MONDAY,  FEBRUARY 25,  2008

There were awards?  When?

A funny thing happened to me on the way to watching the Oscars, which I would do mostly to spot an old actor in the audience who remembers the industry's better days.  I had a computer problem, and spent most of the broadcast's time fixing it.  But I've now read the awards list.  Congratulations to all the winners.  I'm sorry, though, that "Juno" didn't win the big prize, and I'm especially sorry that Julie Christie didn't win the best actress Oscar for "Away From Her."  It was a superb performance about a woman struck with Alzheimer's.  If you haven't seen the film, rent the DVD.  You won't regret it.

Target:  McCain

Do you get the feeling that the mainstream media has already started its drive to diminish John McCain?  Coming on the heels of The New York Times's non-story about an alleged affair, we have a more solid story of complications involving McCain's funding.  Okay, fair enough.  But why are the negative stories all about McCain, with a few about Hillary thrown in for the appearance of fairness?  Why are the British reporters doing the best job of probing Barack Obama?  Here we have our mainstream media, which never tires of billboarding its "adversarial relationship" with government, and it's strikingly un-adversarial toward Barack Obama.  I'm referring to the news pages.  There are, as we'll see below, some tough new pieces from columnists.  But I want to see some real reporting on the first page, and I'm not seeing it.

The Times, of course, has another McCain story today, this one reminding readers of his problems with conservatives.  The Obama story sympathetically reminds readers of fears about his safety.  The side-by-side comparison shows readers how The Times intends to play this campaign.  I guess this is the way people act on a sinking ship.

On the Obama watch

Stuart Rothenberg, of the Rothenberg Political Report, has an excellent piece at Real Clear Politics, examining Obama's mantra of "change." 

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continues to promise change and stress his ability to unite Americans. It’s a feel-good campaign built on soaring rhetoric and good intentions.

Pardon me if all of the fawning from the national media, and the endorsements from Caroline Kennedy and Garrison Keillor, leave me less than convinced that he can bridge the deep divide that separates Americans.

Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq won’t bring Americans together. Nor will raising taxes on the affluent or enhancing the power of organized labor to recruit more members. Even a stem-cell research bill won’t bring Americans together, though a clear majority surely supports it.

In politics, the devil is always in the details, and except in rare cases, Obama has either avoided them or, more importantly, failed to note the obvious contradictions in his message and his record.

Nice that someone finally said it.  He goes on:

If Obama satisfies Kennedy and the Democratic Party’s most liberal constituencies, it’s unlikely that he is going to bring the country together. And if Obama does truly take steps to find a middle ground between liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, he certainly will disappoint his party’s base.

The reality is that half of the country leans Democratic and half leans Republican. Yes, there are some issues on which many Americans agree, but if Obama limits himself to those, he’ll have a thin agenda.

Finally...

Maybe if Obama wraps up the Democratic nomination in the next few weeks, he’ll give all of us a better idea of what he’d really like to do as president. We can only hope so. Another eight months of soaring but empty rhetoric about bringing people together and bringing about change will leave most of America brain-dead.

Many of his followers seem to have entered that condition already.

It's all about...me!

Bill Kristol has a particularly cutting column about Obama, getting to the core of what his campaign is about.  You will not be shocked that Kristol concludes that the Obama campaign is about...Obama. 

John Kennedy, to whom Obama is sometimes compared, challenged the American people to acts of citizenship and patriotism. Barack Obama allows us to feel better about ourselves.

Obama likes to say, “we are the change that we seek” and “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Obama’s rhetorical skill makes his candidacy appear almost collective rather than individual. That’s a democratic courtesy on his part, and one flattering to his followers. But the effectual truth of what Obama is saying is that he is the one we’ve been waiting for.

Kristol concludes...

It’s fitting that the alternative to Obama will be John McCain. He makes no grand claim to fix our souls. He doesn’t think he’s the one everyone has been waiting for. He’s more proud of his country than of himself. And his patriotism has consisted of deeds more challenging than “speaking out on issues.”

Kristol was writing in The New York Times.  I hope he watches his back.

