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...
Hale • Bopp (n.)
I’d be far less disgusted with Christopher Buckley if I thought for a minute he was a lone voice singing in the wilderness. As I wrote ad nauseum earlier this morning, his point seems to be — and he seems quite proud of this — that Obama has conducted Himself most unpresidentially, but it’s so much fun to watch Him and listen to Him that it doesn’t really matter.
No wonder, for the last half-century or so, when the democrats look for the next candidate to lead their party from the White House, the question is not: Does this person make wise decisions? But instead: When this person makes stupid decisions, is there a huge following of people motivated to vote for, support, and show up at rallies to egg on his toxic bullshit?
Let’s face it: “moral authority”; “hope and change”; “there’s just something about Him”; “he wrote ‘Earth in the Balance'”; “He’d be one hell of a lot of fun at a bar”; “at least he didn’t have anything to do with Watergate” — these are just devices. Devices skillfully wielded to close transactions that are contrary to the interests of the buyer.
One year following the election of the Holy One, I was noticing that it works not just in the democrat party machinery, but across the landscape of the electorate as well. Republicans are qualified if and only if they can instantly recall, with accuracy, exotic names, historical trivia, and lists of things; democrats are qualified if they are capable of selling things contrary to the interests of those who buy them. And a month onward, I made some observations about a quality some of our previous Presidents have actually had. “Charisma” doesn’t quite nail down what this quality is, since charisma is an occasional good thing, whereas what we’re talking about is a tactic for deception. But the C-word perhaps comes closer than any other word in the English language.
Barack Obama has oodles and oodles of this, but nobody is quite sure what it is. You heard this much discussed throughout the 2008 campaign, especially when He was locked in a fierce battle with Hillary Clinton for the nomination. “There’s just something about Him!” Some people call it leadership because when He says something, like “grab a mop” for example, there arises within you this primal instinct to get it done. The marrow of your bones seem to just want to start mopping. Authority, confidence, blah blah blah. He never stutters or stammers…says “uh” quite a lot, but always with dignity and flair.
What’s this done for us over the course of the previous 43 administrations?
Well, it’s helped to sell us a lot of crap. Salesmen learn how to do this; if it is their trade to deal with bad product. Hey let’s face it, if your product is compatible with the interests of the buyer, your “charisma” isn’t going to help the sale a whole lot. An average-Joe can get just as much sold. You need excellent salesmen if you’re trying to move a shitty product. So this “I don’t know why I want to do what he says, it’s just the way I feel!” thing is a distinguishing characteristic of flim-flam men and liars.
So when you possess charisma, plus a readiness, willingness and ability to use that charisma toward the objective of selling large numbers of people on something that will ultimately bring them harm, that is Hale-Bopp.
I understand why the democrat party wants to find the next walking specimen of it so badly. It’s because their policies suck so much. As I said before: If the product being sold is really good, you don’t need this quality. So they need it, to get all the Chris Matthews’ and the Chris Buckleys (what is it about the name “Chris”??) on board.
It is a Thing I Know #271 moment:
Someone please enlighten me on this hero worship for people who are good at selling things. An excellent salesman is useless in selling an adequate product; an adequate salesman will move it just as quick. You only need an excellent salesman to sell a crappy, substandard product, or excessive quantities of a product, that people don’t need. Fact is, if you’re in sales, you want to do a superior job, you want to realize the benefits of being better than the rest, but you also want to deal honestly with people, you’re in the wrong line of work.
And our fascination with it, seems to me symptomatic of a society that, for the most part, hasn’t had to get real work done for a very long time. A superpower, whose “citizens” get bottled water delivered to their doorsteps, and have nothing to talk about all day long unless the bottled water delivery was late.
Because deep down we all know this: A farmer, whose personal fortunes are tied to his progress in plowing the field, his progress in getting the irrigation machine to work, his progress in getting the cows milked, his progress in putting the equipment out of harm’s way when a storm front is rolling in…he really doesn’t have much use for salesmen, be they god-like in their hale-bopp or merely adequate for the job of selling quality things. To him, they’re just people who fill the air with lots of noise. The question is, does the goddamn thing do what it’s supposed to do, and flipping the switch & trying her out will settle that quickly enough. When you have real work to do and your fortunes rise & fall on getting the work done, talk becomes cheap very quickly.
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Ah! Heaven’s Gate Cult. Took me a bit.
- philmon | 01/29/2010 @ 10:40Yeppers.
Because if “we all” have decided to do whatever-it-is, there can’t possibly be a downside to it.
- mkfreeberg | 01/29/2010 @ 11:26Not everyone named Chris is an idiot. I resemble that remark.
- chunt31854 | 01/31/2010 @ 05:02And here I thought it would be a salesman that would be logging in first with the “resemble that remark” line.
I’ve known some honest, ethical ones; but they changed careers after a short time. If your name is Chris, I suppose you’re stuck with it until you have your name officially changed.
- mkfreeberg | 01/31/2010 @ 08:25[…] natural conservative reaction here is to try to reason the lights back on. As Morgan has so amply demonstrated, this is a mistake — they will continue to scream “there’s […]
- Hitting Below the Belt | Rotten Chestnuts | 01/14/2013 @ 10:12