October 31, 2007

Excerpting the Blacklist

This morning on PJ we are publishing a roughly 2000 word excerpt from the book I am writing for Encounter Books, which as yet has no title. The title of the chapter from which the excerpt is drawn is "The New Blacklist," so that should give you a hint of the subject.

It's ironic and a little sobering to be publishing something on this topic on the eve of what may be another Writers' Strike in Hollywood. The last was in 1988. This one could be more serious because the issues are. We are at an historical point in media where the system is no longer holding. No one knows what to do.

With film and television increasingly Internet phenomena, the WGA wants a foothold there. This may be the nub of the disagreement between the producers (MPAA) and the writers. In the early nineties I could say more positively because I was the on the negotiating committee for the WGA. I'm far from that now, sitting on the other side of the fence as employer of writers at PJM. The manner is quite different from the entertainment industry as I knew. But still I could be accused of having dual loyalties now.

Of course, that's a common problem for the Writers Guild where, particularly in television, writers have been employing writers for decades. Everyone says they are a "writer first," but perhaps that's only sentimental. In any case the lines between executive and staff are blurry to say the least.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 10:56 PM
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It's immigration, stupid!

Well, of course it's really the war, but the election itself may superficially be more about immigration than we think. While driving to Pajamas HQ this morning, I was listening to the usual rehash of last night's Democratic debate, which I didn't watch. (For some reason, the Lakers opener was more interesting.) Anyway, the big deal from last night, which I did read in transcript, was evidently Hillary's continued evasiveness on the issues. Why not? She's ahead. I'd do the same thing in her shoes, particularly on the immigration issue.

Barack (the Big Snore) Obama apparently advocates driver's licenses for illegal aliens and was trying to get Hillary to take a stand on that. She didn't, for obvious reasons. She'd have to be an idiot to know that's not a BIg Loser in the general election. Even 72% of New Yorkers oppose it, according to a poll read on the radio that didn't sound outlandish. Common sense dictates this is a non-starter, but not to Obama, who is courting the "liberal" wing of the Democratic Party, or rather hanging onto it for dear life.

If the Republicans get lucky, Obama and Edwards will really come after Hillary hard in a way that hurts her candidacy, but I think it's already too late. On the other hand, something more interesting, at least more salacious, may be brewing on the campaign horizon.... And just in the nick of time. Many of us were about to fall asleep. More ! More!... say the Romans.

Posted by Roger at 11:06 AM
Comments (13)

Men are from Mars....

Dennis Kucinich is from Venus.

[But where is Ron Paul from?-ed. I'm not saying.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:23 AM
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Roger and Ron on Pajamas

Many of you may already know that Ron Silver is blogging at PJM at the "Silver Bullet." Also blogging starting today is Roger Kimball at "Roger's Rules." Not surprisingly, Kimball's first post - on a recent trip to Londonistan with a side journey to Oxford - makes most blog posts look Instant Messaging.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:16 AM
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October 30, 2007

Now for a little comic relief: Nader vs. Kerry

What happens to old pols when time has passed them by? They sue each other:

Consumer advocate and 2004 independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party on Tuesday, contending officials conspired to keep him from taking votes away from nominee John Kerry.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Democratic National Committee conspired to force Nader off the ballot in several states.

Maybe they did. What do I know? But this should be entertaining to watch. I don't think the DNC will be able to settle this one out of court. And, as we all know, even if Nader can't get a lawyer to take his case on contingency, the "idealistic" consumer advocate can well afford a good attorney.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:28 PM
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Giuliani talks the talk

He's not in a position to walk the walk yet, but Rudy Giuliani is talking the talk on the War on Terror better than anyone running for President at the moment:

"Suppose Hillary Clinton and John Edwards' new position was their position back then, that it was a mistake to take him out," Giuliani said, referring to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "Wouldn't we be dealing with Saddam Hussein becoming nuclear right now? If Iran was becoming nuclear what would he be doing? Sitting there letting his arch enemy gain nuclear power over him? Or would we now be dealing with two countries seeking to become nuclear powers."

Makes sense to me.

