Heh!




More at Day by Day

The Media Lies, Your Ability to Make Informed Voting Decisions Dies

Being in the tank for a candidate is bad, actively spreading false propaganda is another thing entirely.


The Main Stream Media has completely lost sight its professional standards, and has possibly lost its soul.

Saddam Supported At Least Two Al-Qaeda Groups: Pentagon Report

When the mainstream media reported earlier that "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and Al Qaeda" were they reading the same Pentagon report as everyone else?


How can you tell when a Network News reporter is lying? Their lips are moving.

Hmmm....

Some guy with mental problems walks into a Hillary campaign office and makes a bomb threat. Hillary bugs the authorities on the phone till the situation wraps up, then makes a press conference.

This makes her look "Presidential."

Some guy speeding in a tanker truck flips over at 1:30 or so in the morning, igniting a neighborhood in Everett Massachusetts. Three multi-family homes are lost, dozens of cars go up in flames, a home for the elderly is evacuated. A lot of people got out with just their pajamas. The next day, as they are preparing to tear down two of the buildings, which the fire made structurally unsound, and one of the residents tells one of the emergency workers that he had ten grand in his freezer. Said emergency worker walks into the unsafe building, finds the mans cash, and gives it to him.

His name isn't even mentioned by the reporter.

What's wrong with this picture?

UPDATE: image added

UPDATE: scroll to bottom of post.

The State of Massachusetts Cares For You, So Get Insurance, Or Else!

Just got a postcard from my wonderful state, the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts.

"ACT NOW TO AVOID TAX PENALTIES!

"The Health Care Reform Law requires most Massachusetts residents age 18 or older to have health insurance. To avoid a penalty of $219 per individual when you file your 2007 Massachusetts income tax return, you must have health coverage by the end of the year. You should enroll in a health plan by November 15th to make sure you do not miss this important deadline. (emphasis in the original ed.)

"The penalty for being uninsured will increase significantly in 2008, accumulating each month you do not have health coverage....

"...The time to act is now!

"If you already have health coverage, please disregard this notice."



Thank you RomneyCare! Remember, there are poor people without health insurance. We need to take care of them by threatening to take their money if they don't do as the wise and benificent state decrees.

It's for the children!

Women and minorities hardest hit!

Insert inane bureaucratic trope here!

I hope Thompson or Giuliani gets the nod, ‘cause I ain’t voting for Romney. He’s Hillary with better hair.

UPDATE: OK, I admit, that last isn't fair. Mr. Romney is (IMHO) vastly more honest, and much more personable that Hillary. He is very politically opportunistic, and he is certainly not what I would consider conservative. He did saddle us with "universal health care". What bothers me the most is the mindset that criminalizes non-compliance.

Ennui

Well, an overwhelming feeling of ennui over all things political and social, as well as a busy creative schedule, have kept me away from blogging. I couldn't resist linking to the above. (Although, if you are like 99% of web users, and read The Glenn, you've already seen this.)

The best quote...."And the reference to Cruise in the last paragraph is for the movie War of the Worlds, in which we see two hours of Cruise running away from aliens while the American military fights them despite desperate odds. I'm beginning to see that as an analogy for Hollywood in general."

The first thing I look for when considering a new home is the existence of home owners associations and historic districts.

This is why.

My wife and I want to get out of the People's Republic of Kennedy-Kerry-Catsup.
Badly.
Communities that prevent me from doing reasonable improvements to a house WILL NOT GET MY TAX DOLLARS OR INVESTMENT.


Sorry to shout....

I grew up in a 250 year old post and beam New England farmhouse. In order to heat it (in the middle of the woods with no winter road access for at least a half a mile) my dad used coal and wood. I love old houses, and if I get to buy one, my hope is to return it to its original glory in as practical a manner as possible. 17th or 18th century drafts and entrances for mice and other vermin, as well as smoke and soot belching heating systems are right out.

