How Bad is Maureen Dowd?

Dowd's columns during Clinton's impeachment opened my eyes to the corruption by power and the sneering contempt for the rest of society that the Clintons had. Unfortunately, Dowd herself has now come to share this contempt and display from her perch as a columnist, as explained in this article in today's NRO:

[I]t is symptomatic of the intellectual state of the Left — and Dowd is its great exemplar in this respect — that rhetorical disdain has come to substitute for rational criticism...The problem with this sort of writing is that it's free-floating sarcasm. There's no substance underneath except for Dowd's conviction that she can peer into the souls of her political adversaries in order to discern their true motivations. In this respect, she is simply Al Franken with a bigger vocabulary or Michael Moore with table manners. (Quick aside on Moore: Flip through his book next time you pass it on a shelf. Note the SENTENCES IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Note the preponderance of exclamation points! In the current climate, Moore is a wobbling monument to the false impression that mouthing egalitarian clichés from the Sixties constitutes a reasoned worldview; in a more literate time, Moore would pass for a JERRY SPRINGER GUEST!) Dowd, Franken, and Moore, taken together, represent the evolutionary spectrum of a new species of elitists. Elitism, to be sure, is as old as human society. But never in recorded history has a less cerebrally, morally, or spiritually elite Elite looked down their noses at the majority of their countrymen. The minimum requirement for membership in the intelligentsia used to be, well, intelligence. This is no longer the case. Rather, what is now required is the mere sense of your own superiority, the smirky confidence that flows from an undergraduate grasp of history, philosophy, and literature, and which can only be sustained by a maniacal deafness to counterarguments. Listening to your political opponents is deadly under such circumstances; they must therefore be dismissed, a priori, as stupid.

This is the reason that so many Leftist critics of the coming war in Iraq don't even bother arguing against it on rational grounds. They just say that it's about oil, or a distraction from the economy, or intended to cover up corporate greed. It drives them nuts that someone they think is stupider than they are is a popular president.

Mrs. Kabila Needs My Help

I got one of those Nigerian scam e-mails:

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: MRS. JUSTINA KABILA
TEL: +31-613-865-048
E-MAIL: justina49@netscape.net

ATTN:

AN APPEAL FOR YOUR PERSONAL ASSISTANCE TO INVEST IN YOUR COUNTRY

I AM FORTY-NINE YEARS OLD WIDOW (THE THIRD WIFE) OF THE LATE PRESIDENT
LAURENT KABILA OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO. MY HUSBAND
WAS ASSASINATED BY ONE OF HIS BODYGUARD ON THE 16th OF JANUARY 2001.

AT THE MID OF THE REBELLION WHICH IS STILL ON IN MY COUNTRY,MY SON
AND I WENT OUT OF CONGO ACCORDING TO MY HUSBAND INSTRUCTION BEFORE
HIS DEATH BECAUSE THE FAITH OF OUR COUNTRY WAS YET TO BE DECIDED.
WE CAME TO AMSTERDAM WITH THREE SEALED BAGGAGE CONTAINING THE SUM
OF TWENTY-TWO MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS (US$22,000,000.00).

ON ARRIVAL IN AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS, WE SOUGHT FOR POLITICAL
ASYLUM. WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO OPERATE A BANK ACCOUNT AND DECIDED
TO DEPOSIT THE SEALED BAGGAGES CONTAINING THE FUNDS WITH A PRIVATE
SECURITY COMPANY.(UCL DIPLOMATIC SERVICES) FOR SECURITY REASONS,
I DECLARED THE CONTENT AS PHOTOGRAHPIC MATERIALS of high security
value BELONGING TO MY FOREIGN AFFILIATED BUSINESS PARTNER. SINCE
THEN WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY PERSON
TO HELP ME FOR SAFE KEEPING OF THE MONEY PRIOR TO INVESTING IN ANY
CONDUCIVE COUNTRY IN OVERSEA.

