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Ed Driscoll

The Samizdat Remains the Same

February 15th, 2011 - 2:12 pm

Was the Fall of the USSR a Good Thing? University of Chicago Professor Brian Leiter isnt so sure, David

Bernstein notes at the Volokh Conspiracy.

35 years ago, propping up the Soviet Union was par for the course in academia, as Tom Wolfe noted in hisarticle, The Intelligent Co-Eds Guide to America, published in 1976:

With the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 it had become

clear to Mannerist Marxists such as Sartre that the Soviet Union was now an embarrassment. The

fault, however, as tout le monde knew, was not with socialism but with Stalinism. Stalin was a

madman and had taken socialism on a wrong turn. (Mistakes happen.) Solzhenitsyn began speaking

out as a dissident inside the Soviet Union in 1967. His complaints, his revelations, his struggles with

Soviet authoritiesthey merely underscored just how wrong the Stalinist turn had been.

The publication ofThe Gulag Archipelagoin 1973, however, was a wholly unexpected blow. No

one was ready for the obscene horror and grotesque scale of what Solzhenitsyn called Our Sewage

Disposal Systemin which tens of millions were shipped in boxcars to concentration camps allover the country, in which tens of millions died, in which entire races and national groups were

liquidated, insofar as they had existed in the Soviet Union. Moreover, said Solzhenitsyn, the system

had not begun with Stalin but with Lenin, who had immediately exterminated non-Bolshevik

opponents of the old regime and especially the student factions. It was impossible any longer to

distinguish the Communist liquidation apparatus from the Nazi.

Yet Solzhenitsyn went still further. He said that not only Stalinism, not only Leninism, not only

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Obamas offshore oil drilling policy kills Texas oil company, Bryan Preston writes at the Tatler. Seahawk Oil

experiences Obama style fundamental transformation:

The first off-shore drilling company in the Gulf of Mexico to declare bankruptcy has blamed the

government-imposed standstill for a shortage of shallow-water permits following the summersmassive oil spill. Texas-based Seahawk Drilling, the second-largest shallow-water driller operating

in the Gulf, announced it had filed for bankruptcy Friday and would be selling its remaining assets

to Hercules Offshore.

Flashback to January of 2008 and the headline of the year the San Fransisco Chronicle was too stupid or too

much in agreement on not to highlight:

embedded byEmbedded Video

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Putting the Toothpaste Back into the Tube, Middle East Edition


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Mark Steyn on Pharaohs and Fairy Tales:

Mr Erb seems to assume that simply because half the Arab population is under 24! that means

theyre modern. But look at these four photographs: The female graduating class of Cairo

University in 1959, 1978, 1995 and 2004. The young women of the Fifties and Seventies are little

different from their counterparts at Brown or Brandeis. The 2004 group shot shows a whollytransformed culture: True, its more modern than Take Your Child Bride To Work Day in

Kandahar, but thats about it. As I wrote three years ago:

The other night at dinner, I found myself sitting next to a Middle Eastern Muslim lady

of a certain age. And the conversation went as it often does when youre with Muslim

women who were at college in the Sixties, Seventies or Eighties. In this case, my dining

companion had just been at a conference on womens issues, of which there are many

in the Muslim world, and she was struck by the phrase used by the moderate Muslim

chair of the meeting: authentic women by which she meant women wearing

hijabs. And my friend pointed out that when she and her unveiled pals had been in their

20s they were the authentic women: the covering routine was for old village biddies,

the Islamic equivalent of gnarled Russian babushkas. It would never have occurred toher that the assumptions of her generation would prove to be off by 180 degrees that

in middle age she would see young Muslim women wearing a garb largely alien to their

tradition not just in the Middle East but in Brussels and London and Montreal.

Whenever I speak about Islam, some or other inevitablist always says, Oh, but they

havent had time to westernize. Just you wait and see. Give it another 20 years, and the

siren song of westernization will work its magic. This argument isnt merely

speculative, its already been proved wrong by whats happened over the last 30 years.

