Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Pure Goldberg

Posted: August 25, 2010 by datechguy in culture, media, opinion/news
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Jonah Goldberg writes a column in the LA times the once and for all proves that there are lies, damn lies and statistics:

According to the FBI, hate crimes against Muslims increased by a staggering 1,600% in 2001. That sounds serious! But wait, the increase is a math mirage. There were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11.

Now, that was a hate crime.

Roll that number around your head. There are 300+ Million people in the US and 50 states in the country and in 2001 “hate crimes” a population out for revenge doesn’t even hit one a month per state?

Regardless, 2001 was the zenith or, looked at through the prism of our national shame, the nadir of the much-discussed anti-Muslim backlash in the United States. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents (overwhelmingly, nonviolent vandalism and nasty words) dropped to 155. In 2003, there were 149 such incidents. And the number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since.

Sure, even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like a anti-Muslim backlash to you?

So we are talking vandalism and nasty words? Lets look at the post 2002 numbers for a sec, The fabulously intolerant Americans that Andrea Mitchell is lecturing concerning sensitivity managed less than one “incident” per season per state since 9/11? And these “incidents” are apparently vandalism and nasty words? This again in a population of 300+ million?

Read the whole thing including that the number of anti Jewish incidents are 6 times higher and anti-islamic ones in the US over the same period.

Maybe if the MSM wants to find bigotry it should look in the mirror and ask themselves why they think the American people are a bunch of hate mongers. Then perhaps their ratings wouldn’t be in the toilet

And finally lets drop this whole “hate” crimes nonsense anyway. It criminalizes thought. Prosecute a rock through a window because it’s a rock through somebody’s window. Justice and law should be color blind.

memeorandum thread here

Update: I would have given a parody example of the MSM’s way of thinking but I couldn’t do better than Alex Pareene’s actual column for salon today. It is almost impossible to parody the left wing media.

Rule 5 sunday at the UK Guardian

Posted: August 22, 2010 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Apparently the UK Guardian has been attacking Pam Geller and have been featuring a Bikini shot of her in the stories. Pam answers them in this post:

Knowledgeable conservative readers will get a charge out of the Guardian’s story, which is a mixture of pure fiction and dangerous lies, all devoted to the marginalization of those who dare to expose the liberal media propaganda machine.

The anti-Semitism was open: “Geller,” claimed Chris McGreal, the author of the piece, “writes for an Israeli media network based in the occupied territories that is the voice of the Jewish settler movement.”

I do? They just make stuff up. I don’t even know what they are talking about, but if Chris McGreal is in touch with this “Israeli media network,” he should let them know that I would love to write for them — please point the way!

Pam being Pam hits them head on answering them at her site and Big Journalism:

What’s the point of this stupid hit piece? And yes, it is worse than that. At the moment when I am identified more than anyone else with the fight against the Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero, they’re trying to make me radioactive, so that no one will dare to stand with me.

Anyone who has met Pam would be proud to stand with her, she is a woman of ethics, courage who has acted when others have shown fear. Anyone who thinks she had a bigoted bone in her body is drinking and smoking something stronger then I do.

As for the constant use of Bikini photos, well other than trying to be included in Rule 5 Sunday their use of them at the Guardian confirms one thing.

While they strategic, historical and sociological visions are faulty, their basic eyesight is apparently excellent.

A thought on the AP story that deserves its own post

Posted: August 19, 2010 by datechguy in culture, media
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I was speaking to a police officer a bit ago and he said something that frankly never occurred to me. When dealing with accused criminals and the like police officers remember that their convictions only reflect what they have been “caught” doing.

This is in fact what has happened with the media. It’s not that the media hasn’t played us for their own purposes in the past, it’s that now we know about it.

A mantra of the left is that in the 60’s our naivete concerning government was lifted from us, the truth is that naivete about the media is what the internet and the web and blogs has been destroyed forever.

How we use this knowledge is up to us. Hopefully we will use this perception better than the left perception did.

Update: I can’t help but visualizing the AP head editor asking the question: “Can we call it a Tallywacker?“

Comedy in 1978, Caselaw in 2010

Posted: August 18, 2010 by datechguy in culture, the courts
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All in the family was a staple in my house for many years when I was a kid. This week an episode called “The commercial” came to mind.

Edith is ambushed at the launderette by a man who tears Archie’s favorite shirt in half. It turns out he is from a detergent company filming with a hidden camera and they are shooting a commercial. They hire Edith to film the commercial but when the time comes to pick which half is brighter and cleaner she keeps picking the half washed in her brand. When told to pick “New Improved Sudi sudds” she just can’t bring herself to lie.

Archie, desperate to salvage payday and the residuals from the commercial tries to explain why she has to lie:

“They gotta give the lie, equal time with the truth.”

Apparently Archie was ahead of his time. Not only did he predict Reagan’s win in 1980 but he apparently saw this ruling coming down the pike from the 9th circuit:

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with him in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, agreeing that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights. The majority said there’s no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there’s no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies.

The dissenting justice insisted that the majority refused to follow clear Supreme Court precedent that false statements of fact are not entitled to First Amendment protection.

The act revised and toughened a law that forbids anyone to wear a military medal that wasn’t earned. The measure sailed through Congress in late 2006, receiving unanimous approval in the Senate.

What a boon for the cheating husband, he doesn’t have to rely on the “Oral Sex isn’t sex” defense he can BS his wife on first amendment grounds.

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