Comments or suggestions: Gerard Van der Leun
To Bloggers from Borders

In which a bookstore CEO tells its critics to pound sand....

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 31, 2006 9:39 AM | Comments (57)  | QuickLink: Permalink
All Your Base Are Belong to Nosotros!

Why look at reality when the diversity BS smells so good?

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 26, 2006 11:23 AM | Comments (17)  | QuickLink: Permalink
A Free All-Purpose Apology for All Mankind

Your sorry excuses suitable for framing.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 25, 2006 4:38 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Well, Ex-cuuuse Me!

Wherein I admit I was wrong.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 19, 2006 10:47 AM | Comments (22)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Dems Get Busy Breeding Little Republicans

WITH EVERY PASSING DAY, I FIND IT HARD TO REMEMBER what I loved about the Democratic Party. I did, I think, love them once. I must have since I voted for them for most of my life in local, state and federal elections. Doorbelled. Demonstrated. Got "Clean for Gene." Voted the ticket.

Now I just sit and watch a once great party dissolve like an Alka Seltzer in the ocean. The latest Mystery Play to be acted out in congress by what passes for the leadership of the Party is a classic case of "Send in the clowns." Censure out in the open and "impeachment" whispered in the wings. Kirkpatrick in today's Times gets close to the nub of the stupidity when he notes: "Republicans, worried that their conservative base lacks motivation to turn out for the fall elections, have found a new rallying cry in the dreams of liberals about censuring or impeaching President Bush."

But Kirkpatrick doesn't really fathom the depths of this rumbling electoral disaster for the Democrats. He stops at the obvious observation that it will "energize" that ever-popular "base" journalists like to whip out as shorthand for "Everybody that will vote in one direction no matter what happens."

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 16, 2006 12:29 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Shame of New Orleans

TWO STORIES CAUGHT MY EYE YESTERDAY. The first was your standard New York Observer media humm-job on the current "I've got a new film coming out" movie celebrity; in this case our current contender for the Black Robert Altman award, Spike Lee.

Ah, that dependably outspoken Spike Lee -- Career Transgressor, Professional Edge Walker, soothsayer of race in the United States today, the Al Sharpton of the Silver Screen, the Maya Angelou of the movies. In an aptly titled article, Spike's Pique , Lee out-Moore's Michael Moore with his determination to find a big lie about the New Orleans' flood and make it bigger still. There's no doubt about it. When it comes to race hustlers in the United States, Spike runs with the big dogs.

Mr. Lee said he'd be including in his documentary the conspiracy theory that it was the U.S. government who bombed the levees.

Here's the thing," he said. "Even today, a large part of the African-American community of New Orleans thinks that those levees were bombed. Now, whether that is true or not, that should not be discounted." He rattled off past government trespasses: 1927's Great Flood of Mississippi, when the levees were, in fact, blown up; the flooding of the Ninth Ward during Hurricane Betsy in 1965; the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 15, 2006 8:48 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The "Unpopular" War

IS WAR ALWAYS POPULAR in America? Not since the Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress had to gain support on the home front if it was to defeat the British. John Adams estimated that only one-third of the population was in favor of the Revolution at any one time, one-third was opposed, and one-third was neutral. Some of this depended upon whose army was closest.

I was out at a bar and a concert the other night. One of the party showed up, bellied up to the bar, ordered a drink and, getting it, raised his glass and said: "Here's to the 33% popularity rating." Some polite assent was noted, but I somehow forgot to touch my glass.

"I don't think popularity has much to do with it now," I said. "Getting elected may be about 'popularity,' but once you're in and can't run again it's about doing what you want with the power you've got. By my count there can't be any change in the administration or its policies until late January, 2009. I make that about three years. Three years. A lot can happen. For instance, he's got two justices on the court.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 15, 2006 2:03 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Top Ten Signs the Surge is Working in Iraq

Signs 10 to 3: The obsession with the firing of 8 US attorneys in Washington that will now spin off into the Suponena/Congressional Investigation Parallel Reality : Panel OKs Subpoenas in Attorney Probe

Sign 2: Replacement of US Soldiers Killed in Iraq Body Count with Washington Fired Attorney Body Count as NY-WashPo-Times obsession. (The "It's more important to "Get Bush" than win the war" syndrome.)

