Getting Exactly What They Deserve

Wall Street bankers, shocked, shocked that Barack Obama, who received seventy percent of their campaign contributions two years ago, are now deserting him in droves and raising money for the Republicans instead. How were these soi-disant financial geniuses so duped by Mr. Hope and Change? Simple: They thought he was one of their own.

Mr. Obama was viewed as a member of the elite, an Ivy League graduate... president of The Harvard Law Review — he was supposed to be just like them. President Obama was the “intelligent” choice, the same way they felt about themselves. They say that they knew he would seek higher taxes and tighter regulation; that was O.K. What they say they did not realize was that they were going to be painted as villains.

What utter fools. If the Republicans have any sense at all (I know, I know) they'll steer clear of these bozos, and their money: they'll only be a millstone around their necks.

Getting Exactly What They Deserve

Wall Street bankers, shocked, shocked that Barack Obama, who received seventy percent of their campaign contributions two years ago, are now deserting him in droves and raising money for the Republicans instead. How were these soi-disant financial geniuses so duped by Mr. Hope and Change? Simple: They thought he was one of their own.

Mr. Obama was viewed as a member of the elite, an Ivy League graduate... president of The Harvard Law Review — he was supposed to be just like them. President Obama was the “intelligent” choice, the same way they felt about themselves. They say that they knew he would seek higher taxes and tighter regulation; that was O.K. What they say they did not realize was that they were going to be painted as villains.

What utter fools. If the Republicans have any sense at all (I know, I know) they'll steer clear of these bozos, and their money: they'll only be a millstone around their necks.

Media Darlin'

A couple of liberal feminists writing in yesterday's New York Times are absolutely furious with Sarah Palin. Despite her regressive and benighted outlook and despite the non-stop verbal assaults from virtually the entire mainstream media, she just keeps chugging along, gaining supporters and, worst of all, receiving more and attention from the same mainstream media which reviles her, more attention than all "real" feminists combined. How dare she! The Democrats better get on the stick, they growl.

Jennifer Rubin in Commentary gives us the how and why Palin effected the coup. It's no great secret: Palin's views are in agreement with vastly more Americans than those of liberal feminists (who never in forty years have come close to enjoying any substantial support among the populace). We should also note, however, why Palin has had such an easy time winning the unceasing, if unloving, embrace of the media: she's hugely entertaining and never dull, i.e. the opposite of liberal feminists. (Q. How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? A. THAT'S NOT FUNNY!)

The New York Times, Andrew Sullivan and all mainstream media may despise Sarah Palin with every inch of their fiber but people take far more note of reports and opinion pieces about her over, say, the head of the National Organization for Women (quick, can you name her or remember the last time you read something about her?). It must be a bitter pill indeed for MSM to realize its unceasingly negative coverage of Sarah Palin has no effect whatsoever on her popularity, other than to increase it, but don't expect media to leave off coverage of her anytime soon: even denizens of the Upper West Side of Manhattan will lap up anything about Palin while relegating to the coffee table, open but unread, the twelve-page interview with Elizabeth Warren Oops! It's one Terry O'Neill--what do I know, or care--(to answer the pop-quiz above) in the New Yorker, to serve as a forlorn prop to their bona fides should unexpected guests drop in.

Media Darlin'

A couple of liberal feminists writing in yesterday's New York Times are absolutely furious with Sarah Palin. Despite her regressive and benighted outlook and despite the non-stop verbal assaults from virtually the entire mainstream media, she just keeps chugging along, gaining supporters and, worst of all, receiving more and attention from the same mainstream media which reviles her, more attention than all "real" feminists combined. How dare she! The Democrats better get on the stick, they growl.

Jennifer Rubin in Commentary gives us the how and why Palin effected the coup. It's no great secret: Palin's views are in agreement with vastly more Americans than those of liberal feminists (who never in forty years have come close to enjoying any substantial support among the populace). We should also note, however, why Palin has had such an easy time winning the unceasing, if unloving, embrace of the media: she's hugely entertaining and never dull, i.e. the opposite of liberal feminists. (Q. How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? A. THAT'S NOT FUNNY!)

