Sarah Palin Sues The New York Times, Because Enough Is Enough Is Enough Is Enough

The Times repeated, once again, the clearly proven lie that Governor Palin's exercise of free speech resulted in the horrific mass shooting in Arizona that left Congresswoman Gabby Gifford terribly injured, and eleven dead.

A few hours later, they kinda-sorta-maybe retracted the assertion, while pointedly not naming Mrs. Palin as the target of their earlier viciousness, and issuing no apology.

Yesterday, she struck back. A copy of the lawsuit filed may be found here.

OS wishes her every good fortune, and hopes that she gets her day in court, gets her verdict, and gets a jury that sends a painful painful (as in sell bunches of real estate, fire bunches of responsible execs, bleed cash for years paying it all off) judgement against these horrible, horrible people.

Apparently, Even The YewNorkTimez Has Had Its Fill Of Himself

For those of us, like OS, old enough to remember the dark days of the Nixon years, one of the darkest was the day it was disclosed that Mr. Nixon maintained an 'enemies list', a list of people who he and his felt had crossed him, made life miserable, opposed him, or even expressed opinions that contradicted his. The New York Times bellowed its disapproval, its righteous indignation, that such a thing could possibly exist, etc. etc. WorldWithoutEndAmen.

Amongst certain of the literati, it even became a badge of honor to have been named on the Nixon Enemies List, sort of like getting your Leftist props, don't-cha-know. OS remembers Gore Vidal getting a lot of mileage on the literary circuit thereby.

And, the Times, hypocritical and corrupt as it was and is, was correct to raise unshirted perdition on the matter, because it cut at the heart of civilized life, and was a portent of a totalitarian state.


Now, we have Barack Hussein Obama, WinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize, President of the United States, in the White House, calling in drone strikes on his own personal list of terrorists.

It has been clear for years that the Obama administration believes the shadow war on terrorism gives it the power to choose targets for assassination, including Americans, without any oversight. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed who was actually making the final decision on the biggest killings and drone strikes: President Obama himself. And that is very troubling. 

Well, yes, it is troubling, gentlemen. You're just now catching on?

It is too easy to say that this is a natural power of a commander in chief. The United States cannot be in a perpetual war on terror that allows lethal force against anyone, anywhere, for any perceived threat. That power is too great, and too easily abused, as those who lived through the George W. Bush administration will remember. 

Mr. Obama, who campaigned against some of those abuses in 2008, should remember. But the Times article, written by Jo Becker and Scott Shane, depicts him as personally choosing every target, approving every major drone strike in Yemen and Somalia and the riskiest ones in Pakistan, assisted only by his own aides and a group of national security operatives. Mr. Obama relies primarily on his counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan.

To his credit, Mr. Obama believes he should take moral responsibility for these decisions, and he has read the just-war theories of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. 

 Damn. That last bit of information should make us all feel better, right? This is what Lyndon Johnson was doing in the Oval Office during the Vietnam war, personally calling in and choosing airstrike targets--this little bridge here, that village there. This one lives, this one dies, this pilot gets to get shot down, this one goes home--all on the whim of Lyndon's mercurical moods.

Of course, right around the corner from this sort of thing (just down that slippery slope over yonder) lie the Salvadoran death squads, the Disappeared of Argentina, the Chinese and Vietnamese 're-education' camps. 

We are closer to that corner and slope than ever.

OS is happy discover that the editors of the YewNorkTimez have finally located their bollocks, if ever so tentatively. What he truly awaits is the editorial that indicates they have located their consciences as well, the one that states:

It is incumbent upon the editorial staff of a large urban paper, when lending its support to a Presidential candidate and regime, to actually investigate what manner of man they intend to endorse. In the case of Barack Obama, we failed in our duty, so carried away were we with his charisma, his skin color, and our unshakeable faith in the politics of The Left. This man is unfit for office, and whatever ideological reservations we may have concerning Mr. Romney, we have had enough experience with him over the years to know that he is a sober adult possessed of a conscience. The same cannot be said of the current occupant of the Oval Office, and we urge his removal via the electoral process this November.

OS will not be holding his breath waiting for such an editorial.

