Currently viewing the tag: “Book”
Arnold Schwarzenegger has mastered the worlds of bodybuilding, show business, and politics. Next, he’s going to try his hand at being a Marvel superhero.
Entertainment Weekly (“Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as ‘The Governator’“):
He’s been a famous body builder. He’s been a killer cyborg from the future. He’s been Governor of California. And now, in this week’s exclusive cover scoop, Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals his plans for the next phase of his extraordinary career: He’s going be a cartoon superhero, known as The Governator. “When I ran for governor back in 2003 and I started hearing people talking about ‘the Governator,’ I thought the word was so cool,” Schwarzenegger, 63, tells EW in his first press interview since leaving office last January.
[…]
The animated TV show and comic book, being co-developed by no less a superhero authority than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee (pictured, right), won’t be out until next year, but this week EW offers an exclusive early look at Arnold’s cartoon alter-ego. “The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Lee says of the semi-fictional character. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood.”
[…]
Along with the Arnold Cave, the Governator will have a fleet of super vehicles at his disposal, a closet full of “Super Suits” that allow him to fly and perform other super stunts, and a team of colorful sidekicks, such as Zeke Muckerberg, the precocious 13-year-old computer whiz who acts as the Governator’s cybersecurity expert. Naturally, there will also be recurring supervillains — including an evil organization called Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men, for short).
This strikes me as incredibly lame. Then again, Marvel put out one-shot comics about the rock band Kiss and Pope John Paul II when I was a kid and I scooped them up.
PJ Crowley stands by what he said of Bradley Manning's treatment:
The Pentagon has said that it is playing the Manning case by the book. The book tells us what actions we can take, but not always what we should do. Actions can be legal and still not smart. With the Manning case unfolding in a fishbowl-like environment, going strictly by the book is not good enough. Private Manning's overly restrictive and even petty treatment undermines what is otherwise a strong legal and ethical position.
A reader writes:
I am a practicing Mormon. I don't claim to represent the mainstream of my faith, but I do hold up well enough to have taught adult Sunday school weekly for most of the last 12 years. I have enjoyed your review of "The Book of Mormon". My reaction to the show was in most ways similar to yours, though with some bitter-sweetness, as it was my faith so effectively mocked and honored during the show.
I attended a preview of the musical with a close friend who left the church several weeks into his mission, after concluding that it wasn't true and he couldn't teach people that it was. Oddly, the event of him leaving the church tightly bound us together due to the way that we both reacted. I learned through that event that my friendship with him wasn't a function of his faith, but rather his character. Over the intervening 20ish years, we have stayed close. Religion continues to be one theme of our relationship and discussions. When we found out about this musical, we couldn't resist meeting in NY to share the "Book of Mormon" experience together.
My reaction to the musical borders on awe.
It wasn't perfect, but it was darn close. Orgazmo, while entertaining, didn't feel "Mormon" to me. It missed on too many critical facts and cultural issues to feel genuine. "The Book of Mormon" felt like the faith I grew up with and maintain. I knew those missionaries. I know them. I was one of them. The way missionaries are represented (young, clean, enthusiastic, naive, committed, sincere) feels like my experience in the church.
Trey and Matt deconstructed religion through the lens of Mormonism. The deconstruction seemed to me fair and universal. It showed the goofiness, inconsistency, inadequacy, and importance of faith and dogma. There were a few very minor inaccuracies (time at the missionary training center is 3 – 7 weeks, you have your assignment before you get there, companionships change every couple of months throughout the two years, etc.) but nothing that was wildly inaccurate or unfair. Church doctrine and history was shown in a comic and satirical manner, but I heard nothing that was unfair or dishonest. If anything they went lighter than I expected especially given our history on polygamy and minorities.
