Month: July 2008

Ludacris? Certainly. Funny, and more than a little sad.

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Not that I ever pay attention to so-called “urban struggle” music*, but I thought the Ludicrous performer** Ludacris*** was supposed to be cutting edge. Instead I read the attempt at lyrics to this recent track about Obama “painting the White House black”.

* I say “music”, not to disparage the medium but because “awkward rhythms, the odd attempt at melody, with terribly juvenile rhyming and schizo-syllabic partial sentences cussed and yelled over them” is too long to write frequently.

** Had to think about that too for a minute because he’s not an artist, he’s not a musician, he’s not a singer, and he’s certainly no writer, but he does perform as I understand (like a two-year-old in a toy store).

*** Wow, clever, the pinnacle of hip-hop “talent”, integrate your name into some random word or phrase, and certainly don’t look it up, why would you want to know what ludicrous means?

We should encourage him to continue trying to write, no matter the subject. After all, 1) writing leads to thinking and education, 2) he may someday realize that lyrics should include meter as well as rhyme, and 3) that rhyme, too, should actually be considered and not just desperately grasped in the first word you can think of that sounds similar. This is a common practice that seems to be a rampant hip-hop standard.

I guess we should count our blessings, …anything to keep a little scratch in his pocket to keep one more self-proclaimed “gangsta” somewhat off the streets.

From the BBC UK News service…

“Ludacris is a talented individual but he should be ashamed of these lyrics,” said Mr Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton.

The rap star’s publicist initially declined to comment, reported the Associated Press.

‘Great talent’

The musician used a misogynistic term to describe Mrs Clinton and urged Mr Obama against appointing her as his running mate, saying that she “hated on you”.

Mr McCain, the Republican candidate for the presidency, does not belong in “any chair unless he’s paralysed”, according to the rapper.

Mr Burton added: “As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn’t want his daughters or any children exposed to.”

During my own reading of the lyric, I imagined Chris Bridges (his name) sitting on the floor of a studio, a fully clenched fist wrapped tightly around a crayon connected to a sheet of construction paper, and tongue straining against the corner of his mouth, toward a grape jelly stain on his t-shirt. Subject matter aside, it’s perhaps the worst writing I’ve ever read. I kept reading because I thought it must be a parody of inner-city educational systems, as an argument for electing Obama, who will drive more social welfare programs that keep inner-city families from the difficulties of self-reliance and accountability.

Hmmm…. maybe it was a parody after all. Did he sneak it by me? Very subtle satire of “where he at” and “where he come from”, delivered in character. Now I’m actually impressed. Or not.

The Dust Will Settle on King Barack Hisself Obsessa

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I don’t know about you, but all of this fawning over the sock puppet makes me snicker. I’m not the least bit concerned about it frankly. The dust will settle and the many and varied analyses will be done on the dangerous positions his ill-informed and naive statements have taken, and reality will set in as we near November.

The intelligent, good folks of these United States will thoughtfully consider the issues and matters at hand.

  • They’ll ponder the implications of a having a socialist, and an inexperienced freshman socialist, as president (as opposed to getting one who has actually had some responsibility, like running the people’s lemonade stand).
  • They’ll ask themselves what this guy has done to justify running for president, letting completely alone getting my vote.
  • They’ll ask themselves what justifies all of the premature ticker-tape parades the networks and newspapers have thrown him, tipping their crooked slant clearly into daylight in their eagerness, after years, to sell a “democrat” candidate (ok, non-republican) that anyone is excited about.
  • They’ll consider why the warm reception B.O. got in places like Jordan and Germany are anything but a warning in and of itself.
  • Black people will ponder the relevance of skin color in a country where it’s supposed to be irrelevant and still vote black (because, “well, short of Satan, he’s alright with me. And, oh yeah, O.J. was framed.”)
  • White people too will ponder the relevance of skin color in a country where it’s supposed to be irrelevant (but certainly still be required to ignore it for openly racist causes and organizations such as Affirmative Action, the NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, BET TV, Essence/Ebony Magazines, etc.) and still likely vote white, but feel better about it because at least they agree with 40% of McCain’s policies (which is simple math over 0% for O.B.’s)
  • The black Christians will disregard all policy positions and vote for the sock puppet for the same black reason.
  • The white Christians will consult absolute truth and find B.O. to be guilty of gross obliviousness and malicious intent to open the U.S. to destruction from both outside and inside, and vote McCain.
  • The dirt-worshipers will be content to praise the nearest shrub, extolling the wonderful possibility of having an 82% ACLU Scorecard pinkster as POTUS.

