URLs du Jour

2017-01-10

A wealth of interesting things out there:

  • Kevin D. Williamson asks the musical question: "When Do Deficits Matter?" According to NYT writer/weathervane Paul Krugman, it's…

    Like homelessness and military casualties, U.S. government deficits are an issue that bleep into visibility on the progressive radar almost exclusively during Republican presidencies. On October 23, 2016, Professor Krugman wrote that the “debt scolds should be ignored,” and that Hillary Rodham Clinton, then presumed to be the next president, should engage in “years of deficit-financed infrastructure spending, if she can.” A grand total of 78 days later, Professor Krugman declared, “Deficits matter again.”

    As the article makes clear, Krugman was once a respectable economist. These days, his economics takes a back seat to politics.

  • Wondering why America hates Hollywood, or should? Fortunately, there's Paul Mirengoff to tell us "Why America Hates Hollywood, or Should". Concentrating on Meryl Streep's widely noted speech at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony:

    […] David French points out that during the same event in which Streep condemned Trump, she applauded a man who did something far worse. She, and most of the other assembled Hollywood worthies, applauded Roman Polanski who received a Golden Globe award.

    Anyone need reminding why that's problematic should click over. Unlike the late Nat Hentoff, Meryl tailors her condemnations and celebrations to fit in with those of her tribe.

    I can't help but think, however, that in all probability Linda from The Deer Hunter would have been a Trump voter last year.

  • Meanwhile, at least some folks think the Golden Globes didn’t bash Trump enough.

    When will Hollywood stop doubling down on its bubble? An entertainer’s job is to entertain. A steady diet of smug lectures, or bitterly partisan jokes, does neither — certainly not for the average Joe or Jane looking for an evening of escape.

    I, for one, welcome next few years of unremitting partisan rancor from the entertainment/news media! Daily Show-style political attacks coming to a sitcom near you! Newspaper restaurant reviews will rate based on owners' political contributions! Miss Sloane II: You Will Be Made to Care! Bring! It! On!

  • Continuing in the Hollywood vein… We hear all the time about one big tech company or another meekly giving in to the demands of one totalitarian government or another. So it's nice to hear about one website saying "Shove it." And that's the Internet Movie Database.

    Back in September, the state of California passed a new law that banned sites that offer paid subscriptions, and allow people to post resumes, from publishing individuals' ages. It's a law that has the potential to affect many sites, but it is the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) that hit the headlines.

    [...]

    A full week into 2017, IMDb has not only chosen to ignore the new law, but has also filed a lawsuit in a bid to stop California from implementing Assembly Bill No. 1687. The reason? IMDb believes that the law is a violation of the First Amendment and it says the state has "chosen instead to chill free speech and to undermine access to factual information of public interest" rather than trying to tackle age-discrimination in a more meaningful way.

    Granted, it's just California. But still, a welcome move. Where does Meryl Streep stand on this?

  • Ian Tuttle notes: "Planned Parenthood Doesn’t Need Our Taxes". Ian's not a fan:

    Planned Parenthood is an industrial-scale baby abattoir responsible for more than 300,000 American deaths annually and a degradation of human dignity on the order of Josef Mengele, and the urgent issue of the day is whether it should be privately or publicly funded. Democrats are for the latter. Republicans are of the more modest opinion that if you want to slaughter your child in utero, you should have to pay for it yourself. That is what would happen if congressional Republicans succeed in defunding Planned Parenthood, which they currently plan to do as part of the process of dismantling President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

    Government funding of PP is a symbol, one that the pro-abortion crowd would desperately like to keep in place.

  • Hey, kids, what time is it? According to Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post, "It’s time to retire the tainted term ‘fake news’".

    Executive summary: it was fine when we were calling out fake news sites. But then those icky conservatives starting calling us out for our errors and biases using the term. Hence, "tainted".

  • Concord Monitor reporter David Brooks writes an obituary for a Wikipedia article: "chess-related deaths". It's a surprisingly violence-inducing game, and it makes one wonder why Meryl Streep hasn't called for its prohibition.

  • In response to this:

    This:

    Heh!


Last Modified 2019-01-06 6:29 AM EDT