I overslept and do not have a lot to say this morning. I responded to a post reader Kara linked in the comments last night...a Rick Warren interview. Kara and I pretty much agree on this issue...and I am really foggy right now...and I have an arduous day of college football ahead. So my comments are my morning post- punched up a wee bit as the coffee kicks in:
Thanks for the link, Kara. Just read it . The trouble I have with Warren was not assuaged. His arguments are soothing but foolish. He states he is for equality for everyone but wants to take possession of the word "marriage" using lame historical excuses....for five thousand years all societies have... agreed on quite a lot, actually:
-Until recently slavery was the norm in many...for 5 thousand years -Most societies have been and remain male dominated - for 5 thousand years -War is a part of all societies for the last 5 thousand years.
The same "5 thousand year" argument could be made to re-institute slavery, or create a monarchy here, or legalize child beating....
What's so weird about Warren in this piece is his attempt to CLAIM the word marriage. Which is his way of saying "some loving couples are more valued than others." without saying it. "You Gays are nice, so you can have everything except this". He has no logical reason for denying this one thing to gays - except ill conceived "history". But still this word "marriage" must be wholly owned by heterosexuals- (even though in many - if not most - cases they have made the institution a joke and/or a torture chamber)
That is the rub: Why "marriage" for gays is so contentious for many straights - It cuts at the heart of too many fantasies about family, Father God in the Sky, and perfect romance. Making sure that gays and lesbians do not get a seat at the ADULT table allows conservatives to persist in the "nuclear family is the supreme unit of society" horseshit.
"Mommy. Daddy, kids, car, pets" as the fundamental social construct is a very recent development - say the 1920s-50's or so. Throughout "history" as Warren likes to say - it actually took a clan, or - as Hillary reminded us - it took a village to raise a child.
(What most white conservative Americans can't abide ishearing that the 1950s sucked for a lot of people. Blacks, women with ambition, gays...and so on and so forth.)
Gays should not be expected to sign off on second class status so close minded conservatives can keep their delusions alive.Also, Gays are not some post-war phenomenon that arrived with hippies and fluoridated water. Hard to believe, I know, but homos have been around for...well...at least 5 thousand years just like the wheel, alphabets, and Phyllis Schlafly.
In some ways the "nice" evangelicals are worse than the monsters. At least the monsters are upfront. Rick Warren doesn't want to reach out to Gays in any real sense. He wants to look loving and expansive while maintaining the unequal status quo - rather like El Presidente Obama, come to think of it. An updated version of "I am not a bigot. I have black friends, I swear!"
Being handed warm blankets at the back of the bus by nice evangelicals, and told to sleep well in a kindly voice- will not shut gays up. Separate but equal did not work before and it won't work now.
2 notes to readers: Kara - I watched every bit of the San Diego credit crunch poinsettia bowl...heartbreaking. Boise State is one of my favs after USC. Yttk: Thanks so much for the link in your comments above! I am surprised and pleased at the level of disgust re: Warren among some obama pods. It gives me real hope that thinking liberals are not a historical curitosity - but still might be out there somewhere...
Monday I saw an SUV with the standard Obama messiah face, but underneath the perfunctory and now meaningless "hope" had been replaced with "con man". Honks and thumbs up all around. In a delighted dither I drove to a horrific mall called the Glendale Galleria because I know a place there that makes bumper stickers on the spot. I had to have my own.
Please remember that the Warren pick is not an attempted accommodation of the Right, it is an affirmation of who Obama actually is. (Why is the Right never expected to accommodate the Left?)Further, the negative response from some Obama supporters is not so much an expression of anger and disappointment as it is a bunch of drunks coming to after a severe year long bender. Warren's beliefs regarding Jews have much in common with the Obamas' long time minister's best bud Louis Farrkahn.
In the end, they roast.
Sure its only an invocation, not a cabinet pick. (Though, many of those are suspect.). But the opportunity lost is enormous. For example The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church would have been an electrifying choice for any number of reasons. She's a she - making a statement about God, women, and inclusion. She is leading a large American denomination during a wrenching and painful fight over Gays - pleasing almost no one - but sticking to principles. The motto disagree without being disagreeable seems to be her tag line.
Warren on the other hand is openly disagreeable. I quote the L.A. Times again: Warren doesn't just oppose gay marriage, he's compared it to incest and pedophilia. He doesn't just want to ban abortion, he's compared women who terminate pregnancies to Nazis
Imagine the response from the Huffington hypocrites had a President Hillary Clinton picked this man to give the invocation.
To their credit a few on the Obama "Left" responded forcefully and without flinching. With Warren, Obama administered a hard slap to his base. He might be decent enough to allow the most delusional Obots - groaning over the toilets at his after party - a quiet hangover.
