The Jagged Edge Of The American Left (Weekend Thread)

"Game Boys" by Peter Howson 1991, Private Collection London

 

Matt Shefield, my executive editor @ NewsBusters leads the charge:

Last week, the CBS News staff nearly revolted when [Katie] Couric and her producers dared to allow someone to say on the show that school violence is the product of people taking religion out of public schools.[...]

For all their talk of being impartial and balanced, the fact is that network news is run by secular leftists who will continue spiraling ever downward in the ratings rather than adopt a more tolerant attitude and start hiring conservatives and religious people. They have a perfect example of success in Fox News but they deliberately choose not to follow it because they perceive news which isn't left-wing to be illegitimate. [emphasis mine]

Peggy Noonan picks up the theme of the intolerant left and their warped idea of free speech @ The Wall Street Journal in her latest piece:

It is not only about rage and resentment, and how some have come to see them as virtues, as an emblem of rightness. I feel so much, therefore my views are correct and must prevail. It is about something so obvious it is almost embarrassing to state. Free speech means hearing things you like and agree with, and it means allowing others to speak whose views you do not like or agree with. This--listening to the other person with respect and forbearance, and with an acceptance of human diversity--is the price we pay for living in a great democracy. And it is a really low price for such a great thing.

We all know this, at least in the abstract. Why are so many forgetting it in the particular?

Let us be more pointed. Students, stars, media movers, academics: They are always saying they want debate, but they don't. They want their vision imposed. They want to win. And if the win doesn't come quickly, they'll rush the stage, curse you out, attempt to intimidate.

And they don't always recognize themselves to be bullying. So full of their righteousness are they that they have lost the ability to judge themselves and their manner.

And all this continues to come more from the left than the right in America. [...]

What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace--of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together. The Democratic Party hasn't had enough of this kind of thing since Bobby Kennedy died. What also seems missing is the courage to ask a question. Conservatives these days are asking themselves very many questions, but I wonder if the left could tolerate asking itself even a few. Such as: Why are we producing so many adherents who defy the old liberal virtues of free and open inquiry, free and open speech? Why are we producing so many bullies? And dim dullard ones, at that.

"Why do Americans on the left think only they have the right to dissent?" she asks. Why indeed.

And the root cause for such ironically domineering attitude, as it has been shown time and time again in the Left's campaigning style and content, is that the vast majority of its base is driven in their personal lives by destructive emotions such as envy, resentment, bitterness and most of all, pure and gut-wrenching hatred which, like any pressure cooker under too much heat, needs to release its steam through the emergency valve.

But, just as with steam, a retort in kind is never part of the equation. After all, the underlying perception is a righteous condemnation of the outside world; for it has caused the misery, it is to blame for all hardship and wrongs brought upon the individual. How dare the collective 'they' then have the audacity to add insult to injury.

The Right is not free of such unfortunate supporters, but the overwhelming majority are people who are driven by an urge to achieve, to improve, to advance, to build; not to tear down, to destroy and to systematically debase the key ingredient of success: excellence.

The liberal media simply continues to spin it's own web of deceit in full support, sinking deeper into their ignorant oblivion...

Comments

[Darrell]

Actually, the University of Chicago study placed Fox Cable slightly left of center--an artifact of there being more left-of-center private interest research groups and think Tanks...CBS ranked far left, rarely quoting right-wing groups. NO network quoted right-wing groups preferentially. Fox, indeed, did seem to be the most "fair and balanced" network in terms of presenting both sides of the arguments.

Is the Left the party of the MSM or is the MSM the news division of the Left. Tough question. Like whether to convene "Nuremberg-style" trials for dissenters(or is that heretics?) of Global Warming Dogma...We'll have to look to the Euros for answers. The Left loves free speech--as long as they are the only ones talking.

[Sandy P]

---It means Democrats are in favor of Liberalism, which means a Free Press. ---

hahahahahaha

Fairness Doctrine, anyone?