David Brooks' Grasp Of Our Problems, And Boneheaded Quasi-Mussolini Proposed Solution

The Yew Nork Times features David Brooks as one of its columnists. Guess it gives the editorial staff a warm feeling to think they've even made a place on their pages for a Bushy neo-con.

A great essay, until the last paragraph, in which one understands why OS cannot abide neo-conservatives.

If Romney is elected, clowns like Brooks are back in the driver's seat.  Heaven help us.

Culture/Economy, Economy/Culture: NYT Comments On Unemployment Rate For NYC's Young Black Male Population

It's all so politely phrased, but it sets OS's hair on fire to read it.

The report, written by Michelle Holder, a labor market analyst with the Community Service Society, noted that during the recession that began in December 2007, working-age black men suffered an especially large increase of unemployment. The jobless rate for that group jumped to 17.9 percent in 2009 from 9 percent in 2006. Among young men of all races, age 16 to 24, the overall jobless rate rose to 24.6 percent during the recession.

The report, entitled “Unemployment in New York City During the Recession and Early Recovery,” noted that the jobless rate for Hispanic men, age 16 to 24, rose to 24.7 percent during the recession, while their labor force participation rate was 42 percent. For all men age 16 to 24 in New York City, the jobless rate was 22.4 percent during the period studied, while the labor force participation rate was 42 percent. According to the report, women with less than a high school diploma had the lowest labor force participation rate of any group: 28 percent.

The group with the lowest jobless rate during the recession and the early part of the recovery — the recession ended in June 2009 — was Asian women, age 55 to 64. Their unemployment rate in 2009 was 4.5 percent, the report found.

The crucial bit for OS is that 'participation rate'. If 42 percent are 'participating', i.e. employed or actively in the system seeking employment, then 58 percent are off the radar. They don't have enough hope or belief in the future to participate in the above-ground economy or culture.

Contrast with the Asian women 55-64 stat.

This is not a racist rant, not at all. The difference in culture, expectations, family dynamics, etc. impact these numbers so strongly. It isn't that people with black skin or hispanic heritage are inherently incapable--but something happened along the way, and amongst their young men, the level of belief in the future has faded away.

So, where are they? Where do they go? What do they do? What does the future look like for them?

What should we be doing about this? Whatever we've done to date hasn't worked, so please--no more rants from the Left about how we should just throw more money in the direction of the NEA and Urban League.

The Spin Continues: Tortured Logic Award Of The Day

Well, actually, OldSouth didn't have sufficient imagination to think of this line of spin when he predicted the spin would begin in earnest.

This from an op-ed in today's YewNorkTimes:

Here it comes, wait for it!

“The best possible result for Obama politically is for the Republicans to gain control of both houses,” said Douglas E. Schoen, a Democratic pollster and strategist who helped President Bill Clinton recover from his own midterm Congressional defeat in 1994 to win re-election two years later. “That’s what Obama should want.”

Huh? To quote Jeff Foxworthy: 'Ya'll, I just can't make this stuff up!"

The whole op-ed is about the details of how Himself can maneuver and triangulate and foil those Weazewy Wepubwikans and get Himself re-elected in 2012. After all, that's the point, the goal of life, isn't it--to seize and maintain power?

The op-ed is so enlightening, because it betrays a cast of mind, a view of the world amongst our elites. They view this country, this culture, as some sort of backdrop against which they can play out their personal dramas, their competitions, their ambitions. It's our job to maintain the field, pay for the tickets, and cheer them from the stands.

But, what about us! Our families, our children, our schools, our towns, our businesses, our lives?

And OS isn't just railing at Democrat politicians and their journalistic hoes at places like the YewNorkTimes. The GOP has been just as guilty, as have the universities, banks, insurers, etc. etc. etc.

What about us?

What To Say To Billy-Bob? Poverty Rate Climbs, And Keeps Climbing

OldSouth has a good friend, who shall be called Billy-Bob. A good Southern name for a truly decent Southern Gentleman.

OS, for reasons that can never be disclosed here, owes so much of the happiness of his family to Billy-Bob's generosity of spirit. BB made some crucial phone calls a few years back, and changed history in a positive direction for this family. He never had to, and OS didn't even know how crucial those phone calls would be at the time. BB just did it, 'cuz he's a generous soul, and knew it needed to be done. He's one of those kinds of people.