Posted by Roger at 7:54 AM
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Ron Silver in His Pajamas

Ron Silver - a man with whom I worked many years ago in one of the proudest moments of my professional life, he says in his too - is now writing for Pajamas Media and will be soon blogging on PJM (tomorrow, actually, if all goes well). What can I say about Ron? (Everyone knows what a great actor he is.) Three great things: integrity, humor and guts.

Posted by Roger at 7:17 AM
Comments (4)

October 29, 2007

The Sphinx Goes Nuclear - The United States goes braindead.

What has four legs in the morning of its life, two legs in the noon of its life and three legs in the evening of its life?

The Sphinx after nuclear testing.

Oh, never mind.

But the latest news out of Cairo - that Egypt too is now going nuclear - does seem like a bad joke.

Our government is, of course, "welcoming" this decision on the part of Mubarak & Co., whose intention, again of course, is not military but "to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations."

Meanwhile, back in our country, the left and right continue to do nothing much at all about our power situation - the left mired in knee-jerk fears of nuclear energy out of outdated Hollywood movies and the right mired in equally knee-jerk opposition to government subsidy of scientific projects (hey, it got us to the moon, didn't it?).

Listen, ladies and gentlemen, drop your bourgeois ideologies, left and right, and start moving. The fight against Islamofascism is a waste of energy without new ways of obtaining energy. Don't believe me, check out this list.

Posted by Roger at 1:54 PM
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October 28, 2007

Is ElBaradei a liar or "uninformed"?

Or possibly he's just an admirer of murdering dictators like Bashar Assad. You decide. Nevertheless the corrupt weasel at the helm of IAEA told CNN today:

Israel had "no business'' bombing Syria and lacks "any evidence at all'' that its target was a nuclear facility, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Huh?

Guess Mohamed missed all the satellite photos. Of course, he claims the UN is purchasing some of their own now. We'll wait for "his analysis." Meanwhile, what's interesting is that ElBaradei is defending something that even Assad himself isn't. But then Bashar appears to have problems of his own. [It's Debka! -ed. I know, but this time the details fascinate.]

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:23 PM
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October 27, 2007

'08: the long and tedious road -why doesn't Jackie Mason run?

The NYT today trumpets that Obama is trying to jump start his campaign by talking tough to Hillary (or something):

"I don't think people know what her agenda exactly is," Mr. Obama continued, citing Social Security, Iraq and Iran as issues on which she had not been fully forthcoming.

"Now it's been very deft politically," he said. "But one of the things that I firmly believe is that we've got to be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we're going to need to make in order to get a mandate for change, not to try to obfuscate and avoid being a target in the general election."

Oh, blather. One of the things Obama ought to know is that any time anyone uses the words "...one of the things that I firmly believe is that we've got be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we're going to need to make..." is that anyone who had been previously awake has just gone to sleep. We're not listening. And we shouldn't be. The words "firmly believe" by themselves should be "firmly" banned from the English language. They constitute such a tiresome cliché you can't even parody them. It's too boring. If that's Barack's idea of a jump start, he better try Ambien.

Now giving Obama his due, which isn't a lot, the way the American presidential campaign is currently structured even Jackie Mason himself might put us all to sleep. No one has that much interesting to say for so long - and certainly not politicians, not any living ones anyway.

I have an idea. Why not after six months of campaigning we have an option of voting all candidates out on both sides and bringing in fresh ones? At least it would help us stay awake. The way things are going now, whoever assumes the Presidency in '09, it's going to seem as if they're already well into their second term by the time they're sworn in. In Hillary's case, make that a fourth term.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:51 PM
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Acado-litter

It's the time of year when my mailbox is filling with endless letters from those "environmentally conscious progressives" at Miramax and Warners Brothers (to pick only today's offenders), advertising screenings no known person would want to go to since the films will be sent to us in DVD form anyway. I never open this Acado-litter, pitching it straight into the circular file and thence into the blue (paper) recycling garbage bin. If these people were anywhere near as "green" as they say they are, they would save us all the effort and stop adding to the gigantic Southern California landfill.

But they're not - and we know it. It's all a charade.

