Bloggers Choose the Top 20 Movies
It's over at Right Wing News.
It's a pretty good list except that there are no John Wayne movies. How can you pick Forrest Gump over Stagecoach? For that matter, is Animal House really better than High Plains Drifter or Dirty Harry?
Thursday, July 31, 2003
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
The Demented World of Michael Savage
Apparently Michael Savage is carried on 300 stations. Having just heard him for the first time on WHP 580, i don't know why.
He is loud certainly, but what does he offer beyond shouting and name-calling? Even G. Gordon Liddy usually provides some information and analysis as part of his show. Savage is all shtick and it isn't even a good shtick.
Savage- a putative conservative who chooses to live in San Francisco-- has stations across the country. Yet he drips with condescension for the hinterlands. Saturday he continually referred to Kobe Bryant's alleged victim.as "Rocky Mountain Trash" and a "mountain trash slut." He called her home town a "retrograde community", "Latrine Colorado" and "Buzzard Colorado".
In a weird way, Savage is the creation of media liberalism. He sounds and acts the way liberals think conservatives do. Media planners in Manhattan advertising agencies think that his attitudes are typical of the guys who drive trucks and so they buy time on his show for GM and Ford.
It is good business for Savage and maybe he really believes some of what he says. I just hate that some people see him as representative of the right.
Apparently Michael Savage is carried on 300 stations. Having just heard him for the first time on WHP 580, i don't know why.
He is loud certainly, but what does he offer beyond shouting and name-calling? Even G. Gordon Liddy usually provides some information and analysis as part of his show. Savage is all shtick and it isn't even a good shtick.
Savage- a putative conservative who chooses to live in San Francisco-- has stations across the country. Yet he drips with condescension for the hinterlands. Saturday he continually referred to Kobe Bryant's alleged victim.as "Rocky Mountain Trash" and a "mountain trash slut." He called her home town a "retrograde community", "Latrine Colorado" and "Buzzard Colorado".
In a weird way, Savage is the creation of media liberalism. He sounds and acts the way liberals think conservatives do. Media planners in Manhattan advertising agencies think that his attitudes are typical of the guys who drive trucks and so they buy time on his show for GM and Ford.
It is good business for Savage and maybe he really believes some of what he says. I just hate that some people see him as representative of the right.
Outing the Victim
This old article from Jay Nordlinger is interesting in light of the Kobe Bryant case.
In the spring of 1989, the Central Park “wilding” occurred. That was the monstrous rape and beating of a young white woman, known to most of the world as “the jogger.” The hatred heaped on her by Sharpton and his claque is almost impossible to fathom, and wrenching to review. Sharpton insisted-against all evidence-that the attackers were innocent. They were, he said, modern Scottsboro Boys, trapped in “a fit of racial hysteria.” Unspeakably, he and his people charged that the victim’s own boyfriend had raped and beaten her to the point of death. Outside the courthouse, they chanted, “The boyfriend did it! The boyfriend did it!” They denounced the victim as “Whore!” They screamed her name, over and over (because most publications refused to print it, though several black-owned ones did). Sharpton brought Tawana Brawley to the trial one day, to show her, he said, the difference between white justice and black justice. He arranged for her to meet the jogger’s attackers, whom she greeted with comradely warmth. In another of his publicity stunts, he appealed for a psychiatrist to examine the victim. “It doesn’t even have to be a black psychiatrist,” he said, generously. He added: “We’re not endorsing the damage to the girl — if there was this damage.”
See, once upon a time it was conservatives who thought attacking the victim in rape cases was reprehensible. We condemned Sharpton for it. We condemned the Carvilles and Blumenthals when they defended Clinton this way. But now Sean Hannity invites Leykis on the air to discuss "double standards" in the handling of rape cases.
This old article from Jay Nordlinger is interesting in light of the Kobe Bryant case.
In the spring of 1989, the Central Park “wilding” occurred. That was the monstrous rape and beating of a young white woman, known to most of the world as “the jogger.” The hatred heaped on her by Sharpton and his claque is almost impossible to fathom, and wrenching to review. Sharpton insisted-against all evidence-that the attackers were innocent. They were, he said, modern Scottsboro Boys, trapped in “a fit of racial hysteria.” Unspeakably, he and his people charged that the victim’s own boyfriend had raped and beaten her to the point of death. Outside the courthouse, they chanted, “The boyfriend did it! The boyfriend did it!” They denounced the victim as “Whore!” They screamed her name, over and over (because most publications refused to print it, though several black-owned ones did). Sharpton brought Tawana Brawley to the trial one day, to show her, he said, the difference between white justice and black justice. He arranged for her to meet the jogger’s attackers, whom she greeted with comradely warmth. In another of his publicity stunts, he appealed for a psychiatrist to examine the victim. “It doesn’t even have to be a black psychiatrist,” he said, generously. He added: “We’re not endorsing the damage to the girl — if there was this damage.”
