MAX BLUMENTHAL

The Politically Incorrect Blog Post on Conservative Idiocy


Self-styled science critic Tom Bethell's "The Politically Incorrect Guide To Science" reveals a lot more than the retrograde state of the conservative mind. Notice the book's tagline: "Liberals have hijacked science for long enough. Now it's our turn." So it's time for conservatives to hijack science, then? (This slogan was quietly changed on the book's paperback edition, but is preserved forever on Amazon.com.)

Bethell's neanderthal-brained attacks on evolution, the notion that global warming is a reality, and the so-called "priesthood of science" were promoted at a recent Heritage Foundation event showcasing his book. As absurd as it is that Bethell's arguments should be taken seriously, Chris Mooney has nonetheless ripped them to shreds. His review is definitely worth a read.

Looks like Peter Jackson lost a lot of weight making King Kong
So, as I wrote yesterday, I found my way into the New York premier of King Kong. Don't have time for an earnest review of Peter Jackson's 3 hour epic, but I will say that Kong is the most referential, overblown, special effects-laden movie I have ever seen. Most of the film is devoted to Skull Island, where a cast of castaways battle giant cockroaches, blood-thirsty Aboriginal-esque savages (Kong is the only noble savage in this picture), and of course, Kong, who himself rumbles with three T-Rexes -- and wins! Jackson took stabs at depicting the class warfare and racism that roiled 1920's America, but these themes drown in a sea of spectacular violence. The movie left me exhausted and unable to summon any cerebral activity until an hour after it was over. (And someone stole my scarf). If those sound like sensations you'd like to feel, I recommend King Kong.

By then, I was at the most overblown after-party I've ever been to in my life. A big band with professional tango dancers, vaudeville shows, an open bar around every corner stocked with New Zealand cabernet in honor of Peter Jackson's homeland; who says corporate America doesn't have style? As I milled around watching other people milling around, I heard George Carlin screaming in my head about turning golf courses into homeless shelters. If the after-party was any indication, Kong's backers expect to recoup their investments, and then some. Yet it remains to be seen whether Jackson's bonanza can hold America's attention for three hours.

I'll be covering the Princeton conservatism conference for the Nation, so I won't be writing much about it on this blog. What I will say is that I was only around long enough to catch a panel on religion and politics with Richard Land, William Bennett, and right-wing Princeton jurisprudence professor Robby George. And I witnessed a confrontation between a group of mostly black Princeton grad students and Bennett, who is still paying penance for his on-air comments linking black abortions to declining crime rates. What was supposed to be a celebration of 40 years of the conservative movement seemed more like a train wreck. I missed a surprise, off-the-record speech by Karl Rove but Rick Perlstein of the Village Voice was there.
Last night, I sort of dreamwalked into the New York premier of King Kong last night (with a little help from my friends, of course). I'll post some photos later.

Check me out late this weekend. I'll be at a conservative movement conference (you know, one of those places where Reagan is discussed in the same breath as Jesus) at Princeton on Saturday, hanging with Richard Land, Paul Weyrich, and the rest of the good old boys. Maybe i'll post some pics.

Dobson Meets With Bolton To Set UN Policy
During the debate on John R. Bolton's nomination as US ambassador to the UN, I was a little dismayed about the lack of attention devoted to his long and troubling history of collaboration with Christian right interest groups to, for instance, restrict condom distribution in developing nations. Now that Bolton has been installed in the UN by Bush, his so-called "reform" agenda will undoubtedly include a host of reactionary Christian right social policies. A disturbing reflection of Bolton's plans was provided by James Dobson in today's Focus on the Family broadcast, in which he and FoF President Jim Daly described a private, hour-long meeting they and a group of FoF staffers recently held with Bolton in New York.

Here are key portions of Dobson and Daly's discussion of their meeting with Bolton:

JIM DALY: He's [Bolton's] a good man. I mean, everything we saw of him in that almost hour we met with him...he's just a solid pro-life gentleman and uh, certainly more meek than what the Democrats portrayed. He's a nice guy.

(....)

JAMES DOBSON: But we had an opportunity to talk to him about the possibilty of Focus on the Family working with the United Nations. That really did excite me.

DALY: Absolutely. I think what came across in the meeting is that he [Bolton] is pro-life and pro-family and he gave us an invitation to work with him in setting some policy there at the UN that would support the values we believe in.

DOBSON: Now we're finding out why the Democrats didn't want him...

DALY: It had nothing to do...

DOBSON: He's [Bolton's] pro-life, pro-family, pro-morality and sees things the way we do regarding condom distribution and abstinence and other things.

For a little perspective, consider what Bolton's predecessor at the UN, former Republican Senator John Danforth, wrote about Dobson and his ilk:

"When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another....

As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around."

Did Tim LaHaye Just Call Me A "Yid?"
The Christian right sure gets its panties in a bunch when Jews act without their permission. Recently, a speech by the ADL's Abe Foxman about the Christian right's theocratic agenda provoked a Gangland-style threat from Dobson minion Tom Minnery -- "If you keep bullying your friends, pretty soon you won't have any." Then, like clockwork, Tim LaHaye's Left Behind Prophecy Group leapt into the fracas with some good, old-fashioned anti-Semitic slurs.

In an article entitled "Will the Goyim Win?" published on the official site of the Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' Left Behind Prophecy Group (which also operates an annual Holy Land tour for evangelicals), Jerusalem Newswire's Stan Goodenough takes Israel and the Sharon government to task for trading land for peace. In breathless prose, Goodenough bemoans the Israelis' supposed surrender of "the cradle of their nationhood, the burial places of their national patriarchs and heroes."

Then, he proceeds to pile it on:

But do you know what, Jews of Israel – and those Jews still in exile who so fervently support this way? You may think that in so acquiescing, you are setting a glowing example to the nations of the world.

But as far as these nations are concerned, the last thing they will want to do is emulate you. All you are doing is proving them right in their long-held belief that you are illegitimate, land grabbing, not-to-be-trusted Yids. And, as far as the Muslim world is concerned, your actions only confirm their view of you as a dhimmi nation, fit only to be ruled over by, and subdued under, Islam.

Ariel Sharon may have bulldozed thousands of Palestinian homes, but to the dismay of many Christian Zionists, he won't clear enough space in the Holy Land to build the Messiah's landing pad. And so the movement that had hoped to exploit the Jewish state all the way to Judgement Day has reverted to its old, bigoted self. Though Goodenough tries to afford himself a degree of plausible deniability by using the international community as his surrogate for calling Israelis "not-to-be-trusted Yids," his point is clear: If Israel is not useful to rapture-ready evangelicals, it has no reason to exist.