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June 29, 2009
Marriage Impossible?
Wow. Meghan McCain is just, like, so cool and stuff.
France—home of my absolute favorite foreign first lady, Carla Bruni—perfected the laissez-faire attitude toward the sex lives of its public leaders. Not here. We hold our politicians to impossible standards. We elect them, put our hopes and dreams for a brighter future on that one person, and then expect sainthood.Millions of married men manage to stay faithful to their wives. There's nothing "impossible" about fidelity, and I have little patience with the 'peer pressure' argument McCain attempts here. I tend to agree that we should forgive politicians their personal failings. However, we should not emulate countries that have moved from forgiveness to near-acceptance. There's nothing admirable about accepting faithlessness.
Posted by slublog at 08:09 PM | Comments (61) | TrackBack
June 25, 2009
"The Way We Get By"
Since the first Gulf War in 1991, a group of veterans and townspeople from the area have greeted every troop flight that arrives or departs from Bangor International Airport. They're so loyal to their mission that the airport set aside a permanent room for them.
I've been at the airport a couple of times when troop flights have arrived, and it's a moving experience. Soldiers file in and the minute they enter the terminal, the troop greeters start applauding, shaking hands and hugging the troops. In the troop greeter room, soldiers are given access to snacks and free cell phones they can use to call loved ones. Although I've never been a formal part of the troop greeting, I have taken the opportunity to shake a hand or clap for those who serve our country.
"The Way We Get By" follows the lives of three troop greeters. It's in limited release now, but at the movie website you can request a screening of the film in your area. The reviews, both from professional reviewers and those I know who have seen the movie, are extremely positive. If you can't get to a screening, the movie will be shown on Veteran's Day on public broadcasting.
Plug for the troop greeters: If you'd like to donate to their cause, here's the link. Your donations pay for the snacks and amenities given to the soldiers. All of the greeters are volunteers.
Posted by slublog at 11:00 PM | Comments (69) | TrackBack
June 24, 2009
Oh What a Circus
First off, I promise the post title will be the only "Evita" reference.
When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford first disappeared, the story was weird but not scandalous. Boy, did that ever change.
When I first heard the news, my first thought was 'what kind of jerk visits his mistress on Father's Day weekend?' My second thought was that, obviously, any aspirations he had for higher office are over. Which leaves the GOP facing the nightmare scenario in 2012 (scroll down). Although I have to admit, a few months of Obama have softened me on the idea of President Huck. A little.
Memo to future GOP leaders: if you're going to make the argument that gay marriage threatens the 'sanctity of marriage,' it's best not to violate the sanctity of marriage. Just a thought.
Posted by slublog at 08:06 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
June 23, 2009
Cap and Trade: Who Pays?
To be fair, though, both Obama and McCain promoted this nonsense on the campaign trail. Yet another reason to be glad I purchased a pellet stove for next winter.
Posted by slublog at 11:09 PM | Comments (68) | TrackBack
June 21, 2009
A Woman's Death, A Father's Anguish
In the book "A Darkness More than Night" by Michael Connelly, one of his characters describes what it's like to be a father. Connelly's detective Terry McCaleb talks about checking on his daughter while she's sleeping and says he "could feel her tiny heart beating. It seemed quick and desperate, like a whispered prayer." When asked what it was like being a dad, McCaleb says it's like "having a gun to your head all the time...I know if anything ever happens to her, anything, then my life is over."
Those quotes came to mind when I watched this video (Strong content warning) of a young woman, tentatively identified as Neda Agha Soltan dying in her father's arms in the streets of Tehran after being shot by the basij. Thanks to the rapidity with which video and images can be spread, Neda is quickly becoming a symbol of the rebellion. Before she was a symbol, though, she was a father's little girl.
As horrifying as the images of Neda's death are, what haunts me about the video is not just the fact that we're watching a young woman die, but the cries of her father. He's heard screaming in the video, and his words have been translated:
"Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, don't be afraid. Neda, stay with me. Neda stay with me!"Like Jim Treacher says, she was just standing on the street with her dad. To the subhuman monster who shot her, that was enough to justify a death sentence.
I have two daughters. The oldest is three and the younger is one. Since my wife worked today, I spent most of this Father's Day watching them. We did the usual daddy-daughter activities: watched a Veggie Tales video, played with blocks, read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for the millionth time or so. I made spaghetti for dinner and laughed at how they managed to get more sauce on their bibs and their faces than in their mouths. As I went about the business of being a dad, the video I had watched the day before haunted me. I couldn't help but think that Neda and her father once played and laughed together, and that while I was enjoying the company of my beautiful daughters, a man half a world away was burying his.
Neda died because a group of power-hungry men rigged an election and overreacted to the protests that followed. Their desperate attempts to cling to legitimacy died with Neda, and I hope the protesters prevail, and their regime falls. Normally, I'm not the type of person who wishes for the death of others, but I would not be troubled at all by video of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad hanged. They deserve no better.
