What's Next for G-dub?

According to Dave-TV (not to be confused with Dave TV), the best post-presidential job for George W. Bush is that of a Motivational Speaker. Here's why:

The president understands what it takes to get somewhere in life. For him, every day is a mission accomplished, and he can swiftly sum up his winning philosophy in a few words. "I hope the ambitious realise they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."

That, and his ability to shoulder responsibility ("My job is a decision-making job. As a result, I make a lot of decisions"), make him ideally suited to a career as a life coach. We expect he'll be in great demand as a motivational speaker. And let's not forget his wide understanding of how industry works. As he once said: "The fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at the machine-making place."

Ancient Fart Joke

Reuters reports that researchers have traced the world's oldest recorded joke--a fart joke--back to 1900 B.C.E. It was a saying among the Sumerians, who resided in what is now southern Iraq.

Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap.

It's been quite some time since I've studied the Akkadian language--the successor to ancient Sumerian, beginning around the second millennium B.C.E.--but I think the joke would have sounded something like this in its original tongue (NB: my translation here attempts to represent the text phonetically for my audience at TRS; obviously, it is not an attempt to reconstruct the text as it would have been read by Sumerians, as their cuneiform writing system is impossible to decipher for those who have not studied the language, and also my keyboard does not have the characters necessary to render the text such):

licunim sutatra mu naka shi ni petikkatra tam triali; tu yu mistress no ppfffttt a dkratanum pruni.

Hillary CLinton Night at the Democratic Convention

According to CNN, Senator Clinton will speak on the second night of the convention, Tuesday, August 26h. Coincidently, August 26th is the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. It will be interesting to see how she discusses the anniversary, the tension in the campaign, and the Democratic Party.

Of course, the underlying implication is that Senator Clinton will not be the V.P. According to USA Today, Vote Both, he Obama-Clinton advocacy group will close its doors.

And the deterioration of politics continues

Senator John McCain released a new web ad for his anti-Obama message. It is titled "Celeb." The amount to dissect in this 30 second spot is just astonishing:



First, Obama is not a member of the Liberal, Elite East-Coast. Instead, he is a "empty vessel," a representative of the Hollywood Elite. He performs, he does not lead and he does not govern. He enchants through words and images.

Second, Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears appear in the video. We know the first since she is the heiress to the Hilton chain and a movie-star. Well, she appears in them any way though she does not act. Well, maybe she acts in her home-videos. The second lip-sics, is completely crazy, and cannot raise children. I wonder what the message is, besides the Harold Ford Jr., "Call Me" implications, which may not be strong as neither Brittney nor Paris seems desirable anymore. But, as Talking Points Memo discusses, the race implications are there, yet again.

Third, and this is the best part: Obama in Germany. A Crowd chants the same phrase over and over. He is known for delivering speeches that appeal to the passions and move the masses. He is unknown, hence risky and depends on "foreign" goods. As The New Republic notes, the ad looks very similar to the end of "Triumph of the Will."

But I am sure this is a coincidence since Grampa "Straight Talk" approved the message.

And just think it is still July. I wonder how explicit the attacks will be in November.

Apologies

Can anyone explain to me how public "official" apologies for hideous acts in history are useful or beneficial? (For example, the recent apology by the House of Representatives for slavery and Jim Crow). The whole effort feels very artificial and half-assed and doesn't seem to make much of a difference. Am I missing something? (Solon, I suspect that you have a lengthy explanation at the ready...)

Remember When

A friend just sent me a link to an older blog with a list of the best malapropisms from The Sopranos. In honor of the rumored movie, I thought I'd pass it on. My favorite? "I agree with that Senator Sanitorium. He says if we let this stuff go too far, pretty soon we'll be fucking dogs."

Last Night: A Study in Terministic Screens

Last night things happened that, perhaps, affected the way Board Members "view" one another.

It needed to go on record.

Home: A Musical Tribute

With my move to CU Land a little more than a week and a half away, I've been thinking a lot about home lately. As I've blogged about at Separation of Spheres, I never expected to become as attached to Southwest College Town as I've become. It isn't, however, the place I'm attached to. It is the people. The people that C, Wild Man, and I have adopted as our family have become home for us. I'm sure we will become attached to CU Land as we make friends there, but I'm equally sure that we will never experience the type of community we've experienced here. This musical tribute is in honor of my home.

And Speaking of the "Cheetos Brigade": America's Rich Are Being Soaked, and Papa Bear O'Reilly Is Pissed

Okay, so maybe Nader's platform is flawed. Papa Bear O'Reilly puts it all in perspective for us. Blinded by deceitful rhetorics of economic justice in America, we were not able to see the truth. But the spin, as it were, stops here. Leftist America is taking his money, and giving it to the undeserving: lo and verily, this ought not to stand: it is time American stopped beating up on the top 1 percent.

Snippety snippets:

That means that people who drink gin all day long will be getting some of my hard-earned money. Folks who dropped out of school, who are too lazy to hold a job, who smoke reefer 24/7 all will get some goodies in the mail from Uncle Barack and Aunt Nancy, funded by me and other rich folks.

Under the Republican Bush administration, tax money presently pays for abortions, Viagra, condoms, sugar-laden food, dangerous housing in blighted neighborhoods and prescription drugs that will send you to the land of Oz.

But if you complain about any of this, you're an uncharitable greedhead.

Well, I am complaining. I don't want my money supporting some layabout who wants to get high all day long. Robin Hood wouldn't give those people money. The feds shouldn't either.

"Layabout" is a great word by the way.

A Radio Station Readers Must Explore

Megs has put Harrogate in something of a recommending mood, himself.

Go here, dear friends. Where Harrogate turns frequently. Good music to read and write to, to clean to, or simply to veg with. And, streamlined out of one of Harrogate's favorite cities on God's Green Earth.

Book Recommendation

Yes, readers, I'm actually going to recommend a parenting book. My relationship to parenting advice literature might best be characterized as obsessive ambivalence. I obsessively buy and read these books and then find myself feeling ambivalent, almost dirty, afterward. But a blog I love recently recommended Becoming the Parent You Want to Be and, like any good member of the Cheetos Brigade, I clicked right over to Amazon and bought a copy. Here's the surprising thing: it's pretty damn good!

The book is labeled "A Sourcebook of Strategies for the First Five Years," which makes it especially appropriate for our little community. It starts off with nine main principles (ex: Learning to Value Struggle and Disequilibrium) and follows with chapters on specific issues for young children. I thought the chapter on Sibling Relationships--my latest fascination--was really great and helped me to see that the previous stuff I'd been reading situated these relationships, at least rhetorically, in terms of rivalry rather than mutual contribution to each other and the family. It's always nice when a twenty page chapter helps to redefine your entire outlook on family dynamics. (The chapter on "Parenting with a Partner" is also well done.)

M, in response to Anastasia, recently prompted discussions about smartness, sensitivity, and praise, and there are chapters in the book that speak to those issues, as well. Overall, a good read. At least one and a half thumbs up!

"Goin' Out West"

An effusion, of sorts. Here's something of an oldy, but still, as it were, a goodie, Tom Waits performing "Goin' Out West"--on the Arsenio Hall Show, no less. A good theme song for Harrogate's dissertation? In some ways, perhaps . . . at least, it works in that role fairly well during those rare periods when Harrogate isn't hating his dissertation so much that he wouldn't dream of honoring it with a theme song.



"I know karate . . . Voodoo too."

" For You, O Democracy," Walt Whitman

Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of comrades.


I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America,
and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.


