Rhetoric of the T: April 2009

Essentially self-explanatory:


Secret neck-sweat bonus:

Why Don't Conservatives Plan Revolutions When Republicans Are in Office

First, Chuck Norris announced that he may run for President of Texas because the Country was on the verge on losing its identity/ rights/ path/ deep discounts at Walmart/ ability to beat up bad guys in scripted confrontations.

Now, Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) invoked the right to revolution. According to Politico:

"I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”

Of course, Bachmann must not have actually read the Jefferson quote and does not know the irony of the quote. Here is what Jefferson wrote:

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion... We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half, for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion?" --Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith, 1787. ME 6:372

Ironically, when the revolution were to occur, Jefferson was president of the United States and I do not think he used the bully pulpit to argue for a revolution.

I would argue that Norris and Bachmann are just grandstanding, but what do I know...

Celebrating (Again) The Creativity of Britney Spears: The Question of the Day

Building upon the illustrious work of Harrogate.(I cannot believe I am writing about this).

With her song, "If you see Amy," Britney Spears*** is following in the footsteps of blues pianist Memphis Slim, the Canadian band April Wine, the pop-punk band Poster Children, James Joyce in Ulysses, and William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night. Here is Slate's take, with all of the references.

Oh well, it could be worse, as James Joyce notes:

If you see kay
Tell him he may
See you in tea
Tell him from me.

But, I ask you Situationers, what other examples of this type of brilliant wit do you admire?

*** Disclaimer: It is highly unlikely that Britney Spears wrote the lyrics to that song or the song itself, but, for a moment, we can live with the illusion.