Posted 6/28/2003 08:18:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Howard Dean can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain's name on his right forearm, he's never going anywhere," Dennis Miller said. Miller presented his stand-up routine at a Bush fundraiser. (Man, I never thought I'd type that last sentence.) Duncan Currie has some thoughts on Miller becoming a man of the right.

Posted 6/28/2003 08:09:15 PM by Edward Driscoll
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE: Reuters reports that "After Monday Microsoft won't be taking support calls for the venerable operating system", Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, and another Windows OS is also being phased out:

The next Microsoft operating system on the block will be Windows 98. As of Jan. 16, 2004, the now-five-year-old OS will be laid to rest. Tuesday, however, also marks a milestone for Windows 98. As of July 1, no-charge assisted support for the OS disappears. For-fee support continues for another six-and-a-half months.

My wife and I are still using Windows 2000 on all but two of our home and office PCs (which have Win98). Fortunately, it looks like they're still supporting that OS--for now.

Posted 6/28/2003 06:17:55 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEW ESSAY ON BLOGCRITICS: "Recording Music Goes Through The Looking Glass".

Posted 6/28/2003 12:08:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
MORNING IN AMERICA UPDATE: "Markets on course for global five-year high". Like I said back in February...

Posted 6/27/2003 11:53:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE MOYNIHAN GAMBIT: I've long been a fan of Stanley Crouch, ever since I first saw him on Charlie Rose's show in the late 1980s or early 1990s. In his latest New York Daily News column, he praises Bush's outreach towards blacks, as he dedicated June Black Music Month at a White House event entitled Harlem's Song:

If this event was indeed part of a grand strategy, Bush seems well on his way to redirecting the ethnic tone of the Republican Party in a way that may not automatically make black people feel friendly toward it but that could, over time, bring issues of importance to Afro-Americans to the front and put party affiliations in the back. I thought about all of that walking around the White House as the rehearsals were going on. Integration was everywhere. It felt good to see the military personnel and all the guests representing the many faces of the nation just as much as they did under President Bill Clinton. Further, with Bush's emphasis on educational policy, with his appointments of Rice and Powell, with his pledge to refurbish Frederick Douglass' home, with his $15 billion relief package for black Africa and with his recent admonishment that federal law enforcement agencies should not profile any ethnic community unless the issue of terrorism is at hand, this President is changing his party. Were Bush to go further and make it clear that federal assistance will be made available to all communities bent upon removing the anarchic thugs who, to cite one example, have been responsible for the killing of 10,000 people in Los Angeles over the last 20 years, many would have to stand up. That would be a policy coup that neither the civil rights establishment nor the Democrats - or black Americans - could easily dismiss.

I agree. And Bush has the perfect slam-dunk triangulation strategy to go with it, and leave Hillary gasping for air: When he announces the program, he can simply quote from Daniel Patrick Moynihan's classic essay, "Defining Deviancy Down":

In the words spoken from the bench, Judge Edwin Torres of the New York State Supreme Court, Twelfth Judicial District, described how "the slaughter of the innocent marches unabated: subway riders, bodega owners, cab drivers, babies; in laundromats, at cash machines, on elevators, in hallways." In personal communication, he writes: "This numbness, this near narcoleptic state can diminish the human condition to the level of combat infantrymen, who, in protracted campaigns, can eat their battlefield rations seated on the bodies of the fallen, friend and foe alike. A society that loses its sense of outrage is doomed to extinction." There is no expectation that this will change, nor any efficacious public insistence that it do so. The crime level has been normalized. Consider the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In 1929 in Chicago during Prohibition, four gangsters killed seven gangsters on February 14. The nation was shocked. The event became legend. It merits not one but two entries in the World Book Encyclopedia. I leave it to others to judge, but it would appear that the society in the 1920s was simply not willing to put up with this degree of deviancy. In the end, the Constitution was amended, and Prohibition, which lay behind so much gangster violence, ended. In recent years, again in the context of illegal traffic in controlled substances, this form of murder has returned. But it has done so at a level that induces denial. James Q. Wilson comments that Los Angeles has the equivalent of a St. Valentine's Day Massacre every weekend. Even the most ghastly re-enactments of such human slaughter produce only moderate responses. On the morning after the close of the Democratic National Convention in New York City in July, there was such an account in the second section of the New York Times. It was not a big story; bottom of the page, but with a headline that got your attention. "3 Slain in Bronx Apartment, but a Baby is Saved." A subhead continued: "A mother's last act was to hide her little girl under the bed." The article described a drug execution; the now-routine blindfolds made from duct tape; a man and a woman and a teenager involved. "Each had been shot once in the head." The police had found them a day later. They also found, under a bed, a three-month-old baby, dehydrated but alive. A lieutenant remarked of the mother, "In her last dying act she protected her baby. She probably knew she was going to die, so she stuffed the baby where she knew it would be safe." But the matter was left there. The police would do their best. But the event passed quickly; forgotten by the next clay, it will never make World Book.

