June 20, 2004
NEWS BRIEFLETS
• Ken Summers on the finest man he ever knew. Recommended.
• He voted for it, and now he's against it. Discussing new qualifying rules, Formula One team boss David Richards pulls a John Kerry: "The team boss told a news conference at the US Grand Prix on Friday that, despite voting for a change scheduled for introduction next month, he did not believe it was the right thing to do."
• The BBC is "virtually conducting its own anti-American and anti-Israeli foreign policy", writes Tom Gross. It sure is. (Via OmbudsGod.)
• Bill Clinton's autobiography doesn't impress The New York Times. The Guardian reports that Clinton suffered childhood Mooreism: "He says he was a 'fat band boy' at his junior high school and painfully recounts how one Easter he was the only child not to be successful on an egg hunt. He was simply too fat to outrun other children." And from Mark Steyn: "The Clintons' Democratic Party was great for the Clintons but disastrous for the Democratic Party: during the 1990s, they lost the House and the Senate and a ton of governorships and state legislatures, and eventually, with nothing else left to lose, they lost the presidency. Clinton's heat left the party so parched for talent they had no successful governors to run for president and were forced to turn to a stiff hack weathervane senator."
• Nothing online about it yet, but Bali bomb survivor Jason McCartney was apparently attacked yesterday by a snake -- a very large snake -- at a Canberra zoo. The angry creature clamped McCartney’s head. Aside from a few puncture wounds, McCartney is okay.
• The Rump Parliament comments thread is destined to one day take its place in the comments thread hall of fame.
• Iowahawk Labs is beta-testing its new Andrew Sullivan MemeCrawler 1.0.
• "I eat McDonalds all the time," writes Sam Ward, "and I resemble a whiter, taller Adonis. Go look at my webpage if you don't believe me."
• Where were you when ... ? Sheila O’Malley tells all.
Posted by Tim Blair at June 20, 2004 05:52 PMI don't eat McDonalds...but I do eat a lot of KFC, which tends to be even fattier. But considering I'm 182 cm, and under 70 kg, I think I'm doing ok.
Posted by: Quentin George at June 20, 2004 at 10:41 PMTwo mentions in one post? I am truly humbled, sir.
Posted by: Ken Summers, Perversion Catalyst at June 21, 2004 at 12:57 AMI find it VERY amusing that the New York Times doesn't like Clinton's book.
After all those years of trying to protect his image, they are now just figuring out that there was nothing behind the face?
I'll never forget the video footage of President Clinton at Secretary Ron Brown's funeral (who's plane crashed in Yugoslavia). He was laughing and carrying on at the funeral until he turned and saw a camera filming him. He looked dead at the camera, looked down. Immediately he changed his expression, stuck his bottom lip out and pretended to look deeply affected.
It was appalling. That one 5 second shot of video was all I ever needed to know about the man.
Posted by: Easycure at June 21, 2004 at 01:10 AMThe video can be seen here.
http://www.preventtruthdecay.com/mainmiscfuneral.htm
Posted by: Easycure at June 21, 2004 at 01:13 AMEasycure,
I think panning Bubba's book is a cheap and easy 'Sista Souljah' move on the part of the Times to defend itself against charges of syncophantism.
It doesn't matter what the Times says...People will buy or not buy the book according to their previous prejudices.
Most who buy the book will skim through it at best and leave it out at cocktail parties to impress their like-minded friends.
Meanwhile, the Times will continue to defend the important (non-writing) short comings of Clinton while ripping Bush.
If I like someone, I can still say, "He's too damn short!" to distance myself from accusations of positively idolizing the guy.
Posted by: JDB at June 21, 2004 at 03:02 AMJDB:
Your 'Too Damn Short' theory on this is pretty insightful. Rings true.
Posted by: CurrencyLad at June 21, 2004 at 03:16 AM
I never eat McDonalds, and I'm fat. How will I ever be able to sue those bastards?
Andrew: I would suggest buying a coffee from them and spilling it on your donger, or alternatively, you could throw a rock through their window and cut yourself on the glass. See, you can do anything if you put your mind to it.
Posted by: yobbo at June 21, 2004 at 03:54 AMNoooo, picking up a rock and throwing it is way too much like a physical exercise and thus bound to undermine Andrew's future lawsuit. The coffee idea sounds much more worthwhile.
Posted by: PW at June 21, 2004 at 04:10 AMIf you're going to go the coffee route then you'd better heat it up yourself first. Ever since that old lady in Nevada beat you to it, it's been warmish -- at best.
Posted by: Bruce Rheinstein at June 21, 2004 at 04:19 AMMan attacked by snake ? That would be at a Steve Irwin show, no ?
Posted by: jafa at June 21, 2004 at 06:37 AMShould we Google Bomb Clinton's 'biography' as Pretentious Blather?
Posted by: Tomorrowist at June 21, 2004 at 09:06 AMGet a copy of John Brignell's latest book "The epidemiologists, Have they got scare for you" from www.numberwatch.co.uk
I have reviewed it and plenty of ammo to fire at the food faddists, amongst other things.
Review on Henry Thornton and I stuffed up on the holocaust - its foot and mouth not mad cow
Posted by: Louis at June 21, 2004 at 09:36 AMWith apologies (and a tip o' the hat) to Iowahawk, here's Sullivan:
Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays:
This is a disaster; it's all over. How are they going to explain this? There's some serious questions here.
Tuesdays-Thursdays-Saturdays:
This is good news. It looks like things will work out alright. We can still do this.
Okay, Andrew, I know your blow is a stream of conscious "thinking" out loud site; but the sturm und drang is getting a little wearisome. Walter Lippmann you ain't.
SMG
Posted by: SteveMG at June 21, 2004 at 09:59 AMAbove:
Blog not blow.
(ahem)
Yeah, yeah. I know. Freud and all that. A complete typo on my part.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Speaking of Clinton.
SMG
Posted by: SteveMG at June 21, 2004 at 10:01 AMThat's a marvelous typo, SteveMG. "w" isn't anywhere near "g" on a qwerty keyboard, yet the two words are nearly interchangable in this context.
Posted by: Dan at June 21, 2004 at 11:39 AM(I upgraded the MT-Blacklist script. Everything seems to be working fine.)
Posted by: Andrea Harris at June 21, 2004 at 02:37 PMKen Summers sounds like a lucky bloke - my dad is a c*nt.
Posted by: Pig Head Sucker at June 21, 2004 at 02:48 PMThe NYT book review was done by a merciless bitch that is known for absolute honesty and is widely respected. She has a Japanese name that I don't remember at the moment.
Posted by: Stacy at June 22, 2004 at 01:29 AMDuh, I followed the link. Her name is Michiko Kakutani.
Posted by: Stacy at June 22, 2004 at 01:30 AM