If Not the SOU, then Tax Day

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by Smitty (h/t RPV Network)

I’m still trying to coordinate lunch with the Pink Elephant Pundit to see what, if anything, will be shaking on the Mall for the State of the Union address this month. The abject failure of Al Gore’s Global Warming (colleague: “I told you: it’s Climate Change!”, to which I replied, “It’s warming in the negative direction.”) shouldn’t scare those who understand the Valley Forge symbolism of it all.

The weather and the schedule uncertainties will not accentuate the turnout for a State of the Union protest, in any case.
Continue reading If Not the SOU, then Tax Day →

Obama Discriminates Against Foreigners

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NTTAWWT:

Citizens of 14 nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, who are flying to the United States will be subjected indefinitely to the intense screening at airports worldwide that was imposed after the Christmas Day bombing plot, Obama administration officials announced Sunday.

(Via Memeorandum.) Spencer Ackerman appears to be skeptical, which means Continue reading Obama Discriminates Against Foreigners →

The Apocalypse of Culture: People Spend $1 Billion to See Sucky 3-D SciFi Movie

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No need to wonder what morons did with their stimulus checks.  Two words: Avatar tickets.

When “Avatar” opened, its solid but far from stellar results left 20th Century Fox uncertain about whether the $430 million that it and two financing partners had invested to produce and market the 3-D film would pay off.
Less than three weeks later, there’s no doubt. Director James Cameron’s science-fiction epic on Sunday became only the fifth movie in history to gross more than $1 billion worldwide and, by far, was the fastest to do so. Continue reading The Apocalypse of Culture: People Spend $1 Billion to See Sucky 3-D SciFi Movie →

Security Breach at Newark Airport

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Not sure if it’s anything other than a major hassle for travelers, but Fox News has this:

Authorities are searching for a man who walked through a screening checkpoint exit into the secure side of a terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport. Flights have been grounded, and passengers are being re-screened.
Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Sari Koshetz says a man was seen walking down an exit lane at Terminal C about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
Once aware of the situation, TSA officials with assistance from the New York Port Authority reviewed security videotape to identify the errant individual.
As of 8:40 p.m. Sunday, security was unable to locate that individual in the terminal.
The security line was emptied, and passengers were waiting in check-in areas at about 9 p.m. . . .

Read the rest at Fox. CNN is also covering this story.

Massachusetts Senate: Scott Brown Is Running — and Martha Coakley’s Hiding

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Republican Scott Brown‘s Massachusetts Senate campaign is gathering momentum. The Jan. 19 special election is to fill Ted Kennedy’s vacated seat (Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment) and, in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, a GOP victory would be a shocking upset.

In addition to the built-in leftward tilt of Massachusetts voters, Brown’s opponent, state attorney general Martha Coakley, has an enormous advantage in terms of both statewide name recognition and campaign cash. So she’s flooding the airwaves with TV ads and — in a campaign version of the NFL “prevent defense” — is trying to run out the clock by refusing to debate Brown and dodging the press:

[The Massachusetts Business Journal] wanted to give Attorney General Martha Coakley the benefit of the doubt when her campaign staff was initially stand offish after we approached them about setting up an interview for our story on the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat.
But then we were put off several times by her staff. We suddenly got the feeling Ms. Coakley, a Democrat, didn’t want to speak with us, and the media in general.

When even the liberal Boston Globe is complaining about Coakley’s disappearing act, you know that reporters are scenting fear. With the growing unpopularity of the Obama agenda, Martha is at risk of becoming that rare breed of loser — a Democrat who gets beat in Massachusetts — and so she’s afraid to answer questions about her record. Professor William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has much more.

(Via Memeorandum.)

Roger Scruton: ‘Our World Has
Turned Its Back on Beauty . . .’

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“. . . and because of that, we find ourselves surrounded by ugliness and alienation.” On our inaugural Rule 5 Sunday of the New Year at the new site, please watch this video and then we’ll talk more about beauty:

That’s one of a six-part series of YouTube videos collected in one post by blogger Ray Sawhill (hat-tip: In Mala Fide). I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Roger Scruton, who is a contributor to The American Spectator. Scruton’s point about the ugliness of modernism reiterates points made by Fred Ross in a 2002 feature I wrote about the revival of traditional aesthetics in art:

Nothing exemplifies art’s turn toward tradition as much as the revived interest in William-Adolphe Bouguereau, the 19th-century master of the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. . . .
Among Bouguereau’s most enthusiastic admirers is collector and critic Fred Ross.
Bouguereau is “the greatest painter in the history of the world,” says Mr. Ross, a New Jersey businessman who has founded the Art Renewal Center, dedicated to encouraging artists in what he calls the “humanist” tradition. . . .
“We have put our artistic culture into the hands of philistines and I’m just trying to find a jawbone of an ass,” says Mr. Ross, referring to the Israelite hero Samson’s feat against the original Philistines.
Though most people prefer traditional art, the opinions of critics prop up the reputation of modern art, he says.
“Real people will reject modernism every time, if they’re given a context that justifies the feelings they’ve always had,” Mr. Ross says, likening modern art’s critical hegemony to “the emperor’s new clothes.” . . .

You can read the whole thing, but if you want to see more Bouguereau beauty Continue reading Roger Scruton: ‘Our World Has
Turned Its Back on Beauty . . .’ →