Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

The Long View

73 Comments

If we can turn the cultural and political momentum around on gun grabbing, can we do it on big government, too?

We’ll find out. I think that Pelosi, Reid and Obama have awakened a sleeping giant. The “Silent Majority” is finally speaking up.

[Update a couple minutes later]

From a surprising source — liberals should defend the Second Amendment:

while liberals certainly do not argue for lawlessness, and will acknowledge the necessity of certain restrictions, it is generally understood that liberals fight to broadly interpret and expand our rights and to question the necessity and wisdom of any restrictions of them.

Liberals can quote legal precedent, news reports, and exhaustive studies. They can talk about the intentions of the Founders. They can argue at length against the tyranny of the government. And they will, almost without exception, conclude the necessity of respecting, and not restricting, civil liberties.

Except for one: the right to keep and bear arms.

When it comes to discussing the Second Amendment, liberals check rational thought at the door. They dismiss approximately 40% of American households that own one or more guns, and those who fight to protect the Second Amendment, as “gun nuts.” They argue for greater restrictions. And they pursue these policies at the risk of alienating voters who might otherwise vote for Democrats.

And they do so in a way that is wholly inconsistent with their approach to all of our other civil liberties.

Of course, true liberals (as opposed to “progressives”) have always supported the Second Amendment. But I can understand why those who want government to rule the people wouldn’t like it.

[Update a few minutes later]

There are over 1400 comments, most of them the usual (“but what about nukes and cannons?” dorm-room stuff), but I was amused to see a little side thread among some of the leftists about the relative virtues of .357 versus .44 Magnum, and carryability. Diversity!

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Happy Independence Day

6 Comments

Sadly, I think that too many take our freedom for granted, and are too willing to trade it for government cheese. But I think that the past couple years have seen a reawakening of the principles on which the country was founded, as a backlash against the current political class, which to the degree that it isn’t entirely ignorant of them, seems to hold them in contempt.

Part of that backlash is two promising web sites, debuting today, Declaration Entertainment, and Big Peace, another Breitbart production. I wish them luck in their efforts to help restore the Republic.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

It Just Makes You Want To Cry

71 Comments

Here we go again. No one at this American Thinker piece, neither the author or any of the commenters, has clue one about the new policy:

Now, with the Obama administration’s new “plan” for NASA effectively ending nationally funded human spaceflight, we drop a torch others are grabbing.

Where do they come up with this nonsense? How can one sanely characterize a policy that extends ISS until at least the end of the decade, and that has billions of dollars budgeted to buy crew services, as “ending nationally funded human spaceflight”?

NASA has long been planning to cancel the Shuttle program, which is understandable, considering budget constraints and the priority of the Constellation program. But to cancel both programs leaves the U.S. with no viable human space transport. The International Space Station, which represents a $100-billion investment by U.S. taxpayers, will be unreachable by scientists and astronauts from the U.S. without hitching a ride on Russian or Chinese space transport. This is unacceptable.

Or from commercial American services, which will be available much sooner than Ares/Orion. And later, he finally gets around to discussing this:

With the ending of the Constellation program, there are no future human missions for the U.S., except those made possible in commercial spaceflight. While commercial spaceflight is tremendous in its future implications, it will progress only in areas that have demonstrated a possible fiscal return…and space operations are so expensive and difficult that it is highly unlikely that any true exploration would occur. Commercial space flight is space exploitation, not space exploration. For the foreseeable future, an entity like NASA — which is nationally funded and not constrained by profits and losses — and a project such as Constellation is the best way to extend our reach into and knowledge of space. Robotic missions are all well and good for certain applications, but one does not learn anything about putting humans in space by putting robotic vehicles in space.

Sigh…

Where to start?

Look. We are simply transitioning from a mode in which NASA develops and operates its own earth-to-orbit vehicles to spec, to one in which it purchases transportation services to LEO for crew from private providers, as it has been doing for years for satellites and probes. No one said that NASA was “getting out of the planetary exploration business” when it launched LRO and LCROSS on a commercial Atlas, and if they had they would have rightly been considered insane. Why is it any different for astronauts?

Exploration starts when we get into LEO, not at Cape Canaveral.

And you cannot simultaneously know anything about Constellation and state that it is “the best way to extend our reach into and knowledge of space.” Constellation was a fiscal disaster waiting to happen. It was unaffordable both in terms of its development costs, and its operational costs. There are many better ways to accomplish that goal. The new policy is one of them.

Jeebus crow.

Education, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Jobs Americans Can’t Do

11 Comments

Scott Ott, on the disastrous state of the American educational system, thanks to the unions and collectivists. They’ve achieved Dewey’s dream.

And this seems related:

There’s good news for American education. About three-quarters of residents — 74% — know the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. The bad news for the academic system — 26% do not. This 26% includes one-fifth who are unsure and 6% who thought the U.S. separated from another nation. That begs the question, “From where do the latter think the U.S. achieved its independence?” Among the countries mentioned are France, China, Japan, Mexico, and Spain.

Actually, as a commenter points out, it raises the question — it doesn’t “beg” it (a phrase that confuses many people). Which is also a symptom of deteriorating education, even among the supposedly educated.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

As Predicted

15 Comments

It’s a media blackout for the Black Panthers and the (In)Justice Department.

[Update a few minutes later]

Well, at least the Al Gore sexual assault allegations have gone mainstream. As some have pointed out, part of his problem was his hubris in making himself a celebrity, which opened him up as fair game for the entertainment rags.

I wonder if he’s past his media sell-by date? Or they’re happy to toss him under the bus to give them a distraction from having to report corruption at the Justice Department?

[Afternoon update]

Well the Philadelphia EInquirer is finally covering a local story.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

OK, So It’s Not Just Me

16 Comments

Even ignoring the fact that the bad guys on the Broadview Security commercials are the most caucasian male demographic outside of a Klan rally, I’ve always been particularly annoyed by the commercial with the miscreant “AJ.” It never made any sense to me. Apparently, someone else agrees.

And would Broadview really take that much heat if they at least once in a while implied that some break-in artists have more melanin in their skin? Can’t they at least be equal opportunity, if not actually corresponding to reality?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

So Will This Have Legs?

6 Comments

Imagine that in, say, 1982006, Klansmen had hung out at a polling place in Georgia, holding a night stick, and intimidating black voters. And it was caught on video tape. And the Bush administration Justice Department had prosecuted the perps, gotten default convictions, and then basically walked away from the case, giving one of them a slap on the wrist. And it was determined that this was not a legal decision, but a political one, and that some of those responsible had lied under oath to Congress about it, and there was reason to know that the Attorney General was at least aware of it, and perhaps even drove the decision.

Imagine that. Imagine the bays of outrage from the press, demanding Congressional hearings, and to know what the president knew and when he knew it.

Well, that’s sort of what’s happening now. Except, of course, without the Congressional hearings or discussion from the media. Other than Fox News, and PJM, which of course, as the White House said, aren’t legitimate news sources.