Israel sends UN "special rapporteur" packing

Ward Churchill defender, 9/11 troofer and anti-Israel cretin Richard Falk, the UN "special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories," has been kicked out of Israel. Goddamn nazis.

Update: That first link is to a PDF that seems to be missing the first page. You'll get the idea. And somebody should tell the National Post they have a big honkin' typo in their headline. I'm too tired.

Update II: LGF had it hours ago. Curse you, LGF!

Update III: In other anti-semite news, David Irving was invited to try out for Celebrity Big Brother last October, but didn't quite make the cut. What's George Galloway got that he hasn't?

(via Deborah Lipstadt, who notes that Irving was recently featured on a C4 show on freedom of expression (gag) called "An Independent Mind" (retch).

Update IV: Self-hating Jew (and frequent Tim Blair target) Antony (the "h" is silent) Lowenstein links to a video of Palestinians complaining of the (note scare quotes) "torture" they underwent at Israeli hands.

Rocky writers launch website to save paper

From the site, "IWantMyRocky.com":

Ever since Denver was a collection of shacks and gold miners’ tents, the Rocky Mountain News has been here to chronicle each day of our state's life. We covered the Civil War, Colorado statehood, the Ludlow Massacre, two world wars and the Great Depression, six Broncos Super Bowls, two Stanley Cup championships, two national political conventions, the tragedy at Columbine, the fires of 2002, the Iraq war's home front, and all of Colorado's booms and busts.

This latest bust could be our last. The owners of our paper have put us up for sale and hinted at shutting us down if they can’t find a buyer.

We are prepared to fight that. We are the reporters, editors, photographers, web producers and everyone who brings you the Rocky. We take pride in what we do for our readers, our community and our industry, just as our predecessors William Byers, William A.H. Loveland, Damon Runyon, Mary Coyle Chase and Gene Amole.

Unless we can make something happen by the middle of January, our owners could close the Rocky. Colorado deserves better.

So we’re taking our case to you, our readers, our friends, our neighbors. Through this Web site and other efforts, the staff of the Rocky wants to:

Preserve and protect the editorial voice of the Rocky in our community.

Preserve and protect the legacy of the Rocky and its historical archives, which provide a window to the infancy of our state and the city of Denver.

Fight for the jobs of more than 200 Coloradans and the many others that would be affected by the newspaper's closure.

It's gonna take a (Christmas) miracle. Mary Coyle Chase, of course, wrote the imperishable Harvey.

How cold?

It's four below zero right now in Denver. Or maybe seven below.

Or maybe 15 below.

Those are the current readings at the Weather Channel, the Post, and the Rocky, respectively.

According to the Post, we already set a record of -15 degrees today, but apparently they take their measurements from Denver International Airport, which, as everyone knows, is in New Hampshire.

We've also gotten a fair amount of snow already this season (about four inches last night in this part of town) and the mountains have been repeatedly massacreed with several feet, with more on the way.

Global warming. Five-hundred-year drought. I spit me of them.

Update: In comments from his fortress of desuetude in the mountains above Hartsel, JWP (icy-handed a**pats be upon him) links to a classic piece of GW hysteria from AP "reporter" Seth Borenstein. I got your "tipping point" right here, Seth.

Update II: "Ski areas face big challenges in globally warmer world, study says."

Update III: "Skier in Aspen dies in avalanche."

Update IV: Denver breaks old low temp record by 13 degrees (again, DIA); homeless freezing their asses off. Climate, er, instability (yeah, that's the ticket).

Cost to prosecute DNC protesters: $19,000

The Post:

The city and county of Denver has spent more than $19,000 and used 316 hours of police officer time to prosecute people who were arrested during a protest on the first night of the Democratic National Convention.

The estimate does not include time and costs for 10 trials held this week and last week, said Brian Vicente, executive director of the People's Law Project, who requested the data from the city and provided it to The Denver Post. . . .

Of 33 convention cases that have gone to trial for clients represented by the People's Law Project, 27 cases were dismissed or the defendant was acquitted, five people were convicted and one person pleaded to a deferred judgment, Vicente said.