I know that few, if any, in my congregation would have lasted beyond the first few minutes. The raunch alone would have finished most off; the blasphemy would have taken care of the rest. So, I don't purport to represent the mean for Mormonism. But for me, seeing the absurdity of the human condition and the difficulties of religion in addressing it woven into such a spectacle was inspiring. The Mormons felt like Proverbs and the Ugandans like Ecclesiastes.
My friend, who is no longer Mormon, had the same reaction I did: this show paid honor to faith and myth and hope. It did so with satire and humor and raunch and blasphemy. That it wrapped its sweet, warped message so lovingly in frog-humping, clitorises, and Yoda is the show's magic.
My wife called me after the show. She worries a lot because faith isn't easy for me and attending the show felt to her a bit like me flaunting my unorthodoxy. When she asked, "So how was it?", I responded, "You would have hated it. I've never felt better about being a Mormon." And I meant it. The most connected I have felt in years to my faith and experience as a Mormon came while I was laughing my guts out while my beliefs and my life were mocked and honored with equal sincerity during a show nobody but Matt and Trey would have had the guts to make.
Another writes:
I wholeheartedly agree that the show is an absolutely amazing piece of theatre and, as someone who sees a LOT of Broadway shows, this show ranks among the best I have seen in the past 10 years. However, I want to make sure that you and your readers do not overlook Parker and Stone's collaborators, without whom this amazing piece of theater likely would not be what it is.
Bobby Lopez (co-composer/lyricist of "Avenue Q"), as Trey and Matt's continually credit in interviews, was the one who sparked the idea to do a musical about Mormons, and his musical theatre songwriting background is clearly seen in the overall structure and the music for Book of Mormon. As co-director and choreographer, Casey Nicholaw deserves much of the credit for making the evening fly by at a breakneck pace, and likely helped guide Broadway neophytes Parker and Stone through the process of getting the ideas on the stage rather than in animated characters.
(Photo: Choreographer Casey Nicholaw, writer Trey Parker, writer Matt Stone, and writer/lyricist Robert Lopez take a bow during the curtain call on the opening night of 'the Book of Mormon' on Broadway at Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011 in New York City. By Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
He is going to UCLA, which is in no way shocking.
Larry Drew, the former North Carolina point guard, has enrolled at UCLA, according to sources.
Drew was officially enrolled as of Monday, the first day of spring quarter at UCLA.
Drew, who was a junior at North Carolina this year, left the Tar Heels in mid-season and requested and was granted a transfer from UNC’s Roy Williams.
The 6-0 guard will have to sit out next season, due to NCAA transfer rules. According to sources, he won’t take up a scholarship during his redshirt year.
The real question is what do the Wear Twins think? The other question is does Ben Howland really know what is he is getting into? I guess it doesn’t matter. He only has to put up with it for one season and if he doesn’t play Some Other Kid what is SOK’s mother going to do? Berate him on Twitter? Whine about on the message boards?
At any rate, anyone want to lay odds on whether UNC and UCLA end up in the same region in the 2013 NCAA Tournament?
Two responses to the musical illustrate just how culturally clueless the right now is. Both Terry Teachout and Bill Donohue dismiss the show as made for "12-year-old boys who have yet to graduate from fart jokes to 'Glee.'" Amazingly, they call Matt and Trey cowards for not doing a musical about Islam! Yes, two geniuses who have actually been subjected to death threats because of their refusal to kowtow to Islamist threats are now "cowards."
Teachout is just unable to comprehend what's going on. To imply that Parker and Stone picked Mormonism for a musical because they found out by bitter experience that they could not get away with a musical about Mohammed is as absurd as it is untrue. Almost no pop-cultural artists have pushed the Muslim envelope more than Matt and Trey; and their profound amusement at Mormons goes back all the way to their movie, Orgazmo.
Teachout has to concede that the cast is marvelous, and that "Tuesday night's preview audience shrieked with frantic joy all night long," but is so p.c. he cannot grasp why. Bill Donohue, on the other hand, simply writes another homophobic screed, without even seeing the show. Money quote:
Real men would admit they love bashing Mormons. But the critics are also mere boys. Sullivan praises the musical for its "humaneness." The Los Angeles Times boasts of its "good intentions." AP calls it a "pro-religion musical." Newsday writes that it "seems smitten" to "do good."
