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...
Makes Me Sad
You know what really makes me sad about this?
Nora Ephron: Socks
Mon Sep 25, 4:08 PM ETWhat surprised me most about the Clinton meltdown yesterday was that no one told him to pull up his socks. This is a man who never goes anywhere without staff, lots of staff. Was there no one there to see that his pants were hiked up too high and his socks were pulled down too low and the flesh on his legs was showing? Can no one say things like this to the former POTUS?
So Bill Clinton was sandbagged by Chris Wallace…How does it happen? How does one of the smartest men ever elected president end up sandbagged by Chris Wallace? Is this what one docudrama does to the guy? I don’t think so. I’m afraid this is classic Clinton, Clinton the monologist, Clinton the guy who used to keep his White House houseguests up until 4 a.m. while he went on and on about what the press was doing to him. What a waste…
Clinton should simply have answered Wallace’s question. He should have said that he went after Bin Laden and that if Al Gore had been elected (which he was) we probably would have killed him and 9/11 would never have happened…Come on, guy. Pull up your socks.
It’s not that Nora Ephron has hit the nail on the head, that former President Clinton is a man obsessed with image; that his capacity for dealing with substance has been seriously questioned, and his way of dealing with the questions is just more maneuvering to safeguard his image. It isn’t that Ephron has captured this conundrum, and then gone on to speculate that with Al Gore in the White House, bin Laden would be dead already. Great forensic prowess there, Nora. Great crystal ball ya got there. Based on what, may I ask?
President Gore would have sternly lectured bin Laden to not ever do that again, formed a commission to study the greenhouse gas emissions from Ground Zero, and then called a press release to announce that Al Gore invented skyscrapers in the first place.
No, the source of my sorrow is this:
The socks cannot be categorized as a marginal detail, or as something irrelevant. It’s not as if nobody cares. Clinton would care. Based on what I have seen of Bill Clinton over the last fourteen years, Bill Clinton would have valued this advice above and beyond anything that might have had to do with saving lives.
Ex-President Clinton says he came closer to rubbing out Osama than anybody before or since. Now I gotta ask: To what kind of mindset is this worthy of comment? Is it even possible to remain sincerely committed to killing bin Laden, or even stopping him — and then paying the slightest bit of attention, whatsoever, to how close you got to hitting him?
How many hot summer days have you sat around watching TV trying to kill that one stubborn housefly, swatter in hand. Whack, whack, whack, whack. The fly’s just a little too quick, a little too smart. Ever start arguing about who got closest to killing the fly? Ever? Has that subject ever come up? Your flyswatter was two inches away, my flyswatter was half an inch away, I got closer than you did. Can such an argument take place among people who really want that fly dead?
That’s what makes me sad. In the Clinton era, the guy who calls on the President to say, “I know what you can do with your footwear to enhance your public image” is granted an immediate audience. That guy will probably end up going jogging with the President…or at least jogging-in-place while the Commander in Chief runs inside McDonald’s, or Gennifer Flowers’ apartment. Once President-42 re-emerges, they’ll go back to jogging and talking about footwear and trouser length.
And the guy who says “I know what we can do to get bin Laden” is left in the waiting room while someone goes to check to see if President Clinton is available. ALL DAY. Even Clinton’s fans, will not seek to assert it will happen any other way.
I don’t blame Clinton. People who care more about image than substance, have always been around, and they’ll always be around. I blame the people who support him. The people who argue on his behalf, injecting all their hatred toward the current President into every chat room they can find — further propagating the meme about “Clinton kept us safe” and “Bush lied, people died.” The people who know, without a doubt, that this is all about image. That Clinton gave a great interview, because of how it made them “feel.” How he “stood up” for himself and for Democrats everywhere. The people who always have to get in the last word. And yet they know, intuitively, down to the marrow of their bones…
…it was NEVER about stopping any terrorists. That was all, and it remains, just a big game of pretend.
They know this. Craven, cowardly liars, every damn one of them.
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