BB is a convicted, passionate, Obama-loving liberal. He also has made some lifestyle choices that OS would not have made. BB's the reason OS scratches his head and wonders about people, and tries not to paint private people with whom he agrees or disagrees with too broad a brush. BB cuts across all expectations and breaks all the rules. And he's one of the most decent people OS has ever had the honor of knowing.


So, BB posts this link on his Facebook page.

From BB's favorite newspaper, the Yew Nork Times:

Forty-four million people in the United States, or one in seven residents, lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 4 million from the year before, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

The poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent — the highest level since 1994 — from 13.2 percent in 2008. The rise was steepest for children, with one in five residents under 18 living below the official poverty line, the bureau said.

The report provides the most detailed picture yet of the impact of the recession and unemployment on incomes, especially at the bottom of the scale. It also suggested that the temporary increases in benefits in aid provided in last year’s stimulus bill eased the burdens on millions of families.

Those temporary increases are just that, and that money will run out. Congress is not going to authorize another hundreds of non-existent billions in 'emergency spending' to keep welfare benefits and food stamps going indefinitely. OS had to explain to a visitor from overseas last week that one in about seven people in this country are on some sort of public assistance.

It's scandalous, previously unimaginable.

How does OS suggest to BB that the very Democrat people and policies he has so adored for so long have helped create the terrible poverty he now grieves?

The Right, for its part, has really skewed the discussion for years, focusing on a small set of hot-button social issues, and ignoring the obvious overwhelming moral failure of a government that has pushed so many people over the cliff into poverty and despair.

How does OS explain to the Religious Right that, while they were beating their breasts over the social/moral issue of the year (pick one, they have a long list), the very Republican politicians they had passionately supported were systematically destroying the future of their children and grandchildren. Now that's truly a moral issue!

A lot of folks, especially in the Religious Right, won't even speak to BB, because of his way of life. They just assume he's hell-bound, and the sooner the better. BB won't talk to anyone from the Right--they've gone out of their way to be utterly horrible to him. Why should he?

OS fears we are approaching a point where we run out of credible, sane voices in the public square, in every corner of the culture.

We are in profound need of grownups who can understand math, and understand that the Ten Commandments and Our Lord's summary of the law and prophets are not suggestions, nor are they weapons for beating people we don't approve of into submission. He never employed them that way, and neither should we. They are, even for the non-religious, a path to sanity.

And, that in our generation, the bits about not stealing, coveting, murdering, and bearing false witness deserve extra attention.

For the sake of OS and his family, as well as BB and his.

Note To The Local School Board

If some sweet-talking banker from J.P. Morgan, or one o' dem' udder NooohYork banks comes callin' with some sweet-sounding scheme to save us a bunch-a-money:

Tell him 'Hell-No!', and call the cops.

The Denver School board didn't, and they are in a mess.

From the New York Times Business section:

Since it struck the deal, the school system has paid $115 million in interest and other fees, at least $25 million more than it originally anticipated.

To avoid mounting expenses, the Denver schools are looking to renegotiate the deal. But to unwind it all, the schools would have to pay the banks $81 million in termination fees, or about 19 percent of its $420 million payroll.

James Corum Asks The Relevant Question: Why Do Our Soldiers' Lives Matter So Little To Our Elites?

James Corum is a sober, thoughtful voice in the ongoing debate about peace and war, and how each should be waged.

OS enjoys reading his thoughts, and hopes his readers will take a few moments to ponder them as well.

This time, he discusses the massive WikiLeaks scandal, abetted by the Yew Nork Times.

He asks the cogent question:

Take a hypothetical situation. In 1943 some British and American military intelligence personnel decided that the public had a right to know how the war was really going. They gave the documents to the New York Times and Guardian, who published them in accordance with “the public’s right to know”. Along with the routine reports, the media published thousands of pages of low level intelligence documents including documents that mentioned army staff meetings. The media blacked out the names of the sources and some details – but a clever enemy could quickly figure out which meetings had been compromised and who had likely compromised them. They would also have likely figured out which information had come from signals intercepts – and would then quickly change their procedures and codes to shut off intelligence to the Allies. As a result of the compromise, many Allied soldiers would likely die.

What would be the response of the British and US governments to such a leak of classified information?

