On Monday morning, Aug 22, at the ungodly hour of 5:15 AM Pacific Time (8:15 EST), I will be talking to the King Dude, the one and only Mike Church, superstar of Sirius.
Topic: My book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” in the context of the flash-mob phenomenon.
Ethics, Free Markets, Journalism, libertarianism, Liberty, Media, Propaganda, Republicans, Ron Paul
The following is from “Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul,” now on WND.COM:
“Republican and Democratic media whores briefly came clean about ignoring presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Then they promptly returned to ignoring him.
No sooner had Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and CNN’s Piers Morgan interviewed Dr. Paul about his untouchable status among their colleagues, than John King of the eponymous CNN show could be heard recounting the winners of the Republican 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, to the exclusion of the man who secured second place: Congressman Ron Paul.
Michele Bachmann won 4,823 votes; Texas Rep. Ron Paul 4,671. With 152 votes separating the two frontrunners, one might even say that, in Ames, Iowa, Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place.
A slick Drew Griffin, also at CNN, cracked up as he instructed a cub reporter on the ground: ‘If you get a sound bite from Palin bring that back to us. You can hold the Ron Paul stuff.”
Following the Republican Poll, Politico.com ran an article about Paul, the caption to which read: ‘Ron Paul remains media poison.’ The article featured an image of Ron Paul flanked by signs touting the stuff the press finds so poisonous: ‘Liberty and Freedom.’
As is often the case, satirist Jon Stewart stepped in to correct—and to make fun of—the farrago of misinformation spread by mainstream media. …”
The complete column is “Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul,” now on WND.COM.
My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.
A newly formatted, splendid Kindle copy is now available. The errors of the previous copy have been corrected.
If you’re interested in syndicating my weekly, WND column, kindly email me for details at ilana@ilanamercer.com. “Return to Reason“ is WorldNetDaily’s longest standing, exclusive libertarian column.
UPDATE (Aug. 19): At last, after a lot of aggravation, Amazon has activated the “Look Inside” feature to “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa.” This will enable you to read ten percent of the book online.
Amazon is simply amazing. To appreciate how magnificently Amazon operates, consider this and this lone: how would the government operate this highly complex, super-efficient online business? Still, when certain features are still in their infancy and are in the process of being streamlined—the individual (like myself) can lose perspective. Understandably so.
However, not a day goes by—when I interact with Amazon, Costco, or any other vendor—that I don’t stop to apprecaite the genius of spontaneous order. In the process of making a living, people cooperate voluntarily to bring about magnificent, munificent, mutually beneficial outcomes.
Celebrity, Journalism, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Pop-Culture
Admittedly, it didn’t take much to revive the moribund CNN slot which had been occupied for decades by the braindead Larry King. Piers Morgan is a lefty, but for a bloke who works for CNN—and does lightweight stuff—Piers does a good interview. (I mean, contrast Morgan with the mindless Anderson Cooper!)
And boy-oh-boy, did Mr. Morgan, politely yet emphatically, expose Madam Christine O’Donnell’s high-and-mighty antics. The former Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware appeared on “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote a book (which some major publisher, sadly, found worth publishing). O’Donnell being O’Donnell, she refused to answer a question about a topic she discussed in the very book her host had had the courtesy to read. (I give Piers props for that; it must have been torture.)
Speaking of mindless and narcissism, here Cooper goes into paroxysm of laughter over a an overwritten spoof he or one of his side kicks wrote about actor “Gerard Depardieu’s [recent]… airplane peeing incident.” I find the Keith Obermann-like bloated text from which Cooper was reading far more offensive that the actor’s behavior (which you just know had to be provoked by the American airline on which he was flying).
Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation, Neoconservatism
More and more in mainstreams are finding fault with the US’s counterfeiter-in-chief, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Jeffrey Bell’s point is mild and purely utilitarian:
To maintain interest rates at zero, the Fed prints endless amounts of dollars, driving down the dollar’s value. In the short run, this props up the bond and stock markets, enabling big banks and big business to thrive. But the absence of interest rates is suppressing the lines of credit that enable small business to expand by a factor of two thirds, according to Stanford economist Ronald McKinnon. And in the U.S., small business is responsible for most new jobs.
So unless this printing of dollars is halted, we’re doomed to continued high unemployment. Gov. Perry should be commended for starting a debate that’s long overdue.
But at least he’s not fussing childishly about the Perry Fed statement, which, according to neoconservative Andrew Sullivan, “disqualifies Perry from the race.” The author of the Daily Dish is furious that “the integrity of a civil servant” has been impugned:
If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.