----

As to Fox News, well, there's more than 1 study out there showing it's center-right. And we Americans have a different definition of right than the Brits. Maybe The Economist should have done it's homework because this comment..."The rest of the media seems to occupy the center ground (as does the US population) with nothing to compare with Fox on the left, CNN is not even close to being partisan the way Fox is. The thing about Fox is, the viewers know it’s a station for the right and they love it! Fair and balanced indeed…"

is wrong, as those studies show. And it is amazing how 1 little cable station which barely gets 1 million domestic viewers a day causes such apoplexy among those in control of the press.

I seem to remember the Tories sending people over to help Kerry's campaign. I believe Samizdata had that tidbit. The Tories are "right" for Britain, not here.

[Ghost Dansing]

It means Democrats are in favor of Liberalism, which means a Free Press. Modern "conservative republicans" have a more authoritarian bent are are more in attune with Party discipline and staying "on message"

[rich]

Is it possible that some of us have things backward? When the media is presented as being left wing?

Can it be, rather, that the left is simply the media's party.

That the driving and controlling force is the media, not the political party.

This came to mind with the recent statement by a democratic politician that said something like "The media lead us on Vietnam, the media lead us on ... (fill issue a couple of more times,) but the media will not lead us on this issue."

It struck me as an admission that democratic politicians were dancing to the media's tune. That the real control was the MSM.

If in fact the media controls the democratic party, it offers an explanation for the fact that the dems stay with so many unpopular issues -- they are just following orders.

[Alexandra]

Red Violin,

I read that over the weekend. Unbelievable.

[Alexandra]

Ghost,

Well, art at its best is one of the most powerful and ubiquitously understood form of communication. But more importantly, great artists capture the Zeitgeist of their era and allow us to visualize complex issues of our time. In many cases, it takes one or more generations to fully comprehend the full meaning of great works of art, for contemporaries often fail to see the wood for the trees. I am delighted that you take a keen interest.

[Ghost Dansing]

I see much the same symbology, however I would suggest there are elements of this profile identifiable at the extremes (in the extreme, dogmatic, strident and assertive rhetoric) of just about every political and religious group.

I don't really see very much "militant left in America" anymore... there was a time... I think there is more "leftest" thinking, and even anarchistic thinking in Europe, and at one time the secular politics of the Palestinians embraced leftest rhetoric as well. Islamofacism is extreme political Islam that wants to use State infrastructure to impose Islam, just as some in America would use the State to impose their sectarian prescriptions and proscriptions for it not for a Liberal governmental structure that gives them a voice, but not dictatorial control.

I sense your roots are heavily European, and some of your nomenclature is more applicable to European political dynamisms, where, for example, you actually find Communists in elected positions in some of the European States.

Howson is an interesting fellow... I'm jealous that you know so many cool people :)

I do love to try to figure out how your pictures relate to what you are saying...and that is the wonder of art forms in general... perspectivity and interpretation are almost limitless because we all see things from the coloration of our personalities as they have been influenced by our individual histories and cultures.

I suspected that Howson originally worked Scotsman, because that is what he knew.

[Alexandra]

Ghost,

From the conversations I have had with him, his main point in some of his earlier work such as the Game Boy collection was 'prejudice' amongst the working class section of the community, which is deeply socialistic but aggressively militant in its views and behavior.

As I said above, very much the image I see when I picture the militant left in America, or anywhere else for that matter. Screaming, aggressively leaning forward, pointing fingers in accusation. With one of the three in the image there is even a hint of a Nazi salute. Lynching springs to mind, the 'guilty until proven innocent' mentality. Perhaps that is why they feel they have so much in common with Islamofascists who they feel somewhat protective over.

[Red Violin]

Khamenei Brandishes a Kalashnikov at US and Israel

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1220

Where is the LNM (Leftist News Media)? Why aren't they reporting this?

[Ghost Dansing]

Alexandra... I was researching him and it seemed he was seeing and struggling with racism (among other things) in periods of his work and wasn't absolutely sure if he was making a "racist statement" or an "anti-racist" statement (or no statement at all) in some pieces until I came to my question about 2006, and back to the issue of "Game Boy"...

