Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
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Reminds me of something Dilbert’s boss once said about sexual harassment and anti-discrimination courses. Something like “Alice doesn’t need to go, because to women this stuff comes naturally. Like shopping and crying.”
The best rundown of the frustrated “Obama VP pick text message disaster” victims, and their feelings about it, has got to be Lugosi (H/T Ash Blog Durbatulûk, via Neo Neocon). And I’ll tell you that right now. I won’t wake you up with my pick.
Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate, and it just cost the Democrats my vote.
No, it’s not that I have anything against Biden. My complaint is that I had signed up to get a text message the moment Obama made his choice public. And when did he decide to do this? At 3 goddamn 21 in the freakin’ morning on a Saturday!?!?!?
If you decide to wake me up at such an ungodly hour, the building had damn well better be on fire, or there better be a new shot of Britney’s snatch available online. That’s about it.
One thing you do NOT do, however, is wake me up before sunrise just to tell me the name of your vice presidential pick. At 3:21 A.M. I simply don’t give a crap about the future of our nation, or the Iraq war, or the federal deficit, or how many goddamn houses McCain owns. All I care about at 3:21 is sleeping. If you forget that, you can rest assured there WILL be consequences.
Besides, wasn’t it Hillary who once talked about those 3 A.M. phone calls?
Cajun Boy in the City comes up with a funny ad for Obama’s competition:
Ominous voiceover: It’s 3AM. You and your children are sleeping peacefully. Until your cell phone starts ringing that is.
Cut to: (A little girl in her bed looking frightened. She rubs her eyes and her lower lips quivers.)
Little girl: Mommy Daddy what was that noise that woke me up from the dream I was having about unicorns and rainbows? Mommy Daddy I’m scared!
Ominous voiceover: Who do you trust not to waste taxpayer money by sending you horseshit text messages from the White House at 3AM and scaring the bejesus out of your peacefully sleeping children in the process? John McCain would never do that because John McCain can’t even operate an electric toothbrush, much less a mobile device.
John McCain voiceover: I’m John McCain and I approve this message.
This is metaphorical, I think, of what President Obama will be doing after January 20. I’m quite serious. It fits in very well with the ideas of the Carter administration in the late 1970’s. Someone would say “Oh I got an idea on what to do next,” and someone else would say “Hey, that’s great, people will love it” — I mean, I wasn’t anywhere near the Oval Office in 1977, but with some things, it’s pretty easy to see how everything went down…y’know? You can kind of read the tea leaves.
Carter and Crew would put it into operation, and the results would be very much like Obama’s text messaging event: A bunch of people having elected to participate, now sorry as hell they did, standing around and going “WTF???” I saw it with the solar panel on the roof of the White House. I saw it with Operation Eagle Claw. I saw it with the Malaise Speech. I saw it in just about everything he did, with regard to foreign and domestic policy.
It will keep happening with President Obama, I say. Why? Because with decent leadership, and the ability to consistently achieve satisfactory results — solutions are spiffy when the situation calls for them, and dull and boring otherwise. This isn’t something Obama can do. Everything must be snazzy — all the time. And when an idea is snazzy, those who are most invested in peddling it, and therefore have the greatest influence on its implementation, are blind to possible drawbacks and liabilities.
And so smart people do stupid things, like waking up the most enthusiastic supporters at three o’clock on a Saturday morning. With the news that the new veep of the HOPENCHANGE!!! ticket is some old white New England liberal guy who’s been suckling at the public teat in the Senate chamber for over 35 years.
Obama’s idea bombed. America now stands warned.
There’s something about those two names side-by-side that makes the idea just jump into your head. The vowel-consanant alternation that endures from beginning to end, I think. Anyway, Roger Catlin thought of it before I did; and, he remembered the all-important “BABE DOMAIN.”
But it was a brainy friend who came up with actual anagrams from out of their unusual names.
Two anagrams of “Barack Obama / Joe Biden” are “A Backboard Meanie Job” and “Maraca Kabob, Be Joined.”
Just “Obama Biden” produces “Bad Aim Bone.”
A casual swipe at the internet also finds for Obama/Biden:
* Babe Domain
* A Dim Babe No
* An Idea Bomb
* A Done Bambi
* I Bemoan Bad
And many more. But I think, as far as prophetic value, “AN IDEA BOMB” stands head and shoulders above all the rest. Roughly half of the voters have figured out already that’s what it is; the other half might know it too, and are trying like the dickens to keep from saying so out loud.
Every now and then, those who interact with the world by feel, learn that some among us interact with the world by thought. And man, does it ever honk them off something fierce. We’re all supposed to be touchy-feely, don’t we know that? What’s wrong with us?
If Obama Loses
By Jacob WeisbergWhat with the Bush legacy of reckless war and economic mismanagement, 2008 is a year that favors the generic Democratic candidate over the generic Republican one. Yet Barack Obama, with every natural and structural advantage in the presidential race, is running only neck-and-neck against John McCain, a sub-par Republican nominee with a list of liabilities longer than a Joe Biden monologue. Obama has built a crack political operation, raised record sums, and inspired millions with his eloquence and vision. McCain has struggled with a fractious campaign team, lacks clarity and discipline, and remains a stranger to charisma. Yet at the moment, the two of them appear to be tied. What gives?
Charisma…pffft.
Wait, wait…Weisberg is not completely mystified about this. He does have an answer in mind. And it isn’t just “charisma.”
If you break the numbers down, the reason Obama isn’t ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He does so for a simple reason: the color of his skin.
I’m not going to directly deal with this.
I don’t have to.
Cold Fury already did such a good job, nobody else need bother.
Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Couldn’t possibly be his extreme-Left position on, basically, everything; his insistence on comparing America unfavorably with various communist tyrannies; his obvious disdain for “bitter” Americans who still knavishly “cling” to guns and religion because they’re just too thick to grasp the inherent superiority of Eurolite socialism; his decades-long chumminess with unrepentant domestic terrorists and America-hating bigots, and his maladroit lies about those associations; his naive desire to hold diplomatic sit-downs with enemies such as Iran, who have repeatedly and unequivocally made their disinterest in same clearly known; his eagerness to return to the long-failed criminal-justice approach to thwarting global, state-sponsored Islamic terrorism; his complete lack of experience and accomplishment; his callow attempts at subverting the sitting president with wholly inappropriate missions to terrorist entities like Syria and Hamas, as if he were already president himself; his record of corruption during his tenure as an all-too-typical cog in the Chicago Dem machine; his misrepresentation of himself as an agent of some nebulous and phantasmagorical Change in Washington, when his meager record shows no such inclination; his ever-malleable and written-in-quicksand positions on too many topics to even bother listing; his total ignorance of how a free-market economy actually works; his determination to turn the American health care system into a government-run morass of inefficiency, ineptness, and inhumanity; in short, it couldn’t possibly be the direct result of exactly who and what he is being slowly revealed to an electorate that heretofore knew very little about him — and had no reason to, since those salient facts have been carefully concealed up till now by meaningless HopeyChangey platitudes and an establishment media cohort wholly complicit in obscuring them…lately by crying “racism” anytime McCain has the temerity to actually contest the election.
You know, some who work through their lives by feeling (the “Yang”) are a bit more inclined to vote Republican. Not many, but some. So when you market just that way, you’re bound to miss out on a few folks.
And some who live in the world by means of thinking (the “Yin”) could possibly be persuaded to vote for the Obiden ticket if given half a chance.
But left-wing moonbats don’t communicate by thinking because they don’t think it’s trendy. Everything is charisma, charisma, charisma…”real deal”…”hope”…”change.”
Perhaps that’s why, out of the last seven presidential elections, democrats have only won two of ’em. Even if you hadn’t studied their ideas, you’d still have to wonder about them huh? How good can an idea be, when, after the time comes to start selling it, all you can do is talk about how good it makes people feel — knowing that some among your intended audience, are hungry for a better sales pitch than that?
H/T: Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.
For the uninitiated, “Yin” and “Yang” have special meaning here. We’ve written about it many times, within this category here. It is the reason democrats lose elections; an unstated part of their platform is that everyone must be Yang, and the Yin need to go away. But darn us, we keep voting.
Feeling gets you in trouble with thinking. Weisberg just proved it. It’s Confirmation Bias in one of its purest forms. Just look at what we have going on here:
IF OBAMA WINS…it just goes to show his incredible awesomeness and his wonderfulness and proves how McCain sucks so much.
