Opinion Intimidation

Brokeback Mountain was destined to win awards regardless of the film's quality because its subject matter qualifies it as courageous.
Everybody who has written a favorable review or given it an award has congratulated themselves on their own courage.
But, doesn't courage require doing something risky? What could possibly be risky about going with the politically correct flow?
Gene Shalit has the audacity recently to deliver a negative review of the the movie and now the forces of political correctness are aiming their venemous worst in his direction.

The group claimed that Shalit's statements, delivered during his "Critic's Choice" segment on Thursday's Today show, promoted "defamatory anti-gay prejudice to a national audience," and criticized NBC News for providing the eccentric critic with a platform from which to air his views.


"Shalit's bizarre characterization of Jack as a 'predator' and Ennis as a victim reflects a fundamental lack of understanding about the central relationship in the film and about gay relationships in general," GLAAD said in a statement. "It seems highly doubtful that Shalit would similarly claim that Titanic's Jack was a 'sexual predator' because he was pursuing a romantic relationship with Rose"

I won't be giving this movie my own review. I don't go to movie to show my courage or to have my consciousness elevated. I pay my money to be entertained.

How Can John Murtha Sleep At Night?

Football fans have more loyalty to their favorite teams than Democrats have for their country. And John Murtha is the most outstanding example of fickle liberal disloyalty.

Show Biz for Ugly People

George Galloway let us have a peek into his soul yesterday. First, it's clear that this very mediocre man loves the attention he draws to himelf with his outrageous politics.

"I'm an MP," he chortled on the set of Britain's reality TV series "Big Brother."
Politics is just "showbiz for ugly people," he said.

He reverted to form though and declared that he was simply using his notoriety to "take the opportunity to speak for a more civilised way of life".

I'm sure this is the more civilized way of life he favors.

We're Only In It For The Money?

Whenever people of taste complain about the garbage on television, network execs just say that they relfect American culture and provide what the public demands.

Really? The public wants this?

Much worse was Bravo's reality series "Being Bobby Brown," following around has-been pop star Brown and his wife, Whitney Houston. The second episode included Brown recalling an incident in which his wife was constipated and he had to put his hand up her behind to remove feces for her relief. Houston proclaimed, ''That's black love!''

From this, and the other trash cited in Bozell's column, it is clear that television leads the coarsening of our society by pushing the envelope, it doesn't follow.

Environmentally Friendly Frankenfoods

One of the strangest ironies of the environmental movement is its opposition to genetically engineered crops. These things are actually good for the environment and a boon to third world agriculture.

Currently, almost all biotech crops reduce the use of either insecticides or herbicides. Upcoming Monsanto products, however, more effectively kill pests and even combine the two traits. The Agriculture Department has just approved one that protects corn against both weeds and rootworms. These are actually voracious beetles nicknamed “the billion-dollar pest” because of their estimated annual cost to U.S. farmers.

And,

Further, while a biotech plant such as cotton may boost an American farmer’s crop by 10% or more, I’ve met with African farmers at a U.S. meeting who said that same cotton DOUBLED their yields. That’s because the biotech seed is the ONLY advantage they have, with no access to tractors, pesticides, and even the global positioning system that U.S. farmers can use to tell them exactly where to spray and fertilize.

Speaking of which, one of Monsanto’s pipeline products is corn that increases nitrogen use. Most plants, including corn, must draw all of their life-sustaining nitrogen from the ground, so farmers must regularly apply fertilizer. Fertilizer costs money and, if not properly managed, can harm the environment when rain causes it to run off into waterways causing algae growth explosions that crowd out both plant and aquatic life.

Please No! Not Smart Democrats!

There is a rumbling in the Democrat party for the removal and replacement of Nancy Pelosi.

Democrats have always been like communists. The only way to resign as leader in the Soviet Union or China was to die. In the United States, they occasionally got voted out - Tom Foley and Tom Daschle come to mind - but removal by the faithful or resignation simply doesn't happen.

