54 Comments

1. blert:

Truly a frightening case of anti-knowledge.

This magica thinking/ Bezmenov Syndrome is best treated with a thorazine drip.

The first rule of journalism must be changed to: do no harm to the truth.

BTW, how in the world did Newsweak miss the little conflict in Thailand?

What about the ’stans?

What about Chechnya…?

Who set the chimps loose at the keyboards ?

Mar 4, 2009 - 4:38 pm 2. Walt:

Here there be tigers
The olde mappes once said
Then came the British
Who painted them red
All that is gone now
That world is no more
We’ve come to the place
Where there’s no welcome shore
The currents won’t take us
Where we want to go
The winds that once shapened
The world that we know
No longer blow fairly
But fitful and wild
We recognize barely
The world that we’ve styled
Can we recapture
That time and that way
I guess that’s the question
Before us today

Mar 4, 2009 - 4:44 pm 3. Mongoose:

blert: careful with those chimp remarks…

Mar 4, 2009 - 4:52 pm 4. RWE:

Very nice Wretchard.

This brings to mind a survey taken in the early 80’s, an era in which we were toe to toe with the USSR all over the globe, terrorists were blowing up our people, and communists were penetrating into South America. The survey showed that American blacks overwhelmingly thought our most urgent international challenge was apartheid in South Africa.

Actually, the We R #1 map is accurate if meant to depict the relative availability of fossil fuel energy supplies. Which we can’t use because they are “killing the planet.”

And say hello to the ‘roos for me.

Mar 4, 2009 - 5:18 pm 5. Heh:

Modern journalists are not concerned with revealing the truth, on the contrary, they work is to hide it.

Mar 4, 2009 - 5:19 pm 6. Asher Abrams:

Good points. However, it’s fair to point out that proportionally, India is only slightly over 10 percent Muslim: 13.4% according to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_India

I’ve seen the last item (the map) before; even when I was young and comparatively foolish I didn’t find it funny. It’s a caricature of a caricature. It’s the product of those oh-so-sophisticated minds who look down their noses at the ignorant (read: Republican-voting) masses who “can’t find [country X] on a map.” It is in fact a testimony to the ignorance and narrowmindedness of those it was meant to amuse.

Mar 4, 2009 - 5:25 pm 7. Nomenklatura:

We should make allowances for the way, on so many subjects of which this is an example (the environment is another), liberals have to steer well away from any situations in which they might learn the facts.

That could lead to all sorts of inconveniences, like saying the wrong thing in front of their friends, etc. They have to be very careful.

Seriously, try asking a liberal very concerned about for example reducing the US’s expenditures on defense, how much as a percent of GDP the US actually does spend on defense. I’ve been doing this for years, basically because it annoys them.

So they can’t really be expected to know these things.

Mar 4, 2009 - 5:40 pm 8. maineman:

Mongoose,

I left an email version of your comment over at the old thread.

Hoping to make you anonymously famous.

Mar 4, 2009 - 6:32 pm 9. Eggplant:

Wretchard said:

“Recently, Newsweek published an interactive map …”

Do you really still read “Newsweek”? I admit to sometimes glancing at it while waiting in the grocery store checkout line and then returning it unpurchased. Safeway keeps “Newsweek” next to the “National Enquirer”, “Cosmopolitan” and “People Magazine”.

Mar 4, 2009 - 6:49 pm 10. Edgewise:

(Hmm…is it just me, of have they neglected Malaysia as well?)

Mar 4, 2009 - 6:52 pm 11. Annoy Mouse:

It is revealing that Lebanon and Hezbollah does not manage to earn more coloration on the map. At any rate, Israel is in the middle of a lot of “unfree” neighbors. Thank god they are at least bordered by an ocean. India has had some real interesting history since it’s emancipation from the British. But for Newsweek, it is clearly a case of advocacy, I mean Mumbai, how is that to escape recent memory, and as far as the Philippines are concerned, well gee the Minority Muslims that basically live in isolation on their own islands hardly murder any school kids at all… well behead a few Christians here and there but…

The Muslims have a hard time getting along with their neighbors period. Isolation is the only solution.

