Note to readers: First, I am grateful as hell for all of you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Second, Tamerlane has a piece on atheism coming up tonight. I'm leaving it on top until Friday morning. Let's keep the conversation going.
I repeat, Happy Thanksgiving to all! Might I suggest that a good way to start Thanksgiving is reading Mr. Lincoln's second Inaugural address. He, not the Pilgrims, gave birth to this holiday as we know it today. Unlike nearly all others, it is not yet totallyoverrun by base consumerism.
Poll: 2009 creepiest TV "personalities". Top five move on to the finals.
I resent Bill Maher calling the entire country stupid - mostly because he's never seemed that smart to me. He's harsh and smug - in our current culture this is often mistaken for smart.
But I must admit that the Obama's "beer summit" and the attendant coverage of it is causing me absolute embarrassment as an American. Obama's response to the entire Gatesgate episode is embarrassing and pathetic. During the "beer summit" the most powerful man on earth and his pal - who was arrested for being an overbearing gasbag - used a hard working police officer as a prop. Crowley was put in an untenable position so Barry can save his half white ass. Pew now reports that Obama's knee jerk response to the arrest is doing real damage.
It is gross - and like few other events of late - indicate a kind of cultural idiocy, not emanating from the grass roots - but from the top. This is Jerry Springer Show filler brought into the Rose Garden by a thoughtless President who refused to simply say "I was wrong to condemn the police. I am sorry. I'll be more careful with my remarks regarding local issues in the future." That's it. This entire dog and pony show has been because Obama had a knee jerk response to something he knew nothing about and isn't man enough to say "I am sorry."
Obama wants to "foster" a dialogue - ABOUT WHAT?!!! How cops should handle arrogant, entitled, ivy league professors when they insult your mother? What is the "dialogue" that is to emerge from this episode? ALL the facts that have emerged so far indicate that Obama, and earlier Gates, WERE IN THE WRONG. Now reality has to be adjusted so some grievance king from Harvard and his POTUS pal can save face? Screw that.
And for "f**k sake - where is the woman who made the 9-1-1 call? You know the person who actually DID HER DUTY AS A CITIZEN. What is the lesson here? Behave like an idiot and the President will defend you and invite you to the White House - leveling the playing field by also inviting the cop who was berated in front of the planet for doing his job well - meanwhile if you are a concerned citizen reporting what looks for all the world like a break in - you get called a racist by the teaming masses of mindless, perpetual victims- and ignored by the "post -racial" President.
Stupid, in various forms, is the word of the week. The President glibly remarked that the Cambridge, Mass. cop who arrested Professor Gates "behaved stupidly. " On Monday Bill Maher said America is a stupid country. This bears some examination. Maher does not. He is not worth any thought - either deep or cursory. Maher is a tool. A fatuous cog in the distraction machine. We can also leave aside the examples Maher gives. Insulting Sarah Palin is currently compulsory among the elite brats of our public "discourse". Like eating and elimination - if they don't do it they die. His tepid claim that Obama is smart - is worth a moment - but only because it increasingly appears false.
There are a lot of people. 6 billion - give or take. Most people - at one point or another - are stupid. Some people are stupid all the time. It stands to reason that many Americans are stupid. Actually, it's an observable phenomenon pretty much every day. Without going on a patriotic bender I will also say it is self evident that the U.S. is a "smart" country. Make your own list. We've done pretty well.
What troubles people like Maher is - they won. They got what they wanted in Obama's election and now have much less to gripe about. One of their tribe is now President. Not the "Democratic" or "progressive" tribe. Obama really isn't either. Maher hails from the elite chattering class who contribute nothing of value tribe.He's a member of the hilariously misnamed "intelligentsia". Most of whom are not particularly intelligent at all in any actionable way . The coin of the realm with this tribe is condescension. The most important component of this condescension is hubris. Maher was apparently a quart low on arrogance so he called the entire country stupid. Why leave anyone out?
Letting us know that they know better than the rest of us is the blood this tribe of vampires feeds on. They must have it.
Obama springs from this tribe. It began in the dark recesses of his unknown past. Chicago's rich liberals? The William Ayers cabal? The Geffen/ Huffington wing of the Democratic Party? Take your pick. They all assume they know better. It is their animating principle.
