The billboard is down, but the message has been sent, not least by all the attention given to the story in the media.

The anti-abortion organization, Life Always, bought the space on the billboard, which featured a picture of a young African-American girl, and the statement, “The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb.” The billboard was in the elite area of Manhattan known as SoHo, known for its expensive boutique stores, galleries and restaurants. A Planned Parenthood center is also nearby.

The statement on the billboard may have been in reference to recently-released figures which indicated that the rate of abortion amongst black women in New York is 59.8% (the overall rate amongst all pregnant women was more than 40%). Nationally, while African-Americans constitute about 13% of the U.S. population, they account for 30% of abortions in the country (Guttmacher Institute). The persistently high rates of abortion amongst black women in America has led some to characterize the phenomenon as a silent genocide. [Read more →]

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From section: Commentary, New York interest, News by The Cinch Review

The state of Utah actually kicked things off a month ago, with a bill to designate the Browning M1911 semiautomatic pistol as that state’s official state gun. Utah would be the first state to have an official firearm. Now, there’s a proposal in neighboring Arizona to name the classic Colt single-action army revolver as the official gun of the Grand Canyon State (thanks to Mike for the tip). I must say that I do like the idea of going for an iconic firearm of the American West like that one. [Read more →]

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From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn

As is being reported, a blogger named Ian Murphy posed as major conservative philanthropist/mover & shaker David Koch (pronounced coke) and got though a call to the Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker.

Although the blogger is trying to make the most of his coup, the real story is how despite his best efforts to draw the governor into being as boorish and stupid as he is, the governor says (in what he took to be a private telephone call with a supportive figure) just what he has been saying in public. Even the transcript edited by the blogger shows that. The effort to demonstrate some kind of evil, secret cabal of union-busters demonstrates the exact opposite.

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From section: Shorts by The Cinch Review

Via BabyBlueOnline, this is an extract from the book Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayasin which Bono of U2 is responding to questions about his faith:

Assayas: That’s a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it’s close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world’s great thinkers. But Son of God, isn’t that farfetched?

Bono: No, it’s not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.” And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You’re a bit eccentric. We’ve had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don’t mention the “M” word! Because, you know, we’re gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you’re expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he’s gonna keep saying this. So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who He said He was the Messiah or a complete nutcase. I mean, we’re talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we’ve been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had “King of the Jews” on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I’m not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that’s farfetched.

The same has been said in countless different ways (often times highfalutin) before, and but Bono’s blunt and pithy way of handling the question cuts right to the heart in admirable and refreshing fashion. Good on ya, Mister Vox.

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From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn

Take the ingredients in the title above, mix them up, and you have a tantalizing recipe. From Iowahawk: Biden Vows to Jump Canyon by Amtrak. (Given the proclivity of Iowahawk‘s satire to become reality, it seems that the future will be fun, if, perhaps, short-lived.)

Standing on the rim of the gaping two-mile wide chasm of the Grand Canyon in a star-spangled jumpsuit, Joe Biden today announced a new $53 billion federal high speed rail program that will include funding for “SkyTrain X-2,” a new experimental locomotive that, if successful, will make him the first known U.S. Vice President to jump the Grand Canyon by rail.

“This is a big fucking deal – a big fucking deal,” explained Biden. “And I wouldn’t have volunteered for this mission if I didn’t have complete confidence in Amtrak, my good buddy [US Transportation Secretary] Ray LaHood, and Four Loko – the official energy drink of SkyTrain X-2.”

[...]

The $53 billion program announced today would begin with the building of a complex criss-crossing national rail network, the crown jewel of which will be the ‘Sustainability Express’ subterranean solar train, providing non-stop service between Wilmington, DE and Scranton, PA.

“When it is finished in 2046, it will shave nearly 15 minutes off the comparable driving time between Wilmington and Scranton,” boasted the Vice President.

Read it in its entirety.