The map reminds me of the Steinberg – New Yorker cartoon; “The World As Seen From New York’s 9th Avenue”

http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/02/07/72-the-world-as-seen-from-new-yorks-9th-avenue/

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:04 pm 12. Annoy Mouse:

AA – “it’s fair to point out that proportionally, India is only slightly over 10 percent Muslim: 13.4%”

OK

.134 x 967,000,000 = 129,570,000 Muslims.

I get your point… hardly worth mentioning.

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:11 pm 13. SamIam:

Was CAIR the main consultant for Spewsweak’s map?

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:13 pm 14. peterike:

I just spent ten minutes with that Newsweek map. Who due I sue to get those ten minutes back?

There is a big kerfuffle in the comments about how the map original labeled all of Israel as “Palestinian Territory.” After being called on it, it was changed without any acknowledgement from Newsreek. Shocking.

I was amused at the fact that Iraq and Iran were given the same “religious freedom” score. Nuh huh.

Nomenklatura: the “what percent of GDP is spent on defense” is a good question to ask Liberals just for fun. Or better, what percent of the budget is spent on it. People think it’s like 80%. Since Reagan, we’ve been brainwashed into thinking the only thing that runs up deficits is military spending. Everything else is free I guess.

I also like to ask, “so you think there’s an account at Social Security with your name on it that contains all the money you put in, huh?” They believe that, too. Completely.

And finally, it’s fun to ask “so after all this carbon production, what percent of the atmosphere do you suppose is CO2?” Ahh you get 50%, 60%, answers like that. The real bummer is that the actual number, .038%, is so small that people can’t even grasp it.

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:30 pm 15. Fabius:

Islamic Philippines. Huh. Presumably then, it’s been a Muslim country for quite a while. Guess when it was ours (no offense intended Wretchard), we were oppressing Muslims then too.

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:47 pm 16. mark_b:

9. Eggplant:

Wretchard said:

“Recently, Newsweek published an interactive map …”

Do you really still read “Newsweek”? I admit to sometimes glancing at it while waiting in the grocery store checkout line and then returning it unpurchased. Safeway keeps “Newsweek” next to the “National Enquirer”, “Cosmopolitan” and “People Magazine”.
================================================
Newsweek? No way!

I have been known to pick up the Weekly World News, you know, the one with the “Exclusive photos of UFO landing on USS Nimitz”.

Why? Newsweek is in the wrong genre. I like hard science fiction, with plastic and rivets, better than the alternate history fantasy of Newsweek.

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:48 pm 17. MarkJ:

Newsweek? There’s actually NEWS in Newsweek? Well damn, I’ll be dipped in manure and rolled in graham cracker crumbs. Who’da thunk it? Reminds me of an old Soviet-era joke:

“There is no news in Izvestia (”News”)…and there is no truth in Pravda (”Truth”).”

Mar 4, 2009 - 7:51 pm 18. cas:

In an attempt to be accurate, the caption above the map in Newsweek DOES state, “…focusing on some of the countries with the largest Muslim populations…” Which doesn’t forgive their ignorance of the large number of muslims in India, Malaysia, Central Asia, Bangladesh (estimated 127,443,923 muslims), etc. Nor does it excuse their failure to highlight other countries where religious genocide (Sudan) anarchy (Somalia) or terrorist activities (Chechnya) are all directly related to the “religion of peace.”

Mar 4, 2009 - 8:21 pm 19. Charles:

It is the curiousity of Islam that no matter whether they are top dog as in the middle east & africa, middle dog in southasia, or bottom dog in eurasia–they are not at peace with their neighbors.

How can we in the new world avoid the trouble of the old world?

Mar 4, 2009 - 9:11 pm 20. Dave:

In the Philippines a few years ago, one of the talking heads in Manila stated that the Muslim problem in the Philippines was because “they still resent Pershing”.