I'm sorry. If you want to legislate moral behavior, you gotta choose between saving the world from pollution and anthropogenic global warming or keeping your neighborhood a perfect example of 18th century building techniques. You're not going to get both.

Many zoning regulations end up being anti-home owner. You add "historic preservation" and homeowners associations on top of that, and you have (a not very) soft totalitarianism.

No, I don't want a strip mall or a strip joint right next to my house. I don't blame anyone for fighting those in an established residential only neighborhood.

However, I don't want drafty windows and the constant smell of burning oil or sulfur either.



Somebody go out and slap these people, please!

The Libby Case Explained

...in simple yet accurate terms, with visual aids by Xran at The Moxargon Group.

Predictable

Just watched the second episode of "Simon Shama's Power of Art" on PBS. This episode was about Picasso. In talking about the painting "Guernica", Mr. Shama couldn't resist sniping against the Iraq war.



He related how a copy of Guernica, arguably Picasso's greatest masterpiece, was covered up during the press conference after the US made its case before the UN that force should be used to overthrow Saddam. The reason being that the painting would have been "too disturbing." (It actually sounded to both my wife and I that Mr. Sharma blamed the press corps for this request.)
Mr. Sharma finished up with something to the tune of, you may be the greatest power in the world, capable of toppling dictators, but don't mess with great art. (paraphrased, ed.)



I don't know, but maybe somebody from the US delegation should have asked that it stay uncovered...





...I think the Kurds of Halabja would have thought it an entirely appropriate backdrop to an announcement of the plans to topple the fascist who had killed them.

Blasphemy!

Interesting bit of synchronicity...

Watching PBS, the Secret Files of the Inquisition, while reading this on the recent decision by the Tufts disciplinary board at Tufts University.

Boston, the birthplace of freedom...

David Thompson hits another one out of the park!

The Right Kind of Prejudice, go read it.

If you don't see the logical disconnect in fighting racism by making one's race the key issue then logic is probably not your forte.

WBZ Channel 4 in Boston just announced that Governor Deval Patrick has signed a bill which (starting emediately) will require private developers to calculate the amount of 'greenhouse gasses' that will be released by their construction projects, and provide offsets.

It's not like Massachusetts hasn't put the screws to business enough...now the construction industries are burdened with another bill. Housing costs will go up. Jobs will be lost. More people and businesses will leave the state.



Yep, the Massachusetts Miracle!

What a bunch of yahoos...

UPDATE It appears from this Globe story that this is about major projects. However, I think there will still be some negative economic effects. Also, if by "large scale projects" they include any multiple dwelling construction (if for example a developer is building 5 or more units at a time, or even 10 or 20), there will still be a negative effect on housing costs. I'm not quite as incensed as I was, but we'll wait and see how this plays out.

Now that I've jumped to the defense of an atheist (possibly shocking any readers who think I'm an intolerant Bible-thumping Neanderthal), let me weigh in on the "Pelosi Jet Scandal."

OK, I haven't read every quote on this, and it's possible that Ms. Pelosi's staff (or herself) has made this brouhaha worse by making ill-considered responses (which would only make them akin to any other person who has been verbally attacked), but what the heck is everybody thinking here?

The lady is third in line of succession to the President! What, you want her to fly commercial and be a target for any goon with a box cutter and a messiah complex? You want turn her into a target by sticking her in line at Dulles for two hours waiting to get wanded by the TSA? You want to make all the passengers with her (or on a flight some terrorist imagines her to be on) a target?

The office of the Speaker deserves respect and security. Some say she asked for too extravagant a plane. From what I've been able to read, it sounds more like she just asked for something that could non-stop to the west coast, and somebody lower down inserted a particular model into the discussion, because it was the only thing that they knew that could do it. From all accounts Ms. Pelosi's responses have been very reasonable.

