To nobody’s surprise (not mine anyway) California vintners have beaten their French competition again in a replay of the legendary “Judgment of Paris“. But … bragging rights aside … who can afford this stuff anyway? When I’m out buying a bottle of vino these days, I usually end up here.

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It seems like years ago that Powerline , this blog and some others were giving our all for the Internet populist campaigns of Peter “Tear down this wall!” Robinson and Todd “Volokh Conspiracy” Zywicki for the ultra fuddy-duddy Dartmouth Board of Trustees. (To our surprise, they won.) Actually it was only slightly more than a year ago, but no matter. The counter-revolutionaries are already back. Read about it here.

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It’s up on Pajamas. Guest panelist Jeff Goldstein rocks.

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I remain a tremendous admirer of Tony Blair. In the face of even more opposition in his own country than we have here, he keeps his eye on the democratic ball:

“This is a child of democracy struggling to be born,” Blair said in a speech at Georgetown University. “Surely we must all accept this as a genuine attempt,” he said, urging the world community to take on the role of midwife.

“If Iraqis can show their faith in democracy by voting for it, shouldn’t we show ours by supporting them?” Blair asked.

“The war split the world,” Blair, a rare ally of President Bush in going to war, acknowledged in his speech. “The struggle of Iraqis for democracy should unite them.”

He said he found on a visit to Iraq that its leaders want a democratic state. “They want the rule of law, not violence,” Blair said to a quiet, attentive audience.

Blair is needed now more than ever as the propaganda war is certain to get worse. (NOTE: By linking this I do not in the slightest condone the action by these Marines. I am merely pointing that ugliness on all sides is inevitable in all wars – and that we can look forward to it being exploited in ways that will make us crazy. I use Blair as my personal example of stability.)

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Some creeps who run a piece of junk called SHOCK Magazine have stolen a copyrighted photo by Michael Yon for their front cover. Besides being thieves, these lowlifes who run this rag are the kind of ahistorical nitwits who equate the Iraq War with Vietnam. Figures.

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The Washington Post article linked below or this report from MEMRI – Riots in Tehran Universities: ‘We Don’t Want Nuclear Energy’. (MEMRI, of course, provides footnotes and photos. The WaPo provides nothing. How predicatable.)

UPDATE: MEMRI also has some satire that probably won’t mean much to the reified minds at the WaPo.

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Maybe it’s a symptom of living in Hollywood, but most of my left-leaning friends are rich. Very rich. They buy expensive (hybrid) cars, live in multi-million dollar homes with servants and “assistants” and take fancy vacations (often in second homes in upscale resorts). My left-wing media friends in New York aren’t so badly off either. Nearly all of them (on both coasts) believe the current global problem is a result of Third World poverty and nothing more. They cannot conceive that it is not about material wealth because so much of life is about just that for them (plus fame, of course).

Egyptian-Italian journalist Magdi Allam, an editor of Corriere della Sera currently visiting Israel to receive an award, sees it differently. An excellent article in Haaretz today details Mr. Allam’s thinking. Among other things he states:

“My goal is to free the West from the nihilism that has spread in its midst, from the lack of values that leads to the growth of radical Islam,” says Allam. “In the face of the threat from radical Islam, the West must be united and formulate a shared value system that sanctifies life and denounces the right to kill.”

In the parlance, read it all. (hat tip: Sheryl)

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Vodkapundit is, ahem, a little younger than I and he’s definitely put himself on the side of youthful speed this morning in making fun of my contemporary Hillary Clinton for suggesting a return to the 55-mile speed limit. And I’d certainly agree with Will Collier that this is unlikely to win Hillary many votes. But I would humbly suggest that there are a lot of votes to be garnered in the area of oil conservation. I can give you three reasons: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela. Every time you “Fill ‘er up!” and express your American born-to-run thing, a lot of people (Will included, I would imagine) are remembering in the back of their minds whose pockets they’re lining – as creepier a collection of greedy and dangerous theocrats and mafiosi as currently exist on the planet. No matter how you stand on global warming this should disturb you.

So if I were running for President in the near future, I’d be thinking big time about energy conservation and alternative fuels because it cuts across party and ideological lines. Some favor it for ecological reasons; others out of committment to the war on terror. Some even out of both. It’s a win-win-win. (via PJ)

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Mainstream media journalism is more mysterious than blogs – and consequently more opaque. And by feigning objectivity, the mainstream is often more potent at propaganda – or at least tries to be. An interesting example is Wednesday’s Washington Post article Iran Requests Direct Talks on Nuclear Program. It doesn’t take a great deconstructionist to understand that the authors – Karl Vick and Dafna Linzer – are writing with a specific intent: to promote US direct negotiation with Iran. Numerous quotes, anonymous (como siempre) and attributed, are sprinkled throughout the article to create that effect while delicately preserving the illusion of objectivity. Unfortunately, they give the game away by ending the article thusly: “We have not had any relations for so many years, and Iran was always accused of being unwilling to talk,” Masood Mohammadi, 23, said as he left Friday prayers last week. “Now Iran has taken the first step, and I hope the U.S. president replies in kind.”

Now who is Masood Mohammadi and why should he stand in for all Iranian public opinion? No reason is given other than, perhaps, the number 23 – the implication being that he is (or stands for) Iranian youth. Of course that’s not possible for any single person (in a country of 70 million!). The Washington Post writers are fiddling in the nether regions of propaganda here. But no matter. It is not exceptional. This is how journalism is practiced on a daily basis and, to a great extent, taught. Most readers of this blog know to beware of it, but I will go a bit further (following my earlier reference to deconstruction).

The writers of this article, although they may think they are subtly supporting an argument, are also sabotaging those beliefs. Today’s more sophisticated reader is increasingly educated in and put off by this style of writing. Using myself as an example, I do not have a fixed opinion on whether we should negotiate with Iran. I simply do not know enough. But when I read an article like this, I become immediately suspicious. Who is writing this and why, I want to know. What clandestine operative is whispering in what reporter’s ear? Cui bono? My back is up… I am being manipulated. My stance toward negotiating with Iran shifts to the negative.

Do the reporters realize they are doing this? Probably not… but possibly yes (somewhere in their subconscious) . They have a different, deeper intention unknowable even to them. In a time when the liberals are conservative and the conservatives liberal, who are we any longer to say?

UPDATE: Brother Michael has less patience for these clods than I do.

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Elie Wiesel was one of the writers of Israeli PM Ehud Olmert’s speech to the US Congress today. It was evidently well-received.

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