In reply, large numbers of Tau Saugs made it plain that they preferred Black Jack to
the indigenous incumbents.

Amazing how many people invent their own fiction and delude themselves into considering it fact.

Mar 4, 2009 - 9:54 pm 21. Lifeofthemind:

The Newsweek map also ignores such bastions of modernity as Libya, Chad, Niger, and Mali. I want Newsweek to fund my intended study of Scandinavian models. My theory is that they are lonely and miserable because they are not spending enough time around middle aged American men. Given enough time and observations I should be able to come up with a data set that supports my theory.

Mar 4, 2009 - 10:32 pm 22. Eggplant:

Israel maybe on the verge of preempting Iran’s nuclear program:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236103158937&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The diplomacy thing has obviously run its course. It’s also obvious that Obama won’t stand up for Israel. The Iranians probably have enough U-235 for one or two nukes (the Israelis probably know where the U-235 is being stockpiled). The world’s economy is already a mess so Israel would only catch minimal blame for making it worse.

It’s about time.

The only remaining question is whether or not the Israelis use their own nukes to take down the Iranian uranium enrichment bunkers. The Iranian facilities are too deep underground for conventional weapons.

Things are about to get very interesting….

Mar 5, 2009 - 12:07 am 23. DanM:

LotM,

I can possibly arrange funding.. You arrange the subjects for study.

We’ll have to share data collection chores….

Mar 5, 2009 - 12:34 am 24. Dr. America:

Any damn fool can decry Newsweek after seeing dramatic visualization of Washingtonian influence on the value of Israeli, Palestinian and Congolese lives. Criticizing Newsweek is not even wrong in this context.

Why is a US audience more interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than that in the Congo?

What those visualizations fail to capture are the DC $$$’s loaned or otherwise spent on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If the US took an interest before learning of the billions doled out, the domestic audience might have become slightly more curious as to what in DC’s name is going on over there.

The mediagenic value of human lives is dependent on the cost of outrage as well as the price of sympathy in the minds of the given audience. The Congolese need an Al-Jazeera to help raise hell whenever someone is hacked to death or raped. The value of Congolese lives will increase, at least relative to their present objectifying obscurity.

Or DC’s designs could be altered, although how this could be done, I do not know.

Mar 5, 2009 - 12:52 am 25. bob:

#22
With the stock market tanking, taxes going up, and the recession being the only thing keeping energy prices down, a real blow up in the middle east is just what the doctor ordered, to kill off the struggling patient. Things can get a lot worse, in a hurry.

I’m just glad I’ve got a fruit tree. Unfortunately it doesn’t bear fruit all year long.

Mar 5, 2009 - 2:47 am 26. Buck Smith:

Safeway keeps “Newsweek” next to the “National Enquirer”, “Cosmopolitan” and “People Magazine”.

Burn! Good One

The funny thing about that Newseek map was how many muslim countries were unrated that ought to be red.
Sudan, Mauritania (which has half a million slaves), Libya.
Another thing that stuck was rating Iraq red.
Eight years ago Shia were unable to practice their ceremonies, now they can.

Mar 5, 2009 - 5:17 am 27. Barry 0351:

The only place I see Newsweek now is Doctors office waiting rooms and even then the copies are old.

Mar 5, 2009 - 6:08 am 28. Triton'sPolarTiger:

@25 bob

I’d dearly like to see that Iranian nuclear program get whacked, but you raise a very sobering point.

I suppose my question (to which I have no answer) would be which scenario is worse: A nuclear Iran throwing its weight around in amid all those oil producing states in the ME, or the aftermath of an Israeli Persian de-clawing action either ridding the world of this threat, or at least kicking the can down the road long enough for us to have a chance to elect a no-nonsense Chief Two Stones to finally address the problem?

It seems that either way, we’re looking at much higher oil prices… I reckon if it’s really six one way or half-a-dozen the other, I’d opt for declawing the cat… and hope that the children of Abraham can do it w/o employing a nuke or three.

