Sine Qua Non

Look at Old Man Potter Buffett...

He's not selling, he's buying:

Buffett's Berkshire Accelerates Pace of Acquisitions

But wait, there's more:

U.S. Stocks Rally Most in Six Years on Plan to Shore Up Banks

California home sales surge as prices plummet

Several people have asked in the last twenty-four hours if I'm worried about the economic crisis. I've told them my only concern is that the government will not allow bad decisions to be appropriately punished. Otherwise, our closest thing to unfettered capitalism as we are likely to see system does exactly what it is supposed to be doing. Nothing more. Nothing less. Financial institutions failing does not scare me. People believing that it's just a matter of getting the right people to turn the knobs and tweak the dials correctly to always prevent this sort of thing on the other hand, they worry the bejeebus ought of me.

It's worth remembering that the people who run the government have the same educations, backgrounds, motivations, strengths, weaknesses, superstitions, abilities, and human nature as the people who ran Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns. No matter where you may sit on the political spectrum there seems to be an inverse relationship between how big you believe companies should get and how big you believe government should get. Glenn Reynolds quotes Lisa Fairfax asking:

When people say that a company is too big to fail, does that really mean that a company is simply "too big"? If so, does that mean that we need to do more to encourage smaller companies, or at the very least do more to discourage large companies or companies that are intertwined with too many industries?

Substitute "government" for "company" and "governments" for "companies" there and let me know what you think.

Again?

Watch as Whoopi Goldberg embarrasses herself and shows her ignorance of the US Constitution by asking if she should be afraid of being a slave again because John McCain wants strict constructionists as Supreme Court Justices. Mind you, John McCain's response is just as embarrassing, as is Barbara Walters' and everyone else on that stage. Sorry Senator, but that's not a valid point, it is a shamelessly ignorant one, especially in light of the 13th amendment. Slavery was officially abolished in the United States 143 years ago. Maybe if Whoopi were old enough to justify using the word "again" she might have learned how the US Constitution works.

At what point does a grown up have to stand up and say, "What the hell is wrong with you?" Gee, I wonder if any of them are also worried about being arrested for buying an alcoholic beverage?

Take My Candidate, Please

World wants Obama as president

So when's the election for the president of the world? Though it does probably help to be a citizen of the world if you're running, so he's got that going for him.

Thanks to HDTV

I can tell Bob Costas has too much makeup on tonight. Bob and Mary marveling over the miraculous ability of so many people to do the same things to such a level of perfection is, well, a little creepy. I bet they all have passports and can speak mutiple languages too.

Texas is Hot in August

Who knew? And when did they know it?

Texas plagued by heat, drought, water parasite, wildfires

Blah, blah, blah. Maybe Scott would like to weigh in... But note the penultimate sentence in the article:

The Dallas area has recorded 23 triple-digit days so far this year — still well short of the record of 69 in 1980.

So if the Dallas area temperatures reach 3 digits each day until September 18, then it will be as bad a 1980, for which I blame Jimmy Carter, but I digress. What do we have a problem with here, hot weather or journalists strving to create fear and panic for their own selfish ends?

They Say This Like It's a Bad Thing

John McCain ad irritates many in Hollywood

BES

Bush Estrangement Syndome.

PEV

Policial Ennui Vertigo.

Self-Referential Journalism

NY Times article:

Michelle Obama to get subtle makeover

Beginning with the NY Times article.

Anticipating Keith Olbermann

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush

More proof that the 2004 election was fixed, since Bush had to wait until now to issue this order.

Mass Miss Marketing

I see a lot of people are panning M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening. I haven't seen it and probably won't. Something about the marketing of the movie, "The first ever R-rated movie by M. Night Shyamalan," was more than sufficient to convince me that the producers knew they had a clunker.

It's the End of the World As We Know It

ABC News asks:

Are we living in the last century of our civilization?

Well, that would depend on how we define civilization now, wouldn't it?. Since Lord Clark admitted that he couldn't define it, I'm not sure I can either. However, I am certain that civlization, as I understand it, is more likely to end if these neo-Luddites get their way than it is otherwise. But I digress.

So, what is civilization, and how useful is it to try and project it out one-hundred years? If you could go back in time and grab a half dozen people from 1908 and whisk them back to the present, how many of them would recognize America, or much of the world, as it is now, as the same civilization?

Here are just a few events and differences to think about from 1908:
- Pre-WWI geopolitics, lots of royalty, no communist states, the British Empire is peaking (though this is far from obvious at the time), the Congo Free State is annexed by Belgium.
- Artists in France begin to demonstrate their out of the box thinking via, ahem, Cubism.
- The First International Congress of Psychoanalysis is held in Salzburg.
- No Hollywood; no TV; no radio; Google and YouTube? Please.
- No X-Rays in the hospital emergency rooms, much less CAT Scans, MRIs, etc.; no antibiotics; perhaps 40,000,000 people were yet to die worldwide in the Influenza pandemic ten years later; no blood was yet stored for transfusions.
- Experiments in Vienna indicate that polio is infectious.
- The state of Georgia votes to abolish peonage the following year.
- The first Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line; optimists believe automobiles will solve the pollution problem New York City has with horse manure; General Motors files papers of incorporation.
- The discovery of oil in Texas just eight years earlier had reduced the price of it down to $0.03 a barrel; in some boom towns water cost $0.05 a barrel. In another 30 years oil would be discovered in Saudi Arabia.
- Glenn H. Curtiss is awarded the Scientific American trophy for a public flight of over 1 km!
- Barney Oldfield establishes a new world record for a mile in 51.8 seconds.
- The 46th star (for Oklahoma) is added to the United States flag.
- The Games of the IV Olympiad in London featured 22 countries competing in 22 sports.
- The Hydrox cookie first appeared. [ed. note: Kellogg discontinued it in 2003.]
- If you were a white male, your life expectancy just hit 50 years. If you were a non-white male, you should expect to dead by age 34.
- No man had ever set foot on the North Pole or the South Pole.
- Veterans gathered to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. [ed. note: We are 64 years away from D-Day.]
- There are approximately 10,000,000 phones in the United States, or about one for every 10 people on average. [ed. note: Approximately 135,000,000 cell phones were thrown away last year.]
- A few folks born in 1908: Edward Teller, William Randolph Hearst, Jr., Milton Berle, Lyndon Johnson, Simon Wiesenthal, and Edward R. Murrow.
- The nuclear model of the atom had not yet been released by Ernest Ruthford or Niels Bohr.
- The Chicago Cubs won the World Series! [ed. note: Now there's a portent of the end times.]

