Month: March 2008

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FBIS (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008)

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Not a Chicago Boy exactly, but a towering presence in my inner life for many years. The only thing remotely resembling a writing voice I’ve ever had is a pale imitation of him. Requiescat In Pace.

Updates:

  • added “FRSBIS” (thanks, Jim)
  • from Wired, Video: Arthur C. Clarke’s Last Message to Earth
  • from SomethingAwful forum goon “SirRobin”:

    • Tonight, when the sun has gone down, go outside to a place where you can see the stars. Look up. Watch for a point of light that moves fast enough that its motion is obvious … then take the phone out of your pocket and call someone on the other side of the planet.

  • heh

United By Victimhood

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Having read Obama’s speech on race, it seems to me that his idea of unity boils down to the idea that we are all, regardless of race, equally helpless victims of life in need of rescue by a powerful benevolent state.

He seems to want to explain white Americans to black Americans by saying, “look, you’ve got to understand, white people are victims too.” He seems to want white Americans to view themselves as bothers-in-victimhood with black America. His final story of Ashley really seems to tie the theme all together.

For all that he evokes the Founders, I do not think that they would agree with his vision of an America populated with the helpless and ineffectual. I think Obama is a very nice marketing wrapper for a very dangerous and corrosive view of ourselves.

If your identity as an American hinges on the government benefits you receive, then he is your man. Otherwise, I think you should look elsewhere.

Chicago Tribune and Gun Control

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The definition of journalism from an online dictionary:

2 a: writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine b: writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c: writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest

For this purpose, I am going to discuss b: writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation.


Today the front page of the Chicago Tribune described what happened to a poor, innocent woman who was shot down at her place of business in Elmhurst, IL. The headline is “The Law Didn’t Save Her” with the tag line “She tried a court order. She had him arrested. She took all the legal steps she could right up to the day her ex-boyfriend shot her dead in the parking lot.”

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