Posture Contest

Years ago a cartoonist at our local newspaper likened some failure in sports – football I think – to losing a good posture contest to Quasimodo.  That is exactly what the Democrats in Washington and their public relations agents in the traditional media have done in the last couple of days.  Last week Trump called Republicans who oppose him politically human scum.  He was properly criticized for it by people who saw it as illustrating his  immaturity, tendency to bullying, lack of respect for the office he holds, immense arrogance, bad manners, and simple lack of good sense vividly.   

Now though the Democrats and their assistants in the media have come up with one that so far out does Trump’s outburst as to make it seem unremarkable. Over the weekend US Army Delta Force soldiers  attacked an ISIS compound in Syria and killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS while suffering no human casualties and only one slightly wounded dog.  This was unconditionally good news in both moral  and geopolitical terms. The man needed killing, and his death damages the vile organization he headed.  It was a fine day for the world, the United States, and the US Army, and for justice and decency.

However one would not know it from the reactions of Democrats and people in the media. Pelosi and Schiff sniffed about not having been informed about the raid beforehand.  I do not know about Pelosi, but, based on his behavior over the last months, it would have been completely in character for Schiff to have leaked information about the attack in hopes of preventing something that people would see as a victory for Trump.  Others on the left, while perhaps allowing that getting rid of al-Baghdadi might have been something of a good thing, announced the real news story was Trump’s speaking too rudely of al-Baghdadi, his treatment of Schiff and Pelosi, or some other supposed breach of etiquette. Some including the Washington Post, which labelled al-Baghdadi an “austere religious leader” went so far as to whitewash the target of the attack. (The Post’s story led to some interesting imagined Post obituary notes on the internet. My favorite was “Adolph Hitler, Austrian vegan activist and landscape painter, dies at  56.”) . 

So the winner of the latest good posture contest is Donald Trump. Go figure.

Okay Here

Years ago when my daughter was attending the government schools in our town, some particularly obtuse bureaucrats from the school district sent parents a list of  banned symbols that kids could not display on themselves or their clothing at school.  They were supposed to be logos of gangs or cultists  or  something the  officials  at the central office were against.  I don’t remember exactly what. I do remember that one of the symbols was the Star of David. Some of us thought that was a little odd even for  educators and raised a stink about it.  It has been a while, but I think the result was that the list got revised.

I thought about that recently in light of a present day controversy.  In the United States the gesture of making a circle with the thumb and index finger and holding up the other three fingers means “okay” and has meant that for decades, as sensible and informed people know. Now however we hear the thought police of political correctness  are demanding that it be prohibited because some insignificant – numerically and otherwise – losers are said to use the same gesture to signify support for “white supremacy”.

I do not know if that is true, but I do know it does not matter, any more than if those numbskull school administrators of long ago had been able to point to a gang or cult that badged itself with a six pointed star. The assertion is absurd,  and we have had too much of this bullying absurdity from the left. People need to stand up to it in small matters as well as large. The proper response here is laugh the lefties off rudely and reject the demand cheerfully but forcefully. A less proper but still acceptable response  would be to retort with  another well-known and nearly universally understood hand gesture.

TV for Kids

It is common for older people to see things in the present as worse than they were in their youth  (especially perhaps among men who imagine  their declining vigor paralleled by a decline in the world).  Conservatives seem to do it all the time, and one usually needs to take their gloomy opinions and harsh judgements about  young people, the culture, and the moral state of the nation critically.  However, the old guys sometimes know what they are talking about.   As someone said, if in about 1645  a couple of old Englishmen had griped over their tankards of ale that people just don’t write plays anymore the way they did when they were young , they would have been right.

I read an article a couple of days ago on a conservative site claiming that the popular culture has gotten worse in the last couple of decades. It focused on the Star Wars and Marvel comics movies and put much of the blame on the Disney company.  I know next to nothing about Marvel comics and so can’t say about that, but I would agree that there has been some mediocre and even lousy Star Wars  stuff.

The article led me to think back to the TV programs for kids in my youth, and there I had  to go along with the conservatives.  We had the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Sky King, Fury, the George Reeves Superman, and others that were far better than the stuff my grandkids and their friends had available to them on TV.  The stories were exciting and usually made sense.  They were explicit about right and wrong,  the importance of honesty, courage,  and fair play, and the idea that life could be exciting and interesting. They pointed a viewer in generally right directions. Some episodes  were not very good, but they all completely lacked the icky blend of dopey fake sophistication, disjointedness,  moralistic (usually PC moralistic) showing off, and self-conscious attempts at cuteness so common these days. 

One can feel sorry for kids stuck with the Disney Channel and its lookalikes. Parents and grandparents  of young kids  can remember that a lot of the old stuff is available for purchase.