Five convictions? Given Denver juries' record for (not) convicting even people who clearly try to stop others from exercising their First Amendment rights (Columbus Day protests), that's not bad. And as a commenter points out, Denver got $50 million for the DNC; they can probably afford to throw some spare change at these prosecutions.

Update: The Rocky's Bill Johnson interviews a jury member for one of the trials:

It was time to chat with a juror. Past due time, actually, since I believe that outside of the judges overseeing these convention-protest trials, no one's time has been more wasted. . . .

What most surprised me was that he was on one of the Democratic National Convention trials at all. Over the past dozen years, he has called often, regaling my voice mail with stories of his social activism and generally giving me his take on what I have written on a particular day.

"I have been in numerous demonstrations," he said Friday, the first time in all those years that we have actually chatted. Included in them was the "small act of civil disobedience" at an AIDS conference in San Francisco in the early '90s where he and others actually blocked an entrance. . . .

Given his background, the defense "saw me as sympathetic to its cause," he said. "What saved me with the prosecution was my saying civil disobedience has its place, but you need to be prepared to face the consequences."

The consequences for the three cases his jury decided on? One conviction, two acquittals. Very weird.

Kopel: Bias not killing newspapers

The News' (conservative) media critic:

'Final Edition." The words that could appear on the Rocky Mountain News in a few weeks. After nearly 150 years, what has brought the oldest business in Denver to the brink of destruction?

Some words I've never written before, but they are apt now: Mike Littwin is right. The notion that media bias is the main cause of the newspapers' troubles is ludicrous.

The real reasons? Nothing surprising: Subscription price (way up), ad revenues (way down), people too lazy to read--check out this kind and gentle graf:

More and more people are so intellectually lazy that reading one romance novel per year is too much effort. It's a stretch to imagine that the reason such cretins don't subscribe to the Rocky is that, for example, they noticed its science coverage is too credulous about environmental panic-mongering.

Well. But the "real killer"? Craigslist, of course. Read whole thing, but I still think bias should be in the mix.

Update: From two papers to none? Post owner: we need to cut $20 million, now:

The Denver Post Publisher William Dean Singleton on Friday asked unions at The Post and Denver Newspaper Agency to reopen their labor contracts immediately, saying he needs to slash expenses by $20 million.

"We all know the financial situation is not good in the newspaper industry - he referenced that and requested we begin bargaining (next week)," said Tony Mulligan, a spokesman for Denver Newspaper Guild Local 37074. . . .

Singleton's request comes a day after Moody's Investors Services said his MediaNews Group faces an increased risk of defaulting on its loans, and a week after E.W. Scripps announced it was putting the Rocky up for sale and seeking an exit to the DNA's Joint Operating Agreement. Moody's downgraded almost $1 billion of MediaNews debt.

Update II: Funny, the Post doesn't seem to have the story.

Shake, MIMie! Shake!

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (aka Henry Park) on dogs' preference for Marxism:

Karl Marx said socialism operates "to each according to her work," while communism has the distributional principle of "to each according to her need." A study shows dogs perform tricks according to pay, thus proving they prefer socialism.

Logical, logical.

"In treat-heavy conditions, the dogs give their paws for nearly every trial. When neither dog was given rewards, the dogs only gave their paws 20 out of 30 times and they required more verbal prompting to do so. But, when one animal was rewarded and the other was not, the unrewarded dogs only shook 12 times and displayed considerably more agitation than in either of the other tests."

The study's situation where one dog gets the reward for the other's trick is an indication of what happens under parasitism. Dogs don't like it.

From my own observation, dogs love parasites. Yum.

Capitalism is parasitism, rewards for owning things instead of working.

So just like any communist state, I make sure Billy Bob works for every Kibble and Bit.

Update: Mmmmm, treat-heavy conditions.

The Day the Earth Flopped

Rotten Tomatoes has the initial reviews of the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. They add up to a whopping 15 percent on the the ol' tomatometer. In other words, a galactic loser. Favorite shot so far:

Since Keanu Reeves has all the expressiveness of a toaster, why is he starring in the new The Day the Earth Stood Still as human-looking alien Klaatu rather than giant robot Gort?

I know, not that good, but it's early yet.

Blagojevich!