Did I say "leave Hillary gasping for air"? Maxine Waters would reach for the smelling salts as well.

Posted 6/27/2003 08:27:20 PM by Edward Driscoll
BLACKOUT CITY: Sorry for the lack of posting today--the power and cable modem were up and down all day. We were without power for several hours in the morning, then got it back, but the cable modem took several hours more to come back. Then we lost power around 6:30 p.m. At that point my wife and I did what any sensible couple in that situation would do: headed out for sushi. We're back. Power's back. Cable modem's back. For now.... (Incidentally, I can't blame this one on Gray Davis. It's been over 100 degrees for the past two or three days, and apparently, a transformer in our neighborhood simply buckled under from the heat. Probably something similar affected Comcast's cables.)

Posted 6/27/2003 12:45:50 AM by Edward Driscoll
KINSLEY'S LAW IN ACTION: Michael Kinsley once famously said that the definition of a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. Check out this classic from Rep. Patrick Kennedy:

As sometimes happens with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), he let his mouth race ahead of his brain Wednesday night at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Washington nightspot Acropolis. After presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke, Kennedy delivered an impassioned peroration against President Bush's tax cut. We hear that Kennedy told the crowd: "I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a [bleeping] day in my life." With that he got the audience's attention -- the dropping-jaws kind.

Fortunately though, no baggage screeners were harmed during the speech.

Posted 6/26/2003 07:44:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
STROM THURMOND DEAD AT 100: Just posted on the Drudge Report, no link to a story yet. UPDATE: Now there is. UPDATE: You just know that someone in the late night talk show crowd will make a crack at Thurmond dying on the same day that Supreme Court struck down Texas' sodomy laws. UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long, did it?

Posted 6/26/2003 04:41:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
THIS COULD BE INTERESTING: Could Hillary be replacing Tom Daschle as minority leader in the Senate? Orrin Judd has some thoughts.

Posted 6/26/2003 04:13:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
DIGGING THE SCENE WITH THE DEAN MACHINE: James Taranto looks at Howard Dean, his temper, and his equivocations, and decides:

It is precisely because of his "faults" that Dean has a shot at the nomination. David Brooks has the best explanation of the Dean phenomenon, albeit in an article that mentions Dean only in passing. In brief, the Democrats who make up the party's base are mad--in both senses of the word. So blinded are they by their frustration at being out of power, and by their inexplicable hatred of President Bush, that they are astonishingly detached from reality. That Dean is determinedly wrong about Iraq is, for this constituency, a selling point. They are too. As an executive of Meetup.com, which has become an online center for grassroots Dean organizing, tells Fox News: "Howard Dean has a rabid following." (Good thing he's a physician.)

"None of this necessarily means Dean will win the nomination", Taranto adds, although "even if Dean doesn't win, he is likely to hurt the prospects of whoever is the Democratic nominee." In other words, read--as the "It" phrase of 2003 goes--the whole thing (and Brooks' article as well.)

Posted 6/26/2003 01:29:53 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE SMOKING BEANS: In addition the cache of nuclear parts discovered yesterday, MSNBC also reported:

U.S. troops also discovered about 300 sacks of castor beans, which are used to make the deadly biological agent ricin, hidden in a warehouse in the town of al-Aziziyah, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, the capital. The castor beans were inaccurately labeled as fertilizer. U.S. search teams have also been led to a site near Nasiriyah, a key Euphrates River crossing 200 miles south of Baghdad, where Iraqi informants said Scud missiles were buried.

Uh--inaccurately labeled? Wouldn't deceptively labeled be more accurate? In any case, As Byron York writes, the “Bush Lied” meme is rapidly falling apart.

Posted 6/25/2003 04:20:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHY THE GOP PICKED NEW YORK for their convention next year: James Taranto has an excellent theory. Besides all of the 9/11 connotations of course, there will be thousands of protestors outside the convention hall. Taranto writes that "TV crews will be unable to resist them--thus treating voters across the country to images of Bush's opposition as a bunch of extremists and freaks." Brilliant strategery!

Posted 6/25/2003 03:12:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
NUCLEAR COMPONENTS DISCOVERED IN IRAQ, according to MSNBC, which says, "U.S. intelligence officials have found decade-old plans and equipment for a nuclear weapons program in Iraq, indicating that former President Saddam Hussein might have been able to restart the weapons programs he built before the first Gulf War, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday." UPDATE: Instapundit has more.