And the number 1 sign that the Surge in Iraq is working is.... Hillary's going to stay in Iraq if we'll only elect her President (Clinton Sees Some Troops Staying in Iraq if She Is Elected ) and that's a promise! She was for the war in Iraq before she was against it and that was before she was for it... or was it after? ... or last week? ... or tomorrow? Hard to keep track.

You know, for somebody with a "smart" political attack team, and who claims to be "web-savvy," she doesn't seem to have gotten the YouTube memo.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 15, 2006 1:11 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Leonard Cohen - "The Future" - live in Finland

"Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder ...."

Neo looks at the career of one of our greatest poet/songwriters, Leonard Cohen. Quite rightly she sees the voyage and the vision and the uplift of the man. But poets do not always write, as evidenced here, in the affirmative. Sometimes they don't report to us on the condition of their souls, but the condition of our souls.

Here's one of Cohen's masterpieces, The Future, as performed in Finland and intercut, briefly, with an interview with him. The Finnish subtitles make it all the more disturbing as Cohen brings us his prophecy with a kind of easy shrug.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 14, 2006 10:56 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
The Boring Editor

ONE SUMMER DAY OUT ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD many summers past, I was chatting with an old Times' hand who had a little cabin on the strand. "The problem with the Times," he said then, "is that they even publish the boring stories. I think we've not only got an ME [Managing Editor], but a BE too."

"A BE?"

"A Boring Editor. Somebody tasked with making sure that there's enough boring stuff in an issue to make it an issue of the New York Times and no other."

The traditon of the BE goes on today, as most of those who no longer read the Times will note from time to time.

A classic example of boring by design and utter predictability is today's Tale of Two Headlines.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 13, 2006 3:06 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Just in Case You Wouldn't Know Where This Writer Was Coming From

I really love newspaper stories that let you know, right away, that you are about to read pure blather. Today's example comes from the always faithful fountain of blather, the Washington Post:

"It was a summer day in 2003, when Iraq was still filled with the half-truths of occupation and liberation, before its nihilistic descent into carnage." ( Anthony Shadid, "Washington Post Foreign Service")
To which a commenter at Pajamas Media replies, "Silly me. I thought it was filled with mass graves, torture arenas, frequent attempts at genocide, and psychopathic, delusional leaders. I believe that nihilistic carnage might be an improvement."



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 12, 2006 3:14 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Animal Voted Most Likely to Become Popular with Singles

-- or -- "If I'd Given One of These to Both My Ex-Wives, I'd Be a Bigamist Today."

070309_salamander_big.jpg

Salamander Tongue Is World's Most Explosive Muscle

The greatest burst of power from any animal muscle comes from the tongue of a tropical salamander, scientists have announced.The giant palm salamander of Central America (Bolitoglossa dofleini) captures fast-moving bugs with an explosive tongue thrust that releases over 18,000 watts of power per kilogram of muscle. That shatters the previous record of 9,600 watts per kilogram, held by the Colorado River toad.
World's Fastest Moving Muscle: Salamander Can Shoot Its Tongue 50 Times Faster Than an Average Eye Blink!

You know, as these become more widespread in our cities, attendance at singles bars of all persuasions could approach absolute zero.

Or, we could just set up a fund to send these salamanders to where they'd do the most good. For instance, this guy. He's in more dire need of a giant palm salamander than any white man in history.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 12, 2006 10:21 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
You Want the 5-Minute Argument or the Full Half-Hour?


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Confused about global warming? You should be. The always much-vaunted Experts can't even agree on whether or not more sunshine is a good idea: "Daylight Saving Change: Energy Boon or Waste of Time?"

Getting in the religious mode in which you are either a "Believer" or a "Non-believer?" Hey, you gotta believe in something and, with the cheapening of God, it really is about time the human race got back to its roots and started arguing about the "Weather Gods."

You just know things are going well in Iraq when the current "End of the World As We Know It" argument is getting all the traction in the puny minds of men.

The morphing of "Global Warming" into "Climate Change" is a brilliant stroke since, well, there's always some climate change going on somewhere. That sly semantic shift alone is good for a couple of decades worth of sturm und drang studies and useless programs costing billions. You can believe what you wish about Global Warming, but what is beyond argument is the fact that the Global Global Warming Funding Scam is here and not going away. Too many people have mortgages to pay and kids to put through college.

What's the take-away from this Oscar award winning line of bullshit? "Everybody argues about the weather, but nobody knows anything about it."



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 12, 2006 9:56 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Unity at Last! Democrats and Republicans Both Dis Arabs

THE PRESIDENT MISSED THIS GOING IN, and he continues to miss it going out: Bush concerned about message to Mideast over ports.