See, once upon a time it was conservatives who thought attacking the victim in rape cases was reprehensible. We condemned Sharpton for it. We condemned the Carvilles and Blumenthals when they defended Clinton this way. But now Sean Hannity invites Leykis on the air to discuss "double standards" in the handling of rape cases.
It Figures
So that piece of scum Tom Leykis is a wife-beater. Michael Savage and Tom Leykis. Kobe must be proud of his media posse.
So that piece of scum Tom Leykis is a wife-beater. Michael Savage and Tom Leykis. Kobe must be proud of his media posse.
Monday, July 28, 2003
What Russia was to Napoleon...
...the Kobe case will be for Fox News.
At least that is the way it is shaping up now. The network’s "coverage" of the matter is almost certain to alienate the key audience that has helped it take the lead in the ratings hunt.
Two-thirds of its prime-time lineup seems to be pro-Kobe. It is no surprise that Greta van Sustren's "On the Record" falls that way. She fills her show with defense attorneys whose instinct is to create reasonable doubt. Reflexively, the show's experts seize on all the facts and unattributed statements that put the alleged victim in a bad light.
It is a shock, though, to watch Hannity and Colmes and realize that you agree with Colmes. Hannity, for some reason, has decided to run with the Kobe posse and retail those same rumors. He brays about double standards as though this is the first victim whose anonymity is protected. In fact, it is Hannity and his ilk who want to treat this case differently.
Fox is no worse than MSNBC in this regard. But that is the problem. Fox owes its rise in the ratings to being different than the usual media outlets. Fox seemed to reflect the values of "red America". But in the Kobe case Fox is acting out of character and mocking those values.
Behind the electoral map of red and blue America lies a cultural divide. As Den Beste has pointed out repeatedly, Jacksonian America sees things differently than does the media. As Mead shows in this essay, Jacksonian values-- honor, equality and courage run deep.
Not discussed in the essay is another Jacksonian quality-- a roughhewn chivalry toward women. It is an important element in Jacksonian honor.
Andrew Jackson himself set the standard here. He fought duels in defense of his wife’s good name and in one instance killed the man who slurred her. In his first term he fired most of his cabinet because their wives refused to accept Peggy Eaton socially and disparaged her morals and suitability as a Cabinet wife.
Trashing the 19 year old alleged victim is antithetical to this concept of honor. Keeping silent as it occurs in front of you is the opposite of courage.
Many reporters seem instinctively pro-Kobe. In Jacksonian America we wonder if that is because Bryant is a rich celebrity athlete. We doubt that the average person would receive the same active defense. "Fair and balanced" is for politics. In this case, the coastal elites seem to stick up for their own.
I don’t expect Fox News to fall behind CNN tomorrow. This is Russia not Waterloo. But their handling of this story does dilute FNC’s claim to fame: it no longer seems culturally in tune with its audience beyond the coasts. Without that cultural resonance Fox News is just an under-funded pundit-fest with a limited ability to gather hard news on its own. How large an audience is there for that?
...the Kobe case will be for Fox News.
At least that is the way it is shaping up now. The network’s "coverage" of the matter is almost certain to alienate the key audience that has helped it take the lead in the ratings hunt.
Two-thirds of its prime-time lineup seems to be pro-Kobe. It is no surprise that Greta van Sustren's "On the Record" falls that way. She fills her show with defense attorneys whose instinct is to create reasonable doubt. Reflexively, the show's experts seize on all the facts and unattributed statements that put the alleged victim in a bad light.
It is a shock, though, to watch Hannity and Colmes and realize that you agree with Colmes. Hannity, for some reason, has decided to run with the Kobe posse and retail those same rumors. He brays about double standards as though this is the first victim whose anonymity is protected. In fact, it is Hannity and his ilk who want to treat this case differently.
Fox is no worse than MSNBC in this regard. But that is the problem. Fox owes its rise in the ratings to being different than the usual media outlets. Fox seemed to reflect the values of "red America". But in the Kobe case Fox is acting out of character and mocking those values.
Behind the electoral map of red and blue America lies a cultural divide. As Den Beste has pointed out repeatedly, Jacksonian America sees things differently than does the media. As Mead shows in this essay, Jacksonian values-- honor, equality and courage run deep.
