he started eight decades ago, there were no “stand-ups”; it was an age of clowns – weird-looking guys in goofy costumes taking frenzied pratfalls and telling ethnic gags in stage dialects – German, Irish, Negro. In the 1920s in Cleveland, Hope did as he was told and played in blackface wearing an undersized derby and an oversized red bow tie. But even then he knew enough, unlike most of the fellows he worked with, not to get trapped by the conventions.

And thus, the classic Hope persona, and an American institution was born (yes, I know Hope was born in England, but his on-stage wiseguy character is strictly all-American).

Posted 5/7/2003 10:27:52 AM by Edward Driscoll
CAN'T SAY THAT I'M SURPRISED BY THIS HEADLINE: "UC Berkeley program funded by Saudis with links to terrorism".

Posted 5/7/2003 10:22:22 AM by Edward Driscoll
STEPHEN GREEN ON FILE SHARING: It's "here to stay. Reprise and Steely Dan chose to profit by it. Madonna chose to annoy her most diehard fans." Exactly. By the way, does anybody know what happened to MP3.com? Their customer service--for paying, premium members--seems to move at a glacial pace.

Posted 5/7/2003 01:39:56 AM by Edward Driscoll
IT'S SUPER BOWL OR BUST FOR THE EAGLES THIS YEAR, according to Don Banks of Sports Illustrated. Fortunately, Philadelphia fans are known for their patience and understanding if the Eagles fail to make it...

Posted 5/6/2003 11:45:14 AM by Edward Driscoll
BILL BENNETT AND JESSE JACKSON: Robert A. George writes:

Compare Bill Bennett, as has been done before, with Jesse Jackson, i.e. as a "Moral Leader" for a specific part of the political spectrum (interestingly, both have also been "guilty" of being willing to talk good games, but then ducked when the opportunity arose to run for winnable, electable office). Jackson's various political and business shenanigans had been the source of much media copy for years. But it wasn't until the 2000 revelation that he had a mistress and a child out of wedlock that the veneer came completely off Jackson. As a Left-wing arbiter of morality, he was exposed as the ultimate hypocrite. He may still shake down gullible Wall Street firms, but not even true liberal organizations, let alone the general public, take the man seriously any more.

To see the double-standard in action, click here.

Posted 5/6/2003 11:40:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
A COUPLE OF INTERESTING ENVIRONMENTAL POSTS on the Brothers Judd Blog today. Unfortunately, Blogger's archives are doing their usual disappearing act, so just keep scrolling down.

Posted 5/6/2003 11:37:46 AM by Edward Driscoll
THEY'VE GOT THE BEST SEARCH ENGINE, so when will Google go public?

Posted 5/6/2003 11:34:13 AM by Edward Driscoll
CELEBRITY SMACKDOWN: Right Wing News opens a big can of well-aimed whoop-ass at Janeane Garofalo. It's a riot.

Posted 5/6/2003 11:07:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
GEORGE GALLOWAY UPDATE: He's been suspended from Britain's Labour Party, "pending internal party investigations", according to its general secretary, David Triesman. UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds has links to additional recent articles on Galloway.

Posted 5/5/2003 10:36:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
BOB JONES UNIVERSITY BARS STUDENTS FROM SAN FRANCISCO, FOR FEAR OF AIDS: OK, I found that quote in the alternate universe where Mr. Spock has a goatee, and Lt. Uhura saucily displays her bare midriff while on duty. But back in this universe, AP reports that "The University of California at Berkeley will turn away new students from SARS-infected China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong this summer in what is believed to be the first such move by a major U.S. university to prevent the spread of the virus." It should be fun to see if any flak comes to Berkeley for their actions.