For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!
For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

McConaughey on Childbirth

Matthew McConaghey recently shared with OK! Magazine his experience during the birth of his child. It amazes me how similar his experience is to my own. We must have read the same book on becoming a dad (or at the very least, skimmed the chapter on the father's role during labor and delivery). He says...

We found a great rhythm. Contractions started kicking in. I sat there with her, right between her legs. We got tribal on it, we danced to it! I was DJ-ing this Brazilian music.

I have it all chronicled. Becoming a dad is something I've dreamed of doing since I was 10. Becoming a father felt very, very natural. We were jamming! She was sweating. No painkiller, let's go. She just clicked into that gear that only a woman has at a time like this. We'd been up for 40-something hours, and we went from dead tired to a really steadfast, 'Let's handle this… let's stay in the rhythm. Don't let the contraction be more than you.'

Tulula does NOT do the Hula

I remember a conversation about names I had a with a pediatric nurse before duckling was born. She relayed the story of poor Cash Monet, Tequila, and B'ri'tnnee. Babies who will have a lot of explaining to do as they grow. Well, a judge in New Zealand has helped prevent future bullying by denying some name requests. Sadly, some other ones got through (article from MSNBC).

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.
Just ask Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He had her renamed.
Judge Rob Murfitt made the 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name could be changed, he said in a ruling made public Thursday. The girl was involved in a custody battle, he said.

The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy.
'Very poor judgment'"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."
The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her "K" instead, the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.
In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names.
Sex Fruit?Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.
New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, among other conditions, said Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Clarke said officials usually talked to parents who proposed unusual names to convince them about the potential for embarrassment.

Happy Wednesday Musical Tribute

Harrogate will never forget the first time he heard this song on the radio. He was working in a greasy-spoon in the Mall, slinging Steak and Cheeses, frying fries, and awaiting the end of his shift, which would mean a good long sojourn on Pete's Couch.

But then the Garbage song "Queer" burst into the Rhetorical Situation of that little diner. Oh my, thought young Harrogate. Whatever. Have. We. Here.

Though otherwise cheerfully given to hyperbolic language, Harrogate must say that he doesn't use such language lightly when it comes to Pop Music. But Really. This song, when he heard it for the first time, really felt like something new. And it forever changed the soundscape of Harrogate's musical taste.

When Metaphors Crystallize: A Real 'Media Drive-By', of Sorts

Still, as Harrogate and Supadiscomama discussed last night, the best Metaphor in our Vernacular remains that of Shit Hitting the Fan. It means exactly what it evokes, so sublimely, so humorously, so viscerally.

But the 'Drive-By Media' meme, begun by Rush Limbaugh, is also relatively useful at times. This morning we had a convergence between Reality and Metaphor, as Valerie Plame's verbal assassin, Robert Novak, apparently slammed his car into a bicyclist and attempted to leave the scene of the crime.


Linky.

He said he chased Novak half a block down K Street., finally caught up with him and then put his bike in front of the car to block it and called 911. Traffic immediately backed up, horns blared and commuters finally went into reverse to allow Novak to pull over.

Bono said that throughout, Novak "keeps trying to get away. He keeps trying to go.” He said he vaguely recognized the longtime political reporter and columnist as a Washington celebrity but could not precisely place him.

Finally, Bono said, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding: “I didn’t see him there.”

Heh. Down K Street, indeed.

Why Some People Like Ron Paul, Part IV

Lo, it has been a while since Harrogate rendered an installment of his award-garnering series, Why Some People Like Ron Paul. This has been for several reasons. Some say an uncouth band of Paulites actually kidnapped Harrogate there for a while, and held him hostage on Pete's Couch, where in between tokes they force-fed him issues of The Federalist Papers.

Others, more cynically minded, asserted it was because Harrogate followed Media Hero Frank Luntz's lead, and just stopped caring about The Paul.

Finally, there have been rumors circulating that the real reason Harrogate stopped writing about The Paul is that he discovered a secret message in the movie Office Space, wherein it was pointed out that Libertarianism is the last, last, last thing that needs any extra discourse, in this gilded age of cubicles, outsourcing, mercenary contractors, cuts in education, and the like.


But whatever the reason, Readers, Harrogate now triumphantly returns to the topic. Yes, he boisterously links to one of the last great bastions of Independent Thought in the Media, that Lion known as the Washington Times. Courtesy the equally trustworthy AP, the Times reported yesterday that:

Supporters of maverick Rep. Ron Paul who are organizing a rally as an alternative to the Republican National Convention are moving their crosstown event to a larger venue.

The Rally for the Republic featuring Paul _ the Texas conservative failed in his bid to win the GOP nomination for president _ is scheduled for Minneapolis' Target Center, home of basketball's Minnesota Timberwolves.

"Bah humbug!" quoth Minnehaha Republican Honcho Ron Carey. Or, to quote him directly:

The real action is going to be at the Xcel Center where one of the people who does have a chance to be president is going to be speaking and rallying the troops. When people come to St. Paul in September, they're not going to be focused on Ron Paul.

The Nader: 6 Percent and Rapidly Rising. But, Should His Voice Be Included in Debates?

He's so . . . well . . . ASSY. And, in so many ways. But yet, even challenging, let alone deconstructing, the real veracity of his actual politics is an enterprise to which our flacid Media are notably unequal. As they do in just about every substantive area, they simply choose to murder through omission.

Earlier this month, John Nichols had an interesting piece on The Nader, as well as other fringe candidates. The article provides an illuminating, if only cursorily so, glimpse at the state of multiparty politics in the United States.

Writes Nichols:

A striking 6 percent of Americans who are likely to vote this fall back an alternative candidate: Independent Ralph Nader. Another 3 percent back Libertarian Bob Barr.

Those are some of the highest percentages in years for independent or third-party candidates. And they matter, especially Nader's 6 percent.

And then there's this:

Will any independent or third-party candidate reach the 10 percent threshold this year? Nader appears to be best positioned to do so. Despite scant media attention, he has polled in the 4 to 6 percent range in several polls. Getting up to 10 percent will be hard. But as Obama softens his positions on civil liberties, political reform, trade policy, presidential accountability and ending the war -- issues on which Nader has long focused -- his prospects improve.

And one does not have to be a Nader supporter to hope, for the sake of democracy, that they improve sufficiently to earn him a place in the Google/YouTube debate and other fall matchups. And if Nader gets in, why not Barr and likely Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney?

The only real quibble that emerges from Nichols' pro-republicanism piece is his assertion that Obama's positions have changed in the recent news cycle. But this is far, far more a reflection of the news cycle itself than of Obama, who has for the most part been pretty damned consistently honest about who and what he is. All pathetic gnashing of teeth in certain quadrants of the blogosphere notwithstanding.

Ok, I have a problem with this

This morning, while my students took an exam, I made use of my time by catching up on email and checking out some news sites and a few other sites that I tend to check out regularly. One sight was the NOW website. Let me begin by writing that I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with NOW, primarily because their brand of feminism is becoming dated. But that is a topic for another post.

This morning's annoyance comes from an analysis of the recent New York Times cover. Here is the article on NOW's site. I'm annoyed because this is the first time (at least that I can remember; I didn't troll the archives of the site to make sure I am indeed 100% correct) that NOW has offered analysis of the racism present in the Presidential Campaign. Until now, their analysis of the media has focused almost exclusively on sexism as it has been leveled against Hillary Clinton. To me this--the failure to recognize that racism and sexism are so often linked--demonstrates one of the primary problems with mainstream feminism, if NOW's brand of feminism can, in fact, be seen as mainstream.

"Shut the Fuck Up...It is Almost Over."

