PC and hypocritical paternalism on steroids

Last night's Corny Cornbread square on the side becomes this morning's main event, It's Better than Ham and Cheese on English. (x 1.25)  Sliced in half horizontally, toasted, slathered with mayo lite and piled with slices of Danish ham and Havarti with dill, another delicious recipe for the Cold Turkey Cookbook. 279 calories. We devoured it hungrily in solidarity with the politically incorrect Danes, whose stalwart stand for freedom of speech in the Cartoon Wars continues to put them in harm's way, as PajamasXpress blogger Flemming Rose, editor of the paper that first published the Mohammed cartoons, explains today in "Al-Qaeda Comes to Demark."

"Political correctness is the signature cultural statement of the ruling elites, undermining their moral authority and driving a wedge between them and the working class far more effectively than any right-wing demagogue could hope for," writes Boston political reporter Jon Keller in "The Bluest State," reviewed by Guy Darst in Opinion Journal:

He argues that, although Massachusetts does not suffer alone from its notorious affection for liberalism, it is the incubator for "Massachusetts viruses" that infect the national Democratic Party. The viruses come in many forms: "addiction to tax revenues and a raging edifice complex couched in disrespect to wage earners; phony identity politics without real results for women and minorities; reflexive anti-Americanism in foreign affairs; vain indulgence in obnoxious political correctness; self-serving featherbedding; NIMBYism; authoritarian distortion of the balance of governmental power, all simmered in a broth of hypocritical paternalism."

This close-up captures the mouth-watering toothsomeness of the soft cheese, succulent ham and "extremely corny and very moist," crumbly Corny Cornbread.

Keller's "vain indulgence in obnoxious political correctness" -- not to mention his "broth of hypocritical paternalism" -- were on steroids in the Duke rape hoax, as Abigail Thernstrom writes in an Opinion Journal review of a new book by Stuart Taylor Jr. and KC Johnson, "Until Proven Innocent":

"Until Proven Innocent" is a stunning book. It recounts the Duke lacrosse case in fascinating detail and offers, along the way, a damning portrait of the institutions -- legal, educational and journalistic -- that do so much to shape contemporary American culture. Messrs. Taylor and Johnson make it clear that the Duke affair -- the rabid prosecution, the skewed commentary, the distorted media storyline -- was not some odd, outlier incident but the product of an elite culture's most treasured assumptions about American life, not least about America's supposed racial divide.

Political correctness seems particularly prone to unleashing our species' darkest, totalitarian impulses. The hysteria was of medieval proportions.

Houston Baker, a noted professor of English, called the lacrosse players "white, violent, drunken men veritably given license to rape," men who could "claim innocence . . . safe under the cover of silent whiteness." Protesters on campus and in the city itself waved "castrate" banners, put up "wanted" posters and threatened the physical safety of the lacrosse players . . .

The New York Times' coverage was particularly egregious, as Messrs. Taylor and Johnson vividly show. It ran dozens of prominent stories and "analysis" articles trying to plumb the pathologies of the lacrosse players and of a campus culture that allowed swaggering white males to prey on poor, defenseless young black women. As one shrewd Times alumnus later wrote: "You couldn't invent a story so precisely tuned to the outrage frequency of the modern, metropolitan, bien pensant journalist." Such Nifong allies -- unlike the district attorney himself -- paid no price for their shocking indifference to the truth.

Back to "The Bluest State" reviewer Darst:

Mr. Keller does a fine job of cataloging the "politically unappealing traits" -- such as aloofness, arrogance, entitlement, condescension and hypocrisy -- that beset the bluest of blue-state politicians, but he does not try to investigate the traits' origins. For that, he might have taken a look at the "Sociology of the Intellectual" section of Joseph Schumpeter's great 1942 work, "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy." Schumpeter believed that capitalism was the only system that produced the seeds of its own destruction by nurturing intellectuals, a class thick on the ground in Massachusetts.

Yes, but fortunately there are bloggers like the members of our sub rosa group behind enemy lines here in Taxachusetts who are on the case. Speaking of which, Richard Landes of Augean Stables emails promulgating a petition for the release of the unedited al-Durah video tapes. Sol of Solomonia explains, quoting his friend Yaacov of Breath of the Beast:

Before the Pope's remarks, before Gaza Beach, before the Mohammed cartoons there was Muhammad al-Durah, the 12-year-old boy the allegation of whose death was one of the first triumphs of the Islamo-rage-aholic/Pallywood/humiliation-a-thon that has sucked in and manipulated the Western Media.

Richard Landes of Second Draft and Augean Stables who, many of you know, is a pioneer debunker of media complicity in the Arab/Islamist/Palestinian offensive of misrepresented and staged news, has refocused attention on this prototypical travesty with a new effort to try to get France2 to release all of their video tapes from that fateful day's activities.

We encourage our readers to sign the petition. Let's make sure that the perpetrators of al-Durah -- unlike Nifong's useful media idiots in the Duke rape case -- WILL pay a price for their indifference to the truth.

Comments

[goomp]

Indeed must we be thankful that the MSM contains a few reasoning minds such as Mr. Keller's and the staunch behind-the-lines bloggers of the Bluest of the Blue States. Unless the Fascist Liberals take control by force there is every reason to hope that PC will sicken and die.

[Gayle Miller]

Sissy, you have an absolute GENIUS for instigating thought and hunger simultaneously!

Thanks. Unfortunately for me - it's an hour until LUNCHTIME!

[Teresa]

My wonderful and very astute husband claims that the only thing saving Massachusetts is the fact that not a single born and bred New Englander wants to spend their own money on anything. *grin* All of the lofty ideas... they love 'em - but they refuse to pay for them. This puts the brakes on unrestrained liberal romping through the state.

[hnav]

* Outstanding post from the mighty SISU !

"castrate" banners ?

oh my...

Liberal denial empowered by the folly of socialist waste builds dependency, lowers the quality of life, kills incentive, cements economic classes, grows unemployment, slows growth, diminishes excellence, limits freedom, etc., etc...

Europe gave it all a big try, and it is a disaster.

Often, what a child wants, can be bad for it's health.

Nothing worthwhile is easy, and willfully placing your existence in someone else's hands can be dangerous.

Hopefully, someday the Democrat Party will grow up, but they don't seem capable of it right now.

[kimsch]

That sandwich looks so good.... beautiful photo.