Posted 6/5/2004 11:10:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
I FINALLY WATCHED TOM SELLECK'S PORTRAYAL OF IKE TODAY. It had been sitting on my PVR's hard drive since Monday, and today seemed like a very good day to view it. I thought Selleck's portrayal of Eisenhower was spot-on, and very much like George C Scott's of Patton: neither actor looks much like the man they portrayed, and neither was trying to do an impersonation, but both captured their essence brilliantly. (Both films share some similarities: in Patton, it was Ike who was the great man just off screen; here, it's FDR.) FDR freed western Europe. President Reagan freed its eastern half, as Scott Johnson describes, here.

Posted 6/5/2004 10:57:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
HOW REAGANOMICS MADE THE WORLD WORK: While President Reagan will best be remembered as the man who won the Cold War, he also revitalized our economy when it was in its worst slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. So it's worth remembering the thoughts of another great man recently deceased, the late Robert L. Bartley, longtime editor of the Wall Street Journal.

Posted 6/5/2004 10:51:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
PEJMANESQUE: Pejman Yousefzadeh has several thoughts on President Reagan, here.

Posted 6/5/2004 09:38:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION has a comprehensive site remembering President Reagan. UPDATE: Meanwhile, John Hawkins has a primer on the Gipper's legacy, "Reagan 101".

Posted 6/5/2004 09:32:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
SCOTT OTT: "In addition to recordings and transcripts of dozens of the most compelling, sincere and influential speeches ever heard, President Reagan also leaves behind an America that is no longer afraid to call evil what it is, and to do something about it".

Posted 6/5/2004 09:26:16 PM by Edward Driscoll
ROGER KIMBALL HAS A MOVING POST on The New Criterion's Weblog.

Posted 6/5/2004 09:18:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
LBJ'S SERVICE WILL BE MODEL FOR FUNERAL: Orrin Judd has details, here.

Posted 6/5/2004 05:40:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOT SURPRISINGLY, National Review Online has numerous articles on President Reagan. And here's my review of Steven Hayward's The Age of Reagan, Vol. I from 2002. UPDATE: Speaking of Steve Hayward, here are his thoughts on Ronald Reagan's successful legacy.

Posted 6/5/2004 02:05:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
RONALD REAGAN DEAD AT 93. UPDATE: Kathryn Jean Lopez writes:

As I understand it, Reagan will lie in state in Sacramento, then at the Capitol. Then there will be a memorial service at the National Cathedral, after which RR will be flown back to California for a sunset interment at the RR Library.

UPDATE: Paul Kengor, author of God And Ronald Reagan has a moving tribute, here. UPDATE: Terry Teachout has this prophetic quote from Reagan In His Own Hand:

"Communism is neither an ec[onomic] or a pol[itical] system--it is a form of insanity--a temporary aberration which will one day disappear from the earth because it is contrary to human nature. I wonder how much more misery it will cause before it disappears." Ronald Reagan, Reagan, In His Own Hand (written 1975, collected 2001)

Teachout looks at another collection of President Reagan's writings, here. UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg compares the coverage at CNN and Fox News (I'm watching Fox as I type this, incidentally). UPDATE: John Kerry's statement--complete with a nasty dig at the 40th President--here. UPDATE: Nice tribute to the Gipper from Gabriel Syme of Samizdata. UPDATE: Speaking of nasty digs, check out Slate's coverage of a former president's death: "The Man Who Ruined Republicans". UPDATE: Alphecca, a self-proclaimed "gay gun nut in Vermont" has collected some quotes from a few left-leaning blogs on the Gipper's death. And like Slate, they're not pretty. LAST UPDATE (for now): Many more links here.

Posted 6/5/2004 01:57:24 PM by Edward Driscoll
TOO MUCH, TOO LATE: David Gelernter writes that baby boomers are heaping insincere praise on the "greatest generation":

My political credo is simple and many people share it: I am against phonies. A cultural establishment that (on the whole) doesn't give a damn about World War II or its veterans thinks it can undo a half-century of indifference verging on contempt by repeating a silly phrase ("the greatest generation") like a magic spell while deploying fulsome praise like carpet bombing. The campaign is especially intense among members of the 1960s generation who once chose to treat all present and former soldiers like dirt and are willing at long last to risk some friendly words about World War II veterans, now that most are safely underground and guaranteed not to talk back, enjoy their celebrity or start acting like they own the joint. A quick glance at the famous Hemingway B.S. detector shows the needle pegged at Maximum, where it's been all week, from Memorial Day through the D-Day anniversary run-up.

