As usual, somebody else makes my point better than I do

An insightful blog entry from Josh Patashnik over at TNR, talking about Obama's refusal to play the game of polarized politics:

it's also true that polarization isn't ideologically neutral. As Obama recognizes, it favors conservatives--or, rather, favors a certain cynical, nihilistic strain of conservatism that wants not only to limit the size of government, but (for reasons almost passing understanding) to impair its capacity for performing even governmental functions broadly recognized as necessary. In a political system that is (appropriately) biased toward the status quo, polarization--which makes it all but impossible to develop the consensus required for any important policy change--plays into the hands of those who rejoice at the thought of a paralyzed, ineffective federal government.

This actually fits in quite well with my comparison of this year's primary with the War on Terror. Just as the administration believes that we need to fight the terrorists by becoming more like the terrorists, so some Democrats believe we need to fight Republicans by becoming more like Republicans. They champion Hillary as somebody who can fight the Republicans, who can do bare-knuckle scrapping. But the terrorists aren't troubled when we take away civil liberties and torture people--that can fit in quite well with their plans. And throwing rhetorical bombs at Republicans doesn't bother them, either--they live for the opportunity to pull out the macho bluster. And they don't mind that polarization keeps us from getting anything done.

Note that in the post, Obama says, "When I say I want to change politics, it's precisely because I want to make sure people have health care." That's the kind of person I want in office, somebody who realizes the goal of politics is not to score rhetorical points against the other side.

This would make more sense if I linked to something . . .

Here's what I've been noticing. Democrats at sites like "Washington Monthly" are criticizing Obama because he isn't attacking enough. He should be going after Hillary Clinton, going for the beat down, because his failure to do so means that he won't be able to make a convincing run during the general election.

For some reason, this reminds me of the war on terror: in order to win against the terrorists, we need to have the terrorists' disregard for human freedom and the perils of democracy. In order to defeat the terrorists, we have to become more like the terrorists.

Same thing for the election: to win against the Republicans, we have to become more like the Republicans. If we don't adopt their battering, macho, swift-boating rhetoric, we're going to lose. We'd feel better about Obama if he were just more like Giuliani.

I don't know. Gives me a bad feeling about the general election.

(Kelly Preston, dreadful as ever)

So I was reading a review of a movie here, and I came across the line "(Kelly Preston, dreadful as ever)." And I don't know why, but it's amazingly sticky. I don't know why . . . it's off-handedly snarky and kind of despicable, as if the movie reviewer has just kind of given up on the business of describing the movie, the actual work of letting the reader know what the performances are like.

Maybe that's what I like about it, the solidified misanthropic ennui. Or something.

Plus it's just kind of fun to throw about. Watch for it to show up somewhere on this blog!

A turning point?

This morning, on the way to work, I was listening to Paul Harvey reading (maybe a better word is "extruding") the news.

I don't listen to Paul Harvey, mainly because every time I've tried to in the past, he says something jingoistic or Bush-worshipping that I thonk the next station on the dial like an arrow to the apple on somebody's head. And usually that's one or two stories into the newscast.

But today I didn't change the station until the second commercial.

With regard to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, he read a quote from somebody who had said the government has plenty of money to make sure all the roads and bridges are safe and secure. But we're sending all that money to Iraq.

Wait a minute, I thought. He's not saying it in the tone of voice that makes it clear that this congressman is an America-hating asshole. Where's the Bush love?

And then the next story is about government waste, which is along the lines of what you'd expect, but this time it's about the military having spent billions on weapons for Iraq and not being able to account for 30 percent of them.

Here's the administration's remarkable achievement: they've managed to be incompetent enough to lose Paul Harvey.

I would have sworn that he'd be a permanent part of the 24 percent of Americans who will never abandon Bush, not even if he interrupts the finale of American Idol to show America how to deep fry live puppies.

I mean, it may not be an actual turning point in perceptions of this war, but I'm amazed. Dumbfounded. Not just dumb - dumb and founded.

It would be nice if this blog had a reader or two, so I could ask, "When did this happen?" with a sliver of hope for an answer. Still, when did this happen?

What's wrong with my sexual life

In my spam filter this morning:

Make your sexual life more different and easier.

This is what's missing in my sexual life - it's too much work! All that complicated stroking and thrusting and sucking. Why can't I have maximum orgasm for minimum effort?

Why I don't blog more often

From Kung Fu Monkey

that may be what blog-length is for -- transmitting bursts of thought rather than full ideas, but those bursts still have the rough edges of raw passion. Your mistakes are your style, I once had an old writer say to me. Blogs are where we can throw down some of the filters and gift more of our mistakes to strangers.

