The Other McCain : Page 2270 : "One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up."

Quite a few new linkers this week, to whom we give greetings!

Professor Reynolds and Journalism

Posted on May 1, 2011May 1, 2011Comments

One of my pet peeves is when people criticize “journalists” when what they actually mean to criticize are “people on TV.” It is the latter category of TV news that so often inspires contempt for “the media” — an attitude I generally share, except for the fact that I’ve been a professional journalist for 25 years, having begun my newspaper career at a 6,000-circulation Georgia weekly in 1986. And at the 4:55 mark of this video interview with Bill Whittle, Professor Glenn Reynolds says “people who are journalists mostly know how to get their mugs on camera,” and speaks of complaints from people who “can’t stand looking at the TV anymore . . . the same talking heads saying the same stuff”:

(Via The Lonely Conservative and American Power.) Why do the idiotic TV performances of talking heads justify a generalized hatred of all reporters? I’ve had this argument with Melissa Clouthier before. Criticizing media bias is one thing. Disparaging the entire profession of journalism, qua journalism, is something else.

Obamas Birth Certificate As A Distractor?

Posted on May 1, 2011Comments

by Smitty

There is a new site called Trending Right that could only be improved if it mentioned The Other McCain. Despite this minor omission, it points to items like this IBD Editorial about the EPA flexing its PEA brain.

President Obama’s long-form birth certificate wasn’t the only thing released last Wednesday, but it was probably the least important. The Environmental Protection Agency also released its guidelines for expanding federal power over the nation’s waterways, ponds and puddles.

These guidelines will take effect after a 60-day comment period and will serve as a reference for environmental agencies in determining their jurisdiction over a particular body of water, large or small. They will eventually morph into binding regulations as damaging to our economy and freedom as the EPA regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.

Given the amount of time and effort any bureaucracy takes to squeeze out new policy, I highly doubt that there was even awareness in the White House of the specifics of the EPA’s move, much less coordination to provide media coverage via the LFBC.
But, if you want to read a lengthy statement generally responding to this sort of EPA over-reach, check out the Mind Numbed Robot. Somehow I doubt the EPA fits his definition of American.
I like the ‘Bot’s rousing call to action, but hope that we understand that altering the Progressive course of the last century is going to be surgery with no anesthesia. I personally estimate that things will get an order of magnitude worse. That way, I’m either correct, or pleasantly surprised.
To paraphrase Jones, things have not yet begun to suck.

VIDEO: Andrew Breitbart vs. Bill Maher

Posted on May 1, 2011May 1, 2011Comments

Via Breitbart TV and Memeorandum.

The Politics of Nostalgia

Posted on May 1, 2011May 1, 2011Comments

It turns out that “progress” involves a giant leap backward for a lot of progressives, including Paul Krugman.

This is the burden of Jim Manzi’s observations about Krugman’s nostalgia for the lost Golden Age of the 1950s and ’60s: It is Krugman’s idealized childhood that is the true destination of his allegedly progressive longings.

To the extent that I have anything to add, it is this: Blame LBJ.

In his effort to create “The Great Society,” Lyndon Johnson’s policies ended up destroying a Pretty Good Society.

Say whatever you want about our problems today, or advocate whatever “solutions” you wish, but there can be no dispute that Johnson’s presidency was the Era of Error, the historic wrong turn from which we’ve spent nearly half a century trying to recover. That Johnson was himself a liberal, attempting to live up to the historic legend of his own youthful idol FDR, ought to tell us something — but it’s something Krugman probably doesn’t want to think too much about.

This all came to my attention, by the way, because Little Miss Attila sent me her post, which linked Megan McArdle, who linked Manzi.

I was briefly tempted to argue with Attila, but life is too short.

By Executive Fiat, Labor Department Adds ‘Gender Identity’ to Protected Categories

Posted on April 30, 2011April 30, 2011Comments

Perhaps to be known as the Corporal Max Klinger Memorial Rule:

US Department of Labor announces renewed commitment to fair treatment and equal opportunity for all of its employees
New policy statements prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and pregnancy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its full commitment to implementing equal employment opportunity policies for all department employees and applicants. The policies ensure equal protections for all employees and applicants regardless of race; color; religion; national origin; sex, including pregnancy and gender identity; age; disability, whether physical or mental; genetic information; status as a parent; sexual orientation; or other non-merit factor. New, robust statements signed by Secretary Solis include updated policies on prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, including gender identity and pregnancy.
Secretary Solis strongly supports fair equal employment opportunity policies, and creating diversity and fairness in the workplace.
“I am expressing my personal commitment to ensure that the U.S. Department of Labor is a model workplace, free from unlawful discrimination and harassment, which fosters a work environment that fully utilizes the capabilities of every employee,” said Secretary Solis. “It is my goal that we achieve and maintain a high-quality, diverse workforce at all organizational levels throughout the department.”
The Labor Department is required to issue annual written policy statements expressing the secretary’s commitment to equal employment opportunity and a workplace free of discriminatory harassment, pursuant to 29 Code of Federal Regulations Part 1614, Federal Sector Equal Employment Opportunity, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Management Directive 715. The EEOC’s directive identifies minimum requirements for the policy statements.
The statements issued by Secretary Solis articulate stronger protections and establish responsibilities to ensure meaningful adherence to equal employment opportunity throughout the department. They have been disseminated to all current employees and will be disseminated to new employees during orientation as well as to employees who are promoted into supervisory ranks.

So, if a guy works at the Department of Labor and decides to wear a mini-skirt to work Monday morning, his boss can’t say a word about it, under penalty of being accused of “unlawful discrimination and harassment.”

Note that this is deemed equivalent to pregnancy as a protected category — a guy in a dress and a pregnant woman are equally worthy victims.

BREAKING: Libya Spokesman Says NATO Strike Killed 3 of Qaddafi’s Grandsons UPDATE: Attack Also Reportedly Kills Qaddafi’s Youngest Son, Saif al-Arab, 29

Posted on April 30, 2011April 30, 2011Comments

An urgent dispatch from Reuters but no details yet.

UPDATE: Al-Jazeera confirms and adds detail:

Saif al-Arab, the youngest son of the Libyan leader, has been killed in a NATO air strike, a Libyan government spokesman said.
The spokesman said Muammar Gaddafi was unharmed but three of his grandsons were also killed in the attack in Tripoli on Saturday. . . .
“The leader himself is in good health, he wasn’t harmed,” the spokesman said, adding that Muammar Gaddafi’s wife was also unharmed but other people in the house were injured.
“This was a direct attempt to assassinate the leader of the country”, he said. . . .
The 29-year-old Saif al-Arab Gaddafi is the most unknown of the Libyan leader’s children.

UPDATE II: Now Reuters has a write-through:

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO airstrike on Saturday night that killed his youngest son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, a Libyan government spokesman said.
Mussa Ibrahim said Saif al-Arab was a civilian and a student who had studied in Germany. He was 29 years old.
Libyan officials took journalists to the house, which had been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely caved in in some areas, leaving strings of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.
A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the house, which was in a wealthy residential area of Tripoli.

UPDATE III: BBC has video of the press announcement by spokesman Moussa Ibrahim, who said that Qaddafi was in the house when it was hit.

UPDATE IV: From the Associated Press:

Gadhafi and his wife were in the Tripoli house of his 29-year-old son, Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, when it was hit by at least one bomb dropped from a NATO warplane, according to Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim.
Seif al-Arab Gadhafi was the sixth son of Gadhafi and brother of the better known Seif al-Islam Gadhafi. . . .
“The attack resulted in the martyrdom of brother Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29 years old, and three of the leader’s grandchildren,” Ibrahim said. . . .
Seif al-Arab “was playing and talking with his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked for no crimes committed,” Ibrahim said.

UPDATE V: Via Mediaite, a video report from CNN:

Now a Memeorandum thread

UPDATE VI: Drew M. at AOSHQ notes that this attack points toward “mission creep” in Libya:

So, I’m still unclear if the purpose of the NATO mission is to topple the regime and/or kill Gaddafi or just protect civilians. I’m not a military expert but I’m not clear on how bombing someone’s home protects civilians hundreds of miles away. Actually, I do (no Gaddafi, no danger) but I was told by the President that killing Gaddafi wasn’t part of out military strategy. It’s almost like Obama and the rest of the NATO leaders are saying one thing but acting very differently.

How does the slogan “Obama lied, three little kids died” work for you guys? Nah, me neither. After Lockerbie, you can’t expect Americans to work up any sympathy for Qaddafi’s family, even if they are innocent civilians.

Still, it’s hard for the U.S. to pretend it’s not going for “regime change” after this. And that United Nations Security Council resolution doesn’t say jack about “regime change.”