IF MCCAIN WINS…we’re just a bunch of goddamned racists. Which, in turn, proves how correct Obama is about how much we suck. Just before he reminds us we can’t question his love of the country.
Can’t lose!
As you might suspect, these pure-Yang people who support the Obamessiah, solve very few, or none, of their own problems in life.
H/T to Warner Todd Huston via Stop The ACLU, for the Chris Britt cartoon.
Regarding the post earlier today, I’m reminded of something someone pointed out about Columbine. It’s impossible to give credit because this was nine years ago…but think back with me, if you will, to what was going on at the time; who was being blamed. The parents were being blamed, bowling was being blamed, trench coats and goth culture were being blamed, video games were being blamed. And you know guns were being blamed. The person I have in mind, was simply pointing this out. The tragedy appears to have become a convenient soapbox for…whatever.
Some whack-jobs were even blaming the kids who actually pulled the triggers on those guns! Ha, ha! Is that crazy, or what? Oh wait, actually, I was in that crowd. Still am.
Well, fast forward to today. This wrinkly man-hating old buzzard got caught indulging in nonsensical twaddle because, like the activists of nine years ago, she couldn’t resist that ambrosia of Fuel For Whatever Social Activist Mission Your Little Heart Has In Mind, in the form of a school shooting. And so she screeched away about how it was high time that we realized…boys are idiots.
Teenage boys are idiots…Teenage boys are more impulsive and aggressive than any other group. WItness their penchant for crashing cars, diving headfirst into rock quarries, experimenting with drugs, and deciding to “play chicken” by draping themselves across dark country roads in an attempt to prove something to their similarly stupid peers.They are driven by sexual curiosity to the point of insanity, and they hold a misguided sense of immortality.
Yes, I’m generalizing. Many teenage boys are polite, respectful, accomplished individuals, but those of them who are are pulling this off are doing so by fighting the natural impulses to be idiots that threaten to overtake them every day.
There is, perhaps, no other single group in American life less suited to have access to handguns than teenage boys.
Well don’t worry Katie Allison Granju, because while a teenage boy fired the gun, it was also another teenage boy that got taken down. One less idiot.
Well the trouble is, in this case, 15-year-old shooter Jamar P. Siler’s adopted sister is also a murderer as of the first day of this month. Normally a detail not worth including. Except it is the solvent, to Ms. Granju’s hypothesis, much as salt is to a slug. Those boys are real dangers to society, huh Katie?
Knoxville police say the 15-year-old accused in today’s shooting at Central High School was adopted into a family that includes a 22-year-old woman wanted for allegedly shooting another woman Aug. 1 at Walter P. Taylor Homes.
Ciara S. Siler is wanted on a first-degree murder warrant and is thought to be hiding in public housing projects in Nashville, Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk said.
Siler allegedly shot and killed Jerri Lynn Goodman, 31.
Her adopted brother, Jamar B. Siler, is charged with killing 15-year-old Ryan McDonald this morning at Central High.
The temptation is to pile on the mother, and it’s understandable. But there may very well be other forces at work. I say that because of the highly ignorant comments of someone who identified herself as a ninth-grader and classmate of the troubled Jamar, who, in my opinion, shouldn’t be allowed to comment on publicly accessible Internet forums — and damn well shouldn’t be doing so with her real name. She needs to be protected from her own stupidity, and as a child I think she’s entitled to that protection.
But I have my own Columbine agenda coming out of this one. There’s something in the water in that little hamlet in Tennessee:
Who are you to judge..??? Dont you understand that people make mistakes?? Only one person can judge and that is GOD…On judgement day he will be the judge….No one but close friends really know what JaMar went through…. He was a great friend to everyone at Vine Middle Performing Arts and Sciences Magnet School in East Knoxville,….. He was a typical teen and he was very smart and intelligent.. Who just didnt want to live up to his potential… I know Ryan also by being a student at Vine.. Just understand that no one is perfect and that you as well make mistakes and that you really cant put the blame on one person for the simply fact that people have their own issues and their struggles in life.. And his life was not full of gold.. That he had a hard life and that he needs someone to love and care for him because no one really did that when he was younger.. Go through what he went through 15 years of his life and tell me how you feel?? and if you come out of that experience like everything is peaches and cream than something is not right about that at all!!!!
To you JaMar B. Siler just understand that we love you regardless of the accident that you did… Dont worry because all you have to do is pray to God and confess to him that what you did was wrong… You are very handsome and unique. And that you are loved by everyone.. You may be gone for a long time but you are not forgotten..You will be constantly in our prays and thoughts..Through Christ all things are possible… Keep Yah Head Up Kid.. RIP RYAN
Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot. And probably every bit as much a dangerous hooligan as anybody who’s ever aroused the ire from Katie Allison Granju. Can’t really put the blame on one person. We love you. Accident that you did. Idiot.
I’m reminded of my own words from last week:
…I see we have a variation here that is newer than that other ancient one, and perhaps more dangerous: That is complete agnosticism about where evil is.
This is different from the guy who calls evil good, and good evil. He, at least, must make the concession that there is such a thing as evil. And much of the time, he’ll either place some value on human life, or pretend to do that much. Capital punishment is a great example. I say “Hey, admit it or not, there are some guys who will kill again if they’re allowed to live; you can’t hold them in the prisons, especially when you have liberal hippies running around, unleashed, struggling to come up with new excuses every year for releasing criminals from prison.” You come back at me and say “Waitaminnit, how can you say killing is wrong, and then prove it by killing someone?” And we debate back and forth. Me with the law-and-order argument, you with the Sean Penn Susan Sarandon argument.
At least we are both placing some value on human life; or pretending to.
Not so with the moral relativist who crusades on “weeeeelllllll…ya just gotta keep an open mind.” That is a new level of ignorance.
And it must, inevitably, metastasize into the darkest, purest form of evil. For it doesn’t place a value on human life, nor does it pretend to.
The idiot ninth-grader talks about God. What if we could talk directly to God about this? What if we could ask Him, why don’t these apathetic monsters show some value of human life? To my way of thinking, God would surely answer back with some derivative of…from where, exactly, are they supposed to have learned such a value? Individuals mature in a society that places no value on it — students shoot each other, and it’s an “accident that you did.” Such a climate of social mores & customs does far more than merely suggest that human life is devoid of value; it all but proves it.
With every year I see come and go, I’m more and more saddened when I see people asking for greater quantities of what inspires their complaints, as they so complain. When they don’t even realize they’re doing it.
Nothing new or interesting about this. Just another one of those “Everyone Else Is Blogging It, I Might As Well Do It Too” things.
Update: You’re asking — how does this relate to the 2008 elections?
I believe the following clip addresses that handily…
Cassy tracked down another supposedly-courageous, man-bashing battle-axe. Yet again.
Teenage boys are idiots. And today’s American teenage boys – whom our culture holds in a sort of manchild limbo long past the age they need to be doing some sort of hard work and earning their keep – are even bigger idiots.
By the time a male is about 16 years old, he has the body of an adult male, an adult male with a brain under assault by a dramatic rush of hormones the likes of which he’ll never again see during any other period of his lifetime. Teenage boys are more impulsive and aggressive than any other group.
The man-bashing harpy followed it up, promptly, once she want through the paradigm-shift of realizing people were actually READING her asinine comments, with a “follow-up post.” This betrays the high cost of political correctness — once you’re being politically correct, now and then you have to come to terms with the idea that people are digesting what you tell them, and taking it seriously. And then, you have to go through this absurd motion of the time-honored “What I Meant To Say Was…” “follow-up” post.
I don’t know what the hell she said in her follow-up. I didn’t read it. Just sort of skimmed. But I felt compelled to enter the following snotty remark.
Teenage boys are stupid
More like…
It’s politically correct to say teenage boys are stupid
We can demonstrate my point, easily, by picking on another group far more cherished and adored, with equal measures of truthful critique…
Teenage girls are vindictive, petty and vengeful
Huh. Suddenly there’s another demographic that, perhaps, we should work hard at keeping away from guns.
Except my statement takes some balls. Yours just goes through the motions of requiring them, but in the end you’re just peddling a bunch of pap to make yourself better liked. And, by the way, better than even odds that’s how all this “research” came to be to help back up your point. The male of the species can’t cry his way out of a speeding ticket.