But Nancy Pelosi has been so very bad as House Minority leader that there are rumblings of a coup.

It is not ideology, however, that makes many Democrats yearn for Hoyer. The congressman who whispered about a coup in Hoyer's ear is much closer to Pelosi ideologically. He and other Democrats are simply appalled by Pelosi's image as a party leader. While she got by delivering 60-second speeches as an ordinary congresswoman, she seems distracted and lost in making four-minute Democratic closing arguments on a bill.

Pelosi neither sets an agenda nor offers inspiring messages, but she cannot be held wholly responsible for the superficial quality of Democratic rhetoric from the House floor. Debate on bills ordinarily is led by the senior committee member, who is bound by cliches and stereotypes. One of the best and longest lasting of Newt Gingrich's reforms when he became House speaker in 1995 was to institute term limits for Republican committee heads. The Democrats keep their leaders as long as they live.

The Most Ridiculous Editorial Ever?

I can only conclude that this is a canned editorial that sits on somebody's hard drive somewhere, only to be brought out if the Washington Post has an empty space on its editorial page and no big issue stirring anyone's juices.

The Post is complaining that George W. Bush hasn't pardoned enough criminals during his term. The Post cites not one instance where and injustice needs undoing. It just compares the number of pardons issued by Bush to selected previous presidents. The Post even admits that, at the same point in the Clinton Administration, even fewer pardons had been issued, but no matter, Bush is a bad guy because he doesn't return enough convicts to the streets.

In December Mr. Bush issued 11 pardons, bringing his total to 71 pardons and sentence commutations. The recent actions follow his usual pattern. All involved old crimes; the most recent conviction is a decade old, and one happened way back in 1950. Most involved minor offenses -- a bank robbery from 1964 being a notable exception. None required the president to take a stand of any kind. They involved, rather, no political risk.

The closest that the Post gets to a substantive criticism is that they think that drug laws are too harsh.

I agree with that, but don't you think that a president that better things to do than comb the federal prison system for drug to release?

What About Race?

Now that most of the miners were found dead in that West Virginia coal mine, I'm starting the clock on how long it will take the Washington Post or the Democratic National Committee to find a racial angle. Of course, if all the miners were white, it won't come up.

Free Speech Triumphs in Maryland

Baring your ass is now a protectected form of free speech in Maryland. Besides, as the judge noted: "If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure, any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty."

Sorta Puts Things in Perspective

The US press always tries to make the case that Iraqis dancing around bombed US vehicles indicates a genuine hatred of America.
So what do these pictures tell us about what Palestinians think of Hamas?
See here, here and here.

Hat tip, Charles Johnson.

Imagine a Speechless Chris Matthews

Motormouth Chris Matthews is going to have to screen his guests more carefully. Yesterday, Pete Williams set Chris Matthews straight on disinformation that Matthews was spewing. Stripped of his lie, Matthews' mouth froze solid, and cut the interview short.

Hat tip, Michelle Maulkin.

The Orwellian New York Times

The guys at Powerline note an interesting harmonic convergence between George Orwell and the New York Times.

In the year 1984 there was not as yet anyone who used Newspeak as his sole means of communication, either in speech or writing. The leading articles of the Times were written in it, but this was a tour de force which could only be carried out by a specialist.
Orwell adds:
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc [the regime's ideology], but to make all other modes of thought impossible.

Will It Cause Hair To Grow On Your Palms Too?

As if you needed another reason to watch your weight.

Two Israeli ophthalmologists are now warning that the prospect of eye disease should also be a powerful incentive to lose weight. Professor Michael Belkin and Dr Zohar Habot-Wilner, from the Goldschleger Eye Institute at the Sheba Medical Centre, reviewed more than 20 studies involving thousands of patients worldwide.

They said they found a consistently strong link between obesity and the occurrence and development of four major eye diseases that cause blindness - age-related macular degeneration (AMD), cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.