tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post3829758386101830631..comments2024-03-27T18:24:19.683-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: My Taki's Column: "The Wire"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66669998423677496412009-08-22T23:24:03.200-07:002009-08-22T23:24:03.200-07:00The Wire is better then the Soprano's.The Wire is better then the Soprano's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-37170808185734297602009-08-10T22:03:30.637-07:002009-08-10T22:03:30.637-07:00Luther Christopher - I tend to not mind Sailer, su...Luther Christopher - <i>I tend to not mind Sailer, sure he is a bigot</i>.<br /><br />Well that's real square of you pal, to decend from the liberal Mt. Olympus and bestow on us your blessings. We are not worthy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-83603967605316733652009-08-10T14:24:07.688-07:002009-08-10T14:24:07.688-07:00Steve, you need to start watching First 48. It...Steve, you need to start watching First 48. It's a documentary show like Cops that focuses exclusively on homicide investigations. It's by far the most un-PC thing to ever air on television.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-29790935455156294952009-08-09T11:08:47.694-07:002009-08-09T11:08:47.694-07:00"Anonymous said...
Then again, seeing as how..."Anonymous said...<br /><br />Then again, seeing as how UPI chose not to keep him around as their film critic, his value in film criticism was rather low as well."<br /><br />Cheap shot. You don't think that Steve's heterodox opinions on race and society may not have had a little to do with UPI's decision? I tend to think that had everything to do with it.<br /><br />I have never seen the wire (don't get any premium cable channels), and so have nothing to say about it. I will offer this to some of the younger readers here: If you want to get a cinematic view of gritty urban reality, check out some old movies from the 70s, like "The French Connection", or even better "Serpico".Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-84506567175031641412009-08-08T19:13:58.345-07:002009-08-08T19:13:58.345-07:00I've made my living in nine different industri...I've made my living in nine different industries, grasshopper.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-10849175939307789572009-08-08T15:45:13.063-07:002009-08-08T15:45:13.063-07:00And you know, strangely enough I am black and was ...<em>And you know, strangely enough I am black and was raised in Brooklyn and in high school, I played chess, read books and shared my personal philosophy with others. Thanks to your column, I just learned for the first time, after 42 years, that I did not exist.</em><br /><br />Not as a drug dealer, I hope.Tom Vnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6375889860904072712009-08-07T22:04:38.197-07:002009-08-07T22:04:38.197-07:00Regarding black guys and chess, Sailer himself has...Regarding black guys and chess, Sailer himself has noticed many of them playing. The Wire didn't portray the character as being a whiz at chess, just being able to explain the role of the different pieces.<br /><br />Udolpho, I was never much a fan of your blog but what you said about Haynes is dead on. It's such a glaring contrast for Simon to be relentlessly cynical about every institution and the people stuck in them, save up his greatest hatred for the Baltimore Sun and then have that flawless character fighting against the things Simon regularly complains about in interviews. He should have named the character "Marion Sussemann".<br /><br />I think there were some characters worth caring about. The one poor kid whose mom was a crackhead and ended up working for the junk-collector. Bubbles expressed the most awareness of the problems with his behavior and contrition for his actions, and was allowed some hope at the end.<br /><br />Thinking over Sailer's piece again, I think in the main its off, but it brings up an underemphasized aspect of the show and so I'm glad its out there to correct everyone else's praise.TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14427454920374104952009-08-07T19:06:50.722-07:002009-08-07T19:06:50.722-07:00"In The Wire there isn't a single charact..."In The Wire there isn't a single character worth caring about, only a situation to agonize over, hence it's appeal to liberals."<br /><br />Exactly wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66482354834681713522009-08-07T18:11:23.271-07:002009-08-07T18:11:23.271-07:00Udolpho, I'm not sure if you mistyped or not, ...