Best of the Web Today - April 14, 2006
By JAMES TARANTO
Porn in the USA
Andrew Sullivan has "gone fishing," and Michelle Cottle of The New Republic has temporarily taken over his Time magazine blog. Yesterday Cottle managed to post an entry that is bizarre even by Sullivan standards:
I'm sorry, but I can only bring myself to skim today's reports on the playing of the cockpit voice recorder from Flight 93 for jurors in the Moussaoui trial. The pleading, the struggling, the creepy chanting about Allah as the hijackers prepared to slaughter a planeload of people. I know it's important for everyone to remember how horrifying the attacks were, but the tidbits in today's papers border on the pornographic.
This of course is exactly the gut-level revulsion that the Moussaoui prosecutors are hoping to provoke in jurors now deciding whether to sentence this sorry excuse for a human being to death. But while I see the logic of their strategy, I question its rightness. The contents of these tapes can only cloud jurors' ability to approach their sentencing duties with anything resembling reason, and theirs is too important a duty to carry out based on raw emotion.
It's not that I doubt that Moussaoui is complete scum. But there is a strong case to be made that he does not deserve to die--not because death would be too harsh a penalty, but because it would be too easy. I mean, how bad can the idea of lethal injection be to a guy who was ready to fly a plane into a building? So while I personally believe that, in a just world, Moussauoi would be torn apart by angry ferrets, I can't help but question our rush to turn him into a shining example of martyrdom for all his aspiring terrorist pals. Better to throw the failed jihadist into a cell with a large, surly redneck with a scorching case of xenophobia and let him spend the rest of his miserable life learning about pain and terror firsthand.
Wow, this is rich. Let's begin with Cottle's assertion that the Flight 93 transcripts (portions of which appear in The Wall Street Journal this morning) "border on the pornographic." Potter Stewart knew pornography when he saw it, but he has gone to the great courthouse up in the sky, so we'll have to go to a dictionary for the relevant definition: "the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction <the pornography of violence>." (This of course is by analogy to the original definition of pornography, "the depiction of erotic behavior . . . intended to cause sexual excitement.")
It's hard to see how the Flight 93 recording and transcript fit this definition. The recording itself was produced pursuant to standard operating procedure; its purpose was not to titillate but to gather information in case anything went wrong with the flight. The prosecutors have been very sensitive in the way they have presented it: They played the audio only in the courtroom and did not make it available to the general public. The jury heard it as one piece of evidence among many, during a lengthy and carefully structured procedure designed to yield a just verdict while protecting Moussaoui's legal rights.
If the transcribed "tidbits" that so discomfit Cottle retain the power to arouse an intense emotional reaction, it is not because they are depicted in a sensational way, but because the reality of the attack is so horrific that it comes through despite the prosecutors' efforts not to sensationalize them. Cottle is arguing that exposure to the actual horror of Sept. 11 will "cloud jurors' ability to approach their sentencing duties with anything resembling reason."
But what does she mean by "reason"? This is where things get really weird. Her own preference, she explains, is for Moussaoui to "be torn apart by angry ferrets," but she is willing to settle for "throw[ing] the failed jihadist into a cell with a large, surly redneck with a scorching case of xenophobia and let[ting Moussaoui] spend the rest of his miserable life learning about pain and terror firsthand."
In fact, no sentencing option is available to the jury that involves either ferrets or rednecks. The choice is between death by lethal injection and life in prison without parole. True, American prisoners are sometimes subjected to abuse by fellow inmates, but this is generally understood to be a shortcoming in prison discipline, not an enhanced penalty. In any case, Moussaoui, as a high-profile federal prisoner, would be among those least likely to suffer such abuse behind bars.
An important characteristic of pornography is that its consumption usually entails a detachment from reality. Erotic porn offers solitary sexual release without the complications or responsibilities--and also without the emotional rewards--of an actual intimate relationship.
Similarly, Cottle's lurid revenge fantasies are a crude emotional release that has no connection to the responsibilities and constraints that jurors face as they perform their solemn duty in the Moussaoui case. It is she, not the prosecutors, who is purveying pornography here.
Free Speech for Me, but Not for Thee--I
Last November voters in Washington state considered a ballot measure called Initiative 912, which proposed to roll back state gasoline taxes. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer vigorously opposed the measure, going to far as to publish a series of editorials titled "Daily 'No' on 912." Among the proponents were John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur, talk-show hosts on Seattle's KVI-AM.
The P-I won the argument: Washington voters turned down Initiative 912, 54.6% to 45.4%. But the battle isn't over. A judge ruled that under the state's "campaign finance" regulations, Carlson and Wilbur's advocacy on behalf of the initiative must be reported to the authorities as an "in-kind contribution." The Washington Supreme Court has now agreed to review the ruling.
The P-I, in an editorial yesterday, endorsed this assault on free speech:
Carlson and Wilbur crossed the line between commentary and outright promotion. Carlson, for instance, collected signatures for the I-912 petitions and donated money to the campaign.
The P-I Editorial Board was engaged with I-912 too . . . but there remains a difference. Editorial Board members don't write checks, sign petitions or participate in political campaigns, understanding that while we may have a personal right to do so, we recognize a professional responsibility not to. It's clear to us that our job is to help public policy with our arguments, not our checkbooks.
