Hoisting Whoopi

Scott Johnson underlines so well the vacuity of the obsessions of the left in his quote of Mark Steyn's column:

Deflating the Whoopi cushion

Mark Steyn devotes his Sunday Sun-Times column to the pitiful condition of Hollywood's product: "Hollywood's PC perversion stifles storytelling." The column's lowlight is Steyn's report on the DVD "Looney Tunes Golden Collection":

I stopped to buy the third boxed set in the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection." Loved the first two: Daffy, Bugs, Porky, beautifully restored, tons of special features. But, for some reason, this new set begins with a special announcement by Whoopi Goldberg explaining what it is we're not meant to find funny: "Unfortunately at that time racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in ways that may have embarrassed and even hurt people of color, women and ethnic groups," she tells us sternly. "These jokes were wrong then and they're wrong today" -- unlike, say, Whoopi Goldberg's most memorable joke of recent years, the one at that 2004 all-star Democratic Party gala in New York where she compared President Bush to her, um, private parts. There's a gag for the ages.

I don't know what Whoopi's making such a meal about. It's true you don't see many positive images of people of color on "Looney Tunes," but then the images of people of non-color aren't terribly positive either (Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam). Instead, you see positive images of ducks of color, roadrunners of color and tweety birds of color. How weirdly reductive to be so obsessed about something so peripheral to these cartoons that you stick the same damn Whoopi Goldberg health warning on all four DVDs in the box. And don't think about hitting the "Next" button and skipping to the cartoons: You can't; you gotta sit through it.

A Hollywood that's ashamed of one of its few universally acknowledged genuine artistic achievements is hardly likely to come up with any new artistic achievements. As the instant deflation of that Whoopi cushion reminds us, the movies are now so constrained by political correctness the very act of storytelling is itself endangered. That's something slightly more ominous than the feeble limousine liberalism many conservatives blame for the alleged box-office slump.

Doing what is right

Much has been made of the GOP's forcing of a vote on the question of withdrawing from Iraq. It has been called grandstanding. The caterwauling from the Democrats has been echoed by some in the press. But these are not times in which Representative Murtha's histrionics about troop withdrawal can be allowed to just lie there and smell like a rotting fish. Dr. Sanity provides some good summation and insight, as is her wont.

The Hidden Persuaders

Back in the mid-Twentieth century, Vance Packard's book The Hidden Persuaders told of advertising techniques which influence without our knowing they are being used. This practice continues today, but in a larger form. It is used by supposedly responsible journalists every day. Michelle Malkin has captured one such instance in USA Today.

DEMONIZING CONDI

By Michelle Malkin · October 26, 2005 06:41 AM

Check out the photo of Condoleezza Rice that was published by USA Today last week:

Notice anything peculiar about her eyes?

No, Condi isn't possessed; the photo was manipulated.

This news comes courtesy of From The Pen, which found a pre-doctored version of the Associated Press photo on Yahoo! España:

Ask USA Today's Graphics and Photos Managing Editor, Richard Curtis (rcurtis@usatoday.com), what the ^$%#@+! is going on.

October Greenhouse

 

Plumeria

These are the flowers of leis. They have a sculptured, flawless beauty. Their scents are varied, but all are delicious. I find the yellow one to be irresistible, a tropical punch of fruity delight. The white one makes me think of coconut. It all makes for joy to the eye and to the nose.

Brugmannsia

Often this wonderful species flowers heavily concurrent with a full moon. Why this should be I can't imagine, but it is especially delightful to smell its intoxicating fragrance in the brilliant illumination of the moon's light. When we finally got the greenhouse rebuilt and the plants moved safely back in just before the serious onset of last winter's cold, I felt as though my family was secure against all charges. I even felt the need to leave the upper door between the greenhouse and my bedroom wide open so that I could smell that scent if I chanced to wake during the night. What a voluptuous sensation.

White plumeria

 

Plumeria

 

Brugmannsia

 

Brugmannsia

 

Brugmannsia Versicolor

Bush burns up Mars

Reading the Kansas City Star this morning I noticed a story about surprises from Mars. Since this was AP, the story failed to complete the circle of information. The hint was there, so I did a quick Google and found this from the Speculist, confirming my suspicions. Sure enough, Mars is warning. Can that possibly be the fault of vain users of aerosol products or George Bush and his disdain for the Kyoto protocol? Could it be that something common to our solar system is at work here, such as the SUN?

