At 8 PM Eastern time tonight, the Sanity Squad will be discussing Hillary’s future after tomorrow’s primary, and dear old ex-President Jimmy Carter and his recent Middle East shenanigans. Join Dr. Sanity, Shrink, Siggy, and me.
I’ve got it—Jimmy Carter sees himself as the Mr. Rogers of the world
Bardot and Marianne: free speech marches on in France—not!
From my own encounters with the French legal system and the cause of freedom of speech in France, I ought not to be the least bit surprised at the news that Brigette Bardot faces charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims by criticizing them.
Bardot’s general pronouncements against the growing Muslim presence in France stem from her interest in the specific cause of animal rights: she doesn’t like the way they slaughter sheep and goats by slitting their throats. In addition to the moribund state of freedom of speech in France, another reason no one should be surprised at all of this is that it’s happened before. Beginning in 1998, Bardot has been tried and convicted several times for similar offenses.
Bardot’s transformation to dedicated animal rights advocate could not have been foreseen when she retired from acting around her fortieth birthday. But that’s what she’s been doing ever since, after an early life that featured a dizzying array of short-lived marriages and affairs, some of them simultaneous; and a latter-day quietude in that arena that involves a long-term marriage and the shunning of plastic surgery to preserve her youthful pulchritude. Continue reading →
Creative things to do with matzoh
Twenty solutions to the weighty problem (in more ways than one) of what to do with leftover matzoh—besides the tried and true “slather it with butter and salt and scarf it down.”
And I’ve got a really nice pre-owned car to sell you
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Then again, it won’t hide the stink of a rotten egg to call it an overly-mature ovum.
But that doesn’t stop the reframing and renaming on the part of those whose mission in life is to make sure no one on earth should ever suffer the slings and arrows of low self-esteem. Continue reading →
Little Brother is watching you
It seems a person can’t say a word these days without someone recording it or writing about it.
For example, the San Francisco fundraiser at which Obama described the bitter clingers of Pennsylvania was meant to be a very private affair, no press allowed. But merely keeping the press out no longer keeps the media out, because we are all media (or potential media) now.
It used to be that candidates could feel safe from prying eyes and ears at these events. They were among friends. Continue reading →
Algebra according to Obama: Ayers = Coburn; Wright = Granny
The Obama/Ayers connection had been floating around the perimeter of the blogosphere for a while. But when it surfaced in the debate two days ago it became bigger news, in part because Obama compounded the problem by making a bizarre equation.
It was a bit like when he compared Reverend Wright and his own grandmother. Only this time it was Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who was the target of Obama’s attempt at balancing two things that cannot be weighed equally, not on any scale that partakes of logical thought.
In his famous race speech, Obama tried to counter his pastor’s racist remarks by saying he could no more disown him than he could disown his own grandmother, who once admitted to fear of a black man who had accosted her at a bus stop. These things have no equivalence, moral or otherwise. But this obvious fact didn’t seem to occur to Obama, so intent was he on defending his allegiance to Wright.
And the other night he did the same thing in attempting to defend his relationship with Ayers. Continue reading →
It’s not the syntax, stupid—and I’m not misspeaking
Obama continues to come up with creative excuses for his remarks that have come to be known as “Bittergate.”
He now says he “mangled” his words (ouch!) and that it all was a syntax problem.
As a writer, I sympathize. Those dangling participles will get you every time. Continue reading →
Italian food—for thought
Is the Italian election a portent of things to come in our own? The Obamalike candidate defeated by a 71-year-old on the right?
Hmmm.
The Italian political scene and ours are very different, to be sure. But there are also signs that Italy is edging towards a two-bloc system rather than a mishmosh of small shifting coalitions. The center right that Berlusconi heads now also has a Parliamentary majority, and the Communists have lost all legislative representation for the first time since the 1940s.
Berlusconi himself is certainly a controversial figure, a man of the right and a millionaire media tycoon who in his most recent term headed the first Italian government in the last fifty years to fill its allotted five years. Continue reading →
Obama serenades the folks of Pennsylvania: “Doin’ What Comes Naturally”
Obama’s mockery of Hillary as Annie Oakley reminds me that I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for Annie for a long time. One of my favorite childhood songs was “Doin What Comes Naturally” from “Annie Get Your Gun,” which I used to sing aloud as a three-year old clueless to its mild sexual innuendos, to the amusement of the adults around me.
And so I’ve been moved to compose this updated version. I hereby offer it to Barack Obama to warble to the good people of Pennsylvania:
Folks are dumb where you come from,
They ain’t had any learning.
Still they’re bitter as can be
Doin’ what comes naturally (doin’ what comes naturally).
Folks like us will always fuss
With schools and books and learning.
Still we condescend with glee,
Doin’ what comes naturally (doin’ what comes naturally)
If you really knew how to read or write
You’d vote for Obama cause you’d see the light
You’d no longer cling to your church or guns
And you’d know all’s the fault of the Republicans.
That comes naturally (that comes naturally).
You voters out in Scranton can’t even write my name
But ballots just need “x’s”
And they count ’em just the same.
That gal Hill she tried to swill
A beer and shot of whiskey
That ain’t no epiphany
Doin’ what comes naturally (doin’ what comes naturally)
Hillary channels Annie Oakley?
Obama sneered in response to Hillary’s claim to fond memories of being taught to shoot by her father at her grandfather’s cottage (near Scranton, PA, no less!), and of duck-hunting:
Shame on her….She, how she values the second amendment, she’s talking like she is Annie Oakley.
Well, not quite. Continue reading →
The other Taxman
Today is April 15th. This means that, along with millions of others, I’ll be making my way to the copy machine and then on to the post office so that my filled-out tax forms will have the proper postmark.
Ah, paying taxes. What fun! Along with close to 100% of Americans, I hate the process. Continue reading →