RTWT.

Posted 6/5/2004 01:47:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
ROCK AND FARKING ROLL: The fabulously talented Photoshoppers of Fark give today's celebrities and politicians some hairmetal-band makeovers. Mullets to the fore! (Via "Hit & Run".)

Posted 6/5/2004 12:36:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
HOLY SCHNIKIES! Village Voice calls for all Republicans to be "exterminated". No, really! UPDATE: Charles Johnson writes:

There's a bad craziness loose among the media elites. That a reputable journalist would write such a thing is bad enough--but for any paper, even the Village Voice, to publish it without a qualm is infinitely worse.

I thought the whole beef that elites have Weblogs is that there's no editor to fact check and to prevent over the top remarks from being published. With the Village Voice, you have to wonder what's in the water, that would allow an editor to let a quote like that to fly under radar. Of course, as James Lileks presciently wrote this past week:

To paraphrase an influential thinker of the previous century: The death of millions is a statistic. The reelection of one is a tragedy.

That's certainly true as far as 36 Cooper Square is concerned. Never mind the fact that a real extermination occurred only a few blocks away from there.

Posted 6/5/2004 12:25:36 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOD AND FDR GET CENSORED AT THE WWII MEMORIAL: California Yankee has the details. (Via Betsy Newmark, who has lots of other good stuff today, as usual.)

Posted 6/4/2004 06:32:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
PUTTING ABU GHRAIB into context. (Via Jeff Goldstein.)

Posted 6/4/2004 06:06:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
WOW, AND THIS WAS BEFORE I STARTED DRINKING! Proof positive that I was indeed at the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash last Friday. No fault of the photographer (who also has a nifty Weblog), but I really look embalmed in my photo. I think it was taken shortly after I walked in the door and long before Jeff Goldstein took off his pants.

Posted 6/4/2004 05:31:41 PM by Edward Driscoll
GIVING UP QUIET RIOT FOR JIHAD: The FBI's "be on the lookout for" list contains the following name: Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, a.k.a. Abu Suhayb, a.k.a. Yihya Majadin Adams, a.k.a. Adam Yahiye Gadahn. AKA Adam Pearlman. No, really. "Asparagirl" looks at how "the half-Jewish half-Catholic son of rural California goat-farming hippies" ended up converting to Islam and making the charts on the FBI's hit parade as a Johnny Taliban-come-lately.

Posted 6/4/2004 04:48:10 PM by Edward Driscoll
ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER: David Brock, the conservative turned liberal journalist who now heads Media Matters, the left's answer to Brent Bozell's Media Research Center recently said this:

...journalists have allowed themselves to be cowed by "organized right-wing groups." "I think they are afraid," Brock said. "For a long time, the mainstream media has not stood up. They've essentially allowed Fox to happen. They do not cover Limbaugh -- he is a serious political figure in this country -- they don't write about what he says."

OK--so the news media is right wing--but they don't cover its most prominent radio talk show host. ....Right. (Oh and by the way, Rush is featured in Time magazine this week. He felt so comfortable talking to the house organ of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that he also tape recorded the interview himself, in case Time butchered one of his quotes.) UPDATE: Tim Graham of the Media Research Center notes:

CNN did a whole story promoting their campaign to censor Rush Limbaugh off the Armed Forces Radio Network. Can you imagine how they would have reacted if an MRC had demanded the removal of NPR from Armed Forces Radio because it was too demoralizing to troops? PS: Their Web site is hot and heavy defending George Soros from conservative attack this week. They know who butters their panini.

Posted 6/4/2004 09:43:45 AM by Edward Driscoll
CBS POLL SHOWS VETS FAVOR BUSH: Given how veterans have rejected Kerry (not the least of which are those who served directly with him) and are supporting President Bush overwhelmingly, I'll bet the left has turned on a dime from the chickenhawk sophistry they tried to employ last year.