The New York Times, Andrew Sullivan and all mainstream media may despise Sarah Palin with every inch of their fiber but people take far more note of reports and opinion pieces about her over, say, the head of the National Organization for Women (quick, can you name her or remember the last time you read something about her?). It must be a bitter pill indeed for MSM to realize its unceasingly negative coverage of Sarah Palin has no effect whatsoever on her popularity, other than to increase it, but don't expect media to leave off coverage of her anytime soon: even denizens of the Upper West Side of Manhattan will lap up anything about Palin while relegating to the coffee table, open but unread, the twelve-page interview with Elizabeth Warren Oops! It's one Terry O'Neill--what do I know, or care--(to answer the pop-quiz above) in the New Yorker, to serve as a forlorn prop to their bona fides should unexpected guests drop in.

Malkin in the Middle

There's another religious controversy taking place in New York City aside from that of the mosque an imam with very questionable links wants erected near the site of the former World Trade Center, one that has not incurred quite the argy-bargy of the other but one worth noting anyway.

Back in May the Catholic League, an advocacy group that gives liberals conniptions, headed by Bill Donohue (whom I find admirable, if a bit of a blow-hard) requested the Empire State Building's management illuminate the top the building in blue and white on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, which is today. Management refused, stating that it violated their policy of not honoring "religious figures." Many people squawked and inconsistencies from the past were noted but the Empire State Building's owner, Anthony Malkin, stuck to his guns and thus has received stinging criticism, particularly from the Catholic League. Meanwhile, loathsome organizations like Catholics [sic] for Choice and others just as bad have lauded Malkin's decision. Despite, however, the miserable company Malkin keeps in this matter I must also support his decision, for two reasons.

One: it's Malkin's building. Despite considerable efforts of liberals these past fifty years to thwart them, we still have property rights in this country; he can do what he likes with it.

Two (and, I suspect, the real reason for his saying no): should Malkin have granted the Catholic League's wish to honor Mother Teresa you can be sure the very next day Muslim organizations would have demanded equal time, insisting on a tribute to the Ayatollah Khomeini or some other such charmer. If they were turned down the shrieks of a double standard, bigotry, racism, hatefulness, divisiveness etc. from them and their water carriers at the New York Times and others in mainstream media would be deafening. Others would follow suit and ere long Malkin would be fending off demands from the likes of Scientologists, demanding tribute to L. Ron Hubbard, and atheists, demanding same for Madeline Murray O'Hare. Litigation would be inevitable and soon every day of the year and then some would be spoken for.

Malkin made a wise and prudent decision for these absurdly multicultural and litigious times.

Malkin in the Middle

There's another religious controversy taking place in New York City aside from that of the mosque an imam with very questionable links wants erected near the site of the former World Trade Center, one that has not incurred quite the argy-bargy of the other but one worth noting anyway.

Back in May the Catholic League, an advocacy group that gives liberals conniptions, headed by Bill Donohue (whom I find admirable, if a bit of a blow-hard) requested the Empire State Building's management illuminate the top the building in blue and white on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, which is today. Management refused, stating that it violated their policy of not honoring "religious figures." Many people squawked and inconsistencies from the past were noted but the Empire State Building's owner, Anthony Malkin, stuck to his guns and thus has received stinging criticism, particularly from the Catholic League. Meanwhile, loathsome organizations like Catholics [sic] for Choice and others just as bad have lauded Malkin's decision. Despite, however, the miserable company Malkin keeps in this matter I must also support his decision, for two reasons.

One: it's Malkin's building. Despite considerable efforts of liberals these past fifty years to thwart them, we still have property rights in this country; he can do what he likes with it.

Two (and, I suspect, the real reason for his saying no): should Malkin have granted the Catholic League's wish to honor Mother Teresa you can be sure the very next day Muslim organizations would have demanded equal time, insisting on a tribute to the Ayatollah Khomeini or some other such charmer. If they were turned down the shrieks of a double standard, bigotry, racism, hatefulness, divisiveness etc. from them and their water carriers at the New York Times and others in mainstream media would be deafening. Others would follow suit and ere long Malkin would be fending off demands from the likes of Scientologists, demanding tribute to L. Ron Hubbard, and atheists, demanding same for Madeline Murray O'Hare. Litigation would be inevitable and soon every day of the year and then some would be spoken for.