We’re planting a garden this year – my apple trees are still a few years away from bearing.

Mar 5, 2009 - 6:16 am 29. peterike:

Our newly elected student body President continues his adolescent rampage through government by essentially flipping off another ally.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/iain_martin/blog/2009/03/04/president_barack_obama_just_plain_rude_to_britain_dont_call_us_in_future

But hell, who needs Britain when you’ve got Venezuela, Cuba, Iran….

Mar 5, 2009 - 6:41 am 30. exhelodrvr:

As a group, Muslims aren’t bothered by Muslim-on-Muslim violence, or about violence perpetrated by Muslims on non-Muslims.

Any non-Muslim-on-Muslim violence, no matter how justified, is the worst thing possible, particularly if Jews are involved.

As a group, the world hates Jews.

Hence the disparity in media coverage.

Mar 5, 2009 - 8:24 am 31. LarryD:

Iran’s oil output has been declining for years, and the rate of decline has reached double digits. They’ve been treating it as a cash cow and not been doing the necessary maintenance. Even the Arabs are afraid of what a nuclear armed Iran will do. We could take down their nuke program without bombing the rest of the country back to the stone age, but the Israelis won’t have that much manpower or overall throw weight, they’ll have to do a harsher job of it. Might as well take out the regime while they’re at it.

Mar 5, 2009 - 8:25 am 32. Mongoose:

Tee hee:

http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=3312

Mar 5, 2009 - 8:47 am 33. John Work:

And speaking of old Soviet-era jokes (MarkJ #17) and the strangeness of the Leftist mindset, has everyone seen this (http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/laughing-at-the-contradictions-of-socialism-in-america/) on PJM? I especially liked the comment about the mechanical rat.

Mar 5, 2009 - 8:47 am 34. Mongoose:

maineman: thanks. hope it helps.

Mar 5, 2009 - 9:13 am 35. steveaz:

I call it “Cynic’s Rule #1:” There is an inverse proportionality between an issue’s global import and the volume of media product relating to it.

This “cynic’s rule” tops the list because, once considered, it conditions the probing mind to reflexively investigate the severity of any issue it may encounter in mainstream media reports using the sheer volume of those reports as a metric.

Some harbor suspicions about the verity of this rule. But the proof is a simple question: why would paying media patrons bother generating demand (via expensive advertising and “news” programs) for something that is already salient and plentiful, or evidently eminent and desired?

Wretchard’s post posits just another example of this rule at work. The “Palestinian Conflict, ” joins “Global Warming” and others in the annals of well-capitalized “surround advertising:” both are implicated by the fact that they cast media-shadows way out of proportion to their prove-able severity.

Media long ago blended their ad-space with their print content. This extinguished distinction flies by most “news” consumers without notice. Same goes for political comedy…it’s getting harder to find the line between “true truth” and the chaff in most media products.

Heck, if MSNBC was VIOXX, the ninth circuit’d be riding ‘em.

Mar 5, 2009 - 9:21 am 36. always right:

I wonder what if the same tool(s) can be used to graph our domestic problems.

What would be the bigger (biggest) pies than the ‘global warming worries’?

Medicare/Medicaid? Social Security? ???

/Hard to define exactly the current ‘finacial crisis’ in exact terms, except for a no confidence by the consumers (i.e. you and me, us).

Mar 5, 2009 - 10:13 am 37. Eggplant:

LarryD said:

“Iran’s oil output has been declining for years, and the rate of decline has reached double digits. They’ve been treating it as a cash cow and not been doing the necessary maintenance. Even the Arabs are afraid of what a nuclear armed Iran will do. We could take down their nuke program without bombing the rest of the country back to the stone age, but the Israelis won’t have that much manpower or overall throw weight, they’ll have to do a harsher job of it. Might as well take out the regime while they’re at it.”

Wars are such destructive things. One wonders why human beings ever go to war. However with the Iranian situaion, we are slowly sleep walking towards a regional war that will further damage the world’s economy.

It’s almost unstoppable.