Posted 6/4/2004 01:21:37 AM by Edward Driscoll
COMMANDO? Andrew Sullivan notes that the "anti-Western left has come up with a new term for a terrorist". I wonder if Reuters will start using this one.

Posted 6/3/2004 03:13:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
LILEKS ON LOS ATHEISTS: "I wouldn't join a movement that wanted to add a cross to a public seal. But I am dead-set stone-cold opposed to those who, in this instance, want to take one off". UPDATE: Those crosses probably won't be the last religious symbol to vanish on LA's seal. Hugh Hewitt writes, "The days of law and logic at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have already passed, so Pomona ought to leave with them". Read his interview with some of the more spineless members of the board.

Posted 6/3/2004 03:09:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
AS JEFF GOLDSTEIN SAYS, "Mike Wallace: Brillcreamed, rough-hewn, old school... And spanked like Carl Berstein 'on assignment' in Bangkok". UPDATE: Wallace told Bill O'Reilly, "I had no idea C-SPAN was there...Mind you, I should not probably have said it there", at the Smithsonian's "National World War II Reunion". Brent Baker adds, "One wonders what other opinions Wallace shares when C-SPAN cameras aren’t around". In his recent syndicated column, Jonah Goldberg referred to this exchange from a 1989 PBS show, where Wallace admitted that given the choice between saving American soldiers' lives and getting a story out of their being killed in action, he'd simply roll tape and not feel the least but sorry for refusing to help them.

Posted 6/3/2004 02:59:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
I'D SECOND SEVERAL OF THE PEOPLE ON THIS LIST: John Hawkins looks at "People On The Right Who Get On My Nerves".

Posted 6/3/2004 01:26:46 PM by Edward Driscoll
DR. HUXTABLE MEETS THE BLOGOSPHERE: Matt Rosenberg analyzes how the press covered Bill Cosby's speech at the NAACP two weeks ago and concludes:

Dick Meyer of CBSNews.com gets it right: "Plenty of white writers or editors simply avoid wading into this altogether because it is perceived as too risky, too easy to be accused of prejudice, or meddling." And that avoidance, as Meyer notes, "ensures the issues become even more buried. Pimp rap goes uncriticized. Schools stay bad." The slow but now-steady spread of the Cosby story illustrates one more way bloggers serve an invaluable function: not just by rebutting or correcting the news; but by watering and "sunshining" stories that are dying on the vine because they disrupt the pre-conceived liberal agendas of media elites. Many bloggers who depend on the news hold in low regard the person whose job title is "Page One Editor," "National Editor," or "Foreign Editor." And rightly so, all too often. These folks play up what they like according to their politics, and downplay what they don't like. What gets two inches on page A12 might really deserve 25 inches, starting on Page One. Enter the humble blogger. True, the percentage of Internet users who report they view blogs regularly is still low. But even then, we're talking some 31 million regular blog viewers. Admittedly, some blogs are about knitting, snow-boarding, or origami. Others are authored by navel-gazing college students, polyamorists, vegan anarchists, or self-declared alcoholics detailing each wretched night's debauch. But watch out for many of the rest. Their reach grows. The Cosby story — like others before it — has shown that a news story can grow "legs" thanks more to repackagers in the blogosphere than to "legitimate" print and broadcast outlets.

Read the whole thing.

Posted 6/3/2004 01:44:08 AM by Edward Driscoll
FYI FOR BOATERS: The international signal flag code has been revised. Boaters should please memorize this list and adjust accordingly.