I think the reason I don't blog more regularly is that I'm uncomfortable with half thoughts - I want to have the whole thought before I write it down.

And blogging doesn't work that way. Earlier in the post, Rogers says that anger is what fuels the typing. Which I'm not good at. When I'm angry, I don't want to talk. Or type. It's when I'm at my most silent that I'm deadliest.

But maybe I could see the blog as the chance for me to experiment with a different approach, to try to fill the Internet with my mistakes.

Who knows?

One last thought about Kurt Vonnegut

Every celebrated bigot has friends and sycophants who will vouch for his purity of spirit, so why should we believe the Vonnegut posse any more than the cronies of David Duke or Louis Farrakhan? The proof is in the transcripts, where the vicious evidence is overwhelming. His friends' impulse to defend him may be understandable as a matter of loyalty, although former Boston Globe columnist Tom Oliphant surely turned many stomachs when he assured Vonnegut, "Solidarity forever, pal." Salon

One last thought on Don Imus

In 1986, Imus appeared before a Senate subcommittee to argue for repeal of the McCarran- Warren Act, which allowed the State Department to bar foreign visitors whose views were unacceptable to the government. ""All citizens are entitled to hear absolutely any idea anyone from anywhere may care to express,'' he said. ""And where did I get the notion there was such an incredible entitlement? I got it from the junior civics course that was given in the seventh grade at Public School 35 in Indianapolis.''

Imus called censorship ""a disease that's been around a long, long time, like Legionnaires' disease, maybe, or Altzheimer's.''

So out of the loop

Halle Berry says she and her second husband were in sex rehab.

Why have I not heard about this before? What exactly does one go to sex rehab for? Why do I think I need it when I don't even know what it is? Am I just being a hypochondriac?

If you'd rather eat chocolate, do they force you to go to sex rehab, or do they force your partner?

Halle Berry has some explaining to do.

A fairly typical night

I___ (Running into the house at about 6:30 tonight): Quick!! You have to call Em___'s cell phone!!

Me: Why?

I___: She dropped it outside and she can't find it because it's dark.

Me (walks over to phone, dials E___'s number, waits . . . she picks up): Hello?

Em___: I found it!!

Me: How'd you drop it?

Em___: We were running away from the wolves. (a sound of protest from El___ in the background) Wait, we were running with the wolves away from the ghosts.

Cheney's fall from grace

Cheney has taken a semester-long descent into addled behavior: A typical night might include a lie to his young sons' minders about how he's just popping out to the drugstore, a trip to some clubs where he gets so looped that he decides he must change into the ill-fitting bikinis worn by the waitresses, a substance binge that lasts until he vomits on himself, and, in a boot-and-rally move worthy of the Delta Tau Delta brotherhood, some 5 a.m. phone calls about what venues might still be open for his continued partying pleasure. All of this has been conveniently captured on celluloid for the perusal of the public.

Last weekend, things took a darker turn when he checked himself into rehab in Antigua only to beat a hasty retreat the next day, heading to a salon where he shaved his own head in full view of cameras and then melted into bald and tearful fretting about how his mom would be so mad. Cheney then got a pair of lips tattooed on his arm and a black-and-pink crucifix on his hip; some outlets reported a middle-of-the-night visit to Cedars Sinai Medical Center, but whatever may or may not have happened there, he was awake the next morning by 10, when he reportedly appeared alone at the pool at the Mondrian Hotel to sunbathe, drink mojitos and ask fellow guests to trade bathing suits with him. Rebecca Traister

Belated tribute - Anna Nicole Smith

"So Anna Nicole — who didn’t mingle with the great and famous, didn’t have sources high in the administration, and never claimed special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost everything right. ...

Was Anna Nicole smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.

Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies and lies of the powerful. And Anna Nicole Smith, who devoted her life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed." Paul Krugman

Belated tribute - Molly Ivins

"She was indelicate, but an unstable element nonetheless -- not so much a candle in the wind as a bonfire in a hailstorm. But the real similarity between Molly and Marilyn was their shimmering tension -- an unsettlingly powerful physical beauty, collapsing irresistibly in real time beneath the frailties of its hostess. She was entropy porn at its finest.

Our fascinated gaze was her real addiction -- and the humiliating media tractor pull between our disgust and our attraction for her was, in all likelihood, both her lover and her murderer. Fame, the only chemotherapy available for the desperate toxicity of narcissism, proves once again that it is deadly enough in its own right to be avoided." Cintra Wilson