And, more to the point, he poses a sharper question at the end

[W]hy were soldiers lives considered valuable in 1943 and not even considered at all by the political and media elites in 2010? The answer is that the liberal elites who think leaking documents is worthy of praise appear to have no regard at all for the lives of the soldiers they send to war, if such lives get in the way of their momentary ego gratification. Our elites are making it very clear that their moment of fame, of self-righteous glory, and their moral posturing far outweigh the lives of our soldiers.

It's a question that goes to the heart of our culture, and needs to be addressed head-on.

Now, by contrast, OS is on a business trip in Northern Kentucky this week. The local paper is covering the funeral of a local young man killed in service of his country. Ambushed in Afghanistan, leaving behind a widow and three children. The accounts are, well, heartbreaking.

Carroll County and neighboring county residents are encouraged to attend a community memorial service on Friday, July 30, to “honor the life of Staff Sgt. Chris Stout.” The announcement was made on Monday, July 26, by Carroll County Judge-Executive Harold “Shorty” Tomlinson.

Stout was among three soldiers killed on July 13 when their unit came under attack by insurgents in Kandahar City, Afghanistan. Stout was assigned to 1st Batallion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, N.C. He served much of his career as a rigger with the 782nd Main Support Battalion and other quartermaster units on Fort Bragg. It was during this time that he sang with the 82nd All American Army chorus. Stout reclassed to become a chaplain’s assistant in September 2006.

“This is a service not only for the people of our Carroll County community,” Tomlinson said, “but for neighboring communities as well. We need to make sure our younger generation realizes that there is a real cost for the freedoms we enjoy.”

Plans were still incomplete at press time regarding who would be the speakers and other active participants in the service, Tomlinson said.

Stout grew up in the Worthville community and attended Carroll and Owen county schools. He resided in Fayetteville, N.C., with his wife Misty and daughters Audreanna and Kristen. His oldest daughter Jacqueline resides in Bedford, Ky. Stout is the first chaplain’s assistant killed in action since 1970 during the Vietnam War.

It is maddening to see the disconnect between the outpouring of sympathy for this fine young man, and the cynicism of the elites whose reckless behaviour leads to these tragedies. Not just the loss of a soldier's life, but the lives forever altered by his death. It matters not a whit to the soulless editors seeking that next Pulitzer by climbing over the corpses they create.

If we are going to set this culture back on track, we must begin to speak with clarity, repeatedly and loudly, that this sort of travesty is not acceptable.

Condolences to the family and friends of Sgt. Stout.

May an incurable pox afflict the editorial staff of the New York Times.

Wry Humor Kudos: NYTimes 'Little Wayne' Update

Let's hear a cheer (of a sort...) for entreprenurial ambition.

(and he had those tats done before he went to jail...)

An Interesting, If Chilling, Exchange Of Views: David Leonhardt In The New York Time

Let it never be said that OS doesn't read a variety of opinion during the course of a week. After all, this project is much about the education of the author, attempting to publicly make sense of what appears to be a nonsensical period of history.

So, in today's Yew Nork Times, we have this offering by David Leonhardt.

He has an interesting premise, that perhaps it wasn't the inflation of the 20's that paved the way for Hitler's rise to power in the early '30's, but rather the deflation that followed the 1929 crash. He debates a bit with another contributor, all very civil and informative. Then he concludes with this bit of insight:

Last year, I wrote a column pointing out that Germany was one of the few countries in the 1930s to try aggressive economic stimulus — and, as a result, escaped the Great Depression faster than other countries. Opponents of stimulus, on blogs and talk radio, then cited that column to suggest that Keynesian was a cousin of Nazism.

Well, that conclusion is a bit simplistic. Keynes was not even a second-cousin-twice-removed to a neo-Nazi. Puhhleeeeze!

At the same time, Leonhardt glosses over a chilling fact: Hitler's 'stimulus' did work, and made him a hero to 'der volk' in the late 1930's. He made the trains run on time, 'tis true. But he did it by building a massive war machine that was obviously designed for aggressive ends. How many hundreds of Stuka dive bombers and Panzaer divisions does one need to defend der Vaterland, after all? And as he pumped the economy up, civil liberties (and niceties like elections, free press, freedom of religion, etc.) went away, replaced by a blatantly pagan worship of the state and der Fuhrer. By April 1945, it could be stated with assurance that much too high a price had been paid for the Great Stimulus of the 1930's.

