Words you can trust, actions which make sense

Back in March, I wrote a long, picky piece on Professor George Lakoff's analysis of The Obama Code I was concerned because the language in the piece warped reality and presented a bigoted view of the motivations of conservatives (and libertarians).

He and his commenters also seem to believe that talk radio should be reined in and "progressive" views forced onto mainstream news programs because "About 80% of the talking heads on TV are conservatives." This guy's understanding of conservatism seems to be different from the rest of the country's understanding of conservatism if he believes this. But fine. Let's have a Fairness Doctrine for media. Right after we enforce a Fairness Doctrine for university professors who are paid by the taxpayers.

I guess this isn't the only time the Professor has advocated changing the meaning of words to suit "progressive" political purposes.

Darleen at Protein Wisdom notes the California mainstream media's failure to challenge even the most brazen misuses of language by politicans. The kind of misuse of language advocated by Lakoff. She relates this to the disastrous condition of California's finances and the regulatory drought in the Central Valley. Most people other than journalists would think that State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass uses the words "terrorized" and "revenue" in some awfully odd ways. But the wish of members of the press to promote "progressive" causes leads them to total passivity when this kind of brazen manipulation of language is used by Democrats.

Maybe it's time to teachs kids (and adults) The Propaganda Game. And journalists, too.

Looking back: Day Sixteen of the Iranian protests

Accidental find: Jon Bon Jovi and others have produced a musical message of solidarity with Iranians.

Berman Post has a new roundup, plus previous roundups, up to Day Sixteen. Some of the topics of the day:

Open support from outside world drops

Eight British embassy workers arrested. Great. We needed another Iranian hostage crisis.

The role of women in the protests

The role of Twitter

Plus videos.

Twittering resumes from Iran

After his Twitter followers were left to wonder for several days if he were dead or alive, "Change For Iran" started posting on Twitter again. It's a fascinating real-time personal chronicle of an idealistic struggle against a repressive regime. The techniques of intimidation described below remind me of some of the less-terrifying techniques used in Stalin's USSR and Mao's Red China. Worse stuff has happened in the notorious Evin prison (mentioned below), too. Amazing how many of the tyrannical regimes or the 20th century (some continuing today) were started by people educated in Paris. Several in addition to the three mentioned here.

These are the new posts from "Change for Iran" which I found on my Twitter account a few minutes ago:

I'm only posting this to say I'm still alive & not in Tehran, I had a bad incident with Basij and couldn't use computer
2:12 PM Jun 25th from web
Shayan's brother's fate is still unknown, Reza has been released yesterday & at hospital right now & I think Masood is safe
2:18 PM Jun 25th from web
as soon I can walk properly again, I will go back to Tehran. probably tomorrow night
2:23 PM Jun 25th from web
I will twitt again at night, my back & neck hurts a lot & I can't sit here anymore
2:33 PM Jun 25th from web
sorry about no news at all in these past days, I will try my best to keep you informed again as soon as possible
2:35 PM Jun 25th from web
I will not be able to twitt tonight, no PC where I'm going to spend the night
6:16 PM Jun 25th from web
and to everyone out there specially IRG: no it's not the end & it will never be until we get what is rightfully ours
6:18 PM Jun 25th from web
this user: @Vagheeiat is a government agent, from IRG's cyber warfare group gerdab.ir
6:38 PM Jun 25th from web
1:17AM finally managed to load twitter! HTTPS protocol is still blocked by some ISP & no chance getting to twitter with apps
about 12 hours ago from web
Reza released from Hospital yesterday he is banned from university and now is a stared [marked by gov] student
about 12 hours ago from web
my connection is very poor & I don't know how long I will be able to sustain it
about 11 hours ago from web
he spent his first 48h of arrest at level -4 of ministry of interior building without food or water
about 11 hours ago from web
he said all sort of people were there & some of them were just unlucky people just walking in streets and captured for no reason
about 11 hours ago from web
Reza estimated around 200 people were in each room and there were not enough space to even sit on the ground
about 11 hours ago from web
they didn't open the plastic handcuffs for a day & half, & randomly beat up people in there
about 11 hours ago from web
Reza said the only exception was they didn't hit arrested people directly in the face
about 11 hours ago from web
there was also a awful problem of only one toilet for all people in there and a impossible time limit of around 1min for each person
about 11 hours ago from web
He said in the second day some pain cloth people came with papers forcing people to sign them
about 11 hours ago from web
the papers were prewritten confessions all in different hand writings saying the signer is a member of organization by mousavi
about 11 hours ago from web
and they paid to go to streets and say things & they know they have violated national security & Islam
about 11 hours ago from web
Reza said some people sign them & some other just faked their signs & names, there were not enough confession papers for all people
about 11 hours ago from web
around 3am day 2 they started moving people in vans, Reza said a driver was talking to a Basiji about Evin prison is full and what shoul ...
about 11 hours ago from web
apparently they released some people on that night & move Reza & some of the selected people to Evin
about 11 hours ago from web
Reza had no idea why they select some of the people and where they moved the others
about 11 hours ago from web
it took near 3 hours to get to the prison, Reza said the driver seemed enjoys wandering in the streets
about 11 hours ago from web
and another hour passed just standing in the row at the entrance of prison & filling out forms
about 11 hours ago from web
in first day at Evin prison staff started searching for severely injured people & gave them some first aid
about 11 hours ago from web
according to Reza some of the injured people already passed out and a taxi driver looked like dead by that time
about 10 hours ago from web
all types of gov agents came & go in the next couple of days, moving people, forcing them to walk or just stand for a long time
about 10 hours ago from web
Reza said it looked like they have no idea what should they do with so much people
about 10 hours ago from web
a man came and say they will be released today and an hour later another came & say they will be in prison for 10year!
about 10 hours ago from web
they ran another confession show at Evin, this time with promise of instant freedom & new accusations
about 10 hours ago from web
Correction: *but with new accusations, not promising them!
about 10 hours ago from web
in last days Reza said it looked they get a little more organized and start searching for any special case in arrested people
about 10 hours ago from web
unfortunately Reza's mother told everything she knows over the phone to a man calling from Evin
about 10 hours ago from web
the man promised Reza's family they will release him if he's really innocent
about 10 hours ago from web
and after they knew Reza is a student they moved him to a more harsh environment with some other people
about 10 hours ago from web
according to Reza some students from Polytechnic university were also there
about 10 hours ago from web
they prevented them from sleeping by kept them standing all the night
about 10 hours ago from web
in morning a man introduced him self as Intelligent came saying he will record their confections with camera
about 10 hours ago from web
he promised if one of them confess in front of camera he will free them all & they will blur his face & nothing to worry!
about 10 hours ago from web
at night around 10PM they Released Reza & his family instantly moved him to a hospital for internal bleeding
about 10 hours ago from web
Reza had no idea why they suddenly released him & some of his inmates
about 10 hours ago from web
I skipped some of the incidents as Reza requested. he's very weak both mentally & physically
about 10 hours ago from web
and I don't want to put him in more pressure of any kind right now
about 10 hours ago from web
we passed a letter to Karoubi today describing everything we know about various students conditions
about 10 hours ago from web
sorry I can't answer to you all, very bad internet connection, but I'm good and I can walk short distances
about 10 hours ago from web
heard about @PersianKiwi I have no idea how they captured him/her, he/she was using freegate I guess
about 10 hours ago from web
I don't think if gov really captured PersianKiwi, they knew about his/her twitter & hopefully will be released soon
about 9 hours ago from web
Gov is working hard on State TV trying to depress people & stop them from fighting back
about 9 hours ago from web
it may work on a short period of time, but they can't stop what is already started, today's rally was a clear proof
about 9 hours ago from web
Karoubi was there in person & Mousavi said he was stuck in traffic but we heard him through his cellphone & loudspeakers
about 9 hours ago from web
this is going to happen on every national occasion & gov has no excuse to stop us!
about 9 hours ago from web
the numbers of protectors were far more than 5000! the entire district was full of people
about 9 hours ago from web
why BBC & CNN reporting things like it's all over now? how can it be over after what gov done to us?
about 9 hours ago from web
the biggest help: spread the news & don't desert us! it may take some time but we will take what is rightfully ours!
about 9 hours ago from web

