Posted 7/10/2004 03:25:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
TWO TAKES ON THE OUTDOORS: On NRO's "The Corner", it's the NRA versus the Sierra Club.

Posted 7/10/2004 03:09:51 PM by Edward Driscoll
JOE WILSON LIED, REPUTATIONS DIED, writes Glenn Reynolds. Kevin Patrick has more.

Posted 7/10/2004 03:02:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME: William Kristol writes that John Kerry is another 9/10 Democrat:

LAST THURSDAY, CNN's Larry King asked John Kerry whether he would want former President Bill Clinton to campaign on his behalf. Kerry said yes. "What American would not trade the economy we had in the 1990s, the fact that we were not at war and young Americans were not deployed?" Kerry's answer is revealing. We were, in fact, at war. The Clinton administration, with the exception of a few cruise missiles, had simply chosen not to fight back. Osama bin Laden, a sworn enemy of the United States, had launched attacks on our embassies and on a warship of the U.S. Navy. Saddam Hussein had defied U.N. weapons inspections, repeatedly threatened America, and attempted to assassinate former President Bush. Furthermore, where does Kerry object to young Americans' being deployed? Afghanistan? But Kerry has criticized the Bush administration for an insufficient commitment of troops there. Iraq? But Kerry voted for the war and has said he would not cut and run.

Further proof that it's 9/10 for Kerry: he skipped an intelligence briefing to watch Whoopi Goldberg berate his vice presidential candidate.

Posted 7/10/2004 02:54:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
SEATTLE HATES AMERICA, writes Michelle Malkin.

Posted 7/10/2004 01:32:23 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE FLUIDITY OF HISTORY: I'm far from a postmodernist, but it's amazing how fluid history can be. Steven Den Beste tells us that the Waterloo we know isn't the Waterloo that actually happened.

Posted 7/10/2004 01:23:35 AM by Edward Driscoll
OH THAT LIBERAL MEDIA: Indeed.

Posted 7/9/2004 07:55:05 PM by Edward Driscoll
A MAN IN FULL: I have an article I'm especially proud of in the latest issue of Nuts & Volts. It's on Roy Norman, a man, now in his early 80s, who served in the Navy during some of the first H-Bomb tests in the late 1940s, then onboard the USS Enterprise (not the one commanded by William Shatner or Patrick Stewart), and then retired from the service to be an electronics consultant. It's illustrated with several photos from Norman's career that he sent me to scan (and restore) for publication. The text isn't online, but it's an article that (in my humble opinion) is well worth reading.

Posted 7/9/2004 07:54:44 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE REVOLUTION WILL BE DIGITIZED: I have an article in the current issue of Smart TV & Sound on Internet file downloading. Pick up a copy or ten at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble!

Posted 7/9/2004 07:53:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
INTEL BRINGS WIRELESS TO EVERY ROOM: My latest "Ideas For Every Room" Electronic House newsletter is online.

Posted 7/9/2004 07:14:48 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES OF MILLION AIR: The John-Johns do!

Posted 7/9/2004 05:14:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
A GOOD SIGN, IF FAR TOO LATE: Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran emails bloggers about his article correcting his omission of Paul Bremer's farewell speech. As one of the bloggers contacted by Chandrasekaran writes, "Now let's see if the media will apply this lesson going forward, and start reading blogs before they make [more]embarrassing high-profile mistakes like this." I don't know if Chandrasekaran has publicly responded to U.S. Marine Eric Johnson's takedown of him in The New York Post, but I've got to think it played a role in his being willing to listen to bloggers.

Posted 7/9/2004 04:59:32 PM by Edward Driscoll
WOW--WHAT DO THEY PUT IN THOSE DRIVE-THROUGH DAIQUIRIS*? I've read that Democratic Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu was something of a moderate Democrat. No more--she's caught Michael Moore fever.

