The Scrutinator

Today's must-read is by Bridget Johnson on Hollywood's silence over the murder of Theo van Gogh.

One would think that in the name of artistic freedom, the creative community would take a stand against filmmakers being sent into hiding à la Salman Rushdie, or left bleeding in the street. Yet we've heard nary a peep from Hollywood about the van Gogh slaying. Indeed Hollywood has long walked on eggshells regarding the topic of Islamic fundamentalism.

"It's an easy target," [a struggling liberal screenwriter] said of Arab terrorism, repeating this like a parrot, then adding, "It's a cheap shot." How many American moviegoers would think that scripting Arab terrorists as the enemy in a fiction film is a "cheap shot"? In fact, it's realism; it's what touches lives world-wide.

But since when has Hollywood ever resisted the "easy target," the "cheap shot?" They've played their stereotypical bad-guys 'till they're worn out, and beyond: military commanders, greedy white rich guys, the establishment in it's varied forms.

Am I biased here? Here's an exercise I'd like to do when I have more time (not soon): go down the NetFlix Top 100 List and, for each movie you've seen, describe the protagonist(s) and antagonist(s)--the good guys & bad guys. See any trends?

Here's another movie-related exercise I'd eventually like to do: go through every movie that involves the main character dealing with the loss of a loved one (real or perceived--i.e., he thinks (s)he's dead, whether or not she is). How does he deal with it? My prediction: in the vast majority of cases (that I recall from the movies I've seen), getting really, really drunk. Is that representative?

By The Scrutinator @ 12:06 PM  ::  0 comments

Purported Al-Zarqawi Tape Raps Scholars:

• So these two Sunni clerics were murdered by their fellow Sunni extremists. Perhaps they started coming to their senses about their country's future.
• He's losing the support of Sunni clerics even in the Sunni triangle, and he knows it.
• He considers his present situation "...the darkest circumstances..."

By The Scrutinator @ 8:15 AM  ::  0 comments

This guy's e-mail is outstanding. It makes your heart race reading it.

By The Scrutinator @ 11:55 AM  ::  0 comments

The New York Times' Sunday Magazine slanders the Red States. Powerline debunks.

By The Scrutinator @ 11:39 AM  ::  0 comments

Today's Recommended Read is Hating America, by Bruce Bawer. Bawer, an American living in Europe for some time, has come full-circle on his view of America, Western Europe, and the world's opinion of America. He brings his perspective to bear on a spectrum of opinions:

• Mark Hertsgaard's The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World
• Will Hutton's A Declaration of Interdependence: Why America Should Join the World
• Clyde Prestowitz' Rogue Nation
• Jedediah Purdy's Being America
• Richard Crockatt's America Embattled: September 11, Anti-Americanism and the Global Order
• Dinesh D’Souza's What’s So Great about America
• Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power
• François Revel’s Anti-Americanism (L’obsession anti-américaine)

Bawer's (very, very long) article is a necessary read for his perspective, even if you (like me) have no plans to read the books he reviews.

By The Scrutinator @ 3:34 PM  ::  0 comments

From Robert Novak in Today's Chicago Sun-Times, regarding the U.S. Senate's investigation into the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal...

"The extent of the corruption is staggering..."

[The UN-initiated "independent" investigation]... in the absence of subpoena powers looks like a sham.

"In seeing what is happening at the U.N.," [U.S. Senator] Coleman told me, "I am more troubled today than ever. I see a sinkhole of corruption."

Update (11/17): Claudia Rosette again leads the way. The UN "...allowed Saddam Hussein to embezzle at least $21.3 billion in oil money during 12 years, with the great bulk of that sum--a staggering $17.3 billion--pilfered between 1997-2003, on Mr. Annan's watch"

Update (11/19): UN staff union votes "no confidence" in senior UN staff. "...the final straw was Annan’s decision this week to clear a senior U.N. official on charges of favoritism and sexual harassment."

By The Scrutinator @ 9:55 AM  ::  0 comments

Rational Explications has a very interesting election analysis, as well as a test aimed at the gentle reader.

The Democratic Party has evolved into a coalition of [don't want to spoil it for you!] ... It is in large measure a party of ...

By The Scrutinator @ 7:43 AM  ::  0 comments

Distressed about the election? HelpThemLeave.com will help you find a destination friendlier to your political preferences. Whether it's European socialism or carribean Marxism, they have a destination for you!

And don't forget this.

By The Scrutinator @ 5:47 PM  ::  4 comments

Today's Good Read of the Day (GRotD) is Charles Krauthammer's debunking of this useful post-election analysis myth.

