Run blog run. Good blog.
Blog News.
It is said that blogs were important in the last election, but I’m not convinced.
Well, sure they were important, but their importance was equivalent, or less than, to rumor, innuendo, pundit blathering, news reports, bullshit spewed at a party or dinner, manifestoes posted on telephone poles and laundromats, the received idea, the fixed idea, the brochure, the insistent phone call or e-mail, the party line, the whim, the birth of Jesus, Muslim extremism, the economy, the weird look you got from those Mormons on the bus, a disturbing tattoo, gay men observed kissing, a stout woman observed playing a slot machine, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a broken window, a fixed window, a rude public employee, a public employee who bent over backwards to help you, a ruthless corporation, a kind corporation, candlelight vigils, team-building seminars, chain letters, spam, Dave Barry, Kurt Vonnegut, Ted Nugent, Mahir, bulging suitcoats, France, whales, genetic modification, and… like that.
Moan Tones
Porn star Jenna Jameson is now marketing “moan tones,” to be downloaded to your cellular phones, and then employed. It’s a brave new world.
Molly Ivins
I go up and then down with Molly Ivins. Her Texas colloquial schtick wears a little thin. But today’s column was quite good. It was about social security reform. She talks about Frank Luntz, conservative pollster, and his recent appearance on Air America:
He was asked: “Do you think it’s fair for Democrats, or reporters or anybody else, to use the words privatization, or private accounts to describe the president’s policy?”
“I think it is fair for the Democrats to do so.”
“Why not the press?”
“Because it’s not—the press is making a pejorative statement.”
“But wait, it’s the phrase that the president himself has used over and over again….”
“Used it.”
“OK—at the point at which he no longer uses the word, reporters have to start using a different verbiage, shall we say?”
“It’s one of the reasons the American people don’t trust the media. If the media wants (sic) to engage in a debate, let it say so. Let them come on the shows as they do on Sundays, and let them state a pont of iview and people know that they’re not getting the journalistic report, they’re getting the opinion of the left wing or the right wing because there are journalists from both sides.”
President Bush, you see, in his argument for the partial/total privatizing of social security, had originally used the phrase “private accounts,” to refer to his alternate plan. In the face of focus groups' response, he changed his phrase to “personal accounts,” which (for some reason) sits better with those whom his potential policies might affect.
I find this debate not only creepy, but stupid. But then again, I am not a fan of President Bush. And his social security policies seem to me to be a bone thrown to his corporate supporters, and not a piece of meat for the actual, you know, beneficiaries of Social Security.
Hackworth
David H. Hackworth, while sharing many of my political views, is endlessly irritating to me. The fact that he has a nickname, for one thing, and is constantly reminding us that he is “Hack” to his friends, really raises my hackles. Nicknames are great, but they should be held as a sacred trust between you and whoever bestowed them upon you. He constantly uses his nickname to give himself an aura of trusted authority, which logic itself apparently cannot bestow.
In other words, I agree with most of what he says, but I wish he would just say it, and withdraw his bluster from the saying. Thoughts?
Ducks DVD
Well, you know… It’s there. It’s good. Buy one.
It is said that blogs were important in the last election, but I’m not convinced.
Well, sure they were important, but their importance was equivalent, or less than, to rumor, innuendo, pundit blathering, news reports, bullshit spewed at a party or dinner, manifestoes posted on telephone poles and laundromats, the received idea, the fixed idea, the brochure, the insistent phone call or e-mail, the party line, the whim, the birth of Jesus, Muslim extremism, the economy, the weird look you got from those Mormons on the bus, a disturbing tattoo, gay men observed kissing, a stout woman observed playing a slot machine, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, a broken window, a fixed window, a rude public employee, a public employee who bent over backwards to help you, a ruthless corporation, a kind corporation, candlelight vigils, team-building seminars, chain letters, spam, Dave Barry, Kurt Vonnegut, Ted Nugent, Mahir, bulging suitcoats, France, whales, genetic modification, and… like that.
Moan Tones
Porn star Jenna Jameson is now marketing “moan tones,” to be downloaded to your cellular phones, and then employed. It’s a brave new world.
Molly Ivins
I go up and then down with Molly Ivins. Her Texas colloquial schtick wears a little thin. But today’s column was quite good. It was about social security reform. She talks about Frank Luntz, conservative pollster, and his recent appearance on Air America:
He was asked: “Do you think it’s fair for Democrats, or reporters or anybody else, to use the words privatization, or private accounts to describe the president’s policy?”
“I think it is fair for the Democrats to do so.”
“Why not the press?”
“Because it’s not—the press is making a pejorative statement.”
“But wait, it’s the phrase that the president himself has used over and over again….”
“Used it.”
“OK—at the point at which he no longer uses the word, reporters have to start using a different verbiage, shall we say?”
“It’s one of the reasons the American people don’t trust the media. If the media wants (sic) to engage in a debate, let it say so. Let them come on the shows as they do on Sundays, and let them state a pont of iview and people know that they’re not getting the journalistic report, they’re getting the opinion of the left wing or the right wing because there are journalists from both sides.”
President Bush, you see, in his argument for the partial/total privatizing of social security, had originally used the phrase “private accounts,” to refer to his alternate plan. In the face of focus groups' response, he changed his phrase to “personal accounts,” which (for some reason) sits better with those whom his potential policies might affect.
I find this debate not only creepy, but stupid. But then again, I am not a fan of President Bush. And his social security policies seem to me to be a bone thrown to his corporate supporters, and not a piece of meat for the actual, you know, beneficiaries of Social Security.
Hackworth
David H. Hackworth, while sharing many of my political views, is endlessly irritating to me. The fact that he has a nickname, for one thing, and is constantly reminding us that he is “Hack” to his friends, really raises my hackles. Nicknames are great, but they should be held as a sacred trust between you and whoever bestowed them upon you. He constantly uses his nickname to give himself an aura of trusted authority, which logic itself apparently cannot bestow.
In other words, I agree with most of what he says, but I wish he would just say it, and withdraw his bluster from the saying. Thoughts?
Ducks DVD
Well, you know… It’s there. It’s good. Buy one.
posted by Merle Kessler at 6:24 PM
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