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Some Call It A Bonfire (Or Carnival) Of Classiness...

We call it "Classiness, All Around Us."

Bolton's Successes At The United Nations-

Jay Tea offers up an old Barry Goldwater joke and puts it in the context of the claims Democrats made about UN Ambassador John Bolton:

Last spring, when President Bush nominated John Bolton to be Ambassador to the United Nations, his critics all seemed to be singing from the same songbook. Bolton was too temperamental, too mercurial, too undiplomatic, too confrontational to be our representative to that august body. The only way real progress could be made at the United Nations was if the Senate refused to confirm him.

It looks like they were right: the Senate did, indeed, not confirm Mr. Bolton to be ambassador. And look at what's happened, just in the last couple of weeks:

Jay Tea then outlines four distinct and significant accomplishments of Ambassador Bolton over just the past couple of weeks.

Credibility. Democrats have very little of it these days, after making such flailingly absurd accusations and insinuations about Bolton, Roberts, and so many other of the president's decisions. When you claim the sky is falling, when you cry wolf, people eventually stop taking you seriously.

2.

The Joy Luck Breakfast Blog Club-

The Media Lies blog explains what he'd do if he were a rich man:

.... I'd start a readers club. There would be charter members and sustaining members and we'd all fly somewhere, all expenses paid by me, once a year to spend a day or two (a long weekend?) discussing life and politics face to face over drinks. There would be plenty of time to relax, and each year some of my readers would be featured speakers, expounding on a subject of their choice.

I've often thought the same thing. It would be great to get together with a few of my readers and just chat about anything and everything. One thing I've noticed about my readers is that they are smart. Very smart, actually, with a great variety and quality and breadth and depth of life experience.

3.

Entertainers & Politics-

Dean Esmay finds it hard to get worked up about those little Nazi pop star girls (called "Prussian Blue"), since he has been desensitized by years of pro-totalitarian entertainment:

By all means, let's kick around "Prussian Blue." Let's especially kick around their parents and their producers. These 13 year old twits likely have no idea what they're talking about, but the adults in their lives have no such excuse. But while we're doing it, let's remember all the other cases of covering up for, even romanticizing, hateful totalitarian ideologies. I think we'd be doing more good in the long run that way.

Indeed. There has been so much nonsense spouted from actual popular mainsteam (and thus influential) entertainers over the years that it's curious that this thoroughly irrelevant Prussian Blue duo would even get any ink.

4.

Iraq-

The Confederate Yankee blog points out yet another success story out of Iraq:

139 terrorists killed. 256 terrorists captured. Operation Steel Curtain ends today as a success.

Did I mention that a substantial number of the soldiers fighting for the coaltion were locally-recruited Iraqis?

....

The Iraqi government goes forward, insurgents get killed as things wind down, and we leave Iraq with a democratically elected government.

Yeah, I can get behind that.

And that's the point. People need to remember that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. We're not even to 2006 yet. The progress in Iraq in such a short time frame has been nothing short of miraculous. It would be terrible to cut and run and make all the lives, treasure, time, effort, and other resources go to waste. We're so close. Let's not forsake the mission now, let's not sit down in the 20th mile of the marathon.

5.

FDA Red Tape-

Different River blog explains how the quest for safe medical procedures and drugs may be preventing the kind of rapid progress technology and science could be giving us:

I’m sure most of the FDA’s employees are hard-working scientists, doctors, and bureaucrats who do the best they can with what they’ve got. But these are human beings we’re talking about. In addition to processing millions of pages of material for every new drug application, they have their own lives to live – they have to get their oil changed, mow their lawn, drive their kids’ carpools, take out the garbage, and do all sorts of other things that will not be the impacted in the least if some patient they never heard of dies because some piece of paper is sitting on their desks.

The problem is the fact that Congress and some bureaucrats decided a long time ago that people ought to die if those papers are still on those desks.

It's well-known that it takes many years for a drug to be approved by the FDA. Is this too long? I don't know. But it sure seems like it.

6.

