Monday, October 20, 2008

Don't miss these: 10/20/08

Here are a few columns that I think are worth your time:
  • At the top of the list is an absolutely delightful report from Byron York, featuring two people (among many others) in whom the MSM will take no interest whatsoever. The MSM will find some ignorant Jewish voter in Florida who leaned McCain, but now favors 0 because she "heard Sarah Palin was anti-semitic." But it won't care about the minorities and immigrants who — unlike the MSM itself — get it about 0's socialistic and oppressive policies; and who (worse still) get it about the MSM's propagandistic, agenda-driven dereliction of duty.
  • One of the dangerous-but-great distinctives our day is the availability of alternative sources for information. When I was a kid, dodging dinosaurs and living on the frozen tundra, you had ABC, NBC, CBS, and the major newspapers. In other words, you had one viewpoint. No longer so. We have — thank God! — talk radio and thousands of independent websites and blogs. Which liberals — which is to say Democrats, which is to say the MSM — cordially hate, and keep trying to snuff out. Brian C. Anderson lays out just one of the ways a God-forbid 0bama administration might partner with a Dem congress to strangle free speech.
  • Dan Calabrese makes an awfully good, body-slamming response to the pointy-headed, whinin' cheesy conservatives (— golly, I hate to have to say that) who have jumped ship ostensibly because of Sarah Palin. They're all about literary allusions and mluti-level nuancing; Palin drops her g's, and gets things done. Calabrese makes the case that the latter is what we need, because the former is why we're in the fix we're in. "Conservatism missed a golden opportunity beginning in 1995, but especially in 2001, because the bright lights we sent to Washington knew how to win arguments, but didn’t know how to govern such that their principles would become effective policy." (William Kristol makes a similar point but, I think, less pointedly and less effectively.)
  • Meanwhile, 0bama wants to make sure Floridians vote before they learn anything more about him.
  • From Illinois, John Kass gives us a heads-up on the Chicago way of 0bama, and particularly on why and how Joe the Plumber brought The Wrath of Con down on himself.
  • Finally, on the humor front. Does this sound funny to you? It's a commercial that starts out with 0bama explaining how great socialism is, to Joe the Plumber. Then suddenly, from off-camera, a huge, white football player slams 0bama to the ground! Funny stuff, huh? But wait, there's more! Screaming, the huge man mocks and screams at 0bama, as he writhes on the ground in pain. Hilarious? Just what conservatives always come up with? Of course not. You're all grimacing in disgust. And of course there is no such ad — well, not about 0bama. But evidently brutalizing a woman is the liberal's idea of a rollicking, funny, great good time. Check out Gateway Pundit's observations. Warnings: (A) I don't love that site's ads; and (2) the video in question is, to me, repulsive.
UPDATES: as new articles or columns strike me through the day, I'll add them here. So check back.
  • My dear wife says that voters seem set to make such terrible choices this year because people aren't thinking, they're feeling; they aren't analyzing, they're emoting. As usual, she's right. Nathaniel Shockey examines this malady, particularly as it relates to the criticisms of McCain's "negative" ads. He observes, "The reason McCain spends so much time and money to point out Obama’s flaws is because the mainstream media, outside of Fox News, aren’t doing it for him." Also, in words my wife could have written, " Americans don’t value their thoughts nearly as much as their feelings." Sad, but true.
  • Thanks to a tip from my dear wife: MSM to America: no good news until you elect 0bama!!! (But you, you ignorant peasant — you probably think lower oil prices is a good thing! Ha! Thank Moloch you have the MSM to 'splain it to you!)
  • Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card — a registered Democrat — savages the MSM for their dishonest refusal to report facts that might damage their candidate.
  • Quick! Someone tell Peggy Noonan to put down her whinin' cheese! Guess which candidate has been most MSM-accessible over the last month. 0bama? No. Biden? No. John McCain? No. Give up? That would be Sarah Palin. It's buried, it won't be a big story (don't want to upset the MSM template), but even an MSM reporter had to admit it.