A few things backed up today. 1. The white liberal Obots are quickly becoming the battered wives of American politics. They take a beating from the Lord Obama, insist it won't happen again, and, after a bit, start making excuses to keep the relationship going. The toxic Andrew Sullivan - who I can't bring myself to link to again - is now backpedaling with truly asinine rhetoric about generational change and the usual horseshit from Obama Kool-Aid World. Uppity has a fine round up here. 2. This nonsense about Obama "reaching across the divide" by choosing Warren is not double- think - it's triple-think. For the "reaching across the aisle" meme to be true one must believe:
A. Obama was ever pro-gay rights. Unlike Hillary Clinton, this is not true. All year Obama surrounded himself with homophobes - while refusing to even have his picture taken with pro-gay rights San Francisco Mayor Newsome (talk about cowardly). Obama has never spent a penny of political capital on gay rights.
B. Believing, in contradiction to the facts, that Obama is for equal rights for gays one can then take refuge in the nonsense that Obama is building a bridge by choosing Warren.
C. When, in fact, Obama - by choosing Warren - is simply continuing as he always has; surrounding himself with homophobic "leaders". Obama is in his comfort zone with Warren.
Nice trick, Barry.
Now a link to the ever odious Avarosis. I laid out my utter contempt for rich white faux liberals here. This does not mean that watching them impale themselves is not going to be fun next year. (I wish there was a Code Pink Cam so we could see the freak out when Lord Obama bombs Afghanistan and has the military go into Pakistan.) The cognitive dissonant nightmare that is Avarosis's brain manages to point up a sick truth about Warren here. I am not sure who causes more nausea, Rick Warren or John Avarosis. Can't decide. I'll stick with Huffington and David Geffen if I feel the need to vomit.
In summary: the problem here is not Rick Warren or Barack Obama - it is the fools on the Left who did the Obama denial jig all year. I'd like to re constitute the central thesis of this blog at some point. But so far my basic beliefs about BHO are truer today than they were when I turned on him last January. (It's called research - you should try it Obama Pods.)
Obama is a fraud. Obama will turn out to be poison for liberals.
What I was going to post alone tonight is below:
BRAND OBAMA
No Quarter has already done the due diligence on this Chomsky clip. It is so spot on that I am happy to bring up the rear and essentially repeat a post.
Chomsky lives further to the Left than I ever alight. But I have admired him greatly from where I sit. I consider his addition of the phrase "manufactured consent" to the lexicon invaluable in clarifying my thoughts on this year's Obama media circus. Our "consent" in electing Obama was manufactured as surely as our "consent" for the Iraq invasion was.
Money quotes (I paraphrase) :
The choice of Biden must have been with conscious contempt for his own voters.
and
These people should not be advising (Obama) on the economy. They should be getting subpoenas.
One of the fascinating truisms of both Obama and Bush has been to ability to throw the bird at the population openly and suffer no backlash. Indicative, I think, of very similar personalities. When Obama, answering complaints about his status quo cabinet choices, said "I am the change." One could easily hear the echo of W's "I am the decider."
(If a Senator Clinton had been elected her saying "I am the change." would actually be true.)
Chomsky calls Obama what he is: a brand. And as a note to whoever is left out there on the true pacifist Left the comments on Afghanistan and the Obama website are helpful.
Getting fair, real analysis on Obama is going to take some work next year. The media simply won't be able to bring itself to confront its own maleficence in 2008.
Since the election Obama has come out of the closet. As with Clay Aiken, only the most delusional teens denied what was self evident.
He is what is Obama really is: 1. A narcissistic power monger. As L.R. predicted months ago - "Geffen" limo liberals and their adolescent enablers would be the first under the bus. This is now as clear as it can be. Obama used you guys. Obama does not need white liberals any more. So SEE YA! Please come back to Iowa and New Hampshire sometime in late 2011. Oh, and he never liked you. You are envelope stuffers. Always were - from the moment he robbed Alice Palmer... 2. A Neo-Liberal warrior. The anti-war lie has finally evaporated. The foreign policy team is as right wing as we've had in a Democratic Administration since Lyndon Johnson. Obama - now unfettered - is clearly signalling more war in Afghanistan. Code Pink had better call a Code Red. Yes, Clinton is on the team. But she NEVER, not once, presented herself as anything other than a realist hawk. All the while being roundly trashed by trollops like Huffington and Avarosis. 3. A man who looks favorably on Milton Friedman economics. His team is populated with "Chicago School" types. One caveat: "Big government" will make a come back. It would have under McCain as well. The situation is dire - the only institution left standing with access to currency (not money, really - just the illusion of it. ) is the U.S. government. So the government will spend. But don't expect any cash infusions for anything other than what will help Obama win re-election. The spending will not be based in any principle of fairness. It will solely be based on keeping Democrats - and himself - in power. From Cannonfire: The Shock Doctrine will be the guiding light here. 4. A man who has no use for Gay rights. He never has. He's been clear. I hardly fault him. Again, the skill with which he manipulated the delusional liberal wing of his party was something to behold. Regardless of evidence that clearly tagged Obama as a homophobe, the John Avarosis-es and and the Andrew Sullivans kept puckering up to kiss THE ONE's rump. I can't help but remind everyone that nothing short of bile spewed forth from the Pods about Palin's church. Well, Rick Warren is now giving the invocation at a Presidential Inauguration. Put that in your sexist pipe and smoke it, Andrew.