Not discussed in the essay is another Jacksonian quality-- a roughhewn chivalry toward women. It is an important element in Jacksonian honor.
Andrew Jackson himself set the standard here. He fought duels in defense of his wife’s good name and in one instance killed the man who slurred her. In his first term he fired most of his cabinet because their wives refused to accept Peggy Eaton socially and disparaged her morals and suitability as a Cabinet wife.
Trashing the 19 year old alleged victim is antithetical to this concept of honor. Keeping silent as it occurs in front of you is the opposite of courage.
Many reporters seem instinctively pro-Kobe. In Jacksonian America we wonder if that is because Bryant is a rich celebrity athlete. We doubt that the average person would receive the same active defense. "Fair and balanced" is for politics. In this case, the coastal elites seem to stick up for their own.
I don’t expect Fox News to fall behind CNN tomorrow. This is Russia not Waterloo. But their handling of this story does dilute FNC’s claim to fame: it no longer seems culturally in tune with its audience beyond the coasts. Without that cultural resonance Fox News is just an under-funded pundit-fest with a limited ability to gather hard news on its own. How large an audience is there for that?
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Greatest Americans
Lists of "The Greatest Americans" may overlook important and valuable aspects of our history simply because they are not discrete events or the result of a single individual's work.
Two groups deserving credit, IMHO, are
The Pioneer Women and "domestic engineers".
That some men would want to move into the wilderness is one thing. That women would be willing to put up with the hardships, lack of amenities, danger, and loneliness is quite another. That so many were willing is amazing.
Witold Rybczynski's Home: A Short History of an Idea is one of my favorite books. In it he notes that a group of American women remade how our homes were organized and how domestic work was done. They were "domestic engineers" because they brought the methods of efficiency experts inside the home. Unlike male architects, they were less worried about style and visual appeal and more focused how the house functioned for the family. (Lillian Gilbreth, Catherine Beecher are two who did important work of this sort). As Rybczynski writes:
Lists of "The Greatest Americans" may overlook important and valuable aspects of our history simply because they are not discrete events or the result of a single individual's work.
Two groups deserving credit, IMHO, are
The Pioneer Women and "domestic engineers".
That some men would want to move into the wilderness is one thing. That women would be willing to put up with the hardships, lack of amenities, danger, and loneliness is quite another. That so many were willing is amazing.
Witold Rybczynski's Home: A Short History of an Idea is one of my favorite books. In it he notes that a group of American women remade how our homes were organized and how domestic work was done. They were "domestic engineers" because they brought the methods of efficiency experts inside the home. Unlike male architects, they were less worried about style and visual appeal and more focused how the house functioned for the family. (Lillian Gilbreth, Catherine Beecher are two who did important work of this sort). As Rybczynski writes:
Anyone who works comfortably at the kitchen counter, or takes dishes out of a dishwasher and places them in a convenient overhead shelf, or dusts the house in an hour, not a day, owes something to the domestic engineer.
Friday, July 25, 2003
More Kobe
Outside the Beltway makes a good point:
While I agree both in general and in this particular case that rape victims should be protected from public scrutiny by the media, I'm aways amazed that so few seem to have any sympathy for the accused.
I actually have a lot of sympathy for the accused. I wish Greta, Rita, Dan and Keith would just shut up about the Bryant case and let the jury system work. No need to drag his name through the mud before the evidence is presented in court.
But i think Bryant has received much more sympathy than Scott Peterson, Martha Stewart, and Kenny Lay. He is getting the benefit of the doubt where they have already been convicted in the public mind.
One of ASV's commenters also made a good point on the fairness of protecting the accuser's privacy.
Why is this one different? Because Bryant is a celebrity. When a celebrity gets arrested, it's considered "news" and reported on. Sorry, them's the breaks. But guess what? If a female celebrity were raped, that would be all over the news as well; the double standard isn't so much accuser vs. accused, but celebrity vs. non-celebrity.
In any case, what I fail to see is why this woman should be treated differently from other alleged rape victims just becuase she allegedly had the misfortune of being raped by a celebrity.
Outside the Beltway makes a good point:
While I agree both in general and in this particular case that rape victims should be protected from public scrutiny by the media, I'm aways amazed that so few seem to have any sympathy for the accused.
I actually have a lot of sympathy for the accused. I wish Greta, Rita, Dan and Keith would just shut up about the Bryant case and let the jury system work. No need to drag his name through the mud before the evidence is presented in court.
But i think Bryant has received much more sympathy than Scott Peterson, Martha Stewart, and Kenny Lay. He is getting the benefit of the doubt where they have already been convicted in the public mind.
