A host of Maydays

The New Neo Posted on by

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

The New Neo Posted on by

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…

The New Neo Posted on by

…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:

avacado_gelatin_turkey.jpg

[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?

The New Neo Posted on by

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 →

Obama’s faces his Sister Souljah moment—or is it his Eagleton moment?

The New Neo Posted on by

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 →

This isn’t about Obama, promise—it’s about jello molds

The New Neo Posted on by

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 →

Reverend Wright enjoys the spotlight: another think coming

The New Neo Posted on by

Obama must be hoping that his ex-Reverend gets a vicious case of laryngitis that will last through November at least, from the looks of Wright’s performance today at the National Press Club.

Michelle Malkin asks:

Is [Wright] working for the Hillary campaign? Is he angry at Barack Obama? Because he has got to know this is killing his spiritual protege’s campaign.

I watched a few minutes of the Wright appearance and read about the rest. Continue reading →

Not for the elevator-phobic

The New Neo Posted on by

Don’t read this if elevators give you the heebie jeebies, or you may never get into one again.

Actually, the New Yorker article—which describes the ordeal (there’s no other word for it) of Nicholas White, a man who was stuck in an elevator in the McGraw-Hill office building in New York City for forty-one long hours back in 1999—has a lot of praise for that mode of transportation, one of the safest ever. And it’s true that Nicholas lived to tell his tale. And to sue. Continue reading →

The Wright-Moyers interview: Render unto Caesar?

The New Neo Posted on by

From last night’s Bill Moyers PBS interview with Jeremiah Wright, the quote that got the most attention was this:

[Obama]’s a politician, I’m a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two different worlds. I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the soundbites, he responded as a politician.

The consensus seems to be that, if this isn’t quite a case of Wright throwing Obama under the bus, it isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, either.

It all depends, of course, on what the definition of “politician” is. Continue reading →