Billy Idol Blasted for 'Selling Out'

One of the biggest criticisms of Billy Idol is that he sold out his punk roots for fame and glamour. And while even his earliest music wasn't particularly hard core, once Gen X broke up Idol became a pop star and separated from the toiling punk masses of the club scenes. I'm just recalling off hand here, but I found a post last night that captures that kinda buzz:

To, to those of us who were already punk rockers, Billy was a difficult subject to tackle. We could all agree that Rebel Yell, Eyes Without a Face and all that shit sucked. Billy was a very blatant case of “selling out”. But some of us, if we were honest with oursleves [sic], thought the White Wedding video was pretty cool and even though we thought Billy Idol was a tool, it was hard not to love the early Generation X tracks. I heard the band the first time on Burning Ambitions which as long time readers know, was my introduction to punk, playing the A-Side of this single and it stood equally alongside other class of 77′ acts like Wire, ATV and X- Ray Spex. Your Generation is like a glam version of The Ramones which is probably exactly what they were going for. It is an amazingly cool punk rock track and the B-Side is no slouch either. It’s all freakin’ cotton candy for the ears.

Actually, I have no need to prove how punk I am by dissing Idol's later tracks. By the early '80s it had been two or three years of non-stop gigs, seeing every band under the sun, U.S. and U.K. A couple of buddies started successful outfits of their own, and my best friend had shifted to rockabilly, at one point opening for acts like Stevie Ray Vaughn. In L.A. you just kinda went with the flow. Idol was cool because we liked punkers who made it big. Sure, not "selling out" is authentic, but even John Lydon cultivated his "public image" (and has more recently become a product pitchman). Besides, Steve Jones cut a few tracks on "Gen X," so you just get the real feel of what it was like back then even when Idol was going disco. Fun stuff.

Sarah Palin on 'Fox News Sunday'

She's lookin' good:

And don't forget about Palin's new book: America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.

Due out in November.

'We Have Not Passed On What It Means to Be American to This Generation'

I'm just now seeing this clip, and it's a masterpiece. Get a cup of coffee and listen to Dennis Prager expound on America's exceptionalism. November's elections are the most important in a lifetime, which sounds like a cliche, but Prager believes it. It's a choice of direction in moral values. Our president sees America as no better than any other country in the world, and the Democratic Party is the party of acquiescence to evil:

RELATED: At The Blog Prof, "Video of Bill Kristol: These Democrats 'Would Have Given Up on WWII in 1942'."

Oakland Pot Factory Sham is Shame of a Nation

After the budget and jobs, drug decriminalization's likely the most important issue on the ballot in November's elections, and Oakland's at the forefront of the fight for sanity. (Note here that I'm always amused at JBW's childish arguments about getting the "nanny state" out of our lives, even more hilarious as he's down with Obama's uber-nanny nationalized socialism in every other area of the economy — but more on that later.) It turns out LAT has a piece on the "Walmartization" of Oakland's "medical" marijuana industry, and get a load out of that picture at the screencap. Looks like a bunch brothas from de 'hood be cruisin' down for some phat sweet-stick smokas, yo!

It's a scam, obviously. See Oakland Tribune columnist Tammerlin Drummond's piece from yesterday, "Time for an honest debate about marijuana":

The whole notion of marijuana at dispensaries being sold for strictly "medical" purposes has long been a sham.

True, there are many seriously ill people who benefit from smoking marijuana. A friend who passed away from brain cancer five years ago smoked the drug to help boost his appetite after chemo treatments made him nauseous.

He was an eligible candidate for a medical marijuana card.

Yet it's also true that pretty much anyone and their mother can qualify for a medical marijuana prescription in California.

You can get a medical card if you have insomnia or mood swings. Who doesn't?

There are so many conditions that make you eligible, a de facto state of legalization pretty much already exists.

For those who don't want to go through the motions of obtaining a card, there are plenty of "medical" growers with flourishing pot-sale businesses catering to recreational uses on the side.

Those who support legalization say that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol.

They say it's unfair to criminalize pot while allowing the legal sale of booze.

Prop. 19 supporters argue that both marijuana and alcohol should be regulated and taxed.

California NAACP President Alice Huffman came out in support of the measure. She said legalizing marijuana for recreational use would reduce the number of young black men in jail for marijuana-related offenses. Out of some 1,500 people in California prisons on marijuana charges, half are black.