Still there have been a few improvements. DVDs this year are arriving in simple paper envelopes, not elaborate containers of seemingly indestructible plastic. One studio at least (sorry, I already forgot which) sent around an opt-out for dead tree mailings (those endless screening letters).

OTOH (as the acronym goes), there was another first in the "Moi? Pretentious?" department (or perhaps it's a new form of strategic marketing). Today I received a "Director's Cut" of David Fincher's Zodiac, having received the DVD of the studio-released version only the other day. But wait - I see they must both be the same thing because they both clock in at a loooong 158 mins. (Not to worry - it carries with it a nomination for a Teen Choice award for star Jake Gyllenhaal... phew...)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:08 PM
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October 26, 2007

Laura Bush: Wearing the Symbols of Oppression

When I first saw the photograph of Laura Bush in a Saudi abaya, I didn't want to look at it. Like a lot of people, whatever mixed feelings I have about her husband, I had always admired Mrs. Bush for a kind of earthy honesty. So I was more disappointed when I saw her wearing the symbols of oppression (abaya and veil) than I was, say, when I saw Hillary Clinton embracing hideous Suha Arafat. I guess I don't expect much of politicians. [Why then politicians wives?-ed. Don't know.]

Now I realize Laura Bush was in Saudi Arabia doing the good deed of promoting breast cancer awareness in a society where that is, to put it mildly, lacking, and that the abaya was presented to her by one of the women and that she probably put it on out of good manners.

But I wonder to what extent this was all planned by the Saudis. As has been publicized, Laura had not been expecting to don a headscarf:

"They do not expect nor encourage it," of Western visitors at official meetings, said Bush's spokeswoman, Sally McDonough. "As members of the official traveling party, we will not need to wear any head scarves or abayas at any point."

Nevertheless, she did. Was she tricked into it? This is no small matter. The suppression of women's rights is at the root of Wahhabi Islam. It is the major pathology of our times and seems to be growing. It would have taken some courage, maybe a kind of rudeness anathema to her, for Laura Bush to have said "no" to the abaya... but she should have.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 1:59 PM
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October 25, 2007

Calling Franklin Foer

Michael Yon has you up a tree.

In a characteristically eloquent piece, Yon has also written Foer (who is over-matched in this regard) up a tree as well.

Beyond that, Michael has convinced me to be lenient towards Scott Beauchamp.

Beauchamp is young; under pressure he made a dumb mistake. In fact, he has not always been an ideal soldier. But to his credit, the young soldier decided to stay, and he is serving tonight in a dangerous part of Baghdad. He might well be seriously injured or killed here, and he knows it. He could have quit, but he did not. He faced his peers. I can only imagine the cold shoulders, and worse, he must have gotten. He could have left the unit, but LTC Glaze told me that Beauchamp wanted to stay and make it right. Whatever price he has to pay, he is paying it.

So The New Republic hasn't had a quarter of the cojones that Beauchamp has. What cowards.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:25 PM
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Stephen Green, adult

I really shouldn't be blogging today (post operative), but I had to put in a few words of praise for Stephen Green whose article - I Was a Card-Carrying Libertarian: Confessions of a Black Sheep Republican - is generating a lot of action over on Pajamas today.

A lot younger than I did and coming from the opposite direction, Stephen has discovered that painful, but finally liberating, truth - it ain't simple. You want to have some ideology to hang onto, some method of organizing everything, but the moment you settle on one thing, if you're even partially awake, it kicks you in the head.

That is why I am leery of true believers, whether they are trailing in the wakes of Karl Marx or Ayn Rand. But enough for now... I'm supposed to be recuperating from eye surgery (which means for me that I didn't get on IM with PJM Barcelona editor Jose Guardia until 7:45AM.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:08 AM
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October 24, 2007

Have I been seeing two of you?

One of the health matters I have not blogged about on here is that I see double (no jokes, please!) - but not from drinking. I have something called strabismus (sometimes known as lazy eye), a largely congenital muscle problem around my eye, which I have been correcting via eye glasses with prisms. But it's been getting slightly worse and this morning I am going under the knife (or something) of the maestro Dr. Kenneth Wright to get it repaired. There will be probably be a blogging hiatus for me here and on PJM (where others will of course carry on in spades).