Posted 6/2/2004 02:38:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
ABOUT DENVER: It's been a pretty hectic few days here, and normally, when I want to actually write about something rather simply linking to it, I like a few minutes to think about what I want to say. So I haven't had a chance yet to write about the Denver Blogger Bash on Friday--so let's remedy that. It was a blast. I've been online continuously since 1994 (actually, I was also in CompuServe briefly around 1982, but that didn't last very long). And over the past decade, whenever I've had the opportunity, I've tried to meet in person those people whose pixels I've enjoyed reading. So with the help of some frequent flier miles, it was possible to shoot in and out Denver International Airport fairly quickly. I'm not sure why the Denver area has so many great bloggers around it--but at 1:00 in the morning, while Steve Green was cutting Kim's arguments defending suicide bombers to ribbons, (man I wish I was that articulate after four Martinis) I had an interesting conversation with Darren Copeland's friend about the regional aspects of blogging. I tend to discount them; I'm of the opinion that thanks to the Internet (and especially, thanks to broadband), anybody anywhere who has an opinion can get a Weblog from Blogger or Typepad and get his thoughts online. But having a community of friends for support and to bounce ideas off of is great. And the Denver crowd certainly seemed pretty unified. What was interesting was comparing the discussions of the bloggers with those who don't blog. Steve noted his exchange with Kim, which was pretty darn heated. And simultaneously, I watched Darren's friend pounding the table as his gave us his opinions. And I'm pretty sure that neither of them have a blog. There's something about knowing that your ideas are going up on the 'Net, and that your friends and acquaintances would be parsing them, adding on to them or rejecting them that makes one choose his or her words very carefully. It's a very different medium from the bully pulpit of a newspaper where the communication is much more one way. (See also: Raines, Howell.) So I can see where regular gatherings of bloggers would not only keep those who actively do it psyched to continue, it also provides a subtle push for others to join in the fun as well. Curious, isn't it, that the 'Net, which was supposed to create an global village free of boundaries (that's the mindset if you smoked enough McLuhan, like Wired did) ends up doing a far better job of strengthening regional ties. Incidentally, this was my first trip to Denver, other than changing planes at DIA. But hopefully it won't be my last. It looks like a great city. And the people in it aren't too shabby, either.

Posted 6/2/2004 02:37:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
LUMP SUM: Sgt. Stryker wants his reparations--now.

Posted 6/2/2004 02:09:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANDREW SULLIVAN FISKS HOWELL RAINES, noting that his "fascinating little column" praising Kerry "is a very useful insight into how he turned The New York Times into a crusading left-populist pamphlet" as its former editor. And as Glenn Reynolds' readers have noted, it also has this whopper in it:

In that Raines article in the Guardian you linked, he writes "As America's FIRST WAR-HERO candidate since John F Kennedy, he ought to be leading the national discussion on what went wrong in Iraq." You would think Howell Raines would have heard of George McGovern or at least George H.W. Bush, right?

Hey, it's not like an editor checks facts or anything.

Posted 6/2/2004 12:58:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
LOS ATHEISTS: Los Angeles County surrenders to ACLU; will remove the crosses on its seal. As Ramesh Ponnuru wrote, "No word on how long the county will be allowed to keep its name". UPDATE: Charles Johnson has contact information for LA County, "if you live in LA and are as outraged about this totalitarian attempt to erase history as I am". I'm sure they'd like to hear from out-of-towners as well.

Posted 6/2/2004 01:30:35 AM by Edward Driscoll
BLACKIE: Got a spare $150,000 or so under the mattress? Then one of Eric Clapton's most famous guitars could be yours. (In 1985 I bought my first Fender Stratocaster--which I still own--a black 1957 reissue with a maple fretboard. Guess which guitar I was trying to copy?) Incidentally, "Brownie", Blackie's sister is on display at Paul Allen's EMP Museum in Seattle. It was the guitar featured on the title song and back cover of this album. Consequently, it sold (presumably to Allen or an intermediary) during a previous auction for $497,000. UPDATE: If you decide to take a second or third mortage out to bid on the axe, you might want to avoid Green Point Mortgage...

Posted 6/1/2004 04:40:33 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE KUMBAYA KID: If elected, John Kerry promises to make all of the bad people around the world get rid of their nuclear weapons--including North Korea and Iran. Of course if they don't, there's always this option.

Posted 6/1/2004 04:00:14 PM by Edward Driscoll
THEN AND NOW: David Lewis Schaefer and Mark Levin each look at The New York Times 50 years ago and today, and find some interesting parallels--and not surprisingly, divergences. Meanwhile, Hyspeed wonders how Fleet Street would have covered World War II had it been dominated by the mindset of today's media. His headline? "BISMARCK SUNK, BRITAIN DOOMED".