UPDATE: Interesting that Change for Iran still wants people to spread the news. Media is a big factor in political struggles now.

I continue to find new followers on my Twitter account who seem to be interested in the Iran situation, too. If I don't sign up to follow them, they're gone in a few days. The latest is a "raw living foodist" with 2000 followers. I don't have the best memories in the world of raw living foodists. But it's all for a good cause. I guess it increases the electronic twitter cloud in Iran, since that's my Twitter location.

Twitter: Iranian protest up close and personal

Well, I picked a dramatic way to introduce myself to Twitter. Our friend Brandy twitters and has a Twitter feed on her blog, but I have resisted this short message format, and I guess I didn't really understand what would happen when you decided to follow someone on Twitter. But I read somewhere yesterday that people could help protect the Iranian protesters from arrest or violence by contributing to an "electronic cloud" to mask the tweets of the protesters who were using Twitter to organize. I later found directions for more ways to help (they're in a link in my post from yesterday). People can turn their Twitter "avatars" (signature photos) green in solidarity with the protesters. I don't have a Twitter avatar yet.

Well, it was a small thing to open a Twitter account using Tehran for my location and time zone. I linked through from Brandy's Twitter posts. But I balked at putting Tehran as my name. So I chose FriendofYasmine for my screen name. I can change it later if I want to. The program asked me to choose some people to follow. One of the choices on the page was Change for Iran by an Iranian student. I chose to follow his twitter feed.

I posted a few short messages, some of them very trivial, last night, hoping to contribute to the "electronic Twitter cloud" in Iran. I posted again in the morning, and noticed that I had gained a "Follower". I was surprised to see a photo of a young blonde woman (from the waist up) in a bikini top. She is following 1,250 Twitter accounts. Many of them have green avatars. She may have done a search for accounts containing the word "Iran" or something. I sincerely doubt that she cares anything about my own posts. She's trying to help the protesters, too. Doing more than I am to help them. You can choose to limit your followers to people you invite to follow your messages, but that would have defeated my purpose in signing up for Twitter at this time. I can change my account later.

I logged in tonight to find a number of dramatic, alarming messages from "Change for Iran" right on my Twitter home page, along with my own pedestrian comments. So that's what happens when you "follow" someone on Twitter. I did a quick check on Instapundit to see what else had happened in Iran during the day. A lot of people, from a variety of political and cultural backgrounds are trying to help. There are reports on the protests from Huffington Post on the Left and Gateway Pundit on the right. The former includes a lovely tribute from a young woman to another young woman who was shot dead by a sniper as she watched the protests with her father. It starts, "Yesterday I wrote a note, with the subject line "tomorrow is a great day perhaps tomorrow I'll be killed." I'm here to let you know I'm alive but my sister was killed...