The reaction of homosexual reviewers is always fun to read. Sullivan justifies the Mormon bashing by saying we should judge "Mormonism by Mormons." Ben Brantley of the New York Times is hot over the scene where there are a "few choice words for the God who let them [AIDS victims] wind up this way." But if we were to judge homosexuals by what they do, we would know who caused them to wind up with AIDS. That would take real guts.
The people with AIDS in the musical, of course, are straight and got HIV by heterosexual intercourse. But that would deny the hoary old bigot a chance to sneer at gay men, or rather, as every rancid bigot calls the male objects of his hatred and fear, "boys."
P.S.: bonus Charlie Rose interview with the two "boys" here.
It was a little jarring on Friday to see The Washington Post use the headline "'Book of Mormon' deserves worship." (Okay, they didn't use it online, but check the E-paper here.) This wasn't a book they were in love with, it was a Mormon-trashing musical: "South Park creators skewer all things holy in well-crafted musical."
This worship of religion-mocking is a bit of a pattern for Post drama critic Peter Marks. At Christmas, he loved how "the Kinsey Sicks are sending up everything that's holy in 'Oy Vey in a Manger,' a raunchily audacious declaration that nothing about the holidays is sacred." In 2008, Marks loved Sandra Bernhard vowing to tear Sarah Palin apart like a chicken, enjoying "the sneering vehemence of her delivery as the idea of the evangelical Christian candidate as kosher poultry." Marks began his rave review this way:
Matt and Trey: Where have you been all my life?
I know, I know: You’ve been indulging for years in a little scatological side business called “South Park.” But now, you’ve discovered your true calling — as the wit-spewing class clowns of Broadway.
Along with Robert Lopez, one of the uproarious brains behind “Avenue Q,” Matt Stone and Trey Parker have devised “The Book of Mormon,” the pricelessly entertaining act of musical-comedy subversion that opened Thursday night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
The mighty O’Neill himself would have to have given it up for this extraordinarily well-crafted musical assault on all things holy. The marvel of “The Book of Mormon” is that even as it profanes some serious articles of faith, its spirit is anything but mean. The ardently devout and comedically challenged are sure to disagree. Anyone else should excitedly approach the altar of Parker, Stone and Lopez and expect to drink from a cup of some of the sweetest poison ever poured.
It's "anything but mean," the secular progressive declared, even if the "devout" are sure to disagree. Marks clearly doesn't care what they think. They're just "comedically challenged" if they don't share his God-hating sense of humor.
Is the play dirty? Marks barely suggests it is, and makes absolutely no attempt in this "family newspaper" to share it. He loves that it's anti-religious, that it attacks the "sin" of "blind faith," but he also likes how it attacks the "unbearable" optimism of America that's imposed on a suffering world:
It’s easier, of course, not to feel stung by comedy when your background is not the one being gored. But even with the wallop of derision that Mormonism comes in for on this evening, the wider subject for ribbing is that almost unbearable brand of optimism Americans tend to want to impose on the rest of the world. “A Mormon just believes,” Rannells’s Price sings at one point, a lyric that also seems to hold true for a national mind-set, one that clings to a faith that American hearts always remain in the right place.
“The Book of Mormon” expresses a giddy contempt for that innocence, in one of the most joyously acidic bundles Broadway has unwrapped in years. (Applause, too, for set designer Scott Pask’s gloomy rendering of an African village.) The sin it takes such fond aim at — blind faith — is one that this musical suggests observes no religious bounds.
In other words, Marks identified a "sin" of blind faith in America's goodness.