Fact Check-

IRIS blog notes that the media have been stealing/sharing each others' errors:

Set 1:

1. "Egypt, a political trendsetter that accounts for more than half the Arab population" (Oct. 19 Washington Post)

2. "Egypt represents more than half the population of the Arab world" (Nov. 13 New York Times)

3. "Egypt, which accounts for more than half the Arab world's population" (Nov. 13 Washington Post)

The truth is that Egypt represents about a quarter of the population of the Arab World's 22 countries. Anyone familiar with the Middle East, certainly a reporter who spent 12 years in the area, should have noticed these errors immediately. It's analagous to claiming half of Americans live in California. I e-mailed the Times on Nov. 13 and a correction was printed today.

It's amazing how many errors appear in mainstream journalism today. Sloppiness/laziness certainly plays a role. But often the errors drive some kind of agenda, and the corrections are often too little, too late.

7.

Tit-For-Tat-

Ankle Biting Pundits points out that billions spent by President Clinton on inner city job creation ultimately led to the loss of jobs:

If anyone thought that giving inner city governments (almost all of whom are controlled by Democrats) large block grants to "create jobs", with little or no oversight was going to lead to job creation, rather than corruption and local politicos having more "walking around money", then you must have been on crack. These handouts were nothing more than legalized bribery designed to keep the inner city governments, on whom the Democrats rely for support and encouraging turnout, happy.

Bingo. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

8.

Political Jiujitsu-

PoliPundit outlines a political strategy for 2006:

For the last several months, Democrats have done everything they can to bring about a speedy defeat for the United States in Iraq. To this day, they persist.

....

And, in 2006, we can use Democrats’ instinctive defeatism against them. I’m thinking of commercials like this one. Only a strong offensive will allow the GOP to gain the upper hand over the cut-and-run Democrats and their pals in the Lying Liberal Media. Otherwise, I fear for America’s future.

One can't help but think that the defeatist rhetoric from Democrats will eventually catch up to them... when people are actually paying attention again.

9.

Good & Bad Lawyers-

Powerline blog offers a succinct summation of Ramsey Clark and Raed Juhi, noting the highs and lows:

Low would be Ramsey Clark, the lunatic lefty who has trafficked for forty years on the fact that Lyndon Johnson, in what Johnson described as his most appalling mistake, appointed him Attorney General. Clark has now showed up in Baghdad to volunteer his legal assistance to Saddam Hussein. Clark is one of those lefties who never met a dictator he didn't suck up to.

Useful idiots still abound, perhaps more than ever. Then again, maybe not.

10.

The Elites-

Captain's Quarters blog explains the ramifications of the divergence of public opinion between the elites in academia, the media, the military, as well as the general populace, on Iraq:

Until the media starts reporting honestly from Iraq, the divergence will continue to grow as civilians continue to operate from ignorance, while the military operates from a position not only of intelligence but from experience. The real danger presented will be the self-fulfillment of the Starship Troopers (movie, not book) paradigm, where the only people qualified to control the military are the military themselves -- and the press will have created that atmosphere based on their short-sighted adherence to their anti-military and anti-Bush biases.

A great post. Let's hope that the upcoming elections are covered more thoroughly and fairly than the last round, which received almost no coverage whatsoever.

11.

Media Distortions-

Speaking of unfair and unbalanced coverage of events, Ace has a great post on Dana Milbank:

RESOLVED: Partisan leftists like Dana Milbank hate Republicans so much that they'd rather see America lose a war than Republicans win a midterm election.

And this is starting to sink in with Americans. People realize that the criticisms from the left have become more about taking down the GOP than about what's in the best interests of America. It's just a shame that media hacks like Dana Milbank still wield so much power and influence in this country.

12.

Fleeing Ohio-

BizzyBlog notes that Ohio's cities are actually losing population, and explains why:

When people “vote with their feet,” they do so even though it’s a time-consuming and costly process. Human inertia being what it is, most people want to stay where they are unless there are compelling reasons to go elsewhere. It’s clear that in the past 40 years, hordes of individuals and families have decided that Cincinnati’s poor schools, high crime, and high taxes have gone beyond the level of endurance (and similar hordes have decided not to move in for the same reasons).

And guess where those folks are moving? Mostly to low tax, pro-growth havens in the South and Southwest.

13.