Instapundit also linked this post which compares the Twitter messages from someone named Mark Knoller about President Obama's trip to an ice cream parlor with his daughters with Twitter messages from an Iranian protester. It was the same protester whose messages I had found on my Twitter home page a few minutes earlier.

By the way, President Obama also issued a statement today to indicate his deep concern with the actions of the Iranian government. Good. Wish he'd done it sooner. But it's a start. This remains a critical time in Iran. It is probable that, at this point, the Iranian government will choose to assert is power with wiidespread oppression. But it is a time during which some basic principles could be clarified.

The Obama administration did take one early step to help the protesters. The State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled down-time so that their service would remain active during the day in Iran. So far, I don't think the Mullahs have been able to block Twitter. Below, in chronological order, are the messages I found tonight from "Change for Iran" on my twitter home page:

It was a nightmare, I can barely breath & my face is burning, Masood got shot in the arm & Shayan's brother is missing
about 9 hours ago from web
I don't know where to start with, first they attack our peacful memorial gathering in front of the university with water gun
about 9 hours ago from web
the university's doors were close, we couldn't run everywhere! & then they start shooting tear gas at us
about 9 hours ago from web
they were so many! riot police, normal police, intel, IRG, Basij! I managed to scape, but they captured so many people
about 9 hours ago from web
all routes to Azady square were blocked & if anyone stopped walking or walking slow they hit him/her brutally
about 9 hours ago from web
there was no safe path, people were walking in cycles between all variety of security forces
about 9 hours ago from web
I think they made fun of people, don't go here, go this way, not that way & for no apparent reason suddenly attacking random people
about 9 hours ago from web
we tried our best using all known shortcuts for reaching Azady SQ were mousavi was, but ended up in face to face with IRG
about 9 hours ago from web
they weren't just the ordinary police or motorcycle riot guard, they were soldiers holding MP5 supported by reinforced military cars
about 9 hours ago from web
we didn't realize for a moment they started shooting at people, the gun's sound was like a toy gun, not loud & the soliders were smiling
about 9 hours ago from web
I was going to tell masood they are using fake guns for scaring people! until people started screaming in agony
about 8 hours ago from web
we were at Nosrat st, and that part of that damned street had no were for covering
about 8 hours ago from web
we ran as fast as we could in the opposite direction, at the same time basiji bastards started to hit fleeing people
about 8 hours ago from web
I think I saw 2 or 3 people lying on the ground in blood & IRG started to move them, probably hide them.
about 8 hours ago from web
I lost masood in the crowd in upper streets of Nosrat the irony was everything was calm there & people overthere shocked by the looks of us
about 8 hours ago from web
it was the biggest disadvantage for us today, police & basij managed to cut off people and prevent them from gathering
about 8 hours ago from web
they also attacked & arrested anyone with any green symbols or mousavi's pictures
about 8 hours ago from web
damned government also armed street thugs & Afghan workers with anti riot shields & wooden or electric batons
about 8 hours ago from web
most of them wearing in house clothings & I think they were really enjoying attacking people
about 8 hours ago from web
apprently when I was wandering in Laleh Park searching for water Shayan managed to take Masood to a local Doctor
about 7 hours ago from web
for a help please found a good way for countering tear & pepper gas, drinking milk didn't help.
about 7 hours ago from web
it looks some people are still out there, I can hear a chopper passing by
about 7 hours ago from web
thanks everybody for the info & links
about 7 hours ago from web
it looks state TV showed the conflict live via traffic cams, saying: enemy agents attacking police in Azady street
about 7 hours ago from web
I have no idea why some people still believe in State TV, a woman told me today you just found a new way for playing around streets
about 7 hours ago from web
lot happened at Shiraz city too, one of few cities standing with Tehran
about 7 hours ago from web
I didn't believe in acid from choppers, but many around the Farsi web talking about it! what the hell is those bastards thinking?!
about 6 hours ago from web
shame on our national army if IRG is really moving tanks & armor inside Tehran & they still do nothing
about 6 hours ago from web
I'm going to sleep a little before joining with the others, please pray for all people of Iran & wish us peace & freedom
about 5 hours ago from web

Praying. Wishing you peace and freedom.

Contrast: L.A. and Tehran

In Los Angeles, L.A. Lakers fans celebrate with riots, arson, looting, attacks on police. Follow the link.

In Tehran, protesters rally against a fraudulent election, prompting arrests and violence on the part of the government. Imported Hamas and Hezbollah goons waiting in the wings. More bloodshed to come. Prayers in order.

Twitter is being used by protesters to organize. If you would like to help provide them with cover from the Secret Police, Change your Twitter time zone and location to Tehran. Directions and rules at the link. How Iran's internet works Google and Facebook now helping, too. Nokia reportedly helping the Mullahs track tweets. Boo.

Even the BBC is pitching in to help the protesters. They added their signal to two additional satellites when their broadcasts were blocked in Iran.

California's Weird Utopian Mindset

Back in March, Victor Davis Hanson offered one explanation for California's Suicide, "A weird sort of utopian mindset". He expands on three observations:

First: California is by nature the most richly endowed region in the world.
Second: . . prior can-do generations of Californians created an unparalleled infrastructure . . . .
Third: . . something has gone drastically wrong in the state over the last two decades.