Am I nervous? Sure. I don't have a lot of eyes. But soon enough I'll be under the miracle of modern anesthesia. 10... 9... 8... 7... 7.... 7.... zzz....

UPDATE: I'm back and it seems to have worked. Al Hail, Dr. Wright! (Yes, Charles Martin was right - they used Versed. Later Demerol, which put me out for a couple of hours - sadly, they were too smart to give me an enduring prescription.)

I can't say for sure, in answer to a question, that this was late onset strabismus. More likely it was just something that was there, getting worse.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:38 AM
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October 23, 2007

The Fire this time: the view from the Pajamas office

Here in not-so-scenic El Segundo CA, I often look with envy up the coast at Malibu CA. (There's a clear shot through our office window.) But not today. Looking NW, the direction of Malibu, is like looking into Vietnam after a bombing run, Apocalypse Now.

I used to live in Malibu, during the mid-Eighties, on a street called Rambla Vista. I left as my marriage was coming apart. We sold the house. The house itself came apart the following year in one of those periodic Malibu fires. It was burned to the ground. Someone else built a bigger house in its place. Now that one is threatened. So it goes in the 'bu. The exact same canyons burn over and over again.

A commenter on Pajamas Media complained that we on the Left Coast are privileged. We go our merry ways rebuilding in fire zones while casting aspersions on Easterners who rebuild in the wake of hurricanes. He has a point.

Posted by Roger at 4:56 PM
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October 22, 2007

The Redford Reduction

I haven't seen Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs yet, few have evidently, but that hasn't stopped Roger Friedman, who hasn't seen it either, from writing in its behalf as a brilliant and subtle anti-war film of sorts. Apparently the Republican owner of the Washington Redksins saw it and liked it and sent word to Friedman. One graph of Friedman's article caught my eye:

It [the film] also brings up, ever so gently, comparisons with the Vietnam War. Through Streep, Redford and Carnahan get their message in loud and clear. "World War II lasted less than five years," Streep says to a grinning - but not buffoonish - Cruise when discussing the length of the Iraq mission so far.

Hmmm... so the length of the Iraq War as opposed to WWII is supposed to be proof of the dubiousness of the current enterprise. Well, how about this? The total number of casualties in World War II was approximately 72,000,000, at least a hundred times Iraq, where attempts have been made consistently to lower the number of deaths. If we had decided to win the Iraq War by doing to Baghdad what we did to Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, etc., would will still be in that war now? I would strongly doubt it. This comparison to WWII, often made by the anti-war crowd, strikes me as particularly invidious. The quotes from Redford at Harvard at the end of the article are also banal and predictable, but that it is to be expected.

Posted by Roger at 12:55 PM
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Predictions R Us

As if I haven't made enough of a fool of myself in my life, I am now in the prediction business on Pajamas. If I turn out to be right on this, I may even grow a white beard aè la Nostradamus. If I'm wrong... well... I'll .... deny the whole thing and say I was misunderstood. How's that?

Posted by Roger at 8:43 AM
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October 21, 2007

Hurray for Huckabee

I am the furthest thing from a "values voter" - the term even creeps me out - but their favorite Mike Huckabee impresses me as a candidate and a man. While Giuliani continues to impress as a consistent debate performer, Huckabee is the surprise winner for me. He seems that rare thing in politics - the straight shooter. I wouldn't be surprised if he continues to rise in the polls.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:57 PM
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New home movie theatre (if only there were something to watch)

Living in hope (hey, Oscar season is coming up and I get a ton of free DVDs), we upgraded our viewing at Casa Longin/Simon with a high def DLP projector - the Mitsubishi HC1500. It's only 720p, but the machine rocks and the price is right. Besides, my eyes aren't that sharp I can even tell the difference, especially on the one hundred inch diagonal Gray Wolf II screen. I have become a Discovery Channel addict, at least in the short run, watching endless trips to the Amazon with frightening looking piranhas spattering blood all over the place in high definition. As for sound, I have down-graded to a simple Zvox, which generates surround sound out of a single box for only two hundred bucks. Rather incredible.

