Posted 10/31/2003 02:49:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
76 TRUMBOS PLAY THE BIG PARADE: If the left sees every war as Vietnam, then for show business, every moral crusade is the blacklist of the 1950s. Which is why it's not all that surprising to see Nathan Lane starring in a play about Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter. Mark Steyn's entire article about the play is well worth reading, but these two paragraphs really sum it all up:

By way of comparison, let me offer the example of my old friend Diana Mosley, who died recently at the age of 93, a victim of the Paris heatwave. In the Thirties, Diana got the hots for Fascism and Nazism: Hitler came to her wedding, she thought he had exquisite table manners, etc. When war broke out, the Government in Britain had her jailed as a possible security threat. After the war, she began a lifelong exile in France. She didn’t kill anyone, she didn’t take up arms against her country, but she never quite sufficiently regretted her youthful support for a totalitarian philosophy that proved to be genocidal. Although she was witty, charming and a biographer of distinction, it would be impossible to imagine a play about Diana Mosley in which her enthusiasm for Nazism was not placed squarely at the centre. Like Diana, Dalton Trumbo didn’t kill anyone or take up arms against his country. Like Diana, he went to jail and paid a price for being merely a youthful supporter of a totalitarian philosophy that proved to be genocidal. Though the play won’t tell you the answer to that famous question – “Are you now or have you ever…?” – the answer is: yes, he was. The more interesting question is: How do you feel about getting one of the great moral questions of the century wrong?

Don't hold your breath waiting for a play to answer that question anytime soon! But do read the whole thing, as they say.

Posted 10/31/2003 02:29:42 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLASHBACK: Halloween seemed particularly scary two years ago. The fact it's trick-or-treating as ususal speaks volumes about both how effective we've been in the Middle East, and how quickly we forget the past.

Posted 10/31/2003 01:37:50 PM by Edward Driscoll
BEATS MICHAEL SAVAGE, ANY DAY: CNBC hires Dennis Miller to host show. For our previous coverage of Miller, whom we've always liked, going back to his "Weekend Update" days, click here.

Posted 10/31/2003 01:26:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
OPEN MOUTH, INSERT FOOT: Wesley Clark, in Maxim magazine:

In the 19th century, we were motivated by manifest destiny. In the 20th century, it was the idea that it was our duty to contain the spread of Communism and keep open the door for freedom. Today there is no substantial challenge to American ideals.

As James Taranto wrote, "Islamic fundamentalism? Never heard of it."

Posted 10/31/2003 12:55:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHAT DID LP STAND FOR, GRANDPA? Nick Gillespie writes on how file sharing clears out the dead wood.

Posted 10/31/2003 12:41:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORNING IN AMERICA: John Podheretz describes yesterday's economic news as "disaster for Dems". As we said way back in February...

Posted 10/31/2003 10:40:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
ECONOMY DODGES A BULLET: Senate rejects McCain-Lieberman global warming bill. UPDATE (11/2/03): Pete du Pont has some thoughts.

Posted 10/30/2003 08:07:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
COMING SOON TO A TARMAC NEAR YOU: "Group Captain Lionel Mandrake" has a list of the Concorde SSTs' retirement homes.

Posted 10/30/2003 08:00:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT: My review of Sony's brand-new The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, a box set of five CDs of jams, out-takes and alternate takes that make up the seminal 1971 Miles Davis album is up on Blogcritics. It's complete with screen captures of Miles and Jack Johnson in the ring (not together, of course!) via my brand-new DVD-burner and its screen capture program.

Posted 10/30/2003 12:55:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
MONDAY MORNING FIREFIGHTING: Matt Welch writes that "natural disasters and bad public policy go together like drought and fire", and has numerous examples (and links) to prove his case.

Posted 10/30/2003 11:40:06 AM by Edward Driscoll
WHY YES, that is my profile of Chris Muir and his "Day By Day" cartoon in Tech Central Station today! UPDATE: Damon addicts unite! Dean Esmay, linking to my TCS article, reprints his excellent interview with Muir on Blogcritics.

Posted 10/30/2003 11:38:06 AM by Edward Driscoll
SEND SLUGGER O'TOOLE BACK TO IRELAND! Well, at least for a little while: Slugger O'Toole, a UK-based blog covering Northern Ireland politics and culture, is looking to do a Josh Marshall, and cover the Northern Ireland elections firsthand. He's already raised a few pounds, and could use more.

Posted 10/29/2003 10:59:00 PM by Edward Driscoll
CLEAN BOOT: A hard drive in my wife's office died. Guess who got to install a new one, and reinstall Windows 2000, Outlook 2002, Word 2000, IE6, Norton System Works 2004, and all of the friggin' updates and patches tonight? Just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts this afternoon and evening.

Posted 10/29/2003 12:56:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
JUMPED THE SHARK: It may very well be that when future historians look back on the Dean campaign, this was the moment it passed its freshness date. UPDATE: James Lileks has it exactly right, as usual:

Back to the house. Get to work. Call up browser. Learn that Howard Dean temporarily called himself a “metrosexual.” Shudder. Do they have that on tape? Lee Atwater would have the commercial in production already: Split screen. On the right, Bush in flight suit, walking on the deck, waving, giving the thumbs up. On the left, Dean in a loop: “I’m a metrosexual. I’m a metrosexual. I’m a metrosexual.” Nothing more. Tagline: Bush. He doesn’t moisturize. He doesn’t tweeze. And he never had a pedicure.

When I wrote my original post, I was tempted to ask if this was Dean's Dukakis-in-the-tank moment. Maybe it will be.