Huge majorities of Egyptians are in favor of stoning for adulterous women and of

execution for apostasy. Run the numbers, and then see if you can recite your inevitablist

theories of social evolution with a straight face. The idea that social progress is like the

wheel or the iPhone once invented, it can never be uninvented is one of thelaziest assumptions of the western left.

You can also see that at work in these photos ofIran in the 1970s, or even Afghanistan in the 1950s. But does the

western left still think that social progress is like the wheel or the iPhone once invented, it can never be

uninvented? Because in the first decade of the new millennia (as these things were once reckoned in less

enlightened times), theyve been doing a bang-up job at attempting to roll back the progress of the first half of

the 20th century themselves.

Related: Egypt: Islamist judge to head new constitution committee, the London Telegraph reports.

Comments

Bloomberg on the Rocks


Talk about a strange brew as theNew York Postreports, Mayor Bloomberg likes his beer cold really

cold:


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Standing inside the just-expanded Brooklyn Brewery yesterday, the mayor revealed that his

unorthodox approach to drinking beer requires ice.

I actually put ice in my beer, the mayor said. Most people dont.

Hearing a gasp from the crowd, he explained: I know. Ive always done it. I dont think it comes

from Boston.

The only other man I can think of who likes his beer with ice is former Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins

head coach Jimmy Johnson, who at one time enjoyed Heineken on the rocks. (Check the first paragraph of this

Sports Illustratedarticle from 1989, or repeated references in Skip Bayless 1994 book, The Boys.) And while I

dont know Johnson or Bloomberg, I still think its safe to say that Mayor Mike is no Jimmy Johnson.

Comments

You are ze Audience! I am ze Author! I Outraaaaank You!

February 15th, 2011 - 10:57 am

Dont worry, I havent gone all Krugman on you thats but one of the fantastic lines that Mel Brooks gave therecently deceased Kenneth Mars in The Producers as Franz Liebkind, the writer of the play within the film, the

indelible Springtime for Hitler. Another line bellowed by Mars would gain additional pop culture resonance as

the title of one ofU2"s best albums.

His introductory scene in the film isnt too shabby, either:


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(Hat tip:Ricochet, which links to Mars classic moment in Young Frankenstein.)

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Truth or Consequences


Now is the time atEd Driscoll.com when we juxtapose!

James Taranto, yesterday:

The Timess description of the event is artfully constructed to be literally truthful while conveying a

false and damaging impression. Facts are omitted that demonstrate beyond any doubt the propriety

of Scalias conduct. Also, the formulation a group of representatives led by Representative Michele

Bachmann of the House Tea Party Caucus couldbut does notrefer to the Tea Party Caucus itself,

of which Bachmann is chairman.

Last week we characterized this passage as follows: Here the Times deceives its readers in an effort

to defame Justice Scalia. We chose these words with precision: The Times did not lie outright;

rather, its deception consists in the omission of some pertinent facts and the misleading presentation

of others. And the Times did not defame Justice Scalia, which would require it to make false

statements of fact about him; it merely participated in an effort to do so.

How can voters be so ill informed [sic]?

Paul Krugman,New York Times columnist, yesterday.

(Concept via SDA)

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Bill Maher falls off the Edge of the Earth


According to Maher, when you go too far to the Left, you end up on the Right,NewsReals Walter Hudson

writes, paraphrasing Mahers latest sophistry:

Its not unusual for Bill Maher to accuse his ideological opponents of being flat-earthers. But he

took the concept to a new extreme over the weekend in his analysis of history and the political

spectrum. According to Maher, when you go too far to the Left, you end up on the Right.

Both [the Russian and French] revolutions got hijacked by the right-wing and the

Iranian Revolution, Maher added.

However, Maher explained that you could argue the Russian Revolution was hijacked

by the left-wing, but due to the nature of it being that far left, it was really right.