It was a little jarring on Friday to see The Washington Post use the headline "'Book of Mormon' deserves worship." (Okay, they didn't use it online, but check the E-paper here.) This wasn't a book they were in love with, it was a Mormon-trashing musical: "South Park creators skewer all things holy in well-crafted musical."
This worship of religion-mocking is a bit of a pattern for Post drama critic Peter Marks. At Christmas, he loved how "the Kinsey Sicks are sending up everything that's holy in 'Oy Vey in a Manger,' a raunchily audacious declaration that nothing about the holidays is sacred. " In 2008, Marks loved Sandra Bernhard vowing to tear Sarah Palin apart like a chicken, enjoying "the sneering vehemence of her delivery as the idea of the evangelical Christian candidate as kosher poultry." Marks began his rave review this way:
Matt and Trey: Where have you been all my life?
I know, I know: You’ve been indulging for years in a little scatological side business called “South Park.” But now, you’ve discovered your true calling — as the wit-spewing class clowns of Broadway.
Along with Robert Lopez, one of the uproarious brains behind “Avenue Q,” Matt Stone and Trey Parker have devised “The Book of Mormon,” the pricelessly entertaining act of musical-comedy subversion that opened Thursday night at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
The mighty O’Neill himself would have to have given it up for this extraordinarily well-crafted musical assault on all things holy. The marvel of “The Book of Mormon” is that even as it profanes some serious articles of faith, its spirit is anything but mean. The ardently devout and comedically challenged are sure to disagree. Anyone else should excitedly approach the altar of Parker, Stone and Lopez and expect to drink from a cup of some of the sweetest poison ever poured.
It's "anything but mean," the secular progressive declared, even if the "devout" are sure to disagree. Marks clearly doesn't care what they think. They're just "comedically challenged" if they don't share his God-hating sense of humor.
Is the play dirty? Marks barely suggests it is, and makes absolutely no attempt in this "family newspaper" to share it. He loves that it's anti-religious, that it attacks the "sin" of "blind faith," but he also likes how it attacks the "unbearable" optimism of America that's imposed on a suffering world:
It’s easier, of course, not to feel stung by comedy when your background is not the one being gored. But even with the wallop of derision that Mormonism comes in for on this evening, the wider subject for ribbing is that almost unbearable brand of optimism Americans tend to want to impose on the rest of the world. “A Mormon just believes,” Rannells’s Price sings at one point, a lyric that also seems to hold true for a national mind-set, one that clings to a faith that American hearts always remain in the right place.
“The Book of Mormon” expresses a giddy contempt for that innocence, in one of the most joyously acidic bundles Broadway has unwrapped in years. (Applause, too, for set designer Scott Pask’s gloomy rendering of an African village.) The sin it takes such fond aim at — blind faith — is one that this musical suggests observes no religious bounds.
In other words, Marks identified a "sin" of blind faith in America's goodness.
A reader writes:
Wasn’t it incredible? My girlfriend and I went to see it a few weeks ago, lucky enough to get tickets in previews (fat chance getting any now). I’m not sure I’ve laughed so hard at a musical in my life.
The thing that really stirred me is their honesty in the face of the horrors of the world. My girlfriend, an international human rights lawyer, pointed out that the evil warlord in the show is named after a real (very bad) figure in troubled Northern Uganda. They make genital mutilation a central plot point in the show. Would anyone else dare do this in a mainstream production other than these two? And the genius of getting the message to a wide audience with large heaping of humor in what is at core a very traditional musical.
If only more were willing to stare straight at the evil in this world … and laugh in its face.
The Book Of Mormon is in previews has opened and reviews are coming in.
