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...
I’m so sick of talking about this guy. But this clip just cuts right to the heart of who He really is, what He really stands for, how He operates, and what kind of future we have ahead of us.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
People who belong to His political party, as wonderful a job as they’ve done convincing the weaker-minded what incredibly wonderful people they are, have this disturbing tendency to describe our current problems as dire, dire, dire, oh my gosh, things are so bleak, we just might not come out of this intact…and then show teeth. Smile, grin, laugh, chuckle, guffaw.
I remember seeing, and commenting on, Al Gore doing exactly the same thing…here, and here. It’s unnatural. If you believe the speaker in question believes what the speaker in question is saying…it’s even more unnatural.
The fault lies with us for tolerating it and not questioning it. After all, how would you feel if you saw President Bush talking about body bags coming home from Iraq, families whose lives have been changed forever because of this ultimate sacrifice their son or daughter made over there…and then just moments later engage in that Will Farrel shoulder-shaking chuckle over some dumb joke?
Didn’t Michael Moore have some kind of “now watch this drive!” clip in that propaganda movie of his? Didn’t he get just tons and tons of mileage out of it?
Things are different when you’re a democrat, I notice. Our national consciousness must have had something planted into it at some point, somewhere…maybe it has to do with all those millions George Soros spent. But when you belong to the party of the ass, you can talk up a good game about how hopeless the country’s situation is, here at home, as well as overseas…and then giggle like a child right before Christmas about it…we let it slide. If someone doesn’t point it out explicitly, most of us don’t even notice.
JohnJ had something to say about this lately:
Even here in Alabama, many people believe that the Democrat party is the party of good intentions and the Republican party is the party of evil intentions (granted, most of those many are at the law school). But even when I talk to people in other places, I often hear much of the same meme. For example, people think it’s ridiculous that Obama would ban guns or impose socialism, because Americans wouldn’t stand for something like that. But Republicans are on the verge of completely banning abortion, homosexuality, and criminalizing being black. I’m constantly amazed at the sheer number of people who believe exactly that.
From last year’s election, I’m inferring the democrat party has a complete lock on this “we are good people” tagline. If it’s a contest to see who can be thought of as good people, the democrats will win every single time. And so, in these discussions about what Republicans need to do to unseat them, or what any other faction would have to do to unseat them, I have steadfastly insisted this tactic should be abandoned. It doesn’t work. Last year offered it the very best of circumstances under which to operate, since I perceive there is bipartisan recognition that your kids are much better off spending a weekend with John McCain and Sarah Palin than with Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Nevertheless, the subject turned to who has better character, and the early-propaganda-money, and the Obama-as-modern-Messiah, won out.
And so I have also steadfastly insisted the next contest must be about “we are better people”…versus…“our policies work.” Reagan didn’t convince anyone he was a better person than Jimmy Carter. The palpable and effervescent consensus in 1980 was that Carter was a decent man, with noble intentions, who was simply in the wrong line of work (since then, demonstrated to be at least 33% correct).
Newt Gingrich never put too much effort into convincing people he was a more decent person than the democrats in the House leadership. I doubt like the dickens Richard Nixon ever convinced anyone he was a more decent person than LBJ, RFK or HH.
When people have problems they need to have solved, this just isn’t on their minds. They talk about it a lot because it makes them feel good…and if you listen to them too closely, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking this is what they’re after. But they’ll borrow money from a mobster, in a heartbeat, if they think that’s what they need to do. They’ll sleep with vampires, they’ll sell their souls to the devil. Their instincts to eradicate some source of insecurity, or danger, win out most of the time, over their instincts to be on the side of what they know is right.
The Republican message…the Libertarian message…the anti-democrat message…needs to be — you aren’t even getting out of this deal what you’re supposed to be getting out of it. Partly because it’ll work; and partly, because it’s true. Obama was supposed to connect with people, resonate with people, earn us “respect around the world,” fill us with hope, encourage us to do more good works, bring smiles to our faces. That was the Faustian exchange by which we collectively agreed not to ask Him any tough questions, to forget about Jeremiah Wright within a space of mere hours, and to never, ever insist He should take a firm policy stand on anything. That was the bargain. And everything our country was supposed to have gotten out of it, seems to have evaporated. There’s no hope, there’s no real change, and in the nation’s highest office it seems we have some empty suit who can’t even speak clearly, communicate messages clearly, offer us encouragement or even deliver to us a positive outlook on life.
We abandoned logic and reason, to pander to our own emotions; in so doing we gave up some things in order to acquire other things, and we ended up without those other things.
All of life, I maintain, is like that.
Now, I hope my advice is taken. To me, it seems like a no-brainer. If it isn’t, JohnJ will be right, these people will stay in power indefinitely, talking up our problems, making them more severe in magnitude, insurmountable, and depressing…laughing and smiling with their “gallows humor” all the way.
Plus, I’ll have to buy JohnJ a nice steak dinner. I think he, and I, would be much happier about that if he was the one paying the bill on that one, and so would you.
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Morgan,
I sit corrected about last weeks post/comments, the dude is STONED! And I’m only half kidding.
WTF is so f*#king funny! Speaking of the Special Olympics…what, if the president can use it, right?
We’ve all seen people acting like this, they know that you know that they have no freakin’ idea what their doing.
Somebody wake me in 2012.
- tim | 03/23/2009 @ 12:50