Month: September 2009

That is Michelle Malkin's categorical claim about the ugly incident on a school bus in Saint Louis this morning. She wrote that post at 12.02 pm, linking to this story which says it was updated at 11.35 am to rebut the notion that this schoolyard fight was racially motivated. The police chief rushed to judgment and later recanted. Maybe Malkin missed it and will soon qualify her claim. But here's a revealing statement:

A Belleville police spokesman now says an incident where a white student was beaten by teen black assailants on a bus “may not be racially motivated.” “It was premature on my part,” said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax. “It was my personal and emotional comment after only seeing the video briefly.”

And yet Malkin has not yet corrected her story or changed its headline from "Racial thuggery." Dan Riehl ramps up the race war talk. A Malkin commenter piles on:

Can you tell me there is no race war going on? While white people sit around shaking their heads and looking the other way black people have made every possible issue about race and their anger is erupting more daily. It’s only going to get worse.

Now, I don't know what the motive on that schoolbus was, and in schoolbus fights (and I saw many as a boy), there might be many, including racial tension. But we don't know this yet. Can we withhold judgment until we do? Or is that much too much to ask?

A short list. The Dish's favorite:

Then: Walden
Now:  Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany

Kottke opens the floor to reader submissions.

Simon Johnson was unimpressed by the President's financial regulation speech:

The administration will not tell anyone the exact capital and liquidity requirements they are proposing, but close observers of the internal administration process have taken to calling the likely increases “dinky.” Remember, the last time our financial system showed this taste for risk and a comparable level of incompetence (prior to 1935), it had equity relative to assets roughly three times current levels (e.g., put into tier one-equivalent terms). There is no proposal on the table, either in the U.S. or within the G20, that is even remotely in the right ballpark. President Obama has put his finger on the problem but is apparently unwilling to do anything about it.

Afghanistan is responsible.

A US TV show arrives. Not uncontroversially:

The officially distributed Iranian version of the show will be edited to "exclude "un-Islamic" scenes such as those featuring scantily clad women or male-female physical contact" — so the authorities' decision might be less about exposing Iranian viewers to Lost's exploration of spirituality than preventing them from seeing Evangeline Lilly in a bikini. Somehow I think the bootleggers are going to stay in business.

In Iran, the mullahs are edgy about its "Zionist concepts":

Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi, recently sacked as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's culture and Islamic guidance minister, lambasted it for displaying "Zionist concepts". However, others insisted the programme was suitable for an Iranian audience because it has "eastern" themes. "The atmosphere of this story, due to our classic literature, is familiar to Iranian and eastern viewers," Saeed Ghotbizadeh, a TV and cinema critic, told the Tehran-e Emrooz newspaper. "Eastern viewers can understand it better and would naturally like it. "Because it has a religious theme, it is possible to broadcast 90% of it without censorship. But its brilliant and special characterisation might be sacrificed in Persian dubbing – a lot will depend on how well it is dubbed."

Will he pose nude for Playgirl? This vital question is discussed here.

David Frum clashes with David Horowitz.

The UN cites both sides in the conflict.