No, I don't like Ms. Pelosi's politics, and I don't agree with her on a wide range of things, but she is the Speaker of the House. She got to that position by the properly working mechanics of our Republic. She deserves the protection that my tax dollars pay for!

For those of you who think I've suddenly converted to the left side of the aisle, that ain't happening. I still have no time for the typical stupidity from the Democratic Party. I have no time for the typical stupidity from the Republican side of the aisle either.

I plain don't have time for stupidity.

Well, this stinks!

"YouTube: ... the Google property has recently banned the popular atheist commentator Nick Gisburne. Gisburne had been posting videos with logical arguments against Christian beliefs; but when he turned his attention to Islam ..., YouTube pulled the plug, saying: 'After being flagged by members of the YouTube community, and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature. Due to your repeated attempts to upload inappropriate videos, your account now been permanently disabled, and your videos have been taken down.' "

Glenn Reynolds notes that Mr. Gisburne is up and running again.

Like another blogger that Mr. Reynolds mentions I find this appalling. To those of you who read here, I obviously don't agree with Mr. Gisburne's views on religion. However, atheism is not an incitement to violence, nor is it pornography. What was done to Mr. Gisburne is censorship, pure and simple.

It would be bad enough if YouTube had pulled his account because he was making atheistic statements. The fact that they caved because of pressure from one partictular imperialistic religion (he was quoting from the Koran, and not adding any commentary) is totally craven.

Mr. Gisburne replys to Google If they can remove MY account (I don't think you can call me the most controversial atheist here!), which atheists are next?

Frankly, the question is not just about atheists, but is who else of us is next?

Let me get this straight...

...listening to our enemies' phonecalls in a time of war is a dastardly and underhanded infringment of civil liberties, but requiring the registration of bloggers as lobbyists is o-kee-dokey?

Just asking...

Suppression of Freedom

Puppet Show and Islamism, Heretical Librarian discusses how an ancient art form is being slowly forced out of Malaysian society.

After the Danish Cartoon Controversy a long but worthwhile read on the genesis of the brouhaha in Europe, at the Middle East Quarterly. (H/T LGF)

See-Dubya, guest blogging at Michelle's, reports on Iran's arrest and holding of a number of Christian converts, apparently to suppress their Christmas celebrations.

These are only three examples of the strangling nature of radical Islamism, not to say anything of the honor-killings, beheadings in public squares, the killing of homosexuals, the fatwas calling for the death of Muslims who convert to other religions et cetera.

Meanwhile, books are being published warning of the eminant takeover of America by Christian Fascists. That's because, as R.J.Dunn points out, the tens of millions of people who died in the 20th Century under the fists of Pentecostal dictators or in Evangelical gulags.

Bruce Thornton uses the reactions to Saddam's execution to illustrate the vacuousness of the modern Left.

Read, and be assured that there is some sanity in the world.

Duke University says, "Come back, all is forgiven!" to Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann

Durham-In-Wonderland has info, and many interesting replies in the comment section.

I generally dislike foul language and the US culture-of-litigation, but if I were Collin Finnerty or Reade Seligmann I would tell Duke a resounding "NO!" probably in foul language, followed up by a defamation suit.

If the anti-culture of the universities is to be overthrown, then Duke needs to be disassembled brick-by-brick by the tort attorneys, until alumni across the nation realize that their credentials are in jeopardy if they don't come down hard on PC-foolishness wherever it rears its ugly head.

Remember when Walter Cronkite declared the US victory at Tet a disaster, and dashed LBJ's re-election hopes?

OK, I was pretty young, and don't directly remember the newscasts, but I have read plenty of disections of it over the years. The media came to conclude that they had the right and the power to direct public policy, by directing the public understanding of current events. The media has been trying to replay its 'victories' over Vietnam and Nixon with Iraq, and has not gotten the results they have wished and now it seems that they are trying a new tack.

Captain Ed points out the hugh level of misrepresentation of the Economy in the news.