Megs and I went to see the Dark Knight this evening. And, during the climatic, existential fight scene between Batman and The Joker, a fight almost broke out to the left of us, with people screaming back and forth over who kicked whom and who did what to whom and why the value of the dollar is so low and whether or not the current credit crisis will drop us into a recession.... Oh wait. Only the kicking and screaming happened right at the point the Joker explained his actions, which I'll have to read on Wikipedia because I heard nothing else other then "You Been Kicking me all through the movie...." Of course, after hearing that, everyone understood why the person kicked all through the movie....

Then, the people in the front ("the kickees") left the theater only to return with a representative of the theater's management. The manager approach the alleged "kickers" and asked them to leave. Of course, the manager looked like a fool when the kicker said, "No" and the rest of the theater told manager and the petulant movie-goers to "Shut the Fuck Up" and "Shut the Fuck Up! It's almost over."

And tickets cost $10.75 a piece. And the popcorn was terrible; too salty, not enough butter, and it took 25 minutes to get it. And I never ate my peanut M&Ms.

Oh, and the movie. Incredible. Health Ledger's version of The Joker was one of the best movie villains, ever. No hype, or, all the hype is true. He made Anton Chigurh seem like Mary Poppins.

Of Crows, Ice Cream, and Wedding Rings: Jouissance, Assy McGee style

The more Harrogate sees of this blog, the more he likes it. Things keep going the way they're going, somebody's gonna get blogrolled.....

Vanity Fair's Response to the New Yorker; Or, Something To Do In Between Softball Games

This is Vanity Fair's current "cover", an overt parody of the now ubiquitously discussed New Yorker cartoon.

The editors write:

We here at Vanity Fair maintain a kind of affectionate rivalry with our downstairs neighbors at The New Yorker. We play softball every year, compete for some of the same stories, and share an elevator bank. (You can tell the ones who are headed to the 20th floor by their Brooklyn pallor and dog-eared paperbacks.)

And heaven knows we’ve published our share of scandalous images, on the cover and otherwise. So we’ve been watching the kerfuffle over last week’s New Yorker cover with a mixture of empathy and better-you-than-us relief.

One thing that's interesting about this, although nobody with any stroke at all outside of Ralph Nader would ever mention such a thing, is the idea of collusion between media outlets. Nay, did Harrogate say collusion? Better to say, when a small handful owns the whole shabang, you're gonna get the same tripe rolled out in slightly different packaging. When was the last time we were able to say the major television and print media did a legitimate service for the nation?

But those days are over. Once they got rid of who was by far the most liberal President in the post WWII Era, Richard Nixon (that's right, Tricky Dick), for being more overt about his criminality than other Presidents, that was pretty much it. From there on out it's been water-carrier city. Hello ditto-heads, and a carnivalesque homage about what a great servant ye were, when ye die. Etc.

But stay! lo and forsooth, enough of such things that Readers don't care about, and to the Cover itself.

Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes of the cover:

I think the VF cartoon is much gentler and less offensive than the New Yorker cartoon.

Also, the McCain cartoon has more truths: John McCain is old, Cindy McCain did have a love affair with pills (even though in the cartoon the pills she is holding are for her husband) and McCain does admire George Bush.

What would you have added to the McCain cartoon to clearly represent the "politics of fear"?

Well. Harrogate is going to, as someone said in Office Space, "GO AHEAD and disagree" with her premise. After all, there really isn't that much you can make up about McCain that is harsher than the truth of what he represents.

But soft! What's that? Jeralyn's deeper premise is right, though? Does Vanity Fair really have the gall to treat the burning Constitution as a caricature, after all we've already seen?

Okay, to Jeralyn's last question, Harrogate will answer. In truth they should have depicted, on a War Room type screen, an image of a huge crowd about to be landed upon by a nuclear warhead. Or, to make the same point, simply a picture next to the one of Bush, except this one depicting McCain having lunch and laughing it up with William Kristol.

But then, how far off would those images have really been?

At the End of Round One

Tobias- 1
Sweet Toddler J- 0

A Tribute to Paperweight, M, and Wildman; Or, Not-So-Happy Tuesday Music Tribute

A big "tip of the hat" to Paperweight, who loaned to me this weekend his copy of Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's Raising Sand. It's a wonderful album!

The clip below is a live performance of one of my favorite songs from the album, "Gone Gone Gone." Posting this particular song makes this otherwise happy tribute also equally heartbreaking, for it reminds me that Paperweight, M, and Wildman will soon, themselves, be "Gone Gone Gone." But only in physical proximity. We will not see them as often as we do now, but I know we will continue to meet often in the blogosphere, where we will no doubt laugh and argue as we do now (just as we continue to do with Solon and Megs after their departure).

Our friendship will last a very, very long time.

Poem for Tuesday: “Democracy,” by Langston Hughes

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

Happy Monday Musical Tribute: "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"

Always, always the case that there is at least one Radiohead song which Harrogate cannot get out of his head. The current sublime tyrant is "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," off their spectacular and most recent offering, In Rainbows.

It's more the sheer sound of this song that haunts Harrogate. That opening riff just makes everything, ahem, fall into place


But as the lyrics ought not be denied their heft, Harrogate provides them below, as well.








"Jigsaw Falling Into Place"

Just as you take my hand
Just as you write my number down
Just as the drinks arrive
Just as they play your favourite song
As your bad mood disappears
No longer wound up like a spring
Before you've had too much
Come back in focus again

The walls abandon shape
They've got a cheshire cat grin
All blurring into one
This place is on a mission
Before the night owl
Before the animal noises
Closed circuit cameras
Before you're comatose

Before you run away from me
Before you're lost between the notes
The beat goes round and round
The beat goes round and round
I never really got there
I just pretended that I had
What's the point of instruments
Words are a sawed off shotgun

Come on and let it out
Come on and let it out
Come on and let it out
Come on and let it out

Before you run away from me
Before you start unravelling
Before you take my mic
Just as you dance, dance, dance

Jigsaws falling into place
There is nothing to explain
Regard each other as you pass
She looks back, you look back
Not just once
Not just twice
Wish away the nightmare
Wish away the nightmare
You've got a light you can feel it on your back
You've got a light you can feel it on your back
Jigsaws falling into place

A Word on the Flaming Sword Hasselbeck/Goldberg Thread; or, an Elaborate Reply to M

First, the issue for Harrogate is not so much that people came down on Hasselbeck per se. Second, Hasselbeck breaking into tears has nothing to do with Harrogate's argument, either. For that matter, it isn't even what made her, for Harrogate, seem more human than Goldberg.

The issue for Harrogate is this: What made Hasselbeck seem more human, as Oxymoron eloquently put it, is that she acknowledges a lack of understanding on what is, contrary to some recently expressed opinions, a very complex issue. Goldberg, on the other hand, drops all the glib talking points about "APPROPRIATION," as if that settles the matter. Maybe in a Graduate Theory Course that would settle it. But that's about it.

Indeed, m, Harrogate vehemently disagrees with your suggestion that there is ever a point in the clip previously shown, where Whoopi Goldberg and Elizabeth Hasselbeck occupy the same footing, attempting to "make themselves heard." Though Hasselbeck talks more, she shows a desire to listen throughout: Goldberg on the other hand through the whole clip is as static as a medical flatline, offering only the monolithic view which she frames as beyond dispute, and cetainly beyond dispute of anyone who is, gasp! White.

How dare a white person weigh in on this issue in a way that is not fawning?--Is this question the product of an understandable impulse? Of course it is. But how it is in any way good for debate, how it advances understanding, eludes reason. And of course that wretched tool, that enabler par excellance, Barbara Walters, is practically fanning her and feeding her grapes while she pontificates.