My conclusion is that he captures racist undertones in some of his work, and that he himself is probably anti-rascist... "Game Boy" though asynchronous with his 2006 involvment with the Ayr United Football Club, seemed like a metaphor for the issue of racism manifest in European football... or sports in general.

Actually, being chartered to do Mandela gave me a hint of Howson's disposition early on... however when messing around with concepts such as "racism", there are those who despise racism in all its manifestations, regardless of "who's side you're on", and those who see racism only in the behavior of "the other side"...

There are Blacks who perceive only White Racism, there are Whites who perceive only Black racism, etc. Then there are those that perceive racism as a hideous undercurrent in almost every heterogenous human point of friction.

So, in "Game Boy", the homogenous, white, white hatted, muscular bellowing individuals could be either the racist as antagonist, or racist as hero against some perceived injustice to which they must respond.

At any rate... I suggest Howson would be anti-racist in whatever the particular manifestation.

There was a remark in some of the material I reviewed that indicated autism... I was trying to see that in the work... certainly not anything totally debilitating in that regard... more concerned about depression and drug abuse reflected in some pieces; noted elsewhere, therefore "not surprising".

Perhaps something subtle more similar to Asperger's Syndrome... I would expect a very intriguing personality, however... unique perspective... autistic perception might negate any attempt at interpreting his work as any "social" statement at all because of extreme idiosyncracy of perception.

There is a lot of diagnostic hair splitting, but here is an interesting piece..."autism with language":

http://www.angelfire.com/amiga/aut/aspiebasics.html

[Alexandra]

Ghost,

I happen to know Peter Howson personally, and have collected his work for the last ten years, including a famous piece from his Bosnian collection. Howson is not a racist, he is in search of the truth, or at least the truth as he perceives it, as any artist is.

Whilst his paintings may originally be of different nationalities and cultures, the perception intended, which David Foster refers to above, is certainly of 'the militant liberal'.

A long comment...what is it that you are actually trying to say there if I may be so bold as to ask?

[Red Violin]

From London:

...The news channels are also more keen on reporting news that will damage the US reputation and credibility. I have been voicing this where ever we go. The PR and the propaganda war is being lost to an enemy that has become the master of propaganda and uses it to the full.

[brian]

"The rest of the media seems to occupy the center ground (as does the US population) with nothing to compare with Fox on the left, CNN is not even close to being partisan the way Fox is."

Tom, having been raised on the BEEB, I can understand how you might percieve the MSM in America as being the center. You are the product of a lifetime in a government run leftist euro-centric media bubble funded by mandatory taxes, not free markets. Take a tour of the major Journo-schools here in the USA, and then visit fly-over country. The disconnect in attitudes and worldview is quite large. We here are a center-right country, stuck with a 95% leftist media. However, the free market is answering the demand for center right thought and commentary. I, for one, do not find American "nationalism" disturbing at all, it's absolutely necessary. As a matter of fact, you Brits should consider a little Union Jack nationalism yourselves before you have to pony up the jizya in your own damn country.

If you won't preserve anything of our heritage for the future, try not to complain when America does all the heavy lifting for you.....if you're allowed to speak publicly without saying (pbuh) first. If you visit jolly old Great Britistan any time soon, keep your head on your shoulders, heh old boy? Cheerio! Allahu Akbar!

[brian]

Scots Soccer ruined by American Imperialist Bush oil-quagmire adventures.
Film at 11.

[Ghost Dansing]

"What does the picture represent?...maybe the "progressive" image of the average American?"

More likely Scotsman.

Howson made his name painting brutal depictions of Glaswegian down-and-outs, hardmen and football thugs. His later conversion to Christianity transformed his subject matter to startling and complex images of Christ.

In 2005 he did a painting of Nelson Mandela for Scottish billionaire Tom Hunter. Hunter then bought the painting of the African leader for £50,000. The money was evidently used to help build schools in Africa as part of the "Make Poverty History" campaign.

Howson said: "Tom Hunter approached us and said 'If you do Mandela I will buy it and donate the money to charity'. Tom has a number of my paintings, including a portrait of the Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

"This is my way of doing something for Live 8. There are so many ways people can help out and the only way I can physically help is by donating a painting - and that's what I'm doing.

