Favorite poster from NR's "The Corner"

yea that notre dame shit was lolz

like any college is going to forgo having a fucking US president speak

Friday, March 27, 2009

Vampire Issues [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

Jonah,

I'm very concerned about Tony Woodlief's critique of the "Twilight" books/movie on the front page of NRO today? Now, I know nothing about "Twilight," and Woodlief's analysis makes perfect sense. But his bashing of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" cannot go unchecked. I hope to see a Corner discussion of this very soon, as Buffy deserves a vigorous defense. I'm sure KJL will understand.

Here's the relevant passage:

We have fully reversed the symbolism of Stoker’s vampire, who represented a demonic assault on a virtuous community. Today’s vampire is the hip Other, and the community around him is either bungling, intolerant, or simply a source of comedic relief (as in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Lost Boys, and Fright Night, for example). The modern vampire is in touch with his sexuality, but the community suppresses it. The modern vampire is coming to take away your girlfriend, and she kind of likes it. The modern vampire is the guy you wish you had been in high school, or the guy you wish you’d dated in high school, and Meyer has turned that into gold.

All due respect to Woodlief, I am with the reader on this. I think Woodlief is certainly right about Lost Boys and Fright Night and his point would certainly apply to True Blood and other vampiric fare. But that really isn't what's going on in Buffy the TV series. Vampires are thoroughly, irredeemably evil in the Buffy series. The exceptions, of course, are Angel (and, later, Spike) who are re-ensouled. Indeed, that might the source of confusion here. Woodlief is listing other movies, so perhaps he's discussing the Buffy movie. In which case he's right. But distinctions must be made!

the woodlief article has to be read to be believed. basically: twilight is dangerous because monster stories should not be sexy, they should remind us that there really are monsters out there, like homosexuals and muslims, that need to be killed. jonah pipes up to say "hey, i like buffy!!"

Guys: Jay Nordlinger's back, and Reagan's got him.

Some authorship controversy lolz from Sadly, No!

http://www.sadlyno.com/wordpress/uploads/2009/03/klo_big_bedfellows.png

http://www.sadlyno.com/wordpress/uploads/2009/03/jonah_big_bedfellows.png

no the crucial evidence is this:

http://www.sadlyno.com/wordpress/uploads/2009/03/jo-lo.jpg

wau

http://giftedthought.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/peter.JPG

holy shit goole

haha, thank mr pancakes hackman, it's right there on that post!

or "h/t: Pancakes Hackman" as they say, on blogs

tip o' the hat

Sounds Familiar [James S. Robbins]
I was interested in the number of times Presdent Obama invoked 9/11 in his Afghanistan speech. Wasn't that something President Bush took a lot of guff for from the left? And given the number of snarky cheap shots he took at Bush, the substance of Obama's strategy seems little different than that which was laid out in 2004.

...

Keep Your Daughter Off the Pole [Mark Krikorian]

Here's the end of the WaPo obit for porn actress Marilyn Chambers, dead at 56:

Survivors include a 17-year-old daughter from her third marriage to trucking executive Tom Taylor.

Two years ago, Ms. Chambers told the Providence Journal that the adult-film business "chews women up and spits them out. It's a business I'd never want my daughter to be in."

Uh, I'd bet her own parents didn't want her to be in that business, either.

04/14 02:43 PMShare

makes you think

keep your daughter off the pole

what a hypocrite

Why did Mark Krikorian push his daughter into the adult-film business?

NRO types quoting Chris Rock?

Can't wait to see K-Lo's hysterics about this.

Clinton & Cheney [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I can totally appreciate that the Obama administration doesn't find Dick Cheney talking to Sean Hannity particularly helpful. But Hillary Clinton was testifying before the House of Representatives today, not a moveon meeting; she didn't need to say that she doesn't consider the former vice president "a particularly reliable source." Even with his criticisms—cautions from a concerned and well-informed citizen—I think he's giving them more respect than that.

new frontiers in crybabyism

back in the lab, with a pen and a pad:

An Epithet, Anyone? [Jay Nordlinger]

Responding to a posting about school choice, a reader has a very interesting idea. He knows that “liberals and their allies in the MSM get a lot of mileage out of the ‘chicken hawk’ taunt” — “chicken hawk” is what they call people who support military action who never served in the U.S. military. (That would be most people who support military action, of course.) Our reader wonders why there can’t be a similar term for politicians who oppose school choice whose children have never been to public school.

I sense the traction for that unbuilding as I type.

In my day "chicken hawk" had a more colorful definition.

^^ this

teabagging chickenhawks

was gonna say, the only milage i know of re: "chickenhawk" is the distance to the nearest highway rest area

Our reader wonders why there can’t be a similar term for politicians who oppose school choice whose children have never been to public school.

I think we call that indie-guilt on ilm

lol, I like how, out of context, that quote makes it sound like The Corner has one reader

About That White House Photo-Op . . . [Mark Hemingway]

Honestly, has no one at the White House heard of Photoshop? If they wanted a photo of Air Force One near the Statue of Liberty, they could have easily gotten one through a $500 piece of software without scaring the stuffing out of lower Manhattan, let alone blowing through the thousands of taxpayer dollars in jet fuel required to fly a 747 and F-16 around.

As the Specter news settles in I expect to read more batshit posts.

As the Specter news settles the sun continues to rise I expect to read more batshit posts.

Oh hey:

http://imagec14.247realmedia.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/NatlRev/nr_cruise_001/poseidon_mono_300_4.gif/1238159879

And all the details you could want.

Actually why isn't Hanson on this particular version, it would give him a chance to talk about noble Spartans and all.

http://www.worldculturepictorial.com/images/content_2/crew_of_Ukrainian_MV-faina_hijacked_by_Somali_pirates.jpg

If only.

Joy!

Totally Stray Thoughts from LAX (Kathryn Jean Lopez)

This is Arlen Specter.

I had MSNBC on the plane. Joy emanated from the screen.

Pat Toomey is not the enemy.

Franken gets the last laugh though. (A first, too?)

Is there ever smog here.

04/28 06:35 PM

Ned, why do you do this to me?

If only she could perfect the art of haiku.

what on earth does "Is there ever smog here." mean?

It's some sort of speech impediment that happens to some people when they arrive in So. California. Also makes people say "Heavens! ;-)" a lot.

funny-ish story, i know someone who was on the nation cruise a little while ago, and apparently the NR cruise was in the ship right behind them! the joke was that anyone who misbehaved got tossed off to be picked up by the NRers.

xpost - ya bastid!

the joke was that anyone who misbehaved got tossed off to be picked up by the NRers.

And if they really misbehaved, KLo would toss them off.

Pictures, please.

the nation people had no control over what the NRs would do - two separate publications

x-post -- Albert, why do you do this to me?