The most dangerous element to the condescension tribe - the one that must always be kept in check and under control - are the people who actually do things of value -people who live lives that for most of human history were called normal and productive. The flyover people as those in NY and LA often call them. So when Obama is confronted by a question about one of these people who actually do a job, his knee jerk reaction is to call that person stupid. It is part of his DNA. Bitter. Stupid. Clinging to guns and religion.
Maher ups the ante. His world view is in jeopardy -so everyone must be stupid. We live in a stupid country.
Maher is just this side of worthless. He's not even funny which ought to be his saving grace. Even a stupid person can see that when he calls the country stupid he is talking about himself. But let's leave that revelation to his analyst or 12 step sponsor or life coach.
The advent of the Obama era is exposing all of us - but mostly it is exposing those who insisted that he was the saviour. The Obots not only ignored Obama's emptiness - they deified it.
Oops.
Expect the condescension class to use "stupid" with regularity in 2009 and 2010. "Racist" is so 2008.
Obama's schedule for June 16th announced by White House:
6:15am - Obama works out with Michelle at WH gym. Personal treadmill testers will warm up for the Obamas at 6:05.
7:00 - Obama's shower tester to enter shower to ensure proper water temp.
7:05 - Obama to shower. POTUS scheduled to soap up and rinse without out valet or White House lawyer for first time today.
7:30 - Breakfast with family in residence. Both Obama daughters set to pester him about about upcoming slumber party. Obama to respond with usual "just let me eat my waffle."
8:00 - Obama to overhaul financial regulations.
8:15 - Obama to overhaul healthcare regulations.
8:20 - Obama to overhaul CEO pay.
8:21 - Obama to overhaul education, the Fed, Wall Street, Main Street, Sunset Blvd between Dodger Stadium and the Arby's next to the creepy iCarly/SpongeBob mural in Hollywood, The Department of Motor Vehicles in all 57 states, and Joe Biden.
8:22 - Obama to announce members of the Admin's committee to rework the second law of thermodynamics and consolidate Special and General Relativity to cut down on overhead costs and redundancy, saving approximately 11 dollars and 52 cents.
8:30 - Obama to declare Michelle "Czar" of outlet malls. Directing her to overhaul outlet malls around the nation, insisting outlets be combined with Indian gaming casinos wherever possible to consolidate travel and cut down on green house gas emissions.
8:33 - Obama to pass by Larry Summers office and poke him with a stick from the hallway to wake him up.
9:45 - Obama to chair meeting of National Security Council in short sleeves to show he's a relaxed kind of guy.
Main agenda items
"How to continue to give all work to Hillary while taking credit whenever possible."
and
" Should POTUS issue apology to French for Ben Franklin's gas?"
Also something about Iran and North Korea.
3:00 - Obama to appear on Dr. Phil and - in a jovial manner- order that Dr. Phil get a pedicure, thanking all pedicurists for their invaluable contribution to American life and ensuring that they won't be forgotten in the budget process.
4:00 Townhall meeting in Peoria, Arizona to announce who will play him in his biopic on Lifetime - Hugh Laurie or Vanessa Williams?!
4:10 Townhall in Crouton-on-Hudson, New York to show his favorite clips from The Mod Squad and to announce who will play Michelle in the upcoming biopic on Lifetime: Hugh Laurie or Mellisa Ethridge?!
4:30 Townhall in Hilo, Hawaii on "The Art and Science of Blaming Predecessors" also to insist that he has no look-a-likes. He really is everywhere, all the time.
5:00 State Dinner for Prime Minister of some European country no one gives a shit about anymore. Obama to be on phone with Chinese Ambassador throughout meal begging Beijing not to sell dollars. Customary toast to be made by new White House Food Taster, George Clooney.
6:00 Michelle and Barack to commence Date Night. First a private dinner at a Oprah's Santa Barbara home, then a preview of a multicultural revival of Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire" called:
"W.T.F. is that white women cryin' 'bout when the Mayan Calender sez the world is about to end and my sugah diabe-tes is messin with my head... and the rainbow is enuf."
Subtitled:A meditation onColonialism, Socialism, global warming, FEMA, lemurs, 9/11, racism, sexism, Shirley Chisholm, Don Draper, Wet Naps, wet dreams, end times mythology, breakfast cereal, pre stone age henges, and Jesus.
By Tony Kushner.
11:45: Sandman to visit POTUS.
