Steve Hayward wonders if there could be a sitcom about think tankers.
Actually, it would be amusing to see the interactions between denizens of, say, AEI and Brookings. And imagine the snark from Cato, CEI and Reason. I’d cast Katherine Mangu-Ward as herself. But Kate Micucci might be able to do the job, too. And then there’s Jonah.
Someone needs to work up a treatment, stat.
West Wing (the teevee show, not the section of the White House) isn’t real:
The American President and The West Wing are not searing portrayals of effective political management. They’re drama. The first question a dramatist asks is not “Is this how it really works?” but “Is it entertaining?” And the second is “Can the audience understand this in less than thirty seconds?” Veracity is way, way down the list. If you want a clue to how realistic it all is, consider that Aaron Sorkin awarded Jed Bartlett the Nobel Prize in Economics. Then go interview some Nobel Prizewinning Economists and ask yourself whether a single one of them would have the desire, or the ability, to run for president.
Jed Bartlett doesn’t win policy debates because of his amazing tactical skills, his overpowering arguments, or the sheer persuasiveness of his granite-faced brand of urbane folksomeness. He wins them because Aaron Sorkin is a liberal and he wants Republicans to lose on the major issues. Unfortunately for liberals, Tom Coburn and John Boehner don’t have their lines faxed over from Hollywood every morning.
Their problem is, as Obama once said of himself, that they believe their own bull****.
I wouldn’t call these “insane lengths.” Insane lengths would have been building their own large-volume sound stage in orbit.
Ed Driscoll has some thoughts on 1968, the Year That Sucked, at least until almost the end. I remember waking up to my clock radio, announcing the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
And yes, for those who watched, last night’s episode was (predictably?) depressing.
I was thinking about going to Anaheim this weekend to see Detroit play the Angels, but I’m sure glad I didn’t go today. I just turned on the game, and saw that they were down 9-0 in the bottom of the first inning Must have been a real pitching collapse. And not much hope for a comeback, given how lousy they’ve been hitting recently.
Michael Stracynski explains why most of it is awful.
Jeff Foust has a piece up on the topic over at The Space Review.
…had been on Facebook. It’s dark humor, and similar to this golden oldie.
That is to say, a righteous screed about suburbia and authenticity,and our intellectual betters (just ask them!) in the “studies” departments, by Lileks, unleashed by the not-to-be-lamented death of Paolo Solari.
You know, it strikes me that these snotty urbaphiles should love the idea of space colonies, at least in the regard of their being planned communities.
It’s not just awful politics, but a terrible movie. I wonder what Ebert would have thought about it?