Barrel Strength

The National Post and the sun arrived at about the same time this morning.  More cuts to arts funding.  Not a surprise.  A wonderful thing about living under the almost complete Tory information lockdown is that while analysts are never in doubt about the purpose of an announcement – a Conservative majority – they are almost always completely in the dark as to how the announced changes might lead to that goal.  The commentariat is reduced to detailed descriptions of fog which they pat into the shapes they are conditioned to see. Cuts to arts grants, for example. Brutal axe-wielding to a vulnerable community to satisfy the hatred and envy of the right-wing core?   Or brush-clearing in preparation for newer and better arts programs, to be announced at the right moment during a campaign?  Both?   With coffee and newspaper in hand, I stared from the balcony downtown at the Peace Tower and tried to divine Mr. Harper’s intentions. I had the same success as the national press corps but entirely different emotions.

Periodically a book comes along that explains much, in simple language, about vitally important questions. Why does the Internet matter? Exactly what is it doing to us? Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody answers these questions with insight, by linking large areas of economic and social theory in a cogent, jargon-free explanation.

Read the rest…

“Maija Saari is a professor of journalism and researcher on science journalism at Wilfrid Laurier University”, and posted a piece to J-source wondering how some people can be so – well, ignorant is the polite term – about global warming climate change. Did they not read the International Panel of Climate Bureaucrats’ report?  Do they not believe Dr. David Jacuzzi?  Sadly, her well-meant article, as so often happens on the Internet, has attracted the notice of disaffected elements.

In an earlier post your correspondent referenced an article which discussed how the leftist media frame the political discourse.  This framing extends well beyond the “media”.

August is the month of festivals in Edinburgh including Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh Mela, Edinburgh Television Festival, Edinburgh Interactive Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival to name a few.  This is sufficient to induce your correspondent to leave his Highland lair for Edinburgh, the world’s first City of Literature, a permanent designation conferred by UNESCO.

The Edinburgh Book Festival, in the words of the organiser, is “a magical, pan-global cornucopia of words and idea in our gorgeous garden each year” and purports to be a mainstream event.  Your correspondent is rarely affected by this piffle but is sufficiently intrigued to to visit a few of the events which are divided into several categories such as politics, fiction, nations, workshop, society, history etc.

This year there are eighteen events classified under the Politics category, and your correspondent attempted to classify them on the political spectrum.  Of the eighteen, eight would be classified as far left, four as left and five as either non-political or unknown given that it was difficult to ascertain their political orientation from the description.  One even might be classified as conservative, given that the speaker is a foreign policy advisor to Sen McCain, but it is doubtful given that the description states that “For the past few year, the liberal world has been divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty.  Western liberalism faces new, complex challenges and we need to choose whether we want to shape the future or let others shape it for us.”  It seems even here one has to pay lip-service to liberals to get a place on the podium.

Obviously the Book Festival is nothing more than an echo chamber for the Left and it is quite amazing how they have completely seized the discussion and framed the argument.  It is nevertheless amusing to read description of some of the events.

Lord David Owen, described in the event summary as “one of the most distinguished politicians of his day”, seems to channel Bush Derangment Syndrome when he “pinpoints the symptoms of a mental syndrome with damaging consequences including the tragic incompetence of the war in Iraq.”

The BBC’s business editor Rober Peston cuts through all the mindless droning on BBC and states “that the real power behind the throne lies with the super-rich who pay too little tax, add little value to the economy yet change our lives through their undue influence over our politicians.”

In an another event, Patrick Cockburn, an Irish journalist who won Martha Gellhorn Prize in 2005 and the James Cameron Prize in 2006 for his reporting from Iraq, fulminates about the “chilling rise of Muqtada al-Sadr in the civil war.”  Perhaps Cockburn should consider changing his name to Cockup after reading that the” Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad’s Green Zone as recently as April.”  And these are just the first three events that are listed in the 76-page A4-sized climate-change-inducing brochure for a festival that purport to be balanced, but only exemplifies what passes for informed discussion on the left end of the political spectrum.  If you do decide to vist the Book Festival kindly consider attending the events designated for children, of which there are several, as they are likely to be the most intelligent.

Given the vacuity so far in the Obama campaign, which have been highlighted in the ads by McCain, one would think that the Democrats would try to add a bit more meat to the campaign.  But according to Tom Daschle in this report “.. you can’t be thrown off your game plan by a momentary dip in polls.”  So what are Democrats looking to emphasize?

Democrats say that Mr Obama needs to accomplish two critical things on his return next week. First, he must put on a good event to announce the selection of his running mate. Second, his speech at the party convention in Denver must be exceptional.

Well of course, “a good event” and an a speech that is “exceptional”.  And these are “critical things”?  There is only so much you can do with a candidate without a skill set.

A recent report has America’s comedians at last training their fire on Barack Obama’s messiah complex. But why do some of their jests now have the public profile of certain Danish cartoons?

On Tuesday, July 29, 2008 The Late Show with David Letterman was to have featured a list of the “Top Ten Signs Barack Obama is Overconfident”. The list is referenced in the show recap at the Late Show website but the full text appears to have been purged from the site, as described in this screenshot.

As well, in the actual program Letterman says the list is coming up after the commercial break, yet on his return he proceeds straight to an interview with guest Kevin Costner.

Is Obama’s Surge Purge becoming a new fad for celebrity copycatting? Or is His Vast Conspiracy™ spreading?

Fabulous new McCain ad on Obamessiah.

A Politico.com article notes that the GOP’s celeb-Obama message is gaining traction and gives two examples …..Jon Stewart teased on his show this week that the presumptive Democratic nominee traveled to Israel to visit his birthplace at Bethlehem’s Manger Square ….and on Tuesday, Dave Letterman listed his “Top Ten Signs Barack Obama is Overconfident,” which included Obama proposing to change the name of Oklahoma to “Oklobama” and measuring his head for Mount Rushmore.

Your faithful correspondent received the following update to the earlier post on this topic.

First, I find it interesting that someone in the McCain camp came up with the same idea around the time that I did. This means the idea has traction, and the notion of Obama being “too cool” to have substance can spread. It reminds me of when his campaign was scrambling to not have any women with Islamic head coverings appear on stage  behind him and at the same time they were fighting a controversy surrounding his Church’s pastor. Having to fight negative perceptions on two religious fronts only happens when the public does not trust how genuine your religious beliefs are.

Second, we now have a new litmus test for how successful a McCain strategy is: if Obama supporters call it racist, then we know they don’t have a legitimate comeback.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/07/sex_celebs_why_britney_and_par.html

Would this guy really think McCain would run an attack add comparing Obama to Oprah, a beloved American and one of his most ardent supporters? I doubt he is that stupid.