Posted 10/29/2003 11:45:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
SAVE LIVES, GO TO THE BRIG: Why is the Army punishing an American officer who coerced an Iraqi into providing information that foiled a planned attack on U.S. soldiers?? Shades of LBJ and McNamara.

Posted 10/29/2003 11:22:08 AM by Edward Driscoll
MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF CLARKS: The Keir Dullea/Wesley Clark connection, as discovered by Camille Paglia. UPDATE: And here's the Clark/George C. Scott/Karl Malden connection.

Posted 10/29/2003 11:05:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
TURF WAR: Why were Air National Guard fire-fighting C-130s kept on the ground during the first phases of the devastating Southern California fires?

Posted 10/28/2003 09:30:46 PM by Edward Driscoll
MEET THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM ("same as the old anti-Semitism" quips Charles Johnson), as explained by Mort Zuckerman.

Posted 10/28/2003 03:44:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
HOW WILL HE GOVERN? Mr. Schwarzenegger goes to Sacramento. John Fund has some thoughts. Unfortunately, Mayor Quimby and Rainier Wolfcastle could not be reached for comment.

Posted 10/28/2003 03:17:58 PM by Edward Driscoll
ROTISSERIE JOURNALISM LEAGUE: Scott Ott "reports" that it's new at the New York Times!

Posted 10/28/2003 01:56:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE TRAPPINGS OF MODERNIZATION: Back on September 11th of this year, we quoted Mackubin Thomas Owens' brilliant line, that "9/11 revealed an emerging geopolitical reality: that the world's most important fault line is not between the rich and the poor, but between those who accept modernity and those who reject it." Saul Singer, commenting on Mahathir Muhammed's breathtakingly anti-Semitic speech a couple of weeks ago, picks up the theme:

Like the satisfied porcines in [George Orwell's Animal Farm], the summiteers in Malaysia blithely adopt the language of freedom and human rights. But when they talk about oppression, they mean being deprived of the right to dictate. Those who see Mahathir as a moderate are confusing the trappings of modernization with the modernization of the mind. Muslims, including the most fundamentalist variety, would be happy to embrace a very modern device, the nuclear bomb, in the service of an aim as primitive as the caveman's club. Mahathir's speech shows that the West has made progress in convincing the Muslim world that the means it employs are futile. But the speech was also a step backward in that it challenged Muslims to wage jihad with brains, not to snap out of it altogether. The goal of the war against terrorism should be to cure the Muslim world of a form of jihad that kills us and enslaves them. The first sign that a real corner has been turned will be when Muslims start talking about living with, rather than destroying, the State of Israel.

We've certainly got our work cut out achieving that.

Posted 10/28/2003 11:58:26 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE GEORGE ORWELL/ATKINS DIET CONNECTION, as discovered by Lileks, J., citizen of Oceania.

Posted 10/28/2003 11:49:26 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS PUTIN'S RUSSIA ANTI-SEMITIC? Stephen Green links to a Washington Post article which suggests it is--big time.

Posted 10/28/2003 11:33:50 AM by Edward Driscoll
BUT AFTER ALL, IT WAS YOU AND ME: John Hawkins notes that the Democratic Underground has a up a poll asking, "Did Bush Family Interests kill JFK?":

Currently, 59 out of the 79 (75%) of people who have voted in this admittedly slanted poll have selected option 1, which is, "yes. Absolutely".

Oliver Stone, call your office!

Posted 10/28/2003 11:26:00 AM by Edward Driscoll
"U.S. OCCUPATION STILL A QUAGMIRE": A rather surprising admission by the folks at the Brothers Judd Blog, but there you have it. Of course, having toured the front lines of that region myself, I'd say its citizens aren't too worse for wear under their occupation.

Posted 10/28/2003 10:44:16 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE SIREN SOUND OF SONTAG: Sullivan examines a recent quote of Susan Sontag and writes, "If you ever had any doubts where the far left is headed, listen to Sontag. Before long they will be forced to the logical conclusion of their current hatred of the U.S.: open support for Islamist terror." Based on this and this, and this, I'd say they're getting closer every day.

Posted 10/26/2003 10:31:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANDREW SULLIVAN ON THE PROTESTORS:

It seems to me that the far left anti-war message, misguided before the war, is close to obscene today, and tells us something about what we're up against. Before the war, these people claimed they weren't pro-Saddam; they were just pro-peace. But now that the Iraqi people have the first chance in living memory to have a decent, pluralist and democratic country, these demonstrators want to abandon them to chaos, terror, civil war and a possible new dictatorship. The only connective thread in this movement is hatred of the United States. (Oh, and Israel. Some posters [carried by protestors] openly called for the eradication of the Jewish state.)

Of course, they're far from the only protestors to do so.

Posted 10/26/2003 07:24:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
MONDAY NIGHT IN TEMPE: As a result of the devastating fires in southern California, the NFL is moving tomorrow night's Chargers-Dolphins game to Tempe, Arizona, from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Posted 10/26/2003 03:40:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
OFF THE FLOOR: CNSNews.com reports that, "The resignation of Richard Grasso as chairman of the New York Stock Exchange may be hurting Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project. For the first time, Jackson will not be utilizing the prestige of the NYSE floor to host his annual Wall Street Project gala fundraiser".

Posted 10/26/2003 12:29:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE SHALLOW EDGE: David Brooks writes about living "in the Age of Edge". UPDATE: speaking of edgy and shallow...

Posted 10/26/2003 12:04:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
WHO'S WINNING THE THINK TANK WARS? Richard W. Rahn has some thoughts.

Posted 10/26/2003 11:24:07 AM by Edward Driscoll
SOME "PEACE" ACTIVISTS probably thought this was a good thing.