This is an almost classically traditional musical score, each song unique, but united and woven together in show-stopping finales. Their blend is of subversive material filtered through tradition and sincerity. There is no cynicism here. Yes there is General Butt-Fucking Naked. There is an African woman called Neosporin. There is a fantastic send-up of Bono; a lovely dig at Johnnie Cochrane; some rudely sodomized frogs; and a baptism that sounds like sex. But there are also moments of unexpected poignancy, as when an African woman discovers that she has in fact been deceived. It is the best thing they have ever done – musically, theatrically, comically
New York Times‘ Ben Brantley:
This is to all the doubters and deniers out there, the ones who say that heaven on Broadway does not exist, that it’s only some myth our ancestors dreamed up. I am here to report that a newborn, old-fashioned, pleasure-giving musical has arrived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, the kind our grandparents told us left them walking on air if not on water. So hie thee hence, nonbelievers (and believers too), to “The Book of Mormon,” and feast upon its sweetness.
Catholic League’s Bill Donohue:
It takes no guts to bash Mormons on Broadway. Real men would rip Muslims. Real men would admit they love bashing Mormons. But the critics are also mere boys. Sullivan praises the musical for its “humaneness.” The Los Angeles Times boasts of its “good intentions.” AP calls it a “pro-religion musical.” Newsday writes that it “seems smitten” to “do good.” The reaction of homosexual reviewers is always fun to read. Sullivan justifies the Mormon bashing by saying we should judge “Mormonism by Mormons.” Ben Brantley of the New York Times is hot over the scene where there are a “few choice words for the God who let them [AIDS victims] wind up this way.” But if we were to judge homosexuals by what they do, we would know who caused them to wind up with AIDS. That would take real guts.
Subscribe to Joe.My.God.![]()
Strategist Dick Morris is accusing the New York Times of playing politics with its influential bestseller list:
Morris is among several Fox News analysts with new political books hitting shelves this past week. But while the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com list such books among best-selling nonfiction works, the Times has relegated them to its lesser-known “Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous” List.
On the Times list set to be published Sunday, readers will find Morris’ “Revolt: How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs,” Mike Huckabee’s “Simple Government,” and Dr. Frank Luntz’s business book “Win” alongside titles such as “The 4 Hour Body” and “Weight Watchers New Cookbook.”
“What do those authors have in common?” Morris wrote on his blog at DickMorris.com Wednesday. “Just one thing: Huckabee, Morris, and Luntz are all Fox News contributors.”
The Times seems to have had a change of heart and moved Huckabee’s book to the nonfiction list — but Morris is still stuck in the Advice section.
Ben Brantley delivers a rave review after the opening night I am still recovering from:
This is to all the doubters and deniers out there, the ones who say that heaven on Broadway does not exist, that it’s only some myth our ancestors dreamed up. I am here to report that a newborn, old-fashioned, pleasure-giving musical has arrived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, the kind our grandparents told us left them walking on air if not on water. So hie thee hence, nonbelievers (and believers too), to “The Book of Mormon,” and feast upon its sweetness.
That word "sweetness" does not spring to mind when you think of Eric Cartman serving Stan Tenorman's parents to him, like Titus, in the classic "Scott Tenorman Must Die". But the real genius of Parker-Stone is precisely the underlying humaneness of their view of the world, packaged in surreal, scatological, obscene and invariably hilarious scripts and performances. South Park episodes rarely end without reconciliation. And The Book Of Mormon – while wildly blasphemous – becomes by its end a loving celebration of religious faith, stripped of its obsessive logical contradictions, idiotic neurosis and literalist and fundamentalist certainties. Rule 23 versus Rule 72 in Utah becomes "Fuck You God In The Cunt" in Uganda. The comedy inherent in juxtaposing desperate black Africans with earnest white Americans never quite distracts us from the message underneath.
That is not so say that Matt and Trey are proselytizing. They are merely judging faith by its actions, and judging Mormonism by Mormons. We need a higher calling, they seem to say as an empirical observation; we need a grander narrative; and if religion can do that, and bring compassion to the world, why should we stand in the way?
