Rock and Roll Conservative

I believe the term is "schadenfreude"

Oh poor CNN. Once upon a time they were the go to network for breaking news and commentary. Today? Even with a Democrat in the White House they regularly finish third behind Fox and, incredibly enough, MSNBC.

And they still argue they're still non-partisan even as their audience tilts heavily towards Democrats. No bias? All bull!

Different standards

It's Sunday so something tangentially involving football is appropriate. Mark Steyn has a good column about Rush Limbaugh, Anita Dunn and the different standards of speech. Very different standards, it turns out.

This is the end, my only friend, the end

Despite a 21 per cent decrease in advertising dollars, shuttered doors, massive layoffs and general distrust of the media, journalists keep soldiering on in the hopes that they aren't Romulus Augustus -- watching the barbarians rolling over the Seven Hills of Rome and wondering if the jig was finally up.

Over at Warning Signs, ESR scribbler Alan Caruba says that journalists are still labouring under some delusions, ones he has thoughtfully enumerated.

On a personal note, sometimes you don't want your dreams to come through. Back in the 90s and early 00s yours truly earned his daily bread as a journo. I was progressing to the point that I even interviewed with one of Canada's largest papers and came this close to landing a job there. Given the health of the industry these days, I think I was lucky to have been edged out by the McGill graduate. In ten years I'll still likely have a job...

Passage

This has nothing to do with politics but we here at Fort Sinatra mourn the passing of John Hughes, director of the most 80s of the 80s movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the funniest road trip movie of that decade, Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Sleep well friend.

Don't go against the family

Apparently disagreeing with the party line at the Clinton News Network is a dangerous thing. The network known for its shameless toadying for the left is facing heat for continuing to employ Lou Dobbs, a man lately known for some very strong opinions -- though mostly on his radio program.

Could Lou be a future Fox News host?

No tears

There are a lot of tributes today to the late Walter Cronkite, the iconic news anchor who reported many of America's biggest stories over the decades. None of them mention, however, that he was one of the primary reasons -- along with David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan -- why the political battle for the war in Vietnam was lost.

Cronkite's biggest contribution to the Viet Cong and the NVA was his reportage in early 1968. Near the end of January the communists launched their largest offensive to date known as the Tet Offensive. Initially it went well for them but gradually the SVA and the U.S. regained the initiative and essentially slaughtered the northern forces.

According to Cronkite, however, the offensive was a massive victory for the north, that the war was now a "stalemate." With that word from "the most trusted man in America" the public support for the war evaporated quickly. In recent years prominent NVA and VC leaders acknowledged that while they consistently lost battles against the south, they relied on winning the public relations battle in America.

And so the winnable war became a stalemate (Cronkite) and a quagmire (Halberstam) and eventually a defeat.

So let the media adore their false god. The truth is out there.

The next Saudi Arabia?

When you think of Hamas you think of anti-Jewish terrorism but the group may be expanding its repertoire. Apparently the terrorist group may be turning into a morals enforcer as well.

Someone finally said it

If you're a close acquaintance you know that this Princess Diana-ification of Michael Jackson has really annoyed me. This was a man, after all, who explicitly acknowledged molesting children when he agreed to a financial settlement. I don't know about you, but if I'm ever falsely accused of child molestation, but I'm fighting it until I'm broke and railroaded to prison.

Peter King apparently agrees with me.

And they are heroes

I'd say the men and women of business have gotten a bad rap lately but that "lately" happens to be a few millenia. At any rate, I accidentally came across this blog a few days ago and I thought I'd share it with you. It's called "Heroes of Capitalism" and as the name suggests, it celebrates the men and women of capitalism.

Given the war on business that Barack Obama has declared, this web site is needed now more than ever to recognize those principled soldiers of economic freedom.

It happened at Berkeley? I'm shocked

It would appear that the children of rich liberals in Berkeley love marijuana and hate capitalism -- at least at one school.

I'm shocked to hear that.

He was probably the only one in America

A teacher -- who happens to be conservative politically -- has found out what Barack Obama's hope and change really means. He claims to have lost his job because of his politics.

Bringing together my love of conservatism and women

John Hawkins brought together an expert panel of bloggers and has compiled a list of the 15 hottest conservative women in new media. In fairness, John should do something like this for the ladies...

50,000? Sounds like one of my parties...

A lot of people are unaware of this, but there is a lot of sex that goes on during the Olympics. I don't mean the inevitable tide of prostitutes that hit a city hosting the Olympics looking to give a little extra to some tourist, but amongst the athletes.

As one competitor at the Beijing Olympics explained it, an Olympic village was essentially the home of thousands of extremely fit, often attractive athletes with downtime between events. With the birds digging the bees, it's no surprise that 20-something athletes would explore what the world offered -- if you know what I mean.

And hey, I have nothing against extremely fit, very attractive young people having sex. I just don't want to enviously subsidize their sexual trysts. Turns out that they're handing out 50,000 condoms at the Vancouver Games next year, or about ten condoms for every athlete. We gave Canadian athletes record funding over the past two years and provided a place for the world to show up...buy your own condoms dagnamit!

