Red Fashion

Undoubtedly many of you have seen, if you've visited a mall or walked a college campus recently, the preponderance of shirts, mugs and commemorative bongs with Che Guevara's likeness emblazoned on them. It would appear this was brought up the other day by Chris Matthews, former Carter speechwriter and alleged journalist of the people.

In response to a discussion of Bin Laden shirts cropping up in Africa, Matthews mentioned that Che shirts worn by U.S. kids were "kind of cute at this point, aren’t they? They’re not about somebody out to get us now. I think there’s a difference. I mean, that’s kind of camp almost, isn’t it?" and couldn't see how Che Guevara (is) the symbol of hate in the United States anymore.

Well, it's nice that Chris thinks that. I mean, it's not like the kids are wearing Mao or Stalin shirts (give them time), but the icon of an avowed thug and killer is hardly "cute" or not a "symbol of hate". This is a guy who hunted down and executed members of his and Castro's own resistance group for the simple crime of not agreeing that the new Cuban government should be communist. Truly cute. This, from a country that gleefully allowed their island to be used in a little game Kruschev had with Kennedy to cause the U.S. to look imbecilic and gain concessions from the U.S., all while having the possibility of getting to threaten Americans with the donated nuclear missles that were being shipped in. Yes, charming.

Or, could it be that Bin Laden and ole' Che do have something in common, that both were common thugs who relished the power that their status brought to them. They both exist as icons of oppression, chaos and fascism in their own little ways. Although years and miles stand between the two, I'd call neither one's likeness or what it represents "cute" and "not a threat". More than anything, they represent the sad failure of this country to educate its youth on the dangers they faced in the past and the danger we will always face as long as the U.S. is around. But I wouldn't expect good ole' Chris to bring up such trivial notions as that on his cute and harmless program.

Blogger Makes Good In The Big Leagues

I thought I'd take another moment to mention Ben Domenech's new blog, "Red America" over at the Washington Post. His blog was brought in to balance the lefty blog edited by Dan Froomkin, although the Left is up in arms about one of their liberal bastions being "invaded" so. And I'm hearing of calls for more "balance" by adding another leftist blog. I guess two leftist blogs could be almost as good as one right-wing. Sorry, just had to tease the Mao-lovers a bit.

Ben's latest piece covers an article that highlights a Berkeley research study conducted over the last twenty years of 95 kids that showed that all those kids who grew up to be "conservative" were "whiny" and "insecure" as children, but that all liberals grew from "confident, resilient, self-reliant" stock. Statistically 95 kids in Berkeley might be hard to pin down as "significant", but the Left is already embracing this as their new favorite "conservatives must be crazy" topic.

Well, anything to shore up their sadly deflated egos after the trouncing they've received in the last few elections I guess. It'll be good therapy for them. I seem to recall back in my college days that the ones who saw the most psychoses in their fellow students but who usually were the most unhinged were the psych majors. Then again, maybe my statistical sample was too small...

Update 1: As many have probably heard, poor old Ben was caught in the act of plaigarizing by an extremely overzealos Leftist group of bloggers. So, he burns. I don't stand for that kind of thing anymore than the next person and if he did in fact copy and use someone else's work then represent it as his own, he gets what he deserves. I still think his blog is a good idea, and that his indiscretions have handed it on a silver platter to the vulture-like Lefties who wanted any hint of conservative ideas eliminated from the Washington Post, one of their normal holy hunting grounds, is a sad affair. Thanks for screwing with us, Ben. Perhaps you'll still do some good and serve as yet another lesson in the price of poor journalism.