Category Archives: Media

‘Respek,’ Andy Rooney

Celebrity, Hollywood, Media, The Zeitgeist

Have just finished watching “Da Compleet Second Seazon of Da Ali Gi Show,” on DVD. Great stuff.

I’ve never cared much for Andy Rooney, but I have some “respek” for him after watching how angry he got over Ali Gi‘s English. Remember, all the interviewed believe that the interviews our gangsta from the streets of Staines conducts for the benefit of his audience—the urban youth of the U.K—are “for weal.” And so politically correct are they that few dare protest Ali Gi’S abominal ignorance and English. Except for Rooney. Good for the “geezer.”

“I is here wit’ none other dan my main man Andy Rooney,” to which Rooney replies: “I am here; I am here, I am here.” Ali tries again, “Does you think that…” To which Rooney, raging like Rumpelstiltskin, retorted: “It’s ‘do you think, do you think.'”

Still, Rooney ought to develop a funny bone. I mean, when Ali feigned hurt over Rooney’s rudeness—”‘is it ‘cos I is black,’ (even though he is quite obviously not)—Rooney should have cracked up. On the other hand, this culture has deteriorated to the extent that it’s not easy to tell whether the Ali Gis of the world are “for weal” or not.

Remember, in Ali Gi, Sasha Baron Cohen—the comic genius who’s also behind the Borat and Bruno characters—is lampooning a creature whose utter illiteracy has been cultivated by the establishment as a form of authenticity. All his guests, with few welcome exceptions, are quite polite and rather accepting of his unabashed idiocy.

I can’t wait to see Cohen’s new feature film: “Cultural Learning of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”

Updated: Pacifist Protest à la Islam

Britain, Islam, Media

Fox News is even more politically correct than the Guardian. The latter at least described the hijackers of a Turkish passenger plane today as “two Turks.”

Fox’s Martha MacCallum left it at “two men,” also leaving viewers to puzzle over questions a news lead is supposed to answer upfront: What, Where, Who, Why, and How.

According to the Guardian:

“Two Turkish men who hijacked a Turkish Airlines flight from Tirana to Istanbul tonight surrendered to Italian police.
…The aircraft, carrying 113 passengers and six crew, was forced to land at Brindisi airport in southern Italy after it was intercepted by Greek and then Italian fighter jets.”
…it appeared that the hijackers did not have any weapons”

As I say, commandeering a passenger plane, weaponless, is a Muslim’s version of a Gandhian protest.

“Early reports said the men were protesting against the Pope’s plans to visit Turkey.” But Turkey, itching to enter the EU (the Pontiff is definitely uneager for Turkey to enter), spun the heist thus: “the Turkish transport minister told Associated Press that the hijackers’ aim was to seek political asylum.”

At least the faithful are looking for peaceful ways with which to respond to the Pope’s pacifist speech about the irrationality of Islam.

Update: According to CNN, via Jihad Watch, the Turkish hijackers were indeed asylum seekers; they had no designs on the Pope. The AP has, so far, stuck with the story the Guardian reported.

The Lapdogs & The Elites

Media, Neoconservatism, Politics, The Zeitgeist

In “America’s Open House,” I said about Tamar Jacoby (among other things) that she “squints at flesh-and-blood Americans; to her, America is a mere proposition, nothing but an idea.” I then demolished her assertion that [cop killer] Quintero’s illegality was irrelevant to his crime. You can read the one-liner that did her in.

Paul Gottfried, a brilliant scholar, once an active participant in American political discourse, wrote to warn me that, “After this insensitive invective against… TJ you’ll no longer be invited to neocon cocktail parties.”

Of course he was pocking fun at my popularity among the official thinking class. However, I missed the subtlety. Despair over politics and culture in this country occasionally (not often) takes a toll on my sense of humor.

The occasion was as good as any to ask him if the burlesque that is American politics doesn’t cause him to despair. Here we are, years after the fact, and the “elites” are only now discussing Iraq as a not-so-swell idea vis-a -vis terrorism, and the Bush administration as the less-than heavenly outfit Fox News said it was. Meantime, the prevalence in national discourse (conducted on cable) of “good looking” illiterates grows (and the book deals these incompetents get), while the demand for truly bright, principled, interesting people diminishes. Does this not cause him to despair?

I received this wise reply: “At my age I have ceased to despair but simply try to keep going. The liberal-neocon media won’t ask our opinions because we’ve been branded extremists, at least by the standards of permissible, sensitive views. All of this belongs to an historical process that neither you nor I can influence any more. Whatever the elites do or do not do is perfectly OK with the PEOPLE, as long as they get social programs, consumer goods, and instruction about what they should believe.”

The Lapdogs & The Elites

Media, Neoconservatism, Politics, The Zeitgeist

In “America’s Open House,” I said about Tamar Jacoby (among other things) that she “squints at flesh-and-blood Americans; to her, America is a mere proposition, nothing but an idea.” I then demolished her assertion that [cop killer] Quintero’s illegality was irrelevant to his crime. You can read the one-liner that did her in.

Paul Gottfried, a brilliant scholar, once an active participant in American political discourse, wrote to warn me that, “After this insensitive invective against… TJ you’ll no longer be invited to neocon cocktail parties.”

Of course he was pocking fun at my popularity among the official thinking class. However, I missed the subtlety. Despair over politics and culture in this country occasionally (not often) takes a toll on my sense of humor.

The occasion was as good as any to ask him if the burlesque that is American politics doesn’t cause him to despair. Here we are, years after the fact, and the “elites” are only now discussing Iraq as a not-so-swell idea vis-a -vis terrorism, and the Bush administration as the less-than heavenly outfit Fox News said it was. Meantime, the prevalence in national discourse (conducted on cable) of “good looking” illiterates grows (and the book deals these incompetents get), while the demand for truly bright, principled, interesting people diminishes. Does this not cause him to despair?

I received this wise reply: “At my age I have ceased to despair but simply try to keep going. The liberal-neocon media won’t ask our opinions because we’ve been branded extremists, at least by the standards of permissible, sensitive views. All of this belongs to an historical process that neither you nor I can influence any more. Whatever the elites do or do not do is perfectly OK with the PEOPLE, as long as they get social programs, consumer goods, and instruction about what they should believe.”