But of course, it isn't technology, transhumanism, or radical Islamism that has ABC News' panties in a bunch, but ..., wait for it ..., anthropomorphic global warming and the usual "we're running out of everything" hysteria.

Sigh. But I feel fine.

Same As It Ever Was

Hurricane prediction headlines and results for 2005-2007. Images taken from the National Weather Service National Hurricane Center Archives.

Above-Normal 2005 Hurricane Season Predicted by NOAA

US Forecasters See Active 2006 Hurricane Season

U.S. Agency Predicts Active 2007 Hurricane Season

So, of course, the headline for 2008 is:

U.S. government sees active Atlantic hurricane season

Must have something to do with colder water temperatures or something.

What Crisis?

Newsweek just offered me a professional discount of 92%, apparently because I am breathing, allowing me to get 54 issues for $20.00!

Hmm..., no, I think I'll decline on behalf of the environment and save the trees instead. It's what they would want me to do were they to be taken seriously.

DOWNDATE: An Instalanche! Thank you, sir.

Dog Bites Man

Read this article that claims:

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World

I lost count of the bad assumptions, logical errors and sheer lunatic sentiments expressed and don't want to include the entire text here. FWIW, I purchased rice a week ago and there was no shortage or rationing evident. My stash of Japanese short grain and Basmati comes from Global Foods on Kirkwood Road where about a dozen different types of rice are available in ten to fifty pound bags.

Sing Along

Kyle's Chelsea's mom is a ...

Randi Rhodes, an afternoon host for the progressive Team Air America radio network, was suspended Thursday after repeatedly insulting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at an event last month.

Adventures In Headline Writing

Bengals WR Henry out of jail

The headline writer might want to pay special attention to the first word of the article:

Former Bengal Chris Henry was released from jail Friday, spending an extra night there because no one was available to provide a court-ordered monitoring device.

Sure, If You Ignore Inflation

Can America ever break its addiction to oil statistics that are worse than meaningless when taken out of context?

The U.S. retail price for gasoline set a new high of $3.29 a gallon after rising 3.1 cents over the last week, the federal Energy Information Administration said on Monday.

Maybe we should eliminate the Energy Information Administration and use the money we save to drill for oil in ANWR.

Attention K-Mart Shoppers

Blue state light in aisle three:

50 Cent Flip-Flops: From Hillary To Obama To 'Don't Know'

Perspective

Whoa:

With eight months to go before the U.S. presidential election, the candidates have raised almost $1 billion to fund their campaigns -- more than the size of the economies of several African countries.

Sounds like a lot, especially given that the race for president dominates news coverage. Must be a big deal, right? Not so much:

Wall Street banks, brokerages and hedge funds may report $460 billion in credit losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, or almost four times the amount already disclosed, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Hmm..., I bet that's bigger than the economy of any African country, if not the economy of every African country. Combined. Though why the economies of the most derelict African countries is a measuring stick still remains beyond me. I guess we can thank Robert Mugabe for making our elections look frivolous and expensive.

Nice Try

Remember, the NY Times reports the news and makes no effort to drive it:

Two McCain Moments, Rarely Mentioned

About Time

Sirius-XM deal clears big regulatory hurdle

Simple Economics

The first part of this makes sense, but the latter displays a breathtaking ignorance of supply and demand:

Sales of existing homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in February for the first time in seven months, easing concern credit restrictions and falling prices would hurt demand.

You'd think someone writing for Bloomberg would be embarrassed to type something this silly.

Link via Instapundit.

Precious Pretensions, Purple Prose

Via Amazon's Omnivaracious via Instapundit, here's Paul Wilner on Jackalope Dreams by Mary Clearman Blew:

Sentences seethe with urgent, unhurried energy, ...

No, they don't. But if they did, would that be good or bad?

No Country for Old Men

By chance, I wandered in to see this movie on New Year's Eve in Santa Monica. It deserved the Oscar for Best Picture and then some. Since then, I've read a couple of Cormac McCarthy novels and come to appreciate him a lot. You should too.

When You Walk Through the Garden...

The Wire is probably the best thing on TV since Ken Burns' epic on The Civil War. Lack of posting has inhibited much commentary, but here's a few thoughts outside what I've seen posted elsewhere.

When Hamsterdam had to be covered up, its amazing how much manpower and machinery could be brought to bear virtually overnight compared to the challenges of fighting real crime on the streets.

Throughout the series there are parallels everywhere between what happens on the street and what happens in the "legitimate" world. When I have about 120 hours, I''ll write an essay on this. Anything less and the brilliance and depth cannot even be scatched upon.

Marla Daniels is truly evil. I'm almost thinking she was the driving force behind Cedric's early Narcotic's thieving. Other than that, he's about the cleanest guy in the show. His only real fault seems to be a sense of loyalty that blinds him to those he holds closest.

One of the more perceptive comments over at The House Next Door is that the penultimate episode of each season is almost always the bets. It really is true, but now you'll have to buy the DVDs (or Blu-Rays) to know why.

Season Five has too much "insider baseball" to be as compelling as the previous years. For instance, I've never watched HBO's Entourage because I'm quite certain I could never bring myslef to like or empathize with anyone who makes a living in Hollywood. The newsroom comes close, but at least their level of pretension is at least tolerable since they only think they're smarter, not better, than everyone around them.

To pile on a little on Season Five the fake serial killer and illegal wiretap are a little over the top. Not to mention the coincidence of the fake Pulitzer and Mayor Governor Carcetti all being intrically interwoven into the story line.

It's a tragedy that so few people have seen this. Yes, it's profane and gritty, but it is more real than anything on commercial TV and most everything on cable.

Finally, a few too many happy endings in the final season to fit in with the rest of the series, especially considering the almost total lack of happy endings in the previous seasons.

Far, far too much to do justice to now, but more later.

Is That Obama In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

Sorry, but I couldn't resist noting Chris Matthews' latest Obamagasm:

During MSNBC's live coverage of Tuesday's presidential primary elections, after the speeches of Barack Obama and John McCain had aired, Chris Matthews expressed his latest over the top admiration for Obama's speaking skills as the MSNBC anchor admitted that Obama's speech created a "thrill" in his leg: "It's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often."

Thanks for sharing Chris.

Slow News Day

Thanks for clearing that up ...

Hillary Clinton officially declared she's not a lesbian - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Kennedy told the Daily News he's convinced. "I 100% believe she's a straight, heterosexual woman," he said.