One of ASV's commenters also made a good point on the fairness of protecting the accuser's privacy.
Why is this one different? Because Bryant is a celebrity. When a celebrity gets arrested, it's considered "news" and reported on. Sorry, them's the breaks. But guess what? If a female celebrity were raped, that would be all over the news as well; the double standard isn't so much accuser vs. accused, but celebrity vs. non-celebrity.
In any case, what I fail to see is why this woman should be treated differently from other alleged rape victims just becuase she allegedly had the misfortune of being raped by a celebrity.
Outside Media Criticism
Good article on this here.
one of the most disturbing trends of the early 21st century — faux media insiderism. A lot of folks seem to have the impression that giving Slate the occassional read is an adequate substitute for actual knowledge when it comes to speculating on the internal politics of major news organizations.
Good article on this here.
one of the most disturbing trends of the early 21st century — faux media insiderism. A lot of folks seem to have the impression that giving Slate the occassional read is an adequate substitute for actual knowledge when it comes to speculating on the internal politics of major news organizations.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
The Bryant Case: Outing the Victim
A Small Victory says it best---
The fact is, this case is different. Here, you have a celebrity with a huge, loyal, rabid following. The reasons for many of these people wanting to know the name of the accuser is so they can harass her. Just look at my comments on any of these posts. Go do a search and find any website that defends Kobe and you'll see what I mean. There are people looking for address so they can stalk her, wait for her to come out of her house and hurl insults at her. There are people who want to physically harm her. They want her email address to send her threatening letters and the only reason they want to see photos of her is so they can post the photos themselves while captioning them with insults.
Bryant's fans - at least this portion of his fans - have already determined that he is innocent. They would rather see this woman dead then see their team play without their hero. Now, that's a sad statement. And that is why I believe this woman's name should not be made public. Of course, it's too late for that, but you will not find that information here, ever.
The argument that outing the victim is "fair" fails on at least three counts.
First, she did not create the media circus, the media did. She is not responsible for the massive coverage that her charges created.
Second, the state of Colorado looked at the accusation and decided to file charges. If Kobe Bryant is in trouble, it is not the simply the result of one woman's statement. The police and DA vetted that statement and found it credible and probably buttressed by forensic evidence.
Third, Bryant's wealth and celebrity provide him a degree of insulation and protection that is not available to this girl and her family. No one who wants to call Kobe is a rapist bastard is going to get within a hundred yards of the guy before the legal proceedings start. He will never see the email. His bodyguards will handle the anything that happen on the street. Mostly, though, he can live inside his mansion and hear nothing.
The alleged victim, however, has none of these advantages. The legal and moral protections victims are usually given have been stripped away by fat, sanctimonious pigs like Leykis. It may be inevitable but it is neither fair nor right.
If I was Bryant, though, I would worry about this media assault on the girl. It does not help his image today; if it encourages his "fans" to harass the girl, it is even worse. And at the extreme, does he want to be Jodie Foster for some dirtbag doing a Hinckley?
A Small Victory says it best---
The fact is, this case is different. Here, you have a celebrity with a huge, loyal, rabid following. The reasons for many of these people wanting to know the name of the accuser is so they can harass her. Just look at my comments on any of these posts. Go do a search and find any website that defends Kobe and you'll see what I mean. There are people looking for address so they can stalk her, wait for her to come out of her house and hurl insults at her. There are people who want to physically harm her. They want her email address to send her threatening letters and the only reason they want to see photos of her is so they can post the photos themselves while captioning them with insults.
Bryant's fans - at least this portion of his fans - have already determined that he is innocent. They would rather see this woman dead then see their team play without their hero. Now, that's a sad statement. And that is why I believe this woman's name should not be made public. Of course, it's too late for that, but you will not find that information here, ever.
The argument that outing the victim is "fair" fails on at least three counts.
First, she did not create the media circus, the media did. She is not responsible for the massive coverage that her charges created.
Second, the state of Colorado looked at the accusation and decided to file charges. If Kobe Bryant is in trouble, it is not the simply the result of one woman's statement. The police and DA vetted that statement and found it credible and probably buttressed by forensic evidence.
Third, Bryant's wealth and celebrity provide him a degree of insulation and protection that is not available to this girl and her family. No one who wants to call Kobe is a rapist bastard is going to get within a hundred yards of the guy before the legal proceedings start. He will never see the email. His bodyguards will handle the anything that happen on the street. Mostly, though, he can live inside his mansion and hear nothing.
The alleged victim, however, has none of these advantages. The legal and moral protections victims are usually given have been stripped away by fat, sanctimonious pigs like Leykis. It may be inevitable but it is neither fair nor right.