But if you think I was tough, wait’ll you get a look at what adorable gun-and-swimsuit pixie Cassy put together, because if you’ve read her for any length of time, you know this really hits her where she lives.
New rule here at The Blog That Nobody Reads: You can’t criticize me for the length of what I write until you’ve gone and read what Cassy has to say about man-bashing harridans who like to gloat and chuckle and smirk about boys being dumb. Because brother, if you want to find a lady who believes in what she’s saying, go no further than there.
These kinds of people — mostly women — bother the hell out of me. OMIGOD! Teenage boys are, like, SO stupid! They’re irresponsible! They’re reckless! YEARRGHH!
Can the people who come up with this crap, just once, come up with an original thought? Please?
Yes, teenage boys tend to be more of the daredevil type. Yes, they do stupid things sometimes and take stupid risks. They also tend to be exceedingly loyal and I’ve found them to be rather considerate and great friends. Unlike teenage girls, may I point out.
I had many more guy friends in high school than girl friends. Part of this was because I participated in a male-dominated sport (crew), but another part of it was that I wasn’t interested in having a lot of girlfriends. I had a few, but by and large I didn’t get along with a lot of girls. Why? Because girls are vicious, jealous, backstabbing bitches in high school. They’re two-faced and evil and mean. Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl. Teenage boys, at least, stick with their friends through and through. Even when they get into a fight, they’ll duke it out and then ten minutes later, be best friends again. So simple. So uncomplicated. No three hour conversations about who screwed who over first or why such-and-such’s boyfriend was MY boyfriend first and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Piss off a teenage girl and it’s never a ten minute fight. She won’t try to kick your ass, but she will try to ruin your life. She will poison every well, spread as many rumors as possible, and in general try to make your life as miserable as possible. I don’t care if saying this pisses people off, because it’s the truth.
There is much, much more.
I think Cas and I both ran on a little bit because this subject is real simple.
It comes down to this.
When you are allowed to say bad things about boys and not about girls, you’re going to hear more bad stuff about boys than about girls. Some of us who have weaker minds, somehow, think this means something. Those of us with stronger minds understand it’s a commentary on what we are and are not allowed to say, and doesn’t really mean a great deal more than that…other than that men and women are different.
Oh that, and…just to repeat…men can’t cry their way out of speeding tickets. And YES, this differential trickles into our insurance industry and anybody who tells you otherwise, is a liar.
Sen. Obama,
If I’m not allowed to question your love for this country as it exists before you start changing it, am I allowed to so question after you’ve finished?
Great move, Barry Huss. And here I was worried that you might actually have had a shot.
Sen. Barack Obama has selected Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters on Saturday.
“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee,” the text message, sent at around 3 a.m. ET, said.
“Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois — the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago,” Obama said in an e-mail sent to supporters Saturday morning.
Let the jokes about ethnic groups running convenience stores begin.
Really, what in the hell does this guy add to the ticket. Oh, wait…I get it. Ebony and Ivory. And then that whole “experience” thing.
They’re also two senators. And two buffoons. But I repeat myself.
Someone needs to explain to me, before this is all over, why the senate is thought of as a stepping stone to the White House. It hasn’t really been one, in recent years, you know. But more importantly, the voting public has not expressed any kind of hunger for the kinds of things senators do, and the talents senators show, in our presidential candidates. Yeah, we chuckle a lot when senators step in it like Biden chronically does (and Obama too, come to think of it) but that doesn’t mean we want to promote verbal incompetence to a higher position — especially when half of your platform is making fun of the current president for mispronouncing “nuclear.”
The other thing sure to arouse comment from all sides, is — what does it have to do with “Change Change Change!” to bring on board to your #2 slot, some guy who’s been sitting in there for all of his constitutional ability to do so — for thirty-five years? That would mean he is the architect of this stuff you’re wanting to change, right? That would include the October 2002 final resolution to support the war in Iraq, right?
Awkwaaaaaard…
I was just reading how nobody wants to go to the Republican convention. (“LOL!,” says DailyKOS…wow…”LOL” just keeps getting funnier, every time they do that.) And here I thought it was because Republicans had nothing to say, beyond “our left-wing guy isn’t as left-wing as that other left-wing guy”…I thought, y’know, that didn’t exactly get the blood pumping. But now I see the game plan — the GOP is going to skip its own convention, and somehow, through spies and plants and Manchurian candidates and what-not, make all the important decisions for the opposition.
Because, if they were doing that, who’d they pick besides Biden?
Good going, Republicans. First thing you’ve done right this year. No, really, I mean that. I want to grab a bag of popcorn and see what happens next. First time I felt that way since Fred dropped out.
Update: Via Michelle, I learn about a clip the McCain campaign would appear to have had locked, loaded and ready to go:
Pretty damn good. This is a major problem Obama Biden bin Laden has, and the spot hammers home the point very well. Good on ya, Mac.
(Credit to Jane from Exurban League for the pic; H/T to My Pet Jawa.)
Nobody reads this blog, but among those who skim it once in awhile it’s known that my favorite superpower has nothing at all to do with time travel, flight, bullets bouncing off the chest, or magical ropes that make people tell the truth.
My fantasy hero is Sushman, a mutant with the power to wave his hand and bring a virtual “cone of silence” down upon noisy evildoers. That’s the guy I wanna be. And with further outings of yours truly, Shushman gradually accumulates other, secondary powers, like the ability to turn skateboard wheels square and to telekinetically yank sagging trousers above butt crack.
When Shushman is walking along and he sees a wad of sticky gum lying on the sidewalk, waiting to adhere itself onto an innocent pedestrian’s shoe…he can cast a magic spell on the gum. The gum will then pry itself off the sidewalk, fly through the air, hunt down the original chewer who was responsible for so carelessly discarding it, and re-insert itself back into his mouth.
Shushman can point at two people having a conversation across a great distance, like say for example across a parking lot from each other, and use telekinesis to force the two conversationalists to come within ten feet of each other so they don’t have to keep asking each other to repeat themselves.
Shushman can point at a little tiny annoying li’l yip-dog being carried around in a purse, and make it instantly weigh a hundred times more. Not expand in size. Just weigh more. Arf! **klunk**
John Hawkins of Right Wing News, it would appear, could stand a few visits and escorts from Shushman.
Question: “What are your top 10 pet peeves?” — Don_cos
Answer: Not in any particular order,
* People who talk or have crying babies in a movie theater.
* People talking on a cell phone while driving.
:
* People who play their bass way too loud.
* Conspiracy theorists.
* People wearing their pants way too low.
* Pointless meetings.
Can’t help you out with the truthers or the pointless meetings, good citizen. But humming from exactly the same pew in the church with a lot of that other stuff.
And I got a feeling it isn’t just me & Hawkins.
Via Karol, an article comes to our attention, written by some kind of travel advice columnist type guy, for spoiled rotten brats.
It may seem like paradise – getting away from it all with your loved one to that beach hotel on the Cote d’Azur or an idyllic island in the Greek archipelago for a glorious week or two.
And that’s the rub. Periods of unstructured time – the break from routine – can play havoc with relationships. If you are used to having time apart, being together all day, every day, for several days can send the best relationship into an acrimonious tailspin.
I have known relationships to survive, not so much in spite of, but because of, the regular absence of one partner on business trips.
Absence really can make the heart grow fonder. Hence the adage, “I married him for better or for worse; but not for lunch.”
Monsters.
Sorry, I have bad memories about this. Those are from half a lifetime ago; nowadays, I can’t even imagine being coupled-up with someone across from whom I’d desire that kind of distance. At that point, a woman becomes nothing more than a name. Perhaps a warm body to keep in bed at night; and, one may have the sense of phony decency to avoid sleeping with others, but only to avoid social stigma. What’s the point, really? How much affection can you have for someone, without wanting to be around them?
I have trouble keeping my cool about this, so offensive do I find it. It really isn’t so much old, bad memories, as much as more modern, in-the-moment fatigue. It’s the same thing I was bitching and bellyaching about over here, really.
It isn’t hard at all to figure out what today’s Eleventh Plague of Egypt is. We have been consumed with a passion, to get all the props and accolades for instigating, reciprocating and nurturing relationships with those around us — but to accept none of the associated responsibilities, burdens, and just plain ol’ pains-in-the-ass. We want to be known for our “People Skills” without having to work for them.