With any luck…

  • The informed on both sides will all turn up to vote. Fair’s fair.
  • The many colors of racists, and the self-loathing, will all sleep through it
  • The fence-sitters (who have, sadly, decided the last few elections) will continue to waffle until November 4th, waiting to be persuaded to one side or the other by wind-direction and speed, indigestion, planetary positioning, or a maybe just a stimulating conversation in the car on the way to the voting center (these are the luke-warm people Jesus warned us about by the way), and find themselves hopelessly lost in the woods, as they tend to get, and die of exposure.
  • Good people from sea to shining sea will consider each side’s values and weigh them carefully against everything we’ve built up since our founding (and some have started to tear back down).

Rest assured, both very good and very bad things will be said and done between now and November, but I choose to have faith that God still blesses this country and that we’re not too far gone to merit the promise of prosperity. I believe enough good people will actually consider the issues and vote like it matters. Because, while the democrats who want any ignorant vote they can bribe with food, illegal voter registration, and a drive to the voting center, for very different reasons I DO care who you vote for. I wish knowing the issues was a requirement to punch the card (as well as biometric IDs for all to prove citizenship). But so goes hope, oh, and desire for change!

20k Terrorists in U.S., If You See Something Say Something

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ACLU (best defined as Anti-Christian Liberals United) were caught surprised again by the truth when they tried to “scrap the terrorist watch list and take law enforcement’s eye off these potentially dangerous suspects.” Read the details here.

Forced to defend its growing terrorist watch list, the FBI let slip a chilling fact that should silence ACLU grumblers: America is teeming with 20,000 terrorists.

After 9/11, federal authorities estimated that as many as 5,000 terrorists were living in the U.S. The new figure is jarring not only because it’s four times as large but because it’s based on real persons, not estimates.

It’s not something headquarters wanted to publicize. Officials had downplayed the threat so as not to spook the public.

And later in the article…

That… pencils out to at least 20,000 people living in this country right now — at large and on the streets — who have “some relationship with terrorist activity,” as Boyle described it.

They pose a big enough threat for airlines to legally bounce them off planes, and for every law enforcement authority from border agents to local police to detain them for questioning.

Even here in the liberal fortress of NYC, we’re reminded by signs and announcements in public transit stations, and elsewhere around town, to speak up if something or someone’s behavior looks suspicious. I know how we often pre-edit our thoughts in the P.C. infestation this country has allowed, and I know we’re all busy, but start opening your eyes and mouths before some other act of ultimate cowardice is done by these insects. Call the police, call the FBI. If you see something, say something.

Bias of Leftist “Journalists” Measured in Clear Terms: Cash

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Good article on IBD, entitled “Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1“.

The left apologist bias in the mainstream media is not news. We all know this. But at the same time, we’re surprised that they would let such easily quantifiable a metric as contributions tell the same tale in plain numbers that their “journalism” does in a far more foggy and sinister way on air.

An analysis of federal records shows that the amount of money journalists contributed so far this election cycle favors Democrats by a 15:1 ratio over Republicans, with $225,563 going to Democrats, only $16,298 to Republicans .

Two-hundred thirty-five journalists donated to Democrats, just 20 gave to Republicans — a margin greater than 10-to-1. An even greater disparity, 20-to-1, exists between the number of journalists who donated to Barack Obama and John McCain.

Searches for other newsroom categories (reporters, correspondents, news editors, anchors, newspaper editors and publishers) produces 311 donors to Democrats to 30 donors to Republicans, a ratio of just over 10-to-1. In terms of money, $279,266 went to Dems, $20,709 to Republicans, a 14-to-1 ratio.

Again, no surprises, but yet another pleasant confirmation.

