The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

A couple of gems from just the past year (during which, remember, she was sick):

On right-wing heterodoxy:

Despite being an evil Republican, I suppose I voted mostly like a Democrat on the California state propositions and Los Angeles city measures today. (As far as people go - Arnold Schwarzenegger for governer, Calif. state sen. Tom McClintock for Lt. Governor, etc. - I voted basically the straight Republican ticket.)

But I'm a Republican mostly because I'm a neocon (there, I said it!) foreign policy hawk, not a traditional values conservative. And unlike the left, the right doesn't peevishly evict you if you fail to toe even one section of the party line.

On the Michael Richards flap:

[L]ike most Jews of that generation [my grandmother] always said "schwartzer" - always insisting it was not impolite at all, because it's just the Yiddish term for black, so what's the problem? That was disingenious, of course; any insider's term for outsiders is always at least a little rude...

I've never used "schwartzer" myself, but I still prefer it to "African-American," a flakey genteel affectation that's always struck me as filled with more than its fair share of smarm. Somehow, deep down, I think most people know this - even when they're always careful to use African-American instead of black themselves.

If not, then why all the snickering when Richards misspoke his regrets about insulting those "Afro-American" hecklers on Letterman? And why all the jibes about it in the media analysis after?

I suppose because Richards was using a passe term, one that's now as outdated as "Negro." But I think part of it, at least, is because once Richards turned himself into a racist pinata for the non-racist rest of us to smash, we were free to laugh at the genteel affectedness of African-American - which is really just a new twist on the genteel affectedness of Afro-American.

Also: Mark Steyn mentions "one of my all-time favorite NRO jests ... its particular combination of body parts and bodily fluids requires her finesse to carry off." You can find what he's talking about here, under February.

topics:
Foreign Policy, Africa