How many are ready to sympathize with this plight of “Too Much Time With Him In Aruba” or wherever — but at the same time — are ready to jump in and hiss & spit their venom at Sen. Gramm for his Nation of Whiners crack?
Gramm earned for himself a Shakespearean brand of protest, from where I see things. His comment wandered far too close to the truth.
A reminder/refresher course…
democrats…
HOPENCHANGE!!!
Gerard went and divided it in half, between the headline and the body underneath.
You know, if all you’ve got to talk about is the number of houses somebody’s rich wife owns…
… you’ve got nothing.
Nothing more left to be said.
Except, perhaps, HOPENCHANGE!!!
Honorable mention for the Best Sentence I’ve Heard Or Read Lately (BSIHORL) award — Gerard still takes it, but this one is worth at least a footnote — goes to McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, grousing away about this same issue:
Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?
OCBASASBDII
Obsessive Compulsive Bullshit Alphabet Soup Acronym Shopping and Behavioral Disability Invention Impulse
An inexplicable fever that strikes people with formal training in behavioral and mental health, and the people who listen to them and read their books.
A human subject is identified, showing personality characteristics that are disliked (the “target”). A swelling encyclopedia of catalogued personality attributes is aggressively prowled, be it in paper or electronic form, in a diligent search of personality attribute packages matching the target’s.
When one is found, the associated bullshit alphabet soup acronym is produced (the “BASA”), and then the person who champions its use (the “sufferer”) throws it around in conversation as often as possible. PTSD. ADHD. OCPD. And, yes, in some cases, PDD-NOS. EIEIO.
If no such bullshit alphabet soup acronym is available, one will surely be invented.
Symptoms include:
1. Buying or borrowing coffee-table self-help and phony-medical books.
2. Dominating the conversation with discussion of the BASA, as if the sufferer personally discovered the associated disorder.
3. Persistent refusal to acknowledge that some people, for whatever reason, are simply born as freaks, weirdos or assholes.
4. Insistence on strict adherence to a narrow personality norm, by everyone with whom the sufferer comes in contact.
5. Engaging in an irrational debate about whether the disorder described by the BASA exists, if it is called into question whether or not it applies to a specific case.
6. Misuse of the past-tense verb diagnosed as if it referred, in the subject under discussion, to something hard and clinical — like a tumor or polyp.
Usually, the disorder described by the BASA will be a behavioral disorder. Behavioral disorders have it in common that their diagnostic methods exist entirely within the characterizations of the disorders. The diagnosis is, therefore, entirely opinionated. Laymen will consistently fail to understand this. The behavioral health professional will consistently fail to point it out.
The purpose is to provide a convenient excuse to everyone involved: To the target, for failing to behave according to expectations that are within his capacity but outside of his desires; and to those around him, to stop interacting with him in a normal capacity and continue these expectations.
The target is almost always under sixty-five; at least, he is when the diagnosis is first made. That’s because, in our culture, once you’re old, people are not forced to deal with you on a regular basis — therefore, the need to describe what there is about you that frustrates them, suddenly vanishes. The intensity of a OCBASASBDII fit is always determined by the sufferer’s (if the sufferer is not a professional) relationship to the target, since the cultural expectation that the sufferer interact regularly with the target, is what touches it off. It is most pronounced in spouses, mothers, teachers and family members living in the same household.
The neat thing about OCBASASBDII is that it’s just like the TLA (three letter acronym) — it is an example of itself.
Experts are divided on causes of the OCBASASBDII phenomenon. The science remains unsettled.
One of the more controversial theories is that it is linked to feminism.
Men and women are different, especially when it comes to organizing things. Men, naturally inclined to hunt, are pre-adjusted to the notion of confronting a disorganized environment. But they are inherently weak in the ability to organize things, limited either by scope of what is to be organized, and the extent to which things within that scope can be organized. Men don’t do it. They pick out their clean laundry by smelling paper bags of clothes to see which one is clean; they leave paid and unpaid bills in rumpled stacks of paper with no rhyme or reason to them; they eat out of the sink.
Women are far superior at separating things that “do not belong” from other things that do. However, in addition to being able to do it, the more aggressive women can’t really stop doing it — even when they deal with people.
The OCBASASBDII-outgrowth-from-feminism theory says, women insisted on not being sexually harassed at work — they sued — employers learned how not to be sued, and so the money dried up. Just about the time that was going on, people started being diagnosed with things. What was happening, in sum, was that our more difficult females were insisting everyone deal with them, they were at the same time insisting they didn’t have to deal with anyone they didn’t want to, and this is what OCBASASBDII is all about; making sure people don’t have to interact with undesirables.
Another theory, all-but-proven, is that it is financially motivated. A bunch of people show undesirable behavior and you notice it…no money. You attach a three- or four-letter acronym…money. As the libertarians say, “if you want less of something, tax it; if you want more of something, subsidize it.” We have subsidized OCBASASBDII through the federal treasury and through the self-help-book publication market, we are now drowning in it.
Experts say there is much you can do to fight OCBASASBDII. Do not argue with the person brandishing the new-found BASA; the BASA can be roughly compared to a child’s security blanket, and if they are forcefully separated from it, they find this traumatic. Instead, gently change the subject of the conversation every time they use it, until they get tired of it and move on to something else.
Two years ago…Aryeh Spero:
So thank you, John McCain, for your tireless efforts in behalf of McCain-Soros, clean money and motives and “reform.” You have helped bring your party down. Thanks for being the gang leader of the “Gang of 14,” which stood in the way of up-or-down confirmation of conservative justices. Hats off to you for redefining torture so that effective interrogation of jihadists is forever impossible. As a reward, you wish, now, to lead the party and become its Presidential nominee and standard bearer. I don’t think so.
Twenty months later, it would seem McCain is, indeed, the nominee of a party he has never truly represented.
I have nothing against principled opposition to a party label, understand. But thanks to McCain’s “finance reform,” and that sham of a nomination process that took place this year — the Republican party has been crippled to the point where it can no longer communicate a message. Just forget it, they tell me; that other guy is way too dangerous. Whatever it takes for the G.O.P. to “win.”
But what then? What happens on the issues that arouse my interest, if a Republican Party led by John McCain wins? What happens with…oh, let’s take the one issue with which the McCain bandwagon zealots most frequently ambush me…nominees to the Supreme Court? Anyone want to place their name beneath the statement that McCain will nominate more principled justices than President Obama?
Really? You’ll sign that in a concrete slab? Maybe put money on it? Think hard a few times.
Do the research: Our very worst Supreme Court justices were nominated by Republicans, not democrats. Earl Warren vs. Felix Frankfurter — who was worse? Harry Blackmun vs. Hugo Black. John Paul Stevens vs. Louis Brandeis. Look ’em up. See what they did. McCain, to me, typifies the Republican President who gets snookered by our shakiest Supreme Court justices. The beltway crowd. The good ol’ boys, nominated by Republicans, who seem to figure out they have to make up for that transgression of being nominated by Republicans. Maybe that’s why they sucked so much. Whatever. The fact remains — Supreme Court justices nominated by democrats weren’t that bad.
But the center of my complaint, is the center of Spero’s complaint: The McCain CFR. It has been tested in a laboratory setting — its performance has been found wanting. Who wants to disagree with me about that? What was this supposed to do, anyway? “Get the money out of politics” — FAIL. “Bring an end to negative campaigning, and focus on the issues” — FAIL. “Put government back in the hands of the little guy” — FAIL.
What to do in November? I dunno. I’m still sitting on the fence. I always vote, every two years, no later than 7:15 in the morning. It’s important. This year…meh. Maybe, just maybe, someone will use The Force and fire the photon torpedo just at the right angle into the exhaust port of my Death Star, and say just the right stuff to put me over the edge and punch a chad for The Maverick.
Maybe.
But there’s no way in hell you can get me to nibble at my fingernails in nervous anticipation over what’s going to happen this fall. In my book, this race is done. What’s left, is a comedy of errors. Like a Keystone Cops movie…more pathetic than that, really. And sad. One of two candidates will be our next President, and George Soros is in bed with both of them. Democracy has failed us this time ’round. We just have to fix it before the next show.
The Conservative Platform, I was thinking, is missing a “voter eligibility test” and it should have one.
I didn’t feel too strongly about sticking one in until I read the comments on Jonathan Martin’s blog, which I referenced here.
