Curtis Dahlgren
Redskins, Brownshirts, and pundits; the ides of November are here
By Curtis Dahlgren
"They have set up kings, but not by Me." – Hosea
THIS COLUMN ISN'T ABOUT THE PRESIDENT (no "change" there), or about the weather (to say the least, colder than Hell). We can't do anything about the weather or the President's pen (a poison pen), but this column's about the things we aren't allowed to say about the weather, the Prez, and/or a few other subjects (such as marriage, immigration, and selective enforcement of the Laws of the Land) – the things we had better say anyway!
It's difficult to choose the "column-of-the-week," but Michael Bresciani article makes the list for the headline alone:
"IS IT REALLY HATE SPEECH – OR JUST SPEECH THAT YOU HATE"(?) Mr. Bresciani says:
"Do we now need hate speech police, for those accusing others of hate speech? Nonsense mocks itself; it does not need our help!"
John O'Sullivan (WSJ, 11/1-2) wrote, "NO OFFENSE; the new threats to free speech" ("Governments began to treat those threatened [by Islamists] for their opinions almost as harshly as those attacking them")!
Gay issues have become a logic-free zone. Someday governments may even demand copies of your pastor's sermons. Oh – that's right! That has happened already in Houston.
Peggy Noonan (WSJ, same issue) wrote about the political correctness of the Ebola issue: "America's professionals in the science and medical communities, and certainly those in the White House, seem deeply uninterested in the views of common people . . . [they] offer only gobbled-gook and slogans . . They seem like propagandists . . All this will be part of the story on Tuesday, in the elections. It is hard to believe you can patrionize people and play them, and they will not, first chance they get, sharply rebuke you." And after the election Tuesday, Chris Matthews said on MSNBC:
"There's something in this guy that just plays to his constituency and acts like there's no other world out there."
That reminds me of the book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" The quote above is from Noonan's next column (11/8-9), "A message sent to a grudging President." Peggy says, regarding his post-election press conference:
"At one point he tried to smile but couldn't quite pull it off; it came across as a Nixon-like flexing of the rictus muscles . . . Hatey."
Nat Hentoff wrote a column this week about "The continuing collapse of the first amendment. Do you care?" He lists all the speakers who have been "disinvited" by major colleges. He recommends the book "The Shadow University" by the founder of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). We had better CARE, even if they call you a "hater."
BY THE WAY – did you ever notice that every single conservative concept is called "controversial" while the J-schools at our ivy-covered ivory towers are called "prestigious"? And yet the pollsters and news media failed to see the political tsunami coming.
The strangest reaction of all that I heard was on Public Radio. They spent an hour or more contemplating the inferred "racial component" to the election results. HUH? Black Republicans won and white Democrats got thumped. Which part of NO are they missing at the prestigious NPR radio studios? Peggy Noonan said "This is no way to run a railroad" (the president is doing his party no favors).
Holman Jenkins, Jr. (WSJ 11-8) says "We've had good luck and bad luck in our presidents. Mostly, though, it wasn't luck at all: it was the ordinary wisdom of each electee to try to give the country what it needed – rather than what he, in his vanity, needed to give it. Well, voters have rendered their verdict."
Or as a little boy once said somewhere, "Don't the Emperor's clothes look funny?"
P.S. Remember the line "Tell Valdimir that after the election I'll have more flexibility"? What applied to 2012 applies no doubt to 2014. He has already waded into the Internet where angels fear to tread. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to guess how this story ends.
PPS: Speaking of free speech and science, a Michigan native has been named winner of the Carl Sagan Medal for his efforts to communicate science and astronomy. Guy Consolmagno says:
"The big lesson everyone should learn from science is not that it's 'proved' one thing or another, but that it is always open to learning more, and changing as it learns."
John O'Sullivan says:
"In short, a public culture that used to be liberal is now 'progressive' – which is something like liberalism minus its commitment to freedom. The U.S. and Britain have long thought of themselves as, above all, free countries. If that identity continues to atrophy, free speech will be the first victim. But it will not be the last."
I mean, from the "Redskins controversy" to a Brownshirt mentality is just one small step for fallen Man. So speak up!
