[Fox News is] not really a news station

So, let me straighten this out in my own mind. The Right is Manichean and the Left is Nuanced. We see things in black-and-white and you see things in shaded of grey. Got it.

Tip: Donald Sensing

Steyn: What's Repugnant?

Following up on comments from another neo-Marxist in the Obama administration, Mark Steyn scores big with a nice constrast of what is and what is not morally repugnant according to today's Left:

If you say, "Chairman Mao? Wasn't he the wacko who offed 70 million Chinks?," you'll be hounded from public life for saying the word "Chinks." But, if you commend the murderer of those 70 million as a role model in almost any schoolroom in the country from kindergarten to the Ivy League, it's so entirely routine that only a crazy like Glenn Beck would be boorish enough to point it out.

Oh this is too funny

Remind me. Is it the Left that loves to claim that they are the ones who've mastered the art of "nuance" while the Right flails away in a black and white world? I thought so.

Well, Media Matters decided to post a printed pages long post about all of Rush's racially charged statements. For God's sake - wouldn't it have made more sense for them to pick out the 3-5 things that people can agree could be taken as offensive by some? Instead they list dozens of things that Rush has said that are nuanced and part of a long and potentially valid line of argument. If you listened to MM, you would have to believe that any conservative who mentions race in any way is a racist. Oh wait, that is what they believe. Something tells me they aggregated all of the Rush transcripts that George Soros pays people to compile and did a Ctrl+F on "black", "african" and "Obama".

More Indoctrination from the Left

Indoctrination is the province of the Left

Totalitarianism is just that - total control of everything including the politics of your 14(?) year olds.

Joe Klein: Arbiter of Racism

Keep calling me a teabagger Klein:

Finally, I should say that the things that scare the teabaggers--the renewed sense of public purpose and government activism, the burgeoning racial diversity, urbanity and cosmopolitanism--are among the things I find most precious and exhilarating about this country.

As Jonah Goldberg's reader points out, he lives in lily white Pelham, NY. That's as close you can get to a gated community as close as you can get to Manhattan. A little bit of research shows me that he lives in a $1.7M, 5,000 SQ FT home. That's not very green is it? How does a left-of-center pundit in a party dominated by Greens live with himself?

Jimmy Carter Is Detestable

Absolutely detestable:

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president."I think it's based on racism,"

Carter said at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."

Thomas Friedman is a Liberal Fascist

Jonah Goldberg makes the case.

By the way, it's awfully easy for a man who lives in a home like this to suggest that it's just time we sucked it up and let elites like him rule the world.

Always Pitching Morality

The Left always points to the Right and accuses them of constantly pushing morality as the foundation for law. Pot, Kettle. Kettle, Pot.

From Politico:

Playing off the focus of the Kennedy funeral on the Gospel of Matthew’s parable of Jesus taking care of “the least of us,” Gore thundered that the country has “a moral duty to pass health care reform. This year.”

Brilliantly Pithy Comment of the Day

From Fouad Ajami:

It is odd that American liberalism, in a veritable state of insurrection during the Bush presidency, now seeks political quiescence.

My Take on the Whole Foods Boycott

So many on the Left have screamed back at protestors that they just want to have a reasonable debate and that the protestors and Republicans have no plan. John Mackey the co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods - the Left's favorite high-end grocery store - wrote an eminently reasonable op-ed in the WSJ challenging ObamaCare and laying out a list of perfectly sensible alternatives to the amorphous plan being floated for the transformation of healthcare. None of Mackey's suggestions involve any sort of bizarre right-wing thuggery or whatever else the Left tends to believe the Right, libertarian or otherwise, supports with fervor. So, in response to the argument (those still tend to have more than one side right?), the Left has decided that they cannot tolerate disagreenment with his Highness, and has launched a boycott of the food retailer.

Never let it be said that they are a tolerant bunch.

Don't Miss This

Evan Coyne Maloney posts a brilliant takedown of the Left, the Democrats and the Media (distinction without difference anyone?) about how ambivalent they were back when the President being compared to a Nazi wasn't their precious. Precious....

Earl Ofari Hutchinson Demands

That the artist makes himself known (via the Corner). Sure they made comparisons of Bush to Hitler, the Joker, a chimp, bin Laden, the Star Wars Emperor, Nero, etc. etc.

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction [of Obama as the Joker], politically mean spirited and dangerous.

Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves."Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous."

"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

Make a comparison of Obama to the Joker (arguably the least offensive from the list above) and Earl Ofari Hutchinson publicly demands that the offender out himself - and, of course, face the scorn of the Left. Does anyone think they wouldn't rip this person apart? Look at what they've done to others who crossed their path, either from the Left or the Right.