I do not wish to make the test time consuming or demanding. I do not even think it should be about “intelligence,” per se. It just needs to weed out people who have absolutely zip, zero, nada, zilch, bubkes…no problem-solving skills whatsoever. You wonder how they get dressed in the morning. We have some politicians trying to push some proposals up to that magical 51% mark, and from where I sit, in a sane world they should be having some real problems getting the support up past 15%. Things are not the way they need to be.
Question One I would steal from that wonderful movie…
If you have one five-gallon jug…and one three gallon jug…how many jugs do you have?
Question Two: What is the difference between a square and a rectangle?
Question Three: Why is it not exactly going out on a limb, when you make a prediction like “It Will Rain”?
Question Four: What is one times one?
Question Five: If you are driving a bus, and you stop and some people get on, who is driving the bus?
Update:
Thinking on it some more…
How do you divide six apples, evenly, among…six people?
And…
Which of the following numbers is a prime number? 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000, 7.
And…
You walk into a room. At one end of the room is a rope. At the other end of the room is a man with a very sharp knife. Your assignment is to cut the rope in half. The man tells you he will cut the rope in half with his knife for ten dollars, or rent you the knife for five dollars. You have five dollars in your pocket. What do you do?
And…
Beneath this question, take your pencil and write a letter. I mean, a letter from the alphabet. Any letter you want. There is no wrong answer so long as it is a letter from the alphabet. Just write it.
Gerard points to Brothers Judd; Judd points to Jonathan Martin’s blog at The Politico; and what is under discussion there?
McCain hit a line drive after Obama teed himself up. That’s what.
Yesterday, Senator Obama got a little testy on this issue…He said that I am questioning his patriotism. Let me be clear: I am not questioning his patriotism; I am questioning his judgment.
Zing! I still don’t support you, Maverick, and I think this is a case of the pot calling the kettle…wait, I don’t wanna go there. Anyway. On some other issues, your judgment is not so hot. But I’m gonna have to hand it to ya there. That’s gonna leave a mark. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fella.
McCain continues — and The Chosen One responds.
“Senator Obama has made it clear that he values withdrawal from Iraq above victory in Iraq, even today with victory in sight. Over and over again, he has advocated unconditional withdrawal — regardless of the facts on the ground.”
Speaking at the VFW convention in Florida yesterday, Obama said McCain should acknowledge his patriotism. “I will let no one question my love of this country,” the Democrat said. [emphasis mine]
Morgan’s mind wanders…
CITY STREET: A man is waiting at a bus stop, and he gets bored. He begins to mumble his thoughts aloud. “Hmmm,” he thinks, “I wonder if Barack Obama loves America?” SEVERAL UNIFORMED PARAMILITARY CONSTABLES run up and surround the man, the patented Obama LogoTM imprinted on their shiny new helmets. “I’m sorry, sir,” says the tallest one, “you’re going to have to come with us!”
Look at that. Another democrat for free speech.
But here’s what absolutely blows me away. I mean, really; I’m still undecided about voting for McCain, but at this point I’m starting to seriously think about putting money on him. How can Obama win? Seriously? You want to know what I’m talking about…head on over to Martin’s blog, and check the comments (north of 200, and growing, as of this writing).
Just look at all that garbage. Obama just said, plainly, that he’s going to try to control this debate by refusing to allow anyone to question his patriotism. He’s going to try to give orders to people about what to say and what not to say, what to think and what not to think.
My son had a bad day at school on Tuesday. That night he was saying he wouldn’t be going anymore. That ritual tirade sounded ingenious, inspired and brilliant, compared to what Obama said. What the hell does he mean, he won’t let anyone? It’s a cliche, for one thing; over four years old! For another thing, it’s unenforceable. Hey, Barack, I’m questioning your patriotism! Look at me! Whee, I just did it again! For another thing, it’s a contradiction because America is supposed to be a place where you can say whatever you want and think whatever you want — it’s our democrats who keep telling us it’s so. They also repeat over and over again that it’s the Republicans who are trying to take our freedoms away. And they want to contradict themselves on that within just a few syllables?
Hey, I think I can do that too.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
“Equal opportunity employer, women and minorities encouraged to apply.”
“I’m from the Government; I’m here to help you.”
When did it become unreasonable to expect blatant contradictions to occur across a few sentences, or maybe even paragraphs, from each other?
But out of the hundreds of comments on Jonathan Martin’s blog, most of them, or large chunk of them, are of this flavor: “Hooray, this is an issue we can use to help him win!” No, that’s not what you’re thinking — by “him,” they mean OBAMA!
“Mike” (8/20/08, 11:56 AM) is a good model cookie-cutter, by which a number of other morsels have been cut from the dough.
Of course McRove is questioning your patriotism, they’re republicans – that’s what they do! Now he’s trying to weasel out of it. You should repeat this every day until the election – McCain said you would “rather win an election if losing a war was the cost. He said it. Now whack him over the head with it!
+++snicker+++ By all means, Barry Hussein. And while you’re at it, whack us over the head with how you’re not going to let him say it anymore. Or anybody else either.
These people have no common sense at all. Normally, I’d worry about that — in fact, I still do. But common sense is something you have to have, in order to make things happen and get what you want.
Al Gore, Howard Dean, John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama. They all expected things to happen, they all used diseased logic — not just weak, but badly diseased — and each and every single one of them must have really expected things to happen as they said they did, because they went very far in staking their reputations on it happening.
To believe Obama will win, I have to believe, first, that he’s going to break some kind of pattern here.
Well…it still is possible. God help us if it happens. But Dear Lord, I don’t wanna be that guy. With a fan base like this, he could use all the help he can get. And he’s not gonna get it.
Rachel can’t spell “igniter,” but give her a break, she’s a dog person. Whaddya expect?
Anyway, based on her vast experience of participating in and studying flame wars on the innernets, she’s compiled together a list of ways to start blog debates sure to disintegrate into lotsen lotsen lotsa heat, and very little light. I’m just lovin’ it. It’s in “Letterman” format, and here’s your first few bullets:
10. I’m voting for John McCain.
9. I ate at Taco Bell today.
8. Illegal immigrants suck.
7. Here’s a picture of my dog.
They get a whole lot better. Go read it all, now.
And yeah, I agree with #1. Because they are, they really are. Time to feed them, time to make coffee, the coffee is going to come first and they damn well need to get used to it, I don’t give a good goddamn what the Egyptians thought of ’em.
In response to a request from you, sf4.
Your Conservative Platform for 2008.
We shouldn’t be needing it…but since we do…
Comments are solicited by implication. Use the thread below to register your demands for additions, deletions, modifications, or pain-in-the-ass nit-picky grammar police whining.
Me, Friday:
Because, now that I give it another think, I see we have a variation here that is newer than that other ancient one, and perhaps more dangerous: That is complete agnosticism about where evil is.
This is different from the guy who calls evil good, and good evil. He, at least, must make the concession that there is such a thing as evil. And much of the time, he’ll either place some value on human life, or pretend to do that much. Capital punishment is a great example. I say “Hey, admit it or not, there are some guys who will kill again if they’re allowed to live; you can’t hold them in the prisons, especially when you have liberal hippies running around, unleashed, struggling to come up with new excuses every year for releasing criminals from prison.” You come back at me and say “Waitaminnit, how can you say killing is wrong, and then prove it by killing someone?” And we debate back and forth. Me with the law-and-order argument, you with the Sean Penn Susan Sarandon argument.
At least we are both placing some value on human life; or pretending to.
Not so with the moral relativist who crusades on “weeeeelllllll…ya just gotta keep an open mind.” That is a new level of ignorance.
And it must, inevitably, metastasize into the darkest, purest form of evil. For it doesn’t place a value on human life, nor does it pretend to.
Divine Kismet of the Cosmos (of some kind):
Hey, there goes that Morgan K. Freeberg guy babbling away with his foolish nonsense again. We’d better make some stuff happen. Some stuff that will make Freeberg’s foolish nonsense look sensible. Let’s get to work.
Madonna, quoted in Kyle Smith’s column, Sunday (H/T: Karol again). Commenting on her upcoming film I Am Because We Are, she gives herself the fiftieth-birthday gift of making an enormous fool out of herself. Which raises a problem for her: How’s this different from any other day?