<i>Udolpho, I'm not sure if you mistyped or not, but the REPORTER Scott Templeton is clearly not a standin for Simon.</i><br /><br />Obviously Gus Haynes is the newspaper reporter I'm referring to, you can't miss that he is Simon's Mary Sue.<br /><br />Not a cynical portait? I'll say. Haynes is a nauseatingly idealized version of Simon, and unlike the rest of the series where Simon at least makes an attempt at showing the good and bad all around, Haynes is portrayed as a noble, ink-stained wretch fighting a losing battle against gratuitously pompous bosses and a sniveling, cringing white version of Jayson Blair/Janet Cook. (Mencken, who is evoked several times in that season, would have vomited or laughed or both--he knew the score.)<br /><br />In fact at least some of the newsroom characterizations were borderline libelous (it's obvious Simon was taking shots at his old bosses). This is one of many things that made the fifth season a revolting letdown from the decent quality of the previous seasons.<br /><br />While The Wire was never as slack as The Sopranos often was, it also never came very close to the latter's dramatic heights. ANYONE can juice pathos out of dumb ghetto scum caught in a self-destructive cycle. In The Wire there isn't a single character worth caring about, only a situation to agonize over, hence it's appeal to liberals.Udolpho.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12976984423336975944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-25719485716952284292009-08-07T16:35:45.273-07:002009-08-07T16:35:45.273-07:00"In other words, he feels that it is unrealis..."In other words, he feels that it is unrealistic that if you were to to intern and interview every black male in the Baltimore city drug trade, you would not find two that read or played chess; just a group of mindless automatons running around killing each other." <br /><br />Yes:<br /><br />http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=8180264<br />A gunman burst into a backyard cookout held in the memory of two men who'd been shot to death a year earlier, wounding 12 people in a shooting police say was sparked by a gang feud, Baltimore police said Monday.<br /><br />In all, 16 people were shot in a period of about three hours on Sunday night and early Monday morning, police said. A pregnant 23-year-old and a 2-year-old girl were wounded at the cookout, but they were expected to recover.<br /><br />Two men were killed in one of the later shootings, but it was apparently unrelated to the cookout attack.<br /><br />The number of people shot in such a short period was unprecedented in the city's history, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said.<br /><br />"It stacks up pretty high," Bealefeld said. "To have 12 people shot in one incident and (others) scattered around east Baltimore, it's just absolutely ridiculous."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-20208690183054803722009-08-07T15:20:06.635-07:002009-08-07T15:20:06.635-07:00Omar Little is, by far, the most compelling charac...Omar Little is, by far, the most compelling character in *The Wire*<br /><br />And he's about as believable as Baron von Munchhausen.<br /><br />It just staggers me that there are still people out there who continue to mistake this extended exercise in lefty romanticism for gritty realism.<br /><br />*The Wire* is great fun, of course - but if you take it for anything more than that, you're only making a fool of yourself.<br /><br />SWPL sorts are just so painfully desperate to believe that they've managed to experience genuine empathy for an authentic ghetto black. So they fall all over each other, wetting themselves in the process, in expressing their love for...Omar Little.<br /><br />Too funny.steve burtonhttp://www.whatswrongwiththeworld.net/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-51783427496867659962009-08-07T13:46:55.332-07:002009-08-07T13:46:55.332-07:00Sailer wrote: "Simon pens show-offy speeches ...Sailer wrote: "Simon pens show-offy speeches to illustrate that inside most every black teenage drug dealer beats the heart of a 115 IQ Wire fanboy. "<br /><br /><br />Actually no, he doesn't. The Wire shows young black men of every kind. Some are smart enough to have become relatively productive, some are dumb as posts. <br /><br />Bodie wasn't penned as a high IQ kid. Neither were Poot, Cheese or Micheal. Marlo was smart enough, but mostly anti-social and sociopathic. His assasin Chris was a middling guy, no genius but not a dummy..