Of course, the correct response would be to wag a finger at the reporter and say, "I did not have sex with that woman." After all, it worked so well before.

I Never Would Have Guessed that So Much Undue Influence Could Be Purchased So Cheaply

Bring back the good old days when newsrooms exerted undue influence on governments and large corporations ...

Dan Rather said Thursday that the undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company.

Assuming for the moment that Dan Rather is right, how exactly will putting $70 million in his pocket fix it?

"Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Dan has joined the black helicopter brigade. As with President Reagan once he left office, the only real question now is how long ago did his faculties fade.

Dear Mr. Foer,

I am cancelling my subscription to The New Republic. I have been a subscriber online for several years and a reader for almost twenty. During that time I have relied upon TNR to offer a reasonable and reliable center-left view of the world, but the latest bit of nonsense with Scott Thomas Beauchamp has been too much. The problems swirling around Mr. Beauchamp are merely a symptom of a much deeper and substantially more difficult problem at TNR. For me, the problem isn't whether Scott Thomas existed, whether he was a soldier, and not even the veracity of his stories -- though that is a bit troublesome. I necessarily expect and grant a little latitude in the presentation of the competing narratives offered by the political journals I read on the left, center and right. The problem is that the narrative you seem to to have settled on lately can be largely summarized as little more than "we suck." You are certainly within your rights to believe that and try to hawk it to whomever you can, but I'm no longer buying it.

Have a nice life.

Simpleton Math

And by 2047, 111% of the population will be overweight ...

If people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese, U.S. researchers predicted on Wednesday.

I'd feel guily about losing 30 pounds, but I have to lose another 22 before the blessed BMI says I will reach my "normal" weight. This vaunted index says I could lose another 67 pounds and still be normal. Somehow, if you saw me at 133 pounds, I think you would believe I was very ill and had probably been so for some time. In fact, last time I was in the 160's some people commented that I was too thin.

Another Attack by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I expect the Clinton camp to denounce Mr. Scaife and his media minions any moment now ...

The Pittsburgh newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife yesterday called the Bush administration's plans to stay the course in Iraq a "prescription for American suicide."

The editorial in the Tribune-Review added, "And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability."

Whatever You Do, Don't Tell Barry Bonds

I'm impressed as heck at what Mr. Pistorius can do. Apparently, not everyone is though ...

The prosthetic legs that double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius races with provide less air resistance than normal legs, the IAAF said on Monday.

Davies said the initial research also showed that the way Pistorius distributed energy was virtually the opposite to able-bodied runners. And unlike able-bodied runners, Pistorius was faster at the end of the race instead of the beginning.

Well, duh. I mean, aren't they all going 0.0 meters/second at the beginning of the race?

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

I'll bet you think this is bad news ...

Undercover Congressional investigators set up a bogus company and obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March that would have allowed them to buy the radioactive materials needed for a so-called dirty bomb.

The investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, demonstrated once again that the security measures put in place since the 2001 terrorist attacks to prevent radioactive materials from getting into the wrong hands are insufficient, according to a G.A.O. report, which is scheduled to be released at a Senate hearing Thursday.

I don't. Why anyone thinks the government is good at anything just because they are the government is beyond me. Sure there's a partisan angle here, but the hubris of imagining that a Kerry or a Gore administration would have no problems like this is laughable. In the meantime, keep giving our, ahem, servants a hard time and keep plugging the holes as fast as possible. Western civilization thrives on criticism, so let's keep up the good work!

Adventures in Headline Writing

Bush says no shift on Iraq

Oh, you said shift.

Sourcing

Two Reuters employees were killed in Iraq today and that is a tragedy. Not missing a beat, even while being burnt as recently as last week by relying on unverified information of American atrocities, Reuters relies upon a preliminary police report that "random American bombardment" killed them.

Random. American. Bombardment.

Because, you know, that's what we do.

DOWNDATE: Here's the photo Reuters used on the story for today's press conference.

Presumably they couldn't get one of him sneezing.

Now That's a Headline

Swedish Volvo workers face big hairy spiders from Brazil

Adventures in Headline Writing

Republican rebellion over Iraq escalates

What an interesting headline. Shouldn't the word rebellion be replaced with the word insurgency? And shouldn't the word escalates be replaced with the word surges? Oh, I forgot that surges are miserable failures before they even begin. Never mind.

When Is An Increase Not An Increase?

Trick question, and, no, I'm not talking about cuts in Medicare, though the underlying mathematical concepts are similar.

Headline:

Iran has slowed down its nuclear work: UN nuclear chief ElBaradei

Lead (lede):

Iran has slowed down the expansion of its nuclear enrichment capabilities at its strategic plant in Natanz, UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday.

Got that? Slowed down the expansion. Iran is still expanding its nukular capability, but just not quite as fast. Gold stars all around and a fresh package of international aid for everyone! Presumably, as a nukular scientist, ElBaradei understands the concept of acceleration and force. All he has said here is that Iran has eased a bit on the accelerator, or for those of you who remember your differential calculus, that the slope of the second derivative is now negative, though almost certainly not the value. But you can't blame ElBaradei for the inconguity between his statement and the headline. For that we can thank the self appointed guardians of our freedoms who apparently don't know the difference between a rate and a rate of change and a rate of change of a rate of change.

Because He Will Sell No Whine Before Its Time?

Drudge asks:

PAPER: Is Michael Moore the new Orson Welles?...

When Everybody Is Special ...

No one is.

Adventures in Headline Writing

State plans probe as Foley grieves for his father

Um, ok.

Actually, Contrasts Would Be More Accurate

Bush compares U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq

But, hey, why expect journalistic accuracy from Big Media to pick up now.

The Funniest Thing I've Read All Day

Last night CNN’s Larry King confessed to Roseanne Barr that ...

Who cares what it was about?

"Words, Words, Words" -- Hamlet

In today's installment of dumbing down the populace for political correctness, I offer you the following:

The New Oxford American Dictionary Announces the Word of the Year: 'Carbon Neutral'

Is it really too much to expect that anyone who publishes a dictionary can count to two and consider that a plural instead of a singular grammatical entity? Or did I miss the memo where a space became the 27th letter?

Adventures in Headline Writing

Ahmadinejad Blasts U.N. Security Council

Let's hope we don't see this one again in a few years with an entirely different meaning.

