Consider this an experiment if you will; one column, chock full of links to those other places in the internets dimension that are either amusing, or relevant to the issues that matter to us, or both. A sort of web-based version of the brief summations that NR and the American Spectator do so well. If it is well-recieved and I don’t get bored with it, we will continue. If not, we’ve got plenty of other stuff to throw against the wall in hopes of finding the sticky stuff. And if anyone has any interesting links that would be good for future editions of The Overnights, e-mail me. Just gotta be both fresh and interesting.
With that disclaimership out of the way, let us begin.
Obama will not be rushed into a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan. Perish the thought. It’s not like there are people getting killed or anything. It’s not like your hand-picked military commander told you he needed the troops. It’s not like the Prez said that Afghanistan was the “real war”, the one we have to win, during the campaign. By all means, dither away – the boys can always dig their foxholes a little deeper, right?
Speaking of Fox holes, the President and his cronies are certainly digging a big one in their weird “battle with/advertising campaign for” Fox News. The number one news network continues to attract more viewers and the White House is doing their part to make it happen. Althouse links up to a nice story in the L.A. Times, in which Fox celebrates the one-sided battle with unabashed glee.
Steyn should feel guilty for all the fun he had with Fox v. Obama. You could positively hear The Happy Warrior chortoling in his Orange County Register column yesterday. Favorite quote from the piece:
(The) official White House Web site runs teasers such as: “For even more Fox lies, check out the latest ‘Truth-O-Meter.’” It gives off the air of somebody only marginally less paranoid than this week’s president-for-life in some basket-case banana republic ranting on the palace balcony because his interior security chief isn’t doing a fast-enough job of disappearing his enemies.
Risking a double dose of Steyn, you healthy American boys out there will want to click through this Steynpost from The Corner at NRO to get to the video. Sayeth the Steyn:
“(I)f the actress were truly a believer as opposed to a jobbing actress, taking this underdressed gig would earn her an honor killing.”
Honor killing will be the furthest thing from your mind. Trust me.
Frequent Threedonian Flyer Republibot 3.0 posted a piece at his blog on a theme that has always fascinated yours truly: mankind’s love affair with the end of the world. He says, in one portion of a well-written and thoughtful entry:
But the point is that we love the end of the world, we find movies like “The Road Warrior” kind of reassuring. We love books like those crappy “Left Behind” novels. (My very well educated uncle, who’s never been even remotely religious, loves those books!). We love end of the world crap like “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012.” If you’ve ever wondered why so much of American SF is apocalyptic, there you go.
And while we’re on the subject of the world’s demise, Harry Reid (not required to submit to socialized medicine) and his Democrat colleagues in the Senate (ditto) have crafted their version of the health care bill, one guaranteed to keep America from collapsing into the chaos that so threatens us at overcrowded emergency rooms across the nation. The public “option” lives!
Who needs it? Not the Senate, not Hollywood and, National Review’s Duncan Currie argues, certainly not the 46 million uninsured the Obama bandied about at as being at risk at one time. I believe that the Prez has since lowered the number to 30 million, but it’s really hard to keep track of which version of “reality” we are in. (Is this reality 3.1 or 4.0?) Currie puts the number of legal citizens who can not legitimately afford insurance at around 10 million. He argues – persuasively – that the best way to help those people has nothing to do with government intervention and the absolute worst thing you could do would be to get the government involved. But understanding those arguments require reading three whole pages of copy, and you know that Democrats are WAY too busy to do that.
And finally, over at The Bleat, Lileks started “Five Days of Frankenstein” today. Could this be because James (don’t call me Jim) has a face that only Lon Chaney could love?
My oh my! That was low of me. Still, if you can’t out-write ‘em, you might as well point out that you can kick their ass in a follicle counting contest. Lileks’ send-up of Frankenstein is typical Lileks, which is to say that it is both spot-on and hilarious. Check it out – and here’s a taste:
(T)he villagers convene with the usual pitchfork-and-torches gala parade…
That’s so Lileks. The word “gala” is the key here. Without “gala”, the observation falls flat – it has no spice. If he chose something stronger – pitchfork-and-torches “spectacular” – for example, it would have sounded like he was trying too hard. “Gala” is just the right touch.
I often wonder if Lileks pulls those metaphors out of his head, or whether he wears out the Thesarus function in MS Word in order to come up with them. Probably the former – the bastard.
Obama will not be rushed into a decision
This isn’t something important like stimulus! (sorry Mike, it was too good to pass up).
Great addition to Threedonia! I love a column that mentions two of my favorites together, James Lileks and Mark Steyn.
As for The One not rushed into making a decision about troops for Afghanistan – hey, it’s not like they’re battling insurance companies or anything so why worry?
“The unvarying wardrobe was a matter of some speculation, too – but it’s interesting to consider that Frank wears a sport coat through most of his career, which makes the undead heap of homicidal urges whose very existence is an affront to God better dressed than most people at the mall.” Much to ponder there.
It all goes back to a previous period of Global Cooling, “the year without a summer,” 1816, when Mary Godwin, along with her lover Percy “Bee-yatch” Shelley, Lord Byron, and his doctor, John Polidori, spent a cold, rainy vacation in a villa on Lake Geneva. Since the weather wasn’t conducive to their preferred entertainment (running around naked and having sex with partners of various genders and species), they agreed to have a ghost story writing contest. Byron’s and Shelley’s stories were never completed, but Mary wrote a story that became a novel, based on a nightmare.
But Dr. Polidori also wrote a short story, called “The Vampyre,” the first English vampire story. I’m told (and I believe it) that he based his vampire on Byron, who treated him like dirt. Polidori’s story established the template (very different from the genuine folklore–read Paul Barber’s Vampires, Burial and Death http://www.amazon.com/Vampires-Burial-Death-Folklore-Reality/dp/0300048599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256664268&sr=8-1 for the unappetizing details) for English vampires forever, so when you see some tall, thin, arrogant guy in a nice suit playing a vampire in a movie, you’re seeing a character based on Byron.
Have I said this already in comments on an earlier post? I think maybe I have. I don’t care. It’s slow here today.
Nice feature. Keep it up.
Ibid.