Category Archives: History

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Fred Hof

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“I was wrong“:

I’ve indicated I admire Hof’s honesty and courage in admitting this. But that doesn’t mean I admire everything about him. For example, why didn’t he speak up in September of 2012, which after all was prior to Obama’s re-election? Might it have mattered? I really don’t know, but maybe. And why, oh why, had this very smart man not noticed that the biggest “policy priority” of the Obama administration has long been politics and spinning to political advantage?

Seriously, by March of 2012, how could he have not realized this? His bio doesn’t say much about his political affiliation—I would guess “Democrat” and probably “liberal Democrat”—and this is the most likely explanation for his failure to notice things that were absolutely obvious but would mean splitting with the party.

And there is no more unforgivable thought crime than splitting with the Party, regardless of the damage to the nation

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Bob Woodward

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…is sounding both partisan and senile on Fox News Sunday. No one is accusing Clinton of a crime in Benghazi. Her crimes have to do with her handling of email. But that’s no excuse for the Democrats to pretend that there’s nothing there, and run interference for her. This has been policitized, but as always, it’s politicized by Democrats who refuse to hold members of their own party accountable for anything.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Peggy Noonan

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Sorry, like David Brooks, she forfeited any reasons to take her views seriously in 2008. It was perfectly obvious to many of us that Barack Obama was a radical (he told us so himself, in his pledge to “fundamentally transform America”), in his years in Wright’s pews, in his associations with Ayers and Khalidi, in his socialist run in the 90s with the New Party, in his seeking of Marxists in college. I was right, she was wrong.

Education, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Columbus Day

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Some perennial thoughts from Instapundit (and Jim Bennett).

I agree that Columbus gets too much credit, and I don’t disagree that his behavior was depraved by modern lights. But the Carib Arawak were hardly the noble savages that the SJWs would have us believe. They had themselves subjugated the Taino, killing, raping, assimilating, into a brutal patriarchal society that practiced human sacrifice and, by some accounts, cannibalism. So it’s amusing to see all the whining about Columbus in that context.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

It’s Like It’s The Nineties Again

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Gennifer Flowers is back:

Asked what she thinks of Hillary’s candidacy and her platform focusing in part on women’s issues, Flowers began by explaining, “You know, people criticize me for talking about her because I had an affair with her husband.”

“And I don’t blame them for that,” she continued. “I understand that. I understand that they can be mad at me. I get it. I accept my responsibility. … But she’s never accepted her responsibility at being an enabler. She’s been an enabler that has encouraged him to go out and do whatever he does with women.”

“Woman’s rights. Ha!” Flowers retorted. “I personally have worked my tail off to get where I am in the entertainment business, which has not been easy since the Clinton scandal, by the way. … Hillary never put up a shingle and worked for her clients and built her clientele. She always got things on the back of her husband. … I think it’s a joke that she would run on women’s issues.”

…Klein referenced an interview from this past week in which Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report asked on Alex Jones’ radio show, “Why aren’t we seeing Hillary’s lovers? … Where’s the cover-up on this? … So many issues that are suppressed on a daily basis.”

Listen to Part 2 of Gennifer Flowers talk with Aaron Klein:

Affirming comments she made in 2013 to the Daily Mail, Flowers replied to Klein, “I know that Bill acknowledged to me that he was aware that she had a propensity for women and he didn’t care.”

“I’m not saying that she is a lesbian, but he acknowledged that she, as we say down on Arkansas, took a liking to women.”

Like Drudge, Flowers also asked, “Why something hasn’t come out on that? That’s amazing.”

I wish it were. I knew about it twenty years ago.

I blame Hillary for this. If she weren’t such a power monger, we wouldn’t have to go through all this again. This time, the gatekeepers are gone, and it will come out.

History, Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Space, Space History, Space Science, Technology and Society

Hollywood And Mars

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An interesting history.

[Monday-afternoon update]

Even the film-makers had doubts:

“If you had told me two years ago when we were walking into Fox to pitch the approach and what this movie would be, if you told me I’d be on the phone talking about how this is a big spectacle movie, I would have been delighted,” he tells Esquire. “At the time, we knew it was going to be expensive, but we thought it would be more niche than Ridley made it.” Nope.

What made The Martian unique also made it a difficult sell. It was not an action movie. The film’s star would spend his time farming potatoes harvested from his co-astronaut’s feces. The Rock would not show up to blow away aliens halfway through the second act. Mind would prevail over muscle. And that’s not easy to write for the masses.

I hope it will break some of the stereotypes, and make it easier to make these kinds of films.

[Bumped]