Hats off to the CBC

Watching the CBC tonight, at the first intermission of the hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs there was a special called Coach's Corner featuring Don Cherry. Tonight, they didn't talk about hockey. Instead, they read a letter from a Canadian Unit in Afghanistan that calls themselves the Crazy Eights. This unit has suffered a casualty rate of over 70%. Intheir letter they mentioned that they had received a signed picture from Don Cherry which they have placed prominently in the trench they live in and that they cannot wait to get back to the greatest country and the greatest game int he world. Don Cherry noted that while the war may not be popular, there is no excuse for not supporting these men and women and caring for the wounded when they return to Canada. Then, the CBC ran a spot where each of the forty-two Candian men and women in uniform and one Canadian diplomat that has fallen in Afghanistan was featured for about six seconds with their picture, their name and their unit while a patriotic theme, which I'm sorry to say could not recognize, played. I was deeply impressed by the respectful way this was done by the CBC without rancor or agenda.

Canada, you have my gratitude. And the CBC rose substantially in my eyes.

Priorities

Remember when Mike Wallace said he wouldn't warn American soldiers of an ambush because he was a reporter? I guess some things are too important for Mr. Wallace to stand on the sidelines and not choose sides:

Famed reporter Mike Wallace has picked sides in the guardianship dispute over philanthropist Brooke Astor.

The Grim Schlepper

I often wonder if Matt Drudge juxtaposes headlines like this intentionally:

Hugo Chavez Receives Iran's Highest Honor...

Iran to hang six men publicly...

Woman of the People

Perky Katie's "Do you know who I am" moment:

The witness told Page Six that attendants on Wednesday's 6:30 p.m. Delta Shuttle flight out of Washington, D.C., had already closed the door and passengers were buckled in, when the soon-to-be CBS News anchor raced up the aisle with a cellphone to her ear and told an attendant she had to speak to the pilot right away.

I'm kind of wondering what might have happened if some of the other passengers had viewed her actions as a threat and tackled and subdued her. After all, wouldn't giving perky, wealthy, middle-aged, caucasian women a pass as a possible terrorist on an airplane constitute a form of profiling?

No Unverified Accusation Is Too Wild For Reuters

Israel 'using chemical weapons'

The proof? We don't need no stinkin' proof. Though not even an organization known to get in front of the news cycle will back this one up:

Human Rights Watch, which has accused the Israeli army of using cluster bombs in populated areas of southern Lebanon, said it had not verified claims that Israel had used phosphorus.

Ask a Stupid Question...

Bad Day at Black Rock for Bush:

60% In CBS/NY Times Poll Say President Not Respected By Foreign Leaders

This doesn't trouble me. The rest of the world wouldn't much care what I think of them right now either.

Stop the Presses!

Another vice like grip on the short and curly hairs of the bleeding obvious:

Heart surgery, depression tied

Don't Mention the Anti-War

Bill Keller as Basil Fawlty:

In a letter to readers, Keller complained about the "angry words of conservative bloggers and TV or radio pundits who say that drawing attention to the government's anti-terror measures is unpatriotic and dangerous." He questioned "why they are drawing so much attention to the story themselves by yelling about it on the airwaves and the Internet."

So if someone does something I regard as egregiously wrong-headed or wicked, the proper response is for me to keep my blog shut about it?

Slow News Day

Definition:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has joined the iPod generation.

Motown tunes, classical music and the Rolling Stones are all on Clinton's iPod playlist, she told the New York Post for Monday editions.

But please, tell me she won't be dancing with her earbuds in while silhouetted against a colorful background.

Correlation = Causation, Big Media Incident #3, 200,341

When Black Monday comes, I'm going to sell everything I own:

CONDITIONS in the financial markets are eerily similar to those that precipitated the “Black Monday” stock market crash of October 1987, according to leading City analysts.

A report by Barclays Capital says the run-up to the 1987 crash was characterised by a widening US current-account deficit, weak dollar, fears of rising inflation, a fading boom in American house prices, and the appointment of a new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Whoa, such stunning parallels amongst five indicators cherry picked from the thousands available. Dude, that's amazing.

For Fun and Profit!

Clinton Plans to Write Book About Activism and Service

Neither Knopf executives nor Robert Barnett, the lawyer who negotiated both of Mr. Clinton's deals, would comment yesterday on the financial terms of the new book. But one industry veteran with knowledge of the deal estimated that Knopf is paying an advance of around $5 million.

Apparently, It Really Does Stink

First B.O. Reports on Da Vinci Code

Silly Question

As mentioned previously, CNN is hyping their poll asking folks to compare the performance of a down in the dumps President Bush with a romanticized version of the utopia that never was during the Clinton administration:

In a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues.

I'm curious though, what where the results of the poll in 1998 that asked how Bill Clinton's performance rated against Former president Bush's? Oh, never mind.

Stupidity Is On the Rise

Everybody hates Bush and Big Media couldn't be happier. Disregarding the public's and Big Media's apparent total ignorance of the economy booming around them, pleae allow me to select merely one sentence from the poll that CBS is trumpeting:

There is also concern that Mr. Bush is spending too much time on foreign policy issues: 55% think so.

Uh..., could it be..., because..., um..., well..., because there's a freakin' war going on? What in the hell is wrong with people? Naturally, Repubicans will yield control of each branch of government at some point in the future, but good Lord, Hillary in the White House with Harry Reid in charge of the Senate and Nancy Pelosi two heartbeats from the Presidency?

DOWNDATE: Haven't these Democrats seen the poll numbers?

Tough-on-terrorism Democrats urged their party on Tuesday to put foreign policy ahead of political retribution in the fall elections, underscoring a divide between the party's hawks and doves that could frame the 2008 presidential campaign.

Several party chiefs, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, have all but promised investigations — and perhaps impeachment proceedings — against President Bush should Democrats gain control of Congress this fall.

Personally, I think the Democrats and their Big Media allies are making a tactical mistake by trumpeting these polls too loudly. All it is doing is putting the Republicans on notice while there is still time for them to work on making things better. It would have been better for the Democrats to keep this data under wraps until the day after election day. They can't even maintain enough discipline within their party to allow the Republicans to destroy themselves without interfering and gloating before the task is complete.

Gosh, I do so look forward to these dimwits running the world.

DOUBLE DOWNDATE: I actually heard the words "booming economy" this morning on NPR, but only as a lead in to to frighten people with incipient runaway inflation.

The World Turned Upside Down Under

It is passing strange that you have to go to Australian media to find out just how good the U.S. economy is doing, even if it is a Reuters feed:

Activity in both the vast US services sector and at factories accelerated more than expected, according to data that pointed to fresh economic vigour and the risk of more interest rate hikes.