Supadiscomama pointed out recently that in the movie O, the modern day Othello figure tells his white girlfriend something to the effect of, "I can say Nigger. You can't. You can't even think that word." Again, understandable?--of course. But then, so too are many things understandable that we don't ultimately embrace. Shall we sympathize with O's effusion unproblematically? Does anything outside of absolute identity politics doctrine allow such a weird assertion to pass, uncriticized?


The problem is, again, Hasselbeck and Goldberg were arguing about something that is very complicated. Neither party is Obviously right. Yet on the recent thread we had the suggestion, by two different commenters, that the problem at hand was Hasselbeck's lack of education. The self-righteousness and smugness of which assertion, and most importantly the wrongness of which assertion to anyone not invested in a particular academic doctrine, is not to be missed.

So these things needed to be pointed out, and point them out Harrogate, in his own clumsy way, tried to do. It may well be that, as one commenter said, that the poster child for corporate greed and pampered vacuousness, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, needs to "get a clue." But then, by the same token, it is also the case that Goldberg's modes of argumentation are embarrassing to those of us identifying as three-dimensional liberal humanists, from sea to shining sea.

As for the assertion of departure by Anastasia, whose comments have of course been valued, and whose return we hopefully await. Harrogate, in short, hopes thicker skin prevails.

Finally, since it is so clear to so many on this Blog, Harrogate then could use some "splainin" by some of them, why exactly it is so obvious that there is no social harm done in the Idea of African Americans, among one another, keeping the word "nigger" alive and well.

On Rock of Love, Part Tres; Or, Does Anyone But P-Duck and Oxyfamily Care?

A few months ago, I offered my congratulations to Bret Michaels for finding his soul mate on Rock of Love II. Shortly thereafter I learned that a third installment of the series was planned, this time starring Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi fame. I intended to post this news on our award-winning blog, primarily for fellow Rock-ofLove-lover P-Duck. Alas, the post kept slipping my mind.

Well, yesterday I learned that Richie Sambora will not star in Rock of Love III. Instead, Bret will give it another go. Apparently, he and Ambre broke up. Rumor has it that his rock star lifestyle is to blame. So rather than find another soul mate who cannot cope with "life on the road," part tres will take place on a tour bus, to insure that the lucky girl understands the ins-and-outs (in-and-out, in-and-out, in-and-out, ahhhhh!) of Bret's life.

Happy Sunday Music Tribute

Well, this is not really a tribute. I was just watching VH1 Classic's Totally '80s and the following video played. I always laugh/cringe/hide when classic rock stars do things like this.

Odd Man Out + Baby

Oxybaby completed her second week of daycare this week. When I picked her up on Friday, she had an invitation to a birthday party for one of her schoolmates. Well, obviously Oxybaby and said acquaintance have not had ample time to form an everlasting friendship. This will take at least another five days. But she received the invitation just the same, as the daycare requires that no child in a particular class be excluded from events where other classmates are invited. Fair enough.

When I got home that evening, Mrs. Oxymoron was there. I told her about the party, and she simply reiterated the policy by which Oxybaby likely received her invitation. I then picked up the phone and called the child's mother to RSVP for Oxybaby and me. Mrs. Oxymoron gave me the strangest look, and when I got off the phone, asked if I was really going. "Sure," I said, "you'll be in Austin for a girls night out, and we've nothing better to do." She acknowledges the truth here, but still says it's a bit weird: "you don't even know these people, they don't even know you, and Oxybaby was only invited because everyone in her class was invited."

I just got back from the party. We were there for about forty minutes. And I will admit, it was a bit awkward. Everyone was nice, but I knew not a soul. And Oxybaby and the birthday boy didn't seem to know one other from Adam (a strange expression if you ask me). Perhaps I should have listened to the Mrs. But then again we got some cake. And Oxybaby loves cake. Although we could have purchased several cakes for the price of a birthday gift.

I should also add that Mrs. Oxymoron teased that I was going to the party to check out MILFs. No comment.

Happy Saturday Music Tribute

In honor of my first Neil Young album, 1972's Harvest, purchased just one day before the now-infamous and well-attended Pancake Sunday a few weeks ago. Here is a BBC performance of the first cut on the disc.

The Hasselbeck "Meltdown"

Harrogate finally decided to watch this clip, given the bruhaha. Now, he reports what he saw.

Many no doubt see it as the same old tired argument. And in a sense, it is. Why do African Americans say the "N-Word." The Moral and Intellectual Juggernaut known as "The View" (on television, perhaps only "The Situation Room" and "Hardball" surpass "The View" in terms of Moral and Intellectual Juggernautness) tackled precisely this, and the real showdown featured:

In The Blue Corner: A Caricature of Liberal Smugness and of Self-Righteous Identity Politics......

Whoopi Goldberg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And in the Red Corner: A bastion of spoiled, privileged white womanhood. She married a Quarterback! Her opinions really, really, really matter! But, the fly in her $3,000 a jar ointment? Blame America Firsters!!!!!

Elizabeth Hasselbeck!!!!!!!!!!!!


Between Goldberg's smugness and Hasselbeck's intellectual woodenness, this particular conversation didn't have much to recommend it going in. But then came Hasselbeck's "meltdown." This made an otheriwse banal experience suddenly a bit "worthwhile."

Harrogate's Verdict: The pampered one "wins" on account of seeming most like a human being in the clip.

And oh yeah. Barbara Walters is a tool.

What are Raisins, Alex?

Happy Friday Musical Tribute Redux; A Synthesis, and a Tribute to Larry "Thunder Mug" Craig

Because Harrogate's "Happy Friday Musical Tribute" Fell Short of Expectation...

I want to remind him that there's always tomorrow.

Happy Friday Musical Tribute

A great musical experience this fair Friday afternoon, as we ease into the weekend.

It has been more than a year since Roof Almighty introduced Harrogate to the music of Joanna Newsome. Let this also be, then, a Tip of the Hat to him.

Speaking of Bumper Stickers...

A bit of fun for you all:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/21/100-bumper-stickers/

Obama/Hagel: The Rumor Just Won't Go Away

Fairly emblematic of Harrogate's despair at this election season is that, though this probably won't happen, if it did, the choice on Obama's part would not be at all out of character with the race he has run thus far.

That the idea is even floating out there, that one of Obama's surrogates if not (GASP) the candidate himself has not shot this down as silly, is itself something of a fitting "Fuck You" to the easily duped, and apparently entirely disposable progressive impulse in the United States of America.


Query: What will it take for political progressivism to get a fair shake in our electoral process? Is there any hope at all for such a phenomenon, in the foresseable future?

Morons in the Morning

Jamie Garrett and Brian Brown, also known as Those Guys in the Morning on Central Texas's Eagle 101.7, were discussing the many ways that all the other counties in the world suck. This talking point soon led the morning zoo dipshits to complain about all the people in America who complain about America. Their solution, of course, was "if you don't like America, if you don't like Texas, then get out."

Now this is where it gets really fun. During said discussion, they note that what really irritates them is when women complain. And here's why:

What do women have to complain about. It's not they're oppressed in America. Who cares if you make 75 cents for every dollar that a man makes. It's not like we tell you what to wear. Well, sometimes. It's not like we tell you what to think. Well, sometimes. If you think you have it so bad, try moving to Egypt or Iraq. You'll realize then how good you got it.

