Newspaper Calls for Censorship

Yeah, it's Investor's Business Daily.

The Vietnam Generation

Here's another recent column from James Webb.

Dee Snider's Revenge

Was Webb Easy on the Crackers?

James Webb's call to end federal diversity programs has gotten a lot of attention, but Ilya Somin says Webb's article wrongly absolves poor whites of their role in maintaing Jim Crow.


Last year, I read biographies of civil rights leader T.R.M. Howard and Booker T. Washington. Both men regarded Southern businessmen as people they could work with. It was lower-class whites who tended to be most supportive of, and most violent in their support of Jim Crow.

The Right Continues to Smear Shirley Sherrod

Radley Balko catches a particularly nasty hit piece. And it's not just Sherrod. Andrew Breitbart himself has attacked the white farmers she helped, suggesting they are Democratic plants.

I'm not sure why the Republican echo chamber can't admit that Breibart smeared, and continues to smear, this woman, much less just let the story drop.

During the Worst Recession in 40 Years

Republican guberatorial candidates Nathan Deal and Karen Handel come to the city with the highest unemployment rate in Georgia and mostly talk about abortion.

Man Allegedly Stabbed in Face at Comic Con

It seems a Harry Potter fan was the culprit. The worst thing that ever happened to me at a science fiction/comc book convention was the time actor Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund started talking to me and wouldn't shut up.

More Leon Russell

This time from his prime. (And I think Gary Busey plays drums on this one.)

Someone Has Given This Just a Little Too Much Thought

Really.

Comic Book Geeks vs. Fundamentalists

An epic battle happened at Comic Con.

The History Channel Needs Better Writers

Its World War II shows aren't very good.

Bretbart Owes Shirley Sherrod and Us an Apology

Here's another article you won't see in the Republican echo chamber.

Journolist: Much Ado About Nothing

Matt Welch looks at the Daily Caller's claims that Journolist participants conspired to have the government shut down Fox News and finds little to support that claim. (But there's plenty to suggest the participants were arrogant jerks.)

Meanwhile, Instahack and other consertive sites join in the hate of the day, with plenty of uncritical acceptance of the story's claim, even calling the Journloistes Stalinists. Who needs an e-mail list when you've got groupthink?

Breitbart Lies, Someone Gets Fires

The republican echo chamber was all over Breitbart's original claim that someone said something racist at an NAACP meeting. He hasn't said much about the follow up yet.

A Bird Holocaust

What kills more birds, the BP oil spill or wind farms? If you are reading this blog, you can probably guess the answer.

Summer Camp in South Korea

They take that stuff seriously.

Leon Russell Like You've Never Seen Him

Unless you were watching Shindig in 1964

Prominent Conservative Dismisses Black Panther Case

Odd, how you didn't hear about this on the Republican echo chamber.

Newspapers on the Internet

Gene Weingarten doesn't like what he sees.

Crime Is Down Across Arizona

Except where Sheriff Joe is in charge.

What's Gallagher Up to These Days

I know some of you (I'm looking at you, Ron) have been asking that question. Here's the answer.

The Fox News Minstrels

Dave Weigel writes:

Fox News uses the Panthers the way that Phil Donohue used to use the KKK or G.G. Allin. They're good on TV. The difference between the Panthers and other freakish groups that look good on the air, of course, is that that they threaten white people.


How often does Fox bring on the Panthers, or talk about them? A Lexis-Nexis search finds 68 mentions of "Malik Zulu Shabazz," a leader of the NBPP. The majority are appearances on Fox News, where Shabazz is repeatedly brought on to act as a foolish, anti-Semitic punching bag. Among the segment titles: "Professor's Comments on Whites Stir Controversy" and "Black Panthers Take a Stand on Duke Rape Case." Here's one example of a Shabazz appearance during the Jeremiah Wright controversy. Fox was the only network to book him; Sean Hannity conducted the interview.

Jesse Walker adds:

The New Black Panther Party plays the same role for the right that Hutaree-style militants play for the left: They're a tiny, uninfluential group whose importance is magnified to keep the base excited. Left and right wind up worrying more about each other than they care about the institutions that actually govern the country. It's great if your goal is maintaining movement identity, but not if you're more interested in changing policy than collecting scalps.

Wrestling with the Facts

The Weekly Standard has a piece on Linda McMahon's Senate candidacy that contains this passage:

McMahon is not the first figure from professional wrestling to enter politics. In 1974, Jim Crockett, who ran the National Wrestling Alliance, ran for the Senate in North Carolina. He finished sixth in a field of six in the GOP primary. And, in 1990, Jesse “The Body” Ventura was elected mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Eight years later, he was governor of the state.

Where do we begin?

