Sarah Palin's family on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", AP Photo/Harpo Productions, Inc., George Burns
Don't turn up your trousers before you get to the brook.
---Advice for today at The Old Farmer's Almanac
I like to think I support feminists, despite the challenges of consistency I sometimes assert. However, I remain vague on aspects of hair styling and artistic cookery. To mousse something has to do with frothing up the hair I believe, and a mousse is a sort of frothed food. A moose mousse would involve intricate grinding and sieving of the animal before the actual dessert could be served. And I don't know whether chocolate goes well with moose. Chocolate gravy on roast beef might not be bad.
But back to topic: a moussed moose might make a cute, fluffy animal toy for a child, complete with soft antler rack---if the things on a male moose are called antlers and not some special term. You see, I don't really know what I'm talking about here, which is why I want to turn the job over to a woman who, before Sarah's book, might have been considered a real rogue of a female. Can there be any comparison between Maureen Dowd and Sarah Palin? Go to this morning's link...and let the moussing begin~~~
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/opinion/18dowd.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
LOL LOL!!!
ReplyDeletePalin must enter New York only surrounded by a team of body guards.
ReplyDeleteShe must enter San Francisco with that team carrying a crate full of Lysol.
I have a Christian fundy cousin who wouldn’t even stay in San Francisco when she visited. She and her husband found a safe motel outside the city. I tried to convince her that the homosexual acts only take place in the basements and broom closets of hotels. Not outside in front on the street. Or in hallways or the lobby. She would have none of that. God had told her San Francisco was an iniquitous cesspool and that there weren’t enough disinfectants under Heaven to ever cleanse such rot and filth. So she stayed - even though they’re millionaires - in a modest motel outside the city.
It sure makes me feel good to know there people like Sara Palin out there, who still have good sound American values. And know the French when they see one.
Though Maureen Dowd’s morality is catching up. I’m amazed Palin ever read “Animal Farm.” Did she think it’s a children’s book?
Guido Stempel is Professor Emeritus at the Scripps School of Journalism here at Ohio University. He wrote me the following as a comparison of Mss. Palin and Dowd~~~
ReplyDeleteRichard:
The difference is that Dowd won the Pulitzer Prize for her writing.
Palin will get only a partial Pulitzer--the first two letters.
Guido
Sarah Palin, always a class act...
ReplyDeleteThat's what they say, sir.
Says who?
Why, everybody, sir.
Well, there are dissenting opinions.
Actually some of the above exchanges are from a thread on the New Orleans Television site.
NOLA can be such a strange place.
They say that Louisania has been firmly against the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962).
Who is "they," Sir?
Why, U.S. Congressman Charlie Melancon, for one---a Democrat, sir, or so I heard. Modern politics go way above my head. More to the point, what I was wondering is who the congressman meant by "Louisiana." The legislative body, or the people of Louisania?
It can be a confusing thing, at times---a Patron once explained it to me thusly:
He said that the legislative body is made of elected individuals representing the people, and acting in the people's interest, but not necessarily as their proxy representatives---that is, not always according to the people's wishes.
???!
Precisely, so, sir. That's what I said too.
But what is the people's wish, anyway?
Does the people know?
"They"---Congressman Charlie Melancon (LA-03), sir---claim that the people of Louisiana don't want a government-run insurance option.
After he voted against the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) in the U.S. House of Representatives, the congressman made the following statement:
"I’ll work with anyone, or stand up to anyone, when it comes to what's best for Louisiana. And the healthcare bill I voted against today in the House doesn't work for Louisiana.
In these tough economic times, we've got to be smarter about getting government spending and the deficit under control, and the House's health care bill simply costs too much.
And I can’t support a government-run insurance option that the people of Louisiana don't want.
In the coming months, I will keep listening to folks in Louisiana and working with people from both sides of the aisle.
And I’ll keep working for smarter, more fiscally-responsible, market-based healthcare reforms that protect the sanctity of life.
Together, we will find a way to make health care more affordable and accessible for all Louisianians, and bring down the rising cost of health care in this country."
I kid you not, sir.
They say---popular wisdom, sir---that what it really comes down to is that by Melancon voting “no” on the health care bill and by Cao voting “yes”, both candidates for Louisiana US Senate and Louisiana representative to Congress have mitigated criticism by their respective opponents in their coming races, on that particular issue.
