And nothing disgusting in this one (although, where’s Trigger? Hmmm.)
It’s the condescension, stupid: the curse of the progressives
This excellent Slate article can be summarized as follows: if you look down on people, it’s unlikely that they’ll start looking up to you.
Shutdown for computer shut-ins
Yesterday was Mayday. But, moving right along, tomorrow is Shutdown Day, the holiday during which we’re advised to take a holiday from our computers, televisions, and other electronic communication gadgetry.
Don’t know if I will. I was about to say “Don’t know if I can“—but of course I can. Most definitely I can. Any time I want, I can turn this sucker off. I just choose not to. Continue reading →
A host of Maydays
Today is Mayday.
As a child I was confused by the wildly differing associations the word conjures up. It’s a distress signal, for example, apparently derived from the French for “come to my aid.”
That was the first meaning of the word I ever learned, from watching the World War II movies that were so ubiquitous on TV when I was a tiny child. The pilot would yell it into the radio as the fiery plane spiraled down after being hit, or as the stalling engine coughed and sputtered. On the ship the guy in uniform would tap it out in code and repeat it (always three times in a row, as is the convention) when the torpedo hit and the ship filled with water.
But on a far more personal level, it was the time of the May Féªte (boy, does that sound archaic) in my elementary school, when each class had to learn a dance and perform it in the gymnasium in front of the entire student body’s proud/bored parents. Continue reading →
Mary Mitchell’s defense of “warrior” Wright
Here’s one response to the Obama/Wright brouhaha that lets you know why Obama may have been so reluctant to throw Wright under the bus. It seems that Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell (who is an African-American woman, a fact I mention because it’s relevant) thinks Wright has been grievously Wronged:
…[T]he notion that white pundits can dictate what constitutes unacceptable speech in the black church is repulsive to most black people…[W]hen Obama says America was “offended” by Wright’s harsh language, he isn’t speaking for or to Black America. He is speaking to White America…I don’t want to see a warrior like Wright denigrated to prove to white voters that Obama is not a radical.
I have no idea where Mitchell gets the notion that white pundits are dictating what is said in black churches. Continue reading →
A jello mold photo a day…
…keeps the appetite at bay.
In my continuing effort to explore the dubious joys of the dying art of the jello mold, I found this. Not even the gelatin entries in James Lileks’ “Gallery of Regrettable Food” can match the revolting characteristics of these jello molds that masquerade as Thanksgiving turkeys.
Yes, you heard me correctly. And if you don’t have the stomach to follow the link, here’s one to unwhet your appetite:
[NOTE: This one so sickened me that I think it might be the last in the series. Maybe.]
Obama’s judgment: was he really the last to know?
Obama did what he had to do yesterday. He spoke out more forcibly than ever before against Jeremiah Wright’s road show, saying:
[Wright’s comments] offend me. They rightly offend all Americans. And they should be denounced, and that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally here today.
But Obama’s own remarks yesterday raised as many questions as they answered. Most of these concern Obama’s judgment or lack thereof.
In other words, he did nothing to resolve that question that Thomas Sowell asked in this piece written after Obama’s first race speech a month ago, “What did [Obama] know and when did he know it?” Continue reading →
Attacking Jello mold
Not for the squeamish—especially the squeamish who love jello molds (although perhaps that’s an oxymoron).
Consider yourself warned.
Obama’s faces his Sister Souljah moment—or is it his Eagleton moment?
Bob Herbert’s column today happens to be one of the best and most succinct summaries of Obama’s current woes and the character flaws that underlie them. And when a liberal anti-Iraq War (“How long do we want this madness to last?”) black man such as Herbert turns on Barack Obama, it means something.
Herbert’s got Wright’s number, all right (and note: another “Julius Caesar” reference in the first line of Hebert’s column). He sees him as a narcissistic blowhard, reveling in his fifteen minutes (or more, unfortunately) of fame and in the process getting back at Obama, who is insufficiently worshipful—of Wright. But Herbert understands that Wright isn’t really the main point. Continue reading →
Sanity Squad at 8 PM tonight
Click here to listen as Dr. Sanity, Siggy, Shrinkwrapped, and I discuss the Arab Mind, based on Shrink’s series of the same name.
All you conservatives who don’t plan to vote for McCain—listen up!
This sort of thing is one of the reasons it’s in your interest to vote for him anyway, if you care about the future of the Supreme Court.
Or the future of voter fraud.
Do you think for one moment that the decision would have been the same had a liberal majority been sitting on the bench?
This isn’t about Obama, promise—it’s about jello molds
Here’s Obama’s most recent attempt to prove his proletarian bona fides:
I was raised in a setting with grandparents who grew up in small towns in Kansas, and the dinner table would have been very familiar to anyone here in small town Indiana — a lot of pot roast and potatoes and jello molds…
Ah, brave new America of the 70s, where pot roast and potatoes were the daily fare of the common man. One of my favorite dinners growing up, by the way.
But it’s the jello mold I want to talk about today. It used to be a ubiquitous entry at buffets and bazaars and the like, and I must say I always hated it. Continue reading →