Just one example - "California managed to achieve all at once the nation’s highest sales and income tax rates — and yet also the largest annual state deficit. "

Read the whole thing.

". . . less discussed is the underlying culprit: a weird sort of utopian mindset. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is now their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency."

California may have a Republican governor right now, but he was thoroughly chastened early on by the real power in California for decades - the Democratically-controlled legislature. He ran on a fiscally-conservative, reformist platform but was hammered so hard by the Democrats that he soon joined them in their spending spree.

Both the governor and the legislature were, in turn, chastened by voters in a special election in May. All their slickly-worded, devious, misleadingly-titled propositions to continue unprecedented levels of spending were rejected by the voters. They and their allies reportedly out-spent opponents 10 to 1 in advertising. One guest on a local radio program said that the information coming out of Sacramento on these propositions was so misleading and self-serving that voters should only trust what the Legislative Analyst's office said. They had a track record of correctly predicting the fiscal impact of other ballot measures. Somehow, voters seemed to get this message.

The "weird utopian mindset" remained firmly in place in California's liberal newspapers, however.

They're even into boosterism for patience regarding the National economy, now that the Democrats are in charge. Huge headline in the Fresno Bee, June 14, 2009:

RECOVERY IN MOTION

Small subheading:
When will Valley cities replace jobs lost to the recession? It could take 2, 3 or even 4 years.

You know that if there were a Republican president, the headline would have read something like:

RECOVERY? Bleak jobs picture

As suggested from the actual text of the article. Because the bleak jobs picture would have been evidence of heartless Republican policies.

Can California count on a national bailout? Why shouldn't people in Mississippi pay for our state's bankruptcy, anyway? How many Hollywood stars live there? The drastic cuts foreseen now by politicians could take California back to about a 2005-sized government. More painful than it sounds, during a recession. But with 40% unemployment in some towns on the West Side of the valley (due to the cutoff of agricultural water by the government), a lot of folks around here are not too kindly-disposed toward the reflexive favoritism shown to government workers in California right now. The legislature always arranges things so that the government jobs cut will be the ones the public values the most.

This financial debacle is dramatically affecting our personal financial situation. And some of our friends with government jobs have taken a financial hit. But one has to look at the larger picture. And maybe this is a time when people will be receptive to hearing about the nepotism, cronyism and other corruption which have contributed so heavily to the State's financial situation. Taxpayers have been paying a lot of money to State employees who cannot or will not perform their job duties, but who are protected because they are relatives and friends of people with connections. I think of it as sort of a really lucrative "family and friends" welfare program. Sometimes one racial or ethnic group will be favored in a particular State institution. And any fellow employee or supervisor who gets in their way becomes a target or is paid off to keep silent. Pretty soon they start engaging in embezzlement and other troublesome practices, because they can. But it doesn't seem to be anyone's responsibility to correct this situation. Partly because it would be mean to enforce the rules.

A bailout of California might not be such a good idea for President Obama. Someday, somebody's going to have to bite the bullet. Anxious times here in California, and in the nation.

Sobriety

Our economy remains very shaky.
George F. Will:

Using a defibrillator as large as the sum of money being thrown at the U.S. economy will somewhat quicken its pulse. But a patient cannot become healthy attached to a defibrillator. If the economy relapses, three causes might be: protectionism, refusal to allow creative destruction and rising long-term interest rates.

And also:

The president's astonishing risk-taking satisfies the yearning of a presidency-fixated nation for a great man to solve its problems. But as Coolidge said, "It is a great advantage to a president, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man." What the country needs today to shrink its problems is not presidential greatness. Rather, it needs individuals to do what they know they ought to do, and government to stop doing what it should know causes or prolongs problems.

Ronald Reagan:"Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them."

Flag Day, 2009

Flag Day is on Sunday this year, and I nearly forgot totally about it. Jules Crittenden has comments and links. He starts with a discussion of the Star Spangled Banner, "Captivity in Print". I always wondered how a song which is so awkward to sing was chosen as the National Anthem.

George M. Cohen, You're a Grand Old Flag:

". . . Every heart beats true under Under Red, White and Blue, where there's never a boast or brag. . . ."

What happened to our formerly inquisitive press?

Maureen Dowd laments the decline in serious journalism. Commentary on this issue by VDH here:

I am afraid I no longer believe . . .

…That we have an inquisitive American media as we once knew it. There has emerged something as bad as state-sanctioned coercion—which we could at least identify, and thus struggle against.

Now comes a more insidious, brave new self-imposed censorship of the Orwellian mode. It is not just the perennial embarrassment Chris Matthews describing his Obama ecstasy on camera, or even Newsweek’s Evan Thomas comparing his President to God, or even CNN execs being exposed trashing the US abroad at Davos, or whitewashing Saddam, but rather a more incremental new groupspeak in which basic words and ideas—from terrorism to war itself—have been reformulated according to political dictates.

He then gives several examples of the incremental new groupspeak in which basic words and ideas . . . have been reformulated according to political dictates.

Read the whole thing. See if you can think of other examples of group-think and reformulation of basic words and ideas according to political dictates within the major media. There is a recent example which struck me. Try to imagine a story in the LA Times on "funemployment" if a Republican were in the White House during this recession. Can't do it, can you?