I suppose people would say the Russian Revolution was hijacked by the left-wing,

Maher said. I think when you go that far left youre really the right-wing. I considerLenin and Stalin right-wingers. Dont tell Rush Limbaugh.

Well, that explains some of the crazier rhetoric from Frank Rich and Chris Matthews in recent years. Though as

Andrew Breitbart asked Maher in September, So youre officially not a Libertarian anymore, right?


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Barack is Injurious Yellow


Break out the micrometer: Ive marked the Obama cuts in yellow. Repeat: Ive marked the Obama cuts in

yellow.

At the Corner, Yuval Levin writes, so much for the recent

MSM-aided Obama as centrist smokescreen:

Until the last few weeks, there might have been room to wonder whether President Obama might

respond to the 2010 elections by moving to the center and seeking some politically advantageous

but meaningful middle ground offering tax reforms, perhaps even some Social Security reforms,

and orienting the next two years around the question of who can provide a more appealing, more

optimistic, and less painful set of solutions to our enormous fiscal challenge and the coming debt

crisis. This budget puts an end to that possibility. The president appears to have decided to spend the

next two years pretending there is no problem to solve, and therefore that Republican proposals to

rein in spending are just mean-spirited cuts offered up for kicks.

This is, above all, an appalling failure of leadership. When we look back on this period a decade or

two from now, I think well identify this moment the presidents decision about how to approach

the budget battle of 2012 as the last real opportunity we had for a gradual bipartisan course

correction. That option now seems closed off, and it is up to Republicans to decide if the alternative

is to march off the fiscal cliff in order to avoid political risks or to propose a gradual course

correction to voters and make the case for why it is sensible, responsible, and essential.

At the Chicago Boyz econ0-blog, Lexington Green writes:

Instapundit responds: Its not 1995 anymore, though. Yes. True. I agree. It is better now. But, is it

better enough? Boehner is not an eccentric visionary like Gingrich, and I cannot see him and

McConnell getting punked by Obama the way Clinton did to Gingrich. Obama is not nearly as goodas Clinton. The GOP members are, I think, much wiser and more realistic than the hopeful but

ultimately naive class of 1994. The new crew is committed to reform, and they have the example of

1995 in front of them. May they learn the right tactical lessons. Plus, things are just way worse now.

There is more at stake.Interesting times, baby.

At Power Line, John Hinderaker diagnoses the madness of King Barack:


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Obamas game is transparent, isnt it? He is playing a game of chicken. He puts forward a series of

proposals that he knows are more or less insane; but he also believes that Republicans will come to

his rescue. They, not being wholly irresponsible, will come up with plans to reform

entitlementslike, for example, the Ryan Roadmap. Ultimately, some combination of those plans

will be implemented because the alternative is the collapse, not just of the government of the United

States, but of the country itself. But Obama thinks the GOPs reforms will be unpopular, and he will

be able to demagogue them, thus having his cake and eating it too. Is that leadership? Of course not.

But it is the very essence of Barack Obama.

Lenin said there are decades where nothing happens, then there are weeks where decades happen. We are

heading into months where decades are going to happen, Lexington Green writes at the Chicago Boyz blog,

adding, Stay tuned.

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The Ultimate Rube Self-Identifies


Obama To The Next Generation: Screw You, Suckers, Andrew Sullivan writes:

To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you

over. He thinks youre fools. Either the US will go into default because of Obamas cowardice, or

you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts.

He let you down. On the critical issue of Americas fiscal crisis, he represents no hope and no

change. Just the same old Washington politics he once promised to end.

All of us who took Obamas pitch as fiscally responsible were duped, Andrew adds. (Meaning pretty much the

entire staffof theAtlantic, among other vast swatches of the MSM?) Of course, its much easier for a con man to

swindle someone whos looking to be duped.

To be fair though, Obama held himself out a man whos as equally conservative as John Kerry just askAndrew:

Andrew Sullivan in July of 2004:

Kerry may be the right man and the conservative choice for a difficult and perilous

time.