Thank you Divine Kismets. Although I have a feeling Madonna didn’t need much of a nudge to say something idiotic.
“When you think about the way people treat each other in Africa, about witchcraft and people inflicting cruelty and pain on each other, then come back here and, you know, people taking pictures of people when they’re in their homes, being taken to hospitals, or suffering, and selling them, getting energy from them, that’s a terrible infliction of cruelty. So who’s worse off? You know what I mean?”
Whoa. At first you think she’s going to be banal, if gracious, in acknowledging that paparazzi aren’t as bad as what Africa faces. Then you realize she’s saying the opposite. “Inflicting cruelty” = “Terrible infliction of cruelty.” She thinks being photographed is the same as the African horror show. Also: she thinks Africa’s big problem is witchcraft? “God’s going to have his revenge,” she said, at a dark moment, referring not to genocide in Africa or suicide bombings in Israel, but Martin Bashir, whom she suggested should be the Lord’s next thunderbolt target – for making a documentary on Michael Jackson.
Of her film on Malawi, which includes scenes about a young widow who must submit to being raped three times a day to “cleanse” her, Madonna said, “It’s not my place to judge that tradition. But to have a conversation with a village headsman and say, ‘Do you realize this is spreading a deadly disease?’ and have him say, ‘Yes, but there’s nothing I can do’ is mind-bogglingly frustrating. But we drop bombs on children during wartime, so you think, ‘Who’s practicing black magic?’ ” So ritualized rape is OK if you use a condom, and anyway the real horror story is the United States. [emphasis mine]
That needs to go into the List of Things People Say to Get Attention file, because even with a skewed value system this makes no sense at all. You can’t look at it and go “Oooh, look at Madonna, what a wonderful person, she’s so non-judgmental and everything.” You can’t say that, because inside of a sentence or two she’s judging, and making a big show out of doing it.
She’s fifty and ageless, so it’ll have to be a few decades before she drops from natural causes. But whenever that happens, at whatever age, wherever medical technology is at that point — there has to be something to be learned from dissecting her brain to see what wrinkles are on it. Arrangements must be made. If it were up to me, I’d put her brain on the list in front of Einstein and Beethoven’s. Something is simply not clicking in there.
He may be filled with all the hope-changeyness in the universe, but this guy has got about as much spine as a jellyfish.
…earns the Best Sentence I’ve Heard Or Read Lately (BSIHORL) award, #37.
Because that beauty (the sentence, not the writer) sums up everything that matters. Absolutely everything.
…who really, truly, honestly think this is a man’s world.
Today I went shopping for razor blades. I was way more overdue for this than I usually am. Like, as in, shopping for razor blades a month ago would have been quite appropriate. That last session of shaving I did, Saturday morning, like, really hurt a lot.
Oh, and as a side note: I really like shaving with a mug. I like heating up the water to 212′ Fahrenheit in a teakettle, and pouring it through the shaving brush before swirling it over the mug soap. That’s one of life’s pleasures right there. But it does not work with a dull blade. Or two. Or three.
And so I went shopping for blades.
So anyway…you whiny women who live in Folsom. You think this is a man’s world. Consider this an invitation to go shopping for razor blades with me. Side by side. My girlfriend won’t mind, and neither will yours. Let’s go look at blades together, men’s for me, women’s for you.
And after that you can tell me all about how it’s a man’s world.
Eighteen dollars and forty-six cents plus tax, for a package of eight stinkin’ cartridges.
Now the skin on my neck won’t be raw anymore. But I have some new scabs on my knees. So go ahead, Amazons. Tell me another.
Movie critic Pauline Kael is often quoted as saying something along the lines of “I don’t understand how Nixon won [in 1972]; nobody I know voted for him.” That quote seems to be apocryphal. Perhaps this one is better sourced somewhere:
I live in a rather special world. I only know one person who voted for Nixon. Where they are I don’t know. They’re outside my ken. But sometimes when I’m in a theater I can feel them.
Whether she said anything of this variety or not, the point is still there — it’s called the false consensus effect, and what it means is that you’ve been cloistering yourself without realizing it. Labor too long and too hard at chasing the next Hot New TrendTM, intermingle with a bit too much energy and dedication with your own Circle Of TrustTM, and gradually alienate yourself from whoever might be outside that crowd; pretty soon, you’ll become an expert on what everybody thinks, and you’ll be chronically wrong.
This, it would appear, is now an affliction suffered by Chris Collinswood of NBC (video at Ms. Underestimated, H/T to Karol), and manifested when he questioned Kobe Bryant about how it feels to be part of Team USA.
Collinsworth: Where does the patriotism come from inside of you? Historically, what is it?
Kobe: Well, you know it’s just our country, it’s…we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say “You know what? Our country is the best!”
Collinsworth: Is that a “cool” thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by.
Kobe: No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.
I’m still mulling over a challenge posed by sf4 to come up with my own “comprehensive platform” defining conservatism as I see it. This one is definitely going in. I might call it the Collinswood Plank of conservatism: Yes, the United States is a great country, not in some liberal politician’s Utopian vision, but as you see it right now, in the moment in which you’re reading this sentence; and yes, it is very cool to think so.
That, and it’s up to the individual to decide what’s “cool.” We do not decide what is cool as part of a crowd. We use the brains the good Lord gave us, to figure out what’s right, and then we stand up for it.
I suspect the liberals would agree that this is emblematic of conservatism — as they usually do, by mumbling smart-ass comments, as opposed to coming up with meaningless examples purporting to express the opposite. And, I suppose further that the liberals would agree they are dedicated to the opposite — as they usually do, by changing the subject rather than debating the point. If I’m correct on all counts, I would advise the McCain campaign not to wait for my platform to emerge. They should campaign on this right freakin’ now. Let’s have an election about whether the United States is a great country or not. Make it about whether, when you happen to be in another country, you should be holding your head high as an American, or moping around, staring at your own shoes.
Vote for Obama if you think we should be ashamed.
Some afterthoughts about Cassy‘s profile of Network of Enlightened Women (NeW), and feminist complaint-blog Feministing‘s critique of same. It would be more appropriate, perhaps, to call them “late thoughts” compared to “afterthoughts” because I never did opine in any way on this. What inspires my late thoughts is the comment section under Feministing’s original post; it has been growing, at least throughout the balance of last week, and I think this gives us some valuable and educational insight into the feminist mind.
I’m not referring, here, to what we said about feminists when we invented the word Flog as a portmanteau of “feminist blog”:
Check out masthead after masthead after masthead on some feminist blogs if you have trouble envisioning this. You’ll see what I mean. The “author” is represented by silhouette, or by avatar, or by an actual photograph. There is no smile…not unless it’s been made up into some misshapen sneer. Read the actual posts — and the problem is more pronounced still. Time after time, the theme is left intact, unshaken, unwrinkled, unmoved.
It is this: Somewhere, something is, and it ought not be. That’s it. Overall, it seems the fem-blog hasn’t much else to say. Sensors have detected something somewhere that exists, that we think should be banished to oblivion. Can we get an “Amen” here?
No, not that thing. The other thing. The control freak thing. The control they seek to exert over objects that may be kept around…if only they change. They want to customize what they own; what they only partially own; what they don’t own; what is, really, none of their damn business. Every little thing they find done, contrary to the way they’d do it if they were the person doing it, is a battle cry — no exceptions.
They seem positively eager, lately, to prove what Cassy said, lest there have been any doubt:
With feminism, women don’t have a choice. It’s follow blindly, and agree with everything we tell you. Don’t think for yourself. Don’t think that men aren’t the enemy. We know all, and don’t you dare get a second opinion…[F]eminists seem to think that if anyone, anywhere disagrees with anything they decree, it automatically makes them sexist and woman-haters. They fail to realize that debate can be and is healthy, and constantly trying to stifle opposing viewpoints only serves to strengthen those opposing viewpoints.
There are now several posts under the Feministing comment section, making the point that conservatism as used by NeW is underdefined or undefined.
This is a worthwhile point, I think. I don’t believe it applies to NeW. I read posts like this one, and the values and principles are crystal clear:
It is the liberal tendency today for some Americans to criticize the nation’s status in the world. Instead of recognizing America for what it is: a beacon of hope, liberty, freedom, democracy, and principles; some look to the rest of the world to measure our success. How far have we fallen? We are a nation of independence, with every citizen possessing equal opportunity. With such an amazing reality, why should we ever be ashamed of our country? The President’s comments indicate his belief that America is a strong nation, and we must never forget this great truth.
