This is cool?  If this is what’s cool than I’m done; I no longer have any connection with this world.  I’m going to go home and kill myself… - Eric Cartman

*jingle* “you gotta GO with the status quooooo… if you wanna be an average joooeeee….”

Obama ‘house-parties’ seem to be all the rage these days… although I’ve never been to one, I can only imagine how oddly embarrassing it must be to host and/or attend one of these events… meeting with like-minded people to consume an “Obamlet” with “Baraccoli” just doesn’t strike me as a very natural setting… and I’m not entirely sure what kind of appetite I’d have even if I were to subject myself to such an uncomfortable evening.

But just because I’ve never been to one, doesn’t mean I couldn’t develop a pretty decent idea of what one might be like. Here’s a brief snippet of one possible conversation:

Bill: Hey Fred, welcome to my Obama house party!

Fred: O, thanks, Fred. I brought some `Baraccoli` salad [chuckles] and some `husseinsational` brownies for dessert!

Fred: OOO SNAP!

[chuckles all around]..

Bill: [still suppressing some chuckles] Brilliant! I’m sure they will go great with the `Michellefish` sampler Joe brought…

[chuckles all around]..

Fred: Brilliant!

Bill: O, hey Joe!

Joe: Hey, wow, isn’t this great… I mean, why didn’t we think of this before… our wives always have parties for their tupperware or longenberger basket-thingees, I think its about time we threw our own party to celebrate the change that we need for this country..

Bill: Ya, DEFINITELY… we need change, that’s for sure….

Fred: Toootally… for real… I mean, like, if we don’t get any change, than, things will just go on being, like, the same..

Joe: uh, YAAA, that’s what I was saying.

Fred: Totally!

Bill: Ya, Fred, you are SO right.

Joe: well, enough with the deep political chit-chat… Seriously, just thinking about Barack makes me hungry! I can’t wait for the [raises eyebrows and intonation] OBAMAlets!!!

[a round of 'O, snaps!' followed by chuckles all around]..

–END OF CONVERSATION–

Man, ohh man… gag me with a fork… Can you just imagine the left-coast, elitist atmosphere at one of these events? Furthermore, are these ridiculous meet-ups going to have ANY impact on people’s opinions OTHER THAN to make them more quickly associate Obama with Food? This is just a few cards short of a workable campaign idea if you ask me.

Back when the first Muhammad cartoon came out… I stumbled across a flickr album cataloging one man’s attempts to support anything Danish in a sign of solidarity. I just stumbled on it again…and it’s about as funny now as it was at the time (perhaps even more so now). Check it out. I think this is hilarious..

Feb. 19, 2006 — Nothing says “I love Denmark” like a fat middle-aged Jew in a Viking Helmet. Also, just found out from an Iranian friend that the thumbs up hand signal has special meaning in the Mid-East. Apparently it is the equivalent of flipping someone the bird. Take that Islamo-Fascists!

[Me]: Welcome, today I have the pleasure of interviewing Hilldog on today’s issue of BlogstitutioNBC.  Yesterday, Hilldog wrote a really interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal explaining her vision for the future of the country.  To be quite honest, I thought the article was really well written.   Would you mind if I discuss the article with you, Hilldog?

[Hilldog]:  Of course, Joel.  Thanks for having me on your show.

[Me]:  Ok, let me start by reading portions of your latest op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.  You begin by saying: 

Throughout my campaign, I have been listening to the voices of people across America. 

A great introduction.  The message is clearly that you not, in fact, an ideaologue, but a reasonable person who has been molded by the input of thousands of common Americans.  You continue:

I met one man who told me, “I don’t know what I did wrong.  I got my education and I worked hard.  I’ve been at the same company for 12 years now, but I’ve just been asked to train my successor because my job is moving to another country.”

Before I let you jump in here I must say; what a great followup to a great introduction.  Here we immediately are exposed to the stereotypical plight of the common man in it’s utter horror.   Playing on a reader’s emotions for their common man is a sure-fire way to garnish sympathy for a cause.  

[Hilldog]: Yes, Joel; there are just so many people out there that are hurting because of evil corporations.  I think you would agree with me that the French model forbidding firing is clearly the better model. 

[me]: You continue:

Another woman said to me, “I just can’t make ends meet.  My health care premiums have doubled, college tuition is up.  How am I supposed to make it as a single mom?”

Never forget to include plight of the single mothers out there.  Powerful stuff.  A man loosing his job of 12 years, a mom who’s health care premiums doubled… it’s truely horrible.  

But… dare I ask why this man should be guaranteed a job by his current employer?  (the implication is that the employee is owed more).  Why shouldn’t the woman pay the fair market rate for health care?  Why is she footing the bill for her child’s education when other alternatives such as scholarships, loans, and work-study are available for her daughter?  It’s just that none of these questions are presented for our consideration. 

[Hilldog]:  Well DUH!  Why would I want people thinking beyond the immediate problems in our society?  This kind of stuff doesn’t require my constituients to think, only act on emotion.  I don’t have the highest popularilty among the uneducated by accident, you know.

[me]:  Good point, I hadn’t considered that.  You really know how to appeal to your base, that’s for sure.  Ok, moving on.  You discuss in your article the reasons why you want to be president.  You write: 

I am running for president to bring those voices to the White House and give people a chance to achieve the American Dream: having a good job, owning their own home and living with financial security.  That means tackling our toughest challenges–rising inequality, stagnating wages and a growing sense that too many middle class families are just one pink slip away from financial devastation. 

so, are you saying there are no personal reasons why you are running for office?

[Hilldog]: Re-capturing the power of the oval office?  I resent the implication!  No, it is for your voices to be heard, for the realization of the American dream that I run!  Terrorism, bah!  Iranian Nukes, meh!  9.2 trillion in federal debt, merely a diversion from our real challenges my good fellow!  Yes, I truly believe the hardest thing we can overcome as a nation is our “sense” of impending financial doom.  

Read the rest of this entry »

I came across this Calvin & Hobbes strip and realized that this embodies my general blog comment philosophy. It’s definitely true, a short, curt statement can lead to hours of intense debate. If this has caused any unnecessary angst to anyone, I apologize.

I typically stay away from posts that edge on politically incorrect.  My basic reasoning?  I should be able to make the same point with equal forcefulness without needing the (potentially) inflaming statement.  

However, Not every blogger follows this approach.

If you haven’t gathered by now… my blog posts usually have a high correlation to quotes from things I read or people I hear… and this post is no different. If you didn’t already know, Democratic Senator George Biden said recently about fellow Senator Barak Obama,

‘I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy’ (emphasis added)

One can only imagine Biden said this because Obama impressed this upon him–and, one could also conclude that such an opinion was impressed because of the uniqueness (in Biden’s mind) of the quality in question… namely Obama’s cleanliness.

Now, Biden is getting SOME slack for this comment, but I think it would be helpful to remember the comparative slack given to another Senator who said the following words.

“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either,”

Trent Lott, former Senate majority leader, was forced to resign his post because of those words. Not only do they not even mention blacks in any way, but they were said in the context of wishing a very old and feeble man a happy birthday… and yet Lott was crucified for their utterance–by Democrats, by the media, by blacks across the country.

I wonder though, and perhaps you could answer the questions yourself:

• Which statement is more overtly racist?
• Has the media held Biden to the same standards as they held Lott, or have they quickly forgotten the story?
• Who behaved better, Senate Democrats in the Lott case or Senate Republicans in the Biden case? Who was more ruthless in their attacks?

These questions bring to mind another interesting quote. During the Lott fiasco, many Democrats thought that Lott should be “censured” for such a comment. The eerie silence of Democrats in this case isn’t surprising. They quickly forgive racism if its one of their own, but exalt their own moral superiority when it is convenient to do so (one needs go no farther than their tolerance of Robert Byrd). They protect and forgive for overt acts of racism but call for blood when race isn’t even uttered. The media is no better.

But all things being equal, I doubt Biden actually meant anything racist by his comments… and Lott probably didn’t either. Were it not for a troubling double standard applied to Republicans, this post might have been much different. Is “clean” really a racially charged word? Is calling someone “ghetto” or “white trash” any better? Do we not all hear those vernacular regularly without even a second thought to their racial overtones? This media episode points out the sensitivity, insecurity, and fealty to the gospel of political correctness everyone in Washington seems to suffer from–and it kinda makes mes sick!