China's Environmental Fallout-

Publius Pundit explains the political ramifications of China's recent environmental disaster:

The big but unsurprising news out of China is that — golly gee! — the government tried to cover up the huge chemical spill in the Songhua River that has closed down water supplies for nearly four million people in the city of Harbin.

....

The problem for the government is that its unaccountable top-down power structure inherently prevents it from reforming quick enough to deal with issues; meanwhile, problems continue to be covered up by local officials who take bribes in exchange for their silence. It’s important to realize that this is more than an isolated event, and even more than a trend dating back to past the SARS coverup. This corruption is an epidemic that is quickly leading to the discrediting of the communist government in the eyes of the Chinese people themselves. What happens when 2010 rolls around?

Hopefully, China will embrace more than just the *ostensibly* market economy. Hopefully they'll begin to embrace human rights, democracy, and political freedom as well.

This country, China, recall, was not included in the now-infamous Kyoto agreement. Hmm, yeah.

14.

French Delusion-

Clive Davis notes that French anti-Americanism is nothing new, and Benjamin Franklin even had to deal with it:

...I can't resist highlighting Berman's brief account of the theories of Buffon, 18th century godfather of anti-Americanism:

Buffon postulated that, in the New World, the Biblical flood had taken place much later than in the Old (which, by the way, is a notion that lingers on in Tocqueville, though he gives the deluvianism a positive spin). And, because the flood had taken place not so long ago, the New World was still a bit soggy. Animals and plants were feebler and less fully developed than in Europe. Trees were stunted. Dogs did not bark. Humans were hermaphroditically less sexual. Men's breasts lactated... All of nature degenerated in the disgusting sogginess, and people who came from Europe were bound to degenerate, as well.

So now you see where modern authors like Thierry Meyssan get their spiritual nourishment.

And how did Benjamin Franklin respond? In his characteristically no-nonsense style:

Franklin, at a dinner in Paris, asked all the American men to stand up, and likewise all the French men, in order to demonstrate that Americans were taller, not shorter, than the French--which was a devastating refutation of the naturalist theory of biological degeneration, and a genial display of American wit, to boot.

Benjamin Franklin is known as America's greatest diplomat... ever. Can you imagine how today's American media would frame Franklin's actions? Likely something like: "Franklin Wrecklessly Ruins Trans-Atlantic Ties."

15.

Free Tookie-

GOP Vixen wonders whether Tookie Williams, the founder of the infamous "Crips" gang which ravaged generations of urban America (and also led directly to the creation of the "Bloods"), is manipulating people:

After reading these and other Tookie writings -- and reading between lines -- it leaves little doubt that he's used the same skills of manipulation that made him a successful gang leader to rally liberal activists to his cause.

Duh. The guy may be one of America's worst criminals ever, but he's not an idiot. And he knew what it would take to get a "FREE MUMIA" type of campaign on his behalf.

Also, don't forget to check out all the old Trivia Tidbits Of the Day, the Reform Thursday series, the Quotational Therapy sessions, the latest Pundit Roundtable, and the Wednesday Caption Contest (entries are due each Tuesday at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time).

Last Week's Classiness Certification from WILLisms.com:

*November 8, 2005.

WILLisms.com offers a classiness roundup as a bi-weekly feature, every other Tuesday, with 10 blog posts deemed classy. The criteria for submissions: incisive original analysis, quirky topics nobody else (especially the mainstream media) is covering, fantastic graphics, or other posts that took a lot of work. We love to spread the word on upcoming blogs, being that WILLisms.com also fits that description. If you would like to nominate a post on your blog or another blog for inclusion, email us at WILLisms@gmail.com. Write "Classy Nomination" in the subject. You can also utilize this page to make your submissions. The deadline is every other Monday at 11:59 PM Central Time.

Classy.

Posted by Will Franklin · 29 November 2005 12:35 PM

Comments

Posted by: Tom Blumer at November 29, 2005 01:10 PM

Posted by: Will Franklin at November 29, 2005 01:24 PM

Posted by: Tom Blumer at November 29, 2005 04:44 PM

Posted by: Jay Tea at November 29, 2005 05:40 PM

Posted by: Steve at November 30, 2005 09:39 AM

Posted by: Rob B. at November 30, 2005 04:41 PM