Liberals understand the unique power of storytelling better than conservatives.
Liberals have put themselves in position to re-tell the stories of our national mythology to suit their own ends.
So here comes Hollywood with biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Robinson. Two Republicans.
And didn't they just do Margaret Thatcher with Meryl Streep?
MLB's sanctimonious genuflection before their little altar of the vast Civil Rights shrine doesn't bother me so much.
It bothers me more that while conservatives are so good at picking apart such slights in brilliant essays read by few, liberals busy themselves controlling the narratives absorbed by millions.
As funny as a human being can get. Loved to entertain. Would stand on the sidewalk of Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake doing bits for whoever was walking down the street.
I saw him live at a Mork and Mindy taping. He played Mork's son, Mirth. About 2/3 of the script got shot. The rest -- including many of the funniest lines -- came from Winters and Robin Williams improvising on the set. Sheer genius, unfiltered, was what you got from him. May he be RIP-roaring entertaining our ancestors tonight, his opening night in Heaven, a long long way from Dayton, Ohio.
Look, I understand that the Catholic stance on contraception is a minority position and that it seems kind of weird to others...
... At the risk of offending Catholics, and that is not my intent, they are getting what they should have expected when getting into bed with government and blessing welfare and wealth distribution as compassionate or charity...
Worst thing you can do: get into bed with Big Government and not wear a condom!
Lady Thatcher's audio recording of The Downing Street Years is another opportunity to appreciate her. There's a sample on Audible at: http://bit.ly/XzlJkc
Dr. Carson's oustanding speech and media book tour isn't all that different a means to national celebrity than the path which launched President Obama. And Carson has a stronger record of accomplishment to back it up.
To those fixated on the media echo chamber, Carson may appear ominipresent, but when you add up those little slivers of cable viewership, he still has a long way to go. I'll bet ten times as many voters have heard of Dr. Oz.
By not recognizing this, Dana Perino shows her shortcomings as a communications expert. Ms. Perino is very telegenic, but the improvised banter of a freewheeling daily chit-chat show must have addled her brain if she's going after Dr. Carson.
Mark Levin is in many ways Perino's opposite. His voice is grating, his fulminations pain-inducing, but his reasoning is impeccable.
Going to medical school is a readily available pathway for any diligent, undeterrable American student with an aptitude for science.
And hopefully the American health care system raised to excellence by people like Dr. Carson will still be there when such students graduate from med school a generation from now.
Dr. Carson should work with Republican leaders to formulate a viable replacment for Obamacare. After doing so he will have the thanks of a grateful nation, and a clear path to the political destiny of his choice.
I wish Ricochet had sports pages. I'd certainly be more likely to renew. An entertainment (not "Arts") section would also be refreshing.
Yesterday was April 1, begining of the baseball season, and April Fool's Day. The Braves' new array of righty hitters beat the Phillies' Cole Hamels. And after a day warning others to beware of pranks, the writers of Castle dropped me through a trapdoor with graceful elegance in the final act.
Sometimes sports and entertainment are just what we need, instead of reading about threats by a silly boy in North Korea.
(pause for a beat then CUT TO:)
ANGLE ON MISSILE descending on Jim_K's residence in California.
There's a scene early in my mystery-thriller Mack 1 Red vs. Blue where Mack, a conservative NYPD Detective, attends a dinner party with liberal friends of his girlfriend. Trouble ensues. The humor gently illustrates the social milieu which conservatives face on the opposition's home turf.
The Arts are alien turf to conservatives. We are Klingons in the writer's room of The Alan Brady Show. So:
1. Lighten up. See the absurd. Look for the funny. Earnest Gravitas is no friend of humor. Deploy a fresh supply of blood into your right brain.
3. Ideas aren't enough. Follow-up. Execute. Finish the job. It doesn't take a fortune to make a YouTube video, but it does take the time you were going to spend studying that Hillsdale course.
Copywriting, storytelling, performance etc. require study and practice. Talent is rare and must be nourished, especially talent which can eventually connect with large audiences.
Notice that Dennis Miller is always respectful of Billy Maher. Comedy comes first. Professionalism supercedes ideology. Make creativity the paramount value, or accept being a supportive audience member.
"Look, a picture of two Popes," I said to my wife. "I'm surprised Benedict is still dressed in white. I thought he'd be back in red."
"Oh, he probably threw out his old clothes," my wife explained. "It's like people who throw out their old fat clothes because they think they'll never have to wear them again."
1. Yes, especially if Bush "knew" -- perhaps on supposition from Cheney -- that tens of thousands of trained jihadists would rush to join AQI and eventually be killed there -- instead of perhaps here -- where 19 had managed to kill thousands.
2. Of course, yes, because if he had known what we know now he would have been a much better Commander-in-Chief. "Knowing what we know now," the surge of 2006 would have been the surge of 2005; the 2006 election would have been won; and President Bush could have instead spent his time warning that government involvement in the mortgage credit markets could lead to a financial crisis.
Re: Time for Obama to Talk Gosnell
Obama won't discuss Gosnell until December, 2016. He doesn't want to comment on a pending Presidential pardon.