<br /><br />Cuddy wasn't shown as a budding neurosurgeon, but rather an honest working man (yes, they do exist in the black community, despite Sailer and his ilks contention that eveyr black man is just smart enough to be aware of his need for sex and food all the while being a seething murderous cannibal) who simply screwed up his life. <br /><br />It isn't a liberal or a conservative show. It is an honest show. There was approximately 55 hours of storytelling and probably 45 or so reasonably fleshed out characters. I highly doubt Sailer watched every episode even once let alone the second viewing necessary to pick out all the different stuff going on.<br /><br />Many people, from cops to teachers, liberal to conservative will tell you they knew real people who were just like the characters in that show. <br /><br />And if Ed Burns tells me this is Baltimore, after 25 years of workin its streets, I will take his word for it.<br />I tend to not mind Sailer, sure he is a bigot, but an honest one. I give him the respect to listen. On The Wire, I will tune him out.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17454510670793370398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-88908542095687766932009-08-07T07:59:54.214-07:002009-08-07T07:59:54.214-07:00Andrea Nyx Hemera - I think you are onto the truth...Andrea Nyx Hemera - I think you are onto the truth of it there.<br /><br />It is ultimately a liberal message but with enough seemingly gritty reality that could fool non-progressives.<br /><br />Its purpose is to make liberals feel like the tough guys learning the tough lessons. Not like those effeminate conservatives...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80365346732574775062009-08-07T07:57:00.710-07:002009-08-07T07:57:00.710-07:00One walks away with the impression that living in ...One walks away with the impression that living in Southern California, surrounded by people who work in the entertainment business, Sailer believes he knows what makes quality entertainment. Given that he likes "American Idol" - a commercial-heavy, unremarkable talent show, and "House", where all you need to do is watch the last 10 minutes to find out what the big missing clue was - Sailer may not be that qualified to know what makes good television. Then again, seeing as how UPI chose not to keep him around as their film critic, his value in film criticism was rather low as well. <br /><br />- KXBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-74848142903956733592009-08-06T23:15:16.922-07:002009-08-06T23:15:16.922-07:00What's so weird about street thugs playing che...What's so weird about street thugs playing chess? Chess is a pretty thuggish activity, especially blitz which is mostly what thugs play if they play at all. Sure the really good players are smart whites and asians, but anyone who thinks chess is some sort of calm cerebral intellectual competition is a patzer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-64058451856411108882009-08-06T22:54:50.916-07:002009-08-06T22:54:50.916-07:00"Again, what the heck is wrong with you peopl..."Again, what the heck is wrong with you people?"<br /><br />My friend, if I offended you, I apologizeTruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-86116160531953119282009-08-06T21:46:39.632-07:002009-08-06T21:46:39.632-07:00Pravda boy, to be clear, I fought no one off. I sh...Pravda boy, to be clear, I fought no one off. I shouted back at them as a stalling technique while regaining my bearings from the sucker punch in the hope that I'd be able to either draw the attention of passerbys who might rally to my defense or alternatively, be able to make a better decision as to whether to run, fight or hand them my phone. <br /><br />I thank the Glendale-living (seemingly) second-generation Puerto Ricans for stopping their car long enough for me to hop in. <br /><br />Side note - what in God's name is wrong with people here that their first reaction to the telling of any actual human-interest event is to assume that the author is lying? <br /><br />Side note II - There was no morality play inherent in my telling of the story. I simply noted a phenomenon that was interesting to me (the white kids one, the gangstas is unfortunately a rather prosaic phenomenon which is why it played second fiddle to what I really wanted to talk about). I'm not calling the white kids (or the black kids for that matter) "bad" or learning any sort of grand lesson from the thing. I simply - in a moment of sharing with whom I assumed to be similarly-minded folk - let people know about the curious case of White Bostoners who thought that "snitching" on their corporeal enemies was a morally reprehensible thing to do and wondered whether anyone could shed any actual light (rather than conjecture) on the phenomenon. How sad that the only two commentors who thought they had something to share on the subject had nothing more to say than to accuse me of (for reasons I can't for the life of me guess at) making these events up. Again, what the heck is <i>wrong</i> with you people?