"I'm concerned about a broader message this issue could send to our friends and allies around the world, particularly in the Middle East," Bush said.

I, for one, am not concerned about the message. Bluntly put, the message is that Americans -- through their elected representatives -- are, for once, united. They are united around the fact that, when you get right down to the nub of it, they simply do not trust Arabs and Muslims. We are, after all, at war with the culture and the religion.

Is it an irrational and emotional position? Of course it is. Wars bring out the irrational and emotional. Is it any the less true? No.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 12, 2006 9:02 AM | Comments (12)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Rant-o-Matic from a Social Worker

FROM "THE HELPING PROFESSIONS:" A social worker finally snaps

One of the less grisly excerpts: "It's so refreshing to meet a woman who cares so much about her child for once! You're right, honey. The Bible DOES say that homosexuals are an abomination to God. Tell me, what does the Bible say about punishing your toddler for crying by sticking him with your dirty syringe needles, thereby infecting him with HIV and hepatitis? I know the Bible says "spare the rod and spoil the child", but I don't remember anything about sparing infectuous diseases and spoiling the child. Perhaps you were reading the New International Version?"



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 10, 2006 1:01 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Filthy Cultures of the Past Some Still Drool Over Today

I love gloating little news squibs like this:

GUATEMALA CITY - Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders.
That's a classic bit of blather served up by the guileful for the clueless.

The takeaway is that it would be an 'affront' and somehow 'unclean' for the President of the United States to place his feet on the "sacred lands" of the Maya; that to do so would somehow imbue such sites with "bad spirits."

Oh really? Let's review....

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 9, 2006 8:07 PM | Comments (7)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Next Piping-Warm Buzz Phrase: "Transition the Mission"

Headline of the Democrats' hot new press release: SENATE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE JOINT RESOLUTION TO TRANSITION THE MISSION IN IRAQ

"Transition the mission." Has a nice lilt to it, doesn't it?

Beats "Let's cruise to lose," or "We'll pout until you pull out," or "Trick or treat... smell my feet... give me something good to eat."

Yes, this is probably number 13, or 14, or 15, or 16 in the Dems attempts to run without running, but at this point who is counting. Their attempts to fully manage failure will continue. As they say in the National Parks, "Once a bear gets hooked on garbage there's no cure."



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 8, 2006 4:07 PM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Toaster Helmets Down Through the Ages

IT'S THE FASHION SENSATION that's sweeping the nation....

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 7, 2006 12:52 PM | QuickLink: Permalink
Drive-By

Ode to a Robe by Robert Fulghum. Alas, it happens to be my robe and I miss it.

Really Great Moments in Photography: What happens when you take a photo at the right angle? - A Slideshow (Scribd)

Everyday in every way, Wonkette brings new meaning and depth to the C-Word.

Kudlow to Hillary, It's the Economy, Stupid: "Try to imagine the United States imposing capital controls. And try to imagine the United States trying to deglobalize from the world economy. That’s as dumb as well, nationalized, socialized healthcare, or seizing oil company profits." (Kudlow's Money Politic$)

"The first time I got blown up, I had to remind myself to get up and look around for the trigger man or possible gunmen set to take advantage of the confusion. I felt like I was floating through a world where time stood still. There's something about looking directly at an artillery shell and seeing it vanish with a sharp crack and rush of dust and debris that changes you." (More @ Acute Politics )

Evil Fiction: Orson Scott Card eviscerates Steve Berry's The Alexandria Link: "What Berry is providing is pure propaganda -- the propaganda created by terrorists and murderers to 'prove' that Jews 'deserve' to be blown up by suicide bombers." (Civilization Watch)

My Back Pages: David Goines wraps up his memoir of the seeds of protest in the 60s. " I learned that the only way to get power is to take it. Nobody is going to give it to you willingly, no matter how nicely you ask. The law changes to recognize shifts in political strength; it does not promote those shifts. Had we stayed within legal avenues—avenues defined by our adversaries—we would never have gotten anything in the Free Speech, civil rights or antiwar movements. There is no redress of grievance for those whose only remedy is the law."



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 7, 2006 11:38 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Iran Plays the Extortion Card

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Pay me now for not kill you then.

