People in need of an appointment with reality

The blogosphere is afire with Kanye West's ignorant and slanderous invective at a broadcasted-live benefits concert last night. Paired with Mike Myers, West ignored the script and supplied an incohesive babble that repeated already-worn complaints: "I hate the way they portray us [blacks] in the media," and the allegedly slow government response "because most of the people are black." Mike Myers occasionally glanced toward him and apparently struggled to keep a straight face. That is, until the end, when West declared, "George Bush doesn't like black people." Myers' expression went from forced stoicism ("Why didn't this guy stick to the script?") to revulsion ("I can't believe you just said that &%*#!"). The technical director made a quick switch to Chris Tucker, who also appeared shocked.

Michelle Malkin, from whose blog I got the link to the video, noted West's belief that AIDS is a government-created conspiracy, and his sour grapes at not winning anything at the American Music Awards. (The linked article quotes him as griping that he was "The only playa that got robbed and kept all his jewelry.") She's right: the Red Cross should have known what to expect from him. And this is the man that Time recently put on its front cover and described as "The smartest man in rap music." That's not a terribly difficult feat when the other competitors are principally drug dealers and thugs who revel in their felony-dominated pasts.

NBC officially disavowed West, though one of its pseudo-bloggers claimed, "Kanye West steals show":

He stumbles a bit on his points, but most of them get across. The basic message to the government? Stop dragging your feet and help the people down there. Myers gives him a couple "oh my God" looks, and then another when Kanye says "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us." ...

Kanye was one frustrated man on TV....

Not sure what kind of flack Kanye's gonna catch for that last bit, but I'm sure he doesn't care. And good for him to bring up a point on the media's portrayal of blacks that can't be said enough. Not sure if I agree, but it's always good to have someone out there, challenging the media to be as fair as possible.

"Challenging the media to be as fair as possible." What are the odds that this person felt the same about Power Line and Little Green Footballs as they exposed the forged "Dan Rather memos"? Evidently he was too busy live-blogging to pay attention to what West actually said. The message was that George W. Bush isn't responding fast enough to the crisis because he's racist.

West said, "So now I'm callin' my business manager, right now, to see what's, what is the biggest amount I can give." Doesn't he have a general idea of his finances that he'd know if $100,000, $200,000 or any other sum is within his means, or is he wondering what's the maximum donation that he can claim as a tax deduction? And why does he want to help? "Those are my people down there." His people, fitting in with his claim that "they" will be shooting at "us" -- a purely slanderous insinuation that the police and military are targetting blacks, not just looters. It's an inclusiveness reminiscent of "Rev." Al Sharpton promoting "racial harmony" while staying silent about black thugs' race-motivated attack on a Jewish man.

"Rev." Jesse Jackson must be steamed. Yesterday he called President Bush "incompetent" and blaming "racism" for the "slow federal response" to Katrina. He beat Sharpton in the race to take advantage of the disaster to push a political agenda, only to lose the limelight hours later, when West achieved newfound stardom in race-baiting demagoguery.

Meanwhile, the DailyKos ranters (I refuse to call them "bloggers" or link to their tripe) go on and on about how government failed, and how this supposedly proves that limited government is not possible. Like Paul Krugman, the modern patron saint of state-worshippers, they don't want individuals to take responsibility for their own actions. Since that means having to accept the consequences of their own mistakes, they instead want to give up virtually every freedom in exchange for, as Samuel Adams called it, "the tranquility of servitude." They don't fear and indeed welcome even the greatest subservience to government, to which they appeal for rescue from every bad thing in life.

Oh indeed, how well did government "come through for the people" in Katrina's wake: it rescued people from Scylla only to throw them to Charybdis. Capital Freedom correctly predicted what criminals would do: they've looted homes, paying particular attention to obtaining firearms, and easily preyed on the civilians in the Superdome. No doubt the criminals have a most favorable view of government, which ordered (virtually herding) people to evacuate and leave behind their means of self-defense.

DailyKos quoted a blogger so full of warmth and love, someone clearly willing to put partisan politics aside and join other Americans in helping with disaster relief. (Yeah.) I've had to censor the many vulgarities:

Well, [censored], and that means you, fat [censored] Goldberg and your master, Rich Lowry, PNAC [censored] Beinart, the racist wannabe white Malkin and the little [censored] at LGF, Bareback Andy and "Diversity" Instacracker, all you backstabbing, [censored] hating uncle tom ministers, you can see Dear Leader in action. America's largest port is gone, maybe forever, gas is $5+ a gallon and FEMA is coming. [censored] come faster with old men than FEMA is getting to NOLA.

How did your wartime President react? Like Chiang Kai-Shek when the Yellow River flooded in 1944, with corrupt indifference.

Bush, the man your fever dreams built into the next Winston Churchill when he is really the live action Chauncey Gardiner, has failed to everyone, in plain sight, without question. Rick Perry is trying to save his ass, but it ain't working. NOLA looks like ANGOLA and that ain't flying.

Say 9/11 changed everything now, [censored]. Ooops, 9/11, 9/11. 9/11. Doesn't work anymore? Gee, maybe the sea of alligator MRE's once known as the citizens of New Orleans has something to do with that. Now you can shut the [censored] up about 9/11. Bush just proved what would happen with another 9/11. Dead Americans as far as the nose can smell.

How uplifting. It's curious this leftist can unflinchingly use a disparaging term for homosexuals, which will never cause an outcry from gay groups. More curiously, he can call President Bush "dear leader," and just like John Kerry, his attempt at "nuance" came back to bite him in the behind. That's a term used for Kim Jong-il, who I think represents the pinnacle of paternalist state-planning better than Castro. (Yes, a true "pinnacle" in that starving and oppressing millions of people is the best that paternalist central-planning government will ever accomplish.)

But no one, no one should excuse the callous, purely ghastly reference to the victims as "alligator MRE's." Good heavens. And they call themselves "the reality-based community."

Now let's turn to someone who excels in rational, intelligent thinking, and who has a firm grasp of reality. Ben Stein wrote a wonderful, brilliant column, "Get Off His Back," reproduced here at The Spectator. Among his wonderful points:

4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.

5.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan...

6.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.

7.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.

8.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.

10.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an Act of God worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.

11.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.

12.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had gotten her way and they were in charge of your health care.

Putting aside the fact that it's not the proper role of government to engage in charity, leftists have accused George W. Bush of acting like a king while simultaneously demanding he exercise the powers of a deity. After all, it was Christ who made men marvel, "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!" (Matthew 8:27, Mark 4:41, Luke 8:25) It was Christ who, on two occasions, fed the thousands that tarried with Him but were ill-prepared and did not bring their own food. (Matthew 14 and 15, Mark 6 and 8, Luke 9, John 6)