And then, there's that little detail of those trains that ran on time, and where they ran, and the millions of people packed upon them that were transported to their gruesome deaths.

All to emphasize, once again, the OS mantra about culture and economy. A lot more than a deflation or inflation allowed this monster to come to power and push the world over the cliff. By the time the little guy with the mustache, lunatic ideas, and ecstatic speech-making ability showed up, Germany was a disaster waiting to happen, a once-great culture in severe disarray, willing to listen to anyone who would tell them what they wished to hear whilst lining their pockets.

Student Debt: The First Subject That Should Be Mastered Is Math

A thoughtful article in the New York Times from late last month bears reading, especially by parents and college-bound children--hopefully they read it together and talk it over.


It attempts to describe the Rube-Goldberg student loan system, and how badly it seems to serve everyone. And as always, it eventually leaves the taxpayer on the hook, via Sallie Mae.

It's a long article, but just a couple of observations are in order.

To be eighteen and headed off to university is to, by definition, be an optimist. So many don't even make it over the threshold to the local state u, much less to anything prestigious. That acceptance letter is a pure shot of adrenalin, followed by a chaser of 'the world is your oyster, kid'. And, why not? It took a lot of effort to get that letter to arrive, and that piece of paper is a tangible sign of success.

To be eighteen and headed off to university is to, by definition, be naive. It is that naivete that makes a young person teachable, able to absorb new ideas from new people.

It's a strange age: They have reached legal majority, but by no means can they be considered mature adults. They live in never-never land, having to make adult decisions, but often not able to understand the consequences of the same. They still need some guidance, and someone to watch their backs, even if they don't think it necessary. (Can you surmise OS is the parent of an eighteen-year-old?)

One thing that a kid just turned eighteen cannot be expected to understand is bankruptcy law. There are some real subtleties inherent, and one of them is--You can't bankrupt out of student loan debt under the US federal bankruptcy code. No matter what befalls you in the future; fire, flood, health, illness, wealth or poverty, you are on the hook to repay it all. It's tough to get an eighteen-year-old to imagine life at thirty, saddled with 80k of debt. He can't imagine life at thirty, period. Twelve years ago, he was entering the first grade.


The Times article traces the travails of one student, overwhelmed by debt, how she got there, and how long it will take to climb out of it. As so often happens, the most relevant bit of the story is buried toward the end.

She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It’s the highest salary she’s earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month. Rent runs $750, and the full monthly payments on her student loans would be about $700 if they weren’t being deferred, which would not leave a lot left over.

100k in debt, for a B.A. 'interdisciplinary degree in religious and women’s studies.'

What!?!?!?!?!?!!!

Of course she's working at a job that a bright high-school graduate could do, because there is no job market for graduates in religious and women's studies, unless it's perhaps followed by a M.Div from a prestigious seminary or div school, like Duke or Yale.(And that's likely another load of debt.) Even at that, the jobs awaiting this person are not highly paid. Church staff people do important work, but their activities do not create economic return, do not create wealth that can flow back to them in the form of increased compensation. The glass ceiling is very low under every steeple.

This is not to add insult to injury on the young lady, but to offer her story as a cautionary tale. Mom and Dad, and Junior especially--think these things through, as unemotionally as possible. You are making huge decisions, choose as wisely as you can.

Classical Education: Three Reviews And A Strong Advocacy

A quick referral to a most interesting article, in the Yew Nork Times, of all places, saying kind words about old-fashioned Classical Education.

Someone one at the Political Correctness desk must have been on his coke break when this came across the desk. It's dangerous stuff, advocating that kids be able to operate in classical languages, think coherently, and express themselves clearly.

Damn! This sort of stuff would put the teachers unions out of business, and then where would we be, I ask you?

Three books reviewed here, and OS plans to order up at least one of them.

This blog attempts to stay on focus, really, even if the author is a bit ADD.

That despicable advisor to the more despicable Bill Clinton kept hammering at his client in the 1992 campaign: 'It's the economy, stupid!' (Not hearing that from Democrat candidates now, are we?)

In any case, the despicable advisor was wrong, and OldSouth is right:

It's the culture, and you're not stupid.