This is the first time that I've listened to this particular show. (The reception was bad on my usual morning show, the Dudley & Bob Show, on Austin's KLBJ FM.) But I don't think it will be the last time I flip over to this channel. "Those Guys" are addictive in there ignorance. This morning they also complained about Christian Slater being arrest a few years back for pinching a strangers ass in public. "He's a star, for crying out loud," they cried. "How far has political correctness gone when you can't even pinch a girl or cat-call her from a construction site without getting in trouble?"

The thing that bothers me most about the show and these sorts of on-air conversations is that the target audience of "Those Guys" are soldiers at Fort Hood in Killeen, TX. This is seen in their many discussions of things happening on base, and call-ins from people talking about military events in the area. Combine this with their macho, mans' man personae, and they do a great deal to promote and perpetuate the sexist, chauvinistic, and sometimes abusive culture of the military. The message is, if you want to be a man in a man's profession, then you need to act like this.

Why is masculinity so often displayed through misogyny? Man, I sound--. I mean: Person, I sound like a feminist.

A Thunder Mug Throwback Moment: And a Double Tip of the Hat

Harrogate heartily thanks Jeralyn at TalkLeft for calling public attention to this wondrous post by Crooks and Liars, in honor of which blog Harrogate not only Tips His Hat, but also hereby proclaims the accompanying caption: "Presented without Comment," to be class-A blogwriting.


Harrogate, ye will be kind enough to remember, posted copiously on Larry "Thunder Mug" Craig, when the iron was hot. Now the Senator testifies to the practical advantage of studying the principles of the Rhetorical Situation.

Harrogate's been looking for things to make him laugh out loud, lately. He needs it. This did it.

Wherein Harrogate Sees Oxymoron's "Nice Find," and Raises Him A Few Chipmunks

Speaking of Nice Finds. Harrogate was touring around some animated film Soundtracks, and realized the sublime, divine, soothing existence of Alvin and the Chipmunks' Cover of "Bad Day."

This aint bad, O Readers. Yea and verily, 'Taint bad at all. It does what a good cover must by definition do: capture the spirit of the song, but make it thine own.

A Nice Find...

from Charlie's record shop in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago. Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billy Joe. Here's a clip of her performing the title track.

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said...

Monica Lewinsky's ex-Boyfriend's Wife for President

Funny.

Campaign Approved Jokes

The Borowitz Report received recently a list of "official Barack Obama" campaign jokes that comedians can incorporate into their routines. Since they are free, I will post them all:

Barack Obama and a kangaroo pull up to a gas station. The gas station attendant takes one look at the kangaroo and says, "You know, we don't get many kangaroos here." Barack Obama replies, "At these prices, I'm not surprised. That's why we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

A traveling salesman knocks on the door of a farmhouse, and much to his surprise, Barack Obama answers the door. The salesman says, "I was expecting the farmer's daughter." Barack Obama replies, "She's not here. The farm was foreclosed on because of subprime loans that are making a mockery of the American Dream."

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face?" Barack Obama replies, "His jockey just lost his health insurance, which should be the right of all Americans."

Q: What's black and white and red all over?
Barack Obama: The New Yorker magazine, which should be embarrassed after publishing such a tasteless and offensive cover, which I reject and denounce.

A Christian, a Jew and Barack Obama are in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. Barack Obama says, "This joke isn't going to work because there's no Muslim in this boat."

Okay, back to work. Kid B is on the way. Well, he/she will arrive sometime this summer. Maybe in two weeks, maybe in six. You can just never tell....

For Wild Man, Et Al

If I remember correctly, M mentioned that Wild Man loves Feist. Sweet J is over her lately, but I'm hoping this brings her back:

Jon Stewart on The New Yorker Piece

Just when Harrogate was starting to lose hope that he would see anyone on television say something about politics that makes good sense, he realized he'd forgotten about Jon Stewart.

If ye love Stewart, or have thought stuff about the New Yorker cover, this clip is definitely for ye.

This segment about the New Yorker fiasco hits on about twenty important truths about the current climate. Reminding us once again, that the truest and hardest hitting social critiques most often involve comedy.



Thanks, Jon. Harrogate needed that.

Because You Know He Reads All My Posts

A tip of the hat to Barack Obama, whose response to Larry King's question about the New Yorker cover directly addressed the insult to Muslim Americans:

You know, this is actually an insult against Muslim Americans, something that we don't spend a lot of time talking about. And sometimes I've been derelict in pointing that out. You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things. And for this to be used as sort of an insult or to raise suspicions about me I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America is all about.

In a previous post, I lamented the fact that this hadn't happened yet. I'm glad to see Obama relocated his manhood in time for my love to remain strong.

Time for Some Campaigning

Yeah, we've all seen the new JibJab video already, but it's damn funny. And I did a version in which I inserted Harrogate's photo and it was even better. Unfortunately, you can't post the personalized version.

The best line? "Like the change we must change to the change we hold dear."

Ode to M, Our Resident Feminist

Per your request...

Christian Values Trump Academic Freedom

When I work (when!), one can find me in Townsend Library at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. I do not attend this Baptist university; I just do my reading and writing there.

Earlier today, sitting in said library, I published a post on this blog about gay marriage in Massachusetts. As I prepared to write the piece, I ran a Google search to find the source story whose headline I saw earlier that morning at Starbucks. My first query did not return a link to the story I was looking for. But it did return a link to the following website: http://gaylife.about.com. I clicked on the link, as the two-line excerpt provided by Google looked interesting. To my surprise, I was not taken to to the website. Rather I was redirected to a page that said this:

Access Denied

Why has this site been blocked?

The content of this site may not meet UMHB's Christian principles and beliefs or it may violate University policy. Because of this, President's Council has determined that this site should be blocked in order to uphold these fundamentals.

. . .

Reason: The Websense category "Gay or Lesbian or Bisexual Interest" is filtered.

So much for academic freedom and critical inquiry.

I understand that the university doesn't want students surfing porn, but COME ON! This was a just a gay and lesbian website. I guess the Christians at this institution of higher learning don't want any opinions on gay marriage or homosexuality to be formed by sources other than the Bible.

Supadiscomama and Nightfox: Facets of Smoothness

To bookend megs' recent "Ode to Solon," Harrogate herein offers the following in honor of Supadiscomama.

Quoth George Clooney: How, O how, did François Toulour get through that laser field in the Great Hall?

Massachusetts: "Visit our bay; get married if gay"

I've heard some proponents of gay marriage claim that politicians largely oppose gay rights in an effort to protect the economic interests of their big-business supporters, most of whom do not want to contribute money for spousal benefits for same-sex couples. I've also heard that the federal government wants to save money by denying death benefits, social security benefits, tax-free inheritances, and joint tax filings to millions of homosexuals living together in monogamous relationships.

I don't know if these economic concerns really shape the moral positions that many of our politicians have on the issue, but it seems that economics is enough to overturn a Massachusetts law that prohibits the state from marrying out-of-state couples whose unions would not be legal in their home states.

According to the NY Times, Massachusetts has taken notice of the economic boost seen in California's tourism and wedding industries since the west-coast state invited out-of-state gay couples to "come and get married here" last month. Recognizing the potential economic benefits, Massachusetts will extend the same invitation to same-sex couples as California.

It's nice to see economic interests break down the walls of discrimination for a change.

An Ode to Solon

"Happening now: Somebody, somewhere, listening to 'Mambo No. 5.'"

Selling America by the Ounce; Or, What's Next, Apple Pie?

Today the undisputed King of Beers and most patriotic of all domestic brewing companies has given up its American citizenship.

Budweiser is now a Belgian beer!