Yet judging from the firestorm that Huffman's comments have created, there is a huge gulf between those who believe Prop. 19 will lead to more widespread use of marijuana and those who argue that the war on drugs has been a costly failure.

A coalition of black pastors is actively campaigning against Prop. 19.

They aren't moved by the argument that it would reduce the numbers of black men disproportionately incarcerated on marijuana possession charges.

They see marijuana as a scourge in their communities, an addictive substance that often leads to harder drug use. Sacramento pastor Ron Allen says he was on crack cocaine for 11 years. He said marijuana started him on the road to drug addiction.

There is no question that marijuana is an addictive drug. I know people whose brains are totally fried from decades of marijuana abuse.

Yet I also know people who use marijuana recreationally.

They aren't any more likely to become addicts than those who drink responsibly are to develop cirrhosis.

It's time we had an open and honest debate on the issue before voters go to the polls in November.

Check out Pastor Ron Allen of Sacramento at the video — he suggests this is an ultimate tragedy in a city with murder rates among the highest in the nation. Unbelievable, really. But that's what the nihilist left wants in today's America.

American Power at American Patrol

I haven't talked to Glenn Spencer since I met him at the Phoenix Rising rally, so I'm not sure if he knows it's my blog. But American Power held the lead spot yesterday at the front page of American Patrol.

Bookmark it. American Patrol is your one-stop shop for all your breaking immigration news.

Blacks as Anti-Immigrant Racists?

Probably not the meme one might expect in a Capt. Fogg thread, but here it is:

Captain, I share your feelings on a very personal level. My home state of North Carolina had a 300% increase in its Hispanic population as of the 2000 census. I expect that when all the 2010 numbers are in there will be another substantial increase. As the Hispanic population has increased, so has the bigotry against them. What I was not prepared for and still cannot fathom is the strength of African-American prejudice against Hispanics. Far too many of my people make the same bigoted commentary and enact the same disgraceful racism against Hispanics that we ourselves have suffered. For years, there has been a coalition of Blacks and Hispanics working together to combat this divide so all is not hopeless but I feel shame and frustration that such bias even exists. Being oppressed does not teach one to refrain from becoming an oppressor. This is one of the most dificult [sic] truths that I have had to face. It fills me with despair. If those who have sufferd [sic] the lash are willing to become wielders of the lash, then what hope is there for humankind?

Blacks vote Democrat overwhelming, ergo, Democrats as "wielders of the lash"? Oh, the humanity!

I wonder if Fogg banned this lady yet? There are serious consequences for breaking the narrative over there (that poor soul is headed to the camps!!).

Assassination Politics: 'Russian Spy' Anna Fermanova Busted for High-Tech Arms Smuggling

Anna Fermanova, a Russian immigrant cosmetologist, was arrested last week for "attempting to smuggle high-tech night vision scopes from the United States to Russia."

See, "A young Russian beautician, Anna Fermanova, has been arrested in Texas as part of the American investigation into suspected foreign spies, it has emerged." (HAT TIP: GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD.) See also, "Anna Fermanova’s high-tech scopes are used for assassination, say experts."

Video games train the kids for war.
Army chic in high-fashion stores.
Law and order's done their job.
Prisons filled while the rich still rob.
Assassination politics.
Violence rules within' our nation's midst.
Well ignorance is their power tool.
You'll only know what they want you to know.
The television cannot lie.
Controlling media with smokescreen eyes.
Nuclear politicians picture show.
The acting's lousy but the blind don't know.
They scare us all with threats of war.
So we forget just how bad things are.
You taste the fear when you're all alone.
They gonna git'cha when you're on your own.
The silence of conspiracy.
Slaughtered on the altar of apathy.
You gotta wake up from your sleep.
'Cause meek inherits earth...six feet deep.
Open your eyes see the lies right in front of ya.
Open your eyes.....

"Open Your Eyes" (The Lords of the New Church:).

Undo It

Care of Amusing Bunni's Musings:

That's Rule 5 material, by the way. Gotta keep up with the linkage!

Burkas in Canada

Ezra Levant, at the Toronto Sun, "Time to face facts on burkas":

Canada’s misguided experiment with multiculturalism pretends that all cultural ideas are equal, and Canadian values, such as the equality of men and women, are no better than foreign values like the subjugation of women.

Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, enacted in 1982 when our Muslim population was tiny, is contradictory.

Section 27 of the Charter calls for “the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.”