Posted 7/9/2004 03:51:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
'BOUT TIME: The Catholic Church equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

Posted 7/9/2004 12:20:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
LET'S GET IT ON: As Rich Lowry writes, turn your sound on before watching this.

Posted 7/9/2004 01:52:29 AM by Edward Driscoll
IS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AMERICA'S AIR MARSHALS BEING COMPROMISED by their strict dress code?

Posted 7/9/2004 01:45:02 AM by Edward Driscoll
RETHINKING RED-LIGHT CAMERAS: Former Congressman Bob Barr is none-too-thrilled with intersection and speed trap cameras--and he's right.

Posted 7/9/2004 01:40:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
RAIL-BASED TERRORISM: The Washington Times has an article titled, "Boston, New York rail lines vulnerable" to terrorism, something that we noted back in May. Back then, I wrote "I really fear that we're going to wake up to another Madrid, only it will be in Manhattan's Penn Station, not Spain". And I hope (and pray) that my fears continue to be unfounded. UPDATE: Speaking of Madrid, Hugh Hewitt had this item on his Blog on Thursday:

Today, on the floor of the United States Senate, Barbara Boxer referred to the Madrid bombings as a "rail accident." Honest. A rail accident. Boxer is a Senate accident. What an embarassment. I posed the question to my audience: How much money could Boxer lose in a Jeopardy game, assuming that, in her typical fashion, she obnoxiously buzzed in first every time and, also in typical fashion, she got everything wrong. The best calculation seems to be $58,000.

A rail accident??

Posted 7/8/2004 11:28:19 PM by Edward Driscoll
FAHRENHEIT 640 (ON THE AM DIAL): Asa Hutchinson, the Homeland Security undersecretary, goes on an LA talk show and "gets burned big time", Michelle Malkin writes, calling Hutchinson an "invertebrate" for his politically correct response when confronted with serious questions about the porous nature of California's border.

Posted 7/8/2004 10:48:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
WILL FRIST PLAY HARDBALL WITH KERRY AND EDWARDS? Betsy Newmark says that having two senators running for national office could end up hurting the Democrats--if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is really willing to play hardball.

Posted 7/8/2004 10:46:21 PM by Edward Driscoll
POWER LINE NOTES THAT the Associated Press sound like they're channeling Michael Moore.

Posted 7/8/2004 10:39:34 PM by Edward Driscoll
BUSH AND THE NAACP: Pejman Yousefzadeh has some thoughts and some links, on President Bush's decision not to speak at the NAACP this year.

Posted 7/8/2004 10:21:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE JULY SURPRISE: I don't know if this New Republic piece amounts to much, but it's fun to see the left fear election year surprises from the right for a change. Of course, as James Lileks wrote:

I ask my Democrat friends what they’d rather see happen – Bush reelected and bin Laden caught, or Bush defeated and bin Laden still in the wind. They’re all honest: they’d rather see Bush defeated.

But hey, don't question their patriotism!

Posted 7/8/2004 10:13:26 PM by Edward Driscoll
STEFAN BECK OF THE NEW CRITERION writes, "There's a welcome novelty: one Muslim country scrutinizing the terrorist operations of another. Who says Operation Iraqi Freedom didn't change anything?"

Posted 7/8/2004 09:54:47 PM by Edward Driscoll
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATORS WANT TO PUT A DUCK FARM OUT OF BUSINESS: Yes, you read that right, as the foie gras bill (yes, you read that right too) progresses. If this passes, how long before steak will be a thing of the past in California? If the majority of Americans oppose abortion but it's still legal, how can a tiny minority of Californians cause a man to lose his business and diners to lose a dish they've enjoyed for hundreds of years?

Posted 7/8/2004 08:49:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE DAILY ADVENTURES OF MIXERMAN: You read the online diary, now buy the book!

Posted 7/8/2004 07:18:15 PM by Edward Driscoll
OFFERS HE COULDN'T REFUSE: Mark Steyn does a brilliant job deconstructing Marlon Brando.