"Its very easy to slip into clichéd language when you talk about Mandela, but for me he represents the people.

"Desmond Tutu said that long-suffering can embitter you, but it can also change you in a great way and Mandela has done the latter.

"He has turned into a great man, whereas he could have come out of prison and been a shell. But he has never done that he has never been bitter.

"His face tells a tremendous story of suffering, but there is also a tremendous power, dignity, honour, compassion. In my eyes he is a great, great man."

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=645352005

The Scotsman.com wrote in 2005:

"IN JUST five years, Peter Howson has journeyed from an existential hell to the heart of the Catholic Church.

Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the celebrated artist is in talks with Vatican officials about producing a series of paintings for one of the most visited shrines in the world.

Howson, who once seemed bent on self-destruction as a result of alcohol and drug abuse, plans to paint several Christ-like figures for the tomb of Padre Pio in the church of San Giovanni Rotondo in Foggia, south-eastern Italy.

The tomb of the padre - who was made a saint just three years ago - is visited by almost seven million people a year, giving Howson one of the biggest potential audiences for his work anywhere in the world.

The Glasgow-based artist will travel with his dealer, Matthew Flowers, to Italy in June, where he will meet with Catholic officials to discuss the commission.

Howson said: "The religious work has obviously been seen in Italy by the Vatican and people high up in the Roman Catholic Church, and they have asked me to consider doing big-scale works for churches in Italy.

"I am talking to people with links to the Vatican. I am dead excited about it and this is a Protestant talking. I might even convert. There is a Padre Pio connection: he saw demons and was tempted by the devil. They like the dark work, the apocalyptic work and the work with demons in it.

"It feels right. The image that they are interested in is a big Christ-like figure, like Ecce Homo that was hung in St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s exciting because to me the Church has always been involved in great art and they have always been the greatest patrons of art, from the Renaissance and medieval periods to late medieval and Gothic, and then it really stopped."

The Italian commission marks a remarkable turnaround for Howson. By the late 1990s he was - by his own admission - destroying himself with alcohol and drugs.

It was in 2000, while he was rehabilitating at the Castle Craig residential hospital in the Borders, that Howson decided there was nothing left but to pray. He said he felt the presence of Jesus and ever since religious themes have dominated his work.

Howson, who is autistic, has just returned from an exhibition in New York where his religious work has found huge popularity with Americans."

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=174&id=466302005

A quick pan of his work:

http://www.peterhowson.net/

Themes: Depressive, not surprisingly alcoholic, struggling with demons...death, afterflife...salvation...note Acheron moving souls over the river Styx..."New Adam"...various depictions of Christ..."New Adam" in particular contains relgio-sexual symbology...Israel and Jews rattling around in the background...six point star of David...loneliness and fear of the mob stripping the individual...exile (Patmos...exile of St. John where he wrote the Book of Revelation).

He spent some time in Bosnia in the 90's where he became interested in the Christian message.

Of note is his piece entitled "Serb and Muslim", 1994...depicting an apparent rape?

"In April 1992, the U.S. and European Community chose to recognize the independence of Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up 32 percent of the population. Milosevic responded to Bosnia's declaration of independence by attacking Sarajevo, its capital city, best known for hosting the 1984 Winter Olympics. Sarajevo soon became known as the city where Serb snipers continually shot down helpless civilians in the streets, including eventually over 3,500 children."

"Bosnian Muslims were hopelessly outgunned. As the Serbs gained ground, they began to systematically roundup local Muslims in scenes eerily similar to those that had occurred under the Nazis during World War II, including mass shootings, forced repopulation of entire towns, and confinement in make-shift concentration camps for men and boys. The Serbs also terrorized Muslim families into fleeing their villages by using rape as a weapon against women and girls."

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/bosnia_genocide.htm
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/femorg.htm

But back to "Game Boys"...muscular, white hats, mouths open; bellowing, uniformity in hand gesture...

Reminiscent of "Patriots" 1991... but those guys are wearing red hats, black shawls around their wrists...dogs... see also the "Psycho Squad", 1989 and "Crusader" 2001.