If I was Bryant, though, I would worry about this media assault on the girl. It does not help his image today; if it encourages his "fans" to harass the girl, it is even worse. And at the extreme, does he want to be Jodie Foster for some dirtbag doing a Hinckley?
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Kobe Bryant
This column from Sunday is looking mighty prescient.
The whole nature of that little town is going to change. Because the media is going to descend there and people like to be on television. We're going to see lots of people vilified. We'll hear the district attorney is a bad guy, the sheriff is a bad guy, the girl is bad, her brother is bad . . . The sort of things that happen all the time to the rest of us during our lives will be dug up and used. We're going to know it all. But most people will never know where it's coming from.
This column from Sunday is looking mighty prescient.
The whole nature of that little town is going to change. Because the media is going to descend there and people like to be on television. We're going to see lots of people vilified. We'll hear the district attorney is a bad guy, the sheriff is a bad guy, the girl is bad, her brother is bad . . . The sort of things that happen all the time to the rest of us during our lives will be dug up and used. We're going to know it all. But most people will never know where it's coming from.
More on the 20 Greatest Americans
The results of the blogger poll kicked off some controversy, especially since no women made the final list. (Check out Rightwing News and Spoons as a starting point.)
I'm sort of surprised that no one has suggested Phyllis Schlafly as a possible addition. No, i wouldn't rank her with Jefferson or FDR, but her contributions compare favorably to Gloria Steinem who was suggested by some bloggers.
One of the best things Coulter ever wrote was an appreciation of Schlafly that appeared in Slander. An abbreviated version can be found here.
About the time a young Hillary Rodham was serving as inspiration for the perfect little girl in the Hollywood thriller "The Bad Seed," Schlafly was remaking the Republican Party.
In 1964, Schlafly wrote "A Choice, Not An Echo," widely credited with winning Barry Goldwater the Republican nomination for president. The book sold an astounding 3 million copies. (The average nonfiction book sells 5,000 copies.) Goldwater lost badly in the general election, but the Republican Party would never be the same.
********
As the feminists spent 20 years engaged in a death-match debate over whether it is acceptable for feminists to wear lipstick, Schlafly was writing 10 books, most of them on military policy.
*********
About the same time, Schlafly noticed that the Equal Rights Amendment was sailing toward ratification without anyone noticing. When Schlafly took up her battle against the ERA, the Senate had passed it by 84 to 8. The House had passed it by 354 to 23. The ERA was written into both the Republican and Democratic Party platforms. Thirty states had approved it in the first year after it was sent to the states for ratification. Only eight more states were needed.
But the ERA had not yet faced Phyllis Schlafly. Over the next eight years, thanks to Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, only five states ratified it – but five other states rescinded their earlier ratifications.
The results of the blogger poll kicked off some controversy, especially since no women made the final list. (Check out Rightwing News and Spoons as a starting point.)
I'm sort of surprised that no one has suggested Phyllis Schlafly as a possible addition. No, i wouldn't rank her with Jefferson or FDR, but her contributions compare favorably to Gloria Steinem who was suggested by some bloggers.
One of the best things Coulter ever wrote was an appreciation of Schlafly that appeared in Slander. An abbreviated version can be found here.
About the time a young Hillary Rodham was serving as inspiration for the perfect little girl in the Hollywood thriller "The Bad Seed," Schlafly was remaking the Republican Party.
In 1964, Schlafly wrote "A Choice, Not An Echo," widely credited with winning Barry Goldwater the Republican nomination for president. The book sold an astounding 3 million copies. (The average nonfiction book sells 5,000 copies.) Goldwater lost badly in the general election, but the Republican Party would never be the same.
********
As the feminists spent 20 years engaged in a death-match debate over whether it is acceptable for feminists to wear lipstick, Schlafly was writing 10 books, most of them on military policy.
*********
About the same time, Schlafly noticed that the Equal Rights Amendment was sailing toward ratification without anyone noticing. When Schlafly took up her battle against the ERA, the Senate had passed it by 84 to 8. The House had passed it by 354 to 23. The ERA was written into both the Republican and Democratic Party platforms. Thirty states had approved it in the first year after it was sent to the states for ratification. Only eight more states were needed.
But the ERA had not yet faced Phyllis Schlafly. Over the next eight years, thanks to Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, only five states ratified it – but five other states rescinded their earlier ratifications.
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Failing Upward
Jack Dunphy at NRO has a good article on the media and big-time crime stories. I especially like this:
Offering commentary on Fox News Friday night was Marcia Clark, who for some reason beyond my understanding is still sought out for these occasions despite having culminated her modest career as a prosecutor with a spectacular failure.
