Stanley Kurtz has some highlights from his new book
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Stanford McCarthyism Follow Up
Powerline has the story. The letters to the editor in the Stanford Daily are blistering. It’s time to put these campus fascists on notice.
Jewtopia
I have an opportunity to see it this weekend. Any reviews from non-leftists (i.e., not the typical play reviewer)?
The Power Of Self Delusion
Guevara was a vicious, megalomaniacal sociopath who wanted to be the next Stalin or Mao. (Indeed, Stalin in his younger days was a figure very much like Guevara.) He overtly and clearly stated his desire to destroy America and to exterminate millions of Americans in the process.
Yet today he is considered to be a figure worthy of admiration by the far (20% most) left in America. Go to any college campus and you will see admiring posters and t-shirts. Even Robert Redford, one of the few leftists who actually spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money on charitable causes, made a hagiographic movie about Guevera.
The vast majority of leftists, however, know nothing about the real Guevera. All they know is the hagiography that came straight out the Cold War-era Soviet propaganda mill. Worse, they don’t even bother to question the hagiography at all. If you try to confront them about their mindless adoration, they will reflexively change the subject to some real or imagined evil of non-leftists somewhere in the world’s history. They are emotionally incapable of thinking about Guevera in anything but positive terms.
Gee, I think we’ve seen some of that recently, on this very blog.
A Declaration Of War
…this is the group that many in the West, some in high positions, are urging to be engaged as a negotiating partner because it is supposedly moderate.
What does he say?
–Arab and Muslim regimes are betraying their people by failing to confront the Muslim’s real enemies, not only Israel but also the United States. Waging jihad against both of these infidels is a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded. Governments have no right to stop their people from fighting the United States. “They are disregarding Allah’s commandment to wage jihad for His sake with [their] money and [their] lives, so that Allah’s word will reign supreme” over all non-Muslims.
–All Muslims are required by their religion to fight: “They crucially need to understand that the improvement and change that the [Muslim] nation seeks can only be attained through jihad and sacrifice and by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life.” Notice that jihad here is not interpreted as so often happens by liars, apologists, and the merely ignorant in the West as spiritual striving. The clear meaning is one of armed struggle.
–The United States is immoral, doomed to collapse, and “experiencing the beginning of its end and is heading towards its demise.”
–Palestinians should back Hamas in overthrowing the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and unite in waging war on Israel.
To answer his question, no, few others will notice, including the media and the new national security advisor. Because (all together now) Islam is a religion of peace.
One of the stupider questions that the press often asks after a Jihadi attack is whether or not it was Al Qaeda, as though we’re supposed to be relieved to find out that it wasn’t.
[Via Michael Totten]
McCarthyism At Stanford
Victor Davis Hanson, on our upside-down politics, in which (among other things) racists accuse others of racism. I hope he’s not holding his breath awaiting a retraction.
The End Of The Honeymoon?
Has the press finally given up on Obama?
The mainstream media, it seems, are cutting their losses. They invested enormous time, credibility, and emotion in bolstering their chosen candidate. But he hasn’t panned out, and new power players are headed to Washington. So it’s time to scramble back to some semblance of realistic coverage and concede that all those “accomplishments” in the past two years didn’t accomplish anything — not an economic recovery, not political ascendancy for Obama, not electoral success for Democrats, and not an era of bipartisan harmony. Just the opposite.
Via Instapundit, who notes:
Hey, they’ll go down for you, but they won’t go down with you…
I’ll be happy if, after three long years, they just stop going down on him.
Xenophobic Bitter Clinger
Apparently, the president has become one. Well, at least he’s not clinging to his god or guns.
It’s pretty rich to hear this man complain about untraceable foreign donations, after the games he played with credit cards in the 2008 campaign.
More from Michelle (no, not that one — the one who has always been proud of her country).
[Update a few minutes later]
Back to the future! The White House has an “enemies list.” At least Nixon understood something about our enemies overseas.
I don’t recall, and can’t imagine, George Bush (either of them) ever calling out Democrat political operatives by name. He had a little respect for the office he held.
[Update a while later]
That Wouldn’t Fit The Narrative
Advice for network news: Tell the truth.
It could work, I suppose. They’ve tried everything else.
Academics Seduced
I’m not sure that “seduced” is quite the right word. I agree with Instapundit:
Bending over for tyrants is a major aspect of today’s academic culture, even as the benders-over proclaim their own courage and independence, and demonstrate those by attacking those whom they need not fear, while fearing those whom they do not criticize.
Islamaphobes.