Bolton says “One world? Obama’s on a different planet”

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The L.A. Times gets another surprising blessing from this site for at least being more “democratic” with its editorial pages by publishing a straightforward piece by John Bolton (former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations). An excerpt worth pointing out, though you should read the whole thing, follows.

Obama used the Berlin Wall metaphor to describe his foreign policy priorities as president: “The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.”

This is a confused, nearly incoherent compilation, to say the least, amalgamating tensions in the Atlantic Alliance with ancient historical conflicts. One hopes even Obama, inexperienced as he is, doesn’t see all these “walls” as essentially the same in size and scope. But beyond the incoherence, there is a deeper problem, namely that “walls” exist not simply because of a lack of understanding about who is on the other side but because there are true differences in values and interests that lead to human conflict. The Berlin Wall itself was not built because of a failure of communication but because of the implacable hostility of communism toward freedom. The wall was a reflection of that reality, not an unfortunate mistake.

Tearing down the Berlin Wall was possible because one side — our side — defeated the other. Differences in levels of economic development, or the treatment of racial, immigration or religious questions, are not susceptible to the same analysis or solution. Even more basically, challenges to our very civilization, as the Cold War surely was, are not overcome by naively “tearing down walls” with our adversaries.

Throughout the Berlin speech, there were numerous policy pronouncements, all of them hazy and nonspecific, none of them new or different than what Obama has already said during the long American campaign. But the Berlin framework in which he wrapped these ideas for the first time is truly radical for a prospective American president. That he picked a foreign audience is perhaps not surprising, because they could be expected to welcome a less-assertive American view of its role in the world, at least at first glance. Even anti-American Europeans, however, are likely to regret a United States that sees itself as just one more nation in a “united” world.

For my own credit, this dovetails with my post last week on wide-eyed, but blinder-clad speechwriter they’ve chosen.

McCain Puts “Kick Me” on Urkel Obama

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McCain…

“Fortunately, Sen. Obama failed, not our military. We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right. Violence in Iraq fell to such low levels for such a long time that Senator Obama, detecting the success he never believed possible, falsely claimed that he had always predicted it.

“Sen. Obama said this week that even knowing what he knows today that he still would have opposed the surge. In retrospect, given the opportunity to choose between failure and success, he chooses failure. I cannot conceive of a Commander in Chief making that choice.”

Obama’s 26-year-old Speechwriter, No Wonder!

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No wonder all of his speeches are shockingly naive and uninformed.

I just stumbled on an article from back in January that Newsweek did on the 26-year-old toddler who writes Obama’s speeches, Jon Favreau (no, not that one). Not that I’m biased against youth (being a little over 10 years older), but when so many important issues rely on having experience — and frankly more knowledge of history than what was freshly force-fed by reliably liberal professors — and when precious votes hang in the balance, I want someone with the seasoning of their own perspective to be putting ideas in people’s heads. Much as I wish this country could be full of the well-read and the historically-perceptive, oh, and the reality-tactile, it isn’t.

It follows, obviously, but should be pointed out, that this is precisely why Obama’s speeches are empty of ideas and perception of the real roots of these issues, and full of wide-eyed child-like liberal cluelessness (uh, when in doubt, put “change” down a lot, my professors said Bush was bad, so “change” will sound good).

By the way, in case you hadn’t read it in class, socialism doesn’t work (and frankly can’t without theism). I’ve lived in it and seen the bright awakening as the socialism turned to capitalism. When you live in it, and everyone around you is living witness to the rotten stagnation of it, you gain that valuable judgment experience I was discussing earlier. Thanks Jon, but page 457 of whatever textbook you’re working from only provides enough information to fool the uninformed. It’s not enough on the reality of peoples and governments to write intelligent campaign speeches to the knowing. Perhaps that’s the point. Sucker the suckers, their votes spend just as well, sadly.

When asked…

“What got you into politics, what got you interested?”

Favreau told him about the social service project he started in Worcester, defending the legal rights of welfare recipients as the state tried to move people off the rolls and into work.

Your witness.

