Dear Reader (and to those of you who feel the beat of the rhythm of the night, and want to dance until the morning light),
Many years ago, I wrote a column about the response to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. A bunch of critics were keen on decrying the LOTR films as racist, in part because the Orcs weren’t sufficiently Caucasian and didn’t wear topsiders and wide-wale cords. You can find the old-school G-File here, which offers some examples of the lunacy, to which I responded:
Sigh. Okay, yes, it’s true. Many of the Orcs (and the super-Orcs) are dark-skinned and have slant-eyes. They are also – how shall I put this? – Orcs! Ya frickin’ idjit!
One is tempted to ask, who is the real racist here? On the one hand, we have people – like me – who see horrific, flesh-eating, dull-witted creatures with jagged, feral teeth, venomous mouths, pointed devilish ears, and reptilian skin, and say, “Cool, Orcs!” On the other hand we have people like Mr. Yatt who see the same repugnant creatures and righteously exclaim, “Black people!” Maybe he should spend less time vetting movies for signs of racism and more time vetting himself – if, that is, he free-associates black people with these subhuman monsters [BROKEN LINK]. Alas, the link to the really cool Orc pic is long since defunct.
I had a similar response to the apparently raging controversy over the Wall Street Journal’s decision to run a picture of Elena Kagan playing softball. I looked at the picture and thought (expressed charitably): “Elena Kagan looks like a typical Washington dork playing softball” (though apparently the picture is from her Chicago days).
Regardless, when a bunch of (presumably) gay folks looked at the picture, their first reaction was “Holy LPGA, Batman! The Wall Street Journal is outing Elena Kagan!”
From Ben Smith’s Politico piece:
“Personally I think the newspaper, which happens to have the largest circulation of any in the U.S., might as well have gone with a headline that said, ‘Lesbian or switch-hitter?’” grumbled the Dallas Voice’s John Wright.
And:
“It clearly is an allusion to her being gay. It’s just too easy a punch line,” said Cathy Renna, a former spokesperson for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation who is now a consultant. “The question from a journalistic perspective is whether it’s a descriptive representation of who she might be as a judge. Have you ever seen a picture of Clarence Thomas bowling?”
Right: because Clarence Thomas was treated so well by the mainstream press, including the Wall Street Journal.
Anyway, I have no idea – or, rather, no way of knowing – whether the Wall Street Journal intended it that way. But I kind of doubt it. First, a more reasonable read of the picture might be “Kagan Steps Up to the Plate” or “Kagan at Bat,” not “Kagan Likes to Go Antiquing with Rosie O’Donnell.”
Another possible read: “Man, Rachel Maddow has really let herself go!”
I kid, I kid.
Regardless, I find it interesting how the Left immediately looks at a, uh, frumpy woman playing softball and immediately shrieks, “Lesbian!” Moreover, I think it’s interesting how the people who care the most about whether she’s gay are on the left. As I understand it, Andrew Sullivan wants her outed, and frankly I can understand the argument. If she’s not gay, she doesn’t fit Obama’s criteria for finding someone who knows what it’s like to be downtrodden – “the little guy” – nearly as well. If identity politics is your lodestar, then I can see why you’d care.
As for me personally, I must say, I really just don’t care. Indeed, I think it’s striking how few people on the right really seem to care whether she’s gay. I’d be inclined to call that disinterest “progress,” but however you’d describe it, it does seem to be the new political reality.
Follically Outed?
Now, one last thing. I haven’t seen the movie Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon all the way through. But I keep channel surfing to this one scene where Vaughn and his wife (Witherspoon) are talking, and he lets her know that he found out her childhood best friend, “Joe,” was a lesbian:
Vince Vaughn: It doesn’t bother me if you were a really abnormally large child with lesbian tendencies, ‘cause if that was your journey, then I’m cool with it.
Witherspoon: What are you saying, lesbian tendencies?
Vaughn: I saw the pictures of Joe.
Witherspoon: Joe wasn’t gay.
Vaughn: Haircuts don’t lie.
Heck, maybe they do lie. I dunno. But I thought it was funny.
Inherit the Wind?