Posted 6/1/2004 02:24:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
I HAVEN'T LINKED TO JAY NORDLINGER IN A WHILE, and that's an oversight on my part. As usual, he's got lots of great stuff today, so stop on by.

Posted 6/1/2004 01:47:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
ANDREW SULLIVAN PUTS THE WAR ON TERROR INTO PERSPECTIVE and concludes that it's "an extraordinary success". "Now watch the media do all it can to accentuate the negative", he adds. Meanwhile, Rod Dreher has a column on that very subject in the Dallas Morning News, and adds:

I've been getting great e-mails all day from around the country over my DMN column whacking the media for ignoring the good news out of Iraq. One of my correspondents was Mark Tapscott at the Heritage Foundation, who sends along results of a Gallup poll released today. The poll surveyed the confidence Americans had in their institutions. The military got the highest rating, with 75 percent of those polled expressing a "great deal" of confidence, while only five percent saying they had "very little or none" in the military. Compare that with TV news, in which 30 percent of respondents report a "great deal" of confidence, and a nearly equal number reporting "very little or none." It's not much better for newspapers: 30 percent have a "great deal" of confidence, while 25 percent have "very little or none." The U.S. military, then, is the most popular institution in America. The news media are among the least popular.

"And of course", Dreher notes, "this will be ignored in newsrooms, which have an uncanny ability to ignore handwriting on the wall when it tells them things they don't want to hear". UPDATE: John Hawkins also has some thoughts on the topic.

Posted 6/1/2004 11:28:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD: P.J. O'Rourke writes that maybe America should become isolationist again:

And the best thing about Americans recusing ourselves from global entanglements is that we will be loved again. Imagine a world where American manners and mores set the standard almost everywhere, where American fashions, American ideas and American lifestyles are universally sought out and copied. A world where people avidly listen to American music, eagerly watch American TV and movies, and try to imitate Americans in every way. Imagine a world where the U.S.A. is so admired that people by the millions want nothing more than to come to America and recuse themselves from global entanglements.

Hey--it could happen!

Posted 6/1/2004 10:59:53 AM by Edward Driscoll
TO FREEDOM: Right around the time of the global Live Aid concerts in 1985, Amnesty International began running a slickly produced commercial featuring numerous celebrities, including Glenn Close, who said that in many countries, raising a toast to freedom could get you arrested, and that Amnesty International was fighting for those oppressed people everywhere. Sadly, that was a long time ago.

Posted 6/1/2004 10:43:06 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE LEGACY OF CROKNITE: Steven Den Beste has two long, detailed posts on media bias. Makes a nice triple-feature with our interview with Bernard Goldberg, author of Bias and Arrogance.

Posted 6/1/2004 01:04:17 AM by Edward Driscoll
A LITTLE LATE FOR MEMORIAL DAY, but there's a terrific new article on Insight Magazine's Website about Les Paul and the fighting music of World War II. (Via Charles Johnson. For our profile of Les Paul, click here.)

Posted 5/31/2004 07:12:56 PM by Edward Driscoll
ED'S ON ACID: Acid Planet that is, where my Blogcritics piece on improving vocals is currently the lead article in the "Dirt from Dave" links. And they made me look just like David Bowie in the photograph they selected, too! (Now you do you sound like you're on acid--Ed. Oh sure--and talking to myself certainly helps matters!)

Posted 5/30/2004 01:01:13 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE ROAD AWAY FROM SERFDOM: 2004 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek. Arnold Beichman writes that "to remain a Marxist today or a Marxist fellow-traveler when the whole world has voted against the malice of Marxism raises the most profound questions as to the rationality of the true believer". In other ecomomic-related news, Larry Kudlow declares the current economy "a boom with legs":

Over the past year, following enactment of the president's tax-cut plan, real economic growth has increased 5 percent with only 1.6 percent inflation. After-tax profits have increased 37 percent (fully adjusted for depreciation and capital consumption). Business spending on equipment and software has grown 12.5 percent. Since last August, 1.1 million jobs have been created. Spendable income has increased 4.9 percent in real terms. Consumer spending is up 4.3 percent. The economy is roaring at its fastest in 20 years, and there's no clear reason the prosperity trends won't continue.

Kudlow asks, "Why can't the naysayers see it?"