Financial markets are hoping the April jobs report will help clarify the outlook for official interest rates. Fed Chairman Bernanke last week said a pause in tightening was possible, but rates rises could resume even after a break in tightening.

Big Media, (Hog)Warts and All

An AP headline like this:

Administration Has No Magic Gas Price Fix

Tells you everything you need to know about the sorry state of journalism today.

More Adventures in Headline Writing

Here's the headline:

Girl, 5, dies after Israel fires on Palestinian militants

And here's the story:

A GIRL aged five and her bombmaker father were among six people killed last night when Israeli aircraft fired missiles into a car carrying Palestinian militants, in the deadliest Israeli attack since the Hamas-led Palestine government took office.

Iyad Abul Aynayn, 29, who had ties to Hamas and was a chief bombmaker for the group, and his daughter were among the dead. A further 14 people were also injured in the blasts.

I'm sorry for the little girl, but I don't think Israel can give a pass to terrorists just because they keep children close by, no matter how bloodthirsty it allows their enemies to paint them. For those that think the Israeli's are cruel, inhumane monsters, what exactly do you call the bombmaking daddy? And why should Israel wait for him to blow somebody else's children up?

Pretty Man, Pretty Woman

Stupid actors:

With warnings about global warming reaching a fever pitch in recent weeks--Vanity Fair is about to come out with a special section featuring George Clooney and Julia Roberts on its cover--most Americans are convinced that the Earth is being affected, but they have still not grown urgently concerned about it, according to a Gallup poll released today.

Maybe the public is smarter than they get credit for. I know that this may be difficult for the editors of Vanity Fair to understand, but when I am looking for serious advice or relevant information on politics, science, or (gasp!) global warming, my instincts aren't to pay attention to a magazine that has Kiera Knightly and Scarlet Johannson naked on their cover. When I look at magazines with naked women on the cover, politics and science aren't foremost in my consciousness, nor I'm guessing most anyone else's.

Adventures in Headline Writing

Courtey of Reuters:

W.House does not dispute Bush leak allegation

In other news, W. House refuses to say whether Bush has stopped beating his wife.

Balanced Views

Sometimes, I get the idea that most of the speed dial numbers on every AP reporter's phone are for "activists":

Plans for a Pentagon-led experiment that involves detonating 700 tons of explosives in the desert drew criticism from state leaders and a disarmament activist.

Disarmament activist Pete Litster said tests at the site violate international law. Litster, executive director of the Shundahai Network, said the site belongs to the Western Shoshone Indian tribe.

Why is it so difficult to get folks to understand that this constitutes editorializing in what is ostensibly a news story? There is no news here, just a transcribed press release from someone with a constituency of, well, himself and, apparently, AP reporters.

Now That's Progress!

It only took 10 days to sink in:

Commentator Arianna Huffington apologized to readers for a blog posted on her Web site on March 13 that was attributed to actor George Clooney but was actually a compilation of his views.

"I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn't originate as a blog post, but was pieced together from previous interviews," she wrote. "I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier."

But then again, like Oscar Wilde once said, "the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." And the AP humbly complies.

With Apologies to Monty Python

Drudge: See! Big Media hates Bush! You automatically gainsay anything the President does.
ABC: No, we don't.
Drudge: Yes, you do!
ABC: No, we don't.
Drudge: Yes, you do!
ABC: No, we don't.
Drudge: Yes, you do! John Green slipped up and admitted it on your corporate e-mail system.
ABC:
Drudge:
ABC:
Drudge:
ABC: He could have been hating Bush on his own time.
Drudge:
ABC:
Drudge:
ABC: And stop questioning our patriotism by stifling our dissent!

Adventures in Headline Writing

Aid workers freed in Iraq

I have a problem with that headline. It seems to me that the verb "freed" implies that their kidnappers let them go. I think the verb "rescued" is much more appropriate here. In fact, I think Reuters agrees with me since the first sentence of this story reads:

British-led forces rescued three Christian peace activists from captivity on Thursday after finding them tied up in a house in western Baghdad, two weeks after their American colleague was tortured and killed.

Too bad Tom Fox wasn't "freed" a few weeks ago.

I Have To Highlight This Poll

Because I think I was interviewed by a Zogby zombie about two months ago to help generate the results:

Mexicans see Americans as racist, dishonest and exploitative, while Americans see Mexicans as hardworking and think they are more tolerant than Americans.

"Mexicans think Americans are neither hard workers nor honest," the report's authors wrote. "They see them as racist, intolerant and moderately law-abiding."

The challenge of being lazy, dishonest, racist and intolerant, though moderately law-abiding was not further discussed.

I think I must have been a real outlier as the questions came and I was offered only multiple choice answers that were neither mutually exclusive nor comprehensive of the set of answers I had in response. At one point I was asked how many Canadian provinces and Mexican states I could name. She cut me off at around 10 of the Canadian provinces and 8 of the Mexican states, stating that very few of the respondents could name three of either. The fact that I am generally well informed, though conservative, and very much in favor of increased legal immigration also seemed to make me something of an oddball, if I interpreted her comments correctly

But the real reason I am writing abou this now is that the Zogby zombie asked me if I would be willing to participate in more surveys, presumably because my answers were sufficiently idiosyncratic enough that they could be manipulated with the appropriate phrasing of questions in the future. Alas, despite assurances that I would be hearing from them very soon, no further communication has taken place. So my ability to provide a lonely data point of logical sanity in these seriously bogus polls appears to have been lost.

Adventures in Headline Writing

Scandal shakes public radio

Actually, that should be:

Scandal shakes public radio, again

Sell the Fizzle

Not the flakes:

Anti-war protesters in SLC, elsewhere lament apathy

I Hear You Knockin' on Al Roker's Door, I Love You Baby Can I Have Some More...

I'm surprised Marc hasn't posted this one yet:

Not one, but two WSLS (Channel 10) meteorologists -- Marc Lamarre and Jamey Singleton -- have struggled with a heroin addiction in recent months, according to an interview with Singleton that aired on WSLS's late-night newscast Friday.

Adventures In Headline Writing

West may have to live with low-level Iranian atom work

You know, it isn't living with it that has us troubled.

The Sky is Falling, Rising, Cooling, Heating -- Whatever

Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists

Well, sure, but let's be honest, the sun's rising alarms environmentalists. But who is it that has the permanently frightened's panites all in a bunch?

