LARRY DAVID PROVIDES a moment of clarity.
Archive for 2011
July 27, 2011
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Jessica Wakeman: The 5 Different Types Of Sluts.
MICHAEL LEDEEN: The Myths Of Oslo. “This archaic mythology is not only Breivik’s; the Marxists and the radical Islamists embrace it just as avidly. The Marxists embrace the myth of class struggle in a Western world that is no longer capitalist and where there is no working class. The jihadis embrace the cause of holy war (no accident, the Marxists might say, that jihadis raced to take ‘credit’ for the mayhem in the first hours) against a Western world described as Christian and Islamophobic. That, too, is an archaic remnant from a past long dead and buried, especially in Europe. The Old World is secular, and, certainly among its elites, more anti-Semitic and anti-Christian than anti-Muslim. . . . It is thoroughly understandable, then, that some have responded to the Norwegian mass murder with myths of their own, beginning with the fable that Breivik is the tip of a very large iceberg, that includes not only deranged would-be killers but also writers and politicians. Thus they conjure up yet another phantasmagorical mass movement—a vast conspiracy with countless followers, some hidden, others public. There is no such movement. Yes, there are crazy people who think they are fighters in the great cataclysmic struggle of the days of the Last Judgment (and if you want a fine survey and analysis of the enormous variety of such beliefs, and their dreadful effects over the centuries, get yourself a copy of Richard Landes’ timely study ‘Heaven on Earth’). But I doubt there are enough of them to feed more than a handful of Knights Templar, let alone a full-fledged political movement.”
Related item here.
July 26, 2011
LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: David Brooks: By Acting Like A Baby, Obama Forced Congress To Grow Up. Kind of like children of alcoholics often do. . . .
From the comments: “David liked the crease in Obama’s diaper.”
JAMES TARANTO: President Dangerfield: Barack Obama has trouble commanding respect. Like the posters in the mall say, to earn respect, show respect.
GUNRUNNING SCANDAL EXPANDS: ATF agent who implemented ‘Fast and Furious’ says 4 federal agencies were ‘full partners’. Video of Congressional testimony at the link.
STEVEN HAYWARD: Extremism In Defense Of Solvency Is No Vice.
COPING WITH MIGRAINES: It’s different for everybody, but I notice that I’ve hardly had one since I started taking the Coenzyme Q10 last year. Of all the supplements I’ve taken, it’s the only one that seems to have made a really tangible difference.
IN THE FUTURE, WILL WOMEN ASK TO SEE MEN’S BICEPS before having sex? You mean they don’t already?
POWER LINE PRIZE WINNERS: Announcing the 7th, 6th, and 5th place winners.
THE 21ST CENTURY IS TURNING OUT DIFFERENTLY THAN I HAD ANTICIPATED (CONT’D): School Offers Course For Girls On How To Marry Rich Men.
AT AMAZON, coupons galore.
FASTER, PLEASE: New Artificial Lung Closer To The Real Thing.
SCIENCE: Men Grieve Differently Than Women.
WIRED: Latest MacBook Air Is Spectacular. “What makes this year’s refresh particularly noteworthy is that Apple, as it is long famous for doing, has taken a solid product and rounded the rough edges, so to speak, to make it even better and more appealing to a wider audience. Apple may have killed the MacBook line in introducing these new Airs, but they may have also sounded the death knell for the MacBook Pro, which no longer holds such a commanding lead when it comes down to internal specs and exterior features.”
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: How Mexican Killers Got U.S. Guns From Operation “Fast and Furious.” I’m not at all sure that the arming of Mexican cartels was “inadvertent,” and I think we need a special prosecutor.
TEST-DRIVING Mitsubishi’s electric vehicle.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Business & Investing.
HOW CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS made the British press so powerful.
MEGAN MCARDLE ON THE SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE OF LAST NIGHT’S SPEECHES: “We’re Doomed.”
Michael Walsh sees a different sort of desperation.