Andrew Sullivan, [May 22nd, 2009:]

This speech, to my mind, was a conservative one by a conservative president who seeks

first and foremost to use existing institutions to address the new challenges of the

moment, and then seeks pragmatic compromises, always open to future checks and

balances, in those places where such institutions clearly need reform and adjustment.

But then, conservatism really is whatever Andrew defines it to be at any given moment, of course.

As Andrews bete noire would say, hows that Hopey-Changey stuff working out for you?

Rest easy; Andrew and the MSM will forget all of the presidents flaws and switch back to cheerleader mode as

next year looms closer.


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Update: Or maybe not: James Joyner notes that Andrew has never supported the same man in consecutive

elections, and is poised to continue his streak.

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No Wonder She Loved Kerry


Yid with Lid wraps up CPAC with this amusing anecdote on old media meeting new:

2) NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd May Be Suffering From Some Sort Of Dementia. The

bloggers lounge where we worked was very crowded, and people without the proper credentials

were not allowed in the room.

On the second day of the event Liberal NY Times Columnist Maureen Dowd tried to get into the

bloggers lounge, lacking credentials she was not allowed to enter. Ms. Dowd was not happy and

indignantly asked the person who blocked her entry, Do you have any idea who I am?

What a sad picture, here was a woman who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and only 12 years later shewas wandering the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel with no idea who she was. How the mighty have

fallen.

Moe Lane is willing to help MoDo though: Seriously, Maureen: next time, just call me on my cell and Ill see

what I can do.

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The Diminished Relevance Of Media Matters


Center leftMediaite on far left Media Matters:

Last Thursday, Media Matters published an extensive (and somewhat breathless) account from an

anonymously sourced individual that was only identified as a former Fox News Insider. The report

included lots of detail that alleged Fox News bias, with pithy quotes like theyre a propaganda

outfit but they call themselves news and stuff is just made up, and was clearly intended as a

scathing indictment of Media Matters mortal enemy, Fox News.

* * *

Why would such a provocative and interesting piece get lost in shuffle? Perhaps because, in the

current hyper-partisan landscape of opinion media (and watchdogs) its difficult to take seriously apost that alleges that stuff is just made up from a story that is unwilling to identify its source.

Boehlerts lack of a primary focus on journalism (versus agenda) undercuts the story as well as the

fact that his sourcing narrative is often confusing (at one point, it seems as though hes referencing

two different sources), and he fails to negotiate an attribution that would help the reader judge its

credibility. Was this an on-air personality? An intern? A producer? Did this source leave Fox

recently? Based on Boehlerts attribution, the source could be Keith Olbermann as far as the reader

knows.


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Boehlert also misses an opportunity to strongly highlight the connection between his sources

allegations, and the internal documents that Media Matters has published, which would have lent his

source added credibility and helped to sell the story.

That is not to suggest in anyway that this story is made up.

Why not?

Elsewhere, the Rhetorican dubs this A Pot and Kettle Moment For Media Matters. And Fox News producer

Jesse Watters has a little fun with a would-be ambush interview courtesy of a Think Progress staffer armed

with a cell phone camera its tiny distorted lens, a nice metaphor for TPMs myopic worldview. This is not

how you do an ambush youve got to have a real camera, first of all, Watters tells TPM:


YouTube Direkt

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Debt On Arrival


Jim Hoft, linking to Matt Drudge, spots ANOTHER OBAMA RECORD US Debt Equals Size of US

Economy:

The US federal debt this year will top $15 trillion, officially equaling the size of the entire USeconomy.

The Washington Times reported:

President Obama projects that the gross federal debt will top $15 trillion this year,officially equalling the size of the entire U.S. economy, and will jump to nearly than

$21 trillion in five years time.


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Amid the other staggering numbers in the budget Mr. Obama sent to Congress on

Monday, the debt stands out both because Congress will need to vote to raise the

debt limit later this year, and because the numbers are so large.

