HILLARY CLINTON: The Margaret Dumont of Politics.
Archive for 2016
June 19, 2016
HUGH HEWITT ON THE OBAMA JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S DECISION TO RELEASE “REDACTED” MATEEN TRANSCRIPTS:
The obvious conclusion is they’re doing this because they don’t want people to understand what happened and why. There are a few reasons for this that I can imagine:
1. It would call attention to Obama’s miserable failures in the mideast and in counterterror at home, and make an even more obvious hash of Obama’s gun-control distraction tale; and/or
2. He said something specific about being motivated by Obama’s drone attacks on his “brothers” in his “home country” of Afghanistan, which would not only make Obama look bad but would also undermine his immigration storyline.
PEW: Public Trust In Government, 1958-2015. “Just 26% of Democrats and 11% of Republicans say they can trust the federal government just about always or most of the time.”
Note the huge decline that coincides with the onset of the Great Society.
WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Birth Control via App.
ELLIOTT KATZ: ‘Father knows best,’ even in 2016.
The TV show Father Knows Best has come to symbolize the stereotyped gender roles of the 1950s. The father, Jim Anderson, worked as an insurance agent while his wife, Margaret, stayed home. Their three well-behaved children, Betty (“Princess”), James (“Bud”) and Kathy (“Kitten”) loved and respected their parents.
Presenting an idyllic family of the times, Father Knows Best ran from 1954 to 1960. It won six Emmy Awards and in its final year was the sixth most popular show on television.
In each episode Jim came home and dealt with problems in his family — usually involving friends, relationships or school. Following their father’s wise advice, the problems were resolved.
Over the past decade when the role of fathers is discussed, Father Knows Best is often cited as reflecting gender roles so out of date there isn’t anything today’s father could learn from the show. I disagree. As I watch the show today, I see important lessons for fathers that address common complaints wives have about husbands. These complaints include not paying enough attention to what is going on at home and not helping sufficiently with parenting — the kind of tensions that can lead to breakups.
Jim Anderson was a very involved father. In each episode, he was aware of situations at home that needed to be dealt with, and he dealt with them. Though it might be unrealistic to portray a father as being able to solve every problem, the important lesson for today’s fathers is that Jim stepped forward and got involved. He didn’t ignore what was going on in his home and expect his wife to handle it.
What I think is funny is that “progressives” are still rebelling against a show that went off the air before I was born. And, of course, the “Father Knows Best” stereotype has long been replaced with the “Dad as bumbling idiot” stereotype on pretty much every sitcom in my adult lifetime. And nobody worries that they might give kids negative images of fathers and fatherhood, because, well, that’s the point.
HONESTLY, I’M SKEPTICAL ABOUT THIS, THOUGH I’D LIKE IT TO BE TRUE: Rapamycin Redux. “Rapamycin is presently the best candidate we have for a drug to extend life in humans. It is expected to extend ‘health span’ as well as lifespan, lowering incidence of cancer, heart disease and stroke. But is it ‘safe and effective’ for use in people? We may never know, because its patent has run out, and there is no company motivated to invest the cost of a human trial.”
Winston Smith, call your office.
UPDATE: On Twitter, Glenn asks, “Don’t want people to hear him blaming Obama for droning his ‘brothers’ in his ‘home country’ of Afghanistan?”
DON DRAPER: DAD OF THE YEAR.
SWEDEN: MODEL FOR BERNIE SANDERS, HOME TO “RAPE CULTURE:” Four freed in Sweden booze cruise rape case.
A court in Sweden has freed four 19-year-old men accused of gang raping a young woman on a student party cruise in May, ruling that there was little to suggest that she had not had sex with the men voluntarily.
The court cited video evidence from the cruise ship and blood and urine samples taken many hours after the event to argue that there was little evidence that alleged victim had been so intoxicated as to have been rendered “particularly vulnerable” or unable to “protect her sexual integrity”. . . .
The rape case was one of a string of high profile sexual assault and harassment cases involving young men recently arrived in Sweden this year, and was seized upon by anti-immigrant and right-wing media.
You wouldn’t get this outcome on a college campus. Well, maybe if the accused were Muslim migrants, and the case had been “seized upon” by “right-wing media.”
SUDDENLY IDEAS DON’T MATTER? Andrew Klavan juxtaposes dueling quotes from Candidate Obama and President Obama:
“The main contribution of some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have made in the fight against ISIL is to criticize this administration and me for not using the phrase ‘radical Islam.’ That’s the key, they tell us. We can’t beat ISIL unless we call them radical Islamists. What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change?”
—President Obama, June 14, 2016.
“Don’t tell me words don’t matter! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words? ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words, just speeches?”
—Candidate Obama, February 16, 2008.
There’s much more; read the whole thing.
FASTER, PLEASE: Dodger Legend Vin Scully Strikes Out Socialism in the 6th Inning.
IF IT’S RACIST TO DEMAND PHOTO ID FOR VOTING, isn’t it racist to demand background checks for Uber drivers?
Uber is safer than taxis. The Uber app, by its nature, keeps track of which drivers pick pick up which passengers.
ANTI-SCIENCE: The FDA’s Foolish War On Salt.
AT AMAZON, deals in Heating, Cooling & Air Quality.
Also, Summer Deals in Jewelry.
SHOULD REPUBLICANS “Man Up” On Fatherlessness?
POPULAR MECHANICS: 15 Things My Father Taught Me.