Shot In The Dark - Politics and Current Events in Minnesota and Beyond

Friday, August 16, 2002

Nearly Every Day She Cried - Today's the 25th anniversary of the death of Elvis. I shudder to think of the bender Diane, the mom of the bass player from my band in college, is going through today. She was one of those Elvis fans that people used to joke about - one of the corn-fed middle-aged midwestern women who still acted like teenagers chasing Justin Timberlake whenever The King came to the heartland (you know - so unlike all of us rational, sober Springsteen fans!). After Elvis' death (or alleged death), she took every August 16th off from work - depressed, drinking, miserable. Elvis' death has become sort of a midwestern, downmarket white folks' national holiday, in its own Walmart sort of way...

More on Elvis, from Kevin Cherry of National Review - who is quickly becoming my favorite (read: Mitch-like) rock critic.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/16/2002 11:04:24 AM

Case for War, Part II - Victor Davis Hanson on the case for attacking Iraq, and the one against the pacifists.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/16/2002 10:39:22 AM

Credit where Credit is Due - Winston Churchill is one of my heroes. It's hyperbolic to say he saved western civilization - but only a little.

And yet, in 1942, with the Japanese advancing into Bengal (Bangladesh) from Burma, Churchill ordered food stocks in the region to be either moved or destroyed, to prevent their capture. The order caused an immense food panic, triggering vast hording and hyperinflation of food prices - so that even though there was plenty of food, a famine happened. 200,000 may have died.

Was Churchill any less a hero because of this? You can answer that within your own heart.

The point being that in wartime, decisions have to be made, fast. They may or may not be right.

Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft have had to make a lot of fast decisions in the last 11 months (especially in the first days after the attacks, and after our invasion of Afghanistan). Rumsfeld has the benefit of doing his voodoo overseas, among foreigners, many of whom want to kill us.

Ashcroft, on the other hand, has made his decisions in the face of a well-developed civil liberties lobby (of which I'm a proud, conservative member) and a media that is fairly roundly hostile to him. Criticism is forthright and immediate and never, ever muted in the least.

But on the balance - wrinkles and all, Ashcroft's record of doing his job can be called excellent.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/16/2002 10:35:30 AM

Wednesday, August 14, 2002

The Next War - Last year's movies Enemy at the Gates and Black Hawk Down, illustrated the meatgrinder of urban warfare as well as any movies ever made.

Some of our militarily-illiterate media have joined the hand-wringing left in invoking the spectre of bloody urban warfare at the news that Saddam Hussein's strategy for the apparently-upcoming war is to pull back into the cities.

James Robbins analyzes the pros - and many cons - to Hussein of adopting this strategy.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/14/2002 12:25:31 PM

Live in New York - Kevin Cherry, on the road with Bruce Springsteen.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/14/2002 12:14:54 PM

Room 101 - While elements of the left have been baying at the moon about some of Attorney General Ashcroft's more overreaching provisions, who is it that's led the fight to preserve civil liberties in the face of anti-terrorist pressure?

That's right. The Republicans, under Dick Armey. And who's led the defense? Joe Lieberman.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/14/2002 10:43:18 AM

Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Heston - The left's glee at the "ironic" contraction of Alzheimer's by Charleton Heston has been nothing short of disgusting.

How many of the left have nudged each others' ribs and asked "Hey - is the state gonna get his guns?"

Slate, in a revoltingly smug article, thinks so. Volokh disagrees.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/13/2002 09:47:26 PM

The "World Court" Flexes - The Euro-Bureaucrats are urging prospective members of the EU not to sign any agreement that would exempt US peacekeepers from the jurisdiction of the new World Criminal Court.

This is the same EU that negotiated a special exemption from the court for its own troops that went to Afghanistan.

posted by Mitch Berg 8/13/2002 08:27:56 AM

Family Feud - Gore and Lieberman - allegedly the front-runners for the Dem nomination in '02 - are mixing it up in public.

Not that it makes me that hopeful - at this time 24 years ago, Reagan and Bush were doing the same thing, but from the right.

Still, it makes for fun reading.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/13/2002 07:55:25 AM

World Housecleaning - James Lileks on the case for getting rid of Saddam Hussein, followed by the AP with the possibility that Castro could be a short-timer.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/13/2002 07:41:08 AM

Never Mind - Baseball is not striking. Yet.

posted by Mitch Berg 8/13/2002 07:38:32 AM

Monday, August 12, 2002

On Baseball's Suicide- George Will - who admits his role in the Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics - neatly sums up the issues leading to a strike that will very possibly kill Major League Baseball as we know it. Eventually.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/12/2002 11:55:11 AM

What Makes a Republican? - As the Minnesota GOP struggles with the notion of what a Republican is, and whether a DFLer in Republican clothing should be called a "Republican", the Strib notes the "turmoil" moving toward primary time.

In a related note, former GOP state chair and Carlson-liberal Dave Jennings appears to support Roger Moe for governor.

Why is it that the left, and the media, and the "moderate" GOP, wants all Republicans to act like DFLers?

The Resurrection of Larry Klayman - as noted in this blog in the previous few weeks, Larry Klayman - head of Judicial Watch - has seen a rehabilitation of his reputation in the major media.

The reason, of course? During the Clinton Years, when his group relentlessly hounded the administration, he was the persona non grata head of the "vast right wing conspiracy". Today, he's sueing the Bush Administration.

Makes all the differencei n the world.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/12/2002 07:43:50 AM

You Are Thy Neighbor's Watcher - The Homeland Security people, despite massive opposition, are going ahead with "Operation TIPS", the "Rat Out Your Neighbor" program.

There's nothing I can say about it that this guy doesn't say better .

Solipsistic Self-Absorption Alert - Hollywood writer and massive Democrat donor Joe Eszterhas has made a big splash in recent weeks, by his revelations that ye has throat cancer, and that Hollywood's glamorization of smoking has led to the "murder" of "millions".

Nick Gillespie writes on what the Eszterhas Crisis tells us about Hollywood, and the American left.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/12/2002 07:28:11 AM

Women and Guns - The governor of Louisiana has urged women to arm themselves against a serial killer currently roaming the state. The media - at least so far - hasn't called for Mike Foster's head on a plate, yet.

John Lott notes the details. He also shows how women actually benefit more from concealed-carry reform than do men.
posted by Mitch Berg 8/12/2002 07:25:25 AM

Money Changes Everything - Time Magazine on Algore's money woes.

Here's the part I wonder about - the story is:
Two years before the election
about a couple of big donors who, well before the election (see previous) are sitting on the fence.
I wonder if it's so much a "woe" as an attempt to spin Gore as an underdog - a plucky but game outsider going up against the uber-connected President Bush? Perhaps a backhanded attempt to push Campaign Finance Reform?

I've been reading too many political/spy thrillers lately, obviously. Move along, there's nothing to see here...

Numbers - Whoah - today should see Shot In The Dark pass a thousand total individual user visits in its lifespan.

That means - let me do the math in my head - an average of four visits a day!

So while it seems that I've been picking up about 10 a day for the last few months (thanks!), that must have meant that exactly two of you were reading from March through May.

That means I can recycle old posts, right?
posted by Mitch Berg 8/12/2002 07:16:02 AM

Berg's Law of Liberal Iraq Commentary:

In attacking the reasons for war, no liberal commentator is capable of addressing more than one of the justifications at a time; to do so would introduce a context in which their argument can not survive