Ich Bin Ein Beginner, Obama Spews People’s Party Bolshevik

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Listen to this…

“Now is the time to join together through constant cooperation and strong institutions and shared sacrifice and a global commitment to progress to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

Is it suddenly 1917 Petrograd again? Is anyone listening to this? Here’s the translation for those who don’t speak liberal.

“Now is the time to join together through world government and mo’ better of that government. I’ll put America on the stick to sacrifice much more freedom and treasure, and we’ll do our best to weaken America so it can be less intimidating and on equal footing with Europe (and someday the paradise Kenya), to meet the challenges of defeating the formidable patriotic and hard-working folks on the U.S. Right.”

The Sock Puppet is reliving the halucinations from his father (or as best he can remember having spend 1 visit with him). Not sure why he chose to write a book with a title referencing a man he never knew, and by behavior shouldn’t have wanted to.

“This is the moment when we must build on wealth that opens markets have created and share its benefits more equitably.”

I don’t need to break that down for you. Government regulated and enforced wealth redistribution, in plain terms. I’m always surprised when liberals say this out in the open. I’m even more surprised we don’t all pick up rocks. Wake up America, this guy is as scary as they come.

Glenn Beck commented on that last quote as follows…

I’ve always wanted to be able to write music. I can’t write music. I can meet with composers and I can say, you know, I want it to feel like this, I want it to do this, but I cannot write music. Should John Williams share his creativity with me? Should he ‑‑ he’s got a wealth of strong writing ability. Should I force him to share that song writing ability more equitably? That’s his gift. He chooses to use it. I have met people with gifts of music, with gifts of business, with gifts of comedic talent, acting talent, business talent that don’t use it. It’s their loss. Shared prosperity, sharing the benefits more equitably. It goes against everything that America stood for. What we share is an idea and we want that idea to spread and, that is, man is free, man is free to create, man is free to do as he sees fit. That is the only thing that we should be sharing more equitably. We should be sharing it to every corner of the globe. We should be sharing it with everyone who will listen and if you don’t listen, that’s fine. You don’t want freedom, that’s fine. If your people want freedom, we stand with your people. If your people decide they don’t want freedom, they’re happy living under totalitarianism state, they’re happy handing their power back over to a totalitarian guilt of the like they do in Russia, that’s fine, but not here and we’ll continue to share that wealth of that idea that you can be successful, you can be happy, you can be rich, you can be poor, you can have all of the benefits because there is no end to wealth, there is no end to happiness. It is an infinite idea. It’s a never ending idea. It is as vast as the oceans and far beyond. Why should I share the oceans more equitably? There’s enough water in there for all of us. Stop diminishing the size. Stop telling me that the ocean is a pond. It’s not. Get into the water. It’s fine. You might need directions to the beach, but I ain’t putting a fence around that beach just for you. I’m not telling people who have been on that beach and use that beach and get into that water and swim and boat and water‑ski and turn it into energy, I’m not telling those people, no, no, no you can’t because someday these people may need that water brought to them because they can’t go to the beach, they don’t believe in the beach, they just want all the benefits of the beach. The only thing we share is an idea and a love of freedom.

Thanks Glenn. Well put.

(Credit to Michael Ramirez for the “ich bin…” line, clever fellow.)

Hard to Make Fun of Barry Obama? Nah.

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There’s a surprisingly entertaining op-ed in the L.A. (Left Apologist) Times today by Joel Stein, about the wonder boy-nerd. I knew I was going to enjoy this one when he lobs the first volley…

“…comedians have appeared on every news outlet to whine about how hard it is to make fun of Barack Obama. Really? They have an arsenal of jokes to use against a 71-year-old ex-POW cancer survivor and Obama is too touchy a subject?”

There are several really great points, here’s just a few…

“He’s A Nerd. …Compare Obama with other 46-year-olds and he’s Urkel. He’s the kid at the Model United Nations conference who says, “Guys, guys, c’mon. Let’s not make fun of Eastern Europe.” And the brutal truth is, even if women faint at your rallies, you’ll never feel cool inside when you have Alfred E. Neuman’s ears.”