I believe that changes in education are one reason reporters now seem to automatically fall into line so completely with the intended message coming out of Washington. A few decades ago, schools of journalism started teaching aspiring young reporters that it was their job to "make a difference" or "change the world" rather than to "report the news". During an administration whose watch cry is "change", it makes sense that reporters would want to participate in "changing the world" by cooperating, intentionally or unintentionally, with the message coming from the administration and/or the Left. They start to believe that by molding their language and their stories with a goal of changing the world, they are doing a favor to the less enlightened masses.

Commentators are expected to place their opinions front and center in analyzing events in the news. They should have some leeway in creative use of words and in "self-censoring". They are subject to rebuttal. When reporters go too far in these same activities, what they write or say often becomes a form of lying. The unelightened masses can tell that they are being lied too. They stop reading newspapers, and Maureen Dowd's job is in jeopardy, even though she's a commentator. She's made her own signature contribution to distrust of the media, however: Her famous ellipsed quotes which totally misrepresent what the person she is quoting actually said.

David Letterman, pathetic misogynist creep

First Playboy, now David Letterman. In some liberal circles, it's now O.K. to broadcast your rape fantasies about conservative women and their 14-year-old daughters. Because these liberals wouldn't want their audiences to get the idea that conservative women are human. If they were human, it might not be right to attempt to totally destroy their lives and the lives of their children.

This is insanity. Not as weird as Andrew Sullivan's Trig Conspiracy Theories, but Letterman still has a serious case of Palin Derangement Syndrome. With a vicious, soul-killing quality. He doubles down here.What did little Willow ever do to Letterman? Why does he want her to carry the burden of his jokes around with her in middle school and for the rest of her life? It will probably be a long time before I am able to look at that signature smirk on Letterman's face again without thinking about his bullying cruelty.

We can learn a lot about our current culture from this kerfuffle. For example, many prominent feminists have absolutely no claim to moral authority in these matters anymore. For many, feminism is now about political power, rather than principle. Happily, some on the feminist left have been principled enough to protest Palin's treatment since she came onto the national scene. (Plus, did you know that Microsoft has developed software that can let you preview pornography right from your Google search? So classy.)

p.s. The New York Times apparently covered for Letterman. "Printing all the news that fits the narrative". No wonder this newspaper is in serious financial trouble.

Update: VDH suggests that some of Letterman's creepy behavior may be related to his age. But Imus looks a lot older than Letterman, and the feminists really tore into him. Letterman apparently just signed a new 3-year contract and married his babymama. Age may be a partial explanation, but it is not an excuse for Letterman unless he's getting senile, which doesn't seem to be the case. And it's certainly not an excuse for the feminists' double standard.

Compare the continued vicious treatment of Sarah Palin and her family by members of the mainstream media with the careful packaging of Michelle Obama.

Update 2: In a non-apology, Letterman says he was talking about Palin's 18-year-old daughter Bristol getting knocked up in public, at Yankee Stadium. (If they really thought is was Bristol at the game, they could have made the joke even funnier by revealing who held Bristol's new baby while she was getting knocked up during the 7th inning. All the young single mothers out there in TV land would find that hilarious, I'm sure). But Willow was the one at the game. Facts are stubborn things. Letterman and his writers may have changed their story when they learned how young Willow was.

After his non-apoligy, Letterman invited Sarah Palin on his show. "Sarah Palin should send her husband Todd on the show instead. I'd watch that."

James Lileks on how Letterman hardened from being "brilliant" into "an SOB who shows up at the end of the night to reassure that nothing matters . . . ":

What’s amusing is how unamusing he is in the clip. How sour he seems. Compare him to his predecessors. . .

. . . Really, it’s just a rote slam: If your mother is a loathed politician, and your older sister gets pregnant, famous old men can make jokes about you being knocked up by rich baseball players, and there’s nothing you can do. That’s the culture: a flat, dead-eyed, square-headed old man who’ll go back to the writers and ask for more Palin-daughter knocked-up jokes, because that one went over well. Other children he won’t touch, but not because he’s decent. It’s because he’s a coward.

Oh, one more thing: it’s okay for David to say that because someone said something else about someone, and since I didn’t write about that, I’m a hypocrite. Just so we’re clear.

Well, one more thing. Some say Dave - I’m sorry, the staff members who wrote the joke and had it printed on cards for him to read - thought the daughter in attendance was the older one who had the pregnancy controversy last year. This is possible; it also means that we accept as an excuse the fact that the writers confused the daughters they wished to humiliate.

Jewish proverb: "When you're kind to the cruel, you become cruel to the kind".

Why does this man get so much money for treating people this way? Because "it's the culture" - which Letterman, his writers and his audiences helped shape.

Palin responds to questions about Letterman here. Live, so they can't edit her statements to change her meaning. Good move. She calls on Letterman to apologize to all young women.

A healthy suggestion.

Update 3: People are still trying to get their minds around what Letterman said:
Why the Left ridicules women

Don Surber: "His later apology only underscored his perversion. . . Then the jerk had the nerve to invite Palin on his show, as if nothing was wrong." VDH analyzes Letterman's statement. He calls the apology "as bad as the initial slur".

From Surber's comments: "As liberals see it, they are 100% responsible for every advance or progress made by either women or Blacks. Therefore these two groups “owe” liberals, and if a woman or Black person dares to be a conservative, they are savaged as somehow ungrateful and treasonous. As they see it, every woman in this article owes their career to Gloria Steinem, and therefore they have a moral obligation to agree with her on any point Steinem wishes."

Sarah Palin is a threat to the Left because she blows their stereotypes out of the water.

