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...
On The Microphones
It seems this is the time of year for microphones to embarrass people. Democratic Committee Chairman Howard Dean, speaking at San Diego State University, said the following:
If you think what’s going on in the Middle East today would be going on if the Democrats were in control, it wouldn’t, because we would have worked day after day after day to make sure we didn’t get where we are today. We would have had the moral authority that Bill Clinton had when he brought together the Northern Irish and the IRA, when he brought together the Israelis and the Palestinians.
…and, a bunch of other silly stuff too, but I thought that one really took the cake. I mean, Howard Dean himself would agree with me, wouldn’t he? At the beginning of the first sentence, he’s complaining that Israel and the Palestinians are fighting, and at the end of the second one, he’s holding their pacifist relationship up as a shining, glittering example of the results of Bill Clinton and the Democrats and their wonderful “moral authority.”
President Bush likes to talk about Israelis and Palestinians in front of microphones, too. Chewing on a buttered roll during the G8 conference, he muttered to Tony Blair the following…
Well, it’s only if it’s — I mean, you know, if she’s gotta — or if she needs the ground prepared, as it were. Obviously, if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, as it were, whereas I can just go out and talk…See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it’s over. Who, Syria? Right…I think this is all part of the same thing. What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if we get a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way, he’s [inaudible]. That’s what this whole thing’s about. It’s the same with Iran…I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen. We’re not blaming Israel. We’re not blaming the Lebanese government.
It’s interesting the way the human mind works, I think. There is an effort underway in the blogosphere, which seems to be sputtering out in infancy, to persuade us to believe our current President’s remarks were embarrassing to him. It’s pretty easy to believe, after all, he didn’t know the microphone was on. To mutter away while a microphone is on that you don’t think is on, why, that’s almost the textbook definition of embarrassment isn’t it. One problem: There’s not an awful lot there. President Bush doesn’t seem to be awfully fond of the shit Hezbollah is doing, he uses cuss words in private conversations, he has a mild obsession with travel schedules. I knew all this already.
Dean, on the other hand, is thought to have turned in an okay performance, or at least not a very embarrassing one, simply because the conventional wisdom says he knew his microphone was working. But his comments could be handily confronted, devastatingly, by an open debate with — Howard Dean. Yeah, you could clone the guy and put him up against himself, and be entertained all day.
I thought we had a referendum on this “moral authority” business two years ago. Wasn’t Senator Kerry out there telling us, if he were to be elected President, he’d use his M.A. to persuade our “allies” to to help us in ways the incumbent could not? Well, we didn’t buy into it, did we. People understood, a President Kerry would decide the things that U.S. Presidents decide…Germany would do what Germany wants to do, France would do what France wants to do. “Moral Authority,” people came to figure out, was just a code word for charlatanism, and possibly some personal delusion. People came to see it as a dream that if only you could climb on the throne for a day, you could make the rivers flow with Cointreau and chocolate syrup, repeal the laws of gravity, and decide a zillion other things that the emperor himself doesn’t really get to decide. Like, for example, that Palestinians and Israelis should stop fighting.
People came to realize that if a challenger comes along who can solve a complicated problem, the first attribute he’s going to display is a working knowledge of what would be within his control as the problem-solver, and what would not be. People who babble on about M.A., are advertising that they lack the ability to make this distinction, and are apathetic about acquiring it. Bush is a two-term President because most people have figured this out.
The “moral authority” mantra is a focus-group tested catchphrase that doesn’t work. Not as a plan, and not as a way to convince thinking Americans that you have a plan.
I don’t understand why we’re still hearing it. I really don’t.
President Bush did not know his microphone was on.
What is Dean’s excuse?
Update: YouTube has video of President Bush’s unintentional address.
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