Category Archives: Scribbles

Getting off the outrage bus

Posted on August 8, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting off the outrage bus

There’s nothing more despicable than the way the so-called “news” media herds together with politicians to pummel the latest intemperate remark of someone (usually a Republican) they don’t like. I used to play. But no more.

Rich demagogue Trump is the latest example. So he insulted the Fox News babe? She was clearly trying to undermine him with her “questions.” So he fought back intemperately. So what?

Although I have to say I still think he’s a ringer dispatched by the Clintons and other NY pols to embarrass the GOP. Not that their so-called leadership doesn’t embarrass them enough all on their own.

And I’m still on board with Carly, who is the best of the lot, with the best chance.

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Posted in Obsessions, Scribbles, The Culture

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Skipping the “debate”

Posted on August 6, 2015 | Comments Off on Skipping the “debate”

I have no plans to watch the GOP shindig tonight, even if Ted Cruz made the cut. There is no Carly and so, except for Trump, they’ll all be little echoes of each other. Taking swipes at each other, as well, and making their stump speeches.

Trump might be amusing, but no more than that I’d bet. Carly would keep them all on their toes and hit Ma Barker at every opportunity. Will Trump? Maybe, if he can forget about their friendship and all the money he gave her campaign back in ’08 when he called himself a Democrat.

I’ll read the after-action reports when I get time but I’ll skip watching the “talent show.”

UPDATE: “Republicans, wake up.  [Carly] may be the best thing that has happened to you since the proverbial sliced bread.  She would eat Hillary Clinton for breakfast, lunch and dinner, assuming our Lady of Chappaqua isn’t indicted first.”

They’re not called the Stupid Party for nothing.

MORE:  Maybe I should have watched it, like the 24 million others who did. But I had more important things to do.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, The Culture

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The dirtiest poem in the English language

Posted on August 3, 2015 | Comments Off on The dirtiest poem in the English language

Fashionable-Contrasts

Was this dirtiest poem ever (its sentiments expertly depicted above) written a short while ago, you may ask? Only if you consider 1755 to be recent.

Indeed, the poem by Thomas Potter, the “debauched son of the Archbishop of Canterbury” was first published by John Wilkes, the father of press freedom and civil liberties. To the extent we still have any after the Obama administration, NSA, FBI, CIA, Google, Facebook, Russian and Chinese hackers, etc. finish with us.

The poem, which certainly is tame by 21st century standards, nevertheless will show you that, among other things, the F-word isn’t of recent vintage either. Although ours may be the first culture in the history of the language to have rendered it commonplace in public discourse.

Via The John Wilkes Club

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Posted in Blogosphere, History, Library, Obamalot, Scribbles, The Culture

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Another sad Ishiguro tale

Posted on June 23, 2015 | 2 comments

If you don’t like heartbreaking stories you should skip Kazuo Ishiguro’s newest novel, The Buried Giant. One Amazon reviewer said he broke trust with the reader at the end. Without telling any spoilers I can see that. It certainly surprised me, though it shouldn’t have. Not after Never Let Me Go, for instance. Even his Remains of The Day which made his name and fame was a cold downer of a novel.

Ishiguro says he’s following the literary trail blazed by so many before him, Faulkner for instance, illuminating the “human condition,” as they say, which is to say that life is a tragedy waiting to happen in case it’s not so obvious in the beginning and the middle of yours. I wonder if Ishiguro isn’t also getting even for Nagasaki, the atom-bombed town of his birth, though he was born long after the radiation had dissipated.

As he has one bitter character in The Buried Giant say: When rescue isn’t possible, there’s always revenge. So would I recommend the novel? Only if you like sad stories. Some people do. I’m not one of them, so why did I choose another one of his after Never Let Me Go? Maybe it’s because he casts a spell that makes you believe something good is coming and you’re only disappointed when you find, at the end, that, once again, it wasn’t.

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Posted in Library, Obsessions, Scribbles, The Culture

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Wrestling with a marshmellow

Posted on May 18, 2015 | 4 comments

Sometimes journalistic cliches just ricochet off my eyeballs and provoke a titter somewhere below my belly button. To wit this NYTimes revelation of new challenges (boo, hoo) for the drug police:

“Across the country, law enforcement agencies long accustomed to seizures of bagged, smokable marijuana are now wrestling with a surge in marijuana-infused snacks and confections transported illegally across state lines for resale.”

Next up for the SWAT team: raiding kindergarten lunch bags. In the schools which still allow confections. As opposed to the ones requiring Mooch’s carrot sticks.

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Posted in Scribbles, The Drug War

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Bloggers may lose First Amendment protections

Posted on April 21, 2015 | 1 comment

Depending on how the next Texas court defines “nonmedia,” that is. The Texas Court of Appeals for the Second District (Dallas), seems to be saying if you’re not part of the institutional media, it will be easier for plaintiffs to win a libel judgement against you.

“…this is an unfortunate result, and also requires Texas courts to now decide who counts as ‘media’ for First Amendment purposes. Do book authors qualify? Filmmakers? Academics? Bloggers? (Does it matter whether they make money blogging? Whether they blog on The Washington Post site, even if they are not newspaper employees?)”

I learned to be wary of libel when I was a newspaperman. Hence I try to reserve my criticisms here for obvious public figures, like the Worm, Godzillary and Joey Hairplugs. Take on a small-town mayor, however, one who is not wellknown beyond his jurisdiction and you might run afoul of this new ruling. Not to mention criticizing a private citizen with less-than-temperate language—which would have been true even before the ruling.

Via The Volokh Conspiracy

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Posted in Blogosphere, Scribbles, Texana

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Why leftists still hate Fox News

Posted on April 8, 2015 | 1 comment

“After a full-week spent lying about Indiana’s Religious Freedom law and relentlessly trashing Christians  as bigots and Christianity as bigotry, CNN closed things out on Good Friday by being humiliated in the all-important 25-54 primetime demo…”

Primetime: 25-54 demographic: FNC: 385 | CNN: 105 | MSNBC: 83 | HLN: 148

Via Breitbart News Syndicate.

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Posted in Obituaries, Scribbles, The Culture

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