Friday Funny... and not so funny
First, the good comedy, available through the link above. It's been a banner week for the Daily Show, and this 'video essay' on Bush's job description manages to put some much-needed humor in Fearless Leader's semi-coherent ramblings on what exactly it is he does in the White House. And why we shouldn't question it. Watch, enjoy, and continue to marvel at the fact that a third of the population still thinks he's doing a bang-up job.
Now the not-so-funny item. The New Republic has been going through some tough times in the last few years (or even decade), and along the way they've earned piles of well-deserved criticism for their adoption of DLC-style politics. That is, taking a giant step to the political right and calling it bipartisanship. The idea being that the only way Democrats can win in our conservative (huh?) nation is by appealing to right-wingers. Some of the goofiest episodes have involved TNR's attacks on progressive blogs. Most of these rants were confined to the online-only content, but the latest (courtesy of Peter Beinart) made it into the pages of the magazine. And it's pretty silly:
I think Peter Beinart's TRB this week deserves a response. The editorial focuses on the lack of (online) liberal outrage after the Deutsche Oper yanked the opera Idomeneo, which features Muhammad's decapitated head, out of a desire to avoid controversy. The liberal blogs said nothing. Not so with the conservosphere, which erupted in outrage. Many liberals," Beinart writes, "seem unable to conceive of a struggle in which the Republican right is not an enemy but an ally. But there are such struggles, and, without today's activist liberals, they will be harder to win. Free speech is under threat, and Idomeneo should be the last straw."
Beinart might be making a valid point and all, but as Ezra Klein goes on to point out in his post (which I recommend), it all comes down to one word: priorities. The cancellation of a few performances of an opera in Germany seems like pretty small kartoffeln compared to, say, our own government fighting for the right to imprison and torture citizens without charges. But that's the DLC for ya. And increasingly, TNR.
Now the not-so-funny item. The New Republic has been going through some tough times in the last few years (or even decade), and along the way they've earned piles of well-deserved criticism for their adoption of DLC-style politics. That is, taking a giant step to the political right and calling it bipartisanship. The idea being that the only way Democrats can win in our conservative (huh?) nation is by appealing to right-wingers. Some of the goofiest episodes have involved TNR's attacks on progressive blogs. Most of these rants were confined to the online-only content, but the latest (courtesy of Peter Beinart) made it into the pages of the magazine. And it's pretty silly:
I think Peter Beinart's TRB this week deserves a response. The editorial focuses on the lack of (online) liberal outrage after the Deutsche Oper yanked the opera Idomeneo, which features Muhammad's decapitated head, out of a desire to avoid controversy. The liberal blogs said nothing. Not so with the conservosphere, which erupted in outrage. Many liberals," Beinart writes, "seem unable to conceive of a struggle in which the Republican right is not an enemy but an ally. But there are such struggles, and, without today's activist liberals, they will be harder to win. Free speech is under threat, and Idomeneo should be the last straw."
Beinart might be making a valid point and all, but as Ezra Klein goes on to point out in his post (which I recommend), it all comes down to one word: priorities. The cancellation of a few performances of an opera in Germany seems like pretty small kartoffeln compared to, say, our own government fighting for the right to imprison and torture citizens without charges. But that's the DLC for ya. And increasingly, TNR.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 5:11 PM
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