Meta and Meta

Force of Darkness

Shorter Michael Gerson:

There's no Republican-led "War on Science." And besides, science will lead us down dark paths if we don't stop it.

Out-Wright Lunacy

Of course anyone who pays the least bit of attention to the mainstream media knows what a complete nutcase Jeremiah Wright is. And if you didn't know just how radical and outside the mainstream he is, why, just consider the following rant:

I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.

No wonder the Washing Post declared that the man who spoke those words "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people." Though they might have said the same about themselves.

(H/T Joshua Cohen and Glenn Loury at Bloggingheads.)

Oh, Just Grow A Pair

Michael Tomasky complains:

Twice this week now, Hillary Clinton has stood there smiling like the Cheshire Cat as the governor of North Carolina used the word "pansy" and then as a union leader in the same state, who more famously referred to her "testicular fortitude...."

OMG! HRC stood there while the governor called someone a pansy?! Why, she's benefiting from the standard Right Wing Talking Points!

Well, not exactly:

Gov. Mike Easley (D) raised some eyebrows when he said Clinton was so determined she made “Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

And could it be that a comment imputing "testicular fortitude" to a female candidate might actually have been intended to have a jocular effect? Nah, couldn't be.

(Via Brad DeLong.)

Hilzoy on Haynes' Briefs

Here. You can't make this shit up. (Well, you could, but why would you?)

Clinton Derangement Among the Democrats

At the risk of alienating myself from the entire civilized liberal blogosphere, let me state a concern about Obama's candidacy. As against the Clintons, Obama has by-and-large been the beneficiary of prevailing media narratives. E.g., The Clintons Are Playing The Race Card. E.g., The Clintons Are Twisting Obama's Words. E.g., The Clintons Are A Dynasty. Etc.*

All Men Are Created...Homogeneous?

David Frum, from Comeback Conservatism, "[W]hat is inequality but another form of 'diversity'? And what is 'equality' but another word for homogeneity?"

Indeed, what are words but noises that mean whatever hacks want them to?

Orthography Is The Last Refuge Of Scoundrels

In his harangue against John Gray and Gray's book Straw Dogs, Carlin Romano contends that "[l]ike [Michael] Moore, Gray regularly gets facts and history wrong." Romano's leading example? That "[a]s [Gray] excoriates neocon intellectuals such as Allan Bloom, Gray spells Bloom's name wrong." [My emphasis.]

Strong stuff. Why, I'll even bet Gray once split an infinitive.

Seriously, isn't this sort of schoolboy Gotcha! embarrassing enough when you see it in a comment thread?

[Via Arts & Letters Daily.]

Kaus Overwears Edwards "Undernews"

Mickey Kaus writes in his Slate column about a scandal fomented by the National Enquirer, wonders why such a rumor goes unreported in the MSM ("undernews," he calls it), but contends he actually would prefer that it remain unreported.

The scandal involves allegations by a "close confidante" of one Rielle Hunter that Hunter is pregnant with John Edwards' baby. Edwards denies the allegations. Hunter denies the allegations. (She even names someone else as the father.) But "others" -- namely, the lone "close confidante" -- "are skeptical."

So, yeah, it's a real head-scratcher that reputable media outlets would ignore a story with those bona fides.

Anyway, why does Kaus want a story about Edwards' allegedly cheating on his terminally cancer-stricken wife to remain undernews? Because, he says, he wants Edwards to lose. (Kaus is just so counterintuitive, isn't he?) Naturally, then, Kaus is doing his part to preserve the story's much-deserved obscurity, namely, by not conspicuously vouching for its legitimacy in his column for Slate. Oh, wait...

Pride and Extreme Prejudice

And the moral retardation continues:

In a November 5 National Review Online column -- "Waterboarding Has Its Benefits" -- contributing editor Deroy Murdock wrote that "[w]aterboarding is something of which every American should be proud...."

Yes -- he said "proud." Proud, because

[t]hough [it's] clearly uncomfortable, waterboarding loosens lips without causing permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones)."

At last: Wife-beaters who prefer phone books over brass knuckles can now go about their business with pride.

To Reason Like Stalin

Declares Theodore Dalrymple: "[T]he attempt [to find a way of life based entirely on reason] leads at best to Gradgrind and at worst to Stalin."

And there I was all along thinking Stalin's approach actually sort of ran counter to reason. I guess I stand corrected.

(Via Arts & Letters Daily.)