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...
This blog, which nobody actually reads anyway, is now in its sixth year and we’ve been making occasional references all the way back to Day One (almost) to the “alien in the laundry room.” Or the ancient savant thawed from a block of ice. Mork from Ork, Jeannie, Captain Caveman, Man from Atlantis, Uncle Martin, Commander Data.
Someone curious and highly functioning but altogether unfamiliar with our recent events and customs. Needing to have things explained to them.
Things that, until we start trying to explaining them, we fail to realize cannot be explained.
Now, some of the nobodies who don’t stop by to read The Blog That Nobody Reads, have blogs of their own; and among them, some of them indulge in our own habit which is to stop by Memeorandum to figure out what’s happening in the world. They may consider this “D’Jever Notice” item to be aimed squarely at them. Didja ever notice…
If I was the alien living in some kindly homeowner’s laundry room and pestering him daily with questions about the weird little quirks in our modern culture, and I relied on Memeorandum for my daily updates — which I probably would — I’d be pretty sure the country’s current leadership was some guy named “Tea Party.” And by “pretty sure” what I mean is, ready to swear to God about it…or…whoever. At least, that would be my impression after skimming headlines for awhile.
I’d say, Kindly Homeowner, you told me many times that April 15th was a day of some special significance, something to do with taxes…and yet it’s just another front-page thing about the tea party people. And it’s not because of tax day because I saw the same thing yesterday and the day before…last week, last month, last summer. All this time the Memeorandum people have been trying to figure out who the Tea Party people are.
I go to buy bread, to pick up your shirts from the dry cleaners to try to pay my way around here, and everwhere I go people are upset and ticked off by something called “ObamaCare.” Did the Tea Party people do ObamaCare? What about this VAT tax, that seems to get people excited…come to think of it I haven’t seen the VAT mentioned on Meme just yet. The Tea Party people don’t do that? Well, what have they done? Anything? Anything to tick people off? I can’t find a single example anywhere. It seems to me they just go to parties and wave signs. Memeo thinks this is the Number One issue?
In fact, it’s been awhile since I’ve detected any genuine curiosity about Tea Party people anywhere; seems to me everyone’s got their minds made up one way or another. So when we’re repeatedly offered all this information about what they are or are not or could be or couldn’t be, whose questions are they trying to answer?
Yes, you could explain it eventually to the sane, smart, naive, unacquainted laundry-room alien guy. But by the time it was done, Memeorandum wouldn’t be looking too good I think. Every morning…you skim over this huge long section about Tea Party people, and then past that you get to the piddly stuff that doesn’t matter. The President’s nuke treaty. Poland’s government getting wiped out. Our own President spinning wild stories about a soccer game that never existed and then disappearing for a couple hours. Three to five to eight detestable new tidbits in the health care law that nobody ever figured were in there.
The last question the alien would ask that is mostly or completely unanswerable? “Why don’t you earthlings just drop the democrat/Republican thing, and just form an official Tea Party and a Hopenchange Party?” Hmmmm…
Update: Okay, if we’re really just oh-so-filled with curiosity about Who The Tea Party People Are…Don Surber has as good a write-up as anybody else. Except his curiosity is more in line with ours, something along the lines of what people are choosing to report about it, and what not to report. Keep reading until he starts comparing poll responses from Tea Party people, to poll responses from the population overall. Tea Party people are better educated than the norm, more supportive of the two party system than the average (!), more likely to have already filled out a census form than the average, and just about equal to the average in the likelihood they’ll think positively of President Obama as a person.
They’re not crackers. No moreso than the control group, anyway. So now we can all stop wondering and get back to whatever we think matters. Right?
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