A little more from Speculist:

Getting Warmer

Things are heating up on Mars...literally. The planet is experiencing its own version of global warming. The dry-ice polar caps are diminishing. Paul Hsieh speculates that this must be on account of our failure to sign Kyoto. Wow, when somebody close to me told me that I could vote for Bush if I wanted to, but I would have to accept the fact that everything that happens from now on is my fault...well, I just didn't grasp the cosmic implications.

On the other hand, I can't help but wonder — if two planets so close to each other are both experiencing a rise in surface temperature, isn't it just possible that it might have to do with that nearby star they both orbit? I'm just asking is all. I mean, what if...

What if.

And I'm just asking. But what if global warming is real, but it isn't our fault and there is nothing we can do about it? (With current technology.)

Just asking.

Taking responsiblity

It now appears that the death toll from Hurricane Katrina has swelled to over 400. That is almost exactly the number of deaths from a tragedy in the early 1990s, one that was entirely avoidable. During the 1992 election campaign, Clinton criticized the Bush administration's refusal to admit Haitian refugees who had fled their country by boat. As a result of that campaign strategy, when Clinton won, thousands of Haitians cobbled together rafts and makeshift boats and took to the water. Sadly, many drowned. Clinton never acknowledged his responsibility for their deaths.
This morning at the United Nations George Bush took personal blame for all of the problems associated with Hurricane Katrina.
The media largely ignored the boat people's plight, their fate, and the reasons behind the deaths.
Their feeding frenzy toward President Bush following this act of nature is instructive.

Veneer

Learning that a military rescue helicopter was fired on from the Superdome was a jolt into a sharpened state of perception. Just as water peels veneer from furniture, Katrina has stripped New Orleans of its affectation of easygoing cheer. Before the storm struck we learned that New Orleans was home to a significant number of dependent people. It is among those people that street gangs flourished and were tolerated. Now disaster has laid bare the weakness which has suddenly taken hold. In this way, New Orleans was nurturing its potentially fatal flaws just as Great Britain was doing the same with radical islamofascists. Turning a blind eye to a whole segment of citizens who refuse to become contributors to their chosen society is no different from leaving landmines across the terrain.
Of course there are those among any population who cannot care for themselves. It is not those people of whom I speak. It is those burly thugs who have nothing better to do than to loot, threaten, and rant about having been 'oppressed' whom I call out for their venality. And the city which prided itself on a laissez faire attitude about them has been exposed as a façade for subhumans.

What speed of destruction?

Today the new issue of Preservation magazine arrived. A feature article showcases the urban decay that is Detroit. I was struck by the comparison of the devastation of slow decay compared to the instantaneous effects of hurricane Katrina on the cities in its path. One is a culmination of bad policy. The other is chance.
Both are overwhelming.

Selective sympathy

Reading the continuing coverage of Mother Sheehan and her now-absent vigil I am struck by the pick-and-choose nature of the left's sympathy. Noemie Emery has written a good piece about it this morning. But something else is at work as well. Why, if the Sheehan voice must be heeded, were we not to hear the anguished pleas of Teri Schiavo's family that her life be spared?

lily close-up 

Orienpet lilies 

full-blown lotus 

lotus3 

lotus2 

Mrs. P. W. Slocum lotus 

Jacob Klein 2 

Jacob Klein monarda 

Window to the ancient past

This morning's Kansas City Star carries a story which is doubly intriguing due to its historic significance and also its coincidence with September 11, 2001. Were it not for President Bush's edict which halted all blasting, this treasure trove of fossils and information may well have been obliterated.

June's abundance

Even though good dirt is at a premium, the garden is glorious this morning. Missouri summers are rambunctious with growth and this garden is no exception. The phrase "the controlling hand" is key and the concept is always elusive to me, as I tend to get sentimental about everything which tries to grow. But, pruning does occur from time to time, and a crazed 'prune without mercy' mania can be quite liberating.
Couldn't stand it, had to go outdoors early and take the pictures posted here.
It is a magical sort of start to a day.

Red rocks in garden 

Wrinks  

Clematis alpina 

Lilyleaf ladybells 

Huldine closeup 

Clematis huldine 

Morning doorway 

Clematis integrifolia Blue Boy 

pink and while Asiatic lilies 

poppies and foxgloves