Posted 7/8/2004 01:25:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG with that. UPDATE: James Taranto has some thoughts on the hair care pair.

Posted 7/8/2004 01:24:57 PM by Edward Driscoll
WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN: Pete Townshend has some less than kind words for Michael Moore.

Posted 7/8/2004 12:14:12 PM by Edward Driscoll
IS IRON MIKE DITKA BEING DRAFTED FOR THE SENATE?? Whatever Da Coach's decision, this is a riot.

Posted 7/8/2004 11:47:36 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE PROFESSOR NOTES THE LA TIMES is issuing a correction for claiming that Paul Bremer never gave a farewell speech when he left Iraq. Glenn also has this quote from the LA Times:

If the American news media are lucky, 2004 will be remembered as the year of living dangerously. If not, then this election cycle may be recalled as the point at which journalism's slide back into partisanship became a kind of free fall.

I don't think the media has slid back into partisanship--they've just let the mask slip more often, and made their biases more obvious in straight reporting--as well as being forgetful when it suits their purposes. But that's been going on in increasing numbers for 15 to 20 years now. Personally, I don't think a partisan media is all that bad--the country did pretty well for its first 150 years or so with one, and all indications are that we're moving back to it. The key though, is explaining that it is biased, so that readers and viewers know what they're getting and providing them with choices. And since political correctness hasn't boosted readership, maybe it's time to go back to the future!

Posted 7/8/2004 11:35:10 AM by Edward Driscoll
WILL COLLIER SPOTS A JOHN KERRY WHOPPER that the press is extremely unlikely to pick up on.

Posted 7/8/2004 02:34:42 AM by Edward Driscoll
RHEINGOLD VERSUS THE ULTIMATE RINO*: The brewery is taking on New York's Nurse Bloomberg in a series of provocative advertisements.

Posted 7/8/2004 02:30:18 AM by Edward Driscoll
SPEAKING OF ACADEMIA, Cathy Young writes that political correctness never died--it just went under the radar after 9/11. As Young writes, "in the groves of academe, not all offensive speech is created equal".

Posted 7/8/2004 01:42:18 AM by Edward Driscoll
JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS: According to Amazon, Tom Wolfe's new book, I Am Charlotte Simmons, a novel on academia, is scheduled to be published on November 15th:

Dupont University--the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition . . . Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a freshman from Sparta, North Carolina (pop. 900), who has come here on full scholarship in full flight from her tobacco-chewing, beer-swilling high school classmates. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that Dupont is closer in spirit to Sodom than to Athens, and that sex, crank, and kegs trump academic achievement every time. As Charlotte encounters Dupont's privileged elite--her roommate, Beverly, a fleshy, Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jayjay Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turk of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennium Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock-obsessed campus--she gains a new, revelatory sense of her own power, that of her difference and of her very innocence, but little does she realize that she will act as a catalyst in all of their lives.

Wolfe's been working on this book for years--it should be a knockout.

Posted 7/7/2004 11:43:01 PM by Edward Driscoll
"WELL, I THINK THE--I THINK THE STARTING PLACE IS TO DO THE THING": John Edwards, on The Charlie Rose Show on September 11, 2001.

Posted 7/7/2004 11:21:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
JONAH GOLDBERG ON KERRY'S FATEFUL CHOICE: In his syndicated column, Jonah Goldberg writes:

The two Johns believe that America's problems lie in the White House, not overseas. They believe that there's a rich supply of "allies" who would take bullets intended for Americans, if only George Bush had better manners. They believe, despite the fact that George Bush has increased spending on education by 60 percent, and despite the fact that the environment is cleaner now than any time in more than fifty years, that what America really needs more than anything is an education president, an environmental president. Meanwhile, as our enemies lop the heads off our citizens and plan more 9/11s, George Bush says we need a war president. Sounds like the makings of a great debate.