So I as seeing a lot of things from 2005... what about Howson in 2006...obvious that among the other things depicted and ostensibly the object of his internal struggles, racism was one of them...

So is Howson a racist, or against racism:

I say his psyche embraces Europe and the world in a struggle against racism...a horrid manifestation of which (racism) in obsession with sports...

As evidence...his 2006 involvement with the Ayr United Football Club (AUFC):

Show Racism the Red Card:

http://www.ayrunitedfc.co.uk/index.asp?p=Anti-Racism%20Pol

The Ten Point Action Plan Against Racism in Football, commonly known as the UEFA Ten Point Plan, was developed by Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) and adopted by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).

It set out ten measures that national associations and clubs should adopt as the framework for action to challenge racism:

Ayr United's response to this was to adopt and implement the following policy:

1. Issue a press release condemning racism and stating that:
• anyone found to participate in such chanting will be ejected from the ground by stewards and police and BANNED from Somerset Park
• Work with The Honest Men Trust to organize a Show Racism the Red Card action day at a home game at the start of the season
• New advertising board condemning racism to be displayed at the ground
• Statement in match programme AND club website

[Alexandra]

JPE,

'Incontrolados' your Spanish slip is beginning to show. Just looked through all your comments under your new name 'jpe' since you have been banned. Same style, same bs, same modus operandi: appeared as 'jpe' just after you were banned, and only come out of the woodwork on posts relating to liberals as per usual. I don't need you to lecture me on semantics, go back to reading Glenn, your Lord and Master. You will be deleted whatever you call yourself.

[Tom]

As a Brit who has been in the US for nearly 3 years now, I would like to offer my opinion regarding the media balance here. Overall I have found the press to be soft on Bush and the administration. After 9/11 he was given a pass on some 'debatable' foreign policy issues, especially considering that the three main reasons for war with Iraq - WMD, AQ and 9/11 proved to be weak arguments at best. Only recently (last six months or so) has he begun to face tougher questioning on these issues. He is still to be asked any tough questions regarding the deficit, the free spending congress or immigration.

Just this week, the Lexington column in The Economist (a conservative newspaper) described Fox news as ‘firmly Republican’ which reflects my observations; they are painful in their efforts to spin things for the right. The rest of the media seems to occupy the center ground (as does the US population) with nothing to compare with Fox on the left, CNN is not even close to being partisan the way Fox is. The thing about Fox is, the viewers know it’s a station for the right and they love it! Fair and balanced indeed…

Every now and then I try to imagine what it would be like with a Dem as POTUS… the right would be ripping him apart; there would be non stop attacks over Iran, North Korea and progress in Iraq.

Rush and Hannity are awful, it’s like they don’t realize that the GOP have had power in the executive, senate and congress for the last six years, somehow everything is the fault of those godless libs. They are broadcasters appealing to faith and the flag with a nasty does of nationalism thrown in, it is truly disturbing what passes as conservative discourse on the airwaves.

I say all of this as someone who has voted for the Tories in the UK ever since Thatcher. Oh and as a thought to leave you with… politics and religion is like oil and water, they do not mix.

[david foster]

What does the picture represent?...maybe the "progressive" image of the average American?

[flamethrower]

So often people, particularly leftists and liberals, will ask me, "Why is there so much evil in the world? Why does God allow these awful things like the Amish children's massacre? If God is love, how can these things happen?" Usually, if they allow me the time, I start back with Madeline Murray O'Hare and work my way up through not allowing Bible reading or prayer in the schools, Dr. Spock and not allowing any spanking for fear it would hurt their tender little personalities, then we took away punishment from the school administration and teaching staff, then we gave out condoms to the guys, then we said that girls should be able to have abortions without telling their parents, then our elected officials said whatever they did in private was okay as long as they did their jobs and the economy kept rolling along, then someone began publishing nude pictures of children on the Internet and we said that was covered by the First Amendment and free speech, then Hollywood began flooding movies and TV with crime, soft porn, amorality, and disrespect of law, order, parents, etc. and we said it was okay because it doesn't affect anything one way or the other. Now we wonder why our kids are ignorant, disrespectful, violent, nihilistic, amoral, selfish, lack self-discipline and are uncontrollable. Where is God? Doesn't He care? Why isn't He doing anything? I believe we have locked Him out of the school and He is letting us handle things on our own, allowing our hubris and arrogance to run the full gamut until we wake up and see we are lost without Him.

