If there is any sea change in the current election, it is that for the first time, no one is running for sainthood. All of the candidates have public flaws. One is an adulterer, one is a former coke head, one is a loudmouth and the other shoots Bullwinkle's relatives and skins them.
You mean we are finally prepared to elect real human beings?
Wow! That is new.
On the humor front from the real culture wars, The Onion is still finding and exploiting those inconsistencies that are the mothers of our befuddlement.
Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Amos Moses Is Gone: Jerry Reed
Among the pickers that are my personal heros is Jerry Reed. Most of you probably remember him as Burt Reynolds' sidekick in the Smokey and The Bandit movies, but for me he was first and always one of the hottest country rock players on a nylon string. He was good, he was funny, he was full of love and on fire. Jerry passed away last night and I don't know any details but I'm sad as sad can be about it. I usually post a video to accent some point I want to make on this blog, but this time, there are several posted just to remember what a fine fine picker this man was. Once again, God bless YouTube for making this stuff available.
Although better known for songs such as When You're Hot You're Hot and Amos Moses, the first song I ever heard him play was his first hit, A Thing Called Love.
Jerry was a fast hand but never better than when playing duets with Chet Atkins. Here's Jerry's Breakdown with Jerry and Chet Atkins.
Here is Jerry playing as he says, a song guitar players associate with him called The Claw.
And last, Jerry sings a Jim Croce song, and right well, an old man in a hat still doing it. Pick it, Amos!
Although better known for songs such as When You're Hot You're Hot and Amos Moses, the first song I ever heard him play was his first hit, A Thing Called Love.
Jerry was a fast hand but never better than when playing duets with Chet Atkins. Here's Jerry's Breakdown with Jerry and Chet Atkins.
Here is Jerry playing as he says, a song guitar players associate with him called The Claw.
And last, Jerry sings a Jim Croce song, and right well, an old man in a hat still doing it. Pick it, Amos!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
God As Cave Painter vs The Sorceror's Apprentice
ABC claims that the image campaign for Palin is already lost given the recent US cover. As always, ABC claims we bitter typical small town types can't make up our own minds until we see what's on aisle eleven next to the mashed potatoes.
If anything, the Palin selection demonstrated that relying on emotional vectoring to steer the election is unreliable. Notice that in one day all of the effort to build up Obama leading to the Big Spectacle was undone and the poles switched to the other side. So I wouldn't count on that cover to change the outcomes. Expect a lot more of that kind of thing though.
Obama is insulated because... well.. umm... because he is.... ummm...a .... lawyer.
But the press only runs with what sells. Someone may find out that Obama's daughters sell their lunch for lipstick or something equally depraved.
The experience drum is loose at the rims. If there are two issues that will cause people to think, they will be:
1. EXTREME conservatism. It scares people when you tell them their children will be taught nonsense science and be unable to compete for a job with an Indian who was taught combinatorics at age ten while you were allowing your children to be told that considering all sides of a question means seriously considering the world was created 5000 years ago.
2. Leadership: at the end of every election cycle we are left with endorphin-addicts who fed on the hate generated by sites like Daily KOS. They have to do something with that energy so the question is can the winner actually redirect that destructive force to positive means or is he merely the Sorceror's Apprentice? See the history of the Sea Peoples in the Mediterranean. Now find a HUD map of the foreclosures in Detroit near the lake. These people will be on the move soon. Ask the Los Angeles police about the connections of uncontrolled immigration and organized crimes in the Bel Air area. Desperate people organize desperately.
Goals vs leadership. Bill Clinton had it exactly right. Are we in trouble? Yes we are. How shall we choose? I don't think that cover sells me against Palin, and that speech in Denver didn't sell me on Obama.
On to the debates. Maybe there will be an essential clue. It seems to be coming down to who can best lead and what are their achievable sustainable goals.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
On Changes
Anyone familiar with my politics knows I've been against the Bush Company from Day One. I swore I'd never vote for a Republican. I'll probably keep that promise but by staying home on election day. A promise is a promise.
On the other hand, anyone familiar with this blog knows I won't vote for Barack Obama. He is the classic Southern-style Elmer Gantry with a Harvard degree in law and so far, a charismatic speaker without an ounce of credible experience to back up his lofty and inspiring but ultimately hollow promises. And a promise is a promise.
McCain's choice for VP is generating controversy, but it does signify change. I'm sure we'll hear more, but on the political blogs, all I am hearing is smear from the left. One pundit went so far as to accuse Governor Palin of being responsible for the condition of her youngest child.
Downs Syndrome is a chromosomal defect caused by extra genetic material (21st chromosome). The facts are all there. All Governor Palin did was decide to let the pregnancy proceed to term and then raise her child. If you have a problem with that, take it up with your pastor, your spouse, shrink or fellow Obamabot.
My son told me last night why he objects to Obama. He said, "They don't support him. They worship him. That's scary and wrong."
If we admire Sarah Palin, it is because in the face of hard choices, she made the right choices. If we don't admire Obama, perhaps like my son, we don't like what he represents, mindless adoration, subservience to the media machine, and in the end, a man who cannot choose between a pastor teaching hatred from the pulpit and his own political ambitions.
The Democrats put on a good show, but their smugness and superiority over the people who get up every day and go to work, who when faced with a lifetime of caring for a child that will almost certainly never be able to care for themselves completely in their life, choose life, that reveals the depth of the hypocrisy at the center of their campaign. These people are about The Great Get Even, and that is not something I can vote for.
Whatever else you think of Sarah Palin, she promised her child a life. A promise is a promise.
Maybe that is the change we need: elected officials who keep their promises.
On the other hand, anyone familiar with this blog knows I won't vote for Barack Obama. He is the classic Southern-style Elmer Gantry with a Harvard degree in law and so far, a charismatic speaker without an ounce of credible experience to back up his lofty and inspiring but ultimately hollow promises. And a promise is a promise.
McCain's choice for VP is generating controversy, but it does signify change. I'm sure we'll hear more, but on the political blogs, all I am hearing is smear from the left. One pundit went so far as to accuse Governor Palin of being responsible for the condition of her youngest child.
Downs Syndrome is a chromosomal defect caused by extra genetic material (21st chromosome). The facts are all there. All Governor Palin did was decide to let the pregnancy proceed to term and then raise her child. If you have a problem with that, take it up with your pastor, your spouse, shrink or fellow Obamabot.
My son told me last night why he objects to Obama. He said, "They don't support him. They worship him. That's scary and wrong."
If we admire Sarah Palin, it is because in the face of hard choices, she made the right choices. If we don't admire Obama, perhaps like my son, we don't like what he represents, mindless adoration, subservience to the media machine, and in the end, a man who cannot choose between a pastor teaching hatred from the pulpit and his own political ambitions.
The Democrats put on a good show, but their smugness and superiority over the people who get up every day and go to work, who when faced with a lifetime of caring for a child that will almost certainly never be able to care for themselves completely in their life, choose life, that reveals the depth of the hypocrisy at the center of their campaign. These people are about The Great Get Even, and that is not something I can vote for.
Whatever else you think of Sarah Palin, she promised her child a life. A promise is a promise.
Maybe that is the change we need: elected officials who keep their promises.
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