We'd say the P-I's policy against political activity by its editorialists is a wise one. But the Constitution does not mandate it. The First Amendment does not limit the rights of free speech and free press to those who renounce other forms of activism. The P-I's position lends credence to the suspicion that when journalistic organizations support regulation of campaign finance, their motive is to secure a monopoly on the means of expression.
Free Speech for Me, but Not for Thee--II
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports from Highland Heights, Ky:
A professor at Northern Kentucky University said she invited students in one of her classes to destroy an anti-abortion display on campus Wednesday evening.
NKU police are investigating the incident, in which 400 crosses were removed from the ground near University Center and thrown in trash cans. The crosses, meant to represent a cemetery for aborted fetuses, had been temporarily erected last weekend by a student Right to Life group with permission from NKU officials. . . .
Witnesses reported "a group of females of various ages" committing the vandalism about 5:30 p.m., said Dave Tobertge, administrative sergeant with the campus police.
Sally Jacobsen, a longtime professor in NKU's literature and language department, said the display was dismantled by about nine students in one of her graduate-level classes.
"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said. . . .
She said she was infuriated by the display, which she saw as intimidating and a "slap in the face" to women who might be making "the agonizing and very private decision to have an abortion.' " . . .
"Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged," Jacobsen said.
It doesn't sound as though Jacobsen and her students are very confident in their own views, does it?
Great Minds
"A key pillar of the [Israel] Lobby's effectiveness is its influence in Congress, where Israel is virtually immune from criticism. This in itself is remarkable, because Congress rarely shies away from contentious issues. Where Israel is concerned, however, potential critics fall silent. One reason is that some key members are Christian Zionists like Dick Armey, who said in September 2002: 'My No. 1 priority in foreign policy is to protect Israel.' One might think that the No. 1 priority for any congressman would be to protect America. There are also Jewish senators and congressmen who work to ensure that US foreign policy supports Israel's interests."--John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, London Review of Books, March 23
"Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jews who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans. I made a study and I know very well that all this radicalism in some parts of the Christianity, [including] the Anglicans who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of Zionists."--Hamas parliamentarian Muhammad Abu Tir, April 6, quoted in today's Jerusalem Post
Moderate Mahmoud
Reuters reports from Tehran:
Iran's president said on Friday that the existence of the "Zionist regime," Iran's term for Israel, was a threat to the Islamic world, days after declaring Iran had become a nuclear power by enriching uranium.
But the tone of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech to a conference on the Palestinian issue was slightly more moderate than fiery rhetoric last year, when Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted him as telling a conference: "Israel must be wiped off the map."
"The existence of the Zionist regime is tantamount to an imposition of an unending and unrestrained threat so that none of the nations and Islamic countries of the region and beyond can feel secure from its threat," Ahmadinejad said on Friday.
We guess he's mellowed with age.
Dead Men Tell Tales After All
"A suicide car bomber attacked a police station north of Baghdad Friday, wounding at least seven people when he detonated his explosives, he said."--Associated Press, April 14
Great Orators of the Democratic Party
o "One man with courage makes a majority."--Andrew Jackson
o "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."--Franklin D. Roosevelt
o "The buck stops here."--Harry S. Truman
o "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."--John F. Kennedy
o "The idea that I live in a country I spent my lifetime trying to make better, but there's still hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people, most of them people of color, who will die before their time, drop out of school, go to prison, never have a chance to live their dreams, is galling and painful to me."--Bill Clinton
But Not All of Them
"Experts Agree They Disagree"--headline, Herald News (West Paterson, N.J.), April 14
What Would Katie Do Without Tom?
"Tom: Yes, Katie Can Make Noise During Birth"--headline, MSNBC.com, April 13
Big Deal, So Can a Drunken Sailor
"Student Can Recite Poem With Profanity"--headline, Associated Press, April 14
Another Danger of Smoking
"Butts' Competitive Juices Ignite Dogs"--headline, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), April 14
Thanks for the Tip!--LXVI
"Health Tip: Know What Triggers Your Seizures"--headline, HealthDayNews, April 14
Bottom Story of the Day
"Wal-Mart CEO to Take Long Vacation in May"--headline, Associated Press, April 13
The Agony of the Feet
"A DEA agent who accidentally shot himself in the foot while demonstrating gun safety to school children is suing the agency, saying video of the incident has made him the joke of the Internet," the Associated Press reports from Orlando, Fla.:
Lee Paige was making a presentation to children at the Orlando Youth Minority Golf Association on April 9, 2004, when he shot himself. Moments before the shooting, the 14-year agency veteran was displaying his firearm and telling students he was the only one in the room professional enough to handle a gun.
He was suspended for five days without pay after the accident, and the video was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The lawsuit filed April 7 in federal court in Washington alleges the agency leaked the video to the public. . . .
Paige "is the target of jokes, derision, ridicule and disparaging comments" because of the publicity, according to the lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount. . . .
"Yesterday I walk into a salon and a young lady made mention to me I was the person that shot myself on TV," Paige told NBC. "It is something I can't get away from."
It's not that we're without sympathy for poor Paige, but filing a suit seems likely only to provoke more ridicule. Seems the guy is determined to shoot himself in the foot figuratively as well. |