Mr. Obamas budget said 2011 will see the biggest one-year jump in debt inhistory, or nearly $2 trillion in a single year. And the administration says it will reach$15.476 trillion by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, to reach 102.6 percent of gross

domestic product (GDP) the first time since World War II that dubious figure hasbeen reached.

In one often-cited study, two economists have argued that when gross debt passes 90

percent it hinders overall economic growth.

The presidents budget said debt as a percentage of GDP will top out at 106 percent in

2013, but only if the economy booms.

I still dont see a sense of urgency from the president about the massive federal debt,

said Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican. His budget calls for too much

government borrowing even though the debt is already at a level that makes it harder

to create private-sector jobs.

The FCCs budget is rising via the cost of new staffers, hybrid Chevy Tahoes,The Hillnotes:

President Obamas FY 2012 budget proposal includes $354.2 million for the Federal

Communications, up from $335.8 million in FY 2010, the last time Congress OKed the agencys

spending levels.

The reasons for the increase, according to FCC managing director Steve VanRoeckel: about 75 new

staffers, funding for an emergency response center created in 2010, and a request to replace four or

five of the FCCs Hybrid Chevy Tahoes each year, which the FCC uses for field work.

VanRoeckel said the additional staffers were added after personnel levels have waned since the mid

nineties.

And finally, atHot Air, Ed Morrissey writes, Energy Dept to reinvest money saved through pay freezes?

The people who saw their wages frozen by this new policy are not happy to say the least.

Indeed, they wrote in response to Brookhavens Monday Morning Memo (apparently private) that

they were being used as political pawns, according to Government Executives report.

Theyre government workers. Of course theyre political pawns. But then the ultimate goal of progressivism is

to make us all that way. Or as James Pethokoukis writes, Obama budget reveals Obamas core.

(Headline via Paul Ryan.)

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Youre So Vain, You Probably Think That Egypts About You


Does the media feel good? Then congratulations are in order!, Ezra Levant quips:


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Congratulations to Iran, which has for years done its best to undermine Egypt, the largest and most

powerful Muslim counterweight in the region. Irans Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hasnt been a tyrant as

long as Mubarak. But Ahmadinejad proved during Irans own rigged elections that a successful

dictator doesnt let democracy activists rally day after day in the streets they are immediately

thrown in prison, or just killed. No messy protests are allowed in the Islamic Republic of Iran

unless their hate is directed at Ahmadinejads enemies.

But most of all, congratulations to the journalists of the mainstream media. As always, thisrevolution was about them just ask them. More media attention was given to the fact that CNNs

dreamy anchor, Anderson Cooper, was roughed up by protesters than was given to investigating the

anti-women, anti-secular, anti-Semitic, anti-western ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, though

theyre the likely victors of any election that might be held in coming months.

Most of todays journalists are too young to have covered the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, so this

was their moment. So they are weepy cheerleaders, not reporters. And they are only too happy to

say ditto to whatever Al Jazeera tells them is happening.

The fact that some of Egypts protesters use Internet sites like Facebook and Twitter is so flattering

because journalists love those too. Of course, the Muslim Brotherhood also uses Twitter and blogs,

just as Irans Ayatollah Khomeinei used audio cassettes in 1979 to spread his Islamic revolution.

And let me congratulate myself for my exquisite hatred of Mubarak, a hatred that predates the

current fad. I savour this moment of jubilation and vindication. And I will wait until tomorrow to

contemplate my new emotion a deep fear that, like the fall of Irans shah in 1979, things are

about to get far, far worse.

Dont worry, the president also thinks that Egypt is about him as well, as Levant also writes.

Related: Michael Barone on The Risk That 2/11/11 Will End up Like Irans 2/11/79.