Christina Aguilera, Patriot; Wherein Harrogate is Made That Much Stronger

For those who have been considering sitting out this coming election: your self-justification just got a lot more problematic thanks to one the great political thinkers of our era, Christina Aguilera.

Just watching this clip made Harrogate feel, as it were, that much stronger, and made him work a little bit harder, and made him that much wiser, so that he wants to thank her for making him a fighter. (The clip also, by the by, made Harrogate learn a little bit faster, made his skin a little bit thicker, and made him that much smarter.)

Goodnight Moon, George Bush and Parodies

Thanks to Lilian at Mama(e) in Translation for bringing Goodnight Bush to my attention. Since most of us who blog regularly at the Situation have children, I know we're all familiar with Goodnight Moon; it is certainly a favorite of Wild Man's. This parody made me laugh out loud, and I think I just might have to order a copy.

Texas Teens Like Sex

The Associated Press reports that a recent survey reveals that Texas high school students like to have sex.

Yes, it's true! Even though Texas spends more money than any other state on abstinence-only sex education programs (a whopping $17M), federal statistics show that 52.9% of Texas students in the ninth through twelfth grades have had sexual intercourse. This figure is 5% higher than the national average.

There is no word as to whether intercourse with sheep and various other livestock figure into the statistic.

Obama and Christianity

A lot has been made about Barack Obama's religious views and his use of religious rhetoric. I'd like to urge everyone to take a look at Newsweek's cover story this week: Obama's Christian Journey. I like this article a lot, but I'm not quite prepared to say why yet. I'm planning a longer post on it for later in the week, but in the mean time, I thought I'd take the time to share it with everyone who visits the Situation.

The Nader, Part the Second: His Letter to Rush Limbaugh

Ralph Nader's July 10th letter to Rush Limbaugh is pretty interesting.

Limbaugh, many will recognize, recently received a new 8 year contract to stay on the radio, a contract totaling some $300 Million Dollars. From Nader's letter:

You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare.

As you know, the public airwaves belong to the American people. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to be our trustee in managing this property. The people are the landlords and the radio and TV stations and affiliated companies are the tenants.

The problem is that since the Radio Act of 1927 these corporate tenants have been massively more powerful in Washington, DC than the tens of millions of listeners and viewers. The result has been no payment of rent by the stations for the value of their license to broadcast. You and your company are using the public's valuable property for free. This freeloading on the backs of the American people is called corporate welfare.

Nader is like a national artifact. Too thoughtful, too honest, too wonkish, too boring, too self-righteous to ever win. But retaining enough of a slice of the disaffected among us, to impact a national election.

Say what you want about him. Harrogate has said, and before it is over will likely say, worse things about him than any of you. But one thing Harrogate has never heard someone do, and that is actually show that Nader's platform is flawed.

The man speaks the truth far more often than not. Which makes him that much more of an asshole, perhaps.

No "Straight Talk" When it Comes to Viagra Versus the Pill

Tip of the Hat to Daily Kos, both for this image and for the story that follows.

Since questions of sexism and politics recently re-emerged as a hotbutton topic on our award-winning blog, and since Harrogate has heard so many women point out the Issue at the center of this clip, Harrogate thought he'd run it up the flagpole (heh, Harrogate said 'flagpole').

Hopefully to the delight of all our Readers, here we see McCain being grilled by a reporter about the fact that insurance companies routinely cover Viagra, but not Birth Control pills. His tortured (no pun intended) effort to get out of this Rhetorical Situation is about as entertaining as it gets in these dry-ass press conferences.

Enjoy!

The Nader

Always fun to excerpt from the Washington Times gloating over the state of the Democratic Party in a year where the GOP Brand is as soiled as it has been in years.

Saturday in that hallowed periodical, on the verge of the Senate's Embrace of Unaccountable Wiretapping, appeared the following headline:
Obama's move to center irks left: Blogs demand return to liberal orthodoxy


Now, this headline is patently stupid. Despite the deluge of Talking Points since the beginning of July, Obama has not in fact "moved to the center." Indeed, as Andrew Sullivan has delightedly pointed out, Obama was never into "liberal orthodoxy" (read: liberal positions on issues). His campaign is about "improving the tone in Washington," about "bringing people together," and most importantly ladies and gentlemen, it is about winning.

To Left Bloggers like the Kos Kidz and the Huffington Army, who have felt so betrayed all month, Harrogate has a message for ye: "He has not changed. It is rather that ye are catching a glimmer of truth, that you wrote onto Obama what you wanted to see, and now you are realizing that your writing it did not make it so."


Verily, how fitting that he will not be giving his acceptance speech at the Convention proper. Will he even speak there at all? It would perhaps be better if he did not. Just let the other speakers sing his praises to heaven, and then bring down the curtain on the Veep nominee and drop five or ten balloons. Yes, it will be a Rhetorical Spectacle and the pundits will drool.

But another thing that it will definitively do, it will drain the actual convention. It will emphasize that Obama is not carrying the Democratic banner. The Party for him is a vehicle, nothing more, nothing less. He could just as easily be holding his acceptance speech in Chicago.

Where does your hero and Harrogate's, the selfless Ralph Nader, fit into the equation?

In the past week alone, Democratic advocacy groups say their Web sites have been lit up by angry complaints attacking Mr. Obama's character and honesty, threatening to withhold their contributions, or worse, shift their allegiance to independent candidate Ralph Nader.

"We've been hearing more from voters who are disconcerted about Obama's move to the right. We're hearing from antiwar folks, civil-liberties people and other activists concerned about his flip-flops and considering voting for Nader," said Chris Driscoll, media director for the Nader for president campaign.

"We've had a big increase in the past couple of weeks in our Web site hits and our online fundraising contributions," he said.

A CNN poll of 906 registered voters reported this week that Mr. Nader's support has risen to 6 percent, potentially enough of a margin to deny Mr. Obama close-fought battleground states.

Aint life grand.

WALL-E Wars 4; or, the Jury is Now in, and WALL-E is an Ode to Classical Capitalism

Isn't this a really great picture of WALL-E????? What a cute robot.

But anywho. Harrogate's Pulitzer-Caliber coverage of the WALL-E Wars continues with Michael Gerson's latest write-up, which has confirmed Harrogate's growing sense that the WALL-E Wars are pretty much over. Conservative American pundits, social and economic, have claimed this movie for their own as a triumph of Can-Do American Sensibility. You know, sort of like the Horatio Alger novels, except with robots instead of thinly-veiled homosexual New York b'hoys at the center of the action.

For Gerson, WALL-E validates the brilliance of one whose Godlike Status is Secondary only to the Founding Fathers and Ronald Reagan. We speak, of course, of the great economic thinker Adam Smith, he of the Invisible Hand. He who foresaw all possible Contingencies and would have absolutely objected to anything but laissez-faire capitalism as we moveth deeper into the new century.

Smith, Gerson reminds us, had a heart. And WALL-E's purpose isn't any more complex than to remind us of exactly that:

Some conservatives have dismissed "WALL-E" as a crude critique of business and capitalism. This is only true if capitalism is identical to boundless consumerism -- a conviction that Adam Smith did not seem to share. Smith argued that human flourishing requires "good temper and moderation." Self-command and the prudent use of freedom are central to his moral theory. And these are precisely the virtues celebrated in "WALL-E." The end credits -- worth staying to see -- are a beautiful tribute to art and work, craft and cultivation.

"WALL-E" is partly an environmental parable, but its primary point is moral. The movie argues that human beings, aided by technology, can become imprisoned by their consumption. The pursuit of the latest style leads to conformity. The pursuit of pleasure displaces the deeper enjoyments of affection and friendship. The pursuit of our rhinestone desires manages to obscure our view of the stars.

