Man, the more I read about that debate, the more frustrated and angry I am. . . that I missed it!!!
Guys, seriously: Are we talking about Lincoln-Douglas, Part II? Was it that good?
Because I’m starting to feel like I missed history being made. Is this what it felt like for the people who didn’t watch the moon landing, or the fall of the Berlin Wall, or whatever the greatest thing of all time was before this debate?
People say, “You’ve got to read David Brooks’s trenchant analysis of how important this debate was, as usual he hits the nail on the head,” but I can’t do it. . . because then I’ll be even sadder that I missed it!!!
Here’s another recent article from my favorite magazine (even though it’s so goddamn big and ungainly it’s hard to fold in half to fit in my little shoulder bag that I wear sometimes so I can look all faggy and elitist).
Gary Willis compares two speeches by Illinois know-nothings:
The most damaging charge against each was an alleged connection with unpatriotic and potentially violent radicals. Lincoln’s Republican Party was accused of supporting abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison, who burned the Constitution, or John Brown, who took arms against United States troops, or those who rejected the Supreme Court because of its Dred Scott decision. Obama was suspected of Muslim associations and of following the teachings of an inflammatory preacher who damned the United States. How to face such charges? Each decided to address them openly in a prominent national venue, well before their parties’ nominating conventions.
Speaking of which: I just noticed something disturbing. . . I have never seen a photo of Abraham Lincoln wearing a flag pin on his lapel. What’s up with that? Weren’t we at war while he was President?
Poppy harvest is approaching, and it’s eradication time in southern Afghanistan! This is as good a time as any to look back on the debate I have been having with (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) and the US Government over the relationship of the drug economy to poverty and counter-narcotics strategy.
Basically, what my man has been saying is, our anti-poppy efforts in Afghanistan have done more harm than good. (One might say our anti-poppy policies are poopy.) The people in charge of those poopy anti-poppy policies have not taken kindly to Rubin’s cristicisms:
The experience has been quite frustrating. I am sure that I am wrong about some things. I would welcome debate on the points that we raised. But instead the responses have consisted of combinations of: creating easy targets (“straw men”) by distorting arguments in our report and elsewhere into ridiculous caricatures, and then refuting these distortions; repeating dogmatic formulae without engaging or acknowledging the arguments against the way that these dogmatic formulae are being applied; and changing the subject by asserting obvious facts as if these facts refuted other arguments. . .
There is evidence that our counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan are alienating and further impoverishing the very people whose sympathy and support we need.
Huh? Why would we do that?
The real argument in this case is that the struggle against terrorism takes priority over the welfare (or lives) of poor Afghan farmers. That is not an empirical proposition but a political one — but one that those in power prefer not to articulate. On strictly empirical grounds, this political position is self-defeating. Without gaining the support of the poor majority of Afghanistan for a government integrated into the international system, we will never be able to secure the country and region against al-Qaida and its offshoots.
(I know, I know: Why am I posting about our self-defeating counter-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan, when the issue was covered so thoroughly in last night’s debate? I don’t know. . . I guess I just like being redundant.)
Failure often seemed to be the high road to success in the Bush administration, but no one has failed so gloriously upward as Condoleezza Rice. . .
I love the concept of “failing upward.” Is this one of those ideas you can buy books about in Barnes & Noble’s business section? Is it like THE BLACK SWAN and SEVEN HIGHLY HABITS and HOW TO MAKE LONG LISTS?
Guys, my foot is sore and my butt is sore because I’ve been kicking myself all morning!
I forgot about the debate last night! I saw The Counterfeiters instead. (Micro-review: I liked it.)
Anyway, I’m sorry I missed the debate. Sounds like it was a really good one. A really, really, really, good one. Serious. . . hard-hitting. . . touching all the big issues. . . the issues that affect us all as Americans. . . like Obama’s secret support of the Weather Channel Underground(?), a terrorist group that has learned how to time-travel back to the 1960s(?) to kill us with tornadoes and tropical storms(?)
I knew the questions would be good when I saw the moderators: Charles Gibson. George Stephanopluloulls. Two journalists at the top of their game. . . helping us understand where the candidates stand on all the important issues of national importance. Like: Did you know Obama burned his American-flag lapel pin(?) I didn’t know those little things could burn, but I guess he used some special, Muslim fire. . .
I think I’ll read some more about the debate and post my thoughts later.
As an elitist, I enjoy watching movies most people can’t understand. (Including some black & white movies from olden times.)