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-80266605281981253862009-08-06T20:28:04.654-07:002009-08-06T20:28:04.654-07:00I haven't seen a single episode of The Wire as...I haven't seen a single episode of The Wire as I don't have Cable but it sounds like the same old tripe... like Do the Right Thing or Hoop Dreams. Yes, it's what white liberals like. On the one hand, white liberals are genuinely scared of urban black reality. On the other, they are supposed to be ideological and soulful buddies of blacks. <br /><br />In most cases, whites fantasize either about clean-cut black guys like Obama/Will Smith or totally badass mofos like 50 cents or Mike Tyson. But, they know there is a dark social reality--as opposed to mere cultural fantasy fun and games--that must be grappled with. What is to be done? Stuff like The Wire offers 'have the cake and eat it too'. Its supposedly hard-nosed realism brings the liberal face-to-face with the ugly reality that must be confronted(if only through the LCD screen). Ugly and troubling reality indeed. BUT, the liberal cannot go all the way and admit the problems may be partially racial or biological. So, he is grateful for The Wire's conclusion that the problem is ultimately The System. <br /><br />Simon may be right that there is some connection between capitalism and crime. But, funny that Jewish capitalist crime tends to be on the Madoff scale while black capitalist crime is more on the Badass level. Hmm, wonder why that is. <br /><br />Funny that The Wire should mention Chess. Jews are experts at Chess, and I suppose they trying to say black rhythm and Jewish wit are flip sides of the same coin. Same tripe was peddled in Searching for Bobby Fischer.Andrea Nyx Hemerahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16795467390913806495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5489793873741921522009-08-06T17:34:23.014-07:002009-08-06T17:34:23.014-07:00"and how there is a glass ceiling for white m..."and how there is a glass ceiling for white males in urban America..."<br /><br />This one needs a response from me about as much as the Sistine Chapel needs a loft, or the Mona Lisa 42DD's. <br /><br />Just reread and enjoy.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-89989473378686508552009-08-06T16:59:45.234-07:002009-08-06T16:59:45.234-07:00""I actually signed on here to share wit...""I actually signed on here to share with the gang an interesting experience I had the other day that I personally found intriguing and which I believe your SWPL audience (aka High-IQ and curious sans certain specific racial neuroses) will enjoy as well...I was jumped by a gang of Bloods about a week ago...(I happen to have gotten away from them Bloods btw, phone and face intact)...These white preppy-looking kids (at least one of whom was Jewish) were aghast at the fact that I would even consider "snitching" to the cops and themselves threatened bodily harm against me for "being one of those"."<br /><br />So LoneWolf McQuade here, walking down the street reading philosophy, fights of an unnumbered group of imposing gangsters (Bloods...without weapons) who got the drop on him and, but were unable to inflict a a scratch or take his belongings. He then was verbally and almost physically accosted by a similarly angry group of white kids, not for "snitching", but for "thinking about snitching". <br /><br />And Steve thinks The Wire is "Hollywood Schmaltzy?"<br /><br />"You do exist, just not in nearly the same quantities as Anglo-Celt, Jewish, Korean, Punjabi, etc."<br /><br />But that's not the point now is it? Steve said that The Wire was unrealistic because it featured one (ONE!) black character who read and one (ONE!) black character who played chess. In other words, he feels that it is unrealistic that if you were to to intern and interview every black male in the Baltimore city drug trade, you would not find two that read or played chess; just a group of mindless automatons running around killing each other. <br /><br />That seems ridiculous, call me crazy.Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81698295098719368242009-08-06T12:56:11.124-07:002009-08-06T12:56:11.124-07:00I responded to the malice vs. narcissism comment b...I responded to the malice vs. narcissism comment but Steve hasn't passed it through yet - but, I would amend that comment to the effect that malice is definitely a good description of the motivation of many of the types illuminated by MacDonald.