The Lasso of Truth

Cuttin' to the chase

As usual...

Pencils, pens... or even bleeding edge laptop computers... do not write lyrical poetry. Parachutes... even negligently packed... do not smash the life out of innocent, random people. Cars... even rip-snorting 400 horsepower street racers... do not chase down pedestrians like panicked bunnies... and guns... even the dark & dastardly Glock... do not foment murder.

So instead of trying to divert all the attention here to an inanimate object... be it a length of pipe, a snowplow, or yes... even a handgun... perhaps you could explain, how not discussing letting obviously mentally defective people with flagrantly violent ideation carom consequence-free throughout the larger field of folk is some sort of inconsequential side-issue.

Amen brother.

Rooting around in the sock drawer

Much like my friend Skippy, I don't much care for when a big-news tragedy hits and the hacks start lining up to parse every angle and split every hair.  Case in point, Victor Davis Hanson - who I do honestly like as a rule - starts his recent statement on the political firestorm surrounding the shootings in Tuscon Arizona, with this catchy, yet disingenuous throw-away opener...

Very few Americans are fans of both The Communist Manifestoand Mein Kamp, as the Tucson killer, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, apparently was.

Not to ruin a perfectly inflammatory insinuation, but when you take into account the entire list from which these texts were cherry picked, it seems as though the pundit who decries those trying to score political points for one side of the aisle or t'other has deliberately selected for mention only the books that would fit his chosen narrative and elicit the most favorable agreement from his audience.

Sharing the killer's list of faves with these notable fascist and communist tomes, are such firebrand titles as The Wizard of Oz, To Kill A Mockingbird and We The Living - the last of which is most noted for being the virulently anti-communist screed authored by the notoriously anti-left wing Ayn Rand.

In fact, perusing the whole list gives one no further insight into Jared Loughner than the impression of a muddled, confused and contradictory mind.  This can likely be attributed to the fact that whatever else he may be, Jared Loughner is a crackpot.  Which leads me to wonder why anyone who is still in at least marginal control of their own faculties, would think that any logic, motive or sentiment can be garnered from an examination of the guy's reading habits.

He is insane.  The things he does only make sense to him, and the voices in his head.  Therefore, it makes perfect sense to hold in equally high esteem both Mein Kampf and Peter Pan - but only to him.  Anyone else who professes to see some obscure logic, or who claims to have divined some masterful grasp of the kook's inner psyche from the list of his bathroom reading, is either equally addled with mental illness or is simply taking a few cheap shots in the dark as a way to pander to the base under the guise of the moral high road.

They're books...not tea leaves.

Glenn Reynolds characterizes it as blood libel

For the less refined among us, it looks more like they're smearing their hands in the blood of the dead and making cutesy little finger paintings with it...

A lot has been made of Sarah Palin's now infamous graphic showing which Congressmen her PAC was "targeting" for defeat using cross hairs. Politics uses war imagery -- just as any cause does ("war on cancer" "battle against X" and the "fight against Y"). I just don't see a connection between the cross hairs and shooting Gabrielle Giffords and think you have to be an idiot to make such a connection...

Idiot is a charitable way to put it.  I somehow doubt I'm the only person who considered the possibility that Warren typed his post with only one hand.  In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he types every post that way.

The new Sherriff wears bunny slippers

So much for America being the world's police force...

My point is that across the depths of Africa--from Egypt in the north to Zimbabwe in the south (and dare I say South Africa itself?) and in Congo and Sudan and a dozen countries besides--the killers and the humiliators are free to kill and humiliate without even a chastising from the United States. So where are the idealists and youthful human rights champions? Nowhere. Darfur was only an issue when they could taunt George Bush about it.

What kept you?

It's nice to see the MSM finally catching up with me.

h/t

Calling for an occupation

From quarters where the hue and cry would be deafening, should imperialist westerners dare occupy, to civilize, violent cesspools like Afghanistan or Palestine -- we have the call to send in the Marines..!

Canada, the U.S., France and other nations are rushing aid to Haiti. Food and medical help are essential, but Haiti also must have an effective government that cares for its desperate people. A small UN contingent has achieved little. What Haiti really needs is to be again administered by the U.S. Marine Corps.

This column despises any form of imperial action as a grave violation of democratic and republican values. But the U.S. could do enormous good for Haiti, which needs a major rescue mission for a desperate people who have failed to govern themselves and have no other hope. Most Haitians, I think, would welcome U.S. humanitarian intervention.

It's heartening to see a member of the esteemed intelligentsia acknowledge that there are societies which cannot be relied up on to govern themselves, and require the hand of a functioning democracy, to establish working order.  One wonders though, what distinguishes Haitians from, say, Palestinians...I mean, other than skin color?

Too many mouths to feed

Less ice..?

Scientists say shrinking Arctic sea ice may be forcing some polar bears into cannibalizing young cubs.

"When (bears) are very hungry, they go looking for something to eat," biologist Ian Stirling said Friday.

...or just more bears to feed?

h/t

Just another stitch in the multicultural fabric?

Broadcasting in Canada is about to get a lot more diverse...