We can create and hose cash into the system forever, turn back-flips to create employment of some sort, consume ourselves into a stupor, chase every political and religious fad that surfaces.

It won't help.

Until we get the culture back on track--our classical, liberal, free-market, Judeo-Christian, rule of law, literacy-is-not-an-option, everybody-needs-to-know-something-about-Bach-and-Rembrandt-and-Jefferson Western culture back on track--any hope of having a long-term stable and prosperous country is vain.

It's the culture.

And you're not stupid.

Mexican Mass Grave Discovered: Drug Cartel Body Dump, At Least 55 Bodies

Front page on the BBC, buried in the New York Times.

OldSouth is unsurprised. After all, the White House and its cheerleaders have little appetite for revealing news about Mexico.

So, from our British cousins:

Mexican police say 55 bodies have been recovered from an abandoned mine that appears to have been used as a mass grave by drugs gangs.

Human remains were first discovered in the silver mine near Taxco in Guerrero state at the end of May.

The bodies appeared to have been thrown down a 200m (650ft) ventilation shaft over a period of time, police said.

Earlier reports that 77 bodies had been recovered were mistaken, officials said.

Only six have so far been identified - one was the director of a local prison.

Guerrero state is a focal point for drug-related violence that has claimed more than 22,000 lives in Mexico since 2006.

Police are now checking other mineshafts in the area to see if bodies have also been dumped there.

As well they should!

Now, what's the US government's reason for its refusal to aggresively enforce our southern border?

OS thinks that at least a few of those bodies are casualties of our government's negligence. And the bodies just keep stacking up...

Does this lend insight into why Arizona has acted to defend itself? Again, don't bother looking for this stuff in the Yew Nork Times.

Work Ethic Trumps All: American Students At The Bolshoi School

 In the daily grind of laziness, stupidity, and stupid laziness that so characterizes our culture in the Age of President Teleprompter, the Yew Nork Times brings us all a moment of joy and inspiration.


Two American students and their families are willing to make the huge sacrifices to attend the Bolshoi ballet school in Moscow.

Joy, the young lady, describes the atmosphere.

The standards are such and the work ethic is such in Russia that there is no room for failure, there is no room for laziness, there is no room to be nice when it is not appropriate to be nice,” Joy said. “Russia is the best because there is this demand for excellence that there isn’t in any other part of the world.


Enjoy the article. It truly is inspiring.

The Politics Of The Memory Hole, And The Value Of Memory

People with memories, and who know how to write, are a problem for totalitarians.

Pat Buchanan is one of those troublesome people. He addresses the hysteria about 'right-wing fanatics' that the Left is attempting to foment, in order to silence any and all who might object to their leadership. He takes on Frank Rich's assertion that the right 'went off the rails' in the mid-60's in the wake of civil rights legislation.

Was Rich awake in 1964? Because it wasn't the right that went off the rails. The really big riot in 1964 was in Harlem, lasting five days, with 500 injured and as many arrested. The Watts riot in 1965, Detroit and Newark in 1967, Washington, D.C., and 100 other cities in 1968, all bringing troops into American cities, were not the work of George Wallace populists or Barry Goldwater conservatives. They were the work of folks who went "all the way with LBJ."

Buchanan cites several more examples, all damning of the Left, because it was the Left that embraced political violence as the generation that now leads the majority in Congress was in its formative years.

OS remembers those years too, as a young person, watching the country come unwound, and attending the funeral of a young friend of the family, a Marine killed by the Viet Cong during a 'Christmas Truce' called by the Viet Cong. In those days, the Left was referring to young men like him as 'murderers'. He was anything but, but it little mattered to the totalitarians in training, who idolized Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara, mass murderers all.

It is a cultural issue, at bottom, is it not? At the underpinnings of the discipline, history needs to be taught in terms of 'This happened on such a date, and these particular people performed these acts'. Without the ideology or hysteria, just the facts, ma'am. These things, although unromantic, really matter. It's more fun to opine than research and report accurately.

Otherwise, everything goes down the 'memory hole', history is re-written to suit today's exigencies, and the entire concept that words have meaning deteriorates rapidly. Entire chapters of the past vanish. People vanish as well, as if they never existed.