The one thing liberals most need to contemplate is the last thing they can bring themselves to: that large numbers of well-informed, well-meaning, intelligent, thoughtful people actually voted FOR Bush.

By The Scrutinator @ 8:49 AM  ::  2 comments

Slate's Christopher Hitchens' gives us excellent perspective: Bush's Secularist Triumph (The left apologizes for religious fanatics. The president fights them.)

By The Scrutinator @ 2:31 PM  ::  4 comments

No, I'm not talking about the election. Yes, I am talking about that infamous banner on the aircraft carrier. Here's what one soldier, stationed in (blogging from) Iraq had to say about it:

That's what so many failed to comprehend about that whole mission accomplished thing. It wasn't your mission. That was someone else's mission. Sorry, those of you who didn't get it. I saw that banner and hoped there would be something left for me to do.

By The Scrutinator @ 1:06 PM  ::  0 comments

John Podhoretz looks at the election:

...the reality is this: Democrats voted for Bush in large numbers because they like him. They admire him. They want him to be president. They don’t think he’s an idiot, a fascist, a warmonger, a religious fanatic, a kook, a liar, a cheat, a monster, a bad guy. They think he’s done a good job. The Democratic Party has spent four years demonizing George W. Bush, and in part because of their stupid, useless, senseless negativism, Terry McAuliffe & Co. lost 4 million voters. ...

And that, my friends, is the story of this election. George W. Bush won the election triumphantly because he made new voters. And John Kerry and the Democrats lost the election ignominiously in part because of the self-destructive hate and venom they spat at the president, which caused Democratic voters to flee in droves.

Looks like the Reality-Based Community wasn't so reality-based after all.

By The Scrutinator @ 8:50 PM  ::  0 comments

Thank you, America, for re-electing George W. Bush! Thanks for making your voice heard, unambiguously (if not overwhelmingly). Here's what your vote accomplished, and I'm truly grateful...

• You made "Moral values" a priority, even above your self-interest. I commend you.
• You rightly validated Bush's job performance.
• You sent a message to our troops: we're with you, with the same resolve and purpose as before.
• You sent a message to activist judges legislating from the bench: we, the people decide the laws.
• You sent a message to Vietnam Veterans who have felt betrayed and smeared: We hear you. You have forced America to reexamine what we were told about Vietnam, how we were lied to, dealing another serious blow to deceptions the hard left takes for granted.
• You sent a message to terrorists: We won't waver in the war you started. We won't lose our resolve.
• You sent a message to our friends and allies: Thanks for standing with us. We won't lose our resolve. You're not the "coalition of the coerced and bribed" (as Kerry claimed).
• You sent a message to the people of Iraq: We stand with you now as ever in your struggle for self-determination.
• You sent a message to Saddam loyalists: give up, pursue a peaceful life. Forget your bloody ambitions and take part in your future, not your self-destruction.
• You sent a message to America's unscrupulous leftist fringe: Michael Moore, Eminem, the BusHitler crowd, etc. We don't buy the falsehoods, demagoguery & hysteria you're pushing, even if you believe it yourself. (That's self-delusion.) And getting angrier, more shrill, or more hateful doesn't help. You need a change of heart.
• You sent a message to Hollywood's self-important, self-absorbed, out-of-touch, hedonistic liberals (Rob Reiner, George Clooney, Madonna, Barbara Streisand, P. Ditty, ...): You really are out of touch. But if you didn't get the message after endorsing Howard Dean, why would you get it now?
• You sent a message to the worlds leftists, trying to meddle in our elections: Sorry, we don't take too well to that. That goes for UN meddling, too.
• You sent a message to the UN's staff & members bought by Saddam: we still won't tolerate your corruption.
• You sent a message to CBS News and The New York Times, who would rather defeat George Bush than publish the truth: You've worked hard to torpedo your own credibility. We've noticed. So be it. (ABC isn't far behind.)
• You sent a message to future candidates who make blatantly false claims, and the MSM who ignores it: Your credibility really does take a blow.
• You sent a message to the Richard Clarkes and (Former Ambassador) Joseph Wilsons of the world, who deliberately mislead to turn public opinion: Enjoy the New York Times' doting and the book deals from Simon & Schuster, but we've investigated your claims and they're bogus. False claims won't sway us.
• You sent a message to George Soros: you can't buy us.
• You even sent a message to the economy: Carry on.

Thank you again, America. (Thanks, too, for the messages you sent to the Senate and House of Representatives.)

By The Scrutinator @ 8:43 AM  ::  22 comments