In his new book about Mr. Bush, "Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, "State of Fear," suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Ah, Michael Crichton. I suppose it's a character fault, but I do find it amusing to taunt those who's barely adequate psychic defenses cannot withstand the expression of any contradictory opinions. It does show you just how much faith they have in their ability to convince you of the correctness of their opinion, doesn't it?

NPR Lies With Statistics

I just wanted to document this further for posterity:

President Bush defended his federal budget blueprint Wednesday, countering critics from both sides of the aisle who have greeted with skepticism — and even outright hostility — his proposals to trim spending on Medicare and other programs.

Bush's $2.77 trillion budget plan for fiscal 2007, the most austere since the Reagan era, asks Congress to trim Medicare spending by $35.9 billion over five years. Under that scenario, spending on the government health program for the elderly and disabled would grow at a rate of 7.7 percent — instead of 8.1 percent, as currently projected.

All that was said about this on NPR's Morning Edition this morning was that Bush is cutting Medicare and they interviewed an advocate who lamented that this attempt to destroy Medicare will hurt the poor. Don't advocates for the poor realize how much credibility they lose when they say stupid things like this? Of course, anyone who thinks a growth rate of even 7.7 percent can be sustained indefinitely on a program this massive is a freaking dolt. It's not just a matter of all of us having to work for the government, it's that we will all soon enough be working for the governemnt just to provide Medicare. Jumping bejesus, where in Hell are the adults in Congress and in the media who will act like adults on this instead of conspiring to further a meme that, in Donald Luskin's words, keeps you poor and stupid.

But I'm curious about one thing for those who choose to call this a cut -- if you received a raise of 8.1 percent for each of the last four years but this year only got a raise of 7.7 percent, would you be standing at the water cooler complaining about how your boss just cut your salary this year?

Just the Facts, M'am

Things were so much better when Saddam was in charge:

CNN's top war correspondent Christiane Amanpour now says the Iraq war has been a disaster and has created a "black hole." Amanpour made the comments Monday evening on the all-news network. "The Iraq war has been a disaster. It's a spiraling security disaster," Amanpour explains to Larry King. "It just gets worse and worse."

Or is this just an overreaction to Bob Woodruff's injuries?

I think I'm going to start holding utopians to utopian standards.

Adventures in Headline Writing

Via Reuters:

NATO treads cautiously into Afghan quagmire

Jeez, even the successes are Vietnam all over again.

The Empire Strikes Back

And I thought they were merely being reactionary:

Steven Spielberg: "I just feel that filmmakers are much more proactive since the second Bush administration. I think that everybody is trying to declare their independence and state their case for the things that we believe in. No one is really representing us, so we're now representing our own feelings, and we're trying to strike back."

Sad, isn't it.

Adventures in Headline Writing

When I read this:

Iran atomic program called major U.N. test

I wasn't sure it conveyed quite the message they intended. Hmm..., are they grading on a curve or is it pass/fail? And the consequences of failing are what exactly?

I'd Like to Think It is Because Facts Matter More Than Truth in Reporting

But I know better:

"Truth no longer matters in the context of politics and, sadly, in the context of cable news," said Aaron Brown, whose four-year period as anchor of CNN's NewsNight ended in November, when network executives gave his job to Anderson Cooper in a bid to push the show's ratings closer to front-runner Fox News.

And no doubt the man who once said, "I am CNN," considers himself in no way responsible for this.

Leaks!

Hmmm..., I wonder if the NY Times or the Washington Post would publish the Barrett Report if it was leaked in full, and if they would fete the leaker. Or would that be regarded as helping the nation's enemies, i.e., Republicans?

Reuters' Grasp on the Short and Curlies of the Bleeding Obvious Remains Vise-Like

Sudan says U.S. force in Darfur unwelcome

A Santayana Aphorism Comes to Mind

What troubles me most about this is that, once again, the Grand Poohbahs of our society are promoting the idea that who says something is more important than what is said:

Having ascended to the national stage as one of the most vocal critics of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha has long downplayed the controversy and the bitterness surrounding the two Purple Hearts he was awarded for military service in Vietnam.

Being a hero in the past and now saying stupid things are not mutually exclusive. Cripes, doesn't anybody remember Charles Lindbergh anymore?

Meanwhile in the, Ahem, Reality-Based Community...

Today's Madison, WI, Capital Times editorial:

Today marks a critical turning point in the debate about holding President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney accountable for the deliberate deceptions, failed strategies and assaults on the Constitution that have been associated with their ill-fated invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Organized by local veterans and co-sponsored by a broad cross-section of local political, labor and community groups, the meeting offers an opportunity to start 2006 right: by recognizing that the best way to end the war is by calling to account the dark players who launched it in our name but without our informed consent.

It takes years of therapy and/or the prolonged application of some strong pharmaceuticals to be this delusional. I'm impressed.

Bow Down Before "The Report"

Report Questions Legal Basis for Bush's Spying Program

Shouldn't that be "Reporter Questions Legal Basis for Bush's Spying Program"?

President Bush's rationale for authorizing eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants rests on questionable legal ground and "may represent an exercise of presidential power at its lowest ebb," according to a formal Congressional analysis released today.

And that would be illegal because..., because..., Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? I don't know, maybe there is some mention of illegality in "The Report" but since there are no other excerpts from "The Report" in the story, I guess I just have to take the reporter's word for it. Or I can put my faith in someone who did read the report and isn't a reporter, though to be fair, John Hinderaker is calling the Washington Post out rather than the NY Times.

Enquiring Minds and All That

Just in case you thought Big Media had any second thoughts or shame concerning their reporting on Hurrican Katrina and it's aftermath... Shepard Smith is reporting live from New Orlean's 9th Ward this evening.

Cherry Picking In the Antarctic

Headline: Antarctic ozone hole 'larger'

Lede: THE winter hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica appears to have grown from last year but is still smaller than in 2003, when it was at its largest, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said today.

See! It's larger, except when it was smaller.

"I'm Going To Focus On This Problem Like a Laser Beam"

Fed's vow to get tough on illegal immigrants:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, acknowledging public frustration over illegal immigration, said Tuesday that the federal government's detention and deportation system must be fundamentally restructured.

"We have decided to stand back and take a look at how we address the problem and solve it once and for all," Chertoff said during a breakfast meeting with reporters.

They were a bit fuzzy on the details though.

Smells Like Katrina's Spirit

So, apparently Alessandra Stanley and the NY Times are under the illusion that MTV still plays music:

It was impossible not to snicker a little at the notion of Al Gore creating a hip, youth-oriented cable network, and sure enough, Current TV is at first glance a punch line: MTV without the music.

