I am unlikely to do better honoring those who stormed the beaches at Normandy to help liberate western Europe from the gip of Nazi tyrrany than with the words of Pres. Ronald Reagan, columnist Ernie Pyle, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower or Gen. George S. Patton — whose speech was sanitized by then-screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola for the Patton biopic. Thank you.
June 2008
June 6, 2008
Provocateurism
Because what follows is, to a certain extent, the kind of argument criticized by nishi (though in a way that I believe caricatures the actual argument as it is presented in its totality), I think it might prove interesting to use this passage from Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism as the jumping off point for a discussion of modern conservatism as it stands against modern liberalism (which, I’ve argued, has been
June 6, 2008
a haiku that, for no reason whatever, imagines Winston Churchill as a politically conscious mallrat produced by a Boulder area public school
The great and good are seldom the same man. ‘Cept for Che. Who, like, so rocked…!
June 6, 2008
An indie band risks a fatwa… because of the patriarchy! [Karl]
CocoRosie, a/k/a sisters Bianca and Sierra Casaday, make some very unusual music, incorporating everything from beatboxes and children’s toys to a harp and the occasional orchestral backing. I cannot say I am a huge fan of theirs, but Spinner notes that their new one-off single “God Has a Voice, She Speaks Through Me” is provocative — particularly the the video, which includes Bianca at times wearing a burqa and seemingly nothing
June 6, 2008
The Left is still gunning for Gramm [Karl]
In the past week or so, Lefty journos — including David Corn and Josh Marshall — have been flogging the notion that former US Senator (and current McCain campaign adviser) Phil Gramm is responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis (by having sponsored the Financial Services Modernization Act), in order to hang it around McCain’s neck, though neither went as far as Shawn Mullen of The Moderate (but reliably Lefty) Voice, who called
June 6, 2008
A demographic look at the starting line [Karl]
Gallup suggests there was no immediate bounce for Barack Obama from the widespread news coverage of his becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. I still think that could change as the fact of his presumed nomination sinks in over the weekend, especially if the reports that Hillary Clinton will officially suspend her campaign on Saturday pan out. Gallup has also posted a basic demographic guide to the Obama-McCain match-up for the start
June 5, 2008
The tale of the “tape” [Karl]
At Reason magazine’s Hit & Run blog, David Weigel provides a handy timeline of “Crazy” Larry Johnson’s rumor-mongering regarding the vaporous Michelle Obama video, showing that Johnson’s story has been “evolving” faster than Barack Obama’s position on Iran. It ends, as all good Johnson tales must, with Larry dropping an F-bomb — which seems as close to a bombshell as he is likely to drop on this subject.
June 5, 2008
Three big pieces of Obama-DNC hype [Karl]
The first big piece of hype is at the HuffPo, where Sam Stein recycles some prior hype from Team Obama and the DNC: Sixteen months after he launched his campaign for the White House, Sen. Barack Obama may, just now, be entering his campaign’s most perilous stage. Facing a rift of sorts within the Democratic Party and concerns over the scope of his political base, the Illinois Democrat is pursuing
June 5, 2008
A Tale of Two (Multiculturalist) Cities, distilled
Daniel Henninger examines the Democratic nomination battle and comes away with the idea that identity politics is something of a tar baby. Or maybe it’s a whore with a heart of gold. Pick ’em, as they say: […] the candidacy of the first liberal white woman to run for president is about to lose, defeated by, yes, a black man. Some in the Clinton tong profess not to understand what
June 5, 2008
John Bolton lays out some inconvenient truths [Karl]
Although the Washington Post would like to portray the entire world as having a thrill up its leg over Barack Obama’s historic achievement in becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, a close reading of the story also shows anxiety among countries from Israel to Iraq and China (largely due to trade concerns likely echoed in South America), indifference in Russia and happiness among the mullocracy in Iran. Today’s L.A. Times