FOR AN INSANE THUG WHO HATES THE JEWS, Iran's president has certainly learned and lived the meaning of hutzpah. Not content to play nuclear brinksmanship with a world that could reduce his country to a glowing puff of cosmic flatulence in an afternoon, Ahmadinejad now wants to get paid for all those years Iran didn't build a nuclear weapon.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the West should compensate Iran for its past suspension of nuclear research as a way of building trust.-- Iran demands nuclear compensation
As the article notes, "Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment two years ago - the basis of his call for compensation - had been voluntary." But really, why should that make any difference to the mind set of this man and his whole demented cohort?

This is straight from the Yassar Arafat Playbook. First you threaten to kill a lot of people and drag an entire region of the world into chaos and war.

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 7, 2006 9:31 AM | Comments (8)  | QuickLink: Permalink
UltiPod:The 15 Exabyte iPod

ONE OF MY CORRESPONDENTS WRITES FOR ADVICE:

I've decided to load my new 15 exabyte iPOD with the sum total of human knowledge but this dang USB 2 interface is giving me fits. According to a UC Berkeley study I read about, the total of all human knowledge, music, images and words amounted to about 12 exabytes as of 1999. I figure the extra 3 exabytes will future-proof me what with all the crap that has been circulating since then. I still have a few questions about using the thing, but I figure I can just look that stuff up once I get it mostly loaded. Think I should have gone with the chrome model? I heard they finger print like crazy.
Any suggestions?



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 6, 2006 5:43 PM | Comments (4)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Hollywood Hymnal

"It's a hundred and six miles to the Oscars, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." -- The Blues Brothers...

WHEN I MOVED TO SEATTLE I declined the opportunity to get cable TV. As a result I shall miss seeing our annual "Superbowl for Girls" (AKA: The Oscars) this evening. Still, in this besotted society just opting out of the Oscars doesn't mean you can opt out of being bludgeoned by them. The tsunami of BS surrounding this fornication festival of preening plutocrats grows higher and sweeps across our land with more devastation every year. Think of it as a Katrina of Cornpone.

Having proven itself to be politically impotent in the last two national elections, Hollywood still likes to strut its stuff when it comes to the realm where it is still pre-eminent -- pretending. And like all other industries that deal in the lower pleasures, they are very good at pushing their product. Although they

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 5, 2006 8:36 PM | Comments (14)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Seattle: A City of Cultural Extremes Groping Towards a Middle Way



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 5, 2006 1:37 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Insult Law
Nobody has ever died from a cartoon. If the worst thing the Nazis ever did had been to draw cartoons of death camps instead of putting Jews in them, six million Jews would be alive today. When was the last time any country decided to kill a Muslim anywhere in the world because they felt insulted? But the Muslims have created a new international law called the "insult law." This means they have the right to kill you whenever they please, and you have no right to do anything about it. If a Muslim were walking down a street in Israel with a picture of an insulting cartoon in hand, no Israeli would threaten his life. They would be too busy celebrating the fact that it was a cartoon and not a bomb. -- Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder: The ironies of the cartoon jihad
Hat tip to JC for the pointer.

Posted by Vanderleun Mar 5, 2006 9:16 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Oscar Encores

LET'S LOOK AHEAD TO THE AFTERMATH:
With the THREE 6 MAFIA scheduled to serenade the clotted cream of our culture tonight at the Oscars with their moving ode that, as one critic delicately described it in the program for tonight's festivities, "... celebrates the innate difficulties of being a member of an eternally oppressed minority entombed within the adamantine walls of our hermetically sealed urban prisons and forced, forced, against his will and all that's holy, to require several females to offer up their bodies to the oppressor for small change, and to return that tainted lucre to him so that his life of oppression may continue for one more day in the plantation that is America (AKA: "You Know It's Hard Our Here for a Pimp")," one wonders exactly what songs THREE 6 MAFIA might be called upon to perform as an encore at the after parties should they win.

Checking the group's impressive catalogue it could be one, or more, or perhaps all of the following masterpieces:

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Posted by Vanderleun Mar 5, 2006 6:50 AM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
The Fool's Paradise at Apple

I'M A MAC USER and, unless the world ends, I always will be. Since switching to Macs over five years ago I've probably saved months of my life in not having to dick around with Windows issues on a daily basis. I've saved years of time helping my friends dick around with their Windows issues by saying, "Sorry, I don't do Windows."

It is a surprisingly calm and virus/worm/spyware free existence running a Mac. You really never have to so much as think about it. But therein lies the hidden flaw, of course, and since nature always sides with the hidden flaw, it is wise to still stay on your guard.

