Category Archives: Scribbles

Obama’s speech, redux

I was, as I said initially, impressed with the boldness, while dissing his policy prescriptions. Later, when I thought about it, I realized he was refusing to do what he told Imus to do, i.e. walk out. But I was quite taken aback by VDH’s reaction, calling Barry a vapid phony. Cobb, who is no Barry supporter, was so irritated he wrote VDH an open letter in protest. Now comes some more of VDH’s concerns and I see what upset him. Barry wants to expand the therapeutic curriculum of American schools to include more Harriet Tubmans, who Mr. B. already has heard about in second grade, fergawdsake, but nevermind U.S. Grant or Shiloh. If you were dazzled by the half-black man, who has run not as a half-black or any other racial man, suddenly addressing racism you might have missed these basic Lefty educational concerns. I did. I caught the indiscriminate attack on corporations and the silly remark about the government providing people good jobs (bureaucratic ones for party workers, sure, but no one else). The therapeutic stuff, however, got VDH where he lives. He’s a college professor who has long complained about the preminent position of this gripe history to the detriment of actually understanding history.

Return of the blood libel

Russians aren’t just having trouble with democracy, folks. Passover is coming. So they’ve decided to turn back the clock on anti-Semitism and warn Christians to hide their children. Isn’t that special?

Typical white person

That’s me. As the O man says of us typical white people, we harbor racism in our guts, like his white grandma, another typical white person. Not his black grandma, you understand. Oh, no, no. I used to think of him as the Messiah returned to Earth. But now I know that he’s just a typical black person: unthinking, rude, lazy. Who also deserves a T-shirt.

Via Instapundit 

Picking judges: the people or the lawyers?

It’s a very old argument, indeed, whether judges should be elected or appointed. And if appointed, then by whom, and how is that whom to be chosen? Who, in other words, will watch the watchers? Often the answer has been: the people, in free elections. Novelist-lawyer John Grisham, whose mansion rises above the hills west of Oxford, Mississippi, is campaigning for appointment, even in the pages of his latest legal novel, available in fine airports worldwide. The WSJ disagrees, enumerating the inherent problems, including that trial lawyers often wind up doing the choosing of their cronies for judges. Better, they say, to let the people do it, as the framers preferred. In Canada, for instance, where judges are appointed, by some measures two-thirds of the citizenry would prefer elections. Which brings to mind something I saw yesterday at Mr. B.’s little league practice: one team whose sponsor on the back of their team shirts was Guy Herman, a local probate judge, who runs for election as a Dem. If a judge has to advertise, I can’t think of a better way to do it.

Was he or wasn’t he?

First off, it’s worth mentioning that many gay people tiresomely assume that many others are, whether they will admit it or not. Particularly famous, talented and important people. Including the late sci-fi impresario Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who died the other day at age 90. Although none of his mainstream obituaries mention the detail, some gay bloggers take it for granted. Heresy, I suppose, to his most dedicated heterosexual fans. Otherwise, just an interesting notion. The Seablogger at Fresh Bilge has an intriguing mention of it.

MORE: I left a comment over at Mouth of the Brazos to the effect that all Clarke did was foresee the communications satellite. Wrongo

If Oprah left, why not Barry?

This, to me, is one of the most interesting aspects of the controversy over Sen. Obama and Rev. Wright–which might cost the O man the Pennsylvania primary. The famous television hostess was a Wright parishioner until she left the black-liberation theology congregation in South Chicago. Obama, whose half-white background would seem to make his membership more intellectual than emotional, never left. Cobb says we’re unfairly focusing on Barry’s membership, when we should realize that BLT is pervasive in the black church and not unusual at all. Then why did the easygoing Oprah see that it was not to her advantage, but Barry, the supposed unifying architect of "hope" and "change," did not?

He Who Must Not Be Middle Named

Anecdotally at least, Barry seems to be taking some political hits over his mentor/pastor’s "God damn America" line, even in Hollyweird, according to Roger L. Simon.