Do as we say...

President Obama and the rest of the wealthy Western world elites believe that they can dictate to the developing world (India and China especially) that NOW is the time to curb carbon emissions and cut down on energy use. India and China have both come back with a curt thanks-but-no-thanks response. Their position is: Why would we cut back on our own energy use just as our economies are beginning to pick up steam? Why would we sacrifice the financial upside we're now seeing as part of the global economy in order to stagnate at a level of wealth which is below that of countries like Japan, France, Germany and the US?


This a macro perspective on conservation over potential development - elites suggesting that there should be no more growth on the back of environmentally unfriendly excess. There is a micro view as well, recently discussed by Steyn and others over at NRO. This is not elites of the world telling entire countries how they should live, it's elites of the US telling less fortunate Americans how they should live.


The best example is Al Gore, he of the 10,000 sq ft mansion in Nashville, telling Americans that we only have X number of months to save the world. As far as I know, there only two Gores left at the family home - Al and Tipper. Their children are all grown. Why do they need 10,000 ft for 2 people?






There is another example, brought to the fore by Steyn and Greg Pollowitz. That is of Thomas Friedman who has said the following things about environmentalism:

• Henceforth, every investment decision made in America — about how homes are built, products manufactured or electricity generated — will look for the least-cost low-carbon option. And weaving carbon emissions into every business decision will drive innovation and deployment of clean technologies to a whole new level and make energy efficiency much more affordable.



• How could Republicans become so anti-environment, just when the country is going green?



• You want to make a difference? Then get out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. Get a million people on the Washington Mall calling for a price on carbon.



• What I've been trying to do in this book [Hot, Flat, and Crowded] is to rename green as geopolitical, geostrategic, geo-economic, capitalistic, patriotic.



• There won't be such a thing as a "green home," there will just be a home, and you will not be able to build it unless it is at the highest standards of green energy, efficiency and sustainability.

Guess what kind of patriot (his word) Thomas Friedman is? Guess what his "green home" looks like?

Update: Here's a nice overhead shot:

What kind of environmental impact is there from maintaining that palatial landscape?

By the way, Friedman has two adult daughters now. One would expect it's about time for him and his wife to downsize and become more patriotic because, as you may know, he likes to say "green is the new red, white and blue".

Not a Hate Crime

So, this is an interesting little story out of the very blue capital of Texas, Austin. According to the story a brick was thrown through the window of a house on the east side of Austin which has been traditionally black in some areas and hispanic in others. Of course, like many areas of prosperous cities, the east Side of Austin has been undergoing some gentrification over the last couple of decades.

The brick actually went through the bedroom window of a white 4 year old living in the house with his mother. Why is race important? Well, because the brick had a note tied to it which stated, "Keep Eastside Black, Keep Eastside Strong" (pictured)

So, if this is a real incident (and I have no reason to believe it's not) then you would think it would be classified as a hate crime, right? Isn't this the definition of a hate crime?

Evidently not:

Police have not classified this incident as a hate crime, said Austin Police Sgt. Richard Stresing, because hate crimes target an individual specifically because of an identifying characteristic, like race. Police say the incident has been classified as criminal mischief and deadly conduct.

Come again?

Clash of the Left

Skimming through Megan McArdle's post on Bruno titled "Sacha Baron-Cohen Strikes Again" got me thinking about the man behind the camera, Larry Charles.

Charles has very little name recognition outside of television and film geeks but his name belongs in the same breath as Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David for his work on Seinfeld. It was Larry Charles who helped imbue, through writing, the Kramer character with the qualities and attitudes that made him the icon he became. He has said that he gave Kramer a distrust of authority (not necessarily a bad thing) which added depth but also setup a number of Kramer-focused story arcs.

Larry Charles directed Borat. Charles has also directed a number of episodes of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and direct the Bill Maher feature Religulous.

So, putting aside Baron-Cohen, what is Larry Charles trying to say? As a contributor to Democratic causes, he must be unhappy with the stink that GLAAD is making about the film. Granted, the anger of the activists has trumped their understanding of the obvious intent of the film. It must annoy nonetheless that they are not forgiving him offense for the sake of making everyday America look xenophobic, Islamaphobic, sexist, racist and anti-semitic (Borat) or xenophobic, homophobic (Bruno). He must think, "Don't you see what I'm doing? I'm exposing the very heart of a cruel America. How can you not support that in whatever form it comes?"

It always makes me chuckle when the Left clashes with itself.