Al-Jazeera English, the English-language service of the Qatar-based broadcaster, has been approved for distribution via satellite in Canada.

Ethnic Channels Group Ltd., a Toronto-based satellite service, had applied in February to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for permission to carry Al-Jazeera English.

On Thursday, the federal regulator approved the request, clearing the way for Al-Jazeera to be carried via digital satellite.

"The commission notes the substantial support for the addition of AJE to the digital lists and considers that AJE will expand the diversity of editorial points of view in the Canadian broadcasting system," the CRTC said in its decision.

"Further, despite concerns expressed by certain parties, there is nothing on the record of the current proceeding that leads the commission to conclude that AJE would violate Canadian regulations, such as those regarding abusive comment."

Coming to a terrorist sleeper cell near you.

The Rush to Smear

Via Instapundit, a swarm of cranks ruin a very professional and appropriate mea culpa with snarky equivocations and a whole host of "fake but accurate" nonsense in the comments.

Who knew the NFL had moral standards?

I wonder if the moral preening race hustlers, who exercised so much energy to reject a rich Conservative's private investment, would be just as eager to reject his contribution to the tax base.

Or is it only ok to take money from the rich, when you do it by force?

"Vicious, or just plain stupid?"...I say both

An unqualified candidate, with some questionable associations, got elected to high office on a campaign that traded on his skin color so the Democrats could "make history", but Michael Steele who, arguably, has a not dissimilar resume, is nothing more than a "token black". 

Is it because he's Republican or because he disagrees with King Obama about pulling the plug on Grandma? (via)

And can somebody tell me why this article appears in Psychology Today?  Is this a demonstration of abnormal psychology?  Projection, perhaps..?

Must be a slow news day

Especially for a media that usually tends to be more hostile than deferential, to Catholic religious practice...

A senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest is demanding the Prime Minister's Office explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer Stephen Harper was given at Roméo LeBlanc's funeral mass.

During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call "the host" into his jacket pocket.

In Catholic understanding, the host - once consecrated by a priest for the Eucharist - becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucial that the small wafer be consumed when it is received.

Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John, wants to know whether the prime minister consumed the host and, if not, what happened to it.

If Harper accepted the host but did not consume it, "it's worse than a faux pas, it's a scandal from the Catholic point of view," he said.

Which leads one to wonder what the reaction would be had he chewed it up and spit it back out.

The Catholic Church really needs to get a grip, if this is what ruffles feathers over there.  As for demanding that the PM's office spend valuable time issuing a statement to address this concern...don't you think they just might have more important matters to address?

h/t

Welcome, to the newest kitten-eating Conservative

Once again, the Toronto Star farms out a hit piece on the new Ontario Conservative leader, Tim Hudak.  Only this time, they take a ribbing in the comments from readers who, like me, are sick to death of the bitchy old buzz words being trotted out any time someone slightly more conservative than Chairman Mao dares to show his face on the Canadian political landscape.

Congratulations to Tim Hudak for winning the leadership.  Now let's hope he can win the election.  Personally, I like the prospect of a Mike-lite.  Actually...I'm more apt to cheer for Mike-heavy, if he's of a mind to get things back on track in this province.

Previous Hudak hits from the "red" Star.

The most revealing part of this report...

...is the EDITOR'S NOTE:

Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

So they say, without the slightest hint of alarm or condemnation.

If this had been the US election in, say, Florida 2000, do you think they'd be accepting media restrictions so casually?

YES HE CAN!

And why not?  Hugo Chavez has his own talk show and Fidel had Granma.  Now the big BO has his own official propoganda wing...

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

The Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, who worked as a reporter for ABC News from 1998-2006.

Lileks on Dave

Well, not actually on him...

But no, it must be funny, because David is funny and hip. Right? Or maybe not; maybe he’s actually a brackish, hermetically-souled guy who’s spend the last twenty years going from table to table with a giant wooden grinder, asking anyone if they want some fresh-ground scorn with that. Say when. Or maybe he’s about as edgy as a soccer ball, and exists only to remind people they were Edgy once, and hence must be ever-blessed with the gift of Wryness and Irony. With those shields we can never grow old, you know. We’ll always be as sharp and perceptive as we were when we were sitting on a cast-off sofa in college, working through a midweek buzz, happily fellated by the preconceptions the TV so charitably provided.

[..]

...a flat, dead-eyed, square-headed old man who’ll go back to the writers and ask for more Palin-daughter knocked-up jokes, because that one went over well. Other children he won’t touch, but not because he’s decent. It’s because he’s a coward.

Ouch.

The little known...

"I'm not a pervert, just a jerk" defense.

Cementing my impression that Letterman is funniest when his lips don't move.

"Class Day" Indeed

"But you really must guard against the cynicism and nastiness that are so pervasive today, particularly on the internet. It can be a wonderful, powerful and equalizing tool, but it's also populated by haters and trolls. People think they can say or do anything online under the cloak of anonymity."

Whereas the enlightened among us can indulge in cynicism and nastiness under our full names, with the full immunity afforded by our fame, privilege and partisan hackery.