The innate small-c conservatism of the duo endures. This is an almost classically traditional musical score, each song unique, but united and woven together in show-stopping finales. Their blend is of subversive material filtered through tradition and sincerity. There is no cynicism here. Yes there is General Butt-Fucking Naked. There is an African woman called Neosporin. There is a fantastic send-up of Bono; a lovely dig at Johnnie Cochrane; some rudely sodomized frogs; and a baptism that sounds like sex. But there are also moments of unexpected poignancy, as when an African woman discovers that she has in fact been deceived.
It is the best thing they have ever done – musically, theatrically, comically. They are slowly becoming the Hogarths and Swifts of our time – because by trashing the world with anarchic humor and biting commentary, they are obviously also intent on saving it. And loving it regardless.
Ben Brantley delivers a rave review after the opening night I am still recovering from:
This is to all the doubters and deniers out there, the ones who say that heaven on Broadway does not exist, that it’s only some myth our ancestors dreamed up. I am here to report that a newborn, old-fashioned, pleasure-giving musical has arrived at the Eugene O’Neill Theater, the kind our grandparents told us left them walking on air if not on water. So hie thee hence, nonbelievers (and believers too), to “The Book of Mormon,” and feast upon its sweetness.
That word "sweetness" does not spring to mind when you think of Eric Cartman serving Stan Tenorman's parents to him, like Titus, in the classic "Scott Tenorman Must Die". But the real genius of Parker-Stone is precisely the underlying humaneness of their view of the world, packaged in surreal, scatological, obscene and invariably hilarious scripts and performances. South Park episodes rarely end without reconciliation. And The Book Of Mormon – while wildly blasphemous – becomes by its end a loving celebration of religious faith, stripped of its obsessive logical contradictions, idiotic neurosis and literalist and fundamentalist certainties. Rule 23 versus Rule 72 in Utah becomes "Fuck You God In The Cunt" in Uganda. The comedy inherent in juxtaposing desperate black Africans with earnest white Americans never quite distracts us from the message underneath.
That is not so say that Matt and Trey are proselytizing. They are merely judging faith by its actions, and judging Mormonism by Mormons. We need a higher calling, they seem to say as an empirical observation; we need a grander narrative; and if religion can do that, and bring compassion to the world, why should we stand in the way?
The innate small-c conservatism of the duo endures. This is an almost classically traditional musical score, each song unique, but united and woven together in show-stopping finales. Their blend is of subversive material filtered through tradition and sincerity. There is no cynicism here. Yes there is General Butt-Fucking Naked. There is an African woman called Neosporin. There is a fantastic send-up of Bono; a lovely dig at Johnnie Cochrane; some rudely sodomized frogs; and a baptism that sounds like sex. But there are also moments of unexpected poignancy, as when an African woman discovers that she has in fact been deceived.
It is the best thing they have ever done – musically, theatrically, comically. They are slowly becoming the Hogarths and Swifts of our time – because by trashing the world with anarchic humor and biting commentary, they are obviously also intent on saving it. And loving it regardless.
In Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, “Fahrenheit 451,” about a book burning dystopia, Captain Beatty sums up his philosophy of “people control” to “fireman” Guy Montag in this way:
Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy.
And with that bit of philosophical fluff, Montag goes about his happy way, charged with his book burning mission to suppress political thought, action, and other “slippery stuff.” Well, the fictional Captain Beatty would also be proud of his real-life fireman New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller.
Recently, Keller announced a suspicious change in the liberal rag’s longtime policy for some political books on its influential hardcover nonfiction best-sellers list. Now, as Dick Morris noted, for the first time since 1942, some political hardcover books currently on the list will be reclassified for the paper’s lesser known “advice” and “how to” and “miscellaneous” list. What books could those possibly be?
The current Big Three, of course: Mike Huckabee’s “A Simple Government,” Dick Morris and Eileen McGann’s Revolt!, and Frank Luntz’ “Win.” All three authors are Fox News contributors. Morris has had nine previous best sellers – all on the Times hardcover list. Now, instead of the hardcover list, the “A Simple Government,” “Revolt!” and “Win” ranked #2, #3, and #6, respectively, were dumped into the Times advice and how-to classification.