Last night we tried our first Oscar-season movie - The Namesake - directed by Mira Nair from the Jhumpa Lahiri novel. Great Indian locations (including the Taj Mahal), fine Indian actors, mediocre New York locations and very peculiar and unsatisfying story. The whole thing turns on the protagonist having been named Gogol by his father - not nearly enough for a movie (maybe not for the novel either, but I haven't read it).

Still, it looked great on the new setup. (Fred Elmes did the excellent cinematography. Costumes great too, but not nearly as good as in Nair's earlier Monsoon Wedding, a much better film.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:15 AM
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October 20, 2007

Company Town

It used to be when a Writers Guild strike was looming it meant a lot to me personally. Now my livelihood comes from other places, so after forty years with the Hollywood needle in my arm, I am relieved, for once, that it's not me whose ox is about to be gored (or could be).

But that doesn't stop me from observing the situation, which seems more dire than I can remember, even than those several times we writers actually went out on strike and paraded around the studios with picket signs, producer friends allegedly sending their assistants out to ply us with copious lattes (that never happened to me).

This time there is a genuine atmosphere of fear in the air because the Industry may be dying - and then what? What good will come of a strike? It could be that the producers really want one, because they don't know what to do either. The AP article linked above is pretty thin and doesn't give you much of an idea of what is going on. We are in the era of YouTube and the whole economic model has been thrown into the air. A lot of people could be drastically affected by this - a whole "town." And I'm not just talking about the "personal trainers" and other objects of derision toward Hollywood. I'm talking about a house of cards crumbling.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:42 AM
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October 19, 2007

Back in Lalaland

I'm home after doing some Pajamas work in New York and DC. We're bringing in some new PajamasXpress bloggers - Ron Silver and Roger Kimball - and working on improving our operations. So-called New Media isn't so different from so-called Old Media... it takes work. Sometimes I feel as if I've morphed from a writer into a traveling salesman. Leaving aside the Willy Loman aspects, the interesting part is that - as opposed to sitting in your room making up stories - you get to see a bit of real life. Someone who has been writing as long as I have suffers form a real life deficit. These last few years I've been getting it in spades. It's been a kind of recharging for me. I hope I get to exploit it.

Meanwhile, I don't even have enough time to read. While others hate flying (for good reason), I welcome it because, especially on longer flights (Dulles-LAX, etc.) I get to wrap up in a book. This time back and forth over the country I've been reading Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost, which won some prizes last year. Unlike other prizes, it's deserved. Couple of more flights and I might even get through it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:12 AM
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October 17, 2007

Grumpikuss - polls go lower and lower

Just when you thought they couldn't go any lower, approval ratings for Bush and the Congress have hit another round of new lows to 24 and 11 percent respectively. As for the Congress' rating, you'd think you could get 11 percent simply from people mishearing the question. "Do you approve of the way the Congress is working?" "Say what?" "I asked do you approve?" "If you say so."

I am in Washington where you'd think you could smell this malaise in the air. But you can't. I arrived barely in time to catch a few minutes of the Republican Jewish Coalition's candidate show at the Grand Hyatt. The Fredster was up as the last of the speakers at four in the afteroon, but still there were a fair amount of political junkies hanging around. They had been at it since seven in the morning, I later learned, when the candidate's wives were talking to women's groups. The long day continued as I moved on to a party for the launch of XM's P.O.T.U.S.'08 Channel on which PJM has a weekly show. A lot of jokes were made about how the channel would be providing twenty-four hours a day of campaign coverage for an already stultified public. I went on from there to dinner at the Ledeens where we discussed... politics.

Posted by Roger at 5:33 AM
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October 16, 2007

1968 Revisited

My reflections on those times over on Pajamas. I'm in NY, headed for Washington later this morning on PJ business. We will have some interesting announcements soon about two more surprising PajamasXpress bloggers.

Posted by Roger at 4:42 AM
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October 13, 2007

Iraq: Who(m) Do We Trust?