Update 4: NOW has finally been embarrassed into commenting on Letterman's "jokes". But even as they do, they make his jokes appear to be an anomaly for the Left but typical of the Right. As if Letterman had not been savaging and humiliating Palin and her family regularly since last fall. As if there had not been even more disturbing sexually violent and humiliating jokes about Palin on TV and in print before these latest attacks on her and her daughters.

NOW's statement also suggested that conservatives are not concerned about similar statements directed at people who differ from them politically. What a libel. For example, the Right was all over the savaging of Hillary Clinton (not their favorite person) by the mainstream media once someone more liberal won some states in the primaries. Including Keith Olberman's assassination fantasies, directed at Hillary Clinton before Sarah Palin. The Right was also upset about the photo of Obama's speechwriter (still his main speechwriter, I believe - he was not fired) groping a life-sized cut-out figure of Hillary after she was named Secretary of State. Try to imagine a speech writer for a Republican president who would not be fired for something like that. Can't do it, can you?

NOW said about Letterman: "Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as 'the Tiffany Network' (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer."

They then immediately cited as an example of a broadcaster who prefers to wallow in juvenile, sexist mud a 16-year-old statement by Rush Limbaugh about Chelsea Clinton's appearance. I think I remember something about this. Can't remember the context, but Limbaugh squirmed some when explaining what he had meant. They just had to figure out a way to further the Obama Administration's efforts to demonize Limbaugh in a piece about someone else. On the same "media hall of shame" page, they criticized other media figures, whom they identify as "right-wing", for sexist statements. They did not identify Letterman's political persuasion. Their double standard shows again. None of the "right-winger's" statements which NOW cited involved sexual assaults or promiscuity.

Update 5: Is this an opportunity to use the Left's playbook to "go Alinsky" on a prominent liberal media figure? Rules 1, 3 and 12 from "Rules for Radicals"? Personally, I don't think that the Rules for Radicals will ever be as successful for the Right as they are for the Left. Because the Center Right is expected to be reasonable and principled. and because it wishes to differentiate itself from the Far Right. People of the center-right are so often protrayed as dangerously angry and lumped in with far-right nuts in order to make them "look like bad people" in the words of one target of a CNN interview.

But maybe in the case of Letterman, the Rules for Radicals had an effect: Letterman's second apology is enough for some, not for others. I don't think getting Letterman fired is the best strategy, though. Leave him in place as an example of what liberalism has become for many.

President Obama's Star Trek

Maureen Dowd apparently saw the new Star Trek movie and was filled with hope that her job at the New York Times could be saved. She compares President Obama to Spock. "I dreamed that Spock saved our planet, The Daily Planet of journalism." She does make some good points about the decline in serious journalism. Blogger Glenn Reynolds thinks that serious investigative reporting is the place where newspapers have real advantages over the New Media.

To Maureen Dowd, President Obama is a new kind of Spock - an intellectual who keeps his own emotions in check (like the old Spock) but who can evoke intense emotion in others - to "charm both worlds".

Commanding his own unwieldy starship of blended species, with Cheney, Limbaugh and other pitiless Borg aliens firing phasers from all sides, Mr. Obama has certainly invoked Mr. Spock’s Vulcan philosophy of “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” And he even recruited some impulsive Rahmulen muscle for his Utopia.

HIS Utopia. Think about that as you watch the video linked below. Remember all the things that went wrong, sometimes horribly wrong, with brilliant utopian plans in the 20th century.

In his new (low-budget) Afterburner video, Bill Whittle takes Dowd's Star Trek analogy and runs with it, with some snark between the serious points. He gives an interesting history of the Star Trek series, "the only genuinely American mythology in the modern world", before moving on to his main points.

Worth your time and deep thought, even if you don't agree with everything he says. For a little chuckle, check out the ironic caption under Captain Kirk at the very end of Bill Whittle's video (and his performance in the YouTube video linked here).

Whittle makes a reference to a farm boy, too. Victor Davis Hanson's piece fits in with Bill Whittle's video quite nicely.

VDH on Obama's Foreign Outreach

Victor Davis Hanson has the rather unusual and valuable perspective of a university professor who is also a farmer. He farms raisins up the road from us in Selma. A tough business. He wonders here how long it will be until President Obama gains "wisdom about the tragic universe in which we live".

In the first segment of his essay,

Obama Versus the Way of the Universe

VDH discusses the short-term focus of the Obama Administration's deficit spending and "Deficit Foreign Policy, Too".

VDH expects positive short-term effects from Obama's recent "I've changed America" speeches abroad. His favorite line from Obama's Cairo speech was the apology on Gitmo "where inmates have laptops and Mediterranean food,"

spoken to millions whose societies kill and maim tens of thousands in Gulags on a yearly  basis.

But though he expect short-term benefits, VDH doesn't share the enthusiasm of Evan Thomas during Obama's foreign tour that he's sort of God .

VDH thinks that Obama "hits against human nature" in his outreach to hostile governments and that only "someone who has not been in the real world, but only marketed rhetoric without consequences (e.g., if Obama had a bad day organizing, or legislating, was he fired?) could believe . . " that his conciliatory language would change the way the world works on a long-term basis.

By way of illustration, VDH presents a personal story:

A Farmer's Tale

"In short, Obama reminds me a little of myself–at 26."
Read the whole thing. The tale has a surprise ending.