Posted 6/25/2003 03:06:37 PM by Edward Driscoll
MAYBE THE TIMES ARE A-CHANGING: Media Research Center has two surprising quotes from late night talk shows:

-- Friday's Special Report with Brit Hume on FNC and Fox News Sunday both played this Jay Leno joke from the June 19 Tonight Show on NBC: "And former Vice President Al Gore says he's looking to develop a liberal cable TV and radio network to counteract Fox and all the conservative shows. Gore says there's no outlet in this country for the liberal viewpoint. You know except ABC, NBC, CBS, HBO, Bravo, BET, Showtime, Lifetime, MTV, Oxygen, National Public Radio and IFC. Other than that, there's nothing!" -- Guest-hosting the June 20 Late Show Friday night on CBS, actor Kelsey Grammer, who holds the record for playing the longest-running ever sit-com character (“Frasier Crane” on both Cheers and Frasier), delivered this joke during his opening monologue: "So it seems I've been playing the same effete, pompous character on television for 20 years, and I know what you're thinking: 'Wow, Peter Jennings looks terrible!'" That one earned the audience's laughter and applause -- and mine too.

By the way, nice of Leno to label NBC a liberal channel, something their news organization would deny until the cows came home.

Posted 6/25/2003 02:38:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
ACROSS THE ATLANTIC IS BACK: But temporarily at a numeric URL, whilst waiting for DNS propagation takes place. (Why yes, I did just say "whilst", yes I did.)

Posted 6/25/2003 02:17:29 PM by Edward Driscoll
MUGGERIDGE'S LAW IN ACTION: The Dixie Chicks dedicated a song to Michael Moore during their stint at Madison Square Garden.

Posted 6/25/2003 11:27:28 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE NEW L-WORD: Last week Ronald Bailey of Reason noted that John Kerry was quoted in June 16 & 23 issue of The New Yorker as saying, "The Bush Administration agenda isn't conservative Republicanism, and it's not radical Republicanism--it's extreme libertarianism." Bailey asked:

Two thoughts: (1) Bush a libertarian? What's Kerry been smoking? (2) Among Democrats, is "libertarianism" now a demonizing term that is the moral equivalent to "card carrying ACLU member" for Republicans?

Apparently so. Because check out this ad hominem attack from Gephardt aide Erik Smith, digging his boss ever-deeper into the ground after his executive order gaffe:

"The fact that this question comes from libertarian law professors should speak for itself"

I wonder if the new L-word has been focus group tested recently for its negative connotations among soccer moms? If so, expect to see it dropped quite a bit into speeches and rebuttals.

Posted 6/25/2003 12:10:52 AM by Edward Driscoll
BLOGCRITICS: I just updated the list on my Web site of the more substantial posts I've made to Blogcritics.org, since the site began late last summer. Man, I've written a lot of stuff there!

Posted 6/24/2003 11:33:15 PM by Edward Driscoll
LEON URIS PASSED AWAY OVER THE WEEKEND. Charles Johnson has the details.

Posted 6/24/2003 05:21:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
ADVANTAGE ED: Back on February 4th, we asked, "did environmentalism kill Columbia?" and looked at the role the EPA played in requiring NASA to change the formulation of the foam used on its external tank. Today, Stephen Den Beste writes:

In a conclusion I think few will find surprising, it now appears that Columbia was lost because foam insulation broke loose from its external fuel tank during boost and struck its wing, causing damage to the ceramic tiles on the wing which resulted in catastrophic failure during reentry. The foam on the fuel tank is sprayed on. In 1997 the formulation used was changed. The new version of the foam seems to be much less satisfactory and has a greater tendency to come off, and this change may end up being the "root cause" of the deaths of 7 good people. So why was the foam changed? The new foam is "environmentally friendly". The older formulation utilized Freon, the new one doesn't. And the danger from foam fragments was identified five years ago from analysis of the first flight to use the newer foam formulation. They should have changed back immediately once that had been found. They should change back now.

He's right. As we said, way to go, Carol Browner (and Bill Clinton). And way to go Rachel Carson, as well.

Posted 6/24/2003 12:58:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
CALIFORNIA TREMORS: Jack Kelly has some thoughts on the recall Davis movement and its nationwide implications. I'd quote from it, but you're better off reading the whole thing.

Posted 6/24/2003 12:13:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
UNSAFE IN THE GOP: Will Ralph Nader run as a Republican?? This AFP article claims he might:

Nader says that if the Greens reject him, he might choose to run as an independent, or possibly even as a Republican, which would pit him against George W. Bush in the primary. "Wouldn't that be interesting? A Republican run?" he muses.

Why yes, yes it would. Nader would be slaughtered in the primaries, but it would be lots of fun to watch. (Link found via Hollywood Halfwits, which has lots of other fun content.)

Posted 6/23/2003 11:52:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
THERE'S GOT TO BE A MORNING AFTER: Way back on February 26, I wrote, "It's waaaaaay too soon to say this with any certainty, but there's a very good chance that it's Morning in America for George W. Bush." Today, Orrin Judd posts that it's...Morning in America. How can I argue with that?!