Well, good for you, guys

There is news from far countries.  Not all of it is grim.  There's been an important denunciation of terror from within the Islamic world.  Significantly, it comes from a major school.  Schools within Islam have, of course, been sources of some of the worst advocacy of terrorism.  It's nice to see a contrast:

The Darul-Uloom Deoband in India, considered the most influential school for Islamic law in Asia, on Monday denounced terrorism as being against the teachings of Islam and said it was likely to impose a fatwa against it during a conference of clerics from India and abroad, media reports said.

The head of the powerful seminary, Maulana Marghoobur Rahman, said terrorism was completely wrong and thoughtless, and contradicted Islam's concept of peace, the NDTV network reported, quoting from his address to 10,000 clerics from religious schools - known as madrassas - and foreign delegates.

And...

The conference will also ask the Muslim community to stay away from acts of terrorism and organizations that encourage violence in the name of religion.

It was the first time in the school's 150-year history that such a conference against terrorism was held.

Not bad, fellas.  Not bad.

Now, how about an honorary doctorate from an American university for Mr. Rahman.  Don't rush to get tickets.  I suspect the "Middle East scholars" at our fine institutions of sometimes higher learning would veto the idea, saying it panders to BUSH and his Zionist lackey gangster associates. 

We're havin' a heat wave - maybe

John Fund, of The Wall Street Journal, explores attempts to silence critics of the global warming priesthood.  But, John, John, it's a religion.  You don't want to criticize religious leaders, do you? 

Well, yeah.

Fund notes that all the leading presidential candidates promise action on climate change.  Not everyone is running to the same church, of course, but the heretics get no respect:

You'd think this would be a rich time for debate on the issue of climate change. But it's precisely as sweeping change on climate policy is becoming likely that many people have decided the time for debate is over. One writer puts climate change skeptics "in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial," another envisions "war crimes trials" for the deniers. And during the tour for his film "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore himself belittled "global warming deniers" as unworthy of any attention.

Lund quotes one skeptic, Danish statistician Bjorn Lomberg, who fears that the press has shut off debate, then notes:

Let's hope Mr. Lomborg is wrong in his fear that the media are uninterested in showcasing a real debate on climate change. The proof may be found next week, when hundreds of scientists, economists and policy experts who dissent from the "consensus" that climate change requires radical measures will meet in New York to discuss the latest scientific, economic and political research on climate change. Five tracks of panels will address paleoclimatology, climatology, global warming impacts, the economics of global warming and political factors. It will be keynoted by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who has argued that economic growth is most likely to create the innovations and know-how to combat any challenges climate change could present in the future.

We're being asked to take a multi-billion dollar gamble that the Church of the Warming of the Earth is right on everything.  But the list of serious skeptics seems to be growing.  We owe it to civilization to at least listen. 

I wonder if the New York conference will get any real press coverage.  Oh, The New York Times is in New York, isn't it?  Do they know there's a conference?  Will they send someone with a pencil?  Paper?  And CBS?  And NBC?  And ABC?  And CNN?  CNN can send Christiane Amanpour, who'll tell us that global warming was started by the Bush administration to push the sale of electric fans.  "This is Christiane Amanpour.  I've learned that exclusively, Larry."

Finally, the truth

There are things we've always wondered about, and we feel this great rush of satisfaction when we finally get answers.  Fine scholarship at a Norwegian museum has produced the conclusion that Adolf Hitler drew Disney characters. 

I know, I know.  This is life-changing information, and I feel I'm making a contribution by passing it on to you.  The facts:

The director of a Norwegian museum claimed yesterday to have discovered cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.

William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed "A. Hitler" that he bought at an auction in Germany.

He found coloured cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which were signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio as he appeared in the 1940 Disney film.

Hitler tried to make a living as an artist before his rise to power. While there was no independent confirmation yesterday that the drawings were the work of the Nazi leader, Hitler is known to have owned a copy of Snow White, the classic animated adaptation of a German fairy tale, and to have viewed it in his private cinema.

Hitler liked "Snow White"?  Apparently so.  The museum guy is quoted:

"Hitler had a copy of Snow White," he said. "He thought this was one of the best movies ever made."

There are some things that just leave me without comment.

But I'll think about it, and will be back later.

Posted on February 25, 2008.