Have you read it yet? A few observations:

Stephen R. Covey frequently speaks about the differences between relatively natural systems, such as a farm or caring for an infant, and more artificial systems such as academia and politics. He makes the point that on a farm, it becomes obvious right away if you have taken actions which do not take into account the laws of nature. If you plant too deep or put off planting at the proper time, you just won't get a crop. If you skip weeding, your crop will be meager. If you talk real nice to your neighbor while he steals your water, then go to the Water Board and expect them to do something, you could lose your farm to your neighbor in short order. The laws of human nature become obvious quickly on the farm, too.

In more artificial systems, natural laws are not as obvious, and they often operate more slowly. The day of reckoning is often delayed for a long time. In academia, for example, if you're clever, you can sometimes figure out what the teacher wants you to say or write, and get along fine for quite a long time by saying the right words and skating by on minimal actions. Sometimes you can even figure out how to improve your odds of answers on tests which will impress the teacher, rather than studying. But eventually, the deficiencies in your true learning become evident, sometimes all at once. Covey got a serious ulcer in graduate school when he finally went head-to-head in oral exams with fellow students who were less clever at gaming the system than he had been, but who had paid the price to actually learn their subject matter. He talks about the rewards for following through on an appropriate plan in discussing the "Law of the Harvest."

VDH talks elsewhere about how the baby-boomer generation is the first in America to consume more than it produces - to live off the work of past generations and foreign creditors. We are not producing much of a harvest. We've been living on credit and promises for some time now. The current administration seems to be extending this trend with truly massive deficit spending and "deficit foreign policy". Wonder how long it will be until it catches up with us in a really dramatic way?

Maybe there are some things we can do to make the shock less severe when it comes.

Media bias? What media bias?

I posted on Newsweek's plan to transform itself into a sophisticated liberal journal three days ago, with Iowahawk's insightful "walk a mile in my shoes" take on the magazine's counter-intuitive plan to reduce subscriptions. And the rather surprising announcement that Stephen Colbert will guest-edit Newsweek. Because the first step toward becoming a really serious political journal is to hire a television satirist as a guest editor. Wild. Wonder how he'll do editing George Will?

Today, we learned that Newsweek's Evan Thomas has said,

"I mean in a way Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world, he's sort of God."

Don't know about sophisticated, but Mr. Thomas has had the liberal part down for quite some time. The magazine cover for Newsweek's next issue.

Former Classics Professor Victor Davis Hanson (not of Newsweek), thinks of the function of the chorus in ancient Greek drama as he observes today's media:

The slavish manner in which the media lock stepped into Bush the near-fascist for tribunals, wiretaps, intercepts, renditions, Patriot Act, Iraq, and Guantanamo; followed by choruses of Obama the sensitive, anguished overseer of tribunals, wiretaps, intercepts, renditions, Patriot Act, Iraq, and Guantanamo was one of the most frightening things I ‘ve seen in a free society in 50 years.

Update: More adulation. from TIME, the New York Times and others.

Update 2:  The plan to become a serious liberal journal didn't work out for Newsweek any better than we thought it would.  The Washington Post had to sell it to the husband of a Democratic congresswoman.

June 6, 1944

What did YOU do on June 6 this year? What Eisenhower said to the troops before that day, plus a remembrance of June 6, 1944 by Reagan here. More from Reagan here, and from Obama here.

Update: Normandy's gratitute has not faded.

Via Wretchard at Belmont Club: One last time, without the politicians. It got to me.

20 Years Since Tiananmen Square

A friend reminded me through a Twitter post that the Tiananmen Square Massacre was 20 years ago today. Claudia Rosett was there. She provides an eyewitness account and places the protest in historical context. Her short summary of events leading up to this massacre is a wonderful review of history. Read the whole thing. She concludes:

If you have ever looked at that famous photo of the lone man near the square, facing a column of tanks, and been deeply moved, then I would say you have understood the heartfelt cry we now refer to by the shorthand of Tiananmen.

Whatever the complex forces still playing out beneath the surface in China, that uprising was a message about the universal desire for freedom, a message with which--however muffled it may often seem--it would be richly rewarding to keep faith.

UPDATE: An interesting variety of perspectives on Tiananmen and other peaceful protests and the responses of human rights organizations to actions against those protests. The comments include a link to a newly-released photo of Tank Man from the New York Times.

We also learn that Deng's son was thrown from a roof and paralyzed by the Red Guard. This book tells the astonishing story of another target of the Red Guard. If I recall correctly, there were reports that her only child, a daughter, may have killed by throwing her off a roof. My Mom gave the book to me. The author may have unwittingly played a role in the later liberalization of China. An amazingly strong, principled, intelligent woman. A remarkable book.

UPDATE 2: June 4, 1989 was an important date for another reason, too. It was the beginning of freedom in Poland. History is full of little ironies, isn't it? Interesting that Gary Cooper would become the image of freedom in Poland.

Government Motors

Iowahawk tried to warn us last November. Watch the video.

Looking toward the future:
31 years old? Not yet graduated? No automotive experience? Sort of frightening. You may want to follow the links.

Playboy caters to hate-filled segment of the Left

Newsweek is apparently not the only magazine which is deliberately limiting its customer base. Playboy may have miscalculated in its latest attempt to be "edgy". The link to Ed Driscoll is work-safe. There are lots of secondary links. Can't guarantee all of them. Check out the comments from liberals quoted in Driscoll's post. I won't repeat them here.

From the comments, it appears that Hugh Hefner's daughter is on President Obama's business advisory council. Unfortunate.

