Learning From Carter

Jimmy Carter's failure as a president was evident pretty early on, and like many a politician Carter's response was to look for a scapegoat. Unwisely he decided to make it the American people: his cries of "malaise" only heightened his ineffectiveness and earned him the enmity of the average citizen. Obama and his Machiavellian handlers have perhaps learned from this; the new scapegoat is more Emmanuel Goldstein than you and your neighbor, because no one likes to be told something is their fault. Now we have Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Fox News and their unwitting accomplices: The Neanderthal Republican Congressman, the Flyover State Yokel and (shudder) The Teabagger.

Decisions, decisions...

Andrew Sullivan II

I get no joy from this - the conservative movement needs smart dedicated folks, but LGF continues its slide:

here

here

here, and

here.

Our Glorious Comrades at Reuters

...have announced that the rightful president of Honduras has returned after being ousted by the military junta there. At least that what you get from this:

"Soldiers toppled Zelaya and sent him into exile after he upset conservative opponents, who accused him of wanting to change the constitution to allow presidents to seek re-election."

The omissions here are deafening, especially given how long this has been in the news and how Zelaya's attempts to set up a Chavez-style dictatorship have been so thoroughly documented. It's as if Reuters feels the US populace is stupid or forgetful enough that it can engage in an Orwellian rewrites of history anytime it likes.

Plus ca change...

Expelled

Finally got to see "Expelled" by Ben Stein (thanks, Netflix streaming service!). The production values and tone are smart and modern and therefore it stands out among most conservative or evangelical documentaries. Here is a truly engaging and witty man who sets out to ask some difficult questions and knows how to drive home a point (his interview with Dawkins and trip to Hadamar are particularly devastating). The response from mainstream media and internet is universally and comically derogatory (just check the supposedly neutral Wikipedia) and I can see why: like the conservative response to Michael Moore, most materialists (even if they don't or can't articulate it) see the threat of such a well-crafted movie to their worldview.

The assumption of truth (and its advocacy at all costs) of many of the liberal tenets implied in the election of our new president is unique in my lifetime.

Well no more little green concerns.

The LGF way gets its 15 minutes

Now that Charles and Glenn Beck have butted heads, the resulting exposure will probably serve shed some light on the increasingly arrogant tone over at LGF. I suspect it will only further marginalize the site, which is already (unfairly) labeled as right-wing and extremist.

p.s. meh

My First (and Last) Discussion on LGF

Well, I finally manged to get a coveted membership spot at Litttle Green Footballs last week. I wanted to be able to wade into some of the numerous Intelligent Design discussions that come up there. There are usually one or two a day, so it didn't take long for a story to appear that I thought I could speak to - in this  case, the current kerfuffle over Ben's Stein's withdrawal from a commencement address, or, as stated in the purple prose Charles reserves for Jihadi or ID topics:

Creationist Ben Stein has withdrawn as the commencement speaker at the University of Vermont, after a huge outcry erupted over his support for the pseudo-science promoted by the Discovery Institute, and his ludicrous, highly dishonest anti-evolution film "Expelled."

Well, I waded in to say basically that Ben Stein is a fine man, that the schadenfreude on display at LGF did them a disservice and that the tone and vituperation directed selectively at ID targets was arrogant and overblown. My comments were roundly and universally criticized and even caused Charles himself to jump in. He was just as caustic in discussion as in his posts. I pointed out the (to me) obvious irony of his misrepresentation of the Discovery Institute's "Wedge Document" and how he used it in a way that was similar to the way Anti-Semites used the bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion - to fabricate "proof" of a group's evil plan of world domination. I thought that drawing a comparison to a group he held in such contempt would give him some insight into the path he had chosen. But anyone who defends ID or its proponents is immediately and irrevocably the enemy in LGF and and can be safely ignored. Reflectively calling me arrogant, a name caller and, even worse, a "Creationist!", he alternated insults with variants on "I've seen your kind before". As the negative feedback piled up on each of my posts (and the positive feedback multiplied on any post responding to me) Charles repeated a meme I had often heard on the site about being infiltrated by the enemy and promptly closed my account. After my absence the tone returned to its usual navel-gazing and self-congratulation.

LGF is not my site, nor is it really a public forum. Banning me certainly was Charles' right and probably the right thing to do given the kind of site he wants to maintain. I was wrong to try and bring a contrary opinion to such a place as Little Green Footballs - it will not happen again.

In Praise of Hypocrisy

First, a disclaimer: I fully realize hypocrisy is a human failing and is, like narcissism or addiction, not a state to aspire to. But in our modern world concepts like shame and morality are considered optional or unessential to daily life. In the political or business arena for example, having a moral compass can even be seen as a liability, limiting one's options. So hurray for the fact that hypocrisy at least presupposes a moral context. Of course, progressive pundits - the classic example is Jon Stewart - get to have it both ways, using charges of hypocrisy against supposedly "moral" public figures as a way to shut them down while insulating themselves from such charges with the defense that they don't adhere to the values in question to begin with.