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Friday, August 11, 2006
The Friday Follies
A
week when everything seems bass-ackwards
TGIF.
Backwards is as backwards does, so we'll start with the most
trivial news of the week. Tucker Carlson is reputedly going to be on Dancing
with the Stars. This is obviously backwards. Shouldn't the
producers begin by announcing the stars
who will be participating in the show?
Tucker dancing with a stool... and coming off second best.
Next up, another triviality. Seems Mike Wallace journeyed over to Iran to interview -- what's his name? -- the current caliph of Persia. Until 60 Minutes airs the edited result, we have no way of knowing for sure what occurred between them, but we do have two early reports. The first contains the following fascinating passage:
Wallace has spent a lot of time in Iran
over the past four decades, interviewing the Shah, former President
Hashemi Rafsanjani and, most famously, the 1979 sitdown with the
Ayatollah Khomeini [when he] asked the Iranian leader what he thought
of Anwar Sadat's desciption [sic] of him as a lunatic.
There wasn't any of that this time. Wallace dismissed the common perceptions of Ahmadinejad.
"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said. "He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin."
There wasn't any of that this time. Wallace dismissed the common perceptions of Ahmadinejad.
"He's actually, in a strange way, he's a rather attractive man, very smart, savvy, self-assured, good looking in a strange way," Wallace said. "He's very, very short but he's comfortable in his own skin."
Oka-a-a-a--y. And there's this odd entry in the Drudge Report, which isn't actually linked to anything but provides much food for thought:
88-year-old CBS journalist Mike Wallace
says Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [is] a 'reasonable' man on
Sean Hannity's ABC radio program... Points out Ahmadinejad not
anti-Jewish... just anti-Zionist state. Says many Jews in Iranian
Parliament, in great positions in Iranian life... Believes Ahmadinejad
sincere in his hope for peaceful coexistence between Iran and West...
Troubled by comparisons of leader to Hitler... Marvels at Ahmadinejad's
civil engineering degree, 'intellect', 'savvy'... Asks viewers not to
bring 'prejudices' to Sunday night '60 MINUTES' broadcast... Proclaims
'discussion' was sincere and not for propaganda purposes...
Developing...
What's backwards here? Certainly not that a CBS newsman would choose to overlook the Persian's crystal clear rhetoric of racial hatred at a time when Iran is fueling a proxy war against Israel to divert attention from its genocidal nuclear ambitions. That's to be expected. The CBS moonwalk when faced with evident truth has been remarkably consistent since Walter Cronkite decided to declare the crushing defeat of the Tet Offensive a victory for Ho Chih Minh. What amazes us is the relevance of a comment on this very site by the illustrious Dave Hardy in response to InstaPunk's post about Harvard lecturer Jessica Stern. The InstaPunk entry quoted from a Stern interview posted on the Harvard website:
Some of the leaders I’ve met are
extremely charismatic. I have found myself feeling slightly mesmerized,
even when these charismatic leaders espouse views I find abhorrent. I
can readily imagine that young men from difficult backgrounds might
feel hypnotized in the presence of these leaders, especially if the
leaders have taken them into their homes, armed compounds, or schools.
This inspired InstaPunk to offer the following advice:
If Ms. Stern has close friends and
family who care about her, my final words are to them. Don't let her go
alone into any place where she can bask in the glow of the jihadist OR
gangsta rap fads. She'll get hurt or killed. The women who choose to
accommodate them are their most natural victims.
Here's what Dave had to say about it:
Remember how much of the British
upper-crust was enamored with one A. Hitler, to the point where one
lady attempted suicide at the outbreak of WWII? Not just interested in
appeasing him, but quite fascinated with his person. Sounds much the
same.
And so does Mike Wallace's apologia for what's his name. But shouldn't Mike know by now that totalitarian tyrants become totalitarian tyrants in the first place by establishing a cult of personality that overwhelms all other considerations? That being magnetic, attractive, charismatic, and persuasive is their one indispensable attribute, no matter how crazed they are in fact? Go home, Mike. Take up fly-fishing. Your job here is done.
Now, finally, we can move on to something that is, uh, another triviality. Harry Reid, esteemed barn burnerpatriot, expressed his gratitude about the multi-lateral effort to prevent another 9/11 type terrorist attack on his native land in these terms:
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid,
D-Nev., said the incident shows that "as a result of mismanagement and
the wrong funding priorities, we are not as safe as we should be."
Reid blamed the expenditure of more than $300 billion to fight the war in Iraq for diverting money that should be spent to combat terrorism.
"This latest plot demonstrates the need for the Bush administration and the Congress to change course in Iraq and ensure that we are taking all the steps necessary to protect Americans at home and across the world," Reid said.
Reid blamed the expenditure of more than $300 billion to fight the war in Iraq for diverting money that should be spent to combat terrorism.
"This latest plot demonstrates the need for the Bush administration and the Congress to change course in Iraq and ensure that we are taking all the steps necessary to protect Americans at home and across the world," Reid said.
Of course, he failed to specify what measures he would have undertaken with the additional $300 billion, given that he and his party are opposed to the phone/internet taps and financial surveillance that were key to exposing the newest hijacking conspiracy. Perhaps he was merely taking the classic bass-ackwards Democratic stance that the only way to address any problem is to throw gigantic gobs of money at it without the slightest attempt to link legislative strategies with real-world problems or expenditures with results. Now we get it. If we'd just spent enough in the name of homeland security, it wouldn't matter how we spent it: nobody would have any grounds to complain about a half dozen jetliners exploding on top of our most populous cities. And if they did complain, we could just spend even more.
Is there anything this week that isn't trivial? Yes. Is it just us, or is it bass-ackwards in the extreme that left-wing Hollywood celebrities are tripping all over each other to decry Mel Gibson's anti-semitism while the mainstream media can't be bothered to cover the institutional anti-semitism that floods newspapers, television, and the internet with fraudulent photos of civilian Lebanese casualties while left-wing MSM pundits continue to overlook the deliberate civilian casualties Hizbollah is wreaking on Israel?
We give up. You figure it out.
