'The Nanny-State Diaries'

Stephen Moore says liberals are the new puritans.

FunkyPundit's Oscar Awards

Most Appreciated Performance by Underperforming Male Troupe: Will Ferrell/Jack Black/John C. Reilly. Funny, but not up their usually hilarious snuff.

Female in a Leading Role Most Likely To Amuse Without Eliciting Laughter: Ellen DeGeneres.

Performer Most Deserving of Future Hosting Role: Jerry Seinfeld. His two minutes were funnier than DeGeneres's four hours.

Greatest Failure in Attempts at Humor: The rolling papers discovered while DeGegeneres "vacuumed" Kodak Theater. The lengthy set-up hardly justified the trite "musicians like pot" punchline.

Greatest Setback of a Social Movement: After so many Hollywood luminaries lectured America -- nay, the world, as they were wont to point out -- on the environmental violence wreaked by "global warming," expect the issue never to be taken seriously again.

Most Entertaining Non-Essential Feature: the "special effects choir."

Most Depressing Realization: Seeing in the eyes of Oscar recipients the sense that salvation had been reached. The teary pride was almost too much to bear. Receiving an Academy Award, for this crowd, is tantamount to entry into Heaven. Which is sad. The award is just a fake-gold trophy awarded by a bunch of like-minded, moral-preening sycophants who remove their heads from their asses only to engage their annual tradition of sanctimoniously informing how wondrous the smell. Hardly something to get worked up about.

UPDATE: David Kahane offers an insider's take.

The Cult of Competitive Moralism

My, how cultish be the politician. Since first observing last November the then-nascent trend of outlawing smoking in cars where "children" are present, the rush with which fellow legislators have fallen over themselves to follow suit has proven tremendously embarrassing -- that is, if thinking for oneself is still considered a virtue. Identical bills have since been proposed in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Maine, Utah, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

Now comes Jonah Goldberg to join my anti-children campaign:

Democrats love The Children.

Well, I don’t.

In truth, I do love kids. But it’s the “the” in The Children that’s the problem. It transforms children into a principle for which any violation of limited government is justified.

Read the rest for the interesting back story on whence this campaign of pot-shot moralism derives.

Pelosi's Preference

Remember that C.S. Lewis quote posted here yesterday?

"One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

Something to bear in mind while reading today's Washington Post story on Nancy Pelosi's decision to ban smoking from the Capitol Building:

Some fresh air blew into the Capitol yesterday, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi banned smoking from the most venerable nicotine haven on the hill -- the Speaker's Lobby outside the entrance to the House floor.

Pelosi, of smoke-free California, is known to detest the tobacco habit. Ever since her ascension as top Democrat with authority over the lobby and most other space in the House, smokers have been bracing for the moment when they'd be ordered to extinguish their butts.

The FunkyPundit is known to detest pompous, self-righteous assholes. But notice he's not manipulating the government to have them banned.

Oh, and by the way, Boehner, you're a pussy:

One of the heaviest smokers, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who is partial to Barclays, was resigned to the new reality yesterday. As majority leader in the last Congress, Boehner ignored calls to ban smoking from the Speaker's Lobby. But now, as minority leader, he has little choice but to abide by Pelosi's wishes and told reporters he was fine with the ban.

Tradition? Who cares about tradition when we've got "scientists":

For generations, the Speaker's Lobby has been the most visible space where smokers gather inside the Capitol. It is an ornate space dotted with fireplaces, leather armchairs and chandeliers. Lawmakers relax there between votes and debates, often meeting with staff members, reporters or the public and huddling in informal groups. Cigarette smokers tended to dominate the daytime hours there; at night, the cigar smokers took over.

Pelosi said she was banning smoking from the area to protect the health of the staff, reporters and public who spend time in the lobby. "Medical science has unquestionably established the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke, including an increased risk of cancer and respiratory diseases. I am a firm believer that Congress should lead by example," Pelosi said in a statement. "The days of smoke-filled rooms in the United States Capitol are over."

No one believes secondhand smoke causes cancer. Not even "scientists." No matter. Tobacco bans are very in these days, and Nancy Pelosi is nothing if not trendy.

Another Reason To Bomb San Fran

That bastion of sensitivity, that comfort-zone for the oppressed, that beacon of tolerance, that city of liberal piety, San Francisco, recently saw its locals attack Yale's all-male singing group, The Baker's Dozen, with words like "faggot" and "homo" and, later, with assaults of a more physical variety.

Why?

The Dozen had earlier launched into a patriotic rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.