Carl Prine at Line of Departure hits up yours truly about hot deets and big phased cookies, America's place in the world and Future Foreign Policy.
As Pulitzer Prizer Tom Ricks might say - "It's crunk and disorderly bay bee"
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Left Of Bang At Line Of Departure
Carl Prine at Line of Departure hits up yours truly about hot deets and big phased cookies, America's place in the world and Future Foreign Policy.
As Pulitzer Prizer Tom Ricks might say - "It's crunk and disorderly bay bee"
Wings Over Iraq - Briefing
Submitted by those fly by night fallen angels at GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD
Israel's Struggle is Not a War of Words.............by Dan Friedman
I disagree with the proposition that Israel’s problems with the “international community” can be ameliorated by slicker, more professional hasbara (PR), because that presupposes hatred for Jews, and the Jewish state, can be corrected if only reasonable people among the haters were presented with the “truth.” This is a complete contradiction and it makes no sense. You can not dispel a mania by trying to prove to the maniacs that they can’t fly. Just ask the great Rabbis who were brought before the Papal Courts to debate theology - and never lost. Debunking the Church’s narrative won no converts, it just raised its wrath.
Now have a look at this video featuring Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. It has excellent production values, a clear presentation of the facts and a sincere simplicity that holds your attention until the end. The problem is that it addresses two types of audiences: One that already knows and one that doesn’t care. Still, there’s probably nothing lost by Israel getting its message out – as long as it continues to beef up the IDF.
Dan Friedman
NYC
Beyond stupid!............from Rico
Calling an increase to the Debt Ceiling a "solution" to a debt problem is too stupid to be stupid.
- What else can one expect from our 'professional politicians?'
People are going to wake up to a lot of new taxes, and then start to realize what ELSE they have lost...
News.........
Cameron and his electric plastic john deere 4-wheeler ..
The Toronto District School Board Lied About Muslim Prayers - The Community Has Complained
The Tipping Point Is Here
Exercising the Cannibalisation Option
Kirkuk is a 'land mine' where all sides want U.S. to stay
Peshmerga spokesman denies Iran violation to Iraqi borders
Battalion including 150 Peshmergas protects Kirkuk
Meanwhile, in other news...
Kut's Shakir Air Base handed over
Iranian Troops Attack Kurdish Camps in Iraq
Report: Private sector job creation ground to a halt almost instantly after Obamacare passed
Lockheed Martin Delivers Second F-35 Production Jet In A Week
Analysis: Legal safeguards for U.S. troops key to an Iraq deal
And Our Solar Model Also Comes Equiped With…Fire
Anti-American activities: A Cold War-style Effort to Root Out Civilizational Jihad
Ms. Bordallo Asked the Right Questions
Motorcycle Rider Breaks 300 MPH Barrier
Obama Redefining 'Poverty'
LBJ and the Destruction of American Currency
Gunwalker: Family of Slain Federal Agent Demands Answers
More Obama campaign contributors than Obama new jobs
The Gang of Six Disaster: The Worst Plan So Far
DeMint on the Debt Ceiling
Defense Attorney in Fort Hood Shooting Case Takes Leave of Absence
2012: The End of the World As We Know It
Upheaval in Syria, Somnolence in The White House
Navy and RAF forced to sack hundreds as few volunteer for redundancy
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy reach 'joint position' on Greece after crisis talks
Lions 'more likely to eat people after a full moon'
Two Britons arrested in Afghanistan during anti-terrorism operation
British man killed in Yemen car bombing
North Korea's elite defies international sanctions ban by importing McDonald's
Syria warns ambassadors not to leave Damascus
Russia finally accepts that beer is alcoholic
Helmand handover 'will fail' unless Pakistan border can be secured
Skull found in Pearl Harbour could belong to Japanese pilot
France suggests plan for Gaddafi to stay in Libya
Pakistan navy inducts first squadron of indigenously made UAVs
The BBC's secular inquisition
If Sgt. Rayner Was "Unlawfully Killed," Who Will Stand Accused?
