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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The Year So Far

State of the world as the New Year grinds forth…

So the Senate won’t seat Blagojevich’s appointment. Neat. But that concerns me far less than the fact that they probably will seat Al Franken the moment he’s certified as the fraudulent winner of Minnesota’s election. This election was stolen in broad daylight, and nobody seems to notice or care. Some few who do will cite Florida in 2000 and say “How does it feel, Bush lovers?” I say it feels amazing that Bush was able to stop Al Gore from doing what Al Franken just did.

I’ve had a number of odd dreams lately. One involved running a political campaign and having the ad guy come up to me and show me a poster with the candidate with the word “Armando!” written in bold, black lettering. Except the candidate wasn’t named Armando.

“Doesn’t matter,” the ad guy says. “It’s a really bold move.”

Apparently, “Armando” was a cool word that the ad guy made up, which would help us with “the kids.” In the cold light of day, that seems very silly, indeed, but I kind of want to try it out and see what happens.

Last night’s dreams involved William Shatner skinning people alive and putting their corpses on a red wagon. It wasn’t really a nightmare; just sort of a matter-of-fact thing. I don’t know what that means.

We don’t watch a whole lot of TV at the Cornell household, but we felt compelled to watch Ashton Kutcher’s “True Beauty” reality show last night that judges people according to their outer and, without them knowing, their inner beauty. We probably shouldn’t have watched it, but we did, and we laughed very, very hard. It’s designed to let 40-year-old schlubs like me feel superior to gorgeous people who are also vapid, ignorant, and, at times, cruel. And, in fact, not many of them are really that gorgeous. The “Chelsea” chick who was in danger of getting bumped last night was actually slightly hideous, inside and out. I hope she sticks around, though, because nastiness is funnier than kindness. Although the show’s elimination process would logically bump off the nastier folks first, which means it will become more boring as it goes along.

My son Cornelius has taken to crawling into bed with us in the middle of the night, which becomes problematic, and he also enjoys kicking us in his sleep. I end up taking him back to his bed when I can muster up the will to do it, but it takes quite a few kicks for me to wake up enough to fully understand what’s going on. I can stomach it, though, because I love my son. It’s when my cat starts to meow about ten minutes after I’ve fallen asleep that my patience is at a very low ebb.

I’m sadly discovering that I don’t enjoy right-wing talk radio anymore. I’ve always liked Rush and Glenn Beck, but now all they do is whine. And Glenn Beck whines very, very hard. I heard about thirty seconds of Sean Hannity yesterday, and it made me sad. On too many issues, all we’ve got are slogans. I don’t think the Democrats are much better on the ideological front, but they don’t need a workable ideology with all the power they have. If we’re going to wrest that power away from them – a daunting task by any standard – we need to know what we stand for, and it can’t just be Ronald Reagan. Folks, I love Ronald Reagan as much as anyone. He’s dead. He left office twenty years ago. We’re not going to find our way out of the wilderness by winning yet another one for the Gipper.

I haven’t mentioned in this blog my great visit with James over the holidays. James is a frequent commenter on this space, and he showed up at my doorstep a few days before Christmas to announce that he was spending the holidays up in Draper, not far from where I live. I got to meet his wife and his daughter, who both seem like delightful folks. I even convinced James to sign up for Facebook, where he proceeded to post a video where he and a Muppet lipsynch to the Blues Brothers. It was fun, but also vaguely disturbing.

Turns out Disney has opted to pass on the next Narnia sequel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That's disappointing but understandable, as that book would be unlikely to stop the franchise's box office slide. I just want to see The Magician's Nephew, so I want the franchise to continue until they get there, but I have no interest in watching the dreck that's going to be there along the way. Walden Media is shopping for a new partner, though, so the film may still get made. They'd better hurry, though, because they need to make it while the actors who play Edmund and Lucy are still young enough to look credible in the roles.

I'll keep you updated as the year progresses.

8 Comments:

Blogger WhiteEyebrows said...

I can't believe you watched that Ashton Kutcher show. He makes me vomit. The very premise of the show is stupid, and the fact that he - the male version of Brittney Spears - is putting himself out there as some kind of authority on inner beauty takes me from 'indifferent' to 'hatred' for that show.

January 6, 2009 at 12:38 PM  
Blogger Elder Samuel Bennett said...

Kutcher's not in the show, he just produced it.

You're right, though - it's very, very stupid. And I laughed very hard.

January 6, 2009 at 12:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems tome that Disney is foolish to let go of the rights, even in the face of declining ticket sales. One would think they'd be able to make up for it by selling copies of a 7 movie DVD set, which one would think should sell as much as the 7 book set of the series.

And I'm interested in seeing The Last Battle.

Although I really want to see an Elric of Melnibone movie.

Talk radio might be a bit whiney these days, but considering the only other media outlets we have are worthless leftist propagandists, I guess we have to take what we can get.

When MSNBC cancels Ann Coulter because "they don't want someone that highly critical of Obama" and replaces her with Maddow, there really is no point in reading the newspapers or watching network news.

It feels like that scene in V: The Miniseries, where the father of the one family says, "I just want more than one opinion." Well, talk radio is the only other opinion we have.

It shouldn't surprise you that Franken and his ilk are willing to steal an election with bogus ballots. The left has no regard for the Democratic process, and are actively working to do everything they can to destroy it. This is why they identify with characters like Hugo Chavez, Che, Fidel Castro, Bill Ayers, Hamas, etc. etc. etc. Change indeed, just as Castro promised.

Yes Reagan is dead, I don't think anyone wants another Reagan exactly. That would require cloning cells from his corpse. But I do think they want someone who is a patriot, and who works to advance the same kinds of American values that made our nation so prosperous to begin with. In my mind, Palin and Jindal fit that bill nicely. See you in 2012.

By the way, I thought you were swearing off politics?

January 6, 2009 at 2:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You should be a radio talk show host. Hannity is awful now. He sounds desperate all the time. I still like Rush-cant stand being screamed at by Glenn Bleck. You should do it. You'd be great!

January 6, 2009 at 6:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who the hell watches disney?

oh yeah, you.


SM

January 6, 2009 at 6:35 PM  
Blogger James A. Howard said...

Stallion, thanks for the mention.

And tell me straight, did Mrs. Cornell make you say that?

January 6, 2009 at 9:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

David Frum calls Rush et al Say-it-louder-Republicans, meaning that when a line does work you just shout it more forcefully in the hopes that it will become more persuasive. The voices of the "GOP base" right now have absolutely nothing to offer but win-one-more-for-the-Gipper-ism. For crying out loud, the main topic in the GOP primary debates was who loved Reagan more. The only person with any really new ideas was Huckabee and all of his ideas were wrong. Also, conservatives need to cut out all the RINO crap. You don't win elections by excommunicating bits and pieces of your coalition! The conservatism of Reagan is a spent force. Heck, it was a spent force in 2000. Bush was supposed to be a new "compassionate conservative," which in practice has meant No Child Left Behind, pork for GOP pedophiles in the House, and waterboarding/Abu Grahib. At this point everyone is looking to Pallin as the great standard bearer in 2012. What a disaster. There is no there there. All she offers are a set of cultural references for a decreasing demographic (well-off folks with limited education). There is no future there intellectually or demographically.

And so on, so on, and so on.

You heard my rant at Christmas. For what it is worth, I read the WSJ, the Economist, Bloomberg, RealClearPolitics, and podcasts. Rush and his buddies are dreck not worth wasting one's time on.

January 7, 2009 at 7:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It looks like the children in the right wing media aren't the only ones whining.

Also, is LawGeek the only adult here?

January 8, 2009 at 6:56 PM  

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