Oh, yeah, Gerson is also pleased that WALL-E celebrates "Hello, Dolly," since apparently Show Tunes represent one of the great (lo! if not the greatest!) American Art forms.

Kos (Gasp!) With Something Resembling Common Sense

In the fallout from the FISA debacle. More than our Senate simply proving, once again, that it is not run by real Democrats. Nay.

This one many lefties took hard, as they had convinced themselves for months that Obama was a liberal despite all his rhetoric and evidence to the contrary.

There was an explosion yesterday among the Used at Daily Kos. Fools. That's what they get for treating politics like sixteen year-olds used to treat the release of a Bon Jovi album. But anyway.

The head guy, Markos, had a pretty good piece today that Harrogate invites ye all to read. He denies rhetoric that Hill voted correctly simply to make Obama look bad. He also observes that it was Obama's vote that made Obama look bad, nothing more, nothing less. And for the hat trick, he points out that had Hill been the nominee, she would indeed have voted differently yesterday.

That, folks, is how it works. We all know this but sometimes we pretend that we do not. Look at Gore now, what a good guy he seems to be. Is this the guy we remember from 2000 election, or in the Senate, or during his 8 years as a Veep? What about Edwards? He's awesome, now. As a Senator he was so terrible he'll need another 80 years of life to finish his apologies.

From the Kos:

There's been a great deal of kvetching about Hillary Clinton's FISA vote, that her correct vote on the matter was upstaging Obama's shitty vote, and as such, was making a mockery of "unity" efforts.

Pretty tortured logic, I know.

Regarding Clinton, I have no doubt she would've voted incorrectly were she the nominee. She's shown over the past few years that on every controversial "national security" bill, she has voted incorrectly, whether it was the Iraq War authorization bill, the Kyl-Lieberman Iran bill, or plenty of war funding bills. It's easy to vote the right way when you don't have advisors telling you to "take issues off the table" by betraying things like, you know, the Constitution.

If this marks the end of the triangulating version of Clinton, so much the better. That'll make her that much better a force in the Senate. (Which apparently is necessary given the new triangulating Obama now arrived on the political scene.)

But I also have no doubt that given Clinton's high profile and massive platform, she could've agitated and campaigned against this bill before today, rather than issue a statement during the vote. Dodd and Feingold could've certainly used the support way back when.

Hillary is no hero in all of this. But to complain that her vote somehow undermines Obama? No one here has undermined Obama more than Obama.

He or his advisors (or both) decided that they'd rather capitulate on the issue than face GOP attack ads claiming Obama is weak on national security.

The fact that Obama voted the wrong way isn't Clinton's fault. It's his.

His "see no evil" supporters may have a hard time accepting this truth, but it is what it is. As Bowers says:

Logic aside, I have to wonder why hundreds of people on Daily Kos would desire for people to leave a group that is critical of Obama from the left. This is to effectively ask Obama supporters to stop asking things from Obama. The inability of some to tolerate any criticism of Barack Obama is pretty depressing.

NOW's Media Hall of Shame

The NOW website has a fun quiz I thought the readers of the Situation might be interested in. There are a list of the "worst" and most "sexist" media offenses from the Democratic Primary season.

The FISA Vote; or, 'Well, that Sucked!'; or, an Excuse to Play a Cult-Inspiring Clip from Army of Darkness

Well, yesterday Harrogate held a conference call with bloggers around the nation, and everyone was asking, Harrogate, what about the FISA vote? Harrogate replied that he hasn't had much time to think about it, what with his Pulitzer-Caliber coverage of the WALL-E Wars as well as his Wildly Popular coverage of A-Rod's divorce. Still, a few utterances about FISA may be in order, here.

First of all, TalkLeft has been all over this for a while, which is no surprise since A)the issue is in Jeralyn's primary wheelhouse; and B)for the last couple of weeks it became increasingly apparent that on this issue, Hillary Clinton was going to look very, very good. And yea, Hillary did indeed rise up yesterday. To see the transcript of her post-vote comments go to TL's post here.

A snippet that Harrogate appreciates:

As a senator from New York on September 11, I understand the importance of taking any and all necessary steps to protect our nation from those who would do us harm. I believe strongly that we must modernize our surveillance laws in order to provide intelligence professionals the tools needed to fight terrorism and make our country more secure. However, any surveillance program must contain safeguards to protect the rights of Americans against abuse, and to preserve clear lines of oversight and accountability over this administration

Yeah, not bad Hill. But even slicker was her implicit effort to throw something of a bullwark around Obama, who has been relentlessly savaged over this issue by the Left Blogosphere which hitherto had lain uncritically prostrate at his feet. Obama even candidly ceded, at one point, an awareness that his embrace of these sweeping, anti-Fourth Amendment measures would be a "deal-breaker" for some.

But Democrats do not want this to be a "deal-breaker" between Obama and vectors of his base. Hillary yesterday sought to remind us all of the O'Reillyism that "reasonable people can disagree":

I applaud the efforts of my colleagues who negotiated this legislation, and I respect my colleagues who reached a different conclusion on today's vote. I do so because this is a difficult issue.

Of course, as is so often the case in the Senate, the real hero on this issue was, is, and will remain Russ Feingold.

For example:

Two and a half years after this illegal program became public, I cannot believe that we are still debating the legality of this program on the Senate floor, and that anyone seriously believes that merely notifying the Gang of Eight – while keeping the full intelligence committees in the dark -- somehow represents congressional approval.

Mr. President, it could not be clearer that this program broke the law, and this President broke the law. Not only that, but this administration affirmatively misled Congress and the American people about it for years before it finally became public. So if we are going to go back and discuss these issues that I thought had long since been put to rest, let’s cover the full history.

And:

Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure.

So I hope my colleagues will think long and hard about their votes on this bill, and consider how they, and their constituents, will feel about this vote five, ten or twenty years from now. I am confident that history will not judge this Senate kindly if it endorses this tragic retreat from the principles that have governed government conduct in this sensitive area for 30 years. I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill.

But his "colleagues," of course, did not "stand up for the rule of law." All that is left to say at this point is, in the immortal words of Ash, "Jack left town":

Now Madonna's Pissed

This just in. Madonna's pissed.

Lawyers for Cynthia Rodriguez, the wife of the New York Yankee player Alex Rodriguez said his relationship with Madonna had been "the last straw" before she decided to file for divorce.

The couple's five-year marriage collapsed amid reports of a new friendship between Mr Rodriguez and the 49-year-old pop singer.

Madonna, who denies any romantic involvement with the player, has reportedly told Mrs Rodriguez's lawyer Earle Lilly not to make further statements about her. "Madonna's outraged", a source said.

Will Cynthia back down? OR will she, convinced that Madge and Hubby had indeed, as it were, done the deed, hit back harder than ever.

Madonna, obviously, can take care of herself. And no matter what happens,let us not feel too sorry for Cynthia. This is someone who's about to get paid in a BIG WAY.

As for A-ROD. Harrogate said all along he ought never to have left Seattle.

Answering Machine Rhetorics; or, "Believe it or not, George isn't at home...."

Those at all familiar with Harrogate on a personal level understand that the use of a home answering machine to screen calls has hardly died out in the age of cell phones. If ye would reach Harrogate's mother, ye must speak into the machine with the inevitable: "Anybody there?.... Hello?...."