Posted 6/23/2003 08:20:39 PM by Edward Driscoll
GETTIN' SQUIGGLY WITH IT: David Frum sums up the Supreme Court's non-decision decision on affirmative action perfectly:

Suppose you were a moderately conscientious university administrator trying to figure out what is OK and what is not. You are just as confused today as you were the day before yesterday. Preferential treatment for certain racial groups is constitutionally permissible and maybe even mandatory – but explicit quotas are forbidden (that’s the holding of the Bakke case back in the 1970s) and so are numerical bonuses of the sort that Michigan used. How are you supposed to run an admissions system on the basis of that information? Once upon a time, we expected the Supreme Court to hand down broad principles of law that people could use to guide their behavior. But in recent years, the current court has taken to issuing ever-more specific decisions with ever-narrower application. Four years ago, my one-time professor Cass Sunstein wrote a whole book praising what he called “judicial minimalism.” His hero was Sandra Day O’Connor, whose whole jurisprudence boils down to a series of snap, arbitrary judgments: “This gerrymander is too squiggly: No.” “This one is not too squiggly: Yes.” Sandra Day O’Connor is by all accounts a perfectly lovely person. People who have worked with her tell me that she is a very smart lawyer. But these cases in which she was the decisive vote exemplify her failure to do the job that people pay judges, and especially Supreme Court judges, to do. Courts are supposed to settle disputes. O’Connor decisions, by contrast, tend to provoke endless rounds of further litigation, as redistricters try to guess how squiggly a district can be before it becomes too squiggly and universities attempt to anticpate how much racial preference is too much. This isn’t law: It’s a high-stakes version of the children’s guessing game, “Getting warmer; getting colder.”

Read the whole thing.

Posted 6/23/2003 04:21:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
McDONALD'S: Helping to reduce global warming! Well, in a convoluted way, at least.

Posted 6/23/2003 04:11:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
SHADES OF 1972: Has Dick Gephardt just planted his own ticking time bomb? His quote makes a nice bookend with Kerry's spectacular gaffe last week. UPDATE: And apparently, Howard Dean didn't exactly ace Meet The Press. FLASHBACK: Dave Kopel made the 1972 connection back in February. Click here to read his prescient comments.

Posted 6/23/2003 03:17:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
TEN YEARS AGO TODAY, Andrew Sullivan found out he was HIV-positive. Through the miracle of modern medicine, he's still here, and has some thoughts on life--and death.

Posted 6/23/2003 02:13:31 PM by Edward Driscoll
"ALL PUBLIC EVENTS IN SHUTESBURY ARE FRAGRANCE FREE", according to the Web site for the Massachusetts town. Reason's Jacob Sullum has some thoughts on a growing--and silly--trend.

Posted 6/23/2003 01:35:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE USS RONALD REAGAN: Well, it's not quite USS yet-it's a PCU, a "Precommissioning Unit". But it was accepted by the Navy on June 20th. (Link via Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, whose blog is still--I believe the technical term is "busticated", but I'm not sure.)

Posted 6/23/2003 11:37:49 AM by Edward Driscoll
METROSEXUALS AND RURASEXUALS are meeting at a swinging shindig at The Brothers Judd Blog!

Posted 6/23/2003 11:27:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
MODERN ARCHITECTURE, BIAS AND THE BBC all intersect at Samizdata.net, in a very interesting post. Be sure to read the comments. UPDATE: I was about to post in Samizdata's comments, but figured I'd post this here as well. Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus To Our House does a pretty good job of explaining how modern architecture came to be the dominant form of architecture in the US, and does a thorough job of deflating the egos and pretensions of Corbu, Mies, Gropius, Johnson, et al. There's a lot of modern architecture that I really like, but Corbusier's housing projects and city planning were uniformly disastrous. It always amazes me to see them worshipped 30 years after the first American housing projects based on his designs (such as Pruitt-Igoe) were first dynamited. (There's footage of Pruitt-Igoe, both before and after its spectacular demolition in Koyaanisqatsi, incidentally.) In contrast, Corbusier's private residences of the 1920s, where he got his start as an architect-for-hire, were pretty nifty. But they were individually commissioned, by wealthy clients who knew what they were getting into, and specifically wanted that style--a far, far different experience than those residents of projects such as Pruitt-Igoe and Cabrini-Green, who had modern architecture inflicted on them.

Posted 6/22/2003 04:33:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
ON THE BLEEDING EDGE OF HOME THEATER: My review of Home Theater For Dummies is up on Blogcritics.

Posted 6/22/2003 12:52:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
BUYING TIME: Charles Johnson writes, "Iran is using the same cheat-and-retreat tactics that Iraq got away with for years, to buy time for its nuclear weapons program. And the United Nations is, of course, perfectly willing to play along."