I GOT IN CONTACT WITH SOMEBODY IN AUSTRALIA,HE BECAME GREEDY
CONSIDERING
HIS SHARE IN THE TRANSACTION, HE ASKED FOR 40%. LUCKILY, I RAN
INTO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND DETAILS, AND DECIDE TO CONTACT
YOU AND SEE IF YOU COULD BE OF ANY HELP TO ME AND THE TERMS OF
THE TRANSACTION IS AS FOLLOWS:

1) 25% OF THE TOTAL SUM TO YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IN PROVIDING
ACCOUNT AND SAFE KEEPING OF THE FUNDS.

2) 5% OF THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SET ASIDE FOR ANY EXPENSES THAT MAY
BE INCURRED IN THE PROCESS OF THIS TRANSACTION.

3) 70% OF THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE FOR ME AND MY FAMILY INVESTMENT
IN YOUR COUNTRY OF WHICH YOU WILL BE A GUIDE TO US.

PLEASE SHOULD THIS MEET YOUR ULTMOST CONSIDERATION,CONTACT MY SON
(PETER KABILA) THROUGH TELEPHONE:(+31-613-865-048)


PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK (PETER) ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY
CONSIDER NECESSARY, HE IS FRONTING FOR ME ;AS I LOOK FOWARD TO HEAR
FROM YOU.

YOURS TRULY,

MRS. JUSTINA KABILA.

Appeasing Terrorists Never Works

This article on the IRA shows how the Good Friday Accord to end the troubles in Northern Ireland is coming apart as the IRA/Sinn Fein's continuing involvement in terrorism becomes so blatenly clear that even Tony Blair can't avoid it.

Other People's Rants

Sometimes I worry that some of my remarks on this site are somewhat, shall we say, intemperate. Then I read something as hilariously over-the-top and yet dead-on like this rant about Paul Wellstone, which includes such delicious lines as,

"[T]here are two parties nowadays: the US party, and the UN party. The former includes Republicans and Democrats who have an inordinate, romantic, and almost quaint attachment to the Constitution and the notion of national sovereignty. The latter regard nation-states as subsets of a global construct that values unanimous impotence over individual effort, and values procedure over results. The US party calls in mortar fire on the enemy positions. The UN party stands up, climbs over the lip of the trench, and recites Robert’s Rules of Order as it approaches the machine-gun positions. Yea, though I walk through the shadow of death I shall fear no evil, for evil is specifically prohibited under Article 4, subclause B."

Why the Internet Was Slow Yesterday

WorldCom Glitch Causes Internet Delays

NPR Series on History of Israel

Just posted on israpundit some links to an NPR series on the history of Israel.

So Should I See This Movie or Not, II

This is so much fun, it will now be a regular Friday feature. Last time, it was Salon vs. Slate, but as of 11:45, Salon hasn't reviewed this movie, so it's Salon vs. CNN today.

"Red Dragon," the prequel to "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal," starring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, Edward Norton as The FBI Agent, and Ralph Feinnes as The Seriel Killer. The plot line was previously done in the movie "Manhunter" in 1996.

CNN: 'Dragon' worthy follower to 'Lambs'

Salon: "Red Dragon": Anthony Hopkins? Big deal! We've already seen the prequel to "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" -- and it was better the first time.

Some comments:

CNN: In "Red Dragon," the prequel to 1991's "Silence Of The Lambs," Sir Anthony Hopkins -- who won an Academy Award for his earlier portrayal of Hannibal Lecter -- proves once again that Lecter is the most terrifying villain in cinematic history.

Salon: If you buy the overprocessed headcheese of the serial killer as refined genius, you'll love "Red Dragon." Or maybe not. Even Hannibal Lecter devotees may lose patience with this picture's grandiose, self-serious ponderousness -- that's Lecterese for, "It's kind of boring in patches, actually."