<br /><br />Freud? Uhm, yeah, I think it's safe to call that malice.<br /><br />Cuddihy's <i>Ordeal of Civility</i> seems to dance all around malice without being explicit, too.<br /><br />No, it's not a rubber hose or a taser, but one uses the weapons to hand.<br /><br /><i>I pointed this out to my wife and she said that it was just entertainment.</i><br /><br />Translation: "baa-aaa."<br /><br /><i>"Homicide" had several overly good looking heterosexual female police officers and "The Wire" has one lesbian and is pretty explicit as to why.</i> <br /><br />Male cops are open about the fact that many/most female cops walk "on the dark side."<br /><br />~SvigorAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-12012329566670805432009-08-06T11:03:42.239-07:002009-08-06T11:03:42.239-07:00Also, for what it's worth, why I think West Wi...Also, for what it's worth, why I think <i>West Wing</i> creator Aaron Sorkin <a href="http://jeopardygreenroom.blogspot.com/2009/01/mr-wonderful-confounds-them.html" rel="nofollow">should be put in a Maoist reeducation camp</a>.greenrivervalleymanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10800061625385072407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-67094286713935608832009-08-06T09:59:41.633-07:002009-08-06T09:59:41.633-07:00"Antisemites think Jews act [out] of malice, ..."Antisemites think Jews act [out] of malice, but Simon demonstrates so well the more pathetic fact that it is pathological narcissism that motivates them."<br /><br />Huh?<br /><br />Lost in a semantic fog! Even if your slur were true, you're merely saying half a dozen and six are not the same.<br /><br />(Some differences between malice and pathological narcissism may exist, but they would be pretty petty in practice. Best coverage <a href="http://www.globalpolitician.com/21365-narcissism" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81751818372101504762009-08-06T09:24:07.597-07:002009-08-06T09:24:07.597-07:00Here's an interview with SImon:
http://www.pb...Here's an interview with SImon:<br /><br />http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04172009/transcript1.html<br /><br />"Right. And, you know, listen, I've been called that same thing [<i>socialist</i>]. You know, you start talking about a social compact between the people at the bottom of the pyramid and the people at the top, and that's how you ground a society, and people look at you and say, "Are you talking about sharing wealth?" You know? "Yeah." I want to-- Listen, capitalism is the only engine credible enough to generate mass wealth. I think it's imperfect, but we're stuck with it. And thank God we have that in the toolbox. But if you don't manage it in some way that you incorporate all of society, maybe not to the same degree, but if everybody's not benefiting on some level and if you don't have a sense of shared purpose, national purpose, then all it is a pyramid scheme. All it is, is-- who's standing on top of whose throat?"<br /><br />Also, on race:<br /><br />"The people most affected by the drug war are black and brown and poor. It's the abandoned inner cores of our urban areas. And we don't, as we said before, economically, we don't need those people. The American economy doesn't need them. So, as long as they stay in their ghettos, and they only kill each other, we're willing to pay a police presence to keep them out of our America."<br /><br />The last quote, I imagine he sees it as a bad thing.OneSTDVhttp://onestdv.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-73602429369990256712009-08-06T08:29:40.561-07:002009-08-06T08:29:40.561-07:00The Wire's War on the Drug War
Wednesday, Mar...<a href="http://forums.dvdfile.com/television/64894-wire-season-5-a.html#post873356" rel="nofollow"> The Wire's War on the Drug War</a><br /><br />Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2008<br /><br />By ED BURNS, DENNIS LEHANE, GEORGE PELECANOS, RICHARD PRICE, DAVID SIMON <br /><br />...."What the drugs themselves have not destroyed, the warfare against them has. And what once began, perhaps, as a battle against dangerous substances long ago transformed itself into a venal war on our underclass. Since declaring war on drugs nearly 40 years ago, we've been demonizing our most desperate citizens, isolating and incarcerating them and otherwise denying them a role in the American collective. All to no purpose."....DYorknoreply@blogger.com