21 comments:

Pastor Michael said...

What I find interesting is how close things remain even in the face of the massive MSM effort on behalf of their chosen one.

DJP said...

Absolutely right, Michael. With the MSM in the tank for him, Bush's miserable failure to defend his own administration, and a bad economy, 0 should have a twenty-point lead. Seriously.

Mike Westfall said...

What the heck is up with this "early voting" going on in several states? I think this needs to be reformed.

We had early voting here in New Mexico on Saturday. In fact the Obama campaign held a "non-partisan" tailgating party in the parking lot of one the polling places, during voting hours.

"Non-partisan" because of the close proximity of the polling place.

I imagine if the Republicans had done such a thing, it would be national news about voter intimidation.

DJP said...

Well, and racism. Of course. I mean, "Duh."

NoLongerBlind said...

Well said, Dan.
I once heard it said that putting "duh" at the end of any statement makes it true.
I think it was some sort of "biased" joke about females of a certain hair color....

Gilbert said...

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/10/16/obama-to-declare-carbon-dioxide-dangerous-pollutant/

Hold your breath!

Rachael Starke said...

Loved the Byron York one. I'm trying to figure out how to fit "ExecutiveTechnologySalesandMarketingConsultant for McCain/Palin" on a sign.

Don't know about the Orson Scott Card one though. I mean, everything he says is blisteringly right on. But he's a sci-fi writer, and a Mormon? So he banks both his material and spiritual well-being on artfully constructed fairy tales that blend dollops of truth with fantastical non-reality....

OTOH, if he hadn't written that article, those skills could have served him fabulously well working for MSNObama or the AP. Too late, I guess.

NEB said...

Whence the decapitalization of Obama?

DJP said...

No-hence, Nathan.

o = lower case
O = upper case
0 = zero

DJP said...

At least in part, my use of 0 (as in Zerobama) stems from Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, in her speech at the GOP convetion, regarding Sarah Palin: “Sarah Palin lacks experience? The other side has no experience! Zero!”

I recall "zero" as a refrain; that's one direct quotation.

NEB said...

Ah. Wow. Your blog's font makes a 0 look exactly like an o.

CR said...

Dan: MSM to America: no good news until you elect 0bama!!!

Yes, if Obama is elected, the sky will become more bluer. Birds will start singing again, and the Earth will begin to heal itself.

Stefan Ewing said...

Gilbert wrote:

"Hold your breath!"

Very droll, good sir.

Gilbert said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gilbert said...

Stefan:

This would be droll if it weren't true, courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times, the U.S. Government, and ACORN:

http://www.stormeyes.org/tornado/temp/acorn-fraud-example.jpg

Phew. Satan wants this election bad, if he's using cartoon characters to overthrow what is good and right in this country...

Matt Gumm said...

Re: thinking vs. feeling: isn't that the whole point of the "are you better off than you were four years ago" question?

Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight) said...

Ohhhh! The dreaded MSM. Oogga booga oogga!

Stefan Ewing said...

Gilbert:

I meant the exhortation to "hold our breath" over the news that CO2 could be classified as a pollutant.

We'd all be walking infractions until we breathed our last breath.

So we'd have to buy carbon credits all the days of our lives, to remain guilt-free and buy our ways about of eco-purgatory.

Plus ca change...

Stefan Ewing said...

"about" should be "out."

Gilbert said...

Stefan:

Gotcha. I agree...said that all in one breath. Oops, here's $5, gotta satisfy my carbon credit guilt machine inside of me...

Carol Jean said...

Re: The Calabrese column -

It’s easy for East Coast pundits to scoff at the barbarians. Throw in with commoners who drop their Gs, and it’s hard to feel proud of your own intellectual heft.

Isn't this symptomatic of what's happening in the church as well? There is a class of intellectual elite in the church who are trying desperately to win the accolades of the culture's intellectually elite. Look out if you're a literal 6-day creationist, flat-earth-believing, flying-spaghetti monster-type. Barbarians, all of them!