Ben Regenspan's Blog

Being a moron or Mark Steyn should not be a crime

Ben Regenspan — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:49:00 EST

You could say that Mark Steyn is the brightest Canadian conservative to offer widely syndicated commentary on US politics; of course, he is also the only one. Steyn, who thinks it'd be a good idea for Israel to just go ahead and invade Syria, has explicitly advocated that the US adopt an imperial system (yes, using that word), and has argued that illegal immigrants live idyllic lives on account of not having to pay taxes (the biggest problem with this being the fact that, by and large, they do). As Campus Progress and other sources have tirelessly documented, Steyn's views on most subjects range from racist to ludicrous to just plain stupid. After reading his work, some might be tempted to take his advice, institute a new American empire, and then by imperial decree require him and all other Canadian writers, collateral damage or not, to put down their pens and pick up hockey sticks, that the emperor might be entertained and that we may never again have to read such drivel.

Ben Stein and Intelligent Design

Ben Regenspan — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:35:17 EDT

Former game-show host, somewhat unenthusiastic Campus Progress conference promoter, and public intellectual Ben Stein recently came out in favor of intelligent design (or some similar cocktail of science and creationism), narrating a documentary on what he deems the "supression and entrenched discrimination" against creationist ideas in the sciences. Like other proponents of the idea, he attempts to explain its failure to persuade scientists and educators as the product of an unfairly-fought campaign by a handful of Dawkins fans, and not deficiencies in the "theory" itself.

University of Iowa bans corn-on-the-cob eating contest

Ben Regenspan — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:20:52 EDT

As part of the recent bout of anti-fat silliness, the U of Iowa has banned corn-on-the-cob eating contests:

"I don't know that anyone can say that's a healthy concept," Jones said of the event planned by the U of I Alumni Association.

Jones asked his staff to veto eating contests to support new health-conscious initiatives on campus, he said. The corn-on-the-cob contest is not the first to hit the compost pile; a hot dog eating contest planned by the residence halls was also trashed.

Of course, we all know what kind of total fatties these contests produce.

The medievalization of the Heritage Foundation continues

Ben Regenspan — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:59:55 EDT

A lot can be said about the Heritage Foundation. Its researchers continue to advocate marriage as a panacea to cure all ills, including, most recently, child abuse, but persist in opposing gay marriage (children of gay couples, the logic seems to be, are screwed either way.) Even as conservative and centrist opposition to the war in Iraq has rapidly increased (spreading even to their own, soon-fired staff members) and the lack of progress there has become more apparent, they continue to insist the surge is working. And the president of the organization continues to publish absurdly misleading and unscientific takes on global warming.

But...

Bourne Ultimatum most action-packed, anti-US in trilogy

Ben Regenspan — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:56:30 EDT

That's what Mickey Kaus is arguing, in a paean to Bill O'Reilly, over at Slate. He goes so far as to say that Bourne made him "feel guilty," in part because "the film is unredeemed by any sense that America or the American government ever stands for or does anything that is right." (He also points out, rather ominously, that "[i]t is a big hit overseas," nevermind it grossing pretty damn high in the US.)

Huffington Post calls for military takeover of US

Ben Regenspan — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:11:06 EDT

...or so says Mark Steyn, the Canadian conservative who blogs for National Review and appears on right-wing talk shows to call the Vietnamese "gooks" from time to time:

The American left completes its long strange trip of the last 40 years. The Huffington Post is now calling for military usurpation of civil authority and has volunteered General Peter Pace for the Musharraf/Pinochet/Master Sergeant Sam Doe role:

The obvious problem here is that everyone and their mother writes for Huffington Post (though some of those writing for HuffPo are smarter than others), and that it's generally silly, even in the context of a joke, to argue that one opinion columnist represents a given media outlet (much less "the American left") as a whole. One might as well argue that all right-wingers are "gook"-spouting Canadian paranoids who genuinely fear a radical Islamic takeover of the West in the coming years and think it prudent to bomb Iran as soon as possible.

Bureaucracy is a lot like torture

Ben Regenspan — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:24:06 EDT

According to an article in today's Washington Post, President Bush told Egyptian resistance leader Saad Eddin Ibrahim in June that:

I too am a dissident in Washington. Bureaucracy in the United States does not help change. It seems that Mubarak succeeded in brainwashing them.

