Above is a picture of my son (the Shouting Sprout) at his first birthday party. He is crying because it’s taken the Elf several minutes to disentangle this toy phone from all the bits of plastic and anti-theft wire ties. Convinced we were teasing him by the time we got the last bit of joy-killing packaging, he burst into tears just as I took this photograph. I am sure I don’t have to tell you what my opinion of Fisher Price was at that moment.
Now Amazon has convinced some manufacturers to pilot
low rage packaging. Not only will this help prevent scenes like the one above, but it will also cut down on the amount of waste produced wrapping things in ways that decrease joy and make people unhappy. And I can get behind that.
If we’re going to destroy the environment, we ought to at least do it in a way that maximizes the fun of one-year-olds.
John McCain robocalled my father last night. And then a little later, the RNC called me to invite me to a “victory rally” Monday morning.
There is no earthly reason for either candidate to reach out to either of us. We a total waste of funds. Obama seems to know this. In his last hours, McCain apparently does not.
Occasionally I will get into an argument with someone whose improperly equipped for a political discussion. I don’t mean they don’t know what they’re talking about, I mean they don’t know what political discussion is