That's why I tire of the standard Applesque blather when it comes to security problems. The most recent is this emission from a "security expert" just after Apple released an OSX security update with 20 patches.

But, in general, according to Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer at security firm Secunia, it is unlikely there will be a deluge of viruses targeting the Mac.

"Malware writers love to reach as many people as possible," he said. "They don't want to spend their time creating a virus that targets 1 or 2 percent of users. They prefer Windows, which represents 97 percent of users." -- Apple Patches Mac OS X Security Flaws

Really? Let's look at that logic. Malware slime, as we all know, is generally not in it for the money but for the attention. With every pimply Malware writer working overtime on subverting Windows that leaves the field pretty crowded. How long will it take for one of these people to get the bright idea that by screwing up Windows he's just another slob, but by putting the worm in the Apple he's making history?

So keep an eye on those email attachments .... even if you do own a Mac. We're bound to get a winner someday.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 4, 2006 7:52 PM | Comments (5)  | QuickLink: Permalink
No Mere Spankings in this Phase of Abu Ghraib's History

MICHAEL TOTTEN, reporting from Iraq, takes you on a chilling tour of one of the holding sites for Abu Ghraib during the Saddam regime. His report, The Head of the Snake, ends with these words:

The hardest thing to see was the cell used to hold children before they were murdered. My translator Alan read some of the messages carved into the wall.

"I was ten years old. But they changed my age to 18 for execution."

"Dear Mom and Dad. I am going to be executed by the Baath. I will not see you again."

10,725 people were killed in this one building alone. All died during torture. Formal execution actually took place in Abu Ghraib.

No sense in saying the obvious. The pictures and words that come before say it all.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 4, 2006 6:32 PM | Comments (2)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Blondes and the Sinews of Seattle

I'VE BEEN MEANING TO WRITE something other than my typical cheap shots at the Moonbat Tribes of Seattle, but new blogger "AskMom" has beat me to it with: The Genesis of the Norg.

Of course, having a family that has lived here for generations, she has a bit of a jump on me. Still, the essay will turn a lot of the things you think you know about Seattle on their head:

Other places have small pockets of communal culture, little remnants of company towns or Utopian villages clinging to viability in the modern world. In Seattle, the commune has morphed with the modern city and subsumes everything that pokes into it.

Consider that Seattle is home to three of the first-est, biggest, most successful cooperatives on earth: REI outdoor equipment, Group Health Cooperative Health Care, and Puget Consumers Co-op, a grocery supplier. Accept that three of the most smotheringly uniform retailers ever to gladden the hearts of Wall Street -- Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Costco -- were born and are cherished here. The operating system that drives and unifies the world's computers is written here at Microsoft. Remember, when you consider what a small world it is, that without the Boeing Company it would be a much more disconnected one. As you decry the reality that everyone from Timbuktu to Kokomo is reading the same chunky meaningless bestseller, notice that it's Amazon who sells them.

Seattle, the Stealth City that, dare I say it, rules the world from within a Volvo limo with smoked windows and the very finest in fleece upholstery.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 4, 2006 1:24 PM | Comments (6)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Sleeping in Seattle


"Spring is in the Air"



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 4, 2006 9:03 AM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
On "the astounding baseness to which Liberal journalism has sunk." -- 1917

PLUS CA CHANGE, and so forth:

One of the two or three streaks of light on our horizon can be perceived in this: that the moral breakdown of these papers has been accompanied by a mental breakdown also. The contemporary official paper, like the "DailyNews" or the "Daily Chronicle" (I mean in so far as it deals with politics), simply cannot argue; and simply does not pretend to argue. It considers the solution which it imagines that wealthy people want, and it signifies the same in the usual manner; which is not by holding up its hand, but by falling on its face. But there is no more curious quality inits degradation than a sort of carelessness, at once of hurry and fatigue,with which it flings down its argument--or rather its refusal to argue.It does not even write sophistry: it writes anything. It does not so much poison the reader's mind as simply assume that the reader hasn't got one." -- LIBERALISM - A SAMPLE, Utopia of Userers, et al by Gilbert K. Chesterton
A nice little summation of our current run of "leading" newspapers even if it is almost a century old.

More to the point of how Chesterton means more at this moment than in many decades is what comes next in a comment that prefigures the "new" media.