“He’s ridiculously earnest. …Comedian Marc Maron does a really smart bit about how Obama stares out into the distance while giving a speech. “The first time you see him you’re like, ‘What’s he looking at?’ But then you’re like, ‘I don’t know, but it’s good and full of hope. And he’s the only one who can see it. If we vote for him, maybe he’ll take us there.’ ”

“He called his own grandmother a racist. We all have racist grandmothers, but we don’t brag about it to everyone. I like to imagine that his granny wasn’t that bad and that Obama was just super-sensitive. Like she would tell him it was bedtime and he’d yell, “Oh, I have to go to bed because I’m black!” Or she’d tell him to clean up his room and he’d start yelling, “Oh, clean my room, huh? My people stopped obeying the white woman 100 years ago, Grammy!” Then they’d both laugh and she’d whip him.”

I know it’s nit-picky on my part, but I should share my personal favorite of B.O.’s presentation flaws: his hard left, hard right, hard left, hard right head movements while delivering his ethereal speeches (of course ethereal in the insubstantial, not heavenly, meaning). Perhaps it’s in his script.

  1. Look down as if to read from the podium (don’t worry it’s on the teleprompters)
  2. Lift head looking to the hard right, teleprompter #1
  3. Deliver half the sentence
  4. Whip head hard left (with the urgency of change!), pick someone adoring in audience, preferably female (to feed your ego delivery)
  5. Deliver second half of the sentence off of teleprompter #2
  6. Whip head hard right again. Rinse. Repeat.
  7. When finished, be sure to shake hands in the middle to regain folks who got nothing but profiles for 20 minutes

He’s a sock-puppet. Anyway, read the article, not to be missed.

In with Men’s Vogue and Best Life, out with Portfolio, Esquire, GQ

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I just cancelled my subscription to Conde Nast Portfolio (a new business/financial magazine I decided to give a try). Much as I tried to give them 5-6 issues of the benefit of doubt, I couldn’t find more than one or two reasonable capitalist representations — awww, come on, who’d want that in a business/financial magazine? — between the rampant socialist (er, uh, progressive) world view writing that litters the filler folded neatly within the glossy cover. The best I can say for Portfolio in print is, nice graphic design. That said, I’ve found the online version to actually contain some balance, so far. Doesn’t mean I’ll make it daily, or even weekly reading, since the agenda seems to be set from the upper offices and is sure to filter down at some point. Clearly against the level-headed and mostly reasonable financial publications, Conde Nast saw a possibly under-served market in the knowingly undeserving white-guilt democrats in finance (read Jamie Dimon of JPMC and the like), and jumped on it. As an aside, I can never wrap my head around how even the worse white-guilt could sway those who see how the economy works or doesn’t day in and day out. Like a wise man I know always says, there’s a butt for every seat.

I’ve also recently canceled my subscriptions to GQ and Esquire, two magazines that have taken such a blatant and frankly militant dive to the Left, and pushing that agenda, that I don’t even recognize them anymore. As for GQ, only Glen O’Brien remains the bright shining light, but his column isn’t political so it’s hard to go wrong. As an aside, I find it interesting that in 25 years of reading his solutions to our sartorial conundrums, I’ve disagreed with his advice maybe twice. Thanks Glen. Pick up GQ on the newsstand, read The Style Guy column and put it down. GQ went away in the early 1990’s from where I sit.

Men’s Vogue and Best Life are my new straight guy’s style and culture mags (though I’ve already noticed the odd emasculating article starting to surface here and there in Best Life). Men’s Vogue is surprisingly reminiscent of the golden age of GQ back in the 80’s, before they decided that staff metro-sexuals should expand beyond fashion and also run editorial. Growing up in a relatively small town, I loved to read about the far-away places and things that I became determined to grow up and travel to and do, which I have done and more, all mingled with pages and pages of style ideas and great classic graphic design (as opposed to the schizophrenic Wired-wanna-be of late years). Men’s Vogue has all of the old good, with none of the new bad. The random timeless accoutrements that are reviewed in reverence return me to the wide-eyed early materialist dreamer of my childhood, and gadget/destination collector that I am today.

I mourn the passing of the previously classic men’s magazines, but while there remains a market of guys like me to satisfy, I have hope for the future. Men’s Vogue and Best Life are a good start of the revival.