Do we believe Retired General Ricardo Sanchez when he describes the US mission in Iraq as a "nightmare with no end in sight" or is he just a disgruntled former employee? Sanchez didn't exactly distinguish himself when he was running things back 2003-2004 - the Abu Ghraib era. From the AP coverage:

He was never charged with anything but he was not promoted in the aftermath of the prisoner abuse reports. He was criticized by some for not doing more to avoid mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

He did deny reports that he and then-Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremer were not on speaking terms. He said they spoke every day.

Nevertheless, Drudge has seen fit to put this ex-gen's opinions up top. Can't accuse the website of tilting conservative on that one.

Yes, I am aware that Sanchez also spent a huge amount of his time bashing the media's Iraq coverage. I of course agree with him on that, but you can't be selective. The man is not what I would call a "trusted source," if indeed there could be such a thing.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 12:42 PM
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October 12, 2007

Gore Deserves Nobel Prize More Than Oscar

It is at least conceivable that Al Gore is correct that the anthropogenic causes of global warming are serious and need swift correction. His humdrum and totally conventional documentary, however, is no more worthy of an Oscar than any of several hundred television shows produced annually by National Geographic, Discovery, etc.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 7:50 AM
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October 11, 2007

Doris is not impressed

It's been a long time since I've read a Doris Lessing novel, several decades I'm sure, so I can barely remember if I liked them or not. I know Clancy Sigal, an old friend of mine, was one of the characters in The Golden Notebook. I think at one point he had an affair with Doris, when he was a much younger man than she. One of those literary things, I suppose. Anyway, I have no idea whether she deserved the Nobel Prize for literature, but evidently she wasn't too excited about it anyway. Good for her.

As opposed to some recent winners, at least we've heard of her. (I guess Philip Roth will go to his grave without the prize, putting him in the company of Graham Greene, Proust, etc. Better company than the winners.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:21 PM
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Ann "Sharia" Coulter and "Imperfect" Jews

If there weren't an Ann Coulter, the Democrats would have to invent her. I can't imagine a greater walking advertisement for the supposed bigotry of the extreme right. And just when some Jews were considering joining the Republican Party, this near-sociopathic, book-promoting machine is doing her one woman best to send them back into the conventional arms of the Dems.

It's hard to know if Coulter believes what she's saying, because the out-of-control narcissism of this woman rivals, maybe even out-strips, the egomaniacs on the Hollywood Left. But these excerpts from her October 8 interview with The Big Picture's Donny Deutsch quoted by Israelly Cool boggle the mind:

COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America, they -

COULTER: No, we think - we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.

Forget separation of church and state, we are now in the land of Sharia here. Coulter is a cross between some nutcase passing out Jews for Jesus literature on Hollywood Boulevard and the Islamists she says she hates. (Another example of projection?) What's particularly disconcerting is that she is apparently going to be speaking on the University of Southern California and Tulane campuses for Islamofascist Awareness Week later this month. What a horrible choice under the circumstances. I would recommend the organizers reconsider.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 6:59 AM
Comments (108)

October 10, 2007

The eerie quiet from Iraq

Something strange may be going on in Iraq. According to our peace-loving, Bush-bashing friends at the NYT - Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From Iraq.

Come again... The Marines want to leave Iraq, apparently for Afghanistan? Why? The Marines always want to go where the action is. Could it be we are actually winning the Iraq War? What would that mean? Bad news for neocons, I guess....

Posted by Roger at 9:03 PM
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What's going on in Jerusalem?

A lot of peace talk is in the air for the first time in years. Why now? Does anyone have analysis? Is there reason not be cynical?

Posted by Roger at 2:39 PM
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October 9, 2007

The Mystery of the Missing Leak

I wish I had time (and the ability) to research the allegation that the US government is to blame in the leak of Bin Laden's latest video before it was broadcast by Al Qaeda. This supposedly induced Al Qaeda to roll up its internet network (on which we were spying) and move elsewhere. Mudville Gazette, however, isn't so sure. This one is a mystery writers' paradise.

Posted by Roger at 3:33 PM
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Phyllis Rocks

For those of you who don't know, or haven't looked, Phyllis Chesler is really hitting the ground running as a blogger. Unlike so many blogs, she really has fresh information. And she has informants - this one telling us about Hamas persecution of Christians.