(H/T: 5!F)

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Muggeridges Law Meets the Two-Minute Hate



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Back at the start of the site in 2002, I mentioned Muggeridges Law, paraphrasing a passage in Tom Wolfes

mid-70s anthology ofThe New Journalism:

When Malcolm Muggeridge was the editor of the British satirical magazine Punch in the early

1960s, Khrushchev had announced he was going to tour England alongside its prime minister.Muggeridge wrote up a list of the silliest tour stops he could think of, and then put the article to bed,

ready for publication. When the actualtour list was drawn up, he had to massively rewrite the

article. At least half the tour stops in his satirical piece were actually on Khrushchev and the British

PMs agenda!

Which is why Muggeridges Law is: there is no way that a writer of fiction can compete with real

life for its pure absurdity.

In a way, US Weekly and Time magazine being duped by a satiric Website on Sarah Palin supposedly attacking

Christina Aguilera and her botched rendition of the national anthem at the Super Bowl is a corollary of

Muggeridges Law. Once a politician or celebrity has been sufficiently demonized by old media, there is no

satire crazy enough that some of them wont believe that its true if it proves their existing prejudices.

Or as the subject of old medias Two Minute Hate (now entering its third year) responds:

Subject: Great job, MSM!

Jay pls tell your bosses there at Time Magazine thank you for the invitations to attend the

upcoming functions. Ill sure put a lot of thought into those invitations.

Then, have your editors retract Times most recent ridiculous lies about me supposedly giving Sean

Hannity a radio interview wherein I supposedly talked about Christina Aguilera (that I slammed her

for her Natl Anthem mistake, and called for her deportation, etc).

You guys were fooled into running a fake story that even US Weekly pulled and apologized for their

blunder. Total lies and you guys (once again) even put quotation marks around things I have never

uttered. Then, Time needs to run an apology to Christina along with the retraction. (Add Hannity in

your apology, toothose good folks dont deserve to be in a caustic, untrue story about me.) Thanks

much keep up the great work, Time Magazine.

And as virtually every consumer of the legacy media knows, the biases of the MSM have caused them to blow

innumerable stories over the years because they want to believe. Australian journalist Piers Akerman catalogs a

decades worth of them, in a piece titled, Out of Left field come slurs and innuendos.


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Related:Power Lines John Hinderaker quips, Newsweekrecently sold for a dollar. At the rate Time is going,

Newsweekmay soon be eyeing it as a takeover target.

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Joshua Goldberg, RIP


Joshua Goldberg, son of Lucianne, brother of Jonah, and husband of Chantal, died long before his time,

following injuries resulting from a fall, Thomas Lifson writes a moving post at theAmerican Thinker:

Although he was less well-known than his mother and brother, Josh quietly edited the sites

Lucianne.com, BlogsLucianneLoves, and The Connection, working mostly behind the scenes. That

was his way. Following 911, Josh was one of those New Yorkers who put on his work boots and

walked miles to the WTC site to help go through the rubble looking for survivors and victims

bodies. That was the kind of man he was, quietly doing the right thing, and never seeking public

credit for it.

For reasons only God knows, Lucianne, Jonah, and his wife Chantal, have suffered deep grief thatwill never go away. Our thoughts are with them, and with Josh, who is now with God. May they

find some degree of solace in the condolences of the many, many people who have been touched by

their kindness and by their untiring work.

RIP; Jonahs eulogy is here.

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Its George Orwells World, We Just Live In It


And thats true whether youre living in America, where Doug Powers spots The Latest Excuse to Oppose

Construction of a Wal-Mart:

Four Wal-Mart stores are being planned in Washington, DC, and among the concerns will be the

necessary store security. One Advisory Neighborhood Commission member is using that as a reason

to oppose the construction of one of the stores, because well, youll have to read it yourself:


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you look at their scrap books.She added, Theres an overfascination here with self-expression,

with opinion. This is opinion without expertise, without resources, without reporting.

On rare occasions though, Id say such criticism is warranted; this is precisely one of those times.

