Archive Listing
July 27, 2007 - July 20, 2007

Friday, October 13, 2006

Thursday, October 12, 2006

PSAYINGS.5Q.11. WorldNet Daily is up in arms about YouTube's apparent attempt to censor David Zucker's lampoon of Dem foreign policy.


I expect conservative bloggers will immediately start suggesting that we boycott YouTube in favor of sites like BlipTV, just like they've been campaigning for us to boycott Google in favor of Ask.com.

I'm starting to have a problem with this boycotting schtick. I've been known to withhold my patronage for the sake of a grudge. Because of the Exxon Valdez, I don't buy Exxon gas unless I'm in danger of getting stranded. I don't buy Ben and Jerry's ice cream because I think they're hippie, lefty jerks. I don't attend or watch Jane Fonda movies. I don't buy French wine anymore unless there's an occasion that absolutely demands Moet Chandon. However, I don't pretend to myself that Exxon, Ben, Jerry, Jane, and France give a rat's ass about what I do.

When the right-wing blogosphere got so het up about Google's deal with the Chinese government, I looked into Ask.com as an alternative. But there was a problem. Ask.com sucks. They don't turn up nearly as much relevant stuff with their search engine. I also looked at BlipTV because Michelle Malkin was having trouble with YouTube. BlipTV sucks too. So I'm not going to boycott either Google or YouTube.

You see, there's a question of marginal utility involved. If some behavior that I intend to be punishing to someone else actually punishes me more than it does them, I don't do it. It's called cutting off your nose to spite your face, or, more simply, girlcotting. (Those of you who have teenage daughters will understand the reference without falling into a fine sexist fury.) I also think it can be directly counterproductive in absolute terms. I never bought into the "Buy American" reflex that kept so many well intended folks in Ford and GM cars when they really did hunger for a BMW or a Honda. That misguided loyalty is a big part of why Ford and GM are in such desperate straits today. Deep down, they just never got it that they had to compete. Can a million angry conservatives keep Ask.com afloat? Maybe. But they'll still die eventually if they don't rise above the mediocrity that characterizes their product today.

And what about all those angry conservatives? I have a vision of them ostentatiously ignoring Google, YouTube, and God knows what other new media sources while they slowly perish of information starvation, always finding less than their lefty opponents and showing up too late with their handicapped arguments. It's a kind of voluntary solitary confinement and far too much like a poor relation of political correctness to suit me.

I'm going to keep on using the products and services I find helpful. It's certainly not news to me that a lot of the new media barons are leftist idiots when it comes to politics. I can take that into account. I don't generally go to YouTube looking for pro-Republican videos . But if I want to see a video of Django Reinhardt playing jazz in Paris way back when, I sure as hell won't be thinking of BlipTV.


I also have no problem at all with maintaining my purely symbolic boycotts of products I don't like or find helpful in any way. Boycotting the New York Times is a particular pleasure. Ditto with Detroit's giant gas-guzzling SUVs, lilke the Cadillac Escargot and the Lincoln Nasticator. I haven't decided about the Hummer yet. I mean, I know it's a fuel hog and all, but if I get the assault rifle I asked Santa for this Christmas, it would look super cool mounted on the dash of one of those leviathan Hummer truck things.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

PSAYINGS.5A.40. It's (almost) official now:


I know we all got a little numb during the final blitz of campaign ads, whistle-stop tours, and the nightly hype of the MSM about the dread possibility of a "September Surprise," but in the end the system worked, as it usually does in a democratic enterprise. Perhaps the process is overlong (I mean, who can even remember all the way back to those endless primary debates in February and March?); yet there's no getting around the fact that voters wouldn't have had the ability to choose meaningfully among the competing U.N. reform agendas put forward by the candidates if we hadn't seen them under fire from one another and in the blizzard of (arguably too) negative TV ads that saturated worldwide television in August and September. Back in midsummer -- be honest here, please -- could you really have explained the differences between Ban Ki-moon's 5-point "Reform Roadmp," Ahmud Ti Ranh's 10-point "Reformist Jihad," Bill Clinton's 28-point "New Deal for the U.N.," George Galloway's  4-point "Fatwah against Israeli Control of the U.N.," and Kofi Annan, Jr.'s 7-point "Five-Year Plan for Creating a Path to the Selection of a Committee to Carefully Consider the Framework of a Reform Process"? I know I couldn't.

And as unpopular as it may be this morning, I'll  even speak up in defense of the extremely negative tone of much of the campaign, from the media echo chamber of scurrilous allegations about Ban Ki-moon's  supposed ties to the Reverend Sung Moon's religious cult to the unbelievably personal TV attacks on Kofi Jr. based on nothing more than his blood relationship to the outgoing Secretary General. Like everyone else, I winced at the ugly thread of anti-Arabism that finally sank Ahmud Ti Ranh's hopes, but in the final analysis voters do have to feel confident that whoever is running the U.N. is putting the welfare of the entire world above narrow allegiances to individual regions, religions, and non-state entities. If Ahmud's integrity is as spotless as he kept claiming it was, then he should be able to use the name recognition he received this time around to mount a more successful campaign in 2010.

Finally, I will admit that I too am relieved that the whole circus is over at last. The ubiquitous clamor of a campaign like this one is always fatiguing. In its wake, one can't help feeling drained and exhausted. Still, with so very much at stake for everyone, the exhaustion is the good kind, imbued with the knowledge that all the energy consumed was the worthwhile sort that ends in real accomplishment.

Congratulations, Secretary General Ki-moon. We pledge our support for the promises you made and look forward to the "100 Days of Reform" that will kick off your period of "honeymoon" with the Security Council and the General Assembly. With the popular mandate you've received, you should be able to make some serious progress at last, not only on U.N. reform, but also on the other issues you pushed so tirelessly during the campaign: ending the genocide in Darfur, de-nuclearizing Korea and Iran, restraining the violence and chaos of international jihadism, and ensuring that Hamas and Hizbollah either recognize Israel or disband. Remember, they know we'll be watching attentively..

Good luck on all that. To you. And to us.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

XOFF NEWS. With North Korea threatening to test a nuclear bomb this weekend, pundits are speculating about how the Japanese will respond. Many agree with Austin Bay that "Japan will pursue offensive missiles and... its own nuclear weapons." Generally, however, this prediction is accompanied by a reminder that it takes a great deal of time to move from a state of near total disarmament to nuclear capability. Regardless of whether this is supposed to be good or bad news, it's not true. We're talking about Japan here.

XOFF News has learned that Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation, the inventor of Just-in-Time manufacturing, started development work on a nuclear cruise missile eight weeks ago. This weekend will see the first test flight of the Corolla Cruise Missile (Model 0), an admittedly rudimentary prototype, but one which can deliver a nuclear payload at up to 75 mph while achieving 34 mpg fuel economy. The Corolla's appointments are spartan, limited to a 3-speed manual transmission, roll-up windows and AM radio in the test vehicle, but engineers are already far along with the replacement Toyota Land Cruiser missile, which will feature higher top speeds, greater range, air conditioning, and a leather interior. Sources tell us that the Land Cruiser could be operational by mid-November, with a possible (and terribly hush-hush) high-end Lexus model to follow, perhaps as early as January 2007.

If they want to prove themselves smarter than the geniuses at Ford and GM, the North Koreans should proceed very carefully this weekend and ever after.

Back to Archive Index