As I said, sir, all of this is way above my pay-grade. I'll have to talk some of those things over with Niccolò, next time he shows up at the bar.
Niccolò hangs out at the Wulfshead?
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to know what the Florentine diplomat doth make today of much of the world and of the U.S.A. In The discourses, he went as far as to say that the Church’s corruption threatened the ruin of religion. I wonder what he thinks of Christian Reconstructionism in the form of Dominion Theology and of its influence on the Christian Right and the Republican party today, in America. In particular, I'd be interested to hear what this man of the Renaissance ideal makes of the contemporary apocalyptic End Times theological viewpoint and of its sway on American politics and its impact on foreign policy and environmental programs (or lack thereof).
Oh wait... Did that sound like a loaded question?
ReplyDeleteMaybe that Pray for Obama - Psalms 109:8 meme (page 2 - in the comments on that nola.com article) is getting to me.
The verse in question reads: "May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership." And leads fairly naturally into Psalm 109:9, "May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." You know, in case you miss the point.
More here.
Bartender -
ReplyDeleteWhy the good congressman's reasoning should be obvious. What can be more tyrannical than the government ensuring that the homeless are housed, the hungry fed, or that the sick are taken care of?
Anyone should be able to see that if the government ever became involved in any of these things our liberties would fly out right from under us.
The Palin reminds me of a contestant in a beauty pageant. She always seems a wee bit desperate.
ReplyDeleteCertainly, the good Congressman's concern for the SANCTITY OF LIFE is to be commended.
ReplyDeleteConsider this:
Earth is currently faced with a mounting loss of species that threatens to rival the five great mass extinctions of the geological past, the most devastating being the Third major Extinction (c. 245 mya), the Permian, where 54% of the planet's species families was lost. Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson estimated (1993) that Earth has been losing something on the order of 30,000 species per year. Some biologists have begun to feel that this biodiversity crisis -- this "Sixth Extinction" -- is even more severe, and more imminent, than Wilson had supposed. [Article highlights]
Renowned paleoanthropologist Dr. Richard Leakey said of the "Sixth Extinction" that"It is happening now, and we, the human race, are its cause." In the Doctor's words "We’re destroying the Earth at a rate comparable with the impact of a giant asteroid slamming into the planet."
A large proportion of existing species — possibly half, conceivably even more — may be lost within the foreseeable future. But this may not prove to be the most consequential outcome of the current biodiversity crisis. More significant could be the disruption and degradation of several basic processes of evolution. It appears likely that for mass extinction episodes (MEEs) in the geological past, the recovery period usually lasted at least five million years. Because of certain unique features of the present MEE — notably the near elimination of biomes such as tropical forests, wetlands and coral reefs, which have served as powerhouses of evolution in the past — the bounce-back phase could extend several times longer than five million years. [Abstract]
Most experts predict grim times. But somehow, I doubt that's what the Congressman meant when he was talking about the SANCTITY OF LIFE.
SANCTITY OF LIFE doesn't extends to the fate of the other species on earth which are trying, unsuccessfully, to share the planet with Man.
Congressman Melancon voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) twice, once in the Energy and Commerce Committee and again in the United States House of Representatives.
As for Sarah Palin, the whole issue is pretty much a moot point: she doesn't believe in evolution.
Wonderful photograph that gives one some insight on what it was like to live in those days. Would love to be able to ask those people in the picture more about their lives and to be able to be there to share the experiences with them.
ReplyDeleteThere is a fundamental underlying cultural truth about the nature of contemporary politics to the gentleman from Florida's comparison of Sarah Palin to a beauty pageant. As Professor Santayana remarked, sir: "Culture is on the horns of this dilemma: if profound and noble it must remain rare, if common it must become mean. " Niccolò says that modern Representative Democracies are on the horns of the same dilemma. Professor Santayana contended that "these alternatives can never be eluded until some purified and high-bred species succeeds the promiscuous bipeds that now blacken the planet." He meant white trash, sir---or at least that's how people in Florida do refer to the "promiscuous bipeds," these days. The professor was somewhat of an elitist and a bit aristocratic, you understand, at least as involving an aristocracy of culture. The professor was aware on the other hand that "Democratic theory seems to be right, however, about the actual failure of theocracies, monarchies, and oligarchies to remain representative and secure the general good. ."
