This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow



I just love this picture.

Big weekend... I just noticed that some time this afternoon, I got my 10,000th hit. How about that.

The Blogs of War

Congratuations to Dr. Frank on his sudden wedding.

Cuban Defectors Reunited on Marlins

As you probably know, there's one group that has free immigation to the United States: professional athletes, and potential professional athletes.

Bush Seeking to Squeeze School Loan Program

Of course he is. So many sarcastic comments, so little time... Things he could have said, but didn't:

"Couldn't they just get the money from their parents?"
"Let them eat trade schools."
"Hey, I never went to class in college, and look at me now."

OK, I'll be fair, he's not actually cutting school loans. He's looking to cut consolidation loans for graduates. I like to think of this as the Bankruptcy Lawyers' Full Employment Act.

Cuomo Dogged by Sept. 11 Remarks

I must be missing something, or maybe I'm just blind to the faults of Democrats or something. I don't see what Cuomo said that was so wrong:

In the wake of the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers, Cuomo said Giuliani emerged as the leader while Pataki ``held the leader's coat.''

Ignoring the fact that that's true -- heck, for a few days there not only Pataki but President Bush was deferring to Giuliani -- I can only guess that we're not allowed to play politics with 9-11. Is that it?

Today's Disappointing Monty Python Moment

Soul Patrols Disney Channel

Oh, Eric, how could you?

Disney announced the start of production on The Soul Patrol (working title), a new Disney Channel original movie starring Tommy Davidson, Eric Idle and Kathy Najimy as a trio of ghosts who help two teens fight another spirit seeking revenge on a town. The Halloween tale is executive-produced by Paula Hart and Hartbreak Films (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) and is written by Dan Berendsen (Sabrina) and directed by Stuart Gillard.

Holy Zero-Tolerance Idea Gets Boost

Holy Zero-Tolerance, Batman!

Even the Cardinals who were in Rome this week don't know what the policy is. Now, that's a great policy.

Today's Monty Python Moment: Politicians, an Apology

'WE WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE WAY IN WHICH POLITICIANS ARE REPRESENTED IN THIS PROGRAMME. IT WAS NEVER OUR INTENTION TO IMPLY THAT POLITICIANS ARE WEAK-KNEED, POLITICAL TIME-SERVERS WHO ARE CONCERNED MORE WITH THEIR PERSONAL VENDETTAS AND PRIVATE POWER STRUGGLES THAN THE PROBLEMS OF GOVERNMENT, NOR TO SUGGEST AT ANY POINT THAT THEY SACRIFICE THEIR CREDIBILITY BY DENYING FREE DEBATE ON VITAL MATTERS IN THE MISTAKEN IMPRESSION THAT PARTY UNITY COMES BEFORE THE WELL-BEING OF THE PEOPLE THEY SUPPOSEDLY REPRESENT NOR TO IMPLY AT ANY STAGE THAT THEY ARE SQUABBLING LITTLE TOADIES WITHOUT AN OUNCE OF CONCERN FOR THE VITAL SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF TODAY. NOR INDEED DO WE INTEND THAT VIEWERS SHOULD CONSIDER THEM AS CRABBY ULCEROUS LITTLE SELF-SEEKING VERMIN WITH FURRY LEGS AND AN EXCESSIVE ADDICTION TO ALCOHOL AND CERTAIN EXPLICIT SEXUAL PRACTICES WHICH SOME PEOPLE MIGHT FIND OFFENSIVE.

WE ARE SORRY IF THIS IMPRESSION HAS COME ACROSS.

File13's Amish Tech Support

Laurence, you're not a pathetic whore... For now, at least, I'm leaving all the old stuff (other than one or two things I'm reposting) over on Blogspot; hey, why use up server space if I don't have to? But I am putting up a great big link, which I should have done already, probably.

Honestly, check out File13 if you haven't already, it's great. (And it will get a prominent place whenever I figure out the next permalink system.) And now, another of his limericks:

In Arabic, Islam means "Peace"
But their terrorists will never cease
If they run out of sons
For their suicide bombs
Then they'll gladly send out a niece

The American Prospect Doesn't Get It.

JUST WONDERING. Ralph Nader outlines a clear and concise agenda for the left. Whatever one thinks of his candidacy in the last presidential election, we can't help but wonder why some of this populist agenda isn't picked up by one of those would-be Democratic presidential contenders.