Jeez, if you want to suck up to Al Gore, be my guest. After all, look what you've done for Air America. But before you embarrass yourself any further you might want to listen to this. Just click on 1985. (Special bonus if you notice the link is actually from MTV!)

DOWNDATE: Oh, this stuff is like, great. Their journalism professors must so proud -- 8 minutes!

Even Reuters Is Right Twice a Day

Not the lead story on tonight's news:

A key measure of future U.S. economic performance edged up 0.1 percent in July, a private research group said Thursday. The New York-based Conference Board said its index of leading indicators climbed to 138.3 last month after an upwardly revised rise of 1.2 percent in June.

Hope Springs Eternal

Deep Throat envy is rampant:

Somebody is lying. So wrote Terry Neal, a Washington Post reporter, on July 25 2005. He was writing about one of the strangest stories to engulf the White House since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. It is the story of an official investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA operative to the media. According to a 1982 law, that kind of leak would be illegal. Two prominent names have emerged in the investigation of the leak – Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff, and Lewis Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

The investigation appears now to be heading towards rapid conclusion. If the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, finds that either Mr Rove or Mr Libby or both violated the law, they would face criminal charges, and the Bush administration would find itself enmeshed in a scandal of dimensions that are already being compared to the Nixon-era Watergate scandal.

Poor Marvin, stuck in the echo chamber so long he's beginning to lose it.

How Can You People Sleep At Night?

Judith Miller is still in jail! I keep waiting for that Spartacus moment when everyone else in Big Media stands up and says, "I'm Judith Miller," and voluntarily share her fate.

Cindy Sheehan's Fair Wail Tour

Morning Edition found time morning to report on the growing Big Media Productions, Inc. Circus that is engulfing Cindy Sheehan, with a gratuitous tip of the hat to the locals who toot their horns while driving --see, not everyone in Texas is stupid. Yet l didn't hear anything about the letter the rest of the Sheehan family sent calling this whole thing something of an abomination. But don't you dare claim there is media bias!

I Guess Oil Would Be $150 a Barrel If We Hadn't Invaded Iraq And Stole All Their Oil

Anybody want to guess how soon we see Paul Krugman write a column on the oil bubble?

Oil surges to $66 a barrel

Snicker..., and how Bush failed to protect those whose life savings were tied up in oil futures? Of course, like all economic data points, this is good news for some and bad news for others. The people of liberated Iraq will mostly benefit from these high prices, but what are the chances you will ever here this story reported from that perspective?

Totally Unwarranted Projection of Bias

Listening to Linda Wertheimer on Morning Edition at the top of the hour while driving into work this morning, I heard her say something along the lines of, (paraphrasing) "What can we do when the President of Niger will not admit that his people are starving?", as the teaser to this story.

And all I could think of was, "Blame Bush?"

DOWNDATE: Gee, think this will get any time on NPR?

Originality Is Overrated

Beth Quinn writes that Bush is, ...wait for it ..., stupid.

Somebody tell me again why I shouldn't be paid to be a columnist.

Uh, No Actually

Editor And Publisher thinks they have a scoop:

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and in what newspapers in Kentucky are calling a first, one American has killed another in a dispute over the Iraq war.

As it happens, the first incident I remember where one American killed another in a dispute over the liberation of Iraq was when Sgt. Asan Akbar threw grenades into the tents of his fellow soldiers back in March 2003.

DOWNDATE: And, of course, there's also the tragic case of Pat Tillman and doubtless other friendly fire casualties, though admittedly, that's not quite the same thing.

Ticking Away the Moments That Make Up a Dull Day

Dear Time, check your assumptions:

After six months as Secretary of State, she has seized control over U.S. foreign policy. Now comes her toughest test--finding a way out of Iraq.

It's not about how to get out, it's about winning. Until you grasp that, the actions of the administration are never going to make sense to you.

Spot the Oxymoron

Can you find it?

A man filmed himself jumping to his death on his mobile video phone and beamed the live images to his horrified girlfriend, an inquest heard.

Hmm..., Maybe I'd Better Resurrect Phaedrus

D.C. Airspace May Be Restricted for Good

Now We Can Find Out Definitively Whether Republicans Really Do Want to Kill Old People

Now, I really don't wish Helen Thomas ill, but this comment seems to me to be remarkably illustrative of the current Leftist mindset. Either that or Helen has been stricken with a case of terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome -- self-inflicted, of course:

"The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself," she told the HILL. "All we need is one more liar."

Please note that Mr. Cheney doesn't have to win, all he has to do is run for Helen to deprive us forever more of her tendentious and utterly predictable wit and wisdom. Poor Helen of UPI, the face that launched a thousand quips.

Stone Casting

Drudge says:

Mel Gibson's next film will feature abundant violence...

What has stirred the passions of so many about Mel's movie-making now that were not stirred previously with the release of Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Lethal Weapon 2 Lethal Weapon 3 and Lethal Weapon 4? And those are just the sequels! Do Raimi or Bay watch themselves slandered in this manner?

"I'm From Hollywood"

Recently, some have been suggesting that Hollywood’s disconnect with Middle America is one of the primary rationales behind the steep decline in box office revenues this year. Considering the selection of well-known conspiracy nut Oliver Stone to direct the first studio movie about 9/11, George Lucas’ puerile incorporation of Move On talking points into the Star Wars prequels, and David Koepp, the War of the Worlds screenwriter, statement that the US military are the Martians in that flick, well, maybe they have a point.

To test this thesis further, I thought perhaps a comparison of Hollywood’s output during WW II could be compared to Hollywood’s output during WW IV, or as is more commonly known, the GWOT – Global War on Terrorism. But to be fair to the current incarnation of Hollywood, I’ll limit the movies, documentaries, and shorts from WW II to those that were under consideration to be nominated for Academy Awards. After all, back in those days, Hollywood lacked the twenty and thirty year-old television sitcoms to remake tired nostalgic covers out of, so they had to focus more closely on the human condition and how it was playing out in real life.

The first thing we have to decide is what time period we should compare for WW II and WW IV. In my humble opinion, the GWOT effectively began on September 11, 2001. The free world was attacked many times previously, but we weren’t fighting back as though we could lose. Still, Bill Clinton did launch cruise missiles into Afghanistan and Sudan on August 20, 1998, so I’ll take that as the starting date for the GWOT. That means that we have been fighting the GWOT, albeit for a while before it was recognized as such, for six years, ten months and twenty-nine days.