Have the media learned anything? Apparently not. Despite 36 straight months of expansion, an unemployment rate of 4.6%, and inflation at an annual projected rate of 2.4%, the media still can't bring themselves to report on a Republican economy honestly. Business & Media Institute found that TV networks gave twice as much airtime to negative stories as positive ones (62% - 31%). Bad news was twice as likely to get full-length treatment as well. The people interviewed by the network were three times more likely to relate negative anecdotes. To no one's surprise, CBS took the lead in negative coverage, committing 80% of its economic coverage to bad news in the middle of a huge economic expansion.

If they can't ruin the war effort or impeach the president, then they'll try to swing the mid-term elections with bad economic reporting.


"Somewhere along the line, many Americans relegated the media to a notch on the morality scale only slightly above that of child molesters." -- Gregory Kane, Baltimore Sun, 1997

Gee, I wonder why?

The Underlying Cowardice of the Arts

For as long as I can remember artists (in fact, the Arts as a whole) have styled themselves as "the Brave Little Tailor" to the big bad giant "Censorship." There is a pantheon of demi-gods in the art world, Arthur Miller (for 'the Crucible'), Andres Serrano (for 'Piss Christ', which I blogged about here), chocolate covered Karen Finley, Chris Ofili (for what is often called the 'Dung Madonna') and many others. Most of these demi-gods, with Arthur Miller being the exception, are so puerile that simply ignoring them would have been sufficient. They will be at most footnotes in Jansen's History of Art in another twenty-five years. And sadly for Mr. Miller, "the Crucible" has been so overplayed as to become trite.

Artists have shown their 'bravery' for years by tackling religious sensibilities. The target has often been Catholicism, because I suppose, the thrill of challenging the Inquisition. However, unlike Francisco Goya who actually lived and worked in Spain during the Inquisition, they have acted in a vacuum when it comes to persecution.

Now, as Roger Kimball points out in today’s Opinion Journal, artists are censoring themselves (with no sense of irony) at the mere suggestion that Islamic Fascists might be offended by their artwork.

Yoo-hoo! Big brave Artists! Where are you?

These artists show real bravery, but they are mostly forgotten in the Salons of the West.

Mr. Kimball asks
Poor transgressive rebel artists! How are they to shock the middle class anymore?

and The Glenn answers
They may have to go back to actually doing work that's, you know, good.

More comments by Ann Althouse.

UPDATE, bumped to top

Celebrity Anti-Semitism

A lot of folks have been commenting about remarks allegedly made by Mel Gibson during his arrest for DUI. Besides the legal standard of "innocent until proven guilty," there is nothing I can say about Mr. Gibson's arrest. However, on a moral scale there is an obvious observation to make about a man who claims to be a Christian (in his case, Catholic).

Luke 6:45 "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

I am reminded of how often I have spoken rashly and regretted it later. The words we speak are a reflection of ourselves.

Any rebuke I could send to Mr. Gibson would be redundant at this point. If he has said such things then there is every reason for his speech to be condemned. All such hateful things deserve condemnation.

UPDATE For a much better take and and excellent essay on sin, repentance and the mote-in-the-eye see Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker

UPDATE 2 As always the Anchoress places things in worldly and spiritual perspective, all at once.

UPDATE 3: Hugh Hewitt, If you could save the victims of one of the following four events, which group would you save?

1. The victims of Fidel Castro's "revolution?"

2. The victims of Hezbollah's ambushes, rockets and missiles over the past three weeks?

3. The victims of the Seattle attack on the Jewish federation?

4. The victims of Mel Gibson's repulsive outburst of anti-Semitic venom?

Mr. Hewitt goes on to say, We are, it seems, in danger of losing any sense of priority, of scale, of genuine importance.

What has started as a window into the troubles of one man's soul is rapidly becoming a reflection of our society's moral relativism and philosophic bankruptcy.

UPDATE 4 And the press hardly notices vitriolic anti-semitism in Brussels.