The Iranians now have almost nothing to lose. Their economy is in the toilet. They’re running out of oil as their theocratic revolution runs out of steam. Military adventures are really their only remaining option. Iran and Israel have been in a state of undeclared war for a few years now. Iran was behind the South Lebanon war and the recent military action in Gaza. The Israelis have remarkably little downside risk if they chose to attack Iran. Diplomatic efforts to terminate the Iranian nuclear weapons program have been unblemished with success. It’s becoming clear that the only way the Iranian nuclear weapons program will be halted is through military intervention.

While G.W. Bush was still President, the Israelis could justify self-restraint under the assumption that G.W. would eventually deal with the problem. However Obama is now our messiah so Israel knows that they are on their own. The hard truth is the Israelis have already passed the point of political decision (they have to take action). Now it’s really only a question of what tactics to use, e.g. Do they use nuclear weapons or not? Do they restrict themselves to only destroying nuclear weapons capability or do they go for political decapitation?

The Israelis are a moral people. The ethics behind launching a preemptive war with nuclear weapons are very murky. Unfortunately the Israelis have almost no choice since waiting merely offers the Iranian mullahs an opportunity for launching an optimal suprise attack.

Mar 5, 2009 - 10:18 am 38. Dave:

@Eggplant (and Larry):

What I wanted to see done with Iran about three years ago, was a form of siege.

Blockade Iran both seaward and landward.
Allow nothing in or out. Also seize all their financial assets.

Once that started taking effect, then disable
their one remaining refinery.

With all that done, they would be fundamentally incapable of making mischief either directly or indirectly. The Mad Mullahs will have to surrender one way or the other.

BTW: Should that refinery be taken out overtly or covertly? Judgement call, I suppose.

However, if overtly is the answer, then I would
heartily recommend that the US do the job and do it with a nuke.

Nuclear weapons are for destroying property, not people. A refinery would be a very appropriate target. And then those folks who have convinced themselves that we are too chicken to every use nukes would rethink their positions in a hurry.

Wonder if it is too late for all that by now?

Mar 5, 2009 - 10:30 am 39. Eggplant:

Dave,

The US won’t take any military action against Iran while we have Obama as our messiah (his moonbat political base prohibits that). The Israelis are on their own…

Mar 5, 2009 - 11:04 am 40. Eggplant:

Stock market is plunging again (Dow down -223.41)

The latest Denninger is very scary:

http://market-ticker.org/

I know it’s cliche but we’re setting up for a Perfect Storm. The market will capitulate and THEN the Israelis will make their move…

Mar 5, 2009 - 11:11 am 41. peterike:

Media long ago blended their ad-space with their print content. This extinguished distinction flies by most “news” consumers without notice. Same goes for political comedy…it’s getting harder to find the line between “true truth” and the chaff in most media products.

Oh so true. You notice how the despicable Cindy Sheehan has vanished from media coverage? Her purpose served, she is tossed onto the heap by her reputed comrades. Can’t have her setting up her stupid protests against Obambi.

I’ve also noticed the once uber-popular coined word “truthiness” has vanished from our discourse as well. Needless to say, it applies a thousand times more to O than it ever did go GWB, but there you go.

BTW, what on earth are guys like Jon Stewart talking about these days?

Mar 5, 2009 - 11:25 am 42. Fred2:

The map also omits all information on Afghanistan. Amazing.

Mar 5, 2009 - 11:33 am 43. dan:

Dave – yeah I remember advocating the total destruction of the Iranian navy when those provocations first occurred, timed with the assassination of al Sadr and a “Night of the Long Knives” for his buddies and their ghouls.

We really f*cked up by not just smashing, just unapologetically annihilating these idiots into the wall and destroying their capabilities while we had some wind in our sails. Fallujah I has left an unfortunate legacy. I bet a timeline would show that’s when the Guardian Council/SVR/GRU saw their opening.