Posted by Roger at 3:09 PM
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Why They Hate the Neocons

My article on the above-mentioned subject is up on PJM. Looking at some of the early reactions has inspired me to elaborate, at some point, on the question of friends and enemies and the limitations of ideology. The world is a complex thing, yet some want to boil it down to black and white. I don't blame them. I wish I could too. But somehow I can't.

Posted by Roger at 10:12 AM
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October 8, 2007

"Bothered by Spanish?"

We have all seen weird polls in our lives, but this new one purporting to tell us that people are annoyed with the Spanish language is a real eye roller. Better tell Cervantes... or maybe Carlos Fuentes, if you want someone among the living. I suppose this is another way to get at the immigration issue, but all it tells us is the obvious - that most people, 59% anyway, favor immigration when it's legal. [What happened to the other 41%? How'd their families get here?-ed. Teleportation from the future.]

Posted by Roger at 9:24 AM
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October 7, 2007

VDH from Iraq - Part II

Why am I not surprised that some of the best reporting from Iraq is suddenly appearing from Victor Davis Hanson on his Pajamas blog? Part II is up with the following excerpt:

John Kerry once quipped, "You know, education - if you make the most of it - you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

I say that because in the small circle I met or corresponded with the last week in Iraq the number of MAs and PhDs there is astonishing. Colonels Rapp, Gibson and McMaster have PhDs, as does Gen. Petraeus, scores of others I talked with as well. I don't mean to suggest that PhDs are smarter (some of the stupidest people I've ever met have them), only that the military puts a high emphasis on continuing education and original research, especially valuable in a complex, if not bewildering situation like contemporary Iraq.

As a humble MFA in Playwriting (I know - pointless), I'm impressed - with the military and VDH.

Meanwhile, sorry not to be writing more on here myself. I never intended this to be a linking blog. I wouldn't be particularly good at that anyway. But I have been working away - on another lengthy essay for Pajamas which I am calling "Why They Hate the Neocons." It will appear Tuesday

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 9:11 PM
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October 6, 2007

Victor Davis Hanson on the war

In Kuwait, on his way back from Iraq. Don't miss it.

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 2:22 PM
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The Primary Season Yadda-Yadda - The Candidates Paraphrased

Mitt to Rudy: You're a big spender.

Rudy to Mitt: You're a bigger spender.

Mitt to Rudy: No, you!

Rudy to Mitt: No, you!

Fred: Er... um... ahh.... You both spend too much!

Ron: The government should not exist!

Barack to Hillary: I was against the Iraq War before you were.

Hillary to Barack: You're unqualified.

Barack to Hillary: You're too qualified!

Hillary to Barack: You don't know what you're talking about!

John: I was against the Iraq War while a fetus!

Bill: I was against the Iraq War in a previous life!

(Have we learned anything of interest yet...? Only 750 months to go.... zzzz.....)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 8:41 AM
Comments (7)

October 4, 2007

Vindication at last!

Now I'm not the only one who thought Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was meretricious dreck, let alone Oscar-worthy. Of course my objections were largely aesthetic while his are... er... meteorological. Even the British courts are getting the picture. Will my colleagues in the Academy wake up too? [Not a chance. -ed. You cynic, you.]

UPDATE: To be clear, as fatuous and self-promotional as Gore may be, that doesn't make him wrong any more than it makes him right about global warming. For reasons of prudence, common sense and geopolitics, energy conservation plus encouraging new technologies are a definite "yes" from my perspective

Posted by Roger at 11:21 PM
Comments (23)

Burma: China and Russia HEART fascism

The stomach-turning Reuters report on Myanmar/Burma tells us that China opposes UN involvement because the massacre of the monks is an internal affair. How can we respond to that? Beijing Olympics anyone?

The Russians, no surprise, are right there with the Chinese. It seems as if the Russians had their democratic moment. In a homage to Warhol, it lasted about fifteen minutes.

Posted by Roger at 9:14 PM
Comments (3)

Pinheaded Obama - is this news?

Let's go over the basics:

Man bites dog is news. Dog bites man is not news. Whether Barack Obama wears a flag lapel pin is beyond trivial.

