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Friday, November 11, 2011

W.C. FIELDS WAS AWESOME 

I'm reading a book about W.C. Fields. A lot of it is letters and telegrams and things like that. This is from a 1922 letter to his wife:


While I apprecate the spirit in which Claude offers prayers for my success I wish he would bother no further. Prayers never bring anything. You should know that better than anything. They may bring solace to the sap, the bigot, the ignorant, the aboriginal and the lazy - But to the enlightened it is the same as asking Santa Clause to bring you something for Xmas. So please tell him to utilize his time to better advantage.
"Claude" in the letter is W.C. Fields Jr., who would have been about 18 at the time.

Oh, that Bill Fields! Didn't he know you're not supposed to say any of this, no matter how obvious it is? He should have been more politically correct!

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Wednesday, November 09, 2011

THE MARK OF CAIN: Talking Points 

I keep meaning to comment on the Big Golden Book of Republican Talking Points, but it is so hard to get a current copy when they keep updating every three or four hours when a new Herman Cain accuser comes forward.

First, Cain's supporters dismiss the accusers because they are anonymous. Then, when they are no longer anonymous, they are attacked for just wanting to be in the spotlight, or for the money, or because they are Democratic operatives.

Not wanting to exhaust myself, I only tackled three of the Herman Cain-related talking points from the last decade or so. (I guess it hasn't been a full decade since Herman Cain entered our lives and enriched us so. It just seems like it.) Perhaps, if I ever get my appetite back after tackling such a foul-smelling cesspool of willful ignorance and blatant dumbassery, I may once again comment on a later edition of The Big Golden Book of Republican Talking Points.

NUMBER ONE

Why has it taken so long for these women to come forth?
- Teapsalm
The implication, much like the similarly shrill "Look at the timing!" meme, seems to be saying that these women should have come forward at some point before it was known that Herman Cain would be a front-runner for the GOP nomination.

I don't really see much sense in using a lame distraction tactic like "Look at the timing!" when the accusations are made a full year before the election (which makes absolutely no sense at all if you are trying to push the idea that this is a "liberal smear") and several months before the first GOP primary (this makes a little more sense, especially for the theory that the Perry campaign or the Romney campaign released this info.)

Is there some good reason why a woman who had been harrassed by someone like Herman Cain migh hesitate before coming forward with accusations like these? Can we look at the past and see an example of a woman being vilified for similar accusations against a powerful Republican?

Yes, we can! (This incident has spawned another talking point that Anita Hill's accusations were proven false. The fact that I have never seen a single fact linked with this assertion is what makes it a talking point.)

Can we look at the more recent past and find a similar attack on a woman who came forward?

Again, yes we can!

So why didn't these women come forward earlier against a powerful man like Herman Cain?

(Well, aside from the nondisclosure agreements signed by some of them.)

Is it really that hard a question?

NUMBER TWO

BILL CLINTON = adultery in the house his wife and daughter lived. You loved Clinton, you forgave Clinton. Now you are ready to hang a man because he is not a democrat.
- spiT4u2
I think he is trying to say that sexual harrassment is the same as consensual sex, and that Herman Cain is under attack because he is a Republican because if he was a Democrat, the story would be ignored.

Well, I don't remember the Republicans ignoring Clinton, Weiner, Edwards, Gary Hart or any Democrat when allegations of a sexual nature appeared. Perhaps dishonest Republicans can make accusations like this and they can claim there's a double standard, but it just doesn't hold up under the least bit of scrutiny.

Honest conservatives, when they find themselves stuck in the echo chamber with dittohead gibberish like this, should speak up and tell their fellow conservatives that blatant and childish like this doesn't make conservatives look very smart or sensible or honest, and it doesn't gain them any friends that a decent person would want.

NUMBER THREE

I am not a politician.
Herman Cain

I hear this a lot. Not just from Herman Cain. From a lot of his supporters.

But I have my doubts. He was the senior economic adviser to Bob Dole when Dole ran for the presidency in 1996. (Dole lost.) He ran - briefly - for the presidency in 2000. (He lost.) He ran to be a U.S. Senator from Georgia in 2004. (He lost in the primary.) He's running for the presidency now. (He's floundering a bit at the moment by reacting to serious accusations with a bunch of childish nonsense.)

So, is he not a politician just because he's not very good at it?

