sisu

"These fish don't know they're wet"

"Blyth has an eagle eye for embarrassing moments of clueless elitism, and after decades in the business, she's taken plenty of notes," writes Catherine Seipp in a National Review review of former Ladies Home Journal Editor Myrna Blyth's Spin Sisters: How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness and Liberalism to the Women of America:

Spin Sisters is a well-researched polemic that argues the media is run by an ossified elite who came of age in the '60s and '70s and have never questioned their formative beliefs: that bigger, better government is the answer to many personal problems. It's the same tactic CBS whistle-blower Bernard Goldberg [pegged] in the best-selling Bias a couple of years ago — these fish don't know they're wet, which makes shooting them in a barrel especially irresistible — but Blyth's screed is more fun than Goldberg's.

As we said when we blogged about Blyth's book in February, they should never have given women the vote.

[via InstaPundit]

"I just stopped reading"

"In the future, I think, newspapers will become almost entirely devoted to local news and happy fluff, like me," writes James Lileks:

Ah, Fallujah. Peaceful, verdant Fallujah. City of Gardens. City of Perfumed Alleys, the Mesopotamian Eden. One day a quiet happy burg of peace, the next a victim of American overbearance. From the Boston Globe, a lede by Thanassis Cambanis:

U.S. warplanes fired on Iraqi insurgents Tuesday in Fallujah in strikes that shattered a fragile cease-fire negotiated over a week ago.

Got that? We had a nice cease-fire going, and for no reason U.S. warplanes went and shattered it without provocation. I just stopped reading right there.

"We recognize that Mr. Bush may help Mr. Cheney with some of the answers"

As the President and Vice President prepared to testify before the 9/11 committee behind closed doors in the Oval Office this morning, we were reminded once again of the lack of seriousness of Chairman Tom Kean. Kean's arrogance was already front and center two weeks ago with his dismissal of a reporter's question about Commissioner Jamie Gorelick's conflict-of-interest problem:

She is one of the most decent and hard-working members of the committee . . . So, uh, people oughta stay out of our business.

Now add to Kean's arrogance his lack of gravitas. We missed it at the time but caught the clip this morning on one of the early news shows and found this report from Omaha.com:

Chairman Thomas Kean, asked at a press conference a few weeks ago about the White House's requirement that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney appear together before his commission on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, quipped: "Well, we recognize that Mr. Bush may help Mr. Cheney with some of the answers."

Kean's remark sparked laughter among the assembled reporters because it turned upside down the assumption of the question, and of much of official Washington: that the White House requested the joint appearance, scheduled for Thursday, so Cheney could coach Bush on his answers. While Bush has declined to explain the rationale for the joint meeting, some Democrats charge that Cheney is a "ventriloquist." and a number of independent observers say it appears that the two men are trying to keep their stories straight.

We can chalk up the charges of "some Democrats" to politics as usual. Now who do you suppose these "independent observers" are, and what do you suppose their agenda/narrative might be?

Stopping to smell the flowers

Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) is flowering all over, one of the big ones we wanted to document with our sharp-as-nails Pentax, but the darned camera is still in the shop in Colorado (It's been over three weeks now), so we can't get the shots we want. Could anything be more primitive than Pentax's repair system?

Most people are surprised to learn that the airy chartreuse haze we see on all our city streets in these parts this time of year is NOT the leaves, but the FLOWERS of this European import, which escaped from cultivation in the United States. It became a big nuisance in Central Park, where they are rooting it out and re-introducing Frederick Law Olmsted's original plant list. Even so, nothing could be lovelier than the Norway Maple in full bloom.

The descent of man, cont.

“This is the structure on which the entire teaching of natural sciences is based. We cannot talk of plants and animals without talking of evolution as well,” Vincenzo Boccardi, vice president of ANISN, told The Scientist:

Tens of thousands of Italians have expressed their disagreement with a plan by the minister of education, universities, and research, Letizia Moratti, to ban the teaching of evolutionary theory to young teenagers.

Fearing the measure will pave the way for creationist teaching, more than 40,000 citizens—and the number is still increasing—have subscribed a petition launched last week by some of the country's top scientists through the daily La Repubblica.

Galileo comes to mind.

"People like that usually vote for the Democrats"

We just completed an online Harris poll soliciting our political views.  Before getting down to political philosophy and preferred candidate, they asked us to indicate how likely -- choose one of five from "very unlikely" to "very likely" -- we were to engage in each of the following activities in the next 30 days:

You will read a scientific article or book.      
You will shop at Wal-Mart.      
You will read a newspaper.      
You will play a video game on a computer, handheld device, or TV.      
You will exercise vigorously for at least 15 minutes.