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Wednesday, 20 July 2011
The Love of Scandal
The television coverage of the British Parliament’s inquiry of the Murdoch’s, father and son, Rupert and James, was wall-to-wall on every news channel including Fox News, part of the Murdoch media empire. As an American, I found myself straining to understand what many of the MPs were saying as their accent often rendered them unintelligible to my ear.
The Murdoch’s were most sincerely and contritely saddened by the behavior of some News of the World reporters and editors, but I doubt they were too surprised by it, nor were the British who read the now defunct trashy tabloid. Some of the reporters had hacked into the phones of people, violating their privacy in hopes of a scoop. The editors in charge pretended not to know.
In sum, it was sordid behavior by a handful of people who had lost sight of what passes for journalistic standards. Scotland Yard had largely ignored the crimes. Top crime fighters dutifully resigned their positions. The whole mess was so incestuous, one would have to be quite blasé to ignore it.
Heads rolled. People were fired, quit their positions, and one, a reporter who blew the whistle, died though he was said to have been ill. Suicide cannot be ruled out. The police arrested an editor or two, but unless it can be proved that they were accessories to the crime, not much may come of that.
The Brits, however, love a good scandal and who doesn’t?
Americans were recently treated to former Representative Anthony Weiner’s antics and are currently obsessing over the acquittal of Casey Anthony, alleged to have killed her child and tossing the remains in a nearby swamp. While the nation heads over the financial cliff into default and bankruptcy, the last scraps of the Anthony story are still being picked over by the news and popular culture jackals. Bill Clinton's Oval Office misconduct with an intern provided months of entertainment and political theatre.
From Oscar Wilde, a famed Irish writer of the 1880s and 90s who was sent to Reading Goal for “gross indecency” to the 1963 affair of John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War, who was sexually linked to Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of a Russian spy, to Princess Diana who divorced Prince Charles and later died tragically in an auto accident, the Brits are no slouches when it comes to scandal.
I do my best to keep abreast of what is going on in Great Britain because they are the closest thing to a rational and dependable ally we have, save for the Canadians who always stick with us through thick and thin, despite being largely ignored.
One of my favorite bloggers goes by the nom de plume of Archbishop Cranmer, a pseudonym taken from the actual archbishop who was burned at the stake in 1556. Normally he comments on things theological and ecclesiastical in England, but his comments on the Murdoch’s stuck a note of rationality devoid from most coverage.
“But it’s all a bit of a show,” said Cranmer. “Rupert Murdoch owns three (non-profitable) newspapers and a minority share in BSkyB, the output of which is regulated by Ofcom. In what sense is this an ‘empire’ which exerts ‘too much power over British public life’?”
“It is about the relationship of Parliament and the media, politicians and journalists, and prime ministers and proprietors. It is about the balance between power and scrutiny, influence and manipulation. Ultimately, it is about the right to express an opinion, because if the end result is statutory regulation of the press, another liberty will have been sacrificed to the lust of the state.”
That’s worth repeating, “another liberty will have been sacrificed to the lust of the state.” We are seeing and experiencing a lot of that in America where hardly any activity of our lives, from the cars we drive, the food we eat, the light bulbs we may purchase, and the health insurance we don’t want to purchase is grinding American liberty to dust.
Rupert Murdoch is not just an Australian, British, and a naturalized American phenomenon, a media genius with a talent for acquisition that includes The Wall Street Journal. Fox News has become the go-to television channel that is indeed, “fair and balanced”, presenting a cacophony of liberal-to-conservative analysis that is often a bedlam of viewpoints.
As this has been occurring, other U.S. newspapers have been losing circulation and revenue, laying off editors and reporters, publishing thin editions of mostly syndicated gloss, and, as often as not, closing their doors. Too many have debased themselves with their liberal slanting of news and are now useful only for their obituary and sports sections.
Let us, therefore, keep an eye on the British journalism scandal to see how their politicians use it for their own gain and hope that their avaricious American counterparts do not take any lessons from it.
© Alan Caruba, 2011
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