The fact that a presidential candidate is wasting our time with an explanation of such nonsense is an example of the current level of public discourse. It also does not speak well of Obama. The banality of his observations on this matter boggle the mind. What kind of ego is it that feels we must listen to this blather? Enough.

A final reference to a famous quote. As Dr. Johnson told us: Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. Dithering on about what constitutes a patriot is the last refuge of failed candidates.

Posted by Roger at 1:02 PM
Comments (13)

Alan Fram - "poll analyst" for the AP

Speaking of polls (see below), I couldn't resist commenting on the Alan Fram column for the AP, which explains to the great unwashed the reasons for Bush's worst ever poll number (31% approval) and the even more disastrous Congressional number (22%).

Naturally enough, the "unbiased" Fram leads with President when it's the Congress whose number has reached almost the minimum conceivable for such things. We come to expect that. Bashing Bush is like breathing for the soul inert.

What's more dismaying is that virtually his entire analysis comes down to - It's the war, stupid. Bush is down because of the war. And Congress is further down for their inability to force Bush out of the war. (Something doesn't compute there, but never mind.)

I wonder if it's just possible that what is depressing those numbers on both sides is something more basic - a failure to communicate... Bush with those who oppose him (and many in the middle) and Congress with virtually everybody (hence their lower numbers).

But I could be wrong. I'm no "poll analyst."

Posted by Roger at 10:49 AM
Comments (7)

October 3, 2007

Is neoconservatism discredited?

Before you accept that assumption, read Joshua Muravchik's superb essay.

Posted by Roger at 9:45 PM
Comments (3)

Polling the polls

I don't get it. According to RCP, the most recent Rasmussen Poll shows Fred up 2% while the most recent ABC/Washington Post shows Rudy up 17.

Huh?

And both polls were taken at the same time - 9/27-9/30. Were they polling in the same country? It's hard to take this very seriously.

I suppose we have to wait until Iowa and New Hampshire weigh in officially. But I am one of those who has always wondered why in the world we give so much power to those tiny places? I don't mean offense to the good people of Iowa and NH but... I have to say it doesn't compute. And Iowa isn't even an election - it's a caucus, a kind of phony gathering of zealots. And as you know, zealots will believe anything. That particular group has reelected a man from time immemorial who lied bigtime about his military service.

Meanwhile, who is ahead in the polls and why is Rasmussen so different? (Yes, I know Ras is likely voters and ABC general adults, but still... what a spread!)

Posted by Roger at 12:29 PM
Comments (12)

October 2, 2007

How do you do Al Dura?

The Al Dura trial took another twist yesterday with the Israeli government finally declaring the infamous 2000 video (and it's "inconic"still of young Mohammed Al Dura "murdered" by the IDF) a fake.

I think this story is emblematic of many aspects of the mainstream media's bias and inability to confront reality, but it gets little traction, not even on Pajamas Media, where we have been covering the story like the proverbial glove.

Now that the dam is breaking, I would like advice from the intelligent readers of this site on how we should promote and expand this, so the public can understand the importance of this story. (We have some plans I don't want to expose, because, as I hope you will see when they surface, they demand some subtlety. Think Colombo.)

Posted by Roger L. Simon at 11:06 AM
Comments (26)

October 1, 2007

Gore In Iraq

Unlike a lot of people I know, I am not overly concerned about the outcome of the presidential election of 2008.

If the winner is someone named Guiliani, Clinton, Thompson, Romney or McCain or even Obama or Edwards - and from the current looks of things, it will be one of those people - the results will not be catastrophic. The differences will be more minor than we expect and overwhelmed by history.

I know this not just because the supposedly more pacifistic Democrats finally admitted in the last debate that they just might not be out of Iraq by 2013. Nor is it because they have all acknowledged a nuclear-armed Iran as a non-starter.

I know this because I believe in my heart that had Al Gore been elected president in 2000 (and as we all know he almost was - he won the popular vote), he would be just as knee deep in the War on Terror as George Bush is right now and fighting it in more or less the same manner. He would be in Iraq.

Yes, I jumped the shark this time.... read the rest on PJM. (and see Oleg's fun photoshop.)

Posted by Roger at 3:33 AM
Comments (31)