A long while ago, before all the Liberals died, a Liberal introduced a Bill to prevent Parliament being merely packed with the slaves of financial interests. For that purpose he established the excellent democratic principle that the private citizen, as such, might protest against public corruption. He was called the Common Informer. I believe the miserable party papers are really reduced to playing on the degradation of the two words in modern language. Now the word "comnon" in "Common Informer" means exactly what it means in "common sense" or "Book of Common Prayer," or (above all) in "House of Commons." It does not mean anything low or vulgar; any more than they do. The only difference is that the House of Commons really is low and vulgar; and the Common Informer isn't. It is just the same with the word "Informer." It does not mean spy or sneak. It means one who gives information. It means what "journalist" ought to mean. The only difference is that the Common Informer may be paid if he tells the truth. The common journalist will be ruined if he does.



Posted by Vanderleun Mar 3, 2006 7:35 PM | Comments (1)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Bitches and Pimps to Join Hos and Dicks at the Oscars

YES, THIS YEAR'S OSCARS continue their transformation into the nation's most over-hyped fornication festival. The only suspense to be found in this struggling ritual will be whether or not transparent codpieces will be on display during the endless pre-show preening. But just in case you were distressed that bitches would not be included with all the hos, rest assured they will be represented. Hollywood is nothing if not multi-cultural.

Oscars viewers to hear word "bitches" in song

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - There will be no F-word but the word "bitches" will be heard during the first-ever rap performance at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

At the request of the Academy and ABC, which is broadcasting the Oscars show, the authors of best song nominee "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" from the film "Hustle & Flow" have substituted less offensive words for the song's profanity-laced lyrics.

"As long as the Academy approves it, it's cool," said rapper Jordan "Juicy J" Houston, a member of Three 6 Mafia, which wrote the song for the film and will be performing it.

But he said he was told by actress Taraji P. Henson, who performed the song in the film, and will sing onstage with Three 6 Mafia, that the show's producers were letting her keep the word "bitches," in the chorus. "Taraji said the Academy told her she can say 'bitches,"' said Houston....

Aaron Rosenberg, lawyer for Three 6 Mafia, said it was a milestone for the Academy to recognize hip-hop's influence on American culture and the group is extremely sensitive to decency concerns after the baring of Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

"They worked hard to clean it up as much as possible without compromising their artistic integrity," he said.


That's comforting. After all, where would our culture's largest annual display of Bitches, Pimps, Hos and Dicks be without their "uncompromising artistic integrity?"

This year, more than ever, the Academy will bend over backwards.
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UPDATE: Welcome Wolcott Moonies! Please make sure you are wearing your surge protector before you start batting about. Isn't it a shame that the unfortunate Wolcott chooses not to enable comments so he can collect the measured disagreement you bring to this page on his. Ah well, one hopes for worthy opponents on the web but then one must settle for a Wolcott.

Posted by Vanderleun Mar 2, 2006 11:28 AM | Comments (42)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Stick a Fork in McCain. He's Done.


amccain.jpg
He was looking kinda dumb with his finger and his thumb
And the shape of an "L" on his forehead.
Well the years start coming and they don't stop coming....
-- Smashmouth, AllStar

Probably the only person that doesn't know John McCain will never be President is John McCain -- and that includes his campaign staff and his family.

He showed up smiling at David Letterman (who looks more and more like "The Joker" without the makeup with every passing week) to "announce" that he was indeed running for President just as he has been every day for decades. Large applause followed by a national shrug. "Never happen. Vote him off the island. Next."

But yet he once had everything going for him, didn't he? What happened? What happened is that the country, as far as John McCain goes, woke up and took a long look. It has had a long chance to take this long look and decided, "Nope." But was too polite to say why.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Mar 2, 2006 10:58 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Edwards Raises Hard "Coulter Cash"

Following Ann Coulter's saying of one of those things you "can't say in America," the Edwards campaign is looking to cash in, "I say we fight. Help us raise $100,000 in "Coulter Cash" this week to show every would-be Republican mouthpiece that their bigoted attacks will not intimidate this campaign."

And why would "every would-be Republican mouthpiece" seek to intimidate the Edwards Campaign? "John was singled out for a personal

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Mar 2, 2006 10:19 AM | Comments (3)  | QuickLink: Permalink
Private and Personal Posting

THIS POSTING IS HERE to remind me that all men are mortal. It is private and personal and you will be very, very sorry if you violate that privacy and click on the "Continued..." link.

Continued...

Posted by Vanderleun Mar 1, 2006 5:32 PM | Comments (10)  | QuickLink: Permalink
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