Interestingly, determining the date of the start of WW II is just as subjective. Did it begin with the Anschluss on March 13, 1938, which violated the Treaty of Versailles, or did it begin on September 1, 1939 when German troops invaded Poland, or two days later when Great Britain and France declared war on Germany? I will select September 1, 1939 as the start of WW II, since that is when the live firing and massive casualties first occurred. Of course, one could select dates much earlier for the “root causes” of WW II, but the same can be said for the GWOT, so the diminishing returns of trying to put too fine a point on it should permit me to take my assumptions and proceed without further concern or deliberation. For the sake of comparison, adding six years, ten months and twenty-nine days to the chosen start of WW II gives us July 30, 1946 as the end of the WW II period under examination. Since this is after the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, that effectively ended WW II, I'll take the earlier date as the end of the period under review.

To make this task easier from a research perspective, I’ll round the dates down to shorten the period for WW II and lengthen it for the GWOT giving us:

WW II: January 1, 1940 – December 31, 1944
GWOT: January 1, 1998 – December 31, 2005

So what movies, documentaries and shorts did Hollywood produce during this period after the start of WW II that promoted or spoke highly of patriotism, encouraged self-defense, supported the war effort, and ridiculed our enemies; or if you are so predisposed, movies that proudly say, “Us Good, Them Bad.” And remember, we are only interested in movies, shorts and documentaries that were under consideration for Academy Award nominations, so we’ll gloss over the dross that was inevitably put out even then.

1940 (Whose got the courage today to ridicule our enemies, and can you imagine the second film remade today?)
The Great Dictator
Foreign Correspondent

1941 (Keep in mind, no one had attacked the US prior to December 7, 1941, so it is unlikely any of these went into production on December 8, 1941 and were finished before the end of the year.)
Sergeant York
Dive Bomber
Bomber
Christmas Under Fire
Churchill's Island
A Letter From Home
Norway in Revolt
Soldiers of the Sky
War Clouds in the Pacific
Buck Privates
Army Champions
The Tanks Are Coming
Flight Command
I Wanted Wings

1942 (Oh my, Mr. Cohan! That'll never do today, just ask Dennis Miller.)
Yankee Doodle Dandy
To the Shores of Tripoli
Wake Island
Africa, Prelude to Victory
The Battle of Midway
Combat Report
Conquer by the Clock
High Stakes in the East
Inside Fighting China
It's Everybody's War
Kokoda Front Line!
Listen to Britain
Little Belgium
Little Isles of Freedom
Mr. Blabbermouth!
Mr. Gardenia Jones
Moscow Strikes Back
The New Spirit
Prelude to War
A Ship Is Born
Twenty-One Miles
We Refuse to Die
White Eagle
Winning Your Wings
This Above All
Der Fuerher's Face
United States Marine Band
Beyond the Line of Duty
Don't Talk
Private Smith of the U.S.A.
Flying Tigers
Friendly Enemies
The Navy Comes Through
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
The Invaders (aka 49th Parallel)

1943 (You must remember this...)
Casablanca
Watch on the Rhine
Five Graves to Cairo
Flight for Freedom
Mission to Moscow
This is the Army
Thousands Cheer
Air Force
Corvette K-225
Sahara
So Proudly We Hail!
Baptism of Fire
The Battle of Russia
Desert Victory
For God and Country
Report from the Aleutians
Silent Village
War Department Report
Bismarck Convoy Smashed
Day of Battle
December 7th
The Dutch Tradition
The Labor Front
Land of My Mother
Letter from Livingston
Life Line
Plan for Destruction
The Rear Gunner
Servant of a Nation
Swedes in America
Task Force
To the People of the United States
Tomorrow We Fly
Wings Up
Commandos Strike At Dawn
In Which We Serve
Amphibious Fighters
Cavalcade of Dance with Veloz and Yolanda
Champions Carry On
Women At War
This Is the Army
This Land Is Mine
Bombadier
Crash Dive
The North Star

1944 (Battle fatigue is beginning to set in.)
Address Unknown
Since You Went Away
Lifeboat
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
The White Cliffs of Dover
The Fighting Lady
Resisting Enemy Interrogation
Arturo Toscanini
New Americans
With the Marines at Tarawa
Since You Went Away
The Fighting Seabees
Days of Glory
Secret Command
None Shall Escape
The Sullivans

Well now, that's quite a list, don't you think? I'm not sure whether I'm surprised so many of these films, documentaries and shorts were produced or that so many were considered worthy by the Academy. My how things have changed. Can you imagine many of the stars of Hollywood wearing a uniform today, even if it was only for Army's Motion Picture unit narrating training films?

But what has Hollywood produced, whether worthy of the Academy's notice or not, since the beginning of the GWOT that might generously be said to be patriotic, reflecting a right to self-defense, showing our troops in a positive light, advocating the virtues of Western Civilization, and satirizing terrorists; or, again, if you are so predisposed, further perpetuating jingoistic fascism?

1998
Saving Private Ryan

1999
Three Kings

2000

2001
Black Hawk Down

2002
We Were Soldiers

2003
Tears of the Sun

2004
Team America: World Police

2005

My, oh my, the cupboards pretty bare, isn’t it? I mean, it's not as if these any of these are gung ho morale raisers. It is always possible that a slew of films and documentaries will come out between now and the end of the year that would merit inclusion on this list, but I'm not going to hold my breath, and I don't expect to see Oliver Stone's movie until at least next year -- if at all. Oh, I suppose some credit could be given for Fox Television’s 24, or the BBC’s Dirty War, but that would seem to be offset by Hollywood changing the bad guys in Tom Clancy’s The Sum of All Fears from Islamofascists to American white supremacists so as not to offend. And let's not mention the popular documentaries of the last few year or the ritualized abuse of history as represented by Oliver Stone's Alexander and Wolfgang Peterson's Troy.

The paucity of films, documentaries and shorts during the last seven and a half years that put forward a pre-postmodern, non-ironic, dare I say positive spin on patriotism – much less, patronizing or ignoring what at least half the country believes – would seem to be virtually a definition of sins of omission. I’ve heard that talk is cheap, but when it comes to speaking up for America and Western Civilization, Hollywood doesn’t even seem to have two cents to offer. And strangely, given Hollywood’s apparent willingness to ignore, if not insult, half its audience, I guess we can retire that other old aphorism – money talks, bullshit walks – since Hollywood is leaving a lot of money on the table to spout bullshit and maintain ideological purity.

There’s a documentary of sorts about Andy Kaufman’s wrestling ca