The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
How It Got a Frying Pan He’ll Never Know
“Man Fights Off Mountain Lion With Frying Pan”–headline, PetersensHunting.com, May 16
News of the Tautological
“UK Surveillance Program Could Expose Private Lives”–headline, Associated Press, May 18
An Obese Straw Man
Mark Bittman, a silly and pretentious chap who writes about food for the New York Times, weighs in with a blog post in defense of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s widely mocked proposed ban on large sodas:
If that’s nannying, I’m all for it. Here’s the question: Who do you want taking care of your kids while you’re not looking–governments interested in improving public health, or corporations interested in improving the bottom line at the expense of same?
There is a maddeningly false “choice” being put forth by the staunchest critics of this plan: either the government tells us what we can and cannot eat and drink, or we exercise our unbridled freedom in making those decisions for ourselves.
Notice how in the paragraph immediately preceding his complaint about “a maddeningly false ‘choice,’ ” he puts forth exactly such a false choice. …
Demented Like a Fox
Politico reports that some aides to Bill Clinton are making excuses for his recent Obama-subverting comments:
The genuine explanation, say people close to Clinton, is the same one that usually is the case: He was simply saying what he really thought, but in fuzzy, free-associating language almost guaranteed to produce controversy.
This was a habit that Clinton usually learned to control as president. But the circumstances now are much different.
Clinton, say associates, while mentally sharp, is older and a step off his political game, less attuned to the need for clarity and message-discipline during interviews.
“He’s 65 years old,” said one adviser, explaining how Clinton in a CNBC interview managed to say that the economy was in recession when it is not.
Do you know who else is going to be 65 this October? Here’s a hint: That means she’ll be 69 by Election Day 2016.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