ReplyDeleteThe professor did remark in another connection that "Consciousness is not ideal merely in its highest phases; it is ideal through and through. One one level as much as on another, it celebrates an attained balance in nature, or grieves at its collapse; it prophesies and remembers, it loves and dreams."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of culture and...dilemma...
ReplyDeleteWhat is a Newsmax reader to do?
Should one go for Great Offer #1!
Or Great Offer #2!
Surely MadMike knows she is an eternal beauty pageant contestant. Who said something like Politics is a beauty pageant for ugly people? Otherwise, Bartender took the words right out of my mouth...and poured a drink in there.
ReplyDeleteQuinty's remark reminds me of what a Christian country we are. (Quinty, by the way, actually is a combination of Jesus and Bartleby the Scrivener.) It's why I love Evangelical politics so much. One time I asked an End-Times colleague (the schools are full of them now) if Forgiveness ever was mentioned in her church. She looked at me as though I were speaking a foreign language...before saying with emphasis, NO.
Angry folks out there, Jazzo. We have seen where know nothing anger has led us before.
ReplyDeleteJazzo - I find very little to empathize with either Jesus or Bartleby. Was either one a drunk?
Santayana didn't like "Bolshies." Sided with Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Did he think the Bolshies were worse than the fascists or the fascists worse than the Bolshies? That was an issue among conservatives and some progressives back then. Neocon historians who keep the old flame alive still believe Franco was preferable. Yes, English Tories at that time called the Loyalists “Bolshies.” A derogatory put down.
Santayana's quote on the need to remember history or being forced to relive it, in my opinion, is excessively employed. Nor do I think it is necessarily true, since the culprit is human nature, which tends to surmount any memory of history.
Anyway, enough grumpiness. Back to my quill. Where did I put my green eye shades? Oh, up on the bar, next to my drink. Leachlike I have occupied this small space, on padded leather, in comfort, though an object of pity by my betters. Is it a little dark in here? No matter. Drink ignites an inner light. Amen.
Check out the link below for Matt Taibbi on the press......
ReplyDeleteWhat’s wonderful about this acetylene torch blast of truth (at least that’s what it seems like to me) is that Taibbi is addressing it to the morons who back Palin and Bush who probably won’t understand or know what he’s talking about anyway. And that, speaking of dark humor, can really be funny.
My memory jives with the sordid tale Taibbi offers us here. And he is certainly right, I think, in his final conclusion. That we will probably have Jamie Dimon to keep us preoccupied now.
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/11/23/yes-sarah-there-is-a-media-conspiracy/
So the news today is that Obama will be sending in more than thirty thousand troops. A “compromise.” Would Howard Dean have made a bad president? It’s doubtful he would have sent in thirty thousand troops. Taibbi nicely touches on how he was treated by the press..... enough me blabbering. Read the Taibbi piece. Strongly recommended.
The Palin mystique may eventually disappear.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/geoffrey-dunn/more-palin-lies-the-troop_b_371293.html
But what won't disappear will be the wonder why so many people became enamored of her. Though she may only be a blip on that particular scene. There have been those before and there will be those who follow.
Most beauty pageant chicks marry the Chamber of Commerce guy and just drive the van to football practice. This one knows she's got charisma bubbling over and no one can deny it. Will she settle for Oprah's talk show slot? If not, the culture's decline will go down faster than a NASCAR speedway.
ReplyDeleteSome of the women who showed up for a Palin book signing were asked by the press why they like her so. The most common response, in the news segment I saw, was that Palin is a "working mom like me."
ReplyDeleteA working mom, huh? Doing the laundry and struggling to make ends meet. An unsung true American Madonna of the Clotheslines with Jesus smiling down on her from a sunny sky. I can just imagine Fra Angelico painting the scene.
I guess if these mom's aren’t filling their heads with noise watching the mid afternoon soaps (that’s the easy stereotype) they're wiping tables at the main street restaurant they waitress at. And of course they all go to church on Sunday where a preacher shouts and thumps the word of God. Warning them about socialism, illegal immigrants, and gay marriage. For Sodom and Gomorra is coming to town.
Just wait until Palin is in the White House. See how she treats the servants there: the working class mom who does her nails. The mom pushing a vacuum over the carpets. There’s a way mean and stupid people have when they enjoy some power, and they can be most thoughtless. We have seen it in the way Palin treats her numerous personal “enemies.” Working moms can have quite a hard life, that’s true. But do these moms empathize with the fierce stupidity of Palin’s vendettas too?