Key observations on the hatred of conservative women demonstrated by the short-lived Playboy article which was the subject of this post:

Ed Morrissey

The fact that the magazine published this piece of effluvium should be enough to show that everyone in the editorial process, from the writer to Hef himself, don’t want women empowered. They want silent sex objects, and when confronted with women whose opinions differ from theirs, want them humiliated.

Ed Driscoll

(conservative women are) not human to the identity politics-obsessed left, because they think different.

Much like the 2008 Democratic primary, and the election season that followed . . . it’s helped to shed a glimmer of light on a remarkably primitive side to what’s commonly called “liberalism” or “progressivism” these days.

"Primitive." How very true. Read the whole thing. It's not just Playboy. And liberal women (like Hillary Clinton) can also become targets of verbal savagery by people to the left of them.

GOAL? To get prominent conservative women (and insufficiently liberal women) to Shut Up.

Newsweek's Survival Strategy. Bonus: Iowahawk, Colbert

Newspapers all over the country and venerable weekly news magazines like TIME and Newsweek are suffering financially. Some of their problems are due to competition from the New Media and the "personality" rags. Some of their problems are self-inflicted. They don't have enough "meat" for a serious weekly, and they're not flashy or gossipy enough to compete with "People" et al. They don't fit the interests of the American populace as well as they used to, up to about the time when Dennis Prager, still in high school, remembers stores in NYC devoted primarily to customers interested in a wide range of serious journals and competing newspapers. Many of these customers had never attended college. Something changed in the 1960s. Newspapers and magazines, already weakened by television and societal changes, really began to struggle later, as more and more people started turning to the internet for news and analysis.

Newsweek's editor, John Meacham, has decided that the way for Newsweek to survive is to become a serious political journal again. He realizes that subscriptions will be seriously reduced, but he wishes to focus on a serious core audience. Jim Geraghty compares Newsweek with The Economist, the journal most admired by Mr. Meacham. As I recall, The Economist was first recommended to me when I worked in So Cal by a visiting Irish colleague or by a Hungarian colleague who spoke 7 or 8 languages. I found The Economist to be very worthwhile. Though I never bought it. I either read our department's copy or the company library's copy. I used to enjoy reading TIME sometimes, a really long time ago, but it's changed. I don't remember ever being particularly excited about Newsweek. Though some of the columns, by George Will et al, were good.

Here, Iowahawk channels a three-week-old copy of Newsweek. Too good.

UPDATE: Was Newsweek stung a little by Iowahawk's piece? They've engaged another satirist, Stephen Colbert, as their guest editor for the next edition. That will convince people that they're a serious journal.

Focus on Hollywood

Andrew Breitbart: a man with a mission

I wrote a little post on Andrew Breitbart and his father-in-law Orson Bean at the beginning of the year, soon after Breitbart started his newest website, Big Hollywood. Breitbart has sharpened and limited his focus to exposing media bias and to combating the "totalitarian" culture in today's Hollywood. A David and Goliath sort of mission, it seems to me.

Peter Robinson interviews Andrew Breitbart about his new project in a 5-part video here. It's an interesting little series on an influential person you've not heard much about. Peter Robinson's interviewing style is a bit too animated for my taste, but he asks some very interesting questions. If you decide to watch any of the segments below, press the "start" button in the middle of the video frame, then click on the "full screen" button at the lower right for best sound and video quality. Press "Esc." to exit the full screen mode.

Breitbart characterizes those who now control Hollywood in very negative terms in Part 1 of these interviews. He gives a specific example of how the Left uses projection - accusing those they intend to target of the behavior they themselves intend to engage in. During the Bush years, the refrain "Dissent is patriotic" was constant from the left. Yet when questioned, they couldn't name anyone who was limiting their dissent. After Obama came into the presidency, the same people who had earlier proclaimed that "dissent is patriotic" engaged in vigorous efforts to vilify and silence dissent. focusing in particular on people like Rush Limbaugh.

In Part 2, Breitbart talks about how the Hollywood Left silences other points of view in Hollywood. He also believes that the views of a small, culturally insulated, parochial group of people in Hollywood, numbering in the low thousands, have a profound impact on American foreign policy. In Part 3, he talks about the beginnings of his disillusionment with the Left, and about how he, when already a conservative, came to be the developer of the liberal website, Huffington Post.

Part 4: Why talk radio is dominated by the Right and the blogosphere is dominated by the Left. Projection again: Hollywood and the media accuse the Right of doing what they intend to do to others. In Part 5, Peter Robinson can't get Andrew Breitbart to talk about national politics. Breitbart again makes it clear that his focus is on media bias and Hollywood political culture. He discusses how he became a fiscal conservative (in his evolution from liberal to libertarian to conservative) - after reading authors he had not been exposed to in college - Hayek, Burke, etc.

Dennis Prager mentions from time to time how surprised he was that his fellow students in college and grad school seldom did any serious reading which was not required by their professors. Conservatives are much more likely to be exposed to serious liberal thought than the other way around. Liberal academics often don't seem to see much need to expose their students to opposing views, (though they do expose students to variations on liberal themes) because they are confident that their own views are superior. And intellectual curiosity among college graduates is rare. A far greater number of serious political journals existed before the 1970s than exist now. And venerable news magazines - Time, Newsweek, etc., have dumbed down their content with the rising number of college graduates.

Rare is the American on the Left who can speak intelligently about serious conservative political thought, without resorting to distortions and stereotypes. Sad.