BROADSIDES

August 22, 2003

Give That Man A NEA Grant!
Mike Bloomberg is the Gray Davis of New York City. Teamed with fellow leftists on the city council, New York's nanny mayor, as Lileks calls him, has implemented policies so detrimental to the city's security and economic health that he must either be a political cretin or he loathes New York City.

Artist Scott LoBaido thinks it's the latter.

The New York Post reports that LoBaido is publicly exhibiting a large mural he painted expressing his take on Bloomberg's baleful mayoralty. The artist unveiled his painting next door to one of the many firehouses Bloomberg closed three months ago. And did he ever strike a nerve: the mayor's spokesweasel pronounced LoBaido's work a "profanity."

How telling is it that Bloomberg's office would characterize an act of political free speech as a profanity? Actually LoBaido got off easy; at least the mayor's minion didn't accuse him of being a smoker.

Check out the details and the painting here.

B. Sides @ 9:24 AM

August 12, 2003

Ah-Nold's Qualifications
Mark Steyn has an answer for those whiney whiners whiningly whining that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't qualifed to be California's governor:

Yes, he's not a professional politician. And that's a disadvantage? The professional politicians are the ones who got California into this mess. This is a "throw the bum out" election, so the successful challenger will be the one who looks least like the bum. Gray Davis has been on the public payroll his entire adult life: he represents the full-time political class. Arnold represents the other California: entrepreneurial energy, wit and invention, the California that understands that if Hollywood and Silicon Valley were run by "qualified" people like Davis we'd still be watching flickering silents and you'd need union-approved quill-feathers to send e-mail.

Arnold made his first business investment at 19, using savings from his bodybuilding contests to buy a failed Munich gym. He turned it around. The first really big money he made in America in the early 1970s came when he and a fellow bodybuilder started a bricklaying business. He's one of a very few actors who was a millionaire before he ever acted. And, if you think it's no big deal being the world's highest-paid movie star, you try it - with a guttural German accent so thick you can barely do dialogue and a body frame so large you're too goofy for playing love scenes. From his gym to his mail-order company to his masonry business to his shopping malls, Schwarzenegger has shown a consistent knack for exploiting the fullest financial value from even his most modest successes. Who would you say best embodies the spirit of California? The guy who has made all his own money? Or the fellows who've squandered everybody else's?

Mark lands several more between-the-eyes points in the rest of his Telegraph column. Be sure to read it.

B. Sides @ 11:20 AM

Mother Knows Best
An American mom opened a new front in the war on terrorism--in her living room. Logging onto the internet, she locates radical Islamist chatrooms and websites, poses as a true believer and gains the confidence of the terrorists who frequent those sites. Eventually, she managed to deeply penetrate several al-Qaeda front groups in Pakistan. "Mrs. Galt", as she known in intelligence circles, then turns over the terrorists' names and other vital information to intelligence agencies. Thanks to Mrs. Galt several terrorists planning more attacks on the free world are now worm food.

The details of this remarkable story are in the Washington Times.

B. Sides @ 9:18 AM

August 08, 2003

Headline Of The Day
From the AP wire: Smelly Mystery Blob Takes Over N.J. Town

I didn't know Michael Moore lives in Jersey.

B. Sides @ 1:39 PM