Cross-posted at The Greenroom.
Posted by slublog at 08:29 PM | Comments (84) | TrackBack
June 20, 2009
Iran
The best coverage I've seen today is at Hot Air.
The White House reaction has been tepid at best. Personally, I'm not sure why an image-conscious president like Obama decided this was a good idea.
Posted by slublog at 09:31 PM | Comments (100) | TrackBack
June 17, 2009
All the President's Men, The Sequel
right under the classifieds.
The difference is, in this version, the media is the Charles Colson-esque attack dog protecting the president. Other than that, this smells a lot like abuse of power.
Some strange and potentially suspicious events tonight concerning the Obama White House and the AmeriCorps program. I've been told that on Wednesday night the AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, received a call from the White House counsel's office telling him that he had one hour to either resign or be fired. The White House did not cite a reason. "The answer that was given was that it's just time to move on," one Senate source told me tonight. "The president would like to have someone else in that position."Read Bryon York's bottom line in the updates. This is troubling, and infuriating, stuff. As Ed Morrissey points out, this is starting to become a pattern for the White House. More evidence that President Obama is everything the left accused George W. Bush of being, but wasn't.Inspectors General are part of every federal department. They are given the responsibility of independently investigating allegations of waste, fraud, and corruption in the government, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House. Last year Congress passed the Inspectors General Reform Act, which added new protections for IGs, including a measure requiring the president to give Congress 30 days prior notice before dismissing an IG. The president must also give Congress an explanation of why the action is needed. Then-Sen. Barack Obama was one of the co-sponsors of the Act.
Now, there is the hurried attempt to dismiss Walpin, without the required notice or cause.
In a particularly shameless bit of political smearing, the Obama administration has now accused Walpin of being senile. Glenn Beck disproves that. I wonder when our national media will get around to noticing Obama's disregard for the law and his attempted defamation of a man he wants to fire.
Posted by slublog at 09:19 PM | Comments (87) | TrackBack
June 16, 2009
Random Stuff
Just spent about three days away from the news and the internet, and am surprised by how little I missed both. I guess my near-burnout was worse than I thought. Some random thoughts and observations:
"God help the people of Iran. We sure won't." Truer words were never spoken. President Obama's campaign rhetoric made it clear he valued diplomacy above all else. Unfortunately, he didn't mention that in his view 'diplomacy' meant 'feckless cowardice in the face of sheer injustice.' The winner? Jimmy Carter, who's finally gotten his second term.
The most heartwarming 'old lady pulls a gun on home intruder' story you'll read all week.
Memo to ABC: it was clear you were already in the tank. There was no reason to double down. Oh, and you could have made the connection a little less obvious, thanks.
Geoff at Innocent Bystanders makes the big time. If you haven't yet seen it, check out his chart on unemployment. If you judge the success of the stimulus based upon the administration's own predictions on unemployment, the results aren't pretty.
CBO: ObamaCare would be something less than successful.
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are now 22-25% less cool.
Posted by slublog at 08:29 PM | Comments (85) | TrackBack
June 11, 2009
Hey, Let's Go Easy on Letterman...
Maybe he didn't make the Palin jokes to be a jerk. Maybe he just needed the attention.
Though overnight household ratings (which measure approximate overall viewership) have grown tighter between the two programs since O'Brien took over "The Tonight Show," newly released adult demo numbers portray last week's competition as an NBC blowout.The 18-49 numbers are especially brutal for Letterman.The advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 ratings give O'Brien a 2.3 average rating last week -- the highest-rated week for "Tonight" in more than four years and a 156% margin over CBS' "Late Show."
Even excluding the high-rated Monday premiere, "Tonight" held an 111% advantage over "Late Show," marking the best percentage advantage over the CBS program in more than 10 years. Even on their closest night, Friday, O'Brien received a 1.5 rating to Letterman's 0.8.
Personally, I think Letterman was funny until he lost the "Tonight Show" to Jay Leno, an event that seemed to embitter him. I watched Letterman's show for awhile after he moved to CBS, but eventually just stopped watching both he and Leno once I realized neither was making me laugh all that often. Some conservatives are calling for a boycott of Letterman's show due to his Palin comments, but many of us have been "boycotting" him for years. Plus, I'm not really a boycott kind of guy. Unless you're a Nielsen family, it doesn't do much good.
I've started watching the "Tonight Show" since Conan O'Brien took over, as his offbeat sense of humor appeals to me. I was hooked the moment he did his 'cross-country run' set to Cheap Trick's "Surrender."
I just hope Triumph makes an appearance soon.
Posted by slublog at 10:14 PM | Comments (169) | TrackBack
June 10, 2009
Maureen Dowd: Presidents should have fun, unless their name is Bush
One of the best things about having a Democrat in the White House in a time of easily-accessed information is pointing out the vast difference in how the press treats the new occupant versus how they treated the old one. The sharp disparity between press coverage of Obama vs. Bush came shortly after the election, the press heaped praise upon Obama's workout regimen, since it gave the president his "chiseled abs and chest." Of course, during the Bush years, the former president's workouts were seen as a creepy obsession.