[Ghost Dansing]

"Now come on Alexandra, you didn't even consult Ghost to find out how all the points in this piece are really because of American Republicanism and This Administration. Surely you know all things negative are laid at the feet of the big, bad Elephant. No mention of the #1 issue in the world today, IM's from Mark Foley (R)FL!"

heheehehe...::snicker snicker::chortle...

When the media was dumping on Clinton, I guess it was the "right wing" media? Clinton was trying to send airborne torpedos to hit bin ladin, and the press was talking about Monika. (sp?)

The Liberal Press has the full spectrum... some of it is pretty lame, but just about everybody's opinion gets covered... even if it is undeserved.

I looked at the piece where school killings were blamed on lack of religion in the school...comments by a Dad who's child was killed...it was broadcast, and so was the whining in the newsroom about it published, within the context of Katie Couric getting low ratings... The whole argument about "left" bias was right there in the supposedly "left" dominated Liberal Press... both sides of the story and the story itself...

I looked at the NEWSWEEK article...it was lame... Dubya is at least getting al qaida's motivation for a caliphate right...not sure where they were coming from with the "fifty-cent" word angle... they ought to give him credit for getting SOMETHING right after 6 years.

But by and large, we're using the Liberal Media to make "our" points from whatever perspective, so they must still be delivering something for everybody.

The Democrats listened to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and other Republican pundits making baseless assertions and telling half-truths for a very very long time, to their detriment politically, without responding in kind...

Now the Republicans are getting challenged...a lot, in a lot of ways and they are getting some counter-punch.

I'm sure Noonan liked it better when the Democrats (Center...there really isn't much of a "left" in America, whereas there definitely IS a Rightest tendency) were just standing their taking body blows... I'm afraid those days are gone.

[LilMissIndie]

"This country is in a moral freefall. For over two generations the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum. . . . We teach there are no moral absolutes, no right or wrong, and I assure you the murder of innocent children is always wrong, including abortion. Abortion has diminished the value of children."

This, according to Ms. Noonan, is what Brian Rohrbough said on the "Free Speech" segment on CBS News. The following is the "newsroom employees" objection to it:

"Critics complained the opinion piece was not relevant to the current tragedies, especially since the most recent shooting happened at an Amish school."

It's perplexing that "newsroom employees" -- and I doubt that we are discussing typists, camera people, or interns (as you might infer from Glenn Greenwald's piece) -- used that as the basis of their criticism of Mr. Rohrbough's opinion on what is to blame for the killing of schoolchildren, Amish or otherwise. It might make more sense if one of the Amish children had opened up on the others, but what difference should the religious beliefs of the children or their community make in the discussion? Mr. Rohrbough believes that things such as teaching of evolution, abortion, and keeping religion out of schools has lessened the worth of life in society. Many people still believe as he does, but the people who purport to bring us "the news" believe the opinion to be wrong and so the rest of us shouldn't be exposed to it, lest others of like mind hear it and -- as in some Stephen King novel -- start out on a journey across the country to find one another. A group of people like that would be dangerous, wouldn't they, and might they also vote for a Republican for President? (For the record, I disagree with Mr. Rohrbough, but he still gets to say it outloud!)

Further, it speaks volumes about the people behind the newsreaders -- you know, the "newsroom employees" -- that they would "have privately expressed concerns" regarding a segment in which typical Americans -- yes, Americans who work and pay taxes and vote but aren't in charge of the news!! -- get a few minutes to say their piece. I am glad that Executive Producer Rome Hartman had the integrity to let the piece air, but even his statement that "he was surprised by the topic Rohrbough chose to address" is...well...surprising. If I read the LA Times article correctly, Mr. Rohrbough lost a child at Columbine. If he has an opinion about why he lost that child, is it less valid than the opinion of one of the parents who might express in the media that the reason for school violence is lack of gun control?