The same thing is happens with police "experts" on these shows. Because they are recorded in Washington, they use a lot of ex-policemen who worked in the city. But the DC police department has a lousy record when it comes to solving crimes. In 2002 they "cleared" less than half of the homicides (48.5%). The NYPD clears around 75% of their cases.
Apparently, what matters to television (even Fox News) is celebrity and availability. Competence is optional.
Jack Dunphy at NRO has a good article on the media and big-time crime stories. I especially like this:
Offering commentary on Fox News Friday night was Marcia Clark, who for some reason beyond my understanding is still sought out for these occasions despite having culminated her modest career as a prosecutor with a spectacular failure.
The same thing is happens with police "experts" on these shows. Because they are recorded in Washington, they use a lot of ex-policemen who worked in the city. But the DC police department has a lousy record when it comes to solving crimes. In 2002 they "cleared" less than half of the homicides (48.5%). The NYPD clears around 75% of their cases.
Apparently, what matters to television (even Fox News) is celebrity and availability. Competence is optional.
Monday, July 21, 2003
Bloggers Choose Greatest Americans
Rightwing News asked a group of bloggers to pick the 20 greatest Americans and has published the results.
I have to say that i disagree with most of it. Reagan tied for first with Lincoln with Washington coming in third? I have admired Reagan for a long time (going back to his race in 1976), but come on. Washington was both a successful general and our first president. Twice he relinquished power when popular support would have let him retain it for as long as he wished. Very few great men have done this even once.
No way Patton was greater than George Marshall or U.S. Grant. Heck, his impact on the outcome of WWII was considerably less than that of Chester Nimitz.
Rightwing News asked a group of bloggers to pick the 20 greatest Americans and has published the results.
I have to say that i disagree with most of it. Reagan tied for first with Lincoln with Washington coming in third? I have admired Reagan for a long time (going back to his race in 1976), but come on. Washington was both a successful general and our first president. Twice he relinquished power when popular support would have let him retain it for as long as he wished. Very few great men have done this even once.
No way Patton was greater than George Marshall or U.S. Grant. Heck, his impact on the outcome of WWII was considerably less than that of Chester Nimitz.
Bring Back the Urban Visionaries
OK, so it is eight years old. I still think this is an interesting article. Not everything has to be in reaction to today's headlines.
In 1940 you could catch an express train from New Haven to Grand Central that got you there in 90 minutes. Today there is no express, and the trip takes an hour and 41 minutes on Metro-North. Why have we made no progress in 50 years? Because people no longer care to travel from New Haven to Manhattan? Because our time is no longer valuable, because we no longer understand technology and engineering, because 1940's society was richer than ours, because modern cars and highways have made rail commuting obsolete? Because 90 minutes is the shortest time consistent with the speed of light?
Well, no. The real problem is that today's technology visionaries know little and care less about the mundane problems of daily urban life.
OK, so it is eight years old. I still think this is an interesting article. Not everything has to be in reaction to today's headlines.
In 1940 you could catch an express train from New Haven to Grand Central that got you there in 90 minutes. Today there is no express, and the trip takes an hour and 41 minutes on Metro-North. Why have we made no progress in 50 years? Because people no longer care to travel from New Haven to Manhattan? Because our time is no longer valuable, because we no longer understand technology and engineering, because 1940's society was richer than ours, because modern cars and highways have made rail commuting obsolete? Because 90 minutes is the shortest time consistent with the speed of light?
Well, no. The real problem is that today's technology visionaries know little and care less about the mundane problems of daily urban life.
We Love the 80s
This post absolutely nails the problems with VH1 look back at the 80s. Permanent Snide is most unbecoming
This post absolutely nails the problems with VH1 look back at the 80s. Permanent Snide is most unbecoming
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
The Other Pornography
Cut on the Bias points out this article from Slate on a new documentary about the highway safety films of the 50s and 60s. Unlike Susanna, I actually saw some of these in high school.
Our drivers-ed teacher called them “prom movies”. We saw them in drivers ed, health, or gym class a week or so before prom. The idea was to scare us into being safe, sober drivers on a night when our inclination was to be quite the opposite. The shocking footage was deemed necessary to cut through our adolescent sense of omnipotence and invulnerability.
Almost thirty years later I can still recall some of the footage.
Daniel Edelstein believes that there is a pornographic element to these films:
Whatever the filmmakers’ intentions, this was pornography then, and its liberal use in the documentary—which features stomach-turning shots of a dead baby under a car—makes it feel like pornography now.
