9-29-2009

Morning Bell: What The Baucus Bill Will Cost You

Frank Fleming’s Advice to liberals about how to calm down those dangerous, racist, angry, fire-breathing right-wingers: Despite the apparent menace, imprisonment of conservatives for their dangerous attitudes is not yet an option (we’ll be pushing that bill right before the midterm elections). Thus we must make other efforts to quell conservative anger. Here are some ideas…

Obama’s Dick Cheney Moment: Obama’s decision will have several major consequences, all of them bad.

Roman Polanski, George Orwell, and Salvador Dali…good artists are not necessarily good people and bad people are not necessarily bad artists. The first writer I encountered who explored this issue was George Orwell in his essay on Dali…When Orwell says that even a reborn Shakespeare couldn’t get away with “raping little girls,” he was either reflecting the mores of the times (1944) — or he forgot about Hollywood.

You Commit Three Felonies a Day: An “anti-cyber bullying” proposal is making its way through Congress, prompted by the tragic case of a 13-year-old girl driven to suicide by the mother of a neighbor posing as a teenage boy and posting abusive messages on MySpace. The law would prohibit using the Internet to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.” Imagine a law that tried to apply this control of speech to letters, editorials or lobbying.

Mark Steyn: If you want to win, look at whom the Democrats and their media chums are so frantic to destroy: That’s the better guide to what they’re really worried about.

Filed under: Chip by Chip