THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
True peace of
heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in
satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in
the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in
the fervent and spiritual man.
-- Saint Thomas à Kempis, The
Imitation Of Christ
Kevin
Michael Grace, 11.49 pm, 15 May 2006►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
I see the buffalo! I see the
Indian! I am the Indian! ... I always wondered why
I hated the federal government and loved tobacco with such
passion. But now it all makes sense.
-- Dale Gribble, King Of The Hill, "Vision
Quest" (Etan Cohen)
Kevin
Michael Grace, 12.39 pm, 12 May 2006►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
It's not fair to suggest the
MSM alone convinced Americans to send some sons and
daughter to fight. But the press went out of its way to
tell a pleasing, administration-friendly tale about the
pending war. In truth, Bush never could have ordered the
invasion of Iraq -- never could have sold the idea at home
-- if it weren't for the help he received from the MSM,
and particularly the stamp of approval he received from
so-called liberal media institutions such as the Washington
Post, which in February of 2003 alone, editorialized
in favor of war nine times. (Between September 2002 and
February 2003, the paper editorialized twenty-six times in
favor of the war.) The Post had plenty of company
from the liberal East Coast media cabal, with high-profile
columnists and editors -- the newfound liberal hawks -- at
the New Yorker, Newsweek, Time, the New York
Times, the
New Republic and elsewhere all signing on for a war of
preemption. By the time the invasion began, the de
facto position among the Beltway chattering class was
clearly one that backed Bush and favored war. Years later
the New York Times Magazine wrote that most
"journalists in Washington found it almost
inconceivable, even during the period before a fiercely
contested midterm election [in 2002], that the
intelligence used to justify the war might simply be
invented." Hollywood peace activists could conceive
it, but serious Beltway journalists could not? That's hard
to believe. More likely journalists could conceive it but,
understanding the MSM unspoken guidelines -- both social
and political -- were too timid to express it at the time
of war.
To oppose the invasion vocally
was to be outside the media mainstream and to invite
scorn. Like some nervous Democratic members of Congress
right before the war, MSM journalists and pundits seemed
to scramble for political cover so as to not subject
themselves to conservative catcalls. One year later, a
pro-war writer for Slate conceded he was
"embarrassed" by his support for the ill-fated
invasion but he insisted, "you've got to take
risks." But supporting the war posed no professional
risk. The only MSM risks taken at the time of the invasion
were by pundits who staked out an unambiguous position in
opposing the war. Bush's rationale for war -- Saddam
Hussein, sitting on a swelling stockpile of weapons of
mass destruction, posing a grave and imminent threat to
America -- turned out to be untrue. And for that, the
press must shoulder some blame. Because the MSM not only
failed to ask pressing questions, or raise serious doubts
about the White House's controversial WMD assertion, but
in some high-profile instances, such as with Judith
Miller's reporting for the New York Times, the MSM
were responsible for spreading the White House deceptions
about Saddam's alleged stockpile; they were guilty of
"incestuous amplification," as former Florida
senator Senator Bob Graham called it. Being meek and timid
and dictating administration spin amidst a wartime culture
is one thing. But to be actively engaged in the spin, to
give it a louder and more hysterical voice, is something
else all together. In fact, the compliant press repeated
almost every administration claim about the threat posed
to America by Saddam. The fact that virtually every one of
those claims turned out to be false only added to the
media's malpractice.
-- Eric
Boehlert (and see here)
Kevin
Michael Grace, 1.31 am, 8 May 2006►
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Sonny
Bono, in the fight over Proposition
187 (the 1994 initiative that would have
rescinded welfare benefits for illegal aliens) had the
best line about the debate over illegal immigration. Many
charges were tossed back and forth about the initiative
and the motivation of its sponsors. The response of the
future Congressman to those charges was always: “What is
it about illegal that they don’t understand?”
-- Ray
Haynes
Kevin
Michael Grace, 9.34 am, 1 May 2006►
PENSÉE
A day without Mexicans is a day without sedition.
Kevin
Michael Grace, 10.31 am, 1 May 2006►
POETRY CORNER
Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna And Child With Two Angels
The May Magnificat
May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season --
Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?
Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?
Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring? --
Growth in every thing --
Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested
Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.
All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.
Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.
Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.
When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry
And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all --
This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.
-- Gerard Manley Hopkins
Kevin
Michael Grace, 10.26 am, 1 May 2006►
