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...
Roger Simon, writing in Pajamas Media:
Like many Americans who spend hours in their cars, I have heard [Rush] Limbaugh a great deal – and I often disagree with him because he is more ideologically conservative than I am. But not once have I heard him make a statement that was racist. Not even close. But that doesn’t stop Keith Olbermann (and many others) from putting words in Limbaugh’s mouth he increasingly seems never to have uttered. Indeed, they did not have verifiable evidence in the first place that Rush had said such a thing. They simply “wished” it were so.
:
What we have then among the media and Internet race-baiters is a form of nostalgia for racism – a longing for the days when you could simply brand your enemies with the “r-word” and discredit them and everything they have to say in one extreme melodramatic gesture.Yes, it’s reactionary and, no, it’s not working.
We’ve been sold a big ol’ bill-o-goods here. A year ago we were being told just elect Barack Obama, and racism will be a thing of the past. How could it not be? A black guy as President. It would be impossible for anyone to proffer the notion, even for an instant, that any vestigial remnants of racism remained anywhere.
And our reward has been precisely the opposite. Forces loyal to Obama, with His consent or without it, have become highly energized in the perpetual pursuit of marginalizing opponents by any means necessary. And their boss’ skin color, far from being irrelevant, gives them an easy cudgel for at least attempting to do this. Every single day.
The Limbaugh episode proves that if, in their current assignment of pulling out the ‘r’ word yet one more time, they find they don’t have any ammunition — no problemo. They’ll just make some up.
But this isn’t actively planned by Obama, and it isn’t all Him. There is a slimy, insidious “coattail effect” at work here: If someone else has something to gain from this race-card, which doesn’t have to be played with intellectual honesty anywhere…then hey, as long as we’re on the subject…
And so in 2009 it seems we haven’t gotten over it. We’re practically taking a bath in it. What’s the solution? Soft stigma? Lots of work to be done there; if you’re a liberal and you manufacture some quotes from Limbaugh about James Earl Ray, or about the wonderful benefits of slavery, it seems you’re surrounded by peers and pals who think now you’re just a swell guy. It would take a lot of stigma to offset that kind of adulation.
How about good old-fashioned lawsuits for libel and slander? That has a way to go too. Last I checked, Limbaugh did a capable job of defending himself in the Wall Street Journal…and now Al Sharpton is threatening to take out a suit against him.
So I don’t know.
There it is. We were promised something would be going away forever, and now it’s all over the place, rather like someone disposed of a wet turd by throwing it in a fan. Only two possibilities remain: Large numbers of people, and I do mean large, will get mad as hell about this.
Or, we’ll continue to wallow in the stink, because not enough people got mad enough about it. So whoever’s dishing it out will conclude it’s all okay, and behave accordingly.
So far, it would seem what has been taking place, is the second of those two. You can make your own decision about whether to be happy, sad, or indifferent about it. What it says about Obama’s value, in terms of performing as the product He was supposed to be, is undeniable. He’s the polar opposite of what His country was promised.
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