Posted 5/5/2003 10:11:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
TERESA HEINZ UPDATE: Back on April 24, we quoted from this Jay Nordlinger column, in which he very presceintly described Sen. Kerry's wife as being a "Martha Mitchell for our time", who's "going to be a big story in the '04 campaign". She certainly is a pistol in Lloyd Grove's "Reliable Source" column:

"Now, politically, it's going to be Teresa Heinz Kerry, but I don't give a [bleep], you know?" explains the 64-year-old Heinz, who generally uses the surname of the late senator John Heinz (R-Pa.), who was killed in a 1991 plane crash. "There are other things to worry about." Including: • Her tendency to fidget, glower or interrupt, instead of simply gaze, when her husband gives a speech. "They think I should always be looking adoringly at him," she sighs. • Her financial arrangement with Kerry: "Everybody has a prenup. You have to have a prenup. You've got to have a prenup. You could be as generous or as sensitive as you want. But you have to have a prenup." • Her regular Botox treatments: "In fact I need another one. Soon." As for cosmetic surgery, "when I need it, I'll get it." She confides that she'd like to fix her nose, which has gotten "bulbier" with age. • Her views on marital fidelity: "I don't think I could have coped so well" with a mate's philandering as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) has. "I used to say to my husband, my late husband, 'If you ever get something I'll maim you. Not kill you, just maim you.' And we'd laugh, laugh, laugh." Heinz adds that she has never had any reason to suspect either of her husbands. "Not for one day, because what I expect of them, they have a right to expect of me. Maybe I'm into 18-year-olds." At which Heinz's campaign handler, former political journalist Chris Black, cautioned bleakly: "That was a joke."

Kerry's damage control team will be getting quadruple overtime running around after her. And they'll certainly earn it. UPDATE: A reader of NRO's Corner Weblog asks a very good question about Ms. Heinz's late husband.

Posted 5/5/2003 09:52:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
SORRY FOR THE LACK OF POSTING TODAY: Working on multiple articles, simultaneously.

Posted 5/5/2003 09:49:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANOTHER GREAT DRUDGE JUXTAPOSITION: The kicker reads, "Would amount to one of the largest bank robberies in history...", followed by the headline, in screaming 72 point Helvetica Bold all caps: $1 BILLION REMOVED FROM IRAQI CENTRAL BANK BY SADDAM'S SON, followed by... TURNER CASHES OUT... Gotta love the way Matt can line up those headlines.

Posted 5/5/2003 08:15:40 PM by Edward Driscoll
"WHAT THE FIRST LADY SAW": Will Hillary Clinton's new memoir, Living History be a deadening read? Nick Gillespie of Reason says count on it:

While Clinton certainly has access to first-rate material—both in terms of politics and in terms of a one-handed read—her entire public persona is built upon obfuscation, privacy, and stoicism in the face of public humiliation. Seneca himself caved under pressures far lighter than those generated by the revelations of Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinski, not to mention Travelgate, Whitewater, and the Vince Foster suicide. Such personality characteristics hardly mark her as exceptional in politics—indeed, they are the tools of the trade. But no one wants to read a memoir by a politician who doesn't take off the mask, and it doesn't seem as if Clinton's will be slipping any time soon.

Gillespie writes that the initial printing of Living History will be "a stunning 1 million copies." Just as record companies guaranteed that a record would ship platinum in the 1970s by pressing a zillion initial copies, Simon & Schuster will no doubt make the top of the New York Times bestseller list with that size run. But look for lots and lots of copies to eventually turn up in the cut-out bin.

Posted 5/4/2003 12:25:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT WOULD LEE ERMEY THINK of the Marine-like way Bill Parcells handled his first practice with the Dallas Cowboys?

Posted 5/4/2003 12:24:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
PATRICK RUFFINI WATCHED LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE between the Democratic presidential candidates, and has some thoughts.

Posted 5/4/2003 12:23:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
"TOUGH TO SWALLOW": Quarterback Donovan McNabb lashes out to the press at the loss of key Philadelphia Eagles players to free agency.

Posted 5/4/2003 12:22:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
DID DICK GEPHARDT LIE ABOUT HIS FATHER? Gephardt claims his father was a strong union man. His brother claims that dad was a staunch Republican. One of them's lying--and brother Don isn't running for the presidency. Didn't Gephardt learn from Al Gore's hyperbolic flexibility with reality? To paraphrase Ken Layne's famous riff, we have the Internet. We can fact-check your...