Monday, March 07, 2005
random.....
I notice that the Michael Jackson Network (aka Fox) is very carefully ignoring the fact that Italian journalist Sgrena is a Communist, and thus by definition an enemy collaborator. They haven't mentioned it even once. This is the most important fact in the whole affair, and other news outlets have mentioned it.
UPDATE Mon aft: John Gibson is finally hitting the point, and asking all the right questions.
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Adding this event to my earlier speculation about catch and release. I still don't see the full pattern, and there may not be one simple pattern... but it's blazingly clear that many of these 'hostages' are in fact volunteers on the enemy side. Not Stockholm Syndrome, just pure enemy agents from the start.
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The stupidest often-quoted saying is Dorothy Parker's "There are no second acts in America." It was even stupider back in the '30s when it was first said, because immigration and the frontier were still fresh news at that time. The whole POINT of the New World, and the western frontier, was to provide a second act for lives that failed in their first act.
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A newer stupidity is "Hey dude, it's 2005. Get with it." I'm always tempted to respond, "Well, I'm glad to hear that you are aware of the year. Now can you tell me who was the first President? And what does 2 + 2 equal?"
The notion that certain ideas or statements are required or prohibited as of this year is profoundly Stalinist.
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Listening to Williams and Sowell discussing the Repub inability to explain things. I've been harping on this for a long time. For some reason the R's always send the top Senators to do various interviews. This makes no sense. It's bad enough to have an aphasic President. When you send out explainers who say nothing more than "I think the President is exactly right", you've added nothing to public discourse. Instead, they should look at some of the younger House members. Steve King of Iowa and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have been doing a great semi-regular dog'n'pony show on C-Span (during the special order speeches.) Blackburn is easy on the eyes and easy on the ears -- which matters on TV -- and both King and Blackburn are lively and clear teachers.
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And while I'm ranting and raving at random, I'm DAMNED tired of so-called 'dialog journalism', in which you grab two or three loud talkers and let them yammer at the same time. This is not Fair AndBalanced in any way, because leftists are much better at shouting and bullying. Aside from that, the basic notion that every questionhas two equally valid sides is sheer nonsense. On EVERY important question except the existence of God, plenty of facts exist, and it's possible to determine which facts are true. On political and economic questions where pure logic doesn't help, the experiments have been done, at the cost of 100 million lives. The data is in, and the data says that free-market capitalism works best, and representative government works best. Any so-called "expert" who takes the opposite side, or even a compromise position, is by definition not an expert, and does not deserve to waste any air-time. ¶ 8:58 AM
UPDATE Mon aft: John Gibson is finally hitting the point, and asking all the right questions.
---------------
Adding this event to my earlier speculation about catch and release. I still don't see the full pattern, and there may not be one simple pattern... but it's blazingly clear that many of these 'hostages' are in fact volunteers on the enemy side. Not Stockholm Syndrome, just pure enemy agents from the start.
----------------
The stupidest often-quoted saying is Dorothy Parker's "There are no second acts in America." It was even stupider back in the '30s when it was first said, because immigration and the frontier were still fresh news at that time. The whole POINT of the New World, and the western frontier, was to provide a second act for lives that failed in their first act.
----------
A newer stupidity is "Hey dude, it's 2005. Get with it." I'm always tempted to respond, "Well, I'm glad to hear that you are aware of the year. Now can you tell me who was the first President? And what does 2 + 2 equal?"
The notion that certain ideas or statements are required or prohibited as of this year is profoundly Stalinist.
-------------
Listening to Williams and Sowell discussing the Repub inability to explain things. I've been harping on this for a long time. For some reason the R's always send the top Senators to do various interviews. This makes no sense. It's bad enough to have an aphasic President. When you send out explainers who say nothing more than "I think the President is exactly right", you've added nothing to public discourse. Instead, they should look at some of the younger House members. Steve King of Iowa and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have been doing a great semi-regular dog'n'pony show on C-Span (during the special order speeches.) Blackburn is easy on the eyes and easy on the ears -- which matters on TV -- and both King and Blackburn are lively and clear teachers.
--------
And while I'm ranting and raving at random, I'm DAMNED tired of so-called 'dialog journalism', in which you grab two or three loud talkers and let them yammer at the same time. This is not Fair AndBalanced in any way, because leftists are much better at shouting and bullying. Aside from that, the basic notion that every questionhas two equally valid sides is sheer nonsense. On EVERY important question except the existence of God, plenty of facts exist, and it's possible to determine which facts are true. On political and economic questions where pure logic doesn't help, the experiments have been done, at the cost of 100 million lives. The data is in, and the data says that free-market capitalism works best, and representative government works best. Any so-called "expert" who takes the opposite side, or even a compromise position, is by definition not an expert, and does not deserve to waste any air-time. ¶ 8:58 AM
