Category: Journalism

TJ’s Excellent 15 Minutes of Fame

Michael Gerson at the Washington Post has an Op-Ed on — how best to put it? — the insanity of “Pastor” Terry Jones getting his 15 minutes of fame so cheaply.

Gerson is, if I recall correctly, an Evangelical Protestant — perhaps even a Wheaton College Evangelical — so it was interesting to see his spin on why Muslims go postal at a threatened Koran-burning while Christians (a far more equivocal term than you might think, but serviceable in this context) remain pretty mellow about sacrilege Continue reading “TJ’s Excellent 15 Minutes of Fame” →

Burning Witches and Stoning Adulteresses

C. S. Lewis, one of my greatest influences, opined that we don’t burn witches because we don’t believe they exist or that they can harm others. If we did think that people were casting efficacious spells of black magic to harm others, surely we would punish them.

In other words, we have a difference of opinion of fact with those who burnt witches; we have not really made a moral advance as compared to them. Continue reading “Burning Witches and Stoning Adulteresses” →

Idea du jour: the pre-obituary

What a dreary afternoon for a holiday! I needed a pick-me-up, and P.J. O’Rourke provided it.

O’Rourke has a great idea for reviving the newspaper biz, which desparately needs great ideas and revival: the pre-obituary:

What I propose is “Pre-Obituaries”—official notices that certain people aren’t dead yet accompanied by brief summaries of their lives indicating why we wish they were.

The main advantage of the Pre-Obit over the traditional obituary is the knowledge of reader and writer alike that the as-good-as-dead people are still around to have their feelings hurt. It was a travesty of literary justice that we waited until J. D. Salinger finally hit the delete key at 91 before admitting that Catcher in the Rye stinks. The book’s only virtue is that it captures, with annoying accuracy, the maunderings of a twerp. The book’s only pleasure is in slamming the cover shut—simpler than slamming the door shut on a real Holden Caulfield, if less satisfying. The rest of Salinger’s published oeuvre was precious or boring or both. But we felt constrained to delay saying so, perhaps because of an outdated Victorian hope for a death-bed flash of genius.

Let us wait no more. With the Pre-Obituary we can abandon pusillanimous constraint and false hope and say what we think about the lives of public nuisances when their lives are not yet a dead letter. And we won’t be stuck in the treacle of nostalgia and sentiment. We won’t find ourselves saying of some oaf, “His like will not pass this way again.” Or, if we do say it, we can comfortably add, “Thank God!” The precept of Diogenes isn’t “Do not speak ill of the living.”

Think of the opportunities we’ve missed already….

By O’Rourke’s lights, several notables besides Salinger needed pre-obituaries, but we blew the chance:

  • Beatrice Arthur
  • Paul Newman
  • John Kenneth Galbraith
  • Ted Kennedy

But we’re not too late for some others:

  • Jimmy Carter
  • Gore Vidal
  • Noam Chomsky
  • Norman Lear
  • Ed Asner
  • Ben Bradlee
  • Ross Perot
  • Ted Turner
  • Jane Fonda
  • Barney Frank
  • Harry Reid
  • Bernie Sanders
  • Christopher Dodd
  • Bernadine Dohrn
  • Bill Ayers
  • Andrew Lloyd Webber
  • Donald Trump
  • Paul Krugman
  • Ben & Jerry
  • Keith Richards
  • Mick Jagger
  • Janet Jackson

I might quibble with  few on that list, but overall, it’s target-rich.

I’ve seen more straight talk and balance in Viagra commercials

“I’ve seen more straight talk and balance in Viagra commercials.” Theron Bowers, M.D., on a 60 Minutes story about Adderal and Ritalin use among college students that began with perky Katie Couric asking “If there were a drug that would make you smarter, would you take it?”

I may be influenced in this by Errol Beumel, whose mental problems, exacerbated by Adderal addiction, ended with him systematically unloading a clip into his school teacher father.

What’s a “Tea Partier”?

I’m starting to think that ‘Tea Partier” has become a largely brain-dead epithet for mainstream media, much as “fundamentalist” has long been.

Jim DeMint is “The hero of the tea partiers” and believes that “the market is freedom incarnate; an institution of superhuman goodness.”

Rand Paul’s primary win is a “Tea Party Victory,” but he conspicuously believes in austerity and peace – a very Front Porch Republic kind of guy. I read that about him and felt very friendly, though I have no association with the Tea Party (beyond being fed up with both major parties, as they are rumored to be as well).

I have no idea what the Tea Party is supposed to stand for and how one can reliably be indicted for being a Tea Party kinda guy.