A quick review of the fate of Russia as the USSR should be an object lesson. The few souls like Solzhenitsyn, who carefully preserved history with specificity, ended up underground and/or dead or exiled, their work passed hand-to-hand in dark of night. Bonhoeffer's great essay 'After Ten Years' lived buried in his back garden, unearthed after he was hanged a few days before the collapse of Nazi Germany.

The cultural collapses long predated the political ones. They always do.

Bob Herbert Leads The Charge: Yoh! If Yoh' Ah Republican, Yoh' Ah Racist/Bigot!

It didn't take long for the drumbeat to begin.

If you oppose ObamaCare, you're a racist or a bigot.

If you oppose Obama, you're a racist or a bigot.

If someone 500 miles away acts badly, and you don't swear on a stack of Bibles that you'll disavow your principles for life, you're a racist.

If you're a Republican, you are a Neanderthal racist/bigot/mouthbreather, and it's high time we silenced you and yours.

Bob Herbert leads the invective charge in the Yew Nork Times. Channel surfing and pausing at MSNBC, two earnest-looking young journalists looking all worried about all those racists and anti-Semites in the crowds. At least they had a viewer for that ten seconds of their day. Next.

The pressure begins in earnest, and will only ratchet up.

Problem is, Herbert has his history backwards--the Republican Party was founded in great part for the cause of the elimination of slavery. The 'Solid South' was solidly Democrat, solidly racist and Jim Crow, until Republicans stepped up to vote for the civil rights measures of the 1960's.

But then again, the Yew Nork Times never let the facts get in the way of their view of the world...

And while this is written, the Senate debate drones on. The Republicans quietly point out that the costs are unsustainable, and Tom Coburn describes his life as a physician treating Medicaid patients, unable to find a specialist to whom he can refer his high-risk patients, because the cost of treating them far outstrips the compensation. All of it quiet, dignified, patient. Democrat Barabara Mikulski then launches into an angry feminist rant. Back to Judd Gregg, followed by another Democrat Senator who accuses him of lying. On it goes.

Of course, the Republicans are racist and hysterical. But it's a good exercise, because it creates a record: on this day, this was said by this Senator. Today could come back to haunt someone.

Moh' latuh, while it's still possible to speak.

Why ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings Are Viewed With Such Suspicion

David Brooks, columnist at the YewNorkTimes, offers some wry thoughts on a subject that bears consideration.

That general, undefined group of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings seem to garner less and less of our respect. You know, the people who run banks, businesses, institutions that need more than anything to remain stable. Things like universities, electric utilities, school boards, churches, foundations, etc. For many years, in town after town, state after state, a person could wander into such an institution and see the portraits of such people on a wall somewhere.  In a lot of places they remain on display. It matters a lot in America, which is such a cauldron of rapid change, that an image of stability be projected.

Inevitably, the portraits are of middle-aged white guys, and they project an image of absolute boring stability. If you're going to borrow money for a house, farm and tractors from this guy, you'd better have a long and wide good family reputation, and a demonstrated ability to make money at farming, by golly. If you're going to propose a change in course of educational policy at this university, you'd better have your ducks in a row, 'cuz we're doing just fine thank-you-very-much.

It's like everyone strove to look and act like Truman, Eisenhower, or even Truman's VP Alvin Barkley.

It was a badge of honor.

Brooks notes how this has changed, and why it may have contributed to our present unease:

[T]his new system has created new social chasms. In the old days, there were obviously big differences between people whose lives were defined by ''The Philadelphia Story'' and those who were defined by ''The Grapes of Wrath.'' But if you ran the largest bank in Murfreesboro, Tenn., you probably lived in Murfreesboro. Now you live in Charlotte or New York City. You might have married a secretary. Now you marry another banker. You would have had similar lifestyle habits as other people in town. Now the lifestyle patterns of the college-educated are very different from the patterns in other classes. Social attitudes are very different, too.

Too much in the essay to do it justice by pulling one quote. But he's right, in many ways, and like all good writers, he is able to put clear words to unclear intuitions.

OldSouth circulates, quietly, amongst folks in the New Managerial Class. Sometimes he wonders if they possess either souls or common sense. Here they are, making big decisions in their little worlds, and they seem oddly, wierdly disconnected from the context in which they daily live.  To quote a grumpy neighbor: 'These people make me nervous!'.

