Final Protective Fire

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

 

I don't recall where the comparison started between Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ although I suppose I could spend some time researching it. Regardless, this is an absolutely brilliant composition contrasting movie reviews of the two films by reviewers. It illustrates the hypocrisy, partisanship, hatred of different worldviews and such of the film critic community far better than I could hope.

Robin 4:29 PM

Monday, June 28, 2004

 

Eugene Volokh has several postings on his blog on the recent Supreme Court silly decision on the Guantanamo Bay detainees. This one has a good summary of why the decision is silly. We will pay dearly for the Supreme Court's stupidity in the future.

Robin 8:36 PM

Sunday, June 27, 2004

 

Belgravia Dispatch points to a Financial Times article on the old Niger yellowcake story. The upshot of which is that the more we learn about the story, the more it is clear that it is Joe Wilson who is mendacious and not the Bush administration.

Robin 7:22 PM

Saturday, June 26, 2004

 

So just after I finish that nice rant below, I go visit Protein Wisdom and find this post to get my blood pressure up. As I said in Jeff's comments, Unbelievable that Congressmen would stoop to such inane comments in public. Ooops there I go being naive again.

There was already a rumor throughout Iraq that american jews were buying property in Iraq to colonize. I'm sick of catering to the mental-defectives. As far as I'm concerned, buy some Israeli rifles, some Israeli artillery and some Israeli tanks ( the Merkava is especially attractive in a nice metal-flake gold with a Star of David hanging from the rear-view mirror ) and shoot up all the "insurgents" with that hardware.

Robin 9:12 PM

 

I was in Denver today and picked up a copy of Denver's "alternative" weekly, Westword. In it, I found the perfect example of the childish obsession and lack of humor among the left today. In the Theater section was a review, bylined Juliet Wittman, of a local comic's performance. In the second part of the comic's act, evidently trying out new material on the local audience, the comic tells a series of jokes. The reviewer cannot even remember the first line, but the series is what do you call a group of people complaining? "A company full of people complaining is a union". "A country full of people complaining is France".

The reviewer goes ballistic. "There I was, mellow and happy", she writes, "prepared to recommend [the show] to everyone I knew, and within seconds, [the comic] had managed to insult first working people and then an entire European nation".

Did you know that working people and Europe was offlimits to comics? Evidently I wasn't notified either.

But that wasn't it, the reviewer continued to make this lapse in proper left-wing comedy subject matter the theme for the entire review. "I had thought him worldly and somewhat knowledgeable, and he turned out to be a foot soldier in the Bush administration's inane culture war against the country that warned us that attacking Iraq would be a mistake".

This moronic reviewer just typified the Democrat obsession and hatred meme for me. I guess she hadn't gotten Al Gore's fax or she would have snuck a "brownshirt" reference somewhere. As far as I can tell, the comic didn't mention the Bush administration, didn't mention Iraq or the War on Terror. Didn't mention the fact that John Kerry is a long-standing accomplice to America's enemies ... whoops there I go. No, all the comic did was make a pretty mild union joke and France joke.

That's all it takes to be an Enemy of the Proletariate today.

Robin 8:46 PM

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

 

I find it hilarious that Clinton is too stupid to remember what lies he's told before it has already been found that he contradicts his sworn testimony in the Lewinsky matter and corroborates Monica Lewinsky's testimony where the Clinton crowd had already called her dishonest. Specifically when their affair began.

Update: Wonder why Dan Rather gave such a softball interview? How about because CBS was getting a cut of book sales? Yet another example of the ethical toilet that is the mainstream media news.

Robin 9:52 AM

 

Christopher Hitchens reviews Michael Moores' Fahrenheit 911 and finds crap.

Hitchens' reminds me of how far from his quality of writer I am when he tells us that:
To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.

What is wrong with Hitchens' review? He's too polite. With the recent actions of Moore's distributor, we can see that they accept endorsements of Fahrenheit 911 from terrorists. Can they make their allegiance any clearer?

Robin 8:48 AM

Monday, June 21, 2004

 

Link to a recent speech, published here on WSJ website, about the United Nations and anti-semitism.

Robin 2:58 PM

(0) comments

Thursday, June 17, 2004

 

This image of John Kerry will stick with me for many months.

Robin 2:30 PM

 

If you find the silly and misleading news reports of the Commission's recent statement bad enough, Dan Darling takes on the Commission's statement directly. UPDATE: I missed that Powerline blog has been going bonkers illustrating all the ways news reports are wrong on this. Scroll down over the past couple of days.

Robin 1:16 PM

 

Glenn Reynolds notes that Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 is getting some favorable responses abroad. Of course, its from the enemy. As Glenn notes, Moore has found his audience.

Robin 9:18 AM

Monday, June 14, 2004

 

Just when I was wondering how Drum got paid for his vapid blog, I saw this news item about "art". Hey, I know I'm a bit of a prude, but how puerile calling porn "art"?

Robin 10:56 PM

 

Kevin Drum gives us yet another waste of webspace with his incoherent diatribe about the Dept of Justice memo on the Convention Against Torture and US law. Drum's comments are just his usual silly content-less nonsense.

But in a failed attempt to provide content, Drum points to this posting by Froomkin purporting to be an analysis of the memo.

The simple fact is that what could be more reasonable than the Justice Dept writing an opinion on what the boundaries of coercion in interrogation are with respect to a treaty and implementing criminal statute? Drum points to Froomkin's slathering posting where we find this comment by Froomkin:
* Nowhere do the authors say “but this would be wrong”.
This silly comment informs us of Froomkin's intelligence, since the memo he's criticizing wasn't requested to discuss morality, just the applicable legal issues. A childish complaint by Froomkin.

Another example of the dishonesty of Froomkin's argument: Despite the increasingly heard right-wing complaint that the Supreme Court should not rely on the decisions of foreign courts, the Memo then turns to what other nations have said constitutes torture. Except that the "right-wing" ( grow up, Froomkin ) complaint about the Supreme Court relying on foriegn court opinions is about when the S.Ct. is interpreting our Constitution, not treaties. Stupid ass.

Mind you, there are some difficult questions posed by this issue. I think the Israelis have done a lot of difficult wrestling with their consciences on the question of what one can do to pressure what are essentially enemy war criminals into giving you needed information. Froomkin does not illuminate the moral debate at all, and his illumination of the legal debate is encrusted with his bile.

Robin 9:51 PM

Friday, June 04, 2004

 

Another brilliant column by Victor Davis Hansen, this one discusses the weak spirit and defeatism seen in our national media and far too many of our political leaders.

Robin 2:05 PM

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

 

While the whacky Left whines about nonexistant war crimes, Palestinian terrorists continue to commit war crimes with the United Nations providing active support and concealment as Michelle Malkin outlines in her column.

Robin 4:00 PM

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

 

This weekend, I watched the Tom Selleck "Ike" TV movie. That film's scenes involving General DeGaulle and the post below regarding Governor Owens French jokes, reminded me of this webpage of usual French phrases.

Robin 4:20 PM