Category Archives: Media

Andrew Salivates

Islam, Media, Middle East, Republicans, The Zeitgeist

On a meta-level—process, not content—Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Andrew Sullivan about his new confused book exposes Sullivan as arrogant and hysterical. His manners are abominable. How Hewitt put up with Sullivan’s strutting, I don’t know. Why would he tolerate such rudeness from a guest? Is Sullivan that important? (Not to me. I have no interest in someone so “discerning” as to claim, as Sullivan did during the interview, that Jesus, Mohamed, and Socrates are part of the same search for truth.)

I’m happy Sullivan has finally come out against Bush’s dastardly doctrines, although it seems to me that he considers the war more of a logistic than a moral nightmare—the war is bad because it’s going badly, not because it’s bad. The fact that he seconded the decision to invade Iraq may have something to do with this qualified condemnation.

Would it be unfair to put Sullivan’s temper tantrum at the Republicans down to their excessive religious meddling and lack of enthusiasm for gay marriage? (There’s nothing wrong with split infinitives, by the way.) You tell me. (Sullivan is a gay-marriage activist–I’m not, as you can glean from “Marriage and the Manufacturing of Rights“–and is himself “engaged to be married.”)

Overall, his views are hardly conservative–but then that applies to the views of very many contemporary conservatives.

Limbaugh Climbs Into a Cripple

Hollywood, Media, The Zeitgeist

Rush Limbaugh’s sneering assault on Michael J. Fox’s affliction was utterly depraved. A human being with a head and a heart would have stuck to the issue, rather than level such a cruel attack on a disfigured and suffering human being.

The issue is this: The Founders bequeathed a central government of delegated and enumerated powers. Intellectual property laws are the only constitutional means at Congress’s disposal with which to “promote the Progress of Science. (About their merit Thomas Jefferson, himself an inventor, was unconvinced). Research and development (R&D) spending is nowhere among Congress’s constitutional legislative powers.

Implied in Democratic petit mals about Stem Cell research is that if the House didn’t mulct taxpayers of R&D money, there’d be no R&D. Not according to the United States Department of Health & Human Services: “Based on 2002 data, one study reports that private sector research and development in stem cells was being conducted by approximately 1000 scientists in over 30 firms. Aggregate spending was estimated at $208 million. Geron Corporation alone reported that it spent more than $70 million on stem cell research by September 2003.

In the Stem Cell Business News Guide to Stem Cell Companies (Feb 2003), 61 U.S. and international companies are listed as pursuing some form of research or therapeutic product development involving stem cells. What do you know? The private sector has already been beavering away, for some time now, exploring the promise—or lack thereof—of stem cells.

Limbaugh needed only to remind Fox (and himself and his party) of a thing called the Constitution; he needed to berate Fox only for using his celebrity to petition congress for money not his—tax dollars. Limbaugh ought to have suggested Fox raise money for private research among his stinking rich friends, not pickpocket the taxpayer. Instead Limbaugh climbed into a cripple.

Later, Limbaugh offered a lame apology, the main purpose of which was to point out how magnanimous he was: “All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act.”

Maher’s Moronity

Media, The Zeitgeist

Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” told Joe Scarborough he wants Bush impeached, but not for anything meaningful, such as, say, prosecuting an illegal and unjust war. Oh no, after all, Maher was down with the mob on that one—he wasn’t exactly unwavering in his opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Instead, the HBO host thinks impeachment proceedings ought to be initiated on the grounds that, on 9/11, after he had been told by Andrew Card that America had been attacked, Bush sat put for seven minutes at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. The president was there “to read to a class and talk about education.”

Maher’s notion of an impeachment is as frivolous as the one initiated against Clinton.

Maher's Moronity

Media, The Zeitgeist

Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” told Joe Scarborough he wants Bush impeached, but not for anything meaningful, such as, say, prosecuting an illegal and unjust war. Oh no, after all, Maher was down with the mob on that one—he wasn’t exactly unwavering in his opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Instead, the HBO host thinks impeachment proceedings ought to be initiated on the grounds that, on 9/11, after he had been told by Andrew Card that America had been attacked, Bush sat put for seven minutes at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School. The president was there “to read to a class and talk about education.”

Maher’s notion of an impeachment is as frivolous as the one initiated against Clinton.