Yet they sit in gaping wonder at the dismal numbers and ask "Where are our viewers going wrong?"

h/t

Silence from the Goracle: Apparently not like blood from a stone

The Canadian Association of Journalists calls upon our Prime Minister to "focus his undivided attention and all resources possible on finding and rescuing" a pair of freelance journalists who entered a civil war zone, well-known for kidnappings and ransom demands.

But a pair of journalists, on assignment for their high-profile boss, get snatched by a hostile government and the well-connected, former international diplomatic heavyweight who chairs the organization they represent lets not a whisper pass from his diuretic lips.

And the media has no comment about that?

Curiouser...

Like a hooker who wants a john to brush his teeth first

In the new rapture that is eco-worship, the buying of indulgences is no longer one's saving grace, but rather the rope by which one is hung...

The Guardian’s George Monbiot is feeling a little dirty, a little compromised. In a typically understated piece, titled Newspapers Must Stop Taking Advertising from Environmental Villains, Mr Monbiot ponders “the extent to which newspapers should restrict the advertisements they carry.”

[..]

Exactly how would one go about measuring the alleged “atomising” and “socially damaging” effect of an advert for cheap flights or a car, or for something more mundane - say, a nice pair of shoes? Exactly how much shoe advertising, or shoe consumption, constitutes wickedness? Is there a preferred, morally elevated, level of shoe ownership?

It's all about reducing one's footprint.

Ever the scapegoat

When your "progressive" affirmative-action economics lead to catastrophic failure, just blame Reagan...

“This bill is the most important legislation for financial institutions in the last 50 years. It provides a long-term solution for troubled thrift institutions. ... All in all, I think we hit the jackpot.” So declared Ronald Reagan in 1982, as he signed the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act.

He was, as it happened, wrong about solving the problems of the thrifts. On the contrary, the bill turned the modest-sized troubles of savings-and-loan institutions into an utter catastrophe. But he was right about the legislation’s significance. And as for that jackpot — well, it finally came more than 25 years later, in the form of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

For the more one looks into the origins of the current disaster, the clearer it becomes that the key wrong turn — the turn that made crisis inevitable — took place in the early 1980s, during the Reagan years.

Let it never be said...

...that the Toronto Star would resort to damning a Conservative candidate with faint praise.

Acidic condescension and sarcasm is more the standard formula...

Hudak, the member for Niagara West-Glanbrook, seemed by and large content to reiterate his well-worked talking points and evade comment on anything controversial.

He is, a breathless province will be relieved to know, "blessed" to have the wife he does, dotes on his 19-month-old daughter, is grateful for the sacrifices of his immigrant grandparents.

In short, Hudak demonstrated to the Star what PC party members by now know. He is a solid, engaging, increasingly disciplined professional politician.

Add in a generous sprinkling of associations with the presumed anti-christ of Ontario political history...

On the one hand, Hudak say he's grateful for the support of former premier Mike Harris, and proud of his part in the Harris government.

On the other, Hudak appears to want a little distance put between himself and the past. He is less the second coming of Mike, he suggested, than he is sort of Mike-ish.

In temperament at least, that's hard to gainsay. Hudak appears to want people to like him. Harris seemed happy to collect enemies. Hudak maintains a scrupulous affability. Harris was an angry profanity looking for a place to happen.

Hudak also lacks – though may yet develop or luck into – a couple of useful things Harris had.

By the time of the Common Sense Revolution, Harris had a platform that fit him like a glove. Hudak still sounds as if delivering lines that seem neither visceral nor founded on an intellectual superstructure.

And for good measure, make some cryptic reference to an evil American, preferably one perceived as much-maligned by your buddies in the newsroom...

There was no mention of any book that had recently engaged him, or any lesson from other jurisdictions (other than a B.C. initiative to cut red tape), anything of what has happened in the United States or Ottawa, any guiding star more compelling than Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment that "thou shall not speak ill of another conservative."

I can't think of a better sales pitch for the new leader of the provincial Conservative party, than to have the Toronto Star go into full-on Perez Hilton-style bitchy queen hate-spew, under the guise of professional interview...can you?

Get a thicker skin

For all the vicious partisanship of it, at least Wanda Sykes told some jokes that were actually funny.

Which is more than can be said about Streisand's attempt at "comedy".

And that's all I've got to say about that.

h/t

Don't you know how to multi-task?

"It's hard to talk when you're teabagging."

I would have characterized the President's economic plan as more of a sound buggering, but we all have our kinks, I guess.

Aiding the CYA Administration

If George Bush's second cousin's next-door-neighbor's dog had so much as nipped a passerby, we'd still be hearing about it and what implications it had on his credibility.

But the half brother of the Anointed One assaults a 13-year-old girl, provides false information to authorities and lies on a visa application, and nary a word in the news world can be heard.

Caught on the way to his brother's inauguration, no less.  One can only speculate how he planned to celebrate.

These folks are sounding more and more like the Kennedys every day.

h/t reader Scott

The critical eye of the media

NPR, assuming the position in the era of "hope 'n change".