Susanna disagrees:
Edelstein seems to think that pornography is about exploitation, which I think it is, but he doesn't mention the sexual element that I think is integral to calling it pornography. I'm sure there are people who do get off on it, there's people who get off on everything. I don't know what else I would call it
I find myself in agreement with Edelstein. If we choose to limit pornography to sex, then we need a word for the obscene exploitation of death.
Tom Wolfe wrote an essay years ago on “pornviolence”. One of his key observations was that the intense interest in the Zapruder film ha nothing to do with unanswered questions about what really happened in Dallas in 1963. Rather, people wanted to see the home movie because it showed a man’s head exploding from a real gun shot.
This sort of thing is not a relic of the 60s. Now this porn violence is on display every night of the week on TV and in thousands of book store across the country.
It is bad enough on CSI or Crossing Jordan. I don’t see the need to “show” the face of a decomposed body or a bag of stomach contents. But these shows are fiction and it is merely gross.
It is the nonfiction programs on cable (like Forensic Files or American Justice) and books that are really offensive. A university press recently published a serious book on Eliot Ness and his hunt for a serial killer in Cleveland. This “respectable” publisher chose to decorate the cover with the photo of a severed head of one of the victims.
For one thing, these photos appeal to the prurient interests of the worst kind of perverts. I see no need to provide them with their sick thrill when the pictures add no meaningful information. It is not as though the pictures show a vital clue; if the photograph wasn't there the story would still be understandable.
Second, the killer treated his victim like a garbage. A life is snuffed out and a corpse is left. The killer’s ego steals a life and the aftermath robs a person’s memory of the dignity we all deserve. None of us wants to be left on the side of the road like an empty McDonald’s bag. Crime scene photos are necessary for the police, but to broadcast them is to share in the killer’s indifference towards the victim’s life and dignity. There is an unthinking complicity in the selfishness that produced the ultimate evil.
Worst of all, some killers “pose” the bodies of their victims. Their goal is to humiliate the victim after death or to send a message to society. To broadcast or print photographs of their “work” in the reckless quest for ratings and sensation is to aid the killers in their demonic evil.
As for conventional pornography, this author makes a good case for racheting down our tacit approval of porn from a libertarian perspective.
Cut on the Bias points out this article from Slate on a new documentary about the highway safety films of the 50s and 60s. Unlike Susanna, I actually saw some of these in high school.
Our drivers-ed teacher called them “prom movies”. We saw them in drivers ed, health, or gym class a week or so before prom. The idea was to scare us into being safe, sober drivers on a night when our inclination was to be quite the opposite. The shocking footage was deemed necessary to cut through our adolescent sense of omnipotence and invulnerability.
Almost thirty years later I can still recall some of the footage.
Daniel Edelstein believes that there is a pornographic element to these films:
Whatever the filmmakers’ intentions, this was pornography then, and its liberal use in the documentary—which features stomach-turning shots of a dead baby under a car—makes it feel like pornography now.
Susanna disagrees:
Edelstein seems to think that pornography is about exploitation, which I think it is, but he doesn't mention the sexual element that I think is integral to calling it pornography. I'm sure there are people who do get off on it, there's people who get off on everything. I don't know what else I would call it
I find myself in agreement with Edelstein. If we choose to limit pornography to sex, then we need a word for the obscene exploitation of death.
Tom Wolfe wrote an essay years ago on “pornviolence”. One of his key observations was that the intense interest in the Zapruder film ha nothing to do with unanswered questions about what really happened in Dallas in 1963. Rather, people wanted to see the home movie because it showed a man’s head exploding from a real gun shot.
This sort of thing is not a relic of the 60s. Now this porn violence is on display every night of the week on TV and in thousands of book store across the country.
It is bad enough on CSI or Crossing Jordan. I don’t see the need to “show” the face of a decomposed body or a bag of stomach contents. But these shows are fiction and it is merely gross.
It is the nonfiction programs on cable (like Forensic Files or American Justice) and books that are really offensive. A university press recently published a serious book on Eliot Ness and his hunt for a serial killer in Cleveland. This “respectable” publisher chose to decorate the cover with the photo of a severed head of one of the victims.
For one thing, these photos appeal to the prurient interests of the worst kind of perverts. I see no need to provide them with their sick thrill when the pictures add no meaningful information. It is not as though the pictures show a vital clue; if the photograph wasn't there the story would still be understandable.