OS does not wish to return to a world where being female, or black, or any number of other variations of the human condition automatically excludes one from opportunity. That is purely immoral. But there might much to learn from those grey, boring faces who stare out at us from the hall portraits, about attitudes toward life, duty, honor, and stability.

A Truly Happy Piece Of News From The NY Times

This article from the New York Times does cheer the heart.

Leonard Bernstein was a genius in so many ways, and made huge contributions to the American culture.

Critics remember him for his excesses and flaws, which he indeed did have, aplenty.

But it's hard to imagine American music without West Side Story, or Chichester Psalms, or Candide, or his incredible work in making music accessible to millions upon millions of young television viewers.

...in the 1950s, when American television viewers had three major networks to choose from — CBS, NBC and ABC — classical music was a part of the standard programming mix. Bernstein’s conducting demonstration was one of seven appearances, now on DVD, that he made on “Omnibus,” a 90-minute program that offered segments on science and the arts, particularly music and theater. It ran from 1952 to 1961, and migrated across the networks, from CBS to ABC in 1956, and to NBC in 1957.

These programs have just been made available on DVD. Their scripts formed the basis for much of his wonderful book The Joy of Music.

Again, OldSouth's personal soapbox is that the culture shapes the economy. He hopes that this DVD collection finds its way into the video systems of families everywhere, and are played again and again.
It will enrich the lives of the kids and grandkids in wonderful ways. They deserve to know who Bernstein was, what he accomplished, and to see him in his youthful prime.

Not One Mention Of The 'AstroTurf Word' From The New York Times

Today's New York Times features a long and thoughtful article by David Barstow, telling the stories of previously apolitical citizens who have become Tea-Party activists.

Well worth reading and considering, especially if you are visiting this blog from overseas. Barstow presents an even-handed account, and carefully avoids the temptation to create cartoon characters, as so many in the MSM have attempted.

A brief excerpt:

The Tea Party movement has become a platform for conservative populist discontent, a force in Republican politics for revival, as it was in the Massachusetts Senate election, or for division. But it is also about the profound private transformation of people like Mrs. Stout, people who not long ago were not especially interested in politics, yet now say they are bracing for tyranny.

Again, highly recommended, and worthy of sharing, especially for readers outside our shores. America can look very confusing from a distance, and this article helps provide some focus.

As OS has mentioned before, Cintons/Gore/Obama/Pelosi/Reid et al could always count on the uncritical support of the New York Times. Those days are drawing to a close. The Massachusetts 'attitude adjustment' is beginning to take hold in the editorial suite. The fact that they are going broke has also focused their attention a bit. One reader at a time, they alienated their readership, one half-truth and outright whopper at a time.

Chill winds are blowing, and Obama and Company have lost a great deal of their traditional shelter.

(Two loyalist Democrat senators, Bayh and Mikulski, announced their exit this week. They've had enough.)

Livin' The High Life: The Congressional Black Caucus

OS ran across bits of this, and thought--nyah, this is just some rant from some guy living in his mom's basement with his gun collection and Confederate flag.

In 2008, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation spent more on the caterer for its signature legislative dinner and conference — nearly $700,000 for an event one organizer called “Hollywood on the Potomac” — than it gave out in scholarships, federal tax records show.

OS has a friend on the faculty at Fisk University, a flagship black university, founded and built by freed slaves. They struggle to keep the doors open.  Certainly, this story is overblown. What could Fisk do with 700 grand?

But, just to be certain, he kept searching, and the original story is sourced at the New York Times.

The quote was accurate. And the whole story is much uglier than just that paragraph.

Time was, the Times would never, ever print a story like this. They were the original LiberalGuiltAssCovering service. No matter how egregious, never a murmur about any black Democrat.  Back in the day, Adam Clayton Powell ran Harlem as a personal duchy, right under the nose of the Times.

Well, times has changed(unintentional pun...) Reality is setting in. Their people won. Statehouse, Congress, White House. Black governor, black president. The Dream is reality.

And the wheels are coming off.

The Times, to survive, must regain at least a semblance of credibility. They no longer control the conversation, and increasingly, the country doesn't care what their editorial page thinks.

Obama and company are losing their cover, and cold winds are beginning to blow.