PostWatch

Over Here

Local PBS station WETA ran the old "Victory at Sea" series yesterday, Memorial Day. The series, which was produced and broadcast in the middle of the Korean War, was a patriotic reprise of World War 2. Steve Schoenherr of the University of San Diego writes:

It was conceived and produced by Henry Salomon who had worked as a research assistant for Samuel Eliot Morison who was in the process of writing a 15-volume history of the Navy in World War II. Morison helped Salomon get Navy approval for the documentary, and that persuaded NBC chairman David Sarnoff, father of Salomon's Harvard classmate Robert Sarnoff, to finance the $500,000 cost of production. NBC recovered its cost later from sponsors, although in its first run no ads were allowed to be inserted in middle of the program, only at the beginning and end. The Navy would use the films for recruitment and training. NBC set up a special production unit in January 1951 and scoured 10 countries for motion picture film....

Who can imagine anything like that happening today? Instead, even in what passes for tributes, we get this from DeNeen L. Brown in the Style section yesterday:

The entire West Lawn of the Capitol was filled last night with sad stories of old heroes from old wars and young heroes from new ones...

And of phone calls home: "Mom, I promise you I will be back." But he came back in a steel casket..."

An excerpt that seems to accurately reflect at least part of the presentation of the National Memorial Day Concert. Nonetheless, NRO's Michael Ledeen is essentially correct in noting the lack of tributes to fallen warriors in the mainstream media--tributes that properly honor what they have done and understand why they have done it.  Or, I will add, provide a clear understanding about what's at stake.

Us. We're at stake.

By the way, the score for Victory at Sea was written by Richard Rodgers. Yes, that Rodgers.

Thank You

Photo from the Defense Department website DefendAmerica.mil. The caption reads: MEMORIAL DAY  IN AFGHANISTAN — U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Wayne A. White plays taps during a Memorial Day ceremony at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, May 28, 2006. White is assigned to the 10th Mountain Division Band, based in Fort Drum, N.Y. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Robert R. Ramon

Life In The Bubble

I suppose at some point Lou Dolinar's comprehensive report at Real Clear Politics on the spectacular misreporting of Hurricane Katrina will penetrate the liberal media site  Romenesko, but not yet.

Dolinar:

Remember the dozens, maybe hundreds, of rapes, murders, stabbings and deaths resulting from official neglect at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina? The ones that never happened, as even the national media later admitted?

Sure, we all remember the original reporting, if not the back-pedaling.

Here's another one: Do you remember the dramatic TV footage of National Guard helicopters landing at the Superdome as soon as Katrina passed, dropping off tens of thousands saved from certain death? The corpsmen running with stretchers, in an echo of M*A*S*H, carrying the survivors to ambulances and the medical center? About how the operation, which also included the Coast Guard, regular military units, and local first responders, continued for more than a week?

Me neither. Except that it did happen, and got at best an occasional, parenthetical mention in the national media. The National Guard had its headquarters for Katrina, not just a few peacekeeping troops, in what the media portrayed as the pit of Hell. Hell was one of the safest places to be in New Orleans, smelly as it was. The situation was always under control, not surprisingly because the people in control were always there....

As I say, none of this yet at Romenesko, though we do have link for Brenner on anti-press hysteria and Paying Iraqi Journos For Puff Pieces Could Hurt U.S. Credibility. And a letter proclaiming there's no justice in the world if the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Nola.com doesn't win an award for a detailed flood animation. That's the chief problem with Katrina coverage, of course--not enough awards.

Much coverage on the right side of the web including NRO's Media Blog and a proper column by Jonah Goldberg.

Friday Philosophy Class

Via Jonah Goldberg at NRO, Matt Yglesias on the supposed absence of objective morality. He starts by quoting Fred Siegel, then adds his own comment:

If, as Michel Foucault told the Berkeley faculty in 1983, "There is no universal criterion which permits us to say, this category of power relations are bad and those are good," then there is no way to prefer a liberal society to fascism, communism, or Islamism.

[Yglesias:] Tragically, I don't have time for a full-throated defense of my meta-ethical views at the moment. But this kind of claim, oft-made, is clearly false. Is there a universal criterion by which I judge whether I like chocolate ice cream better than vanilla ice cream? Presumably not. Is there, therefore no way to prefer chocolate ice cream to vanilla ice cream? Obiously, no; people are walking around with preferences about this as we speak, and it's fine....

They say there's no weaker form of argument than analogy. But there is--a stupid analogy.

You can read it all, but it won't help.

Bush on Illegal Immigration: Mush Made of Straw

A permanent legal resident who joined the Marines doesn't tell us much about 12 million illegals. Even if you say it like 12 million times.

Nobody who matters has called for mass deportation of illegal aliens. Precious few who don't matter have.

High-tech infra-red GPS-triangulating proton-displacement sensors or whatever President Bush has in mind for border protection sounds great. But there's nothing like a wall that says Message: I Care.

Other than that, I loved the speech.

The 101st Fighting Keyboardists

I've joined this cyber-brigade, explained here at Captain's Quarters:

Our friends on the port side of the blogosphere have had quite a time tossing around funny little nicknames for those of us who support the war on terror and use our blogs to express our convictions about it. We've seen the names here at CQ in the comments section -- the term "chickenhawk" has appeared more than once, and others in the blogosphere have assigned us to a unit called the 101st Fighting Keyboardists.

I've thought about that for a while, wondering what exactly about both epithets appear so fascinating to left-wing bloggers. As a middle-aged grandfather supporting a chronically ill wife, I have few options for doing my part in the war on terror. After 9/11, I spent weeks looking into different options for service while trying to balance my family obligations. Our family found out just three weeks after the attack that the Little Admiral would soon join us, and the implications of terrorism and war weighed heavily on my mind. I resolved to use the skills I had -- writing -- to make the case for fighting a forward strategy against terrorists. Eventually that led me to this blog, but in the interim I argued for a continued muscular offensive against the Islamofascists that had murdered thousands of our fellow Americans.

Is that the same as military service? Of course not. The men and women of the military do the real fighting, and we salute them and support them by supporting their mission. Milbloggers give us the best of both worlds by not only defending our nation and fighting (and beating) terrorists around the globe, but also by reporting on the fight first hand. There is honor in engaging in public debate for policies which we believe are in our nation's best interest as well. For many of us, we know that without presenting our arguments in the national forum, many in the media and the public will quickly overpower the debate and threaten the policies we feel give us the best long-term opportunity to defeat terrorism and the states that fund and shelter them.

Many on the left disagree, however, and often they provide challenging arguments and valuable perspectives on policy and the manner in which it gets implemented. However, many more do little but make ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree. They spend a great deal of effort labeling people rather than providing rational arguments on policy, and even the labels they select don't provide much more than amusement.

That's why Frank J of IMAO, Derek Brigham of Freedom Dogs, and I have decided to create -- for real -- the 101st Fighting Keyboardists and adopt the chicken hawk as our mascot. First of all, the term "fighting keyboardist" describes our efforts pretty well, and we think the pseudo-military terminology is pretty danged amusing....

And why the chicken hawk? When we looked into it, it turns out that the chicken hawk is a pretty impressive predator. It's the largest of its family. This species vigorously defends its territory, getting even more aggressive when the conditions get harshest. It adapts to all climates. Most impressively, it feeds on chickens, mice, and rats.

Make of that what you will.

Frank, Derek, and I invite you to join the 101st Fighting Keyboardists...