While I think that the liberal and conservative sides of any debate these days each has their share of people who love to shout down dissenters, I agree with Ms. Noonan when she singles out celebrities and media personalities in the group that opposes dissent. But I'd like another category: Celebrities who can't articulate but still think their opinions are noteworthy. The screeching of nails on the blackboard that is Rosie O'Donnell's voice is naturally going to drown and intimidate a more reserved co-panelist's point of view. But they're on a daytime show, for God's sake, where dingbats in the audience clap for her, mostly, I suspect, because she's Rosie and they find her screeching amusing. They like in-your-face, brassy opinionating because, perhaps, they have too much taste and class to practice it where they live: out in the real world, on their children's soccer fields, at church, at PTA, all the places middle-class Americans must go and at which they must behave like rational adults. But, believe me, most of them voted Republican in the last election and they're probably going to this November.

I must believe this, because I don't know how else to explain the applause Screeching Rosie gets when one of those broad generalizations, such as (paraphrasing) "radical Christianity is as dangerous as radical Islam in a country where there is separation of church and state", drops from her lips.

Of course, how did I miss it? Radical Christians wanting prayer back in school, creationism taught alongside evolution, and opposing legalized abortion really IS as dangerous as a Muslim strapping explosives to his body, boarding a bus full of women and children, and blowing them all to bits. Opposing gay marriage is every BIT as intolerant as ramming airliners into buildings of innocent people. I'm sure the numbers on the tote board totaling "doctors who performed abortions and were assassinated by radical American Christians" and "people minding their own business and assassinated by radical Islamists" are equal. Tell me, and I mean this literally, tell me if there a strong daily television personality who dared to point out her absurdity.

How did I get from Peggy Noonan to Rosie O'Donnell? It seems like this could happen only in some alien, alternate world, doesn't it? But, sadly, in this world their words are given the same consideration. I guess that would be the downside to free speech.

Plus, it's Alexandra's fault for posting this on a weekend.

[Denny]

The The Leftist News Media (LNM) is NOT in the mainstream of the American political spectum, but far to the left of it. They are another extension of the Democrat Party Machine (DPM) which also includes the acadamia elite, unions, federal beauracracies, Hollyweird, pop culture,and scores of powerful groups such as the ACLU and AARP, each doing their part for the Democrat Party. The LNM has an agenda, and it certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with showing anyone on the right, especialy Republcians, conservatives and Christians, in a favorable spotlight.

[Alexandra]

I have just added this link to the post above. You have got to read my friend Charles Johnson's commentary on this unbelievably clueless article from Newsweek.

[Red Violin]

Tehran Arms Hamas for a Double-Barreled War Option and Gaza as Second Lebanon

DEBKAfile Special Military Report

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1219

[Ariel]

I read the Greenwald piece. He dismissed as negligible, or obscure, the constant and consistent refusal of the left to allow voices on America's campuses that dissent from their cherished beliefs. He ignored the labeling, even by those in Congress, of any one on the right as racist or fascist; or that the entire system of current epithets of abuse is a left-wing creation. How often are people labeled racist, sexist, homophobic, or islamophobic simply because they disagree? The left has stripped these words of any meaning, turning them into bludgeons to silence those who dissent from their cherished beliefs. It is now racist to question a religion, except Christianity.

This level of incivility is a creation of the 60s. I watched it then, and then I watched it grow. Incivility in public, political discourse has always been with us, but this round clearly goes to the left. It is turnspeak for them to say otherwise. This is also the period when classical liberalism was supplanted by social and statist liberalism, listen to JFk and you'll hear the difference.

[brian]

Now come on Alexandra, you didn't even consult Ghost to find out how all the points in this piece are really because of American Republicanism and This Administration. Surely you know all things negative are laid at the feet of the big, bad Elephant. No mention of the #1 issue in the world today, IM's from Mark Foley (R)FL!

If liberalism has a jagged edge, it's only because Karl Rove sharpened it!