Read the whole thing.

Posted 7/7/2004 10:53:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE OMBUDSGOD HAS SOME ADVICE for the NPR ombudsman on euphemisms for murder and terrorism. You can actually see the left turning back the calendar from 9/11 to 9/10 by reading the NPR ombudsman's linguistic decrees in September of 2001 and April of 2002. And be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page to read the Baghdad correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald's description of Saddam's hirsute appearance in the dock.

Posted 7/7/2004 10:30:52 PM by Edward Driscoll
NEWS TO ME--BUT NOT VERY SURPRISING: Jon Lauck notes that it was Tom Daschle who appointed the hyper-partisan Richard Ben-Veniste to the 9/11 commission and held weekly strategy meetings with him as the commission's hearings unfolded. And both were at the Washington premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11. UPDATE: Speaking of which, read in amazement as James Lileks slices and dices the enormous carcass of Michael Moore with surgical precision.

Posted 7/7/2004 10:02:09 PM by Edward Driscoll
TOM WOLFE'S NEW JOURNALISM PICKS: Just came across this, which is excerpted from his long out of print mid-'70s New Journalism anthology. There's some amazing writing here, before many of the writers that Wolfe highlighted became ossified and sclerotic.

Posted 7/7/2004 09:19:30 PM by Edward Driscoll
WELCOME RIGHT WING NEWS READERS: We're the site of the day there! (Thanks, John.)

Posted 7/7/2004 07:20:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
"LET AMERICA BE AMERICA": Andrew Sullivan has the goods on John Kerry's favorite poet:

Now I know Kerry is a liberal, but does he really want to cite a man who wanted to abolish private property and loved Stalin? Again, the right-left double standard. If a fascist poet in 1938 had called to remake a pure racial America on the lines of Hitler's Germany, would he now be quoted by any leading politician? But the communists get a pass. Again. And again. And again.

Of course, as the Professor writes, Kerry doesn't need to vet this sort of stuff, "if you're reasonably confident the press won't call you on 'em". Oh--and scroll up to Sullivan's next post, for some harsh words for Ted Rall's latest cartoon abortion. UPDATE: James Panero of The New Criterion also has some thoughts, on what he calls "That '30s Show".

Posted 7/7/2004 04:13:43 PM by Edward Driscoll
MY CARY GRANT PIECE, which I had to knock about 400 words off to fit into the allotted space of an Electronic House newsletter, is now online in its original form at Blogcritics. UPDATE: One of the films I mentioned as being newly out on DVD was Grant's Night and Day, a heavily whitewashed biopic of Cole Porter. It omits Porter's bisexuality, because audiences in 1946 would have flipped out, the script would never have gotten past the Hays Office, and Porter and his wife, Linda were still very much alive at the time. There's a new Porter film out starring Kevin Kline as Porter and Ashley Judd as Linda, called De-Lovely, which does explore Porter's sexuality in more detail, which isn't all that surprising considering today's standards and mores. But as an actual film, Rex Reed is not at all happy with it, writing that "Misery prevails from downbeat to encore":

No waiting around for the sour notes in De-Lovely: A no-fail idea begins to fail in the very first scene. An old man in a lonely penthouse plays a mournful "Night and Day" in a wheelchair. This is Kevin Kline as the dying Cole Porter—but with a bald head, liver spots and wrinkles for days, he doesn’t remotely resemble Kevin Kline, or Cole Porter. He looks like Carl Reiner. Suddenly he is visited by someone named Gabe (Jonathan Pryce) who is either an angel of death, a pallbearer or a Broadway producer hell-bent on staging a Cole Porter revival.

