Palin and the press
Ross Douthat thinks the Palin/press war is a cycle of violence.
He appears to equate the perpetration of baseless attacks with defending oneself against them; they both keep that cycle going, don’t they? Best to turn the other cheek in silence.
And did you know that Ben Stiller has more Twitter followers than Palin? Stiller for president!
Champions are born not made in some cases. If you want to be a great athlete, choose your parents carefully.
I read Douhat’s bit earlier today. I was going to comment at the time, but I needed to register at the NYT site to do so. Not going to do that.
My memory isn’t what it used to be. But, I do recall that early on they were asking why SP didn’t comment; but, that theme ended right after she spoke.
It is simple, and it is painfully obvious. No matter what Sarah Palin does, it will be wrong, wrong, wrong to anyone scribbles or blathers from the Washington-Boston corridor. I would add specific locales in the LA-Seattle corridor; they are easy to identify.
I love to hear the geese honk as they fly overhead in the morning and evening; but I realize that their noisy renditions have no meaning outside the flock. Same with the honking commentators. Their obsessed and stressed utterances have no meaning outside their own tight little flock.
Who would have guessed that a little Mom in running shoes, from Wasilla, educated at a state university yet, could wreak such havoc on the psyches of so many highly educated individuals of superior intellect?
I second your thoughts, Oldflyer, with one caution: there is a huge number of listening geese flying with and following the honkers.
As for the esteemed Douthat, it seems his resistance to NYTthink has broken down further. Too bad; used to be a good mind, albeit young. His closing sally seems to say, “You can always turn us off” ( I will not revisit NYT to copy/paste). I have done that to Douthat and many others some time ago, and only scan its headlines and read the obits.
Methinks this Palin critter has a lot more depth and importance than Douthat can admit.
She is the most important Republican candidate out there.
The entire country hangs on her every word.
Most important politician to come down the pike in decades. We don’t yet know exactly why, or how the story will play out.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see her sworn into the White House after the next election.
neo, I think you’ve hit on the one thing that seems most peculiar to me about the whole press-Palin thing, that is the tendency to “equate the perpetration of baseless attacks with defending oneself against them….” Whether you believe the charges or not, John Kerry couldn’t defend himself or be defended enough. Palin can’t be allowed the same privilege. Pure partisanship as far as the eye can see.
This was supposed to be a piece criticizing BOTH Palin and the press. But it criticized Sarah for…being Sarah, and criticized the press for giving her too much credit and being gullible enough to consider her a viable presidential candidate.
I guess this is as fair as the NY Times gets.
He and his ilk have a lot of practice.
Whenever Israel got tired of being shelled, rocketed, and blown up and took some kind of action that was for Douthat unwarranted violence, aggression, and destabilizing the Middle East. As though one day out of the blue the Israelis decided that it was time for a little target practice and figured some Arab-plinking would be just the ticket.
Incidentally, I finally figured out why the left is and has always been like this. I call it Nolanimrod’s Theory of the Quantization of Social Power. It works.
btw It also explains why they are always so hot to vilify, tax, regulate, and threaten The Rich while being ever so equable about they, themselves getting vast amounts of what makes the rich The Rich themselves.
@Oldflyer
Who would have guessed that a little Mom in running shoes, from Wasilla, educated at a state university yet, could wreak such havoc on the psyches of so many highly educated individuals of superior intellect?
You have said it.
could wreak such havoc on the psyches of so many highly educated individuals of superior intellect?
Well, as Jim Kirk once remarked, I’m laughing at the superior intellect.
Sarah and Glenn Beck should do a parody of anchoring at an MSM news desk together. Then when the press responds, she could just say “Once again the MSM can’t resist inserting itself into every issue”.
When talking heads such as Doo-Hat (pardon me, my sophomoric side never really left me as I grew older and occasionally reasserts itself without notice… Ooh! Look! Something shiny!) try to spew their condescension upon Palin thinking her to be an easy target, they denigrate and insult far more of their fellow citizens than they could possibly realize.
Palin’s video address last week was really, really good. If you haven’t seen it or read it yourself (shame on you, first of all, for allowing the media to do your work for you) please take the time to do so. This is a woman who is being blasted in the kiln at the moment, and we all know what happens to clay in a kiln. If the left doesn’t watch its step, she’ll emerge on the other side absolutely invincible – and they too will have to call her Madam President.
I also saw Obama’s speech in Tucson. That was probably the best I’ve seen him in a long time, not that will soften my opinion of him mind you, but he deserves praise nonetheless.
Don Surber has the proper response to this kind of tripe:
I would love to provide a link, but I’ve tried four times and my comments simply disappeared. Read the whole thing. Vanderleun has a link. He must have stronger link-fu than me.
I also saw a piece by Subotai Bahadur at the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. In it, he quotes Shannon Love from Chicago Boyz as to why we must not soften our political discourse:
Again, read the whole thing.
A House Divided
So the Left has gone all Christianist with the “turn the other cheek” lament.
If they can do that can’t we have Christmas?
The NYT and all other papers printed east of the Appalachians are only worthy of being used for toilet paper.
The days when the east coast snoots and the west coast idjuts control the narrative are over.
Palin will be President in January 2013 and the land will be inundated with the splatter of exploding liberal heads.
Barry Goldwater was right – saw off the east coast and let it float out to sea. Eventually it will end up with the European socialists it adores.
rickl – the piece at the link you gave was excellent. I was quite impressed by the analysis.
All I would add to it is a footnote –
cf. Bertrand de Jouvenel’s “On Power” and “Sovereignty.”
I know of no other works that lay out so clearly the ideologically leftist – “democratic” – essence of the systems of totalitarian power peculiar to modern times. The piece at your link is describing the working out of the very process Jouvenel described in his preface to “On Power” as “the Minotaur.”
Anyway, thanks for the link!
Journ-O-list is alive and well. Twisting the news, and obsessed – OBSESSSSSSSSED with hating Palin. Filled with rage.
The truth is they are talking about themselves. Deep in their hearts they know that are wrong. They know.
kolnai-
I am reading de Jouvenel. Don’t recall if I learned of him from one of your earlier posts, but Wow! Sixty yrs ago. Never made my college reading lists way back in the ’60s, though all kinds of what we now belatedy recognize as Leftist cant did.
Don wrote, “The NYT and all other papers printed east of the Appalachians are only worthy of being used for toilet paper.”
I wouldn’t put my toilet through that.
Maybe people who like Palin just don’t care about twitter.