And then there's the National Restaurant Association. Herman Cain was president and CEO from 1996 to 1999. One of its roles is to lobby for the restaurant industry in Washington. It's a lobbying organization. (And if there's one thing consistenly considered lower than your average politician, it's your average lobbyist. Funny how the so-called Liberal Media (TM) never mentions that the National Restaurant Association is a lobbying organization.)

Not a politician? Come up with a useful and relevant definition of "politican" and we'll see if it fits Herman Cain.

THE LAST WORD

Perhaps I could give Cain the benefit of the doubt if he had ever given a single response to the sexual harrassment charges - or a single response to anything - that wasn't arrogant or sarcastic or childish or vile.

Perhaps if he had said a single thing that indicates that he has any respect for his supporters. Or if he had said a single thing that indicates that he thinks his supporters need to be shown any respect.

Maybe then I could find the space in my heart for some wiggle room for Herman Cain.

I'm not holding my breath.

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Tuesday, November 08, 2011

LAST MAN SLANDERING: The Bench 

The race to the bottom in the desperate struggle to be the GOP candidate in 2012.

We will now give Herman Cain a break to talk about some of the other GOP White House hopefuls, candidates who, at this point, are doing worse than Herman Cain.

NEWT GINGRICH

Used to be Speaker of the House. Claims to be a historian. Mostly famous for his disgraceful treatment of his bed-ridden first wife.

I sigh with disappointment that this man's 15 minutes of fame are not used up yet. Sarah Palin, for all the other things you can say about her, has at least provided many hours of amusement for America and the world.

Newt Gingrich cannnot even claim that much.

Some of my friends have told me to be nice. By making the Gingrich entry short and not providing any links, I AM being nice.

JON HUNTSMAN

Used to be governor of Utah. Was ambassador to Singapore under George H.W. Bush and ambassador to China under Barack Obama. Mostly famous for spelling his first name "Jon."

I spent some time looking for the craziest things he has ever said and, after I got bored from the lack of worthy material, I picked this at random:


We need to continue working closely with China to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
- Jon Huntsman
Isn't that a bad thing? Aren't the Chinese a bunch of Communists? Instead of "working closely" with them on anything, shouldn't we be preparing to go to war with them and screaming "treason" at anyone who disagrees? (Perhaps I'm getting them mixed up with Iran.)

It's just not that crazy. He seems to be mostly sane. I think Huntsman's major weakness may well be his weird delusion that he has anything in common with the crazed, fearful dimwits that vote for Republicans.

Another drawback: As a Mormon, he doesn't get to show off to "Values Voters" that he's the most Jesus-y candidate of them all.

RICK SANTORUM

Used to be a senator from Pennsylvania. Hates Satan, homosexuals, liberals and the good sense God gave him.

And that's pretty much it except for quotes like this:


Society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.
- Rick Santorum
and other statements that are not much like anything that might fit into the "What Would Jesus Say?" category. Not as I understand Jesus. I'm rather under the impression that Jesus isn't a total douche. But it seems an awful lot of self-proclaimed Christians are fine with saying that homosexuality is the same as bestiality or pedophilia.

(This comment, by the way, spawned Santorum's Google Problem.)

Santorum has not been polling well, in the 1% to 3% range lately, so it seems many Republicans are not quite dumb enough to buy what he is selling.

Which is not much of an endorsement for Rick Santorum.

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THE MARK OF CAIN: Not playing the race card 

Herman Cain, and the phenomenon surrounding him, has become such a bountiful source of material that we have inaugurated a new series, "The Mark of Cain," to accommodate more of Mr. Cain's inspirational utterances and entertaining actions.

Yet another example of Herman Cain not "playing the race card":

When Margaret Sanger – check my history – started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world. You don't see that talked that much about. It's Planned Parenthood. No, it's planned genocide. And you can quote me on that.
- Herman Cain


It looks a lot like "playing the race card." But it isn't. Remember, Herman Cain, a Republican, is immune to charges that he is "playing the race card." No matter how often or how flagrantly he says something that looks a lot like "playing the race card."

Herman Cain: Definitely crazy enough for the GOP.

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Monday, November 07, 2011

MONDAY MINI-CONCERT 

"Wuthering Heights"

"Solsbury Hill"

"Call of the West"

"Up the Junction"

"The Man With the Golden Gun"

"Pirate Jenny" by Marianne Faithful

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