Reminds me of sf4’s suggestion that I jot down my own conservative platform and let liberals comment on it. I’m still giving it some thought.
But getting back to the subject at hand…
It occurs to me that feminists have an awful lot of antipathy in store for an organization they claim stands for something they don’t understand. I mean, I know the feeling. I’ve had people try to draft me into things like Amway, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, Mormonism, etc., going on and on about some kind of wonderfulness without expounding too much on what exactly it was they were trying to say. Yes, I find it a little irritating. No, it doesn’t make me want to lash out with those kinds of feelings the feminists seem to have; indeed, seem eager to showcase. So I call bull-dookey.
It also reminds me of something Larry Elder said once:
Conservatives consider liberals well-intentioned, but misguided. Liberals consider conservatives not only wrong, but really, really bad people.
And in addition to that, it reminds me of something I said; specifically, Thing I Know #217:
Populism, according to the hard evidence that has managed to come my way, has a tough time staying positive. It seems there has to be a dirty so-and-so who’s due for a come-uppins, behind every energized populist movement. That might be because populism seeks to decide issues according to the satisfaction of the majority, and most of us like to feel our way to a decision rather than think our way through. Naturally, laying the smack down on an enemy feels a whole lot better than actually solving a problem.
The NeW/Feminist back-and-forth is explained completely, I think, by Elder’s observation. Or nearly so. I read comments on NeW and the worst they think about their feminist sistren, is that the feminists have either been hoodwinked or are hoodwinkers. The feminists think this about the NeW ladies — that, or much, much worse.
And they say so over and over again.
I wonder if “middle-of-the-road” people are as leery as I am, of people who have to show off over and over again what good people they are. Now there is something I’d like to see the whole country talking about — and it’s a much bigger issue than conservatism versus liberalism or NeW ladies versus feminists. If you’re a good person who does good things, and you damn well know it…you just…keep on keepin’ on, right?
On the other hand, if you’re a bad person and you know that, or you try to be a good person but you don’t feel very good about your success in being good, what do you do? You call yourself a “feminist” and make tedious and repetitious comments about what a bad person someone else is, who doesn’t believe in the same things you do.
Last month I became interested in the story of a pensioner in Wiltshire, England, who slowly began to realize nothing was going to be done about the “youths” throwing rocks at his house, and took matters into his own hands. He used a stick to chase off the blokes. The story didn’t mention him whacking anyone; he chased. With a hunk of wood. For which he faced prosecution.
The story has now repeated in the Land Down Under. This time the “youths” are party-crashing, and this time the vigilante threatened law-and-order by means of a sjambok. A five-foot whip.
“I told them it was a private party and to clear off but this big youth put his face right into mine and said: ‘make me’,” said Mr [Dion] Driman, 46.
The South African electrical contractor said he had “sensed trouble” when he saw the youths outside and had armed himself with a decorative sjambok from inside the house.
The gang split into two groups and entered the house at the front and side, kicking a screen door off its hinges in the process. Mr Driman, the only adult at his son’s party, confronted the ringleader as he came around the side of the house.
“As I tackled him, six of them came over the top of me. I received a big hit to the side of my head,” said Mr Driman. “It happened really quickly.”
And…drum roll please…along comes the pencil-neck police spokesman bureaucrat.
None of the youths could be identified and so no charges were laid. Hornsby police were called to the incident and are understood to be considering whether the force Mr Driman used to protect his home was excessive.
NSW Police could not comment on the incident yesterday but a spokesman told the local paper Mr Driman had the right to defend himself – the question was whether he had used too much force.
“All I would suggest, if a situation arises again, leave it to the police to handle,” he said.
+++snicker+++ Yeah, handle it like something out of a Monty Python sketch. “Here here, now, trashing someone’s house, that’s not nice. What’s your name, son?” “Heywood. Heywood Jablowme.” “Oh, now, you’re smart-mouthing the wrong copper, m’lad. I’m well up on the Heywood Jablowme prank. Can only fool me so many times with that one…so you won’t give me your name, huh? Well, I’ll show you. You have no identity. And thus, you’re free to go.”
And that — I am left to presume, from the good nameless faceless spokesman’s remarks — is the proper way to handle it.
After you’ve prosecuted that reckless, vigilante homeowner. Who has a name. And then we can have a civilised society!
Eh…sorry, Mister Namless Faceless Non-Existent Unaccountable pencil-neck police spokesman guy. You know…I think I like my definition of civilization a whole lot better.
Someone put that up yesterday. Here are the older ones…
Delaware Liberal sees a need to create a more specific “netroots” platform, and so he has jotted down a statement of general principles:
The American Dream begins with every American’s right to be healthy, educated, and to live in a safe community and a clean environment. We believe vibrant economy is built with American jobs, well-paid productive workers, innovation, and the entrepreneurial spirit. We believe responsibility, honesty, and compassion are fundamental to a successful nation and that efficient government, effective public investments, and fiscal responsibility serve our citizens best.
We believe protecting personal liberty begins with the right of every citizen to enjoy their full civil liberties with equal access to opportunity and justice[.] We believe in the values of freedom, fairness, and respect. We believe the cornerstone of democracy is honest elections, transparent government and a deep commitment to our nations’ Constitution and Bill of Rights.
We believe leadership with global cooperation is the best way to secure peace and acting on environmental challenges strengthens our nation and protects the Earth. We believe the power of the United States must be used honestly and wisely.
We believe America’s promise of prosperity, liberty and security belongs to all Americans and that our nation’s strength lies in a shared commitment to these ideals.
Paragraph 2 is so vague as to become complete ineffectual. It does not identify any point of disagreement with any other competing platform, nor does it explain how, exactly, “the right of every citizen to enjoy their full civil liberties with equal access to opportunity and justice” makes it possible to “protect…personal liberty.” I presume I have to watch To Kill A Mockingbird one more time; if that is a control scenario, to which the “netroots” oppose a societal regression, well then I agree we shouldn’t go back to that. Who wouldn’t?
Paragraph 3 is a mish-mash between code words for a world government at the expense of American sovereignty, and…more ineffectual nonsense that doesn’t mean anything.
Paragraph 4 is more pap.
Paragraph 1, to me, is the scary part. Sure it sounds good. We have all these rights! Cool! Except, these rights include things that would cost other people their choices, their money, or both. You know what that reminds me of? It reminds me…of…this:
Article 40
Citizens of the USSR have the right to work…Article 41
Citizens of the USSR have the right to rest and leisure…Article 42
Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection…Article 43
Citizens of the USSR have the right to maintenance in old age, in sickness, and in the event of complete or partial disability or loss of the breadwinner…Article 44
Citizens of the USSR have the rights to housing…Article 45
Citizens of the USSR have the right to education…Article 46
Citizens of the USSR have the right to enjoy cultural benefits…
I’ve noticed something over the years. And I’m going to keep it to myself.
Hah! Kiddin’…
…no, I’m going to jot it down. Right here. This thing I’ve noticed over the years has to do with what local cultures — not actual nations, per se, but just enclaves in which there is a localized code of expectations for people’s behavior — seem to have a consistent equation with a constant product, said equation consisting of individual obligations and societal obligations. When I say “constant product” what I mean is the more of the former there is, the less there is of the latter, and vice versa.
If every little bad thing that happens is blamed on “society,” people act irresponsibly.
If people are entitled to things unconditionally, they end up, ironically, losing those things. Free speech doesn’t fall into this. Things that cost other people money, seem to. That appears to me to be the defining boundary. If someone else has to pay for these things to which you’re entitled, sooner or later, there’s a big pot of money that is tapped out and then there’s some kind of crisis.
Oh, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about though…I write from California…which is about to begin its eighth week of not having a constitutionally-required budget signed…
Yeah, delawaredem, by all means feed us some more of that mushbucket o’liberal goodness. It works out so well everywhere it’s been tried.
Today’s Best Sentence I’ve Heard Or Read Lately (BSIHORL) is so good, it needs no preamble. But, by way of introduction, it’s included in a reply BroKen made in an online debate we were having about pinheads.
He got onto some kind of tangent, and then came up with this gem.
Any value system that cannot name evil, becomes evil itself.