If we ignore certain facts, like that Bush is the leader of the most powerful country in the world, has never been imprisoned or tortured for political reasons, and that his administration has been all too willing to cooperate with Mubarak in his utter disregard for civil and human rights, then, yes, our president is a whole lot like Ibrahim.

Horowitz knows the real problem with the War on Terror

Ben Regenspan — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:38:47 EDT

...which is that no one's making enough oversimplistic, excruciatingly poorly-produced Cold War-style videos about the enemy.

Thankfully the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation (named for, and by, Mr. Horowitz) is helping to ensure that we win this war like the one before it. Presenting: "Know About Jihad," the Freedom Foundation's latest subtle effort at boosting global awareness of terrorism, a problem that goes completely ignored by the mainstream media.

Heritage Foundation being converted into domestic Gitmo?

Ben Regenspan — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:28:30 EDT

You might have other, less plausible, ideas, but to me that's what appears to be going on at the conservative think tank, whose grounds have been obscured by ominous, barbed-wire-topped fencing for the past couple of weeks.

Since the photos below were taken, Heritage's Liberty Bell logo has been removed from the building's entrance and it appears that the forces behind this are now digging some sort of moat.

Given the organization's repeatedly-professed fondness for the prison camp in question, it's no surprise if they're remodeling to better approximate Gitmo (where "detainee procedures exceed the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. law, and customary international law.")

In defense of imparting political views to cartoons

Ben Regenspan — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:04:59 EDT

Not to step in the way of someone else's blog battle, but this response, by Michael Moynihan of Reason, to Ben Adler's response to Moynihan's criticisms of his Simpsons column, seems to merit another response (feel free to read this in the voice of Comic Book Guy). Being the only Ben in the office at the moment, I think this duty falls to me.

20% of Chicago kids involved in dog-fighting?

Ben Regenspan — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 23:34:22 EDT

Anderson Cooper just reported a short while ago that survey research has shown 20% of Chicago elementary school students to have been directly involved in dog fights at some point or other. Now, having been raised by wolves with no TV, my cable news sensationalism radar might not be calibrated correctly. But does this sound like a somewhat dubious statistic to anyone else? Anyone from the Windy City care to comment?

Either 1 out of 5 Chicago kids is watching dogs tear eachother to shreds or we're seeing some of the usual media disregard for the limitations of survey research.

And they say the left engages in too much hyperbole?

Ben Regenspan — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:38:48 EDT

OK, I know it's just The Washington Times being The Washington Times, but check out the headline on this editorial.

Reality continues to mirror Desperate Housewives

Ben Regenspan — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:06:41 EDT

Remember the episode where suburban prostitute Maisie Gibbons is arrested and her client list made public? Of course you do. Well, a recent decision by a federal judge means that another well-dressed lady who was (allegedly) in the prostitution business can release her own little black book:

WASHINGTON -- A woman accused of running a prostitution ring in the nation's capital is free to distribute thousands of pages of phone records after a federal judge lifted a restraining order on Thursday.
...
"As a result, Jeane [Palfrey] has determined to release those records under certain conditions to qualified individuals or organizations," wrote her attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, in an e-mail.

Could you water that truth down a little bit, please?

Ben Regenspan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:00:32 EDT

Mona Charen, writing on National Review's blog, complains about the directness of a Washington Post headline this morning:

The Post’s headline on its Cheney series this morning (in the print, not online edition) is stunning: “The Unseen Path to Cruelty.” I admit that I haven’t read the entire article (life is too busy and too short to spend valuable time reading 200,000 word Post articles) but I’ve read enough to understand that today’s installment concerns the treatment of detainees. “Cruelty?” That is much too freighted a word to appear in a news headline.

Or is it? There are some limits to engaging in media criticism based solely on headlines.

We have the high score in Iraq

Ben Regenspan — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 01:00:49 EDT

It's a day of the week, which means that over at National Review's blog, Michael Ledeen has just uncovered a new fact that completely redeems the war in Iraq and proves the liberal media has been engaging in a massive cover-up:

Actual Data on Iraq Deaths on Both Sides [Michael Ledeen]
From the great Jules Crittenden . (via Istapundit [sic], without whom modern life is hardly worth it) Bottom Line is that we're killing terrorists at a ten-to-one rate...