Month: February 2006

The more I think about the president’s use of the "addicted to oil" metaphor last night, and his proposals, the more inappropriate I think it is. A reader puts his finger on exactly what’s wrong:

"Bush’s Addiction Meme precisely encapsulates everything that is wrong with contemporary Republican moralizing. Bush wants to cast the essentially pragmatic problem of our dependence on middle-eastern oil as a moral issue, as if we’re a bunch of crazed junkies. There’s something to be said for this view, but you can’t say it without taking the next step: a junky needs to be told to kick the habit. 

Recovery takes guts, and hard work, and sacrifice. Is that what Bush is asking of the country? Not at all. Should we increase gas taxes, improve fuel efficiency, push for smaller cars? No way. Who then is going to solve our addiction problem? In a word: Big Government. We need a new drug, and Big Gov’s going to invent it, and it’ll be cheaper, all the high without the hangover.  That’s the miracle of government: it keeps you from having to be self-governing.  This is such a neat inversion of everything conservatism is supposed to stand for you’d think the progressives must have invented it, but you’d be wrong."

It’s just a reflection of how this president has all but destroyed conservatism as a governing philosophy. In that respect, it reminds me of his war-management. Energy independence could have been a rallying cry after 9/11. He could have asked for a higher gas tax to pay for the war and prompt the prviate sector to innovate for new energy resources. Instead, he tells everyone to go shopping, and that Big Daddy will deal with the enemy and don’t trouble your pretty heads about anything. When we ask questions, the secrecy mantra slams the door shut. When abuses of power occur, he resorts to the us-or-them meme. You know what? I loathed Kerry. But I backed him in 2004 because I cared about conservatism – and what this president has been doing to it. He has three more years to wreak havoc on what was once a coherent tradition.

A reader responds:

"Your emailer does not speak for all conservatives.
I thought "Crash" was a very good movie and I am going to see "Brokeback" and give it a fair shot (although somehow I doubt the subject of same sex love between lonely ‘pokes on the range will be focused on at the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko, Nevada this week). I agree the other movies listed are probably propaganda vehicles for their directors and writers (and generally Hollywood does have its head up its collective ass) – but I will probably check them out on DVD. The Academy Awards are heading down the same road as the Miss America Pageant, but least Murderball got nominated in the documentary category.
But calling you ‘Andypoo,’ where did that come from? It is something John Waters would put in one of his movies."

I don’t know where the "Andypoo" thing came from. People who don’t know me (and my dad) call me "Andy." Somehow they think it’s an insult (except for my dad who has used it since I was in diapers). But I’ve always been an Andrew to everyone else, which came in handy when I dated an Andy. I have to say I liked "Crash" a lot, and as readers may recall, was underwhelmed by "Brokeback." As for "Good Night .." or "Munich," I haven’t seen them yet, and my fiance nags me about it. I tell him I may get too irritated – anyone who knows me knows I’m no fan of Tony Kushner’s politics and have made a point of noting the real communist credentials of many in the black-listed Hollywood years. Still I’ll see the movies on DVD at least. Kushner may be irritating, but he’s not stupid. And any exploration of the moral dilemmas of countering terrorism is worth our time right now. The only films I really won’t sit through are anything by Oliver Stone or Michael Moore. They’re liars and propagandists. Even then, I forced myself through "Fahrenheit 9/11." And heckled it.

Every now and again, you hear how so many feel. A reader writes:

"Sorry to interrupt your daily diatribe against Bush while you ingratiate yourself to your new MSM masters, but did you catch the Oscar nominations? 8 for "Bareback Mounting", you know the gay cowboy movie? Have you heard of it? Well, I just checked the box office totals for this movie (that has been hyped to the gills by every gay shill in the media, including you, which is a considerable since most gays gravitate to the entertainment industry). Guess what: it fell fourteen percent last weekend.

And get this: the five best movie nominees, Capote (gay nihilist), Syrianna (US sucks and is corrupt), Brokeback Mountain (gay cowboys, uuuhhhh, yeah, right), Good Night and Good Luck (conservatives suck and there were never communists in the government no matter what those pesky Venona Papers say), Munich (hey, terrorists have feelings too), and Crash (LA is full of racist whiteys) have grossed a total of $186,000,000. That’s $75 million less than Narnia. Good call Hollywood. Nominate 5 movies that nobody has seen or cares about. And you and the rest of your idiot friends wonder why nobody is going to the movies.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Andypoo: keep it up. Live in your fantasy world and keep pissing off the rest of us bumpkins. And we’ll keep solidly supporting anybody but you idiot liberals. And BTW, stop with the conservative nonsense. You aren’t one and we don’t appreciate you posing as one and pretending you represent us. Any moron who would vote for Kerry deserves to have to sit through two hours of that mindless and nonsensical RumpWrangler Mounting.

Er, thanks.

Veronique de Rugy, my favorite budget-cruncher, adds up how much of your money the president vowed to spend last night. Oy.

An interesting poll shows Americans are getting a teensy bit more optimistic. They may not be nuts.

The Islamists and their sympathizers have been pressuring Wikipedia to censor itself over the Danish cartoons. So far, only a few wobbles. The info page is here. The page where the discussion occurs about them can be found here. Thank God for the free speech advocates. But notice also the creepy alliance between the Islamic far right and the post-modern sensitivity police on the far left. The only extremist religious groups the far left won’t find an excuse for are the nutty Christianists. That tells you something, I think.

Why are we attacking their major source of revenue and jobs: poppies for opium and heroin? Money quote from Johann Hari, who now joins Hitch and me in being pro-democracy and anti-drug war:

"There are two possible futures for Afghanistan. In the first, Hamid Karzai responds to the clear democratic will of his people ‚Äì ‘everyone I know wants the poppies to be legal,’ Sayed says ‚Äì and legalises the supply of heroin. Only once Karzai can tax the country’s single biggest product and reclaim it from criminal gangs is there any chance of extending democratic rule beyond Kabul.
But the other, darker Afghanistan looks more likely ‚Äì one where Karzai ignores his people and follow the dictates of the ex-drug user George W Bush to create a ‘drug-free Afghanistan’. This is a recipe for endless civil war, with a heroin-fatted Taliban launching more and more raids to burn girls’ schools and trash any rebuilding, far onto the historical horizon."

The choice is: democracy or the drug war. I’m glad Johann had the guts to explain this.

The Onion reports on an unnoticed item in the president’s address last night: a new cabinet office for scandal coordination. Some pundits agree:

"We can’t afford to have the American people lose faith in the government’s ability to spearhead an effective scandal," TV commentator Sean Hannity said. "The sheer number of major scandals has gone way up in the past few years‚Äîbut the level of scandal coordination has remained at Clinton-era levels. The system is obsolete. Plain and simple. I for one applaud Bush for bringing corruption management into the 21st century."

Has the nutso, ‘outing’ gay left gone too far this time? Some interesting legal views here and here.

Mr Barnes thinks the SOTU was too conciliatory.