We briefly touched on this concept when we introduced ourselves to Cassy Fiano‘s audience last month, stealing the idea, in turn, from the Book of Isaiah; specifically, Chapter 5, Verse 20.
Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
This is what’s good about BroKen’s thought; it makes you think. Because, now that I give it another think, I see we have a variation here that is newer than that other ancient one, and perhaps more dangerous: That is complete agnosticism about where evil is.
This is different from the guy who calls evil good, and good evil. He, at least, must make the concession that there is such a thing as evil. And much of the time, he’ll either place some value on human life, or pretend to do that much. Capital punishment is a great example. I say “Hey, admit it or not, there are some guys who will kill again if they’re allowed to live; you can’t hold them in the prisons, especially when you have liberal hippies running around, unleashed, struggling to come up with new excuses every year for releasing criminals from prison.” You come back at me and say “Waitaminnit, how can you say killing is wrong, and then prove it by killing someone?” And we debate back and forth. Me with the law-and-order argument, you with the Sean Penn Susan Sarandon argument.
At least we are both placing some value on human life; or pretending to.
Not so with the moral relativist who crusades on “weeeeelllllll…ya just gotta keep an open mind.” That is a new level of ignorance.
And it must, inevitably, metastasize into the darkest, purest form of evil. For it doesn’t place a value on human life, nor does it pretend to.
Via Rottweiler, a sordid tale of rules trumping things they ought not. It involves a rescue boat, and it seems the time line looks like this:
June 11: General purpose semi-inflatable lifeboat at Hope Cove suspended from active service by the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency because of concerns about the structural integrity of the hull.
August 12: A 13-year-old schoolgirl is swept out to sea 150 yards. Hope Grove Station Officer Ian Pedrick asks the Coast Guard for permission to use the boat to rescue her, then loses radio contact.
What happens next is where it starts to get a little silly…
The four-strong crew braved heavy surf to help save the girl, but their courage was not appreciated by their bosses at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Their boat has been confiscated and locked up, and their station officer and his crew, who are all volunteers, are now under investigation following the rescue.
Now villagers say a holidaymaker could die because of what they say are “health and safety rules gone mad”.
I’m impressed that, if you read the original article to the end, you see some pencil-neck bureaucrat is dishing out some sound bite justifying this lunacy by saying “The health and safety of the boat crews and those who they may render assistance to is of paramount importance.” What a fascinating piece of logical warp this is. So let me get this straight — if the boat isn’t there, the swimmer dies, but of course the swimmer does not fall under the definition of “those who they may render assistance to” and so, in that manner, “those who they may render assistance to” are doing just great because the MCA had the wisdom and foresight to make sure this dead swimmer, who is dead, was not being rendered assistance.
I realize this is an imperfect analogy because when the boat caught up to the girl, it seems she was being rendered assistance by a diver. But I don’t really know what exactly that means. There is nothing in the article to indicate there was serious merit to these concerns over the hull integrity; the boat had been credited with over 91 rescues without any safety-related incident; and common sense seems to declare rather forcefully that a swimmer in trouble will have a much better chance with the boat than without it.
The operation was a complete success; the patient died.
Misha titles his own post “Let ‘er drown!” And that reminds me of a line from one of the greatest war movies ever made:
Aid: This is from General Alexander, sir…reminding you that you are not to take Palermo.
Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.: Send him a message, Cod. Ask him if he wants me to give it back.
Parent site Webloggin has as decent a round-up of the events as anyone, it seems at this time:
A man stormed into the State Democratic Party Headquarters and critically shot party chair Bill Gwatney. Gwatney died hours later. According to the the Arkansas Times the man may have been a former employee of Mr. Gwatney’s body shop and was recently let go.
:
The following description appeared in the Arkansas Times.Arkansas State Democratic Party Chair Bill Gwatney was shot and critically wounded at State Democratic Party Headquarters on Capitol Avenue about 11:50 a.m. today, witnesses at the scene said.
:
Police may have picked up the shooter’s trail because he threatened someone with a gun nearby. Reports were that a man with a gun confronted a building manager in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention office building a few blocks east of Democratic headquarters and said he’d lost his job. This apparently was not long before the shooting. He pointed the gun, but didn’t shoot. He fled in a vehicle whose description may have been reported to police.Gwatney, a former state senator, was an executive in a car dealership group, a business in which employment changes are not uncommon. Rumors immediately arose that the shooter might have been a disgruntled former employee of a Gwatney dealership. There were layoffs at a Gwatney dealership this week, according to employees.
The rumors about the car-dealership association between the two men have now been denied. One Police Lt. Terry Hastings is quoted as saying, “This is one of those things we may never know,” regarding the gunman’s motive.
Regarding the liberal attempts to blame conservatives, you can go anywhere. To the Webloggin link above, to Cassy’s spot, to Michelle Malkin, Democratic Underground, and DailyKos (“Please god, let them find RW stuff in the perp’s house”).
I found out from this incident that it has become popular among lefties to use the initials “RW” for right-wing and “LW” for left-wing; that way, you can argue about these two entities as if they were single people. So there is a blizzard of accusations going on now that RW has motivated killings of LW by invoking hate speech against the LW.
I guess this rap music posted by Malkin, which seems to be quite plainly inciting hatred and violence by LW’s against the RW, just doesn’t count.
REFRAIN
We gotta get ’em, get ’em.
We gotta chill ’em, chill ’em.
We gotta get ’em, get ’em.
We gotta kill ’em, kill ’em.…
Hate dominates like the Celts in the East
Michelle Malkin wants to snitch
Like you tell the police
She ought to be shot
They gotta be stopped…We gotta shut down Fox News
That’s the way it has to be…
But anyway, as blogger friend Phil found out at Cassy Fiano’s blog, there is a template flying around the “LW” blogosphere helping to detail all the hate speech by the “RW” for whoever might come askin’ for it. It’s the typical LW recruitment job; if you go researching into things like date, location, and most importantly context, you find what’s being called “hate speech” is poor taste at worst — and very often, not even that.
1. Rush Limbaugh: “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for.”
2. Senator Phil Gramm: “We’re going to keep building the party until we’re hunting Democrats with dogs.”
3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: “Get rid of the guy. Impreach him, censure him, assassinate him.”
4. John Derbyshire intimated in the National Review that because Chelsea Clinton had “the taint,” she should “be killed.”
5. Ann Coulter: “We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too.”
6. Ann Coulter: “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building.”
7. Bill O’Reilly: “…those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains.”
8. Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck said he was “thinking about killing Michael Moore” and pondered whether “I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it,” before concluding: “No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out — is this wrong?”
My thoughts about it? I think there’s a major miscommunication going on. This antagonism left-wingers have toward the concept of an individual making decisions for himself, has caused a sort of psychosis that results in classical psychological projection. They don’t think any right-winger is capable of expressing any thought, it seems, without some sort of fax or e-mail campaign giving him the idea. And thus, when a right-winger says something irresponsible or dangerous it has to be the result of some widespread conspiracy.
My other thought — if Bill Clinton ever tires of having his name fasted on to the Monica Lewinsky legacy and wants to be known for something else, I think he could make a fair claim to the concept of “hate speech” in the United States. History will record, I’m afraid, that we suffered an enormous erosion of real civil rights through this legal concept and researchers will have to trace the genesis of the landslide to the Clinton administration’s actions in the wake of Matthew Shepherd‘s murder and the Oklahoma City bombing. Our 42nd President, quite plain & simply, did not handle these events as a public steward concerned with protecting our constitutionally protected freedom of speech and expression. And now we have all these lefties on the blogosphere babbling away about hate crimes. And that’s to preserve human life? Don’t be silly. Ask them about abortion. Ask them about executing convicted criminals who are certain to kill again if they’re allowed to live. Ask them about taking down Saddam Hussein as he was oppressing people living in his country during his bloodthirsty, corrupt regime. In all three cases they’ll come up with some kind of rule — an inviolable rule, inviolable while other rules may be violated at leisure — that says, essentially, we have to let innocent people die.
They don’t give two farts about the sanctity of human life. They want to infringe on the liberty of individuals to say things. To say things…without checking with some centralized authority first.
I think all else that needs to be said, can be summed up in the House of Eratosthenes definition of the phrase “hate speech.”
Hate Speech (n.):
Intangible noun descriptive of accidental harm done to other people by means of words. Ironically, it is also a battle cry used just before someone practices deliberate harm to other people by means of words.