There, I said it. The Sun-Times has a piece in which psychologists (actually a psychologist) say Blag's hair is a sign of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

Gov. Blagojevich's glossy locks -- perfectly sculpted in rain or snow -- may be an indication of a sickness beneath his scalp, said one local psychologist.

"It's all part of managing his image, managing his image of being without a blemish, without a flaw," said Scott Ambers, who has practiced clinical psychology in the city for more than two decades. . . .

Without blemish or flaw. Just like Moe. This calls for a Separated At Birth!

Keanu Barada Nikto

"Why did you come to our planet?"

"Your planet?"

Don't remember if that's in the original, but it tells you what we're in for with the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still: A Hollywood browbeating. Keanu Reeves seems suitably robotic (it comes naturally) and the special effects look spectaculous, but please, just leave me alone.

The only thing I wonder is, what will the mix of anti-war and pro-environmenton sentiments be? My guess: 60-40.

For some reason I'm reminded of the late, unlamented band Kansas:



We've strangled all her trees and starved her creatures.

There's poison in the sea and in the air.

But worst of all, we've learned to live without her,

We've lost the very meaning of our lives!

And now she's gonna die!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Yeah. I always liked the comment by the director of the original, Robert Wise, who said the movie should have been called "The Day the Electricity Went Off for Half an Hour," because, well, that's basically what happens. Spectaculously!

Police blotter!

Via Yourshlub:

WOMAN FEELS VICTIMIZED

A suspicious incident was reported in the 2400 block of Kalmia Street on Dec. 4. A woman told police she found pictures from a Victoria's Secret catalog taped to the outside of her front porch window. The woman said she thought this might be a way for burglars to determine whether or not people were at home and was concerned about being victimized. This case is closed pending further information.

Bonus blot!

TRESPASSER RAKES PINE NEEDLES

At about 11:30 a.m., a woman reported someone was trespassing at her residence on the 0-99 block of Hern Lane in Castle Rock. The homeowner said a neighbor was in her yard, raking pine needles. The homeowner asked the other woman to leave, but she did not respond and continued raking. The neighbor said she was having an open house and wanted her neighbor's yard to look good. She was issued a summons for trespassing.

Abstract of the Week!

Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers:

"Berkeley School” Genius: Musings on a Feng-shui Perspective

Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context of its own cosmology and symbolism. In this article, I muse on the provenance of “Berkeley School” genius at the UC Berkeley site in relation to its “power of place,” using a simplified feng-shui model. My examples introduce and elaborate on the propitious synchronicities found at the site perhaps responsible for the flowering of three prestigious “Berkeley Schools” of creative endeavor following WWI: Carl Sauer’s Berkeley School of Cultural Geography; Alfred Kroeber’s Berkeley School of Cultural Anthropology; and John Haley’s Berkeley School of American Scene Landscape Painting. I muse over some auspicious peculiarities in the common ground at the UC Berkeley site from which these three landscape schools emerge. A general feng-shui cosmological model describes how creative arrays of primal natural forces might converge at the campus site, creating a cosmic force field that generates and shapes the successful thoughts, visions, and creative output of certain of the site’s inhabitants. The founding fathers of these three Berkeley Schools, although unbeknownst to them, are perhaps beneficiaries of UC Berkeley’s excellent feng-shui site. The model provides a provocative alternative understanding of forces responsible for the longevity and continuing vitality of the “Berkeley School” tradition of cultural geography.

Sunday Night at the Radio!

Sunday, December 7. What should I play? Okay, here's CBS's World News Today from December 6, 1941. Good stuff, including John Daly on the battle for Moscow ("The invaders are more the victims of cold than our bullets,' assert the Russians, who refer to the weather as 'our December frost'"); Bob Trout reporting from London; Ford Wilkins in Manila ("Preparations for war in this area have reached a new high level"); and Albert Warner in Washington on the diplomatic outlook.

"New York Philharmonic Broadcast Interrupted By Attack On Pearl Harbor." Interestingly, it starts with a report on the torpedoing of a U.S. ship carrying lumber before they even get word of the Pearl Harbor attack (December (checking notes here) 7, 1941.)

Part one of a Jack Benny: "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (30 November 1941); and part two, w/news bulletin interruptions (7 December 1941).

