Lunch Mash Up 3/13/09

Quote:

The miserable have no other medicine but only hope.

W. Shakespeare
from Measure For Measure

No Bull Reading and Watching For Friday:
1. Truth is Gold - We're Surrounded...That Simplifies Our Problem.
2. Paglia Pummels: I've always admired Paglia for going after the "gender studies" crowd and still retaining her liberal identity. Her thinking is clear and consistent, unlike many of her contemporaries on the feminist Left. "Every penny Rush has earned was the result of his rapport with a vast audience who felt shut out and silenced by the liberal monopoly of major media."
3. Two from the Christian Science Monitor.
A. Unreal Estate - Treasury Dept plans 1 trillion dollar bailout for Malls. No this is not from the Onion. I kid you not. Unreal. Another trillion that simply does not exist for the American institution least likely the survive. THE MALL. This is a delusion, rapped in a fantasy, covered with hallucinations...
B. Post Christian? The coming evangelical collapse. Actually, I think this writer is wrong and having a "Happy, Earnest Young Christan" (We all know the type from high school) delusion about the fledgling "home church" movement. A smaller, more community based Christianity is set for a big comeback, because a smaller, more community based everything is set for a big comeback. Depressions being what they are...
P.S. - as a "born just once - thank you very much - deeds actually matter more than a momentary spasm of accepting a Technicolor, 70 millimeter Jesus as my lord and savior Christian - of the Anglo-Catholic, go to confession, ash on the forehead, occasionally vespers attending, organ music variety I want to say: I find the happy, earnest, let's pal around together, version of Jesus almost unbearable. Not sure why I wanted to say that - but I did. I am wary of them in the same way I am of bears in the woods, or 80s TV stars on Melrose.
4. From the Right: I agree with Will on BHO's budget and his handling of the economy. He says Obama is not being "clear or plausible" - I called the budget blueprint ridiculous and absurd. Will says: The first president whose campaign was his qualification for office continues to campaign.
5. From the Bronx: Celente predicting food riots in the U.S. this year. Like that nutty Russian, this American ( sub species found just north of Manhattan: Homo Inyourface-culus ) also thinks America may break apart. But, happily, he says: Without art we are doomed. And recommends sending kids to art school.

6. Agree with him or not, he's important. Stewart matters. Like his destruction of Crossfire - he pulled CNBCs cover with mocking humor. In both cases pointing out the debasing of information for the purpose of ratings and entertainment. Mr. Chayefski pointed out the dangers to a democracy of "scream journalism" way back when with this movie.

Music: From the 80s. Fine Young Cannibals cover a cover by Elvis -beautifully in my book. Roland Gift's voice is sexy and unique enough to revisit The King without inviting disappointment.

Fine Young Cannibals - Suspicious Minds
by hushhush112

Lunch Break

Go For It: You have nothing left to lose, Rod. Spill the beans. All of them. On EVERYONE.

Quote: I've been interested to see how Caroline Kennedy will be handled. As we watch that, we'll be able to prove that there's a class issue here.

Sarah Palin on the media's treatment of her and Caroline Kennedy's candidacies.



Puma Pride: Please vote for Uppity, The Confluence, and Deadenders, here, here, and here. Everyone gets one vote per category per 24 hours. Despite the frothing Pod Blogs being in the flush of BHO's ascendancy (though it does seem to me they are beginning to wane) the PUMAs are making a very good go of it.

Disappearing act: What happened to the RCP readers page?

Sarah Sitdown: ...she is as down to earth and honest as they get....

Music: Flood - Jars of Clay
I do not like "Christan rock" It is too "earnest" for me...I have a problem with the "happy, earnest Jesus" - which springs exclusively those who never really experience oppression in this culture. Too often it is about making their lives seem tragic, or it is weirdly homoerotic adjacent, or it is just grating. (As if often the case, the best satire around on this topic is the South Park episode called Faith Plus One.) and, as I stated earlier this week, my religion is not about venerating jesus but about pivoting toward christ...nevertheless this Jars of Clay song is good pop music...

Again???Another slide show of Los Angeles. If I could make a living snapping pics of people on my walks I would drop all else...