Charlotte Allen in the Washington Post, writing something that surely would not have been published during the Summers controversy:
“Women ‘Falling for Obama,’ ” the story’s headline read. Elsewhere around the country, women were falling for the presidential candidate literally. Connecticut radio talk show host Jim Vicevich has counted five separate instances in which women fainted at Obama rallies since last September. And I thought such fainting was supposed to be a relic of the sexist past, when patriarchs forced their wives and daughters to lace themselves into corsets that cut off their oxygen.
I can’t help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women — I should say, “we women,” of course — aren’t the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women “are only children of a larger growth,” wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right?
[...]
We exaggerate, of course. And obviously men do dumb things, too, although my husband has perfectly good explanations for why he eats standing up at the stove (when I’m not around) or pulls down all the blinds so the house looks like a cave (also when I’m not around): It has to do with the aggressive male nature and an instinctive fear of danger from other aggressive men. When men do dumb things, though, they tend to be catastrophically dumb, such as blowing the paycheck on booze or much, much worse (think “postal”). Women’s foolishness is usually harmless. But it can be so . . . embarrassing.
Alas, no one’s foolishness is harmless in a democracy.
Assuming they’re both guilty of what the rumors say they’ve done, the upside is that they aren’t as stupid as they sound. The downside is that they’re even bigger scumbags than I’ve been assuming they are, if that’s even possible. And if the Clinton campaign’s denials are true, well, that means in addition to being a slimy, disgusting politician, she’s as stupid as she sounds.
Well, the switcheroo of the office and the living room progresses - lots of crap has been moved, the network is up again, etc. Aches and pains have just necessitated a beer break. I anticipate an additional Vindaloo-related break shortly, as well.
If you want to understand white people, you need to understand indie music. As mentioned before, white people hate anything that’s “mainstream” and are desperate to find things that are more genuine, unique, and reflective of their experiences.
Fortunately, they have independent music.
A white person’s iPod (formerly CD collection) is not merely an assemblage of music that they enjoy. It is what defines them as a person. They are always on the look out for the latest hot band that no one has heard of so that one day, they can hit it just right and be into a band BEFORE they are featured in an Apple commercial.
UPDATE: also via Illka, Half-Sigma highlights a SWPL commenter’s guess at the ethnicity of the blog’s author. Right or not, there’s a lot of interesting (well, to me) info there about Asian-American culture.
What was especially noteworthy about his Virginia speech were the diversions Obama took from the prepared text. Because of Obama’s improvised moments, this speech was different than the usual fare he offers. We didn’t get the normal dosages of post-partisanship or even “elevation.” Virtually every time Obama deviated from the text, he expressed the partisan anger that has so poisoned the Democratic party. His spontaneous comments eschewed the conciliatory and optimistic tone that has made the Obama campaign such a phenomenon. It looked like the spirit of John Edwards or Howard Dean had possessed Obama every time he vamped. While Paul Krugman probably loved it, this different Obama was a far less attractive one.
[...]
What makes Obama’s Jefferson-Jackson speech especially relevant is where he went when he went off script. The unifying Obama who has impressed so many people during this campaign season vanished, replaced by just another angry liberal railing against George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Exxon Mobil, and other long standing Democratic piñatas. The pressing question that Obama’s decidedly uninspiring Jefferson-Jackson oratory raises is which Obama is the real Obama–the one who read beautifully crafted words from a Teleprompter after his victory in Iowa, or the tediously angry liberal who improvised in Virginia?
Maybe we can elect whoever it is who’s writing his speeches.
I’ve been reading quite a bit in the last few weeks - making sure I’m getting my moneys worth from Amazon Prime.
I ordered “The Boy, Me, and the Cat” by Henry Plummer. Mr. Plummer, his son and Scotty the cat sailed from Buzzard’s Bay down to Florida and back, almost 3,000 miles, on a 24 foot Cape Cod catboat in 1912. How do I know its going to be good? From the back cover:
…to supplement their stores, Plummer took along a .22 rifle, fitted with a silencer, which they named “Helen Keller.”
With the loose change found under the couch cushions of a third-tier Hollywood producer, France has launched its most expensive movie - sorry, “film” - ever: Asterix at the Olympic Games. TIME magazine tells us:
A Gallic national treasure, Asterix is revered and adored by the French far more than even Mickey Mouse is by Americans.
I revere and adore Asterix more than Mickey Mouse, myself - who wouldn’t? Anyway, I’ll have to rent this series sometime, Asterix is awesome (aside: those wanting to instill a love of reading into any young children they may have should get right to it). And for the Hollywood remake - yeah, never happen, and probably shouldn’t - I’d nominate Steve Zahn for the part of Asterix.
And how odd to be blogging about Asterix andTintin, two of my favorite comics from my elementary school years, on the same day.
Slipping mad props for one of your favorite artists into an only semi-related product review! Well done, anonymous Boston Globe Business writer, well done!