NOTE: What was originally my first update to this breaking story confused the attack that killed Saif al-Arab with a different attack aimed at Qaddafi that also hit a school for Down Syndrome children:

It was unclear what the target of the strike was, though Libyan officials said it was Muammar Gaddafi himself, who was giving a live television address at the time.
“They maybe wanted to hit the television. This is a non-military, non-governmental building,” said Mohammed al-Mehdi, head of the civil societies council, which licenses and oversees civil groups in Libya.
The missile completely destroyed an adjoining office in the compound that houses the government’s commission for children.
The force of the blast blew in windows and doors in the parent-funded school for children with Down’s Syndrome and officials said it damaged an orphanage on the floor above.

BTW, thanks to Brittany Cohan on Twitter for the alert.

Three Cups of Scam

Posted on April 30, 2011April 30, 2011Comments

I’ve previous blogged about how Greg Mortenson’s best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea, was exposed as fraudulent, casting doubts on Mortenson’s idea of peace through education. Now it seems that some donors are wising up to the too-good-to-be-true claims of Mortenson’s imitators:

Former Marine Capt. Rye Barcott heads up a grass-roots nonprofit to help slum dwellers in Kenya. Like other charismatic do-gooders with an interesting story to tell, he has written a memoir to promote his charity and the idea of grass-roots development work. Late last month, he kicked off a 26-city book tour, visiting stores, campuses, businesses and churches as the launch of an ambitious effort to expand the donor base for his group, Carolina for Kibera, which runs a health clinic, a soccer program and other community services in Nairobi . . .
Mr. Barcott is following a template fashioned by a man whom he once considered a hero, Greg Mortenson, author of the best-selling memoir “Three Cups of Tea” and the head of a $20 million-a-year charity for schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mr. Barcott now considers Mr. Mortenson an unfortunate liability. . . .
Mr. Barcott finds himself questioned at many appearances about allegations that Mr. Mortenson’s memoir contains false passages and that Mr. Mortenson’s charity has mishandled millions in donations. Many people are scrutinizing Mr. Barcott’s organization as never before. He worries that potential funders will shy away.
“It alters the conversation in a way that is not helpful,” said Mr. Barcott. . . .

You can read the rest (h/t: Memeorandum). There appears to be no doubt about Barcott’s bona fides, but the problem is that there were no doubts about Mortenson, either, until “60 Minutes” started sniffing around the story. And by attempting to emulate Mortenson’s model — the “charismatic do-gooder” promoting his work with a memoir — Barcott naturally evokes comparisons.

It seems to me that the best system of helping poor people is capitalism. But rich liberals won’t give you a nickel to help spread that message.

So much, then, for my prospect of becoming a “charismatic do-gooder” with a best-selling memoir. But please go ahead and hit the tip jar — it’s for the children!

UPDATE: Bruce Bawer at Pajamas Media:

The fallout from the takedown made it clear that zillions of Mortenson’s fans around the world were shocked by the allegations.
I wasn’t. When I first heard Mortenson speak at a conference two years ago, I was unaware what a big deal he was. Indeed, as far as I can remember it was the first time I’d ever heard of him. I was immediately appalled. He was swaggering, slick, self-satisfied. . . .
[I]t was impossible to forget Greg Mortenson’s name. For he was the star of his own story. The whole point of his talk was how much one brave, selfless individual can accomplish in this world even against the most formidable of odds. And that individual was him. The premise of his spiel was that he’s a miracle worker, pacifying belligerent jihadist types by sitting down with them over three cups of tea and listening to their concerns. Yet the egomaniac I saw that day was somebody you couldn’t picture listening to anybody else for more than thirty seconds. . . .
[T]he whole dog-and-pony show wasn’t really about Afghani children; it was about Mortenson and his book.

Read the whole thing. Bawer wonders if 21st-century Americans are suffering from “bullsh*t detector” malfunction.

UPDATE II: You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that Mortenson’s second book, Stones Into Schools, was on the reading list at the University of Kentucky’s prestigious Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce.

You will, perhaps be surprised that UK professor Robert Farley has declared that Mortenson’s book will stay on the reading list “to indicate the difficulty of monitoring NGO behavior, as well as to familiarize students with the controversy over Mortenson’s work.”

Sure, professor. Whatever you say.

PREVIOUSLY:

April 20: Greg Mortenson’s Hope and Change
April 16: ‘It’s a Beautiful Story. And It’s a Lie.’