Because Nader got about three percent of the vote. Even if, somehow, someone got the nomination (by getting everyone who voted for Nader to the primary polls) he'd be slaughtered in the general election. Mondale and McGovern would be able to laugh at him.

USATODAY.com - Law not taking Vatican job, representative says

We'll see; at any rate, this gives me another chance to use my joke that promoting Cardinal Law would be an example of the St. Peter Principle. I'm childish that way.

USATODAY.com - Sex scandal reaches armed forces chaplains

I'm guessing, however, that some of these chaplains were punished for things that would not, ordinarily, be considered criminal. The real link here is that the Army appears to have been a dumping ground for child molesters. I would guess the Church didn't realize that army bases aren't adults-only; for one thing, a lot of soldiers have children.

I posted this earlier today on Blogspot, but I liked it so much I'm reposting it here.
War Liberal: Singularly dim!

Lee Ann objects to my post of a few days ago about profanity on TV. The short answer is that I have no objection to the PTCPWHWTMTOTHYTYBATKEOTKT exercising their free speech rights. I was just exercising my free speech rights to make fun of them, because I think they're upset over nothing. It's just words.

The long answer is that of course they have a right to complain about what's broadcast. At the same time, I have a right to complain about being shown bland garbage like Seventh Heaven, and the other shows targeted to the PTC demographic. My opinion is that there's plenty of room on the dial for everyone to have shows they like; the PTCPWHWTMTOTHYTYBATKEOTKT thinks that there's plenty of room on the dial for 100 different varieties of bland garbage.

The PTC crowd was instrumental in getting the V-Chip installed in all new television sets, and getting a ratings system in place for all shows. And then they ignored them and went back to calling for self-censorship.

There's a poll up at the PTC site. These are their candidates for favorite prime-time show:

Seventh Heaven [sucks], Sabrina The Teenage Witch [sucks, should have been cancelled years ago], Who Wants To Be A Millionaire [bor-ing!], My Wife And Kids [ditto, only added to get a "black show" on there], Touched by an Angel [sucks, bad theology], Doc [stars Billy Ray Cyrus, enough said], Malcolm In The Middle [outstanding], Other.

I'm sorry, Lee Ann, but I don't see how the PTC is fighting for "serious thought in an eloquent, mature manner" at all. It looks to me like they're trying to foist bland garbage on us. Throw in that their "current campaigns" include attempts to get the critically acclaimed "The Shield" and my favorite program of recent years, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" thrown off the air (and will probably succeed in the former), and who is advocating censorship? How about when I add that the first thing you see when you go there is their campaign against a video game? There are lots of video games to choose from; they want to limit everyone else's choices, not add to their own.

Happy TV Turn-off Week, y'all. Is this what it feels like to be Gena?

Thanks, but no thanks, for the memories, Bob

Remember when I said Milton Berle was never funny? Neal Justin feels pretty much the same way about Bob Hope.

lake effect: a weblog

Hey, Lake Effect is back up!

I figured I'd start the new site off with my "greatest hit", so to speak; this is the post I've done that got the most hits, anyway. Originally posted March 15.

VodkaPundit

Stephen Green thinks I might be becoming a [gasp] conservative:

No, I Am Your Father
Mac Thomason, War Liberal, is slowly coming over to the Dark Side.

Love your work, Mac, but when you're supporting free markets, recognizing the value of the US Navy in protecting free trade, admiring free trade, and the talking about the value of a Western education... well, it might be time to drop the word "liberal."

Welcome aboard.

There is something to this: I am, I know, more hawkish than I was last year at this time. But then, I supported the Gulf War -- or what I guess we'll be calling Gulf War I pretty soon -- at the time. My first reaction when I heard about the invasion of Kuwait was, "We should do something to protect an ally, but of course we won't." And I was 20 years old at the time, so a war could have had some profound effects on me. I think I underestimated the impact the end of the Cold War would have on our willingness to intervene. Anyway, about a year later, I took to saying that the US Marine Corps was the greatest force for good in the world.

The worst thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party was the Vietnam War. Of course, the D's were the least of the victims of the war, but from the 1968 convention to the 1992 primaries (when Clinton and Tsongas laid a smackdown on the left) the party was essentially captured by its lunatic fringe, and that fringe hated the military. Even those (the majority) who weren't out-and-out pacifists couldn't understand that the military was not only necessary, but a necessary good.

