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...
Says a DailyKOS contributor about the Lion of the Senate Liberals. Liberal democrats are like that about religion; it’s like jeans vs. slacks, except no need to step into a dressing room to change. More like a light switch. Oop — look at me, for the next five minutes I’m RE-LI-GIOUS…
File this one in the “Am I the only one who notices” file: A goodly chunk of these beneficial wishes for Sen. Kennedy, are made in direct connection to considerations of political consequence — as in, omigosh I hope he gets better so that the nation can benefit from these wonderful hard-left liberal policies he promotes. This is of interest to me, because I’m one of the bloggers who caught a measurable amount of flak and back-talk…from conservatives, no less…for expressing my wishes that Sen. Kennedy recover as much of his health as is possible without going back in to serve anymore.
Since, unlike the DailyKOS folks, I’m not that wild about his policies.
Now that Sen. Kennedy has been confirmed to be afflicted with the very frailty that killed my mother, I’m not backing down from any of it. I want him to drive this thing from his body. I want the chemotherapy to work. I want him to pass with flying colors…and then to go away.
But I have to ask: Why is it that it’s within the bounds of good taste, to wish such an influential legislator fully recovers so that public policy can be decided in a way to your liking. And at the same time, why does it fall below the bounds of good taste to wish an unhealthy old man should retire to a life of dormancy, which is where he belongs — to prevent bad radical liberal policies from being ratified?
Some would say the left-wingers are wishing good health on someone, while I’m wishing sickness. I would argue that is not the case at all. Sen. Kennedy is unhealthy already. I would further argue, they wish to exploit said unhealthy man. For an “ordinary” senator to be nominated and then approved to replace the legendary Lion, would be in keeping with a constitutional republic in which we vote on our representatives as equals.
Another flaw in this argument is revealed when one wonders, with an open mind, what would happen if such a malady were visited upon…Mitch McConnell. Or any other conservative Republican. Actually we needn’t wonder about that too hard. How about an influential Republican strategist from the past, like Lee Atwater?
Somehow, it’s culturally obligatory to remember Atwater in simple, absolute terms. Atwater, we are told, made race an issue in our elections without looking like he was making race an issue. We’re told this by Bob Herbert of the New York Times, who has built an entire career out of telling half-truths about a single speech Ronald Reagan made in Mississippi in 1980.
Meanwhile, it is a settled matter that Kennedy let a woman drown in his car in Chappaquiddick in 1969. Somehow, Kennedy gets to be a complex book, out of which the Chappaquiddick affair is but a single page. See how this works? Liberal democrats want to do all their thinking by feeling…and it amounts to being a cultural request, of which the rest of us dutifully approve. Yes, mister democrat, I must not sound like I’m wishing Kennedy’s brain tumor on him as divine judgment — I can’t come within a hundred miles of that. But you can say exactly the same thing about Lee Atwater and the Willie Horton ad and that’s alright.
This isn’t about feeling bad for Ted Kennedy and his family. Of course I do…how can I not. I’ve seen the heartache a family must endure when one of their own has a tumor growing in the cranium. The feeling of helplessness is profound. It is an occasion of overwhelming sadness. For the benefit of those who’ve not lived through it — words entirely fail. I hope you never learn first-hand.
It’s about the choice or lack thereof. How come we have this obligation to “feel” this way about Sen. Kennedy? And not Atwater? Or Mary Jo Kopechne, the woman who died of Kennedy’s negligence?
How come it’s okay to wish these health sagas turn out in such a way that our government remains hard-left liberal…but not so that our government can become less so?
In fact, how come the things we “wish” become anybody else’s business at all?
To my mind, the one thing that is offensive in the extreme about this, is the necessity certain persons among us feel to reassure, and re-reassure, and re-re-reassure, again and again — all others within listening and reading distance that I Am A Good Person. It’s a liberal democrat trait, but one which a lot of conservatives are emulating. And this impresses me as a far more odious tell-tale than making “tasteless” comments about Senator Kennedy. It betrays an injured and incomplete soul.
Why do you have to reassure us all, so repeatedly, and so constantly, that you’re so “good”?
It’s a real problem indicative of a real character defect. I’m convinced. All who are not convinced similarly, feel free to peruse that DailyKOS thread linked above, and get back to me. These folks have a real problem. It’s like the guy who can’t stop scrubbing his hands, and maybe that’s an apt analogy in more ways than just one.
This is the part where the people who celebrated the death of Reagan, Thurmond, and Heston wag their finger and prove that their [sic] a bunch of hypocriticaljackasses. — Fark commenter Mrbogey (2008-05-20 01:47:24 PM EDT)
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Get well and then stay out of the senate. Not exactly a Hallmark card but not unreasonable or vicious.
Speaking of feelings, I wonder how the Kopechne family feels about this all. Probably not sending flowers or well wishes I bet. Just a thought.
- tim | 05/21/2008 @ 08:48