Malkin made a wise and prudent decision for these absurdly multicultural and litigious times.

Omnis Traductor Traditor

From the Smoking Gun:

AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media.”

Let us hope the DEA exercises caution when selecting these experts; we surely would not want a mistranslation that could lead to mishap. Perhaps Barbara Billingsley, 94 years young, could be persuaded to come out of retirement one final time to assist her country?



(Thanks to For What It's Worth.)

Omnis Traductor Traditor

From the Smoking Gun:

AUGUST 23--The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records.

A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media.”

Let us hope the DEA exercises caution when selecting these experts; we surely would not want a mistranslation that could lead to mishap. Perhaps Barbara Billingsley, 94 years young, could be persuaded to come out of retirement one final time to assist her country?



(Thanks to For What It's Worth.)

A Tide in the Affairs of Men

From the American Thinker:

There comes a moment in a failing presidency where the incumbent, through some single gesture, action, or statement, crosses a certain line from beyond which there is no return. Through his own will and behavior, he so underlines his failings, so frames his negative image, that no further action can ever erase it. Fate, accident, and circumstance have nothing to do with it. It is the president himself who puts the period at the end of his own sentence.

[snip]

With Obama, we have an abundance of riches: the multiple vacations, the legal harassment of the state of Arizona on behalf of illegals, the clownish response to the Gulf oil blowout. But when historians come to select the moment when Obama went over the edge of the world, I think they'll find the great Iftar mosque speech of August 13, 2010 hard to beat.

Read it all. Ultimately, I think, historians will judge the great tragedy of the Obama presidency as less the hapless flailing of a man hopelessly out of his league than the sad fact we the people of the United elected this incandescently incompetent four-flusher president, despite many, many indications he was not up to the job. The damage done to the American image abroad will be incalculable, perhaps less so with the Europeans, who seemed as taken (in) by Obama as the Americans were, but the goings on in Europe these days are of far less concern to our nation than those in the Middle-East and Asia. Leadership in those regions saw right through the putative Obama mystique and began exploiting his weaknesses from the start. That exploitation will grow in inverse proportion to their respect for the President and the nation.

It is only a matter of time before Iran goes nuclear and the Chinese, with a quasi-belligerent leadership holding a substantial portion of the vast American debt will feel hegemonically tempted as never before, as our president grows weaker and weaker in international esteem. Assuming President Obama is able to ride out the rest of his term, it's going to be a rough couple of years. If this nation is so favored to elect a grownup president president after Obama is gone, he will assuredly have his work cut out for him; hitting the reset button will not be an option.

UPDATE: Letting the cat out of the Cellophane bag: He's not that smart.

A Tide in the Affairs of Men

From the American Thinker:

There comes a moment in a failing presidency where the incumbent, through some single gesture, action, or statement, crosses a certain line from beyond which there is no return. Through his own will and behavior, he so underlines his failings, so frames his negative image, that no further action can ever erase it. Fate, accident, and circumstance have nothing to do with it. It is the president himself who puts the period at the end of his own sentence.

[snip]

With Obama, we have an abundance of riches: the multiple vacations, the legal harassment of the state of Arizona on behalf of illegals, the clownish response to the Gulf oil blowout. But when historians come to select the moment when Obama went over the edge of the world, I think they'll find the great Iftar mosque speech of August 13, 2010 hard to beat.

Read it all. Ultimately, I think, historians will judge the great tragedy of the Obama presidency as less the hapless flailing of a man hopelessly out of his league than the sad fact we the people of the United elected this incandescently incompetent four-flusher president, despite many, many indications he was not up to the job. The damage done to the American image abroad will be incalculable, perhaps less so with the Europeans, who seemed as taken (in) by Obama as the Americans were, but the goings on in Europe these days are of far less concern to our nation than those in the Middle-East and Asia. Leadership in those regions saw right through the putative Obama mystique and began exploiting his weaknesses from the start. That exploitation will grow in inverse proportion to their respect for the President and the nation.