My mother (the Ginpundit) tried to raise me a pacifist, but it didn't take. When I was young -- about ten, I'd guess -- one of the hot topics was the nuclear freeze/nuclear disarmament. Continental Europeans, I remember, were really big on that. My reaction was basically: "Wait, if we disarmed, wouldn't the Russians just take over, or kill us all?" I was told it was more complicated than that, and I was young, so I believed. A few years later, I realized that it wasn't more complicated than that, and that the Russians would have either taken over or killed us all.

Free trade... Stephen probably doesn't want to hear this, but a major influence on me in that (overcoming the biases of a profoundly unionist family) was Paul Krugman. Really, read his books and his Slate columns sometime. I know he's been way off, especially since September, but I think the shorter format is bad for him. Anyway, I think free trade is wonderful. And I'll point out that it wasn't Clinton who threw up (pun intended) the steel tariff, or the Democrats who produced Pat Buchanan. I've more or less decided that free trade is a battle of the sensible center against the lunatic fringe of both sides.

Similarly, I think Western education -- even more specifically, Anglospheric education -- is wonderful as well. I've never understood how anyone could stand on the campus of, oh, let's say, the University of California at Berkeley (or Oxford or Cambridge!), and not think that. I've spent most of my adult life either attending or working at colleges. Heaven, to me, is a good academic library; the one I work at isn't heaven, but it's probably more than I deserve.

However... I don't consider any of this contrary to "liberalism" as I understand it, to the slightly left-of-center politics of the New Republic or the Democratic Leadership Council, or Bill Clinton for that matter. President Clinton is, of course, a repugnant human being. But I probably agreed with his policies about eighty percent of the time, and I'd guess that if you took out the times when he was clearly pandering and going against his best political judgment (and there was never anything wrong with his political judgment) it would be more like 95%. "Liberal" was used as a smear word by Republicans in the eighties, who used it to mean, basically, "Socialist". I've never felt that way. Glenn Kinen today said that he thinks he's a (John) Kennedy Democrat, and I feel I'm in that tradition, and that of Truman, and FDR.

There are a number of things I don't normally talk about here, because they haven't been part of the national debate lately, but where I'm far out of step with the Republican Party, and more or less in agreement with the Democratic. I'm an environmentalist, though whenever possible I prefer the carrot of tax credits to the stick of regulation. And I favor our current progressive income tax. I think the current Federal income tax structure is more or less right; not perfect, but at least in the top 5 percentile. (I also think that taxes were ridiculously high before Reagan's cut, but most Democrats these days would agree with that.) I wish the State of Alabama would raise the income tax and lower sales taxes. I'm biased (in that my father and my communist sister are trial lawyers and my brother is in training to join the crowd) but I think "tort reform" is mostly a scam corporations are trying to pull to get away with selling defective products and services. (I'm not saying that there aren't times when juries go too far, but that's what judges are for.) I think Ralph Nader's politics range from stupid to abhorrent, but I also think he did a lot to make this country a better place to live, back in the sixties and seventies. I just think it's long past time for him to go. And though I may be a hawk, I think that National Missile Defense is a huge boondoggle and liable to be a waste of time even if it worked, though we should probably keep researching. I'm theoretically pro-union, though I think the AFL-CIO's trade positions are immensely stupid and counterproductive; the American union movement is living in the past and needs to catch up with the postindustrial world.

There's also a slew of things that I favor that most of the blogosphere would, and where the Democrats are on the side of the angels as well. I think that gay marriage should be legal. I'm pro-choice. Try winning a Republican primary with those stands. In a lot of ways, I'm a small-l libertarian, though I think that big-L party is full of shit. I think that prostitution should be decriminalized. Pot too, and we should pull way back on the drug war all around. I think we have to figure out a way to reform the prison system; certainly people need to be punished for committing crimes, but I see too much human capital being wasted.

The name "War Liberal" came about because that's a good short way to describe my view of things. If I'd started a week later, I probably would have gone with "McPundit"; maybe it's just as well. But labels are tricky things, and I'm not just a "liberal". Let's see, I'm a liberal/libertarian/hawk/zionist/free trader/tax justice enthusiast/pragmatist/feminist/anti-vegetarian/environmentalist/corporate watchdog/space nut/Star Trek fan/technophile/librarian. (Maybe it should have been "War Librarian".) Find me someone whose politics really can be sewn up in one or two words, and I'll show you someone who doesn't really think about things.

This is another test that probably won't work.

This is a test, but it probably won't work.