NYT runs Ayers op-ed

As Snaps points out in comments to the previous post, Saturday the rapidly failing Old Grey-Underweared Lady gave space to the mutant: "The Real Bill Ayers." It's the same spiel he's given since the election, in more or less the same words--I was cast as "the terrorist" to get Obama, we weren't terrorists, we were an anti-war group, we never hurt or killed anybody, but gosh, my youthful idealism may have crossed a line here and there and I have vague "regrets"--you know the drill. Read it if you enjoy loathsome things (as I do).

Speaking of loathsome things, the tape-like unspooling of Ayers' "thinking" reminds me of no one so much as, yes, Ward Churchill, in particular his story about how the Dutch, after stealing Manhattan Island from the natives, massacred same when they protested, then played kickball with their heads right where the Twin Towers would later rise. (Geddit?) I've heard him tell that one at least four times (once live) and it is, natch, a lie in almost every particular, told to make a political point. We know Ayers and Churchill have never met, but they're like twins.

Update: And remember, Vote Love!

Update II: Patterico: "The Real Charles Manson":

Over the years, I have been cast in the role of “1960s-era mass murderer.” Now that the election is over, I want to say as plainly as I can that the character invented to serve this drama wasn’t me, not even close.

Here are the facts:

I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and became a big fan of the Beatles. I was a songwriter and admittedly a bit of a drifter. In the late 1960s, I founded the Manson family.

The Manson Family crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, Roman Polanski’s front door, Leno LaBianca’s refrigerator, and Sharon Tate’s and Leno LaBianca’s abdomens. The attacks on property, never on people — unless you consider the pigs we slaughtered to be people, ha ha — were meant to respect human life, by repeatedly taking it.

CU executive committee recommends end of post-tenure review

The not-yet-dead Rocky:

We hope the full faculty assembly at the University of Colorado at Boulder has better sense than its executive committee, which has recommended that CU dispense with post-tenure review.

"It's redundant, and it has no teeth," biology professor Jeff Mitton told the Boulder Daily Camera.

Well, if that's true (and we believe he exaggerates), whose fault is it? As it happens, we can't think of a worse time than right now to get rid of post-tenure review, considering the message it would send to the public.

There are two reasons we say this. The first can be summed up in a single name:

I won't spoil the surprise.

The Princess Di gay Bible

I'm about as religious as a horse, but this is just silly. The Guardian:

A gay version of the Bible, in which God says it is better to be gay than straight, is to be published by an American film producer.

New Mexico-based Revision Studios will publish The Princess Diana Bible – so named because of Diana's "many good works", it says – online at http://www.princessdianabible.com/ in spring 2009. A preview of Genesis is already available, in which instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.

Not even Adam and Steve.

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed."

The film studio said it would also adapt and direct the revised Bible as a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament, once it is completed.

Starring Kate Winslet as Moses, Tom Cruise as Jesus (I know: typecasting) and Harry Dean Stanton as Mary Magdalene.

"There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one," said Max Mitchell, who directed the science fiction comedy Horror in the Wind, in which an airborne formula invented by two biogeneticists reverses the world's sexual orientation.

"I got the idea for the Princess Diana Bible from Horror In The Wind," he added. "After the world becomes gay, religious people create The Princess Diana Bible, which says that gay is right and straight is a sin. Then they burn all the King James Bibles."

The move has already provoked upset among Christians, with the blogger Douglas Howe at the Idol Chatter site describing it as "inspired by a political agenda and one person's desire to contort not only the text but the very context of it to suit his own perspective".

There was also criticism on Mitchell's Princess Diana Bible site, where one commentator said the choice of title was "very disrespectful to the late Princess Diana … It's just one more thing to link her to what many people believe is immoral. Sad, very sad indeed."

But Mitchell said: "There are 116 versions of the Bible, why is any of them better than ours?"

(via the Brothers of Judd; h/t to the Olleroid for the photoshop)

Simpson being sentenced

After he was convicted of kidnapping and armed robbery in October. His own lawyer, Yale Galanter, says to the judge, "Stupidity is not criminality."

