Category Archives: Media

‘As Happens With Many Dictators’

Barack Obama, Constitution, Foreign Policy, Islam, Journalism, Media, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, The State

“As happens with many dictators …they grow comfortable with power.”

So spoke a CNN guest about the leader of … Syria, Bashar al Assad. “The Fall of the House of Assad” was the book under discussion.

For a moment, I thought the interviewed author was discussing creeping tyranny closer to home, but then it slipped my mind. The mandarins of the mighty Managerial State that stalks America, and the Middle East’s tinpot despots: never the twain shall meet, right?

Wrong, in this writer’s opinion.

Nevertheless, the more powerful dictator can easily depose of the lesser despot.

Duly, buried in CNN programing, yesterday, was the news that, “President Obama has secretly authorized American covert support for the Syrian effort to depose dictator Bashar al-Assad. Two U.S. officials tell us the president has signed what’s called an intelligence finding laying things out.”

When he signed that is not known. Nor do we know the exact contents. We do know that it gives the CIA and other American agencies permission to provide covert support to oust Assad. The dictator has not been seen in public for weeks. Today he put out a written statement, again blaming his year and a half war on, quote, “the criminal terrorist gangs.” That’s the phrase he’s been using justifying destroying cities.

Has this item made news headlines anywhere? Naturally not—not as far as I can see. Both political parties are agreed that, as Fran Townsend, homeland security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, explained, “We should assume, where we have foreign policy challenges around the world, this is what we have an intelligence community to do, right? To go in clandestinely, to support American policy around the world. And so I — it shouldn’t be surprising.”

[SNIP]

Correct. It shouldn’t surprise that The Decider, Republican or Democrat, commits funds not his to causes he fancies. But does the element of surprise cover this debate? Apparently so. At least from the perspective of the malfunctioning media.

UPDATED: New Victors (& Old Anchors)

Human Accomplishment, Media, Politics, South-Africa, Sport

“The charmed men and women gracing the podiums of modern Olympia are there for no other reason than that they are the finest in their fields. What greater contrast can there be between the Olympian (like swimmers Missy Franklin, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers) who powers himself to the pinnacle, and the politician, who drapes himself in the noble toga of idealism, in the famous words of Aldous Huxley, so as to conceal his will to power.” (“COMPETE, DON’T KILL”)

The story of the underdog is often more inspiring. Once superb sportsmen, South Africans were ousted from international competitions until they agreed to hand over the country to the African National Congress. (Nowadays, on winning, each young winner prays publicly to “Madiba,” Nelson Mandela’s African honorific, and an adopted affectation among liberals.)

Notwithstanding lack of sponsorship—South African Olympian Cameron Van der Burgh trains in “a 25 meter pool in his local gym“—great South African talent is emerging again.

Chad le Clos beat Michael Phelps in the 200 meters butterfly. A gold medal went to le Clos’s compatriot, Van der Burgh, “who broke the breaststroke world record on Sunday.”

The 24-year-old Van der Burgh “became the first South African man to win Olympic gold in an individual swimming event, after he powered through a race that left champion Kosuke Kitajima and previous record holder Brenton Rickard trailing in his wake.” (NewsDay)

He set a world record of 58.46 seconds on Sunday, beating the 58.58 set by Brenton Rickard in 2009. It also eclipsed the Olympic record of 58.83 he set in his semi-final on Saturday.
“Tonight, as I came in, I said to myself, ‘a man can change his stars, you can write your own destiny tonight’. I had my chance and I took it,” he said, after a victory that saw him lie back in the pool in sheer exhilaration at the finish.

Unrelated (and not to be rude), but has anyone noticed the frightful hags NBC has unleashed among the athletes, to gather news and interviews? OMG. I’m all for merit over pulchritude, so I hope this is what this is all about, but the stridency of Mary Carillo is quite something.

UPDATE: Facebook thread: Apartheid-era South Africa was subjected to sporting boycotts. I am not sure about boxing. In fact I do remember watching Gerrie Coetzee box.

Collective Punishment?

Crime, Criminal Injustice, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Justice, Media, Morality, Pop-Culture, Sport

When the events surrounding pederast Jerry Sandusky surfaced, I ventured that, to an outsider, the American football scene was obscene—starting with its incestuous fraternities, the rock-star status surrounding handlers and players, their pompom-waving, knickers-baring groupies, and the tantrum-prone fans who experience bare-fanged fury when their heroes let them down. The problem with this freak show is that the participants are pathologically invested in it.

Besides, how did the words “coach” and “legendary” ever come to be paired? Ridiculous.

Now comes the news that the NCAA, whatever that stands for— reporters no longer follow the convention of first writing out acronyms in full—has leveled a punishment on Penn State that will likely affect every student at the university.

Collective punishment for transgressions (crimes included) committed by certain individuals (who are no longer at the helm)!

The football program will also be excluded from playing in bowl games and post-season games for four years, as well as having its football scholarships reduced from 25 to 15, and having to pay a $60 million fine, the equivalent of one year’s revenues from the football program.

Thirteen team victories have been voided. So many kids must have worked hard and played their hearts out. Why are they are being penalized?

Career and camera-conscious individuals will do anything to look as if they are busy doing something. This is all Brownian Motion, and terribly unfair.

Who Pays The Way?

Government, Media, Regulation, Rights, Taxation

197 days. Or, just close on 7 months.

That’s the “Big Number” you won’t hear repeated on “news” entertainment shows that sport such trivial segments.

The landmark is “the day of the year when the average taxpayer has earned enough income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden of government. This year,” advises the Cost of Government Center, “the taxpayers worked 197 days to pay off the cost of government.”

Aggregates are good at masking reality. And the reality is this:

The top 10 percent of income earners paid 70 percent of all federal income taxes.

The bottom 50 percent of income earners paid less than 3 percent of federal income taxes.

This celebration—“the Cost of Government Day”—masks that 6 to 7 months into the year is when a tiny, much-maligned segment of the population has almost completed slaving for the rest.

Do come up with a better name for the day on which the few finish working for the many, while getting pounded for their drive and productivity.

Have at it on Facebook or Twitter.