Contrast this to Grant's Night And Day, as Reed does:

There is one very funny scene in a Warner Brothers projection room where Linda and Cole watch the silly, overproduced 1946 biopic Night and Day, in which they were played by the luscious Alexis Smith and the elegant but riotously miscast Cary Grant. Even after the 1937 riding accident which left Cole drugged on scotch and morphine for the rest of his life, there was Cary, hale and hardy and strolling in the moonlight on two strong legs [actually, his Porter ends the film limping badly and relying on a cane--Ed] while the Warners symphony brought the film to a crashing finale. The lights come up in the screening room, and Kevin Kline says, "If I can survive this, I can survive anything." It’s the biggest laugh in the movie, but in reality Night and Day, which was directed by Michael Curtiz and has just been released on DVD, is a better-made movie than this current debacle, and a lot more fun. I mean, Mary Martin singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" majestically surpasses the droopy, who-gives-a-s*** Diana Krall, gloomily moping her way through a lifeless "Just One of Those Things." Night and Day was a mess, but it was an entertaining mess.

Movies as entertainment? How quaint.

Posted 7/7/2004 12:17:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE KENNEDY MYSTIQUE: Rich Lowry notes one of the more fascinating elements of Democratic politics, dating back to, I guess, at least the mid-1970s: JFK worship. But JFK's politics and policies are, in many respects far to the right of today's Democrats. As Lowry writes:

The hold JFK has over Democrats is extraordinary. Kerry would be the second consecutive Democratic president yearning to reprise the glories of Kennedy's 1,000 days. A star-struck Clinton idolized Kennedy before growing up to become himself a young, mediocre president with a weakness for the White House help. John Forbes Kerry shares JFK's initials, and has had a lifetime fascination with Kennedy. He fought on a Swift Boat in Vietnam, partly to repeat JFK's iconic PT-109 experience in World War II. Alas, despite Kerry's bravery, "Swift Boat No. 94" doesn't have quite the same resonance. What accounts for JFK's hold on the Dems? For one thing, he is all there is when it comes to Democratic presidential role models in the past 40 years. No one wants to be the next LBJ, JEC, or WJC. It's JFK or bust. What do liberals like about Kennedy's substance? The caution on civil rights? The tax cuts on the rich? The entry into Vietnam? It's the rhetoric and the image--those gorgeous pictures of Kennedy with Jackie--that make for much of the appeal. The JFK wannabes know the centrality of image to Kennedy's magic. Between Kerry's expensive haircuts and Edwards's hair-sprayed bangs, my guess is that no presidential ticket in the history of the planet has cared so much about personal grooming. When the ticketmates travel together, there will probably be stiff competition for the mirror and hair products. Teresa herself has gotten into the act, recently pronouncing herself "sexy"--an odd boast for someone auditioning for a job that usually involves reading to schoolchildren.

Richard Nixon was well-known for his strategy campaigning as a conservative, but governing like a liberal. In many respects, JFK worship is the liberal equivalent.

Posted 7/7/2004 11:48:57 AM by Edward Driscoll
WEBLOG USE CONTINUES TO GROW: That news shouldn't be too surprising to our regular readers.

Posted 7/7/2004 11:39:03 AM by Edward Driscoll
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, as a former small business owner from a family of entrepreneurs (and essentially, still a small business owner with my writing), I'm with Will Collier of VodkaPundit on John Edwards and trial lawyers in general. But be sure to read Postrel's excerpt from the New Yorker on why trial lawyers are particularly prevalent in the South. It's quite an interesting take.

Posted 7/7/2004 11:33:01 AM by Edward Driscoll
OH THOSE WMDS: 1.77 tons of radioactive material secured and removed from Iraq. Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds' vacation photos have been really foggy lately... UPDATE: Heh. Of course, the left will just move the goalposts again.

Posted 7/6/2004 07:33:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
H.D. MILLER CATCHES REUTERS telling a whopper.

Posted 7/6/2004 05:20:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
DASCHLE AND ME: Tom Daschle embraces Michael Moore in DC, and denies it to his constituents in South Dakota.