The crash and burn of other sections of his coalition is coming. The environmentalists are holding their collective breath. N.O.W. is squirming as the Obama boys elevate Caroline Kennedy - not because she's the best choice - simply because she carried the most water - for the boys.
None of this should be written in stone, of course. Obama will maneuver to the Right and Left as only a man with no principles can. The driving force here is his own power and the power of his handlers - the Soros crowd.
The biggest lie of all is that Obama represented change and McCain and Clinton did not. What the petulant "Yes We Can" minions refused to acknowledge all along is that McCain and Clinton both were independent operators - having won a degree of independence based on having already paid their dues.
McCain or Clinton would have been beholden to certain groups. But their campaigns were not centered around a BIG LIE. Obama's was. Both Clinton and McCain would have made choices that aggravated many. But it is hard to fathom either ferociously thumbing their nose at their own base like the manchild Obama has these past 6 weeks. Deceit allows - invites - duplicity.
Like the months after 9/11 - this period has been a waste. Bush could have rallied the country to a new and better place after the attacks. Instead he manipulated our basest fears to conjure a wasteful war. After the election, Obama could have used the moment to lay out a challenging vision. Now the moment is almost gone. Mr. Obama is paying off friends, trying to contain a scandal, and playing patty cake with the Right.
Obama is Bush 3. Obama is a fraud. Obama is poison.
So much enjoying the comments from the regulars lately. (and you lurkers - dive in! The water is....uh...wet??)
A comment from reader Marie on last night's post that is precisely on point when it comes to the increasingly loathsome Obama: Obama is not a coward - he is a passive-aggressive careerist who can't find a bus large enough to throw us all under. But here - on this site - many of us - and you,JSOM - saw what this man was and what he was selling and rejected it. Well, well, this is what slavish devotion will get you. A free ticket to the Capitol steps to hear yourself humiliated by a preacher thug who is BFF with the new Prez.Obama is a man as dangerous as W - in that he is no less driven by his ego pathologies.
A women after my own heart...
Also - after the "despicable quotes" Rappy nominations were announced reader Kara reminded me of a big oversight - the "cling to guns and religion" arrogant riff by Obama in San Francisco. There will be a special award created for easy going arrogance combined with elegant snottiness: TheArianna - sponsored by John-Roger. Guess who wins this year??!!??!!
And a comment on Caroline K. that nails it for me: The Caroline situation really feels like dropping another sexist shoe. I don't know if anyone has worked really hard for a promotion only to have the boss decide to appoint his girlfriend to the position? Anyway, that's what it feels like. yttik | 12.17.08 - 6:53 am | #
Obama throws another middle finger to liberals. And finally the most ardent pods are coming to. Rick Warren will be giving the invocation at the inauguration. John Avarosis, one of the most flatulent, fraudulent, liberals on the scene wrote this. "Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness. In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California..."
My sympathy for bozos like Avarosis is...wait...I have no sympathy for bozos like Avarosis who spent a year of their lives jacking off Barack Obama, deluding themselves, and rampaging with the relentless, woman hating fury of Huns at a brothel full of virgins.
There will be no new age of progressive thought in D.C. There will be no inclusion of Gay Americans. There will be no new feminist majority. We already know there will be no public financing - the only real way to clean up elections. We already know that spying on Americans will go forth unfettered by pesky search warrants. The economy will be overseen by Wall Street imbeds. Foreign policy by hawks that Cheney approves of...
The ongoing right of women to end a pregnancy should they choose- something thrown at those of us who opposed Obama all along with insane rants about the Supreme Court- will be THE ONLY remotely left wing ideal that should stay in place during the next four years.
Unless health care is dealt with within 3 months don't expect anything to change on that front either. We have no money.
Obama is a fraud. He is pathological in his need to throw the bird to those who help and those who oppose him. Another way he is just like W. At least W came from somewhere. Obama is merely an errand boy sent by grocery clerks. The bill will be collected - in the form of inflation.
There are inclusive Chrisitan ministers by the score in this nation. (Ed Bacon at my church is a fine example of a man who leads a large flock and understands Jesus's message of inclusion. )Anyone of them giving the invocation would have been a brave and forward looking statement. Instead Obama chose a Right Wing ideologue. A man who uses religion to denigrate 10% of the population. Sure he dresses it up - but this only makes the pain inflicted by his retrograde views worse. Obama choosing Warren is a purposeful attack on his Left Flank.
Would McCain/Palin have been worse for liberals? No. Absolutely not. We know exactly who they are. Idiots on the left who never examined Obama, who never questioned Obama, now have four years of excuse making and disappointment to look forward to.
Gee, at least he's black.
Obama fooled the morons on the Obama Left. And those morons bought it.