Meh

I wasn't going to comment on Barack Obama's speech (read it here) in Cairo earlier today because a) Rush Limbaugh did a systematic job demolishing it, and b) if I discussed every Obama speech I'd eventually just cut and paste the following: "Once again Obama delivered a lengthy speech where he straddled both sides of the fence, said a lot without saying a thing and tried to be all things to all people...and fooling a good number in the process." If you want commentary, go here.

We're not far away from the six month mark in Obama's tenure and I'm still amazed that he's getting such a pass from the media. I realize they were in the tank for him and have a lot invested in his success, but at a certain point even the most threadbare prostitute will tell a John that no, she won't do that. And yet here we are with a speech that even the dumbest in the media -- let's say, Maureen Dowd -- would listen to and the spell would be broken. A speech that seemed to legitimize Holocaust denial, gave the Muslim world credit for inventions of others, advance the notion that the American state was no better than any other and confuse Islam with Islamism.

But hey, he's America's first black president, he's not George W. Bush and one day he might actually keep one of his promises. Let's not judge him too harshly.

Debate anything you want on campus...except stuff we don't like

I was rapturous over my praise of Gitmo U not long ago for a reason. While Gitmo inmates are treated like they're going to school, students in the U.S. are told which topics they can advocate on campus. Case in point? If you want to argue for the right to carry concealed weapons on campus, be warned that The Man might have something to say about it.

Pity the poor politician who has to lie about which side they're on

Do Americans support or oppose gay marriage? If you think you know the answer, you only have a 50-50 chance of being right. W. James Antle III explores America's schizophrenic approach to the gay marriage debate.

Now who will they get?

Judging by the way Hollywood casts them, there are three black actors acting today. Morgan Freeman to play the older cop or wise voice, some other guy to do things like Fast and the Furious-type movies and Denzel Washington to do everything else.

Well, hopefully that other guy who does the loud dumb movies keeps his schedule open in about ten years because Washington announced today that he's too old to play Barack Obama in a biography of his life. Frankly, Washington wouldn't have a chance to do his angry face so it the movie really wouldn't click for me. Young guy, when Steven Spielberg calls in 2019, take the call. You'll be a cinch for an Oscar...

Enough is never enough

Unlike most conservatives I'm not opposed -- at least in principle -- to sex education. I don't buy that merely learning about something will produce that behavior and I'm terrified when I hear some of the things that come out of the mouths of teens when it comes to sex. Whether you like it or not, there are kids out there, right now, having sex and unaware that what they're doing will cause a pregnancy. Yes, there are people that dumb.

At any rate, even this rock and roll conservative has his limits. A new study conducted by Planned Parenthood Toronto, York University, the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University and Toronto Public Health (hey, they're all liberal!) argue that teens shouldn't merely learn the basics, like using birth control and learning about pregnancy, starting in Grade 7...they should learn about everything starting in kindergarten.

I realize that parents lost control of the government reeducation camps we call schools ages ago, and they've been perverted to instill the liberal agenda, but we can for once pretend that children are children. Can we assume, and I think we're safe in doing so, that even the worst of environments is unlikely to produce five-year olds having sex (at least willingly) and that they don't need this knowledge just yet? Am I pulling "crotchety old man" in believing that no knowledge is dangerous but there's an appropriate time to learn it?

Read on.

A sad day

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the erection of the "Goddess of Liberty" statute by the pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square. If you're old enough to remember the events of that day you won't need to look at these photos to relive the initial hope that was destroyed just days later by the feeling of horror as the Chinese Army massacred its own citizens.

Interview with Mike Adams

John Hawkins has a very thought provoking interview with professor and conservative columnist Mike Adams. Seriously, go and read it.

Two women the media love

None other than Gov. Sarah Palin, a woman who well knows what it's like to be attacked by the media, is coming out in defence of Miss California Carrie Prejean.

Only the right kind of discrimination please

The University of Saskatchewan got on its high horse this week and rejected a $500,000 gift to establish a new scholarship. A university turning down money? Turns out the donor wanted to endow a scholarship that only went to non-aboriginal students.

Now I know a lot of people will argue that given how many scholarships are open only to women and minorities and that the group that has the hardest time getting one these days is white males -- and probably with some justification.

Me? While I support the right of people to do whatever they want with their money -- and the donor can set up an off-campus bursary that will shell out money to whomever they want -- I'm of the opinion that universities shouldn't be discriminating in favour of anyone except the best and the brightest, regardless of race, gender, creed or religion. I'm old fashioned that way.

So yeah, the university is hypocritical by lamely defending their race and gender-based scholarships but the answer isn't to increase discrimination.

I see an early winner of our Earth is Flat Award

Idiot actors aren't just a Hollywood thing, apparently they produce them in China as well. Today the action star basically said that freedom isn't a very good thing and that the Chinese needed to be controlled.

Why do I think Barack Obama is suddenly a big Chan star?

It is where all the experts are

Mortgage defaults rising? Iran and North Korea still causing problems? Unemployment rising? Don't worry, Barack Obama is on it. Today it was announced that an actor you've never heard of -- Kal Penn -- has been hired to be a liaison between Hollywood and the White House.

You can almost imagine it

Funny fake news story appeared over at The Spoof this weekend about Barack Obama's daughters finding themselves lost in a labyrinth that was written by occasional ESR contributor Jorn Baltzersen.