Simpson is speaking now: I'm stupid. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. I love Las Vegas. His voice is shaky and small. I didn't come here intending to do this. Thank you, Judge.

Lawyers all apologizing to the judge and telling her what deep respect they actually have for her, even though they were, er, extremely argumentative during the trial.

Coincidentally, I was just re-reading Triumph of Justice, Daniel Petrocelli's account of the civil case against Simpson for the murders of his wife and Ron Goldman, which proved far beyond a reasonable doubt that Simpson was guilty (those ugly-ass shoes).

Various lawyers pleading for leniency for various of Simpson's henchpersons. It was O.J.'s fault. My client has health problems. My client didn't have a gun. Nobody was hurt. My client was getting a cake. He supports his whole family. He likes to try to help people.

Clarence Stewart, minion: I didn't know what was going on. I love everybody, respect everybody. I've never been convicted of a crime before. Always provided for my extended family. I've lost everything because of this case. I've survived my incarceration through faith and prayers. Judge looks to be listening hard.

Judge: I didn't know whether Simpson was arrogant or ignorant. During the trial I found it was both. You (Simpson) thought you could do in Las Vegas what you couldn't do elsewhere. The tapes in this case show you didn't want these (sports memorabilia) items to fall into the hands of the Goldmans, whom you called the "Gold-diggers." Your own words can be heard on those tapes, and they brought you to this courtroom. They said to me and the jury that the evidence was overwhelming. Overwhelming. It was a very violent event, all on tape. Guns were brought, at least one gun was drawn. The potential for harm was huge. If a gun had gone off, and bullets started flying, people besides those in the room could have been hurt. You cannot do that. But you did.

I heard Mr. Galanter say, oh, he was just stupid. When you go to take something by force, that's not just "gimme my stuff back."

After the event, you called people (minions) to say "there was no gun." Then, at the party (after the incident, there was laughing, joking, "did you see the look on his face? Ha-ha!" That was not just stupidity.

You went to the room, you took guns, you used force, you took property. In this state, that is robbery with a deadly weapon.

I told the jury earlier, if they wanted to punish Simpson earlier (the murders), they shouldn't be here. I'm not punishing Simpson for what happened before. . . .

There's nothing more that's going to happen here except sentencing for what's happened in this case. No retribution or payback for anything else.

The problem is, I can't ignore that the crime was reckless, the potential for harm was great, you're fortunate nothing happened. And now I'll sentence you.

Judge tells Stewart and Simpson to stand. Goddamnit she's reading too fast. Stewart is nailed.

Simpson is going away for 15 years, six before parole eligibility. Everything "enhanced" because of general egregiousness. Simpson is 61.

Now Court TV or whatever it's called is saying a minimum of seven and a half years. Reporter also saying the judge imposed a less severe sentence than the presentencing report recommended--18 years total--perhaps because of Simpson's statement ("I was stupid").

Fox: Simpson was sentenced 13 years to the day after he was acquitted at the murder trial. Whoa, karma (as Geraldo de Rivera y Bronx said).

Update: Can't hang around too much longer, but Fox is going to have Mark "N-word" Fuhrman on to comment.

Fuhrman: Watching OJ over the years, it was inevitable that something like this would happen. The judge certainly put it in a nutshell: ignorant and arrogant. What we saw over the last 14 years is who he is, a street thug.

For sale: newspaper, some wear

Not exactly a surprise. The Rocky:

The Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, has been put up for sale by its parent company.

Citing worsening financial conditions and an expected loss at the paper of roughly $15 million this year, the E.W. Scripps Co. said it would seek a possible buyer in the next 30 days.

Scripps CEO Rich Boehne, who took the helm of the company in July, made the announcement to the newsroom this morning. He told the editoral staff the decision “would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.” . . .

“But the operating conditions have become increasingly difficult in Denver, as is the case in all major metropolitan newspaper markets, Boehne said in a statement. Our 50 percent of the cash flow generated by the Denver Newspaper Agency is no longer enough to support the Rocky, leaving us with no choice but to seek an exit.”

Cincinnati-based Scripps has owned the Rocky since 1926. The paper, founded in 1859, is Colorado’s oldest, as well as the state’s oldest continuously operated business. Since 2000, the Rocky has won four Pulitzer Prizes for journalistic excellence. . . .

