Normally you have to get this stuff by his email. For the web they scrubbed the mustard off the margins and removed the girl-on-girl action. But otherwise, this is the G-file.
And sign up for his G-file. Jonah is a serious analyst who has a sense of humor about any topic he approaches. That's a welcome combination these days.
I aspire to that degree of difficulty, truth be told. On good days, I think I approach it.
And to generalize on an unrelated point in the piece, I keep blogging on military and foreign policy because I remain frustrated at the level of bovine dullness that our journalism class brings to the subjects of war, the military, and foreign policy. Yes, Jonah included this video clip:
That's how I feel every day since 9/11. With few exceptions, after more than a dozen years of war, the vast majority of reporters cover their subjects with a lack of expertise that would be unacceptable to someone on the fashion or Hollywood page.
And here's a tidbit:
Most of these people freaking out over the alleged propagandistic nature of Lone Survivor have absolutely no problem with propagandistic movies that sell a different message (Though it does vex them that anti-war, anti-American movies don’t do very well at the box office.) That’s what’s so damning and annoying about the hatred for Lone Survivor. I’m okay with people calling it unsophisticated or even propagandistic, I guess. What bothers me is the anti-Americanism behind the complaint. Yes, Peter Berg could have made a more nuanced and better movie. Fine. But that’s not what offends so many of the critics. What offends them is that the movie celebrates the American military and the rightness of their cause.
Yes. Which is why I always get a special thrill that Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" became a refrain for Patriotic Americans despite the rest of the lyrics which nobody can understand anyway because the Bruce mumbles through the song.
But the left-wing critics misunderstand Americans who join the military. We didn't need jingoistic movies to enlist. Just duty. When I was in Army basic training, we were taken to see the movie, Hamburger Hill. Not exactly a recruiting film.
One of our drill sergeants, a Vietnam veteran, told us to remember that movie because that was what it was really like. Luckily, I never had to verify that. But the point is that it seems that for a certain segment of our population, any war movie that doesn't involve American soldiers losing or being tried for war crimes at the end of the movie is just pro-war propaganda.
Anyway. I digress. (As I can!)
G-files usually cover a lot of ground. You can subscribe through a link in the editor's note at the link.
You're welcome.
