Category Archives: Propaganda

Kennedy Reincarnated

Celebrity, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Propaganda, Pseudoscience

TED KENNEDY is back with a posse. “Beaches around Chatham, Mass., remain closed because of shark sightings made in the Cape Cod area before the busy holiday weekend. Reports of the sightings and closures — as well as the tagging by scientists of two great white sharks — make national news.”

In any event—and as I argued in “Animals Gone Wild”—“Steven Spielberg’s magnificent thriller Jaws is an infinitely better Guide For the Perplexed than the shark experts”:

The latter “insist that, if presented with a menu, sharks will choose fish over folks. (‘Too tough and chewy,’ confirmed a spokesfish for the shark community.)”

Dare I say that the alleged culinary preferences of sharks are because there are more fish in the sea than people? If the oceans were peopled more plentifully, sharks would adapt their refined taste buds to human flesh in a flash. A witness—a brave surfer who paddled to the rescue—confirmed that Sharky didn’t seem remotely put off, and was doing what powerful, flesh-eating animals with sharp teeth do: tucking in.

“Apparently, the bears and the sharks haven’t had the benefit of liberal expert propaganda.”

Updated: Those Invisible Jobs

Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Labor, Political Economy, Propaganda

The excerpt is from my new WorlNetDaily.com column, “Those Invisible Jobs”:

“Let’s suppose a business employed ten workers in June. Along came Barack Obama and huffed and puffed and blew six jobs away. Four employees now run a pared-down operation. The next round of retrenchments will invariably entail fewer than six people. The president, or any other wolf in sheep’s clothing, may declare that our proprietor has shed fewer jobs in the month of July. But he may not frame a mathematical inevitability as a sign of economic recovery.

Fewer jobs lost probably means that there are fewer jobs to lose.

Nevertheless, this is exactly how the president spun the static employment market—and, to be fair, this is the way all presidents, aided by statisticians at the Bureau of Labor, finesse unemployment. …

The fig leaf of a “jobless recovery” is yet another unbeatable bit of political fraud.

A jobless economic recovery is the equivalent of a housewarming for the homeless. …

READ THE COMPLETE column, “Those Invisible Jobs,” on WND.COM. And on Taki’s Magazine, every weekend.

Update (August 28): Today, on Chuck Wilder’s nationally syndicated CRN show, “Talkback,” we briefly discussed “Those Invisible Jobs.” I immediately tackled, without being asked to, a possible argument against the case I make in the column’s first paragraph:

Let’s suppose a business employed 10 workers in June. Along came Barack Obama and huffed and puffed and blew six jobs away. Four employees now run a pared-down operation. The next round of retrenchments will invariably entail fewer than six people. The president, or any other wolf in sheep’s clothing, may declare that our proprietor has shed fewer jobs in the month of July. But he may not frame a mathematical inevitability as a sign of economic recovery.

Fewer jobs lost probably means that there are fewer jobs to lose.

The employment market is not static; it’s dynamic. Jobs are destroyed and created all the time. Efficiencies and productivity also reduce and improve the labor force. However, it’s safe to say that if ever the labor market was static, it’s now. And for a good reason. As a snapshot in time, the logical example I give above holds. Because—again, for good reasons—there are fewer jobs to be had, the number of jobs lost will also diminish. But this is because of 1) a relatively static job market. 2) A private economy, “penetrated and enervated by a tentacular bureaucracy.”

For ideologues out there slowly learning, on BAB, to meld reason, reality and ideology, don’t be rigid Postrelians (from Virginia Postrel’s dynamism folly).

Magnificent Marine To Lead The Revolution?

Constitution, libertarianism, Liberty, Politics, Propaganda, Socialism, The Military

“Unlike YOU,” David William Hedrick tells U.S. Congressman Brian Baird, “I did swear an oath to protect the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The disabled, fire-breathing marine veteran has a couple more succinct messages for the self-important, tyrannical representative: “Stay away from my kids.” “It is not your right to decide whether I keep or forfeit my current health plan; that’s my decision.” CAN IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS? As for protesters being branded “Brown Shirts” by the media, Hedrick offers a none-too subtle corrective: “The Nazis were the National Socialist Party. They were leftist; they took over finance, health care and the car industry. If Nancy Pelosi wants to find a swastika, the first place she should look is on the sleeve of her own arm.” And the coup de grâce: “I kept my oath, do you ever intend to keep yours?”

Hanging At The White House

Barack Obama, Healthcare, Media, Propaganda

Michael Smerconish, “a Philadelphia-based radio talk show host,” voted for Barack Obama, which is why, presumably, he is considered a conservative. Today was Smerconish’s big day—he made his way to the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House to interview the president. “The White House said that the president’s participation in the radio show was meant to counter some misinformation that is circulating widely concerning the administration’s health care agenda.”

I haven’t heard the interview, but I imagine that Smerconish provided the president with a conducive forum for his purposes. The New York Times, in its report, would have mentioned it if a typical townhaller mouth breather bothered Obama in any way.

The Times chose to air this provocative question: “One caller to the radio program asked Mr. Obama which elements needed to be included in a health care plan. He listed four points: reducing the cost of health care, protecting consumers from insurance abuses, providing affordable coverage to uninsured Americans and not adding to the deficit.”

Meanwhile, Smerconish has been doing the rounds on cable and crowing about his coup (but not his audience’s). His stock has soared. A day in the life of a successful media hustler.