February 09, 2007
What sort of music would make YOU confess?
Charlene and I enjoyed reading the transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview of a guy from the "Society for Ethnomusicology", Philip Bohlman, representing the guys and dear God don't call them gals at the Society for Ethnomusicology on the use of music as torture
As Hugh draws this fellow out, we see that "torture" is something that's only done by Americans, and that any form of interrogation is torture, and that in fact there aren't any bad guys....except, of course, Americans. The usual lefty/pacifist BS.
And Hugh also has transcripts of his chats on this, umm, fascinating subject with Steyn and Lileks...
Posted by John Weidner at February 9, 2007 08:55 AMHow could anyone who has still living children be driven to confession by mere music?
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at February 9, 2007 10:07 AMThat wasn't satire?
Another reminder that liberals lack the capacity to get serious about serious issues. The more profound the threat, the more petty their response - and vice versa.
Note how pathetically exercised the interviewee became over the word 'gals'. Head-chopping and car-bombing don't raise his temperature but saying 'gals', well that's beyond the pale - terrorism, if not torture.
I especially enjoyed his indignation that Hewitt would ask common-sense questions about the need to interrogate terrorists. It's clear that no such questions were raised by anyone in his circle. He seemed unfamiliar with the names Zarqawi, Zawahiri, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The more profound the threat, the more petty their response - and vice versa.
Yes - that's perfect. Hadn't thought of it like that, but it's exactly right.
Posted by: Mike Plaiss at February 9, 2007 02:04 PMA quote by Koestler I came upon last night. He's writing about various types of leftists. In 1958!
"Finally, there is Z., the political masochist. With him, the parable of the mote and the beam has been reversed. The slightest injustice in his own country wrings from him cries of anguish and despair, but he finds excuses for the most heinous crimes committed in the opposite camp. When a coloured tennis player is refused a room in a London luxury hotel, Z. quivers with spontaneous indignation; when millions spit out their lungs in Soviet Arctic mines and lumber-camps, Z.'s sensitive conscience is silent. Z. is an inverted patriot, whose self-hatred and craving for self-punishment has turned into hatred for his country or social class and yearning for the whip that will scourge."
Posted by: John Weidner at February 9, 2007 02:33 PMI'm thinking that if I was forced to listen to Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" over and over again I might be forced to confess. Or murder -- it all depends on whether they were careful to secure the straps.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at February 11, 2007 05:32 AMLyle took the words right out of my mouth, er, keyboard.
As for music that would make me confess, how about Barry Manilow?
"... I am Music, and I write the sooooooooooooongs!"
Gack!
Posted by: Hale Adams at February 11, 2007 08:43 AMFunniest thing about "I Write the Songs" - Barry Manilow didn't even write it!
...actually, I'm willing to admit that I'm a huge Barry Manilow fan...no idea why, but I've always dug him...
Actually, Manilow has a reasonably pleasant voice, so ideally he would attract a large and devoted fan-base.
What queers his songs for me, Ethan, is how (for me) they're forever associated with the '70s-- schlocky songs for a schlocky decade. Bleah! They just dredge up waaaaay too many memories of high school.....
Posted by: Hale Adams at February 11, 2007 03:29 PMAlbanian folk music is pretty bad. But the audiobook of "It Takes a Village," read by the author... just thinking about it makes me want to tell you about that trip to Sharon, Pennsylvania that I never talk about.
If Albanian folk music is anything like Bulgarian folk music, I couldn't disagree with you more - that's some astonishingly cool stuff...but I don't know if they're similar or not...