Other stuff:
When even the resident pot head at HBO knows you're a fraud it means the Kool Aid Kegger is finally winding down:
1. I don't want to hear another thing about Michelle Obama's arms as long as I live.
2. The GOP is not dead. Enough already. I don't like the GOP. But the lathering foam that has been worked up by the chattering classes about about a party losing 2 elections is now officially ridiculous. Carter won in 1976 he had a Dem Congress, by 1980 everything had changed.
3. In the mean time I must say I am enjoying the GOP civil war.
4. The Libertarian Party should campaigning to peal away Republicans. They are missing an opportunity. A big chunk of the GOP could be ready to bolt given a choice.
5A. Bill Maher is not funny.
5B. Jay Leno isn't either. (Leno's humor is best described as "catskillian")
6. Why can no one ever make an announced visit to Iraq?
7. Hey Barry, Get off your ass about Don't Ask Don't Tell and the "defense" of marriage act. You PROMISED, dude. Promised to end DADT and promised to repeal that horrific law. Do it.
8. I tried to work up some "outrage" about what Wanda Sykes said at the Correspondence Roman Orgy...but, alas, I cannot. After 20 years of that man's rants, Rush blow back is deserved until proven otherwise. Nor does it bother me that Rush wants Obi to "fail". Every damn liberal worth his or her bone marrow wanted W to "fail". He graciously fulfilled our desires. The faux outrage on the cocktail party left pretty much says everything you need to know about that bunch.
9A. Everyone loves to hate Hollywood and yet, in the throws of a Depression, the top ten films made nearly 170 million dollars this weekend alone. Hollywood is the perfect Laissez-Faire business. No bailouts. No studio has been saved by the Federal government. The Ayn Rand rules of engagement run THE BIZ. Free market mouseketeers should be bowing down to Hollywood's genius. It works in good times and bad. This town wants to make money. That is it. I promise you if the population of the U.S. stopped choosing sex soaked, violence saturated, drug addled, adultery infested movies and TV - they'd stop being made. Everything would be Masterpiece Theater and Free Willy. Having said all that there will be a post this evening about Hollywood's stupid penchant for appearing "politically correct". This is ridiculous and should be railed against along with every other segment of this society that has weoponized language as an end run around censorship.
9B. Finally, if you don't like what a celebrity says then remember the only punishment celebrities understand is being ignored. Ignore them. It will drive them bat shit crazy.
In the middle distance one can see two camps emerging during the Obama era. On one side are what can only be described as the status quo elites and their supporters. On the other are "tea party" types with libertarian instincts. (On the home front, at least.)
As I wrote earlier the tea parties may have been astroturfed by conservative establishment types but they nevertheless hit a nerve - and people did show up in the thousands. The legitimacy of this nascent "movement" won't be known for a while and outside economic events will certainly play a role going forward.
The over the top condescension and attacks on the tea parties from the media elites, most recently the uber smug Bill Maher, should be seen as proof not of dismissal - but of genuine concern that real blow back could be brewing and needs to be checked. It is odd but true: Unlike the mainstream talking heads, I find the Left confused and disoriented at this point and the Right slowly recovering and becoming coherent again. The Left with a few exceptions is still caught in the headlock of the Obama cult and people like Maher are unable to see, or unwilling to admit, that they are the tools of the elite now. Drooling over Obama is, in effect, drooling over those who paid for him - Soros and Goldman Sachs.
Both sides of the emerging debate offered examples of "gut check" responses. The elites/status quo types...(In a nod to Orwell they are currently under the banner of "change" - though the chief "change " agent has busied himself - with a few notable exceptions - with extending and expanding Bush era policies on all fronts.) ...responded from their collective gut - and blasted the tea parties at every turn. Large dollops of snottiness clogged the airwaves - except Fox News which is run by a man with the preternatural ability to clue into gestalts the elites would just as soon ignore.
The tea party types I observed - except those who scream "socialism!" at every turn - were also coming from the gut. Some had specific policy concerns but many - if not all - simply felt something was going very wrong in the country. Certainly Bush kicked this feeling off . The complaint that those people in D.C. don't listen to us, always a feature in American life, has now crystallized with 2 subsequent elections, trillions in bailouts, and financial cave ins - into a sense among some that the monster is out of control. Obama has accelerated this by downplaying his true intentions during the campaign and passing out billions in borrowed money since his inauguration. Like it or not - people did not expect the scale of his ambitions - and the media elites had no intention of playing them up. He was their guy and, by God, he was going to win.
