Michael Moore says that 911 could have been an inside job. His idiotic comment about the difficulty of flying airplanes takes him into Rosie-stupidity territory.
[Update an hour or so later]
Speaking of the Stupid White Man, Kyle Smith is less than impressed with his latest crockumentary:
Even Moore does not believe what he says, and his films don
That noted right-wing war-mongering neocon, Richard Cohen, says that Scooter Libby was railroaded by an out-of-control prosecutor, and that his fellow journalists are sanctimonious hypocrites.
Mark Steyn says to beware of “moderate” politicians promising to do good.
I just got a call purporting to be from the American Civil Liberties Union. Before they got going, they said, “This call may be monitored for quality assurance.”
I said, “That’s ironic.” Then asked them not to call again. If one can’t have privacy from other ACLU people talking to the ACLU, then there is no worthy defender of privacy left.
I know Rand doesn’t like me to mistake loss of liberty (“freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control” according to dictionary.com) for loss of privacy. But a great way to curb control is to curb monitoring. I also mourn freedom from waiting in long airport security lines and freedom to keep my hair gel in my carry-on bag.
There were 360 million US one-way airplane trips taken last year. That’s 360 million half hour delays for “increased” security. Let’s express that as lifetimes lost–wasted–due to boredom: 250. Let’s express that as number of trips that took 15 minutes too long: 100%. After 6 years of increased security, we have now lost 1500 lives worth of time from waiting in airport security lines. That’s a higher flux than terrorism for five of those years.
It’s time for the FAA to start keeping statistics on wait time in airports and TSA revamping security procedures so that the cost no longer exceeds the benefit.
…and many other issues, from the Senate. In particular from the Senate Majority Leader. Marlo Lewis gives it a righteous fisking. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stupidity and cluelessness to fisk, so it’s a long read.
They told me that if Bush was reelected, voices of opposition would be silenced. They were right:
The deal with WIOD would ensure that news conferences are broadcast start to finish live from the county Emergency Operations Center in Plantation. Emergency managers became concerned during hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 that radio and television stations preempted their announcements in favor of news out of Miami.
Limbaugh, who lives in Palm Beach, could not be reached for comment. Ken Charles, WIOD’s director of AM programming, said the station’s talk show lineup has no relationship with its news coverage and that the county should focus on the benefits of teaming with the station.
“It’s a shame that people would let politics get in the way of saving lives in a hurricane,” Charles said.
Yes, it is a shame, but that’s the way of the Bush (and Limbaugh) deranged among whom I live. I think they’re still upset because they can’t figure out how to vote properly.
I visited the copper statue in New York harbor yesterday. Nearly six years after New York was attacked, security is very high. Prior to boarding the ferry for Liberty Island, one must undergo a metal detector procedure. Once on board one is told to report anything suspicious. On route, one is escorted by a Coast Guard boat with two mounted machine guns. Liberty Island is a misnomer. To see the Statue, one must wait in yet another security line and get sniffed by smell detectors from GE. No cameras or cell phones are permitted to be used in the security area. After a two hour security wait one can witness that she has walled out tourists with bulletproof glass. No tourist can climb higher than her feet. Like the green coat of corrosion on the Statue, Liberty Island and its gateways have acquired security tents antithetical to the freed woman with broken shackles at her feet.
Her inscription is also an anachronism. We are stuck in an anti-immigrant rut as we were in World War II when citizens and resident aliens were detained on nearby Ellis Island, former gateway to 12 million Americans.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
No. The torch is extinguished. The golden door is shut. Keep your tired, poor, wretched, homeless and tempest-tost. We are a new self-important Land of storied pomp that has forgotten its genesis.
I deem her the Statue of Security.
To France. And what happened to the Dems, who are all the time telling us that we should be doing things the way the Europeans do?
The Democrats are stuck in a punitive, soak-the-rich time warp with class warfare written all over it.
Despite all the current polls, I still believe their Walter Mondale approach to taxes and their McGovernite soft-on-the terror war approach is a losing combination that will doom the Dems next year.
Mickey Kaus (who has been on fire over the immigration fiasco) says that Republican voters aren’t as stupid as the administration thinks (or at least hopes).
I hope he’s right, and it certainly seems to be the case. Bush needs to get a simple message: build a fence, and then get back to us.