Why?
According to Morris, this change is an attempt by Keller to negatively impact conservative book sales. “The ghettoization of the Fox News books inside the How To list has an important impact on sales. It means that many stores won’t put “Revolt!,” “Simple Government,” and “Win” up front with the best sellers but will assign them shelf space back with cookbooks, marital advice, and diet books,” said Morris in his blog.
Keller’s prejudice against all things Fox News is well-known. In a speech before the New York Press Club Keller said, “I think if you’re a regular viewer of Fox News, you’re among the most cynical people on planet Earth. I cannot think of a more cynical slogan than ‘Fair & Balanced.’”
So the Times’ wants book sellers to group Dick Morris’ “Revolt!” with “Weight Watchers’ New Complete Cookbook” and “The Four Hour Body,” eh?
Strangely enough, back in May 2010, the Times failed to classify Daniel Amen’s “Change Your Brain, Change Your Body” for the advice best-seller list. The book is a “how-to” on “using the brain-body connection to lose weight and avoid depression.” As “how-to” books classifications go, this one should have been a gimme.
All of this points to the latest in a series of irrational emotional fits by the left to suppress and censor conservative political thought. It is a mental self-preservation attempt by the MSM who have long been in denial about America’s conservative identity. One can almost imagine the desperate hysterical hand-wringing that takes place every week at New York Times’ planning meetings when conservative – and particularly Fox News – authors crowd their cherished top 10 list. What a blow to the liberal psyche!
Fortunately, for conservative best selling authors, this is not quite the America of “Fahrenheit 451.” Not yet anyway.
Spurred on by articles in Newsmax and the conservative blogosphere, news of the Times’ attempt to “cook the books” has spread. Last week, book-lovers everywhere began their revolt. With Times’ editors inundated with email complaints, conservative scored a partial victory this weekend when Huckabee’s “A Simple Government” was reclassified again on the hardcover non-fiction best-sellers list at #5.
New York Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha rushed to explain the flip-flop:
We consider titles on a case-by-case basis, and the decision involves a multiplicity of factors, which in turn can lead to a change in our categorization. As it happens, ‘Simple Government’ by Mike Huckabee will now appear on the non-fiction list.
With no apparent objective standards, the question remains how will conservative authors be treated moving forward? And will the same standards be applied to liberal political authors? Probably not.
In January, Daily Show host, Jon Stewart’s “Earth (The Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race” ranked #5 on the Times hardcover best-seller list. A guidebook? Should that now be reclassified under “miscellaneous,” Mr. Keller?
In November 2008, Times columnist, Thomas Friedman’s book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded,” hit #6 on the hardcover list. Friedman describes the book as “how a green revolution can renew America.” Sounds like a “how-to” book to me. Will the Times now place Friedman’s book back in the advice section?
In October 2008, then President-elect Barack Obama’s book, “The Audicity of Hope” hit #1 on the hardcover list. Imagine if Obama had been a conservative. Keller would have called this book a “how-to” guide for Americans to move beyond political divisions?
Since few political lefties really rock the Times hardcover best-sellers list, Keller knows the spotlight on his paper’s cynical hypocrisy will rarely come up.
Had this “new system” been in place in January, would Glenn Beck’s “Broke” been viewed as a how-to on fixing America’s financial woes? Would Bill O’Reilly’s “Pinheads and Patriots” been classified as an advice book for Americans on the meaning of change in the Obama era? For conservative books, this is the literary equivalent of the Fairness Doctrine.
Now is the time to fight back. Email the New York Times and demand that Morris and Luntz’ books be reinstated back to the hardcover list.
Do you smell something rotten? It may not be books burning but it’s certainly close.
ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports: Following Vice President Biden’s stop this morning and President Obama’s stop last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today visited the Japanese embassy in Washington, DC to sign the condolence book for the victims of…
Political Punch