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Egypt: How Obama Blew ItFebruary 14th, 2011 - 5:26 am

If to govern is to choose, then to govern badly is to not be able to make decisions, as Niall Ferguson writes:

Grand strategy is all about the necessity of choice. Today, it means choosing between a daunting list

of objectives: to resist the spread of radical Islam, to limit Irans ambition to become dominant in

the Middle East, to contain the rise of China as an economic rival, to guard against a Russian

reconquista of Eastern Europeand so on. The defining characteristic of Obamas foreign policy

has been not just a failure to prioritize, but also a failure to recognize the need to do so. A succession

of speeches saying, in essence, I am not George W. Bush is no substitute for a strategy.

Bismarck knew how to choose. He understood that riding the nationalist wave would enable Prussia

to become the dominant force in Germany, but that thereafter the No. 1 objective must be to keep

France and Russia from uniting against his new Reich. When asked for his opinion about colonizing

Africa, Bismarck famously replied: My map of Africa lies in Europe. Here lies Russia and here lies

France, and we are in the middle. That is my map of Africa.

Tragically, no one knows where Barack Obamas map of the Middle East is. At best, it is in the

heartland states of America, where the fate of his presidency will be decided next year, just as

Jimmy Carters was back in 1980.

At worst, he has no map at all.

And note the cover of the latest edition ofNewsweek, aka, The Daily Beast On Dead Tree:


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If Obamas lostNewsweek, then hes lost anti-America, to paraphrase a great line by Stacy McCain.

Related: Clarice Feldman at the Tatler:Newsweekactually publishes something worth reading.

Meanwhile, an Instareader notes:

Last week I had to take my mother to close on a house she sold. While we were waiting for our

lawyer I spied a pile of magazines on a table. I grabbed the Newsweek on top but thought it was an

advertising insert. Nope, it was the whole magazine, just a few pages.

It sounds almost thin enough to be safely flushable at this point.

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Paul Ehrlich is a Slightly Better Class of Misanthrope


At Power Line, Steve Hayward quips:

I think it was Shostakovich who quipped that Vivaldi only had one idea, which he repeated 383

times. At least Vivaldis one idea was a good one. The same cant be said for Paul Ehrlich, who has

a new book out,Humanity on a Tightrope that is just like all of his other books going all the way

back to the book that first made him rich and famous, The Population Bomb. Ever since that

infamous book he has come out with a sequel every year or two that repeats his basic Malthusian

outlook on humans and the planet. [QED -- Ed]I suppose at least Ehrlich deserves credit for

recycling.

But note this:

There is one new argument hes been making in his last few books that deserves a smacking,

though. In todaysLos Angeles Timeshe gives an interview to Pat Morrison, where he says the

following:

The idea that corporations should have free speech, I think, is insane. The free speech

of the corporations is the petroleum industry and their buddies setting up entire

institutions to lie to the public about fossil fuels and so on. Im pretty depressed about

that. If you think that corporations should be treated as individuals, then theres a whole

slug of corporations that ought to be in Guantanamo right now being waterboarded.

Nice. Never mind the flamboyance of his waterboarding quip. The idea that corporations shouldnt

have First Amendment protections because corporations are not people is a popular idea on the

left these days.

I wonder what this corporation thinks about that idea?

4 Comments

Atlas Shrugged: The Motion PictureNow 10 Percent Less Arch



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Previous Posts

Ill say one thing for the trailer for the endlessly awaited movie version ofAtlas Shrugged it actually feels

slightly less arch than the Gary Cooper/Patricia Neal version ofThe Fountainhead, so its got that going for it at

least. Oh, blink and youll miss them, but look for Jimmy Barrett fromMad Men and Quark fromDeep Space

Nine in the trailer as well.

But seriously though how painful are we assuming the movie will be to actually sit through and watch?

According to the IMDB, well know on April 15th, certainly an appropriate release date.

(For my video interview with Ayn Rand biographer Jennifer Burns, in which we discuss, among other things,

The Fountainhead,click here.)

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8 of 27 2/15/11 6:40

preview of “ed driscoll”

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