© Curtis Dahlgren
November 13, 2014
"They have set up kings, but not by Me." – Hosea
THIS COLUMN ISN'T ABOUT THE PRESIDENT (no "change" there), or about the weather (to say the least, colder than Hell). We can't do anything about the weather or the President's pen (a poison pen), but this column's about the things we aren't allowed to say about the weather, the Prez, and/or a few other subjects (such as marriage, immigration, and selective enforcement of the Laws of the Land) – the things we had better say anyway!
It's difficult to choose the "column-of-the-week," but Michael Bresciani article makes the list for the headline alone:
"IS IT REALLY HATE SPEECH – OR JUST SPEECH THAT YOU HATE"(?) Mr. Bresciani says:
"Do we now need hate speech police, for those accusing others of hate speech? Nonsense mocks itself; it does not need our help!"
John O'Sullivan (WSJ, 11/1-2) wrote, "NO OFFENSE; the new threats to free speech" ("Governments began to treat those threatened [by Islamists] for their opinions almost as harshly as those attacking them")!
Gay issues have become a logic-free zone. Someday governments may even demand copies of your pastor's sermons. Oh – that's right! That has happened already in Houston.
Peggy Noonan (WSJ, same issue) wrote about the political correctness of the Ebola issue: "America's professionals in the science and medical communities, and certainly those in the White House, seem deeply uninterested in the views of common people . . . [they] offer only gobbled-gook and slogans . . They seem like propagandists . . All this will be part of the story on Tuesday, in the elections. It is hard to believe you can patrionize people and play them, and they will not, first chance they get, sharply rebuke you." And after the election Tuesday, Chris Matthews said on MSNBC:
"There's something in this guy that just plays to his constituency and acts like there's no other world out there."
That reminds me of the book "What's the Matter With Kansas?" The quote above is from Noonan's next column (11/8-9), "A message sent to a grudging President." Peggy says, regarding his post-election press conference:
"At one point he tried to smile but couldn't quite pull it off; it came across as a Nixon-like flexing of the rictus muscles . . . Hatey."
Nat Hentoff wrote a column this week about "The continuing collapse of the first amendment. Do you care?" He lists all the speakers who have been "disinvited" by major colleges. He recommends the book "The Shadow University" by the founder of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). We had better CARE, even if they call you a "hater."
BY THE WAY – did you ever notice that every single conservative concept is called "controversial" while the J-schools at our ivy-covered ivory towers are called "prestigious"? And yet the pollsters and news media failed to see the political tsunami coming.
The strangest reaction of all that I heard was on Public Radio. They spent an hour or more contemplating the inferred "racial component" to the election results. HUH? Black Republicans won and white Democrats got thumped. Which part of NO are they missing at the prestigious NPR radio studios? Peggy Noonan said "This is no way to run a railroad" (the president is doing his party no favors).
Holman Jenkins, Jr. (WSJ 11-8) says "We've had good luck and bad luck in our presidents. Mostly, though, it wasn't luck at all: it was the ordinary wisdom of each electee to try to give the country what it needed – rather than what he, in his vanity, needed to give it. Well, voters have rendered their verdict."
Or as a little boy once said somewhere, "Don't the Emperor's clothes look funny?"
P.S. Remember the line "Tell Valdimir that after the election I'll have more flexibility"? What applied to 2012 applies no doubt to 2014. He has already waded into the Internet where angels fear to tread. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to guess how this story ends.
PPS: Speaking of free speech and science, a Michigan native has been named winner of the Carl Sagan Medal for his efforts to communicate science and astronomy. Guy Consolmagno says:
"The big lesson everyone should learn from science is not that it's 'proved' one thing or another, but that it is always open to learning more, and changing as it learns."
John O'Sullivan says:
"In short, a public culture that used to be liberal is now 'progressive' – which is something like liberalism minus its commitment to freedom. The U.S. and Britain have long thought of themselves as, above all, free countries. If that identity continues to atrophy, free speech will be the first victim. But it will not be the last."
I mean, from the "Redskins controversy" to a Brownshirt mentality is just one small step for fallen Man. So speak up!
© Curtis Dahlgren
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