So last night, I watched this extremely normal (to me) movie called Southland Tales. You would probably think it was weird, but for me, it was totally hum-drum. “Is that the best you got? I saw INLAND EMPIRE. . . step up your game.”
Just kidding, this movie was totally bizarre and nonsensical. But I send thoughts of love and affection to all the Hollywood stars who worked in it. ESPECIALLY THE ROCK!
This was the best scene in the movie. . . like a beautiful jewel sparkling in a crazy, clunky ring you would never wear out of the house:
I can’t really explain what was going on in the movie when they cut to this scene, but for some reason I had a strong emotional reacton to it:
A reaction of pure excitement.
Also, I hate to admit this because it will knock 10 points of my elitist ranking, but I think this song is a jam. Maybe that’s what I got excited about. Whenever I feel like I may be encountering a jamming song, I get really hyper and I start thinking, “HOT JAM? HOT JAM? IS THIS A HOT JAM?” And then, if the song truly steps up to the jam, I get really happy and my mind is like, “WE ARE JAMMING NOW WE ARE JAMMING NOW! HOT JAM! HOT JAM! IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE ALIVE!!!”(I get this feeling maybe once every three years.)
So after the movie was over (umm. . . like, after four hours. . . not a short film) I went on the internet (high-speed broadband, the choice of all elitists) to track down the artist and guess what? It’s by this band called THE KILLERS.
And you know what? You can make fun of me for being a teenage girl or whatever, but in my book, the Killers are two-for-two when it comes to hot jams.
“Two-for-two?”
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I will admit: I once heard another song the Killers made called “When You Were Young,” and I liked it. I liked it so much, I bought it on the Apple Music Store thing a couple years ago. (Ask my wife how often I buy songs on the Apple Music Store thing. . . answer: Not very often, maybe five times since they opened the store).
And I think “When You Were Young” qualifies as — yes — a jam. Once I even listened to it five times in a row. So sue me!!!
Two-for-two!
I can’t be an elitist every second of every day! Besides, classical music is BORING sometimes.
Don’t know about you guys, but I am just SO WORRIED about whether Obama can defeat John McCain in the fall. I just don’t know if Obama can pull off an upset over an authentic American hero who was tortured in the 1920s(?).
I mean, with all these comments about “Bitterness” and “Clinging to religion” and “I am secretly a Muslim terrorist,” I just fear that Obama has fatally shot himself in the foot (like maybe the bullet bounced off his foot and then lodged in his heart-valve).
I really don’t see how Obama can go head-to-head with the youthful, young-looking, incredibly young-seeming and -sounding John McCain in a debate.
What if someone asks them about the economy? McCain’s intuitive, masterful grasp of the subject will be so impressive, people will just look at each other and say, “This guy must be some kind of a financial genius — we definitely need him in charge of our postindustrial economy, because he TOTALLY UNDERSTANDS THE SHIT OUT OF IT.”
Also, I hate to say it, but: Appearances matter. And when Obama and McCain are standing beside each other on the stage, Obama is just going to look so worn out and tired next to McCain, people will be like: “I am unhappy with the direction of our country, so I want to vote for a new direction, and that direction is named JOHN McCAIN BECAUSE LOOK HOW NON-OLD AND NON-WRINKLY HE IS! He is definitely a leader who knows how to handle the challenges of today’s world, like maybe even how to program a VCR.”
And also, everyone is sick of the war, and John McCain voted for the war, so people will vote for John McCain, because of some reason, I bet!
Anybody hear it? I’m sorry to say I missed it. I feel bad; I probably would have learned a lot. Overall, I’ve been impressed by McCain’s grasp of the economy.
(“Economy” is that thing with the money, right? Where it’s like, “Cut taxes, raise taxes, stocks, budgets. . .” and then you get a little bored and confused? I think that’s it.)
Anyway, did you hear about how McCain was tortured in some jungle a hundred years ago or something? Sounds interesting, I might look into it. . . we could have an authentic American hero on our hands. . .
Maybe John McCain could take Economy into the jungle and strangle it and destroy it, like how Rambo killed those Chinese(?) people in the Africa(?). . . McCain could teach that dirty ol’ Economy a lesson: YOU BETTER NOT MESS WITH US.
GAS TAX HOLIDAY, BABY!
Don’t look now, Economy, but we’re coming for you! YOU WON’T EVEN HEAR US SNEAKING UP ON YOU BECAUSE WE’LL BE VERY QUIET.
Would someone please go tell this “Gallup” fellow that REAL Americans are upset about Obama’s totally outrageous, from-out-of-LEFT-field Marxist attacks on hardworking American patriot hunter-gatherers?
