The Ombudsgod and James Lileks seem to be arguing past one another, at least as I read it. The Ombudsgod is concerned about government censorship via the FCC in the “Opie and Anthony” situation, in which the two “shock jocks” ran a contest to get a couple to engage in conjugal relations on the air during Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

From Lileks’ bleat today:

By bringing pressure on the FCC to both fine and revoke the broadcast license of WNEW FM, they have succeeded in forcing the radio station to eliminate a popular syndicated afternoon show. Two DJs, Opie and Anthony, have been fired, and the General Manager, Ken Stevens, and Program Director, Jeremy Coleman, have been suspended. This censorship will have a chilling effect on other broadcasters who may wish to broadcast controversial material.

Good.

Good. Maybe the next time some promotions director floats the idea of sponsoring a fellatio contest in a day-care center, he?ll be met with hard looks instead of high-fives. This stuff is ?controversial,? sure – but only by the most banal definition. Sawing off a puppy?s legs on the air is controversial. Stuffing a midget up Anne Sprinkle and having him broadcast from her oft-examined cervix is controversial. It?s also sick. It?s tiresome. It?s the work of people so jaded they think that intellectual bravery is defined not by the traditions you honor, but the ones you debase.

Now, my reading of it is that Lileks is saying “good” to the fact that they got fired–not the fact that it occurred due to FCC pressure. I suspect that the Ombudsgod’s interpretation is that he is cheering the FCC intervention itself.

I’d like to agree with both of them (assuming that my interpretations are correct). I’m glad they were fired–I do think that it’s a good thing. I’m simultaneously troubled that their behavior in itself wasn’t sufficient cause to fire them, and that it had to take the threat from a government agency (that shouldn’t be in charge of granting or revoking licenses in the first place–they should simply enforce the rights of the current owners of the spectrum). I would have greatly preferred that public pressure, and loss of advertisers, were sufficient to see that this kind of mindless audio excrement was taken off the air, or not appearing in the first place.

But despite the troubling First-Amendment issues (which are really caused by the charter of the FCC in general–not this particular case), it may have a salutory effect on the airwaves, at least for a little while. I don’t think that the nation’s intellectual or cultural discourse will be in any way impoverished by these clowns’ absence from them.

Apparently, Mugabe isn’t content to merely starve his political opponents.

It makes it increasingly difficult to take the drug warriors seriously when they pull crap like this.

The survey, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said drug-related emergency room visits rose 6 percent in 2001 over the previous year, to 638,484.

The number of times marijuana was mentioned as a drug patients used rose 15 percent, the study said, greater than the increase in cocaine use, which rose 10 percent, and heroin and methamphetamine, which were unchanged.

Note that it doesn’t say that marijuana caused the emergency-room visit–just that it was “mentioned as a drug patients used.” Had they been asked, even greater numbers might have offered up milk as a “food patients used.” Since there’s zero reason to equate correlation with causation, Fearless Leader is either being idiotic, or disingenuous when he says:

“Marijuana-related medical emergencies are increasing at an alarming rate, exceeding even those for heroin,” White House Drug Czar John Walters said in a prepared statement. “This report helps dispel the pervasive myth that marijuana is harmless.

Note also that he misleads by citing a rate, rather than any absolute problem. If the number of instances of something go from one to three in a year (in a population of hundreds of millions of people), one can honestly, and disingenuously say that the rate is “skyrocketing,” because it’s tripled.

This one has to have good people like Iain Murray torn. Which to defend, the War On (Some) Drugs, or valid and non-deceptive use of statistics? Can’t have ’em both in this case.

Palestinian children (no doubt at the instigation of the homicidal psychopathic monsters who run the place) are marching in the streets of Gaza, calling on Saddam to attack Israel.

Hey, works for me. It would be one quick way to end the debate.

George Will tackles it head on.

The NEA says the lessons to be learned from the terrorist attacks are: “Appreciating and getting along with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures, the importance of anger management and global awareness.” Let’s see. Some seriously angry people murder almost 3,000 people in America and Americans need to work on managing their anger? And on getting along with others? Did little Mohamed Atta’s report card in third grade say he “plays well with others”?

Steven Hatfill has gone to war with the FBI. I’m listening to his latest press conference right now. Good for him. I hope he wins, and I hope that the blogosphere supports him in his fight.

I think that the FBI has long outlived its usefulness as a government agency. The culture is so screwed up, and its population of prima donnas and people contemptuous of the rights of ordinary citizens so entrenched, that it’s hopeless to think that it can be reformed.

This case was another Waco in kind (though with much less horrendous consequences). It was grandstanding for the purpose of burnishing the agency’s image, rather than performing legitimate law enforcement. Whoever has been leaking these details to the press should be fired immediately. And at this point, I think that includes the Attorney General himself.

If Mr. Bush wants to show seriousness in going after terrorists, he will do a thorough housecleaning. He should do it before the election, and the Congressional Republicans should back it wholeheartedly. It would include tumbrels for, at a minimum, the following: Ashcroft, Tenet, Mueller, and Mineta.

He should also take it as an opportunity to reopen some festering national wounds from the nineties, expose them to sunshine, and finally cauterize and heal them, because it is the same incompetence and coverup mentality that has recently persecuted Mr. Hatfill, that resulted in them as well. Perhaps even by many of the same people. We have to ask, at this point, why the FBI should have any credibility on anything.

A short list of issues to be reopened would be, again at a minimum, Waco itself, the investigation into TWA 800, what really happened to Vincent Foster, and who helped Tim McVeigh.

But Bush won’t do it. Or if he does, it will be a much different George W. Bush than the one that we’ve seen in the first year and half of his administration.

[Update at 1:04 PM PDT]

Here’s a link to the MSNBC story on the filing of the complaint against Ashcroft.

Jim Bennett says that the transnational progressive agenda of the Eurocrats may be stymied by a combination of US (and general Anglosphere) unwillingness to play along any longer, combined with the wishes of their own voters.

Dan Burton’s committee is continuing to expose possible Iraqi and Middle Eastern connections to Tim McVeigh.

I continue to be amazed at the Bush Administration’s reluctance to expose to light all of the corruption and incompetence of the previous administration. Is it just blind loyalties to the blundering agencies, regardless of who’s in the White House? It’s possible that they’re acting on the ass-covering recommendations of the bureaucrats from below, but if so, it’s stunning to me that they really don’t understand just how bad things were, and how intrinsically unreliable the advice of Clinton holdovers is.

Perhaps they’re afraid that some of this stuff goes all the way back to Bush the First (not unlikely, since Ruby Ridge occurred on his watch). And of course, it’s hard to complain about the previous administration’s incompetence when, in many areas (such as air security), your own is trying to surpass it.

Well, actually, it’s hard. I’m still working on the programming project, and it’s too nice a day out to spend breaks blogging.

Hopefully back up to full posting volume on Monday.

Well, actually, it’s hard. I’m still working on the programming project, and it’s too nice a day out to spend breaks blogging.

Hopefully back up to full posting volume on Monday.