Second, the killer treated his victim like a garbage. A life is snuffed out and a corpse is left. The killer’s ego steals a life and the aftermath robs a person’s memory of the dignity we all deserve. None of us wants to be left on the side of the road like an empty McDonald’s bag. Crime scene photos are necessary for the police, but to broadcast them is to share in the killer’s indifference towards the victim’s life and dignity. There is an unthinking complicity in the selfishness that produced the ultimate evil.
Worst of all, some killers “pose” the bodies of their victims. Their goal is to humiliate the victim after death or to send a message to society. To broadcast or print photographs of their “work” in the reckless quest for ratings and sensation is to aid the killers in their demonic evil.
As for conventional pornography, this author makes a good case for racheting down our tacit approval of porn from a libertarian perspective.
Internet
Both the God of the Machine and Outside the Beltway have additional thoughts.
Not much for me to debate in either post. They both present thoughtful, sober analyses of the type we need more of (and could really have used 1996-2001). Neither of them are the sort of "infantile utopians" that were my original target.
As for Wolfe's dismissal of the technology, the essay dates from the hype and bubble era. So i cut him some slack-- his rhetorical excess was necessary to cut through the "digibabble" that received more acceptance than it deserved.
Both the God of the Machine and Outside the Beltway have additional thoughts.
Not much for me to debate in either post. They both present thoughtful, sober analyses of the type we need more of (and could really have used 1996-2001). Neither of them are the sort of "infantile utopians" that were my original target.
As for Wolfe's dismissal of the technology, the essay dates from the hype and bubble era. So i cut him some slack-- his rhetorical excess was necessary to cut through the "digibabble" that received more acceptance than it deserved.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Interesting Point
Julie over at Lone Prairie writes
I've noticed that the posts of mine that are my original content (i.e. what's happening here, local news covered only by moi, etc.) get less linkage/comment than the posts where I do a rant on some newspaper article, or some political topic, or maybe a movie critique...you get the idea.
Like most of my blogroll, she is in flyover country (North Dakota). Her local posts discuss different issues than the usual blogfare of "the Times sucks" or "Bush is dumb". Moreover, they often provide new information instead of just commentary. But for some reason, that doesn't drive links or traffic.
Julie over at Lone Prairie writes
I've noticed that the posts of mine that are my original content (i.e. what's happening here, local news covered only by moi, etc.) get less linkage/comment than the posts where I do a rant on some newspaper article, or some political topic, or maybe a movie critique...you get the idea.
Like most of my blogroll, she is in flyover country (North Dakota). Her local posts discuss different issues than the usual blogfare of "the Times sucks" or "Bush is dumb". Moreover, they often provide new information instead of just commentary. But for some reason, that doesn't drive links or traffic.
Internet
Aaron, over at God of the Machine, notes the Tom Wolfe quote below and then asks:
Well OK. All the Internet does is "speed up the retrieval and dissemination of information." And this distinguishes it from the telephone, telegraph, and printing press — how, exactly?
I won't speak for Mr. Wolfe, but... the Internet seems is less important than the printing press. So much that flowed from movable type and cheap paper-- books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets-- was new. Websites and blogs just seem like a continuation of some of these innovations.
On the other hand, the Internet is probably as important as the telegraph or telephone. They are also similar in that they represent improvements in the speed and ease of long-distance communication. But that is evidence that the Internet is not unprecedented or revolutionary as some boosters claimed. And returning to Brad DeLong's point, it suggests that technological advances do not automatically create business or social utopias. The telegraph's effect on government and business were varied. The Internet's effects will probably be the same mixed bag.
Aaron, over at God of the Machine, notes the Tom Wolfe quote below and then asks:
Well OK. All the Internet does is "speed up the retrieval and dissemination of information." And this distinguishes it from the telephone, telegraph, and printing press — how, exactly?
I won't speak for Mr. Wolfe, but... the Internet seems is less important than the printing press. So much that flowed from movable type and cheap paper-- books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets-- was new. Websites and blogs just seem like a continuation of some of these innovations.
On the other hand, the Internet is probably as important as the telegraph or telephone. They are also similar in that they represent improvements in the speed and ease of long-distance communication. But that is evidence that the Internet is not unprecedented or revolutionary as some boosters claimed. And returning to Brad DeLong's point, it suggests that technological advances do not automatically create business or social utopias. The telegraph's effect on government and business were varied. The Internet's effects will probably be the same mixed bag.
Yes, Kill all the lawyers
The trial lawyers are now trying to sue drug companies for developing BETTER drugs. They have no shame and we are sheep for tolerating their antics.
The trial lawyers are now trying to sue drug companies for developing BETTER drugs. They have no shame and we are sheep for tolerating their antics.
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