Being ever skeptical of polls and the polling pollsters who design them, we immediately thought of Lawrence Evans.  He's the Duke professor emeritus whose letter to the editor -- written with a straight face -- explained why Republicans are few and far between on college and university faculties.  They're too dumb:

In seeking faculty, universities look for people who can analyze and discuss matters of some complexity, who are unafraid to challenge the wisdom of simple solutions and who have a sense of social responsibility toward those who cannot buy influence. Such people tend to be put off by a political party dominated by those who believe dogmatically in the infallibility of the marketplace as a solution to all economic problems, or else in the infallibility of scripture as a guide to morality. 

In short, universities want people of some depth, subtlety and intelligence. People like that usually vote for the Democrats.

Look at those five questions again.  You just KNOW the pollsters are thinking that "nuanced" and "intellectually curious" Democrats will choose one, three and five, while unsophisticated, incurious Republicans will choose two.  Four could go either way.  Fortunately for us, we never pay attention to polls.

Innocents caught in the crossfire

"Forget for a moment that it was Hillary, the Democratic party's alpha bitch, that made these remarks to an Arab newspaper. The woman that wants to be President," writes a mortified Pam of pamibe, citing WorldNetDaily and the tehran times:

Former US first lady Hillary Clinton said the "stubborn" policies of President George W. Bush's administration were endangering stability in the Middle East, a daily reported Monday.

The New York Democrat senator told the London-based Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that the Bush administration had not been "frank" with the American people concerning the human and financial costs in Iraq.

Clinton said the Bush administration did not have a plan for Iraq and did not have a full understanding of the situation there.

She said the United States was in trouble because it could not abandon Iraq, nor provide enough manpower to run the country, nor gather world allies willing to provide the necessary assistance for the gigantic task.

She described the Bush administration as "stubborn and arrogant" for refusing to admit its mistakes, which were endangering US soldiers, Iraqis and stability in the Middle East.

As Kerry implodes -- see Blogs for Bush for roundup -- Hillary is presumably getting her I-told-you-so, anti-Bush paper trail and media clips in order preparatory to accepting the Democratic nomination by acclamation in August. The Senator's willingness to put her own political ambitions ahead of national security in a time of war calls to mind the alleged priorities of those Fallujah "insurgents" we've been hearing about on FOXNews. They're reportedly placing women and children between themselves and the line of fire, hoping the Arab "street" will once again rise up in outrage at the U.S.'s inhumanity to man when the innocents get caught in the crossfire.

I Love Lucie

Solitaire au deux. Goomp's muse, Lucie, stays on top of things. Artwork in background is by "Rebel with Causes" c. 1955.

The few. The proud. The desperate.

The Spirit of America challenge ends at 12:01 a.m. PST Thursday, and Michele puts in a final, desperate pitch to help our Marines in Iraq equip alternative radio stations to compete with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya for Iraqi "hearts and minds":

Let's shift into high gear as we make the final turn on the Victory Coalition lap. Let's close this thing out with the Victory Coalition on top. Sure, we'd have to raise over $5,000 in about 18 hours, but what's your demographics, James [Lileks]? Are your readers rich? Anyone out there cater to the six-figure income crowd? Know any celebrities? Slept with Tommy Mattola? Got anyone you could blackmail? Surely you must have some dirt on someone. Use it! If not, get the hell off of your lazy ass and go sell a kidney. Sacrfice, people!

Go to Spirit of America to contribute on The Victory Coalition's behalf.

"Only Allah can stop it"

"Bozo, democracy is here to stay, now that the gates are open only Allah can stop it, and by then it would be the Day of Judgment anyway, so it doesn't matter," writes Mahmood re Bahrain's Speaker of Parliament, "the ultimate politician" out to feather his own nest:

He STILL terms the democratic movement in Bahrain as an "experiment". To be fair to our distinguished leader of Parliament, everybody still does! Why? They're still hoping that it is not the "real thing"? That, hey if it doesn't work we'll just try another experiment?

He demonstrated how the government, embodied in the King, is taking care of us all. Especially economically as the Awali field in Bahrain only produces 34,000 barrels of oil now, and had our King not had immensely good relations with Saudi, we would not have gotten Abu-Sa'afah offshore field in Saudi to the tune of 192,000 barrels a day. Let's stop here for a while and see what this guy is implying: he's implying that we would get everything we want if we stood by, acquiesce to all the government wishes, and forget this thing called democracy and constitution. (Note to the uninitiated: he's doing major kissing ass here. Maybe he wants to ensure that he get appointed to the Shura council for the next few terms, he's kinda got used to his big car and big salary.)

Here's the punch-line: he urges journalists, imams, and businessmen to rather speak about these economic issues rather than "MPs privileges, cars, and salaries" Okay, I've taken your advice to heart. Here I am talking about the things you want me to talk about!

And here's the kicker. He's describing the "constitutional petition" organised by the boycotting societies as very emotive and sectarian, and goes further in describing it as "kharabeet" rubbish. Thus once and for all demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Fixit is the ultimate politician, saying it as he sees it and hides nothing!

Can we now organise a petition to throw this geezer out?

This ain't your father's Bahrain.