But Section 28 says that rights “are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.”

Well, which is it? “Enhancing” Saudi values? Or guaranteeing women’s equality?

Because you can’t have both.

Margaret Atwood published her sci-fi novel The Handmaid’s Tale, about America being taken over by a Christian theocracy that treats women as sexual property, 25 years ago.

It has become trite to watch cultural liberals like Atwood bravely attack imaginary discrimination, while staying silent on real discrimination.

The Handmaid’s Tale won Atwood the Governor General’s Award for fiction. A book about the subjugation of women in radical Islam would win Atwood a death threat.

Atwood loves posing as a feminist at champagne receptions in her honour. But she’ll leave the heavy lifting to people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

She’s the Somali refugee who wrote and narrated a movie called Submission, about the place of women in radical Islam.

The film’s producer, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered for it, but a note pinned with a knife into his body referred primarily to Hirsi Ali, who has had to live under around-the-clock security ever since.

That’s all a bit too real for Atwood, and is the reason why other feminists like the once-noisy Judy Rebick are so meek and gentle with the real butchers of women’s rights.

So, should the burka be banned?

It’s anathema for a free country like Canada to tell citizens how to dress.

The same liberty that allows the rest of us to dress as we like is the liberty that allows a woman to hide her face.

But what about in a bank?

Should masked women, Muslim or not, be allowed into a bank? If that’s okay, how about a man in a ski mask?

How about testifying in court?

Who else can hide their eyes and facial expressions while condemning an accused or swearing to their own innocence?

And why stop at witnesses — what about judges or police officers in a burka?

What about ID cards like a driver’s licence?

What point is an ID card if it doesn’t actually ID you?

Or, you could board a plane, completely covered!

Billy Idol on Twitter

Actually, it's Billy Morrison, who joined the tour in March, who's tweeting:

I'm especially excited about this one. I saw the announcements for Idol's Hollywood Palladium gig months ago, but didn't seriously consider it. But with the Pechanga date, it all came together. My wife was in high school when "Rebel Yell" came out. By that time I'd seen Idol in concert a couple of times. Weird. Check back for updates. I'm having a fun reliving some my youth here, Gen X style.

Atlas Shrugged, Behind the Scenes

Via Instapundit:

Grant Bowler is new to me, since I'm not a "Lost" fan, or whatever. And that's better. I'd hate to have Brad Pitt star (for example) and then while watching the movie have flashbacks to "Fight Club" or "Seven." Basically, it makes for a clean slate with a fresh star.

RELATED: "Cameras Roll on 'Atlas'."

Michael Totten on BDS Israel

Chilling:

You may have heard about the Palestinian BDS movement. The letters in their acronym stand for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction. They really ought to add another D for Destroy. Their goal—and they aren’t shy about saying so publicly even in English—isn’t peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which is what all civilized people should want, but the end of Israel.

Take a look at the video and see for yourself.

HAT TIP: Instapundit.

Outrage Over Chelsea Clinton's Wedding

Doug Ross has the must read post on this, with the classic commentary from Mrs. Ross:

"There really are two Americas: the Democrat ruling class and everyone else."

I for one (as well as my wife) don't begrudge the Clintons for having a smash-bang wedding with lavish no-holds barred accomodations, luxuries, etc. This is America. It's what we do. But I don't see any effort by the Clintons at moderation, a point that Mrs. Ross points out at the post:

"These people are such f***ing hypocrites it makes me sick to my stomach."

It seems hypocritical, but again, who's to complain? That said, I am fascinated by the contrast with Jenna Bush's marriage in summer 2008. There's an article at New York Times, "Jenna Bush Has Wedding at Ranch in Crawford." The Bush family spent $100,000. No matter (I think my father-in-law spent under $10,000 when I married my wife). That said, iOWNTHEWORLD offers an observation:

I never saw pictures of Jenna’s wedding before. Did you notice that the racists had a black minister??? Wow. How did that guy get in there?

BONUS: Robert Stacy McCain tweeted earlier, indicating he's met Chelsea and she's a-okay. Robert's got a post up now as well, "Best Wishes, Chelsea Clinton."

RELATED: "Town Elbows Its Way Into Clinton Wedding."

AND NO-JOKE DOUBLE BONUS: "Why the Clintons, not the Bushes, are the new royal family."

Sarah Palin's New Book Cover

For America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.

Cool. Due out in November.

