Category Archives: Media Criticism

An Important Point For The Clueless Eric Holder

and his defenders:

We have to be careful to analyze our enemies in terms of their circumstances, not ours. An analogous mistake is made by those who claim Guantanamo Bay “causes” terrorism or materially contributes to terrorist recruitment; the jihadists themselves care only about the fact that we are detaining Muslims — they don’t care where, and they don’t have a clue or a care about the differences between military and civilian processes under U.S. law. Good intelligence requires taking the enemy on his own terms, not as we would think or act under the enemy’s circumstances.

This, in the context of whether or not the latest attempt had anything to do with the elections.

Young Voices

…who favor the Tea Party:

Rasmussen tracking polls show that 64 percent of Americans believe that “the country is headed in the wrong direction.” A CNN poll found that 56 percent of adults surveyed believe that “the government has become so powerful that it represents an immediate threat to the freedom and rights of citizens.” The size and scope of government, which currently amounts to 43 percent of GDP, will continue to exert downward pressure on economic growth as our generation matures.

Stewart, Colbert, McCain, and others may deride the Tea Parties as stupid, uninformed, and fearful masses, but these insults do not change reality. Unless we alter our current path, America’s reality is a grim one. The soaring national debt will fall squarely on the shoulders of today’s youth.

They’re at least as entitled to claim the mantle of the voice of their generation as Meghan McCain.

Dispatch From Another Planet

On the fortieth anniversary of Doonesbury, Gary Trudeau provides an interview that inadvertently reveals why the strip hasn’t been worth reading for years:

Believe it or not, Obama’s very tough for business. The contradictory characterizations of him as fascist or socialist only serve to confirm the truth—he’s a raging moderate. And satirists don’t do well with moderates, especially thoughtful ones. In addition, Obama rarely makes gaffes and has no salient physical or temperamental features. And sinking popularity isn’t a critique. Even SNL’s main rap on him is his unflappability, hardly a vice in a world leader.

Even ignoring the absurdity that being a fascist and being a socialist are contradictory, where to begin? “Rarely makes gaffes”? Is he kidding?