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From section: Shorts by The Cinch Review

There’s no doubt that a degree of narcissism is an all but mandatory prerequisite of running for office, but a double-whammy of it today in the news seems particularly striking.

Rep. Christopher Lee, a Republican congressman from New York state, resigned hours after it was revealed that he apparently sent a photograph of himself, shirtless, to a woman he contacted through Craigslist. Lee is married. What possesses a sitting congressman to do this — to pursue an extramarital affair by emailing an undisguised picture of himself half-naked to a stranger? I suppose it must be much the same thing as that which made him run for office in the first place: a reckless desire to be loved for all the wrong reasons. [Read more →]

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From section: 2012 CAMPAIGN, Commentary, Politics by The Cinch Review

A new drilling method is opening up enormous new fields of recoverable oil in the United States, within underground shale, according to the AP. The method is less expensive than deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and is predicted to boost domestic U.S. production by 20 – 40% within five years, producing 1 – 2 millon barrels of oil a day. This method of oil drilling is already producing oil in North Dakota and Texas, and other fields showing promise include some stretching beneath Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico and California.

It’s really amazing what private industry and entrepreneurship can achieve. Some predict that this new method of recovering domestic oil, combined with some other factors, could reduce the U.S. need for foreign oil by 60%, by the year 2020. That’s good news for the country’s economy and for the country’s security.

And now the countdown begins to when the Obama administration’s EPA begins to throw obstacles in the way of this innovation …

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From section: Shorts by The Cinch Review

I haven’t finished reading the book, so this is not a proper review, as such. But, based on leafing through this 815 page tome, and having now begun reading it properly from the beginning, it’s safe to say a few things about it right off the bat. It is a monumental work, quite unlike your average book from a political figure, memoir or otherwise.

I expect it will be characterized in the near term by critics based largely on political bias: Rumsfeld’s many enemies, both on the left and right, will give it short shrift. His friends — a subset of the political right in America — will laud it. [Read more →]

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From section: Book Reviews, Reviews by Sean Curnyn

I was watching this talk with the always-interesting writer Mark Steyn, which took place at UC Berkeley in 2007, and I was struck by one particular thing Steyn said and thought I would note it down here. Steyn started out as an arts critic and journalist, but he’s far better known now as a commentator on world events and politics. His book America Alone: The End of the World As We Know Itwas a bestseller (and that, indeed, provides a large part of the grist for the 55-minute conversation you can watch via the YouTube clip below). The quote that I thought worth capturing conveys some of the motivation behind his transition from arts criticism to what you might call pan-global-societal criticism.

I love writing about music, I love writing about film and theater, and I would do that if this was an ideal world. But I think at some point, if there are great things going on in the world, and you want to say something about them, and you don’t — it’s not going to be any consolation to me to have a great CD collection as Western civilization falls apart. In a sense you’ve got to — if you value the freedom to stroll into some piano bar in a hotel somewhere on the planet and hear a great singer singing The Way You Look Tonight or whatever — you’ve got to understand that even that little miniature experience is at the apex of a whole cultural foundation, and that you can’t just sort of sheer off the small pleasures of a 32-bar song from all the big geo-political issues. They are explicitly connected in that sense.

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Do yourself a favor during the current orgy of debate and discussion regarding Ronald Reagan, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, and read Mark Steyn’s appreciation of Reagan the movie actor. Any article that has the following as the opening paragraph qualifies as absolutely golden almost regardless of what follows (if you ask me):

If I understand correctly the Left’s dismissal of Ronald Reagan back in the Eighties, it’s that he was a third-rate B-movie ham of no consequence and simultaneously such an accomplished actor he was able to fool the American people into believing he was a real president rather than a mere cue-card reader for the military-industrial complex. These would appear at first glance to be somewhat inconsistent characterisations, but they can be reconciled if you have as exquisitely condescending a view of the American people as, say, Gore Vidal.

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From section: Shorts by The Cinch Review