Thursday, April 01, 2010

 

Foolin' Yourself

This NRCC April Fool's ad would have been so much more effective had they just stopped at the one-minute mark:





The parody and snark ("emission-free unicorns," "renewable rainbow energy") was genuinely funny. Using Obama's campaign words on individual mandate against him -- and Hillary's sarcastic "celestial choir will sing" lines make the point very adroitly.


Tossing in the 30-second rant just spoiled the pointed fun that had come before, making the final product sadly generic.

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Can't Spell Irony Without A-C-L-U

Amazingly, this is not an April Fool's joke.  Unless the organization in question has decided to make itself look like a fool. 


The Mississippi ACLU -- upset that a local school canceled its senior prom rather than allow a lesbian to bring her girlfriend to the dance -- decided to help organize the raising of private funds to sponsor alternate events. Then it got a $20,000 donation -- and the fun really started.


The organization explained why it chose to reject the gift:
The gift, to sponsor one of several privately sponsored alternate events, came from the American Humanist Association, an advocacy group whose mission is to promote “good without God.”


“Although we support and understand organizations like yours, the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word ‘atheist,’ ” Jennifer Carr, the fund-raiser for the A.C.L.U of Mississippi, wrote in an e-mail message to Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the humanist group.
So, rather than take on the controversy of being associated with a group that could be labeled atheist, the Mississippi ACLU is rejecting the gift! Talk about craven! 


Now, if the ACLU were a "political" organization -- as traditionally understood -- such a decision might be understandable. But this is supposedly a civil liberties group. It's supposed to stand for unpopular speech or groups that express unpopular ideas! When did the ACLU only acquiesce to the views of the "majority"? Heck, the "majority of Missippians" likely have problems with the word "lesbian."


So if Mississippi banned the Humanist Association from even operating in the state because it was "atheist," would the MS-ACLU decline to help represent it?


Maybe they're just planning on changing the meaning of their abbreviation to American Caving Leisurely Association. 

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Monday, March 29, 2010

 

Frum Here To Hypocrisy

So, a fair amount of blogosphere mileage was produced last week by AEI's firing of David Frum -- either for not doing enough to promote AEI activities or because of his denunciation of Republican health care strategy.  Adopting the latter view, his wife, Danielle Crittenden rallies to his side at The Huffington Post


A mini-war has broken out at The  Daily Beast, with Tunku Varadarajan blasting Frum as a pseudo-conservative who just wants to be loved by the liberal establishment. Meanwhile, Christopher Buckley defends Frum as "just what the [conservative] movement needs now more than  ever --- a contrarian." 


Far be it from me to disagree with the son of the man who basically built 20th century conservatism, but Buckley is only half-right (no pun intended). The movement may be in dire need of a contrarian.  But Frum's problem was that he was the worst person to fill that role. 
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