Posted 7/6/2004 02:14:08 PM by Edward Driscoll
HEADLINES YOU'LL NEVER SEE--but don't call the media biased! UPDATE: Certainly not The Washington Post, at least...

Posted 7/6/2004 01:55:45 PM by Edward Driscoll
PARSE THIS OUT: Roger Ebert calls Godzilla "The Fahrenheit 9/11 of its time". No, really! The original Godzilla with Raymond Burr! I'm not sure what that says about either film. But comparing Michael Moore and Godzilla, I'd say it's a toss-up as to who could do the most damage to Tokyo. (Via Reason's "Hit & Run" blog.)

Posted 7/6/2004 01:35:17 PM by Edward Driscoll
A MEME IS BORN: Jonah Goldberg looks at "the Democrats' Dan Quayle".

Posted 7/6/2004 01:22:59 PM by Edward Driscoll
MORNING IN AMERICA UPDATE: The economy is set for its best growth in 20 years, according to (believe it or not) AP.

Posted 7/6/2004 01:20:03 PM by Edward Driscoll
FLASHBACK: Donations to Sen. Edwards questioned in this 2003 article in The Hill.

Posted 7/6/2004 01:00:38 PM by Edward Driscoll
YOU'RE THE TOP: My latest newsletter for Electronic House looks at some new releases featuring Cary Grant on DVD.

Posted 7/6/2004 12:38:27 PM by Edward Driscoll
FOR ONCE, REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS AGREE! Florida's WFTV reports:

Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, said Kerry's choice "really solidifies the fact that this is the most liberal ticket that the Democrats have put up for, basically, modern times. If you look at the voting records of those two guys, they are way out there in left field."

And Bob Beckel, the campaign manager of the Mondale/Ferraro ticket in '84 confirms, "Yeah, it's a liberal ticket...." Nice to see some bipartisan unity in this rough-and-tumble campaign season.

Posted 7/6/2004 12:26:06 PM by Edward Driscoll
INTERESTING ANGLE: James Taranto writes:

Picking Edwards may also be an effort to keep would-be Ralph Nader voters in the Democratic fold. Edwards is a trial lawyer, Nader is the country's leading champion of trial lawyers, and, as the Village Voice points out, Nader actually urged Kerry to pick Edwards. Meanwhile, Alan Murray reports in today's Wall Street Journal that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed to 'abandon its traditional stance of neutrality in the presidential race and work feverishly to defeat the Democratic ticket' if Edwards is on it.

Taranto's got lots of other Edwards and Kerry links, incidentally.

Posted 7/6/2004 12:19:35 PM by Edward Driscoll
PASS THE DUCHY ON THE LEFTHAND SIDE: "Marijuana Advocates Forget to File for Ballot". Too many Peter Max paper airplanes in their youth, I guess.

Posted 7/6/2004 12:13:11 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE EDWARDS PICK "OFFICIALLY ENDS THE CHICKENHAWK ARGUMENT", writes Jim Geraghty. Hopefully, somebody will tell Kerry.

Posted 7/6/2004 10:50:43 AM by Edward Driscoll
JONAH GOLDBERG ON "KERRY-HUTZ 2004": "It's going to be Kerry & Edwards: the turn-your-head-and-coif express". Heh.

Posted 7/6/2004 10:38:11 AM by Edward Driscoll
FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN BAGHDAD: David Letterman's "Top Ten Things Overheard at Saddam Hussein's Court Appearance". Steven Green covered item #7 back in December.

Posted 7/6/2004 10:33:49 AM by Edward Driscoll
ANDREW SULLIVAN'S happy about Edwards.

Posted 7/6/2004 10:20:02 AM by Edward Driscoll
LOOKS LIKE THE AVIATION BUFFS WERE RIGHT: It's Edwards--and Instapundit has a link-filled roundup.

