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June 30, 2007 - June 23, 2007

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

PSAYINGS.5A.19. The Cambridge On-Line Dictionary contains the following entry:

Other dictionaries and reference sources also link the goosestep to Hitler without elaboration of its continuing history.Yet it's an interesting fact that this bizarre means of military locomotion has been, and remains, a popular accessory of totalitarian regimes generally, even those who fought directly against Hitler. Russian and Eastern European nations in the Soviet bloc favored the goosestep, as does Putin's Russia (!).


Ditto the Red Chinese.


Is anyone surprised that the anti-western jihadists in the mideast also stomp around like SS troops, especially in Iran?


And, of course, Kim Jong Il wouldn't have it any other way:


A triviality? Possibly. But, as has been said in other contexts, the devil is in the details. I have the nagging suspicion that despots have more in common with one another, regardless of ideological and religious differences, than they do with whatever population they rule. I think the goosestep, and its graceless, rigid reduction of a human soldier to an automaton, has a deep irrational appeal to tyrants. It feeds directly into the same lust for power that enables them to kill and torture their own people in the name of service to those people and whatever faith they profess.

If this is true, it puts the lie to the notion that we can make progress in the world by understanding all the multifarious ethnic, religious and political grievances of problem states like Iran and North Korea. The totalitarian state is its own faith and treats all other factors as tools to be manipulated for the sole purpose of maintaining and increasing power.

Perhaps it's time for us to send the touchy-feely diplomats to the showers and develop a new index of the personal symptoms of despotism that cut across all cultural and geographic boundaries -- goosestepping troops, four-hour speeches, mega-posters of the megalomaniac-in-charge, increasingly lopsided "election" victories, etc -- and use them as the basis for understanding intent. Should we keep trying to convince ourselves that deep down, China really does want to coexist in a community of nations? Should we  go on overlooking Putin's career in the KGB and his bland assurances that democracy in Russia works better as a "benevolent" autocracy unhindered by the inconveniences of a free press? Should we consider subtracting Islam from the calculus of Iranian sabre-rattling and start treating the imams less like eccentric clerics and more like the Nazi Party?

And -- for those of you on the left -- isn't it time to stop playing at the fiction that Bush is Hitler and start recognizing that the globe is dotted with his natural sons, looking stern and patriotic as they review their goosestepping troops on parade? If you can accomplish this one small feat of perception, perhaps you can also discern that there is no way to appease such men, no wrong that can be righted to secure peace, no treaty that can slake their hunger for more power, and no conceivable end to their scheming that doesn't include putting a bullet in their heads.

Can you do that? Of course you can't. Your sleep grows deeper to the lullabye of heavy marching feet. So be it.

UPDATE. In response to Alfa's question, the figure who looks like Pinocchio is actually yours truly in disguise at all these impressive events. When it comes to dictators, discretion (and a wooden expression) is the better part of choler.

LEADERSHIP. Unaccountably, Drudge ran an inaccurate piece today about the congressional debate in Cynthia McKinney's district. He reports that:


The video footage we've obtained not only fails to confirm this but soundly refutes it. McKinney appeared several times during the proceedings and by our reckoning managed a little more than a "slap in the face" to her would-be rivals. What's it look like to you?

You know what we always say at the Big Girl News Network: Go, Girl!

Monday, July 10, 2006

CHOSEN AGAIN. Have I ever mentioned how much I love Italy? Well, I do. A beautiful country, a fine and handsome people, magnificent cuisine, and artistic triumphs in a virtually unbroken string from the Etruscans through the factories of Ferrari. They also know a little something about music, and faith, and other things too. I may lack a civilized appreciation of soccer, but I also know when to fall silent about minutiae and enjoy the moment. Congratulations to a team and a nation who have earned the admiration of the world.

Friday, July 07, 2006

TGIF. It's been a short but turbulent week in the blogosphere, and now it's time to review some of the highlights and lowlights from our admittedly skewed perspective.

The North Korean kerfuffle gave us the opportunity to revisit the hilarious Team America website, which did much to offset the tedium of the pundit class, most of whom are still trying to describe the right diplomatic approach for dealing with a lying, murderous midget who's broken every promise he ever made.


A word to the wise, though. One of the commenters on the January entry offered the following (which we can neither confirm nor deny):


Another flurry of hits sought out an entry recording one of our pet peeves: the deterioration of major league baseball attire. A little research turned up some kindred spirits who also disapprove of this particular sartorial crime:


Well, it's nice not to feel completely alone on a major issue.

It's even better not to feel completely alone on a second major issue. For once we have to agree with the great blowhard Neal Boortz about something. He doesn't like the tailbone tattoos women seem determined to disfigure themselves with these days. And we have to thank him for pointing us in the direction of this great SNL treatment of the subject.


While we're being grumpy about trifles, you should know that the audio clip playing with this entry was chosen because some of us happened to see Kevin Spacey's movie Beyond the Sea earlier this week. It's clear that for Spacey this fanciful biopic about Bobby Darin was a labor of love, but the end result is completely terrible, an unmitigated disaster. Love aside, Spacey is just plain too old to play a young Bobby Darin and his acting is so over the top it verges on the cartoonish. The script itself is  unpleasant if not actually deranged. And these aren't even the movie's biggest sin. Bobby Darin was as accomplished a saloon singer as Frank Sinatra, and it was unforgivable for Spacey to believe that he could be effective at faking that voice and singing style. It just doesn't work, and we hope to God it doesn't become a trend -- Steve Buscemi acting/singing the part of Sinatra, Meryl Streep acting/singing the part of Doris Day, Forrest Whittaker acting/singing the part of Mario Lanza... It's a dark road that should never be travelled as far as the coast, let alone beyond the sea.


On a lighter but still musical note, we'll end with a link to a rather delightful interview with Ann Coulter in which she recounts her life as a deadhead. If you love hating Ann Coulter, don't read it because there's a chance you'd wind up hating her a little less, and that wouldn't be any fun, would it?


So long for now.

P.S. Yes, today is the first anniversary of 7/7 in the U.K. People are also looking for our pix from that day. They're here. We stand by what we said then. More than ever.

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