Of course, recent polls argue that I am wrong. 60% are fine with Barry so far. I would argue back that we are in a holding pattern now and that most won't turn until enough time has passed for people to divorce themselves from their recent vote.
The coming arguments will be ruthless on all fronts from Health care, to Carbon taxes, to torture (Obama's first severe self inflicted wound. Soros and Move On have broken from him on this already.). All this will be played against a back drop of increasing unemployment and Israel's growing impatience with Iran.
I suppose the coming fights could be chocked up as the norm in our history - going all the way back to the Federalist versus the Jeffersonians. But the view from the middle distance causes me to see this rendition of the American argument differently in both complexity and tone. Dismal as it sounds, both sides are fighting for the idea of a country which - for different reasons - does not and can not exist. The elite establishment cannot continue to expand its purview with no consequences while expanding our investment in it with health care for all and bromides about credit cards. We just don't have the money. In fact, without the Chinese picking up the tab, we don't have any money. FYI: Credit card company gangsterism is a symptom. Credit itself is the disease.
Conversely the "tea partiers" need to refrain from the delusion that the collected power that they are, in fact, confronting will not fight to the death to keep the system in place. They will. Everyone from Ben Bernanke to Bill Maher will do their part. Whether the "tea partiers" are aware of it or not this is not a fight against taxes or big government - they are arguing against the system itself. That is the were logic leads - and neither side seems to "get it."
Maher can mock (calling them fat white people) the seemingly defuse nature of the first round of blow back because, frankly, it is defuse. But that is because it is frustration with the whole monster - and not focused on its variousparts. More than even that - underneath some of this resentment is disappointment and revulsion against the entire lifestyle conjured in America since at least the 70s is brewing. We've been entertained by bobbles as wages stagnated. The bobbles are losing their ability to distract.
Though elites anywhere can sniff out potential insurrection from 50 paces and blindfolded - the Pelosis and Obamas don't yet grasp the potential gravity of a middle class revolt. But to fight against an unresponsive government at this point is not about making adjustments to the system. The system is set up to be unresponsive to anyone other than those at the top. That is its point. It it what it has evolved into.
The logical end of a new "states rights" movement is a kind of civil war, if not an outright one. The Wall Street Journal had an oped yesterday promoting the idea of a constitutional convention that would reassert the 9th and 10th amendments and repeal the income tax, which would cut off the elites power and lifeline. I recommend reading it, wherever you currently stand. The last 2 times "states rights" became a major issue in this country there was, literally, blood in the streets. Add the jet fuel of economic dislocation and all bets are off for the fire next time.
If I sound gloomy, it is because I am. I tend to agree with Gore Vidal who said "Republics don't restore themselves." They become authoritarian or break apart - which are the 2 options I see just past the middle distance.
The real promise of Obama was that he would heal. Nothing like healing will happen. This is the true betrayal so far.
This comedian is saying something vitally important. (Much more so that Bill the pill Maher, who is not funny and IS a pothead tool of the establishment.)
Louis C.K. is genuinely a humorist. I detect a wee bit of Will Rogers in this clip.
We live in the most amazing world and it is wasted on the crappiest generation...
First off : let the current HBO campaign for Real Time with Bill Maher be the death knell of the the Hope poster ripoffs. Please. Maher has forced that creepy little piece of creepiness to jumpeth the sharketh.
Second: Someone needs to say this, HE'S NOT FUNNY. He delivers Leno's rejected jokes then hosts a round table of largely pointless blather. The hook being that it is "live", though the guests often seem to be anything but...
Third: He is a TOOL. Sorry kidz, but there ain't nothing new or interesting coming out of this guy's mouth. He's a run of the mill, cocktail party circuit, Obama, Limousine liberal. New ground has not been broken on Real Time in a while. Here's what HBO likes: It's cheap to make. Really cheap. Cheap, while maintaining an aura of being relevant, though it is clearly not.
Finally: He's tacky - as he proved beyond the shadow of a doubt when he griped about his mean little Doco not being nominated while presenting the Best Doco Award at the Oscars.
Hoover Versus Keynes: The only ones really worried about the deficit are bankers like Jamie Dimon and bond investors like Pimco managing director Bill Gross
Hoover Versus Keynes: The only ones really worried about the deficit are bankers like Jamie Dimon and bond investors like Pimco managing director Bill Gross