The sale of the Rocky would mark the end of more than 100 years in Denver for Scripps. The company’s founder, E.W. Scripps, started The Denver Express in 1906. The Express was folded in the late 1920s when Scripps focused all its efforts on building the success of one title in the morning, the Rocky Mountain News.

“This is a day I never wanted to see come,” Rocky Editor John Temple told the staff. “Clearly, you’re not responsible for what happened.”

Except Mike Littwin.

The Rocky has faced many challenges in its history. The story goes that Editor Jack Foster was sent to Denver to close the paper at a time of newsprint rationing during World War II. He converted it into a tabloid, or magazine style, newspaper in 1942 and the paper doubled its circulation over the next five years. During the final years of the newspaper war, it annually boasted that it sold more than 5 million classified ads and had a daily circulation of more than 400,000.

Today, its daily circulation is about 210,000, the same as the Post’s, and its Saturday circulation is 457,000. The paper is delivered to subscribers of both the Rocky and the Post on Saturday. On Sunday, under the JOA, subscribers to both papers received the Post.

Scripps said it will consider offers for the Rocky and its interest in the agency through mid-January of next year. If no acceptable offers arise, the company said it will examine its other options.

Gulp.

“Some will be tempted to immediately write the obituary of the Rocky, but we’re hoping this step will open the way for a creative solution to the financial challenges faced by Denver’s great newspapers,” Boehne said in the news release. “The loyal readers and advertisers of Denver deserve the best, and we’ll work hard to find a solution that benefits this great city.”

Sheet.

Update: Newsroom reax; Rocky at 150 (lots of cool old stories and page facsimiles--but they don't actually turn 150 until April. Why are they running it now?).

Don't stop, she clamoured

Literary Review's Bad Sex Awards for 2008 have been out for a week, but I've been distracted. Ibn Warraq at New English Review attended the investiture and quotes great spurting gobs of loamy prose, but my favorite is still Normie's posthumous winner from last year, which Warriq also quotes:

The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer (Little, Brown) p67-68:

'Are you all right?' she cried out as he lay beside her, his breath going in and out with a rasp that sounded as terrible as the last winds of their lost children.

'All right. Yes. No,' he said. Then she was on him. She did not know if this would resuscitate him or end him, but the same spite, sharp as a needle, that had come to her after Fanni's death was in her again. Fanni had told her once what to do. So Klara turned head to foot, and put her most unmentionable part down on his hard-breathing nose and mouth, and took his old battering ram into her lips. Uncle was now as soft as a coil of excrement. She sucked on him nonetheless with an avidity that could come only from the Evil One - that she knew. From there, the impulse had come. So now they both had their heads at the wrong end, and the Evil One was there. He had never been so close before.

The Hound began to come to life. Right in her mouth. It surprised her. Alois had been so limp. But now he was a man again! His mouth lathered with her sap, he turned around and embraced her face with all the passion of his own lips and face, ready at last to grind into her with the Hound, drive it into her piety.

Read the rest, of course, but they should have interred the award with Normie.

Anti-boosterism

The Post's Bill Husted on 5280 magazine's Denver restaurant issue:

It's a given that city magazines are boosterish, but this story takes a pretty stern look at our town. Here's a quote: "The city doesn't sit on the cutting edge [sic] of anything — not art, not music, not architecture, not politics. We possess few corporate headquarters, we're not a technology hub, and by the time fashion trends work their way here from the coasts, the same clothes are often found languishing on the clearance racks in New York and Los Angeles."

Life is not worth living. Or, as Bill Husted puts it:

Ouch.

Yes. Ouch. Oh, here's Booster-baiter Bill on a few of the restaurants mentioned in the piece:

The top eats tier hails the precious [precious?] Beatrice & Woodsley, Bistro One, The Counter, D Bar (Denver's first celebrity chef, Keegan Gerhard) [now that's progress!], Fuel Cafe (try to find it at Taxi), Marco's Coal-Fired Pizzeria (everyone's favorite), Masterpiece Delicatessen (sandwiches for swooning) [God] and Q Worldly Barbeque and Jazz Lounge (my favorite
neighborhood musical Q).

