David Frum on the Republican Health Care Defeat

David Frum's verdict is in. This pretty much sums it up:

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

The commentary is, of course, entirely correct.

Having said that, wouldn't it have been easier to swallow this stirring indictment of conservative hyperbole if it had come from someone who hadn't played so vital a role in coining the neocon catchphrase, "axis of evil" that was at root of so much of the tumultuous, global reverberation America faced by the end of the last Bush presidency?

It wasn't so long ago that Mr. Frum's own talking points were being eagerly fed to, lapped up and ramped up by the very voices he now castigates and blames for everything.

Mr. Frum, former Bush speechwriter, states, "I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us."

He might want to face that soapbox toward a conveniently located mirror. He is not without personal responsibility here for the tenor of America's current political dialogue.

Read the entire David Frum commentary: Waterloo.

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

UPDATE: Also see Mr. Frum on video:

- GJW

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More Carlin

Modern Man:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

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George Carlin - Seven Words

American comedian, George Carlin, has died of heart failure at age 71, according to the Associated Press.

The AP's report chronicles Mr. Carlin's brushes with legal notoriety and his legendary comedy routine, Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV:

Carlin's jokes constantly pushed accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" — all of which are more or taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day. When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail — and typically unapologetic on his release.

A Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying the language was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Seven Words:

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

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