From Neocons to Crazy-Cons?

Well, yeah, according to David Klinghoffer:

What has become of conservatism? We have reached a point at which nothing could be more important than to stop and recall what brought us here, to the right, in the first place.

Buckley's National Review, where I was the literary editor through the 1990s, remains as vital and interesting as ever. But more characteristic of conservative leadership are figures on TV, radio and the Internet who make their money by stirring fears and resentments. With its descent to baiting blacks, Mexicans and Muslims, its accommodation of conspiracy theories and an increasing nastiness and vulgarity, the conservative movement has undergone a shift toward demagoguery and hucksterism. Once the talk was of "neocons" versus "paleocons." Now we observe the rule of the crazy-cons.

RTWT.

Klinghoffer veers into spirituality, and suggests that the conservative vision has lost the "metaphysical dream that allows for ultimate meaning in our existence."

I can't speak for Andrew Breitbart, and I actually reject a good bit of the "craziness" on the right, but as you finish Klinghoffer ask if American politics, realistically, will be returning to a more wistful, respectful era? (And also ask if being "crazy" is code for being "racist"?) Besides, National Review's not my top source for right wing news. I prefer Commentary and Weekly Standard, to say nothing of Ace of Spades HQ, Instapundit, and The Other McCain. And I read these sources, among others, because they provide me with the intellectual sustenance to "save civilization," which is what Klinghoffer suggests is "what he signed up for" when he became a conservative.

And here's the thing: A lot of us became conservative because we saw society's moral foundations in tatters, and it was the Democratic-left holding the shears. You can always hold up your hands and scream "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right," but you still have to choose. We have no viable third party movement, and the GOP at present is the best place to form a conservative-libertarian coalition for political victory. And as a party out of power, the most strident voices at the base are going to get a lot of play, especially when new media is driving most of the key political memes. I choose conservatism. It's a no-brainer. But notwithstanding the citations above, I'm not wedded to any particular talking point. I think for myself, thank you. For example, is it crazy to call President Obama a socialist? I think he is (but on an intellectual level, e.g., see Jonah Goldberg, "What Kind of Socialist Is Barack Obama?"). But that kind of talk gets one attacked as an extremist by the left-wing media machine. How about if you don't submit? Breitbart's attacked mercilessly as a "liar" and a "unprincipled" scoundrel because he gets results. Yet, almost daily I find some MSM outlets reporting not just factual errors, but outright lies, and then people like me are crazy for calling out this sh*t? I don't think so. People are mad. And when people get mad they starting gravitating to more polarizing messages, and some of it can get heated. For me though, Klinghoffer and others like him (which no offense to him, would include idiots like Charles Johnson) simply prop up the left's Media Industrial Complex, and in that sense they're enabling the very anti-conservative forces Andrew Breitbart is finally beginning to take down.

Sunday Cartoon Roundup

I almost forgot my cartoon roundup!!

That's Day by Day at center:

More cartoons at Flopping Aces and Theo Spark's.

Penélope Cruz Rule 5

Washington Rebel's got style:

RELATED: "Poll: What Do You Think of Bob Belvedere's Taste in Women?"

'Rock the Casbah' — And the Hudson River!

I haven't been meaning to neglect Ruby Slippers, and I know she loves The Clash, so let's rock it a bit more here with "that crazy Casbah sound":

Looks like the Clinton family was rockin' the Hudson River yesterday, by the way. Chelsea's ceremony was estimated at between $3 million and $5 million, quite a bit more than what the Bush family spent for Jenna's wedding. Ruby Slippers has more on that, "Fireworks, $250,000 in Jewelry, and a Vegan Cake - Oh My."

The Clash HAT TIP: Linkmaster Smith is rockin' it with Sunday's Rule 5 entry!

RELATED: Astute Bloggers, "VERY REVEALING CLINTON RHINEBECK WEDDING PHOTO," and CSPT, "America’s Royal Wedding."

I Had to Turn My Heart Away...

I've been so caught up with Billy Idol I almost forgot to post this lovely clip. Enjoy Heart, "Barracuda":

Related Trivia: "McCain and Palin once again play 'Barracuda'." (The Wilson sisters were not pleased.)

'In Lieu of Flowers ... Please Feel Free to Make a Make Contributions to Whoever May Be Running Against Obama in 2012'

Robert Snyder's last wishes, c/o Blazing Cat Fur:

Rest in peace, Robert.