Joke I just made up: Husted's desk at the Post has a booster chair. Ha! Call the waaaaahmbulance!

Update: Originally had Husted working at the Rocky. Fixed. (h/t the ever-watchful eye of former Rockyite Linda Seebach).

Monocultural

At Minding the Campus, Roger Kimball on academic free speech (and, oh yeah, the newly revised edition of his fun but aged book, Tenured Radicals):

When the first edition of Tenured Radicals appeared lo, these many years ago, around the time movable type was coming into vogue, the American university, when it came to the humanities and social sciences, anyway, was essentially a left-wing monoculture gravely infected by the stultifying imperatives of political correctness, specious multiculturalism, and an addiction to a potpourri of intellectually dubious pseudo-radicalisms.

Well, that was then. In the meantime, some very talented people have weighed in on the problem. They have written articles and books about the university; they've organized conferences, symposia, and think-tank initiatives; they even managed to place scores of good people in various colleges and universities as a counterweight to the various intellectual and moral depredations I chronicle in Tenured Radicals. Today, two editions and nearly two decades later, we can look at the American university and what do we discover? That it is, essentially, a left-wing monoculture gravely infected by the stultifying imperatives of political correctness, specious multiculturalism, and an addiction to a potpourri of intellectually dubious pseudo-radicalisms.

One reason is that that left-wing monoculture I mentioned is simply too deeply entrenched for these initiatives, laudable and necessary though they are, to make much difference. For the last few years, I have heard several commentators from sundry ideological points of view predict that the reign of political correctness and programmatic leftism on campus had peaked and was now about to recede. I wish I could be share that optimism. I see no evidence of it. Sure, students are quiescent. But indifference is not instauration, and besides faculties nearly everywhere form a self-perpetuating closed-shop. . . .

Didn't really need to include that graf; just wanted to make you look up "instauration."

Let me mention a couple of distinctions that I think we have lost sight of in recent years. The first is the distinction between academic freedom and free speech. Every time some wacko like Ward Churchill comes along shouting about the evils of American capitalism and the beneficence of Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Native American Indians, or whoever, his defenders rally round and say, "Well, I may not like what he says, but he is simply exercising his right of free speech."

I say, No he is not. He is violating his obligation as a teacher to eschew politics and impart knowledge. There is an important distinction between the right of free speech--our rights as citizens in a free society to peaceful political dissent--and academic freedom, the more limited privilege accorded to suitably enfranchised members of a college or university to pursue knowledge. . . .

Kimball makes the same mistake here the "it's about Ward's free speech" proponents (fewer and fewer as time goes on--where are the Dean Saittas of yesteryear?) do. Churchill isn't just a "purveyor of intellectually dubious pseudo-radicalisms" who's violated rules of academic discourse--he's a liar, a cheat and a fraud. And he's far from the only one--just the nastiest. Anyhow, read whole thing. Kimball is not all that hopeful, which seems appropriate. Oh, one more tiny graf:

A cartoon now making the rounds dramatizes my point: Question: What's more disturbing than William Ayers, terrorist and family friend of Obama. Answer: William Ayers, educator.

Update: I could have done without Kimball's recounting of his friend's joke about reforming universities with tanks. Not funny, dumb.

Update II: In my abscess, er, absence (not funny, dumb), De!mocracy No!w posted the second part of Amy Goodman's interview with this year's "It" couple, Bernie 'n' Billy (part one here). The usual lying, self-aggrandizing nonsense. Just one example as Bernie peroratates:

I want to say one last thing. The best of the new Left and the best of the social struggles of today have at their core the valuing of human life. All human life. You have to say both parts of that because people in the United States have to find our place in the world. And in some ways get off the necks and the backs of people of the world. We have to live differently. We have to live, and I say this with all humility too, you know. We have to all together learn to live differently so that others may live. So that core notion that animates social justice movements is really the valuing of all human life.

Remember, that's Bernie "Dig it" Dohrn talking there. Question: What's more disturbing than William Ayers, educator? Answer: Bernardine Dohrn, educator.

Update III: I said Wart was the nastiest of the bunch. Wrong-o. At most, he's only third.