First, Jim Crockett Jr. wasn't elected NWA president until 1980, and I don't think it would be correct to say that he "ran" the NWA even then since the president's only two roles were to run the annual meeting and book the world champion.

Second, everything I've ever read says that Crockett ran for state Senate not the Senate as the Standard says.

Third, if you are taking about pro wrestles in politics, how can you talk about Crockett's failed run for Senate and not mention even Tom Drake, who served 32 years in the Alabama House of Representatives, including two terms as speaker, while maintaining a successful pro wrestling career?

Elder Abuse in Japan

Oh, what's that. Abuse by the elderly in Japan?

The Sons of Confederate Veterans

Justa bunch of harmless old men?

Dancing at Auschwitz

Holocaust survivor Adolek Kohn returned to Auschwitz last year with his daughter and grandchildren. This is what they did:

In Defense of Dracula

Was Vlad the Impaler was just the victim of bad publicity?

"Vlad Dracula was doubtlessly cruel, but not more so than other princes of his time," said Margot Rauch, the Austrian curator of the exhibition, entitled "Dracula - Voivode and Vampire".

Baby Doll

Here's a nice interview with the former wrestler and valet.

Michael Bellesiles

Is he at it again?

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk Promo

Has Ann Coulter Gone Anti-War?

Or is she just looking for a club to bash democrats, consistency be damned>

LeBronomics

Florida has no income tax. New York has one of the highest income taxes in the nation. Did that affect LeBron James' choice of where to play?

Headline of the Day

For some reason, the BBC pulled this one from its Web site. But it remains on Google's cache.

The Solution to the Immigration "Problem"? Less Government

Alexander Marriott asks what a rational immigration policy would be.

Headline of the Day

Come on. The writer didn't know what he was doing when he wrote this?

A Democrat's Plan to Create Jobs

From Senate candidate Alvin Greene.

HT: Radley Balko

Immigration Then and Now

Jeb Bush and Robert Putnam compre today's immigrants to those of previous years and find they stack up pretty well.

A Birthday Message for America

Mario Rizzo reminds us of the widsom of Herbert Spencer.

Treat Her Right

I found this clip of Roy Head doing this classic song. The 1960s censorship is a bit amusing, forcing him to change "She's gonna love you tonight" to "she's gonna kiss you tonight."




I also found a clip of Tom Jones covering the song on TV just a few years later. I know Tom has achieved a sort of retro cool. But really, compare his singing and dancing to Roy's and tell me that Tom had soul.

Kobayashi Cracks

And he makes a scene at the hot dog eating contest.

It's Good to Be The Emperor

But it's not so good to be in first grade with the daughter of the crown prince.

Say What You Will About Mel Gibson

But the son of a bitch knows story structure.

Where the Right Went Wrong, Part II

David Bernstein notes that Bill Buckley not only helped pull the right away from its traditional isolationist foreign policy, he also helped pull it away from its opposition to Jim Crow.

More here from Ilya Somin.

Money to Burn in Iraq

Michel Rubin has the latest on what the guys we put into power are up to,.

I May Have to Turn in My Small Government Card

But this doesn't seem like a bad idea.

No Discrimination

Bryan Caplan looks at the limits of anti-discrimination law.

A Few Good Words for Saul Alinsky

Jesse Wakers says both the left and the right have misunderstood the icon of community organizers.

A Liberal Says Nice Things About Clarence Thomas

Really.

Danny Hodge, 77, Crushes an Apple

By Any Means Necessary

Apparently, property rights aren't that important to Ayn Rand's intellectual heir.

Dave Weigel and the Rise of Young Libertarian Journalists

The Moderate Voice uses the Dave Weigel/Journolist brouhaha to look at how young libertarian journalists are faring in Washington. I found this part interesting:

My friend Eric Pfeiffer, a libertarian who has had staff writing positions everywhere from the National Review to the Washington Times, said this distrust stems from an oversensitivity of conservatives to how the media covers them. “Weigel copped to that in the Big Government piece” — a kind of mea culpa post published after his resignation — “saying he was guilty of trying to play strategist often times when he was doing those interviews,” Pfeiffer told me. “In fairness to him, that’s to some degree what I had to do when I would talk to people because the best way to get a source to cooperate is to kind of bond with them, to make them think you’re sympathetic, or at least understanding of their cause. I don’t know how true it is on the left because I’ve covered them a lot less, but it’s so true on the right, because they — and you can quote me on this — when you cover the right, your role is just as much playing the role of therapist as reporter. They want you to like them. They want you to understand them. And it really gets old fast. I think that probably caused a lot of his frustration. It’s not what all reporters think when they signed up. I think Capitol Hill Republicans are more savvy, but movement conservatives I dealt with basically wanted to be held and coddled more than they wanted to be actually challenged or pressed.”