So:

1)Because all these years later, George continues to delight Harrogate whenever he catches a syndicated episode;


2)This clip is funny;

and

3)In tribute to his Mom,

Harrogate offers the following for some light entertainment:

Ripping Laura Bush's Bodice

The new novel by Curtis Sittenfeld, American Wife, is described as a thinly veiled fictional portrayal of Laura Bush's life both pre- and post-dubya. According to msnbc.com, the author takes many actual facts of Laura's life: her job as a librarian, her high school car accident that killed a classmate, and her courtship and marriage to "the roguish son of a privileged family of Republican bluebloods." Apparently the novel gets into the steamier side of couple's love life (P.S. the characters are named Alica and Charlie Blackwell--hello, oil reference). Sounds interesting (except for the sex stuff--ick--I don't ever want to imagine Bush sex--even if it's disguised as Blackwell sex).

Within the article is a link to an msnbc poll: "Are books like this ethically okay to publish?"

Huh? Am I missing something? What is the ethical problem here? It's fiction, right? So, the author takes some details from ol' Laura's life and uses them to create Alice. Aren't most fictional characters embellished versions of real folks a lot of the time? Again I ask: what is the ethical problem here?

Perhaps my fellow Situationers can explain? Or at least chime in...

Alex Rodriguez Divorce Pending, Rumors Continue to Fly About Affair With Madonna

Every now and then, the Harrogate likes to spread a little celebrity dirt. For such an occasion, this serves nicely.

The New York Yankees third baseman, who earned his 12th All-Star selection Sunday, has refused to comment on his relationship with Madonna, who denied any romantic involvement with the slugger in a statement posted Sunday on people.com.

"The petitioner has exhausted every effort to salvage the marriage of the parties," Cynthia Rodriguez said in the filing. "However, Alex has emotionally abandoned his wife and children and has left her with no choice but to divorce him."

Rodriguez's attorney in Miami, Ira M. Elegant, said he had not reviewed the divorce petition but added: "As you know, anyone can pay the filing fee and make allegations."

Elegant also represents NBA star Shaquille O'Neal in his ongoing divorce from his wife, Shaunie.

Two points, here.

1)Damn, Cynthia, them's some strong words. Refreshing. Much better than the typical "irreconciliable differences" claptrap we usually get from the rareified people.

2)Et tu, Shaq?

Dem Loserdom is Always a Ripe Theme for Cartoonists

Hot off today's presses:

WALL-E Wars The Third: Rod "Crunchy-Con" Dreher and Andrew "Reagan Was Awesome, But Gays Should Have Rights" Sullivan Weigh In

WALL-E, Oh Readers, has clearly pulled off the Cinematic Equivalent of a Hat Trick in Hockey: entertain masses of people, provide an insanely cute robot (the robot is really cute), and touch off a rainbow admix of intellectual, ideological, and political effusions all at the same time.

Saturday, "Crunchy Conservative" Rod Dreher contributed to the WALL-E discourses. If you have never heard of a "Crunchy Conservative" before, he's a good place to start, so they say, although Harrogate wouldn't exactly know, since he's been wondering, as it were, what a "Crunchy Conservative" is for the last several years. Maybe someone else can start with Dreher though, and from there will eventually be able to explain to Harrogate what a "Crunchy Conservative" is. (Surely it's more complicated than, "I support a consolidated media, the elimination of the IRS, the evisceration of public education, and global imperialism--but dude, lay off the trees!"?)

But Harrogate digresses. Dreher's post will be quite interesting to Readers who have been following Harrogate's Pulitzer-Caliber coverage of the WALL-E Wars over the political meanings embedded in the latest Pixar blockbuster. A Snippet from Dreher:

"Wall-E" says that humans have within themselves the freedom to rebel, to overthrow that which dominates and alienates us from our true selves, and our own nature. But you have to question the prime directive; that is, you have to become conscious of how they way you're living is destroying your body and killing your soul, and choose to resist. "Wall-E" contends that real life is hard, real life is struggle, and that we live most meaningfully not by avoiding pain and struggle, but by engaging it creatively, and sharing that struggle in community. It argues that rampant consumerism, technopoly and the exaltation of comfort is causing us to weaken our souls and bodies, and sell out our birthright of political freedom. Nobody is doing this to us; we're doing it to ourselves. It is the endgame of modernity, which began in part with the idea that Nature is the enemy to be subdued -- that man stands outside of Nature, and has nothing to learn about himself from Nature's deep logic.

As for Andrew Sullivan, by now Readers understand that alas, Harrogate subjects himself to Andrew Sullivan fairly regularly. Mostly due to the sacred principle that dictateth: "A Blind Groundhog Will Find an Acorn Every Now and Then."

Whatever shall Readers make of Sully's take on Dreher and, by extension, on WALL-E? Pleased with Dreher's fidelity to "Aristotelian conservatism" (now don't you feel intimidated by the sheer gravity of Dreher's and Sully's intellects, O Readers?) Sully is moved to write:

Like Rod, I keep thinking about the movie. It draws together a lot of amorphous feeling right now - the gnawing sense that modernity has begun to undermine the natural conditions of its flourishing - and focuses it. The two most powerful factors, to my mind, are the confluence of destructive technology and religious terrorism and climate change with highly unpredictable repercussions. It is hard not to feel a Babelian quality about our current moment; and Rod's crunchy conservatism speaks to it powerfully.

Finally, here is one of our own, Amy Reads, pithily encapsulating her WALL-E experience:

Yesterday we went to see Wall-E, which is, in Mr. Reads's words, a movie that will be a favorite for the rest of our lives.

Land That Time Forgot....

It appears that most U.S. Constitutions and Bill of Rights printed and distributed in South Carolina are free from the first amendment, especially the establishment clause.

This is an old story but it is worth discussing in light of other recent posts. I wonder if this is just an election wedge issue?

According to CNN, the South Carolina State Legislature unanimously passes a bill that would allow for a specialty license plate that states, "I Believe." This, of course, does not refer to the Flying Spaghetti Monster but of a specific faith. The South Carolina License Plate is based on a similar one proposed in Florida though that state wisely rejected the idea.



The problem with this is that this amounts to government endorsement of religion, especially since the state would not allow for the same treatment for other or no faiths sice other faiths would only be able to have pictures but no words i.e. a pentagram from the Wicca faith but no "So Mote It Be" to accompany it.

According to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer., the license plate, "allows people of faith to profess that they believe in a higher calling, they believe in God," as if this would not be possible except for the license plate. The Lt. Gov. also attempted to frame this as a free speech right, which is wrong in the first place and amounts to viewpoint discrimination for not allowing other types of "free speech" from atheists, etc.

As I have argued elsewhere: while this may not be the best type of appeal because of its undemocratic nature, using religion as a means of persuasion is tolerable e.g. Social Gospel to help fight poverty. In this case, it would be another form of argumentative field such as law, science, philosophy, etc.

Using the State to deliver a message e.g. License plates, Faith Based Programs Senator Obama, not a good idea. When religion and the state tangle, little good develops as it
has a tendency to corrupt both. Besides, doesn't this act degrade and trivialize religion in this form?

From a refresher, read John Locke's "A Letter Concerning Toleration."

Selling the Drama

On August 28th, 2008-- forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream," Senator Barack Obama will deliver his nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver though the Democratic Convention will be held at the Pepsi Center in Downtown Denver.

The Reason for this move: a Rhetorical Spectacle. While the Pepsi center can only hold 20,000 people, Invesco Field can hold 75,000.

The expectations may just be a little too high after this move.

Top Academic Blogs

If you are interested, I found this while meandering around at the Blogora: A list of 100 Academic Blogs categorized by academic discipline. Check it out: it features a lot of smart people who say smart things.

Well, maybe. It is not like I have read them all as "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition."