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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Hothouse Flower?From the New York Times, word that Obama's not one for putting on layers of clothing and turning down the thermostat: The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.” LOL! That's certainly a logical explanation: Don't raise the bridge, lower the river, I suppose? To be fair some liberal bloggers chided Obama for his environmental faux pas, but Wonkette somehow managed to convince itself that he was wearing a sweater: You will recall that, under Bush, everybody had to be in jacket and tie at 6:45 AM, on Saturdays, because he was a *****. President Obama goes to work around 9 AM — later than your Wonkette, for christ’s sake! — and sometimes he wears a SWEATER over his shirt instead of a proper tailcoat and jodhpurs. Yep, they managed to turn it into a celebration of the One, and got a chance to bash Bush as well!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Updike PassesI was not a big fan of his "Rabbit" novels, but the man had some talent. One of my absolute favorite bits of baseball writing was his "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu", the story of Ted Williams' final game. A tight little flock of human sparrows who, from the lambent and pampered pink of their faces, could only have been Boston politicians moved toward the plate. The loudspeakers mammothly coughed as someone huffed on the microphone. The ceremonies began. Curt Gowdy, the Red Sox radio and television announcer, who sounds like everybody's brother-in-law, delivered a brief sermon, taking the two words "pride" and "champion" as his text. It began, "Twenty-one years ago, a skinny kid from San Diego, California . . ." and ended, "I don't think we'll ever see another like him." Indeed. Labels: John Updike
Monday, January 26, 2009
Ayers: Still DeludedCheck out this amazing interview with the Weather Underground nut: But the third aspect of the dishonesty was the idea that some Americans are true and real and OK Americans and other Americans are marginal and bad and dangerous and toxic. The problem with that is that we live in a wild and diverse democracy, and I’m as much an American as Sarah Palin. I was born here. I’m a citizen I have every right to speak.
And the idea that she was trying …to say that because I hold certain views or because I have a certain history – that incidentally that I have dealt with and that I have accounted for in every way required of me – somehow disqualifies me from public participation. There's so much crap in there, it's hard to tell where to start shoveling. He has "accounted for" his history? Not true; although he (mostly) admits involvement in dozens of bombings, he almost never admits exactly what he did. He doesn't think that some Americans are marginal and bad and dangerous and toxic? I suspect he didn't feel that way about LBJ or Richard Nixon back in the day. Nobody says that his history disqualifies him from public participation. But his history does deserve to be considered as part of analyzing his public participation. Nobody says he doesn't have every right to speak; just as nobody says we have to listen to his deluded ramblings.
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