So the new cap-’n’-trade bill is out, who among us can contain his excitement? I haven’t had time to look at it, or much of the analysis of it, but one point seems worth making already. Over at AEI this week, Steve Hayward gave a good little presentation on the current energy debate, climate change, etc., and he made a really great and obvious point I realized I’ve never made myself.
So I will make it now: We constantly hear about how we need wind and solar power to wean ourselves from foreign oil or to end our “addiction” to oil. But, uh, how would wind and solar power do that? Will windmills and solar panels power our cars, trucks, and buses? We could use solar and wind for 100 percent of our electricity production, and we’d still need gasoline to run our cars. A quick stroll to always-accurate Wikipedia says that only 2 percent of the oil we import is used to produce electricity. By all means, if it makes sense to end that, go ahead. But to listen to Nancy Pelosi, if we all had solar panels and windmills as far as the eye could see, we’d be sticking it to the Saudis. No, we’d just be paying a lot more for electricity while using pretty much the same amount of oil for transportation, plastics, etc. and those Saudi guys would still be laughing their asses off at us while they funded terrorists, beat their wives for breathing too loudly and eating dried fruits for the sweet, sweet taste. I’d have a lot more respect for these people if they claimed that we need to switch to “alternative fuels” to wean ourselves from our dependence on heating oil.
What to Do About Reader E-mail?
I’m getting some great feedback from readers, but I can’t post it all in the Corner or respond to it at any great length (though I do my best to read all of it). And, for space reasons, I can’t run much of it here. And, because you are members of a quasi-secret society, I can’t run it in the Corner. So, barring some third solution, I’ll just run one or two every week here. This week’s “winner”:
Jonah,
A few years back, I called your geek cred into question for alleging the hired help in Caddyshack were allotted a full hour in the pool when it was only a mere 15 minutes. Today, I feel compelled to do the same for what you wrote about Supes and time travel!
Consider how Supes is the big blue Boy Scout. Turning back time to save Lois would have effectively undone his rescuing of Miss Tesmacher’s aunt. There’s no way he would have done that even if it were to save Lois. He had to save them both. No, he couldn’t turn back time, had had to instead fly himself backward thru time.
Experiment – Take a top and spin it fast. Or prop up a bike wheel and spin that fast instead. Observe that if you spin it with sufficient speed, the object will eventually appear to slow and spin in the opposite direction in the form of an optical illusion.
Applying that theory to what Supes did, it wasn’t that he flew around the world fast enough to make it spin backward thru time – it only appeared that way due to the same optical illusion. The Earth continued to chug thru time normally. It only appeared to spin backward as he alone propelled himself backward thru time.
Yes, I’ve likely engaged in debate on this topic more times than my Senator Kerry has flipped on policy.
Of course, I still think it’s hokey. Were Supes to fly in orbit at superspeed, it would have had the same effect on the Earth as the passing asteroid did during the opening segment of Thundarr the Barbarian. That wouldn’t have ended very good for Lois, Miss Tesmacher’s aunt, Miss Tesmacher herself, or the rest of us.
The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is bunk. No abundance of cardio exercise could result in exploding anyone’s palm.
My vote for worst use of time travel goes to The Time Traveler’s Wife. Consider how her affection was not earned organically, yet was instead slowly groomed and fostered over time. It may not be the dumbest treatment of time travel, yet it was by far the creepiest.
You’re my favorite NR/NRO writer.
Odd Links These were actually supposed to be last Thursday’s odd links, but I forgot to post them:
Miami airport screener accused of attack after jeers at genitals. [BROKEN LINK]
7 Scientific Innovations Held Back by Petty Feuds. Related, sort of: 6 People You’ve Never Heard of Who Probably Saved Your Life. (These may include NSFW language.)
Helmet cam view of Dutch raid on pirate ship.
McDonald’s menu items from around the world.
Stadium Demolition: View from inside. [BROKEN LINK]
Unintentionally offensive business & product names.
Were Russian secrets shared with ‘space alien’ visitors?
Teen suspected of drinking drives away with cop inside car. (One of those things most people learn not to do when they get older.) Then there’s this guy: DUI Suspect Downs Drink During Traffic Stop [BROKEN LINK]. Also, Jim Beam found drunk in public.
Baby has argument with himself in mirror.