CNN: This film's remarkable effectiveness is also due to the fact that "Silence" screenwriter Ted Tally, who won an Academy Award for "Lambs," is back, along with a stellar cast including Emily Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Harvey Keitel.

Salon: There's an aura of dread and menace about "Red Dragon," but it's almost as if it's been pumped into the movie by an ionizer. Neither Ratner nor his actors -- working from a script by Ted Tally, who also wrote the screenplay for "The Silence of the Lambs" -- are any good at charging the atmosphere with true creepiness.


CNN: [W]e actually get to know the killer, whose real name is Francis Dolarhyde, simply known as D. [The movie], in fact, has given D a compelling back story not included in [the original] book.

Salon: We know who the killer is long before [The FBI Agent] does, of course: It's Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes), your friendly neighborhood mild-mannered impotent psychotic with a harelip..A hokey voiceover flashback tells us that Francis suffered severe emotional and physical abuse at the hands of the crazed granny who raised him. For those who have difficulty decoding such fine-grained psychoanalysis, [The FBI Agent] puts it this way: "He wasn't born a monster. He was made one through years and years of abuse."

CNN: "...a stellar cast including Emily Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Edward Norton, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Harvey Keitel."

Salon: [Fiennes] paces through the movie like a silent-film ham, making his eyes look really shiny and crazy whenever it's called for, which is basically every time he's on-screen. Did someone forget to tell him "Red Dragon" is a talkie?...Norton plods along dutifully for the ride...He delivers his lines like a guy who sure knows how to deliver lines -- he hits them like a tennis pro idly whacking a ball against the wall over and over again. They make contact; they just don't whirr or sting. At the very least, though, his brand of understatement is a blessed relief next to Hopkins' coming on like a bad Bette Davis impersonator...Hopkins takes such great care to festoon his character in crepey elegance that he succeeds only in turning it into low camp.

CNN: The score, by Danny Elfman, is excellent...

Salon: Be sure to listen for the way Danny Elfman's score swells like a flooding fjord during the electrifying blow-job scene.

This Passes for Genius?

All I need is one goofy idea...

Bringing dance to prayer: Activist wins ‘genius’ grant

...

Choreographer, dancer, community organizer, teacher and now public persona, Lerman last week received a five-year MacArthur Fellowship for $500,000, a prize that carries with it the public recognition of genius status.

...

A member of [Reform] Temple Micah, Lerman at times used the congregation as a laboratory, developing synagogue-based programs like dance midrash to bring movement and dance into the stand-up-sit-down world of traditional Jewish prayer...

“To bring movement to the life of prayer is extraordinary,” says Ron Wolfson, vice president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, director of the Whizin Center for the Jewish Future and co-founder of Synagogue 2000. “Liz is able to make people comfortable with the idea that movement is a possibility, and she expresses it in a nonthreatening way to people who never believed they could move.”

[Reform rabbi Daniel Zeman] adds, “Personally my prayer experience has been changed forever” by Lerman’s work...But organized Judaism — not just alternative basement services and chavurot — he says, must acknowledge the primacy of Lerman’s work as an example of the power creative expression can provide to help create community.“It should be a signal to the Jewish community about what I’ve said all along about Liz: that there are incredible artists out there and that we have to be open enough to embrace them and bring them into our synagogues and communities. Liz is out there in the art world blazing new forms. We have to allow this in and allow it to affect the mainstream.”

“If we don’t bring these artists right into the mainstream,” Zemel warns, “if we don’t recognize them, we’re blind to the geniuses among us, and they’ll go elsewhere, out into the secular world.”

Let me show you the door...

Federalist Society on the Laws of Armed Conflict

Just posted on Israpundit a link and comment on a Federalist Socieyt report, "A Legal Analysis of the Attacks on Civilians and Infliction of Collateral Damage in the Middle East Conflict."

Canadian Anti-Idiotarians

According to today's FT, Canadian Business Rallies Against Kyoto:

Canada's decision on ratification is expected to have a crucial effect on the long-term future of the United Nation's efforts to curb climate change even though its approval is not essential for the protocol to come into force.

