Archive for Culture
First Amendment vs. First Amendment
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Pelosi wants an investigation of first amendment stomping Ground Zero Mosque protesters. Nat Hentoff is investigating the man behind the mosque, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Hentoff, a powerful defender of the first amendment, doesn’t care for the location of Cordoba House either. Here’s his column.
The New Republic’s Todd Gitlin thinks the mosque is swell. Both writers take a look at the Imam’s book, What’s Right with Islam is What’s Right with America, and his claim that Islamic law fits the U.S. Constitution. Here’s Gitlin’s column.
The Blagoshpere
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Here’s all the inside Blago baseball you need to know in a lengthy Chicago News Cooperative piece by James Warren
Zero Sum
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NYC’s Landmarks Preservation Commission cleared the way for a new mosque and community center, Cordoba House, to be built two blocks from ground zero. Mayor Bloomberg says this is a fine example of American religious tolerance. 9/11 Mayor Rudy calls it a “desecration”. Even if it’s built with the best of intentions, Dan Senor says in the WSJ, it will be seen by Muslim extremists as victory monument. Atlantic Wire has the pros and cons here.
Post-Racial Polling Place
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It began this week with the NAACP accusing the tea party of harboring racists. The tea party, such as it is organized, excommunicated a California member for a post mocking the NAACP in a racial way. Seemingly in exchange, the NAACP got an agriculture department employee fired for racial comments posted on Breitbart. Except, when her remarks were considered in their full context, she was making a point against racism. Tea Party types say all the racism talk is an attempt to distract from the butt kicking Democrats are taking in the polls due to the Obama agenda. But that whould require a conspiracy - a cabal. Oh wait, it turns out there actually was a sort of media cabal- on a list serve called Journolist. And an ambition of one of its members, Spencer Ackerman, was to create a diversion to get the Jeremiah Wright story off the front page. The diversion? Random accusations of racism.
Here’s a quote from Ackerman’s email as posted by the Daily Caller: ”If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Here’s a great essay by Victor Davis Hanson about the racial mess we find ourselves in today.
And another good one from Slate’s William Saletan. He goes into the details to conclude that Andrew Breitbart lied about Shirley Sherrod and the NAACP.
Like to Watch
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The 2,300 page Dodd-Frank financial bill passed yesterday. Only 3 republicans voted for it. The rest hope the voters hate Congress even more than they hate Wall Street.
Nobody knows how it will work - Chris Dodd says so. We do know there’s nothing in the bill about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. They’re not part of the problem - Barney Frank (scroll to 43.) says so.
Meanwhile, a Justice Department lawyer, Christian Adams, resigned his post. He was unhappy the department dropped his voter intimidation case against two New Black Panthers, one of whom was a certified poll watcher.
Diversity
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Kathleen Parker noticed that if Kagan is confirmed all three women justices will be from New York.
Comedy Central
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I like this column by Diana West about the South Park threats. In it Trey Parker and Matt Stone point out that “if everyone had done what they normally do in news organizations, which would have been to print the cartoons, they could have rallied together”. Instead, the guy who drew Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, Kurt Westergaard (warning: the video link contains an image of The Prophet) (even worse warning: it contains subtitles) was” left hanging out to dry”.
This has always been my complaint about the Danish cartoon crisis. By submitting to intimidation by Islamic extremists (an influential minority in a billion person religion) and not showing the cartoons, which were the basis of a major news story, a sliver of Sharia law was introduced to the U.S. A bunch of thugs insisted the image of The Prophet may not be displayed and so, for the most part, it came to pass.
If you’re off the grid and haven’t heard about the South Park episode you’re probably not reading this either, but just in case, here is the story in the L.A. Times. And here’s a Huffington Post piece featuring a video of Jon Stewart sort of taking on his bosses at Comedy Central (warning: bad words).
Tea Party Populists
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The Tea Party can’t catch a break with the left. A New York Times survey last week found that Tea Partiers are richer and brighter than most. Previously dismissed by the smart set as hicks, the Tea Party is now dissed by E.J. Dionne for practicing a “populism of the privileged”.
Clergy and Congressmen
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Maureen Dowd turns her column on the crisis in the church over to her brother Kevin here. If you’d like a refresher on the tickling congressman go here
Twelve Steps to More Fame, Money, and Power
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Thomas Sowell had another good column last week in which he asked the age old question, “why is Tiger apologizing to me?”.