Posted 7/6/2004 12:04:22 AM by Edward Driscoll
COULD JUST BE A RUMOR, but according to this message board, two aviation-oriented Websites are reporting that Kerry's campaign plane has been spotted with an Edwards VP logo. UPDATE: Or...maybe it's Gephardt! That's who The New York Post says it is, anyway. Stay tuned.

Posted 7/5/2004 11:53:49 PM by Edward Driscoll
GOOD POINT: Dennis Prager looks at Michael Moore and the problem of American self-hatred:

Did you ever notice that there are no Germans going around the world saying, or making movies about, how awful Germany is or has been? Given that Germany unleashed two world wars and invented industrialized genocide, why has there been no German Michael Moore? Are there any Japanese making films about the absence of Japanese soul-searching or expressions of sorrow over their country's enslavement, torture and murder of Asians in World War II? Has anyone ever encountered any Japanese self-hate? Any Belgians telling the world how bad their country is? Argentinians? French? France surely has reason to produce people ashamed of their country.

Needless to say, RTWT.

Posted 7/5/2004 08:25:28 PM by Edward Driscoll
IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF ZZ TOP: They come runnin' just as fast as they can--'cause every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man!

Posted 7/5/2004 08:10:02 PM by Edward Driscoll
DEMOCRATS TO ADOPT FDR'S war philosophy at convention: Scott Ott has the "details".

Posted 7/5/2004 02:31:25 PM by Edward Driscoll
THE BATTLE OF THE HUMVEE: Don't believe the media are the enemy? Then ask the US Army. As Diana West writes:

Ever hear about the Battle of the Humvee? That's what I'm calling a May skirmish fought by soldiers of the 37th Armored Regiment's 2nd Battalion in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. In what became a six-hour firefight, Americans battled followers of Moktada al-Sadir to secure the hulk of a burning Humvee. It's not that our soldiers fought because the flaming wreck amounted to a tin can's worth of military value. They fought, as Capt. Ty Wilson of Fairfax, Va., explained to The Washington Post, because "We weren't going to let them dance on it for the news. Even (with) all the guys they lost that day, that still would have given them victory." Chalk one up for our side, a small win on the way to an underreported triumph over the followers of Moktada al-Sadir in the spring. Iraq is sovereign, life goes on ... but I can't get over the chilling description of American soldiers risking their necks to keep the media from awarding a phony victory to the enemy. This puts the media -- in this case, anyone with a video camera and a satellite hook-up -- not in No Man's Land, but on the Other Side. The concept is horrifying in that the ramifications are so bleak. It shows our soldiers engaged in a war on two fronts -- a military front and a media front. And it shows our soldiers fighting two enemies: the adversary who fights fire with terror, and the adversary who also fights fire with perception.

RTWT.

Posted 7/5/2004 02:24:07 PM by Edward Driscoll
SHHHHHH: The good guys are winning.

Posted 7/5/2004 11:15:45 AM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY, II:

Savor, if you will, the image of France as the mighty defender of Europe.

--Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs.

Posted 7/5/2004 11:12:30 AM by Edward Driscoll
QUOTE OF THE DAY:

This was not a "mishmashed oil change"... rather, it was an illustration of that part of our culture that does not fear solving problems and accomplishing great things.

--J. Milt Heflin, chief, NASA's Flight Director Office, in a memo to the press.

Posted 7/4/2004 10:42:44 AM by Edward Driscoll
LET FREEDOM REIGN: New York to begin construction at Ground Zero. AP reports, "Gov. George E. Pataki said he chose July 4 to begin rebuilding to show that the terrorists who attacked New York on Sept. 11, 2001, didn’t destroy America’s faith in freedom".

Posted 7/4/2004 01:17:19 AM by Edward Driscoll

Happy Fourth of July!

Posted 7/4/2004 01:14:18 AM by Edward Driscoll
THE STRANGE DUALITY OF AMERICAN AESTHETICS: I have an essay on design, fashion and aesthetics in 21st century America, over at the New Partisan Website, which also has lots of other cool content worth exploring.