The newest inductee to the 'that was then, this is now' club is Maureen Dowd. Today, she defends Obama's date nights, saying:
Mixing play with intense work is not only a good mental health strategy; it’s a good way to show the world that American confidence and cool — and Cary Grant romantic flair — still thrive.Compare that with the treatment she gave the former president in 2005:Date on and tee it up, Mr. President. It’s O.K. if they’re teed off.
This president is in a truly scary place in Iraq. Americans can't get out, or they risk turning the country into a terrorist haven that will make the old Afghanistan look like Cipriani's. Yet his war, which has not accomplished any of its purposes, swallows ever more American lives and inflames ever more Muslim hearts as W. reads a book about the history of salt and looks forward to his biking date with Lance Armstrong on Saturday.When Republicans complain about Obama's relaxation time, defenders of the president inevitably point to Bush's Crawford vacations. However, as Bush's aides pointed out at the time (and what was largely ignored by the critics) while on 'vacation,' Bush always "mixed play with intense work" while at the ranch:
They add that the president is getting his daily briefings on intelligence and other matters and has been talking on the phone with other world leaders, such as Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai, Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf, and India's Mommahan Singh, about Iraq and other issues. They point out that Congress is on its own summer break, but Bush can never escape from his duties as commander in chief no matter where he is.More here. In the older column, Dowd is not content to simply criticize George W. Bush. She takes a few whacks at the elder Bush as well for having the audacity to go fishing or play golf.
Personally, I don't begrudge President Obama his personal time. The presidency is a stressful job and everyone needs time to unwind. A relaxed president is a good thing, regardless of party. Still, I'm glad Dowd wrote that column. It's always enjoyable to see someone embrace their own narrow-minded partisanship with such relish.
Cross-posted at the Greenroom.
Posted by slublog at 07:24 PM | Comments (76) | TrackBack
June 09, 2009
No Open Arms for Arlen
First his seniority, now his candidacy?
I don't think Specter's party switch is working out as planned.
Among voters that know Sestak (mostly in the Philadelphia inner suburbs) he enjoys an 18 - 4 favorable-unfavorable ratio, and among voters who already identify both candidates, Sestak actually leads Specter in the initial head to head 52 - 44 percent.What did Arlen expect? That voters in the party who fought against him for years would suddenly embrace him? It's clear he thought he'd never face a primary challenge. Looks like he made a bad bet.
Bummer for him, I guess. I feel so bad for him.
Posted by slublog at 11:49 PM | Comments (75) | TrackBack
June 08, 2009
Less Than Meets the Eye
Not sure what's more offensive about this - Megan's ridiculous stereotyping, or her belief that Megatron can be reasoned with. Has she learned nothing?
The “Transformers” bombshell-cum-uninhibited philosophizer also contemplates — reluctantly — what she would say to Megatron to keep him from destroying the world. “I’d barter with him,” she muses to the July issue Total Film UK, “and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America?”I thought the first Transformers movie was okay, but it wasn't good enough to get me to the theater for the sequel. I have no doubt that "Revenge of the Fallen" will be critic-proof, but I wonder how much money Fox's comments just subtracted from the movie's box office?
In response, Michael Bay made a film that consisted of him crying over his bank statement.
In slow motion.
Posted by slublog at 07:28 PM | Comments (119) | TrackBack
June 02, 2009
Media Statistic of the Day
A little food for thought from Newsbusters:
At the time of this writing, there are nearly 7,000 references to "George Tiller" in Google News.George Tiller dedicated his life to killing fetuses.There are under 500 for "William Long."
George Tiller, of course, was the Kansas abortion doctor murdered Sunday morning by a man who allegedly had political and religious motives.
William Long was the 23-year-old military recruiter murdered Monday morning by a man who allegedly had political and religious motives.
William Long dedicated his to killing terrorists.
One story still has 'legs,' the other is yesterday's news. Nice priorities you've got there, MSM.
Earlier today, someone responded to me on Twitter saying Tiller was a public figure, while the soldier was not. Granted, but how often are US soldiers murdered on US soil by a terror suspect?
Update - With this, I'm not trying to condemn one killer while praising another. Scott Roeder is a criminal and nothing justifies the murder of Dr. Tiller.
What bothers me is the willingness of the media to smear the entire pro-life movement based on Roeder's actions while devoting very little airtime or newspaper space to the national security implications of William Long's murder.
Update II - Ace of Spades HQ blogger DrewM makes an interesting point on Twitter. When Dr. Tiller was murdered, the White House released a statement on Sunday afternoon. As of 10:15 p.m. EST, the Commander in Chief has yet to release a statement condemning the murder of a member of the armed forces by a suspected terrorist.
Posted by slublog at 10:10 PM | Comments (66) | TrackBack