It is only a matter of time before Iran goes nuclear and the Chinese, with a quasi-belligerent leadership holding a substantial portion of the vast American debt will feel hegemonically tempted as never before, as our president grows weaker and weaker in international esteem. Assuming President Obama is able to ride out the rest of his term, it's going to be a rough couple of years. If this nation is so favored to elect a grownup president president after Obama is gone, he will assuredly have his work cut out for him; hitting the reset button will not be an option.

UPDATE: Letting the cat out of the Cellophane bag: He's not that smart.

Ignunt

The rappellent illitterasy of our national media.

Ignunt

The rappellent illitterasy of our national media.

The Highest Bidder

Your Bloviator is finally getting settled after the traumatic experience of moving from Manhattan to the mainland United States, i.e. the Bronx (which is partial explanation for the dearth of blogging these past weeks). Moving (something I have done all too many times in my life) presents one the opportunity for ridding oneself of unneeded items. The new digs are far more spacious than the old but (and I suspect this is a phenomenon of ageing) I find myself increasingly appreciative of clear, uncluttered space and thus decided the time had come to dispose of a good portion of the many, many CDs in my possession, a perquisite of my employment in the music industry.

Most of the CDs were classical and I hoped, rather than throwing them away, to present them to an organization that might be able to use them. My first thought as a Catholic convert was the school attached to my new and thriving parish in the Bronx. I left a voice mail with the school offering them the large number of discs. A few days later I got a friendly message from the headmaster thanking me for my offer but declining it; he could see no use for them in his school. I was disappointed of course and contemplated chucking the whole lot until a friend suggested I contact the nearby Jewish old-age home to see if they might be interested. Indeed they were; I heard from one of their "activities directors," or some-such, a musician himself, who was thrilled with my offer. Earlier this evening I drove the discs over to the home and met the fellow, who was nearly effusive with gratitude, marveling at "the happiness they would bring" to his charges.

My love, even passion, for classical music goes back to my infancy but Catholic or no, I also realize despite the fact that the majority of our great composers were Catholic, there would be little or no classical music in this country these days were it not for the Jews. So while I am sad my Catholic parish school can't find a use for my classical CDs, I am delighted no end a Jewish old-age home can and they will receive many more of them from me in the future. It's a mitzvah, you see: a blessing for them and a blessing for me. Thanks be to God.

The Highest Bidder

Your Bloviator is finally getting settled after the traumatic experience of moving from Manhattan to the mainland United States, i.e. the Bronx (which is partial explanation for the dearth of blogging these past weeks). Moving (something I have done all too many times in my life) presents one the opportunity for ridding oneself of unneeded items. The new digs are far more spacious than the old but (and I suspect this is a phenomenon of ageing) I find myself increasingly appreciative of clear, uncluttered space and thus decided the time had come to dispose of a good portion of the many, many CDs in my possession, a perquisite of my employment in the music industry.

Most of the CDs were classical and I hoped, rather than throwing them away, to present them to an organization that might be able to use them. My first thought as a Catholic convert was the school attached to my new and thriving parish in the Bronx. I left a voice mail with the school offering them the large number of discs. A few days later I got a friendly message from the headmaster thanking me for my offer but declining it; he could see no use for them in his school. I was disappointed of course and contemplated chucking the whole lot until a friend suggested I contact the nearby Jewish old-age home to see if they might be interested. Indeed they were; I heard from one of their "activities directors," or some-such, a musician himself, who was thrilled with my offer. Earlier this evening I drove the discs over to the home and met the fellow, who was nearly effusive with gratitude, marveling at "the happiness they would bring" to his charges.

My love, even passion, for classical music goes back to my infancy but Catholic or no, I also realize despite the fact that the majority of our great composers were Catholic, there would be little or no classical music in this country these days were it not for the Jews. So while I am sad my Catholic parish school can't find a use for my classical CDs, I am delighted no end a Jewish old-age home can and they will receive many more of them from me in the future. It's a mitzvah, you see: a blessing for them and a blessing for me. Thanks be to God.