The dispute has escalated since Jean Chrétien, the prime minister, announced plans at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg last month to put the protocol to a vote in parliament this year.

The widely-held belief that it will win approval from parliament has unleashed intense criticism from opponents. "It's the goofiest, most devastating thing that was ever conceived and has ever been contemplated by a Canadian government in the history of this country," said Ralph Klein, premier of Alberta, the leading oil-producing province.

Last week, a broad cross-section of Canadian industry launched a coalition to fight ratification plans. Gwyn Morgan, president of EnCana, an energy producer, accused the government of being "led down the garden path" by a European Union plan to gain commercial advantage over other countries".

"Now that the US and Australia have dropped out, the EU countries are worried that the jig is up. They're scrambling to make sure Canada ratifies so they can at least have competitive advantage over our country," Mr Morgan said.

...

Canada does not emit enough greenhouse gases for its approval to have a decisive influence but a rejection would be significant because it would mean that there were no countries in the Americas taking on legally-binding emission targets.

Some analysts believe that could lead to the development of a North America Free Trade Area (Nafta) climate initiative, scuppering the UN's long-term ambitions of drawing the US back into its international coalition on climate change. "Canada is crucial, not because it is required to get Kyoto into force but because it changes the long-term dynamics," says Michael Grubb, professor of climate change at London's Imperial College.

Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate campaign of WWF, the environment group, says that Canada's ratification would split the north American block. "It is both economically and politically important because it sends a signal about just how isolated the Bush administration is on this."

Hold on a minute. The WWF (not World Wrestling Federation, but World Wildlife Fund; the wrestlers lost a copyright infringement suit and had to change their name to World Wide Entertainment) says that the U.S. is "isolated," but two paragraphs earlier, the article says that if Canada ratifies it will be the only country in the Americas with binding emissions targets, and if it doesn't ratify, there will be a North American climate initiative. So who is isolated?

The Euroweenies Are Whining Again

The WaPo reports that New U.S. Doctrine Worries Europeans. It includes these gems from our alleged allies:

Rallies by tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators in London and Rome on Saturday were reminiscent of the protests of the early 1980s in favor of nuclear disarmament and against President Ronald Reagan's tough stance on the Soviet Union.

Uh, yeah, right, they protested against the tough stance that actually won the Cold War and brought down the Soviet Union. They were wrong then, and they're wrong now.

The Europeans say the administration views them as "Euro wimps" who don't pull their weight militarily, and who prefer prevarication to plain-speaking and appeasement to action. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's recent appearance at a NATO meeting in Warsaw, during which he snubbed the German defense minister because of Schroeder's strong opposition to military action against Iraq, was the latest insult.

Okay, so at least they understand the situation. And why is it an intolerable insult for Rummy not to meet the German defense minister, but okay for Schroeder to dis the U.S. and for his foreign minister to compare our President to Hitler? Do they think they can do that without consequences?

"There's a tone of contempt that people here deeply resent," said John Wyles, a journalist and policy strategist who works for GPlus Europe, a consulting firm.

This is precious. The Europeans who have been calling us simplistic cowboys for the last year (longer, really, since right after Bush became president) are now complaining about our contempt for them!

Many people contend that the Americans have put too much emphasis on a military approach to attacking terrorism and not enough on dealing with what they identify as root causes, such as poverty and lack of freedoms. "None of this in any way justifies or explains what happened on September 11th," Patten said, "but perhaps it means we have a slightly more nuanced idea of how you deal with terrorism."

But they complain about contempt? Patten is foaming at the mouth with supercilious contempt for the U.S. And he's wrong. As many people keep pointing, out poverty does not cause terrorism. Osama is not poor! The hijackers were from middle class families. It's as if the Euroweenies just don't want to admit the facts staring them in the face. And then they act superior to us, and complain that we act superior to them.