Mar 5, 2009 - 11:56 am 44. Mongoose:

Dow 6,643.82 -232.02 (-3.37%)
S&P 500 686.43 -26.44 (-3.71%)
Nasdaq 1,311.69 -42.05 (-3.11%)
10y bond 2.84% -0.03 (-1.05%)

Well, we are being attacked by our own government.

Another coupled of days of this and we are going to see a complete collapse.

If I were Obama, I would just get on the tube and announce tax relief (Particularly corp and payroll), regulatory relief, and a hold on spending and his whole agenda (including the Global Warming bit). And I would, of course, mean it. We are reaching the point of no return. Even though he would not deserve it, he would look like a hero.

The fact that he does not, nor that the government seems to feel the slightest pressure about what is happening, seems to remove all doubt that he is out to destroy this country and replace it with a communist structure.

That is not to say that he will know what to do when that happens. This is wealth destroyed. He just cannot print more money to replace it.

Did any one see that Citigroup fell below a dollar today?

I think that Denninger may have some reason for being upset. We are almost at the abyss, and we have a Sec. of Tres. yammering on about AGW.

None of this needs to be. It is almost entirely fabricated.

To fix it means that the idiots that caused it have to take their lumps. Instead we get a cut in the withholding amount, not the tax, just the amount. It is insane.

Who sent him?

Mar 5, 2009 - 12:16 pm 45. dan:

Yuri Andropov!

Mar 5, 2009 - 1:06 pm 46. Mongoose:

He did not have that much of a sense of humor to cook this one up.

(In fact, he barely had a pulse)

Mar 5, 2009 - 1:22 pm 47. pendejo grande:

How credible is this Denninger fellow? I’ve never heard of him before. Reading his posts would lead me to believe that I need to jerk every penny I can find out of the bank and annuities right friggin’ now.

Mar 5, 2009 - 1:30 pm 48. Mongoose:

Dow 6,559.72 -316.12 (-4.60%)
S&P 500 678.72 -34.15 (-4.79%)
Nasdaq 1,300.14 -53.60 (-3.96%)
10y bond 2.82% -0.05 (-1.74%)

Mar 5, 2009 - 1:36 pm 49. dan:

(Yuri Andropov!)

Mar 5, 2009 - 1:55 pm 50. Doug:

George McGovern against Card Check

Employee Free Choice Act
Where “Freedom” really IS slavery.

Obama to Unions: Card Check Will Pass

WASHINGTON — With renewed support from the White House, labor officials said Wednesday they are confident that legislation making it easier to unionize workplaces will pass Congress this year.

President Barack Obama offered some of his most supportive comments for the Employee Free Choice Act since he took office this week, telling AFL-CIO members in a videotaped message Tuesday that he will work to pass the bill.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Organized
FOX News has the goods on the AFL-CIO’s lavish meeting at a luxury resort in Miami, Florida. The cheapest room runs $400 a night!

Mar 5, 2009 - 2:50 pm 51. Fletcher Christian:

Somebody tell me how to make an HTML link here please?

Mar 5, 2009 - 3:25 pm 52. Eggplant:

Fletcher Christian asked:

Somebody tell me how to make an HTML link here please?

Just cut and paste (no HTML brackets required). The pajamasmedia software writes the HTML for you.

Mar 5, 2009 - 3:29 pm 53. noprisoners:

Asher Abrams #6:

All of us know you. We could probably pick you out of a thousand people at a cocktail reception. You would be the one holding court with a bunch of other people educated beyond their intelligence, criticizing the Bush administration and the U.S. in general.

I would say that you are a Blue State denizen who thrives in the echo chamber of your environment. Stretching a little farther: I would say that you might even be involved in education or some other type of government enterprise. I think that it is you and people like you who have brought us to where we are. Thanks a bunch.

Mar 5, 2009 - 7:26 pm 54. Busted Priorities « Columbia Gorge Dispatch:

[...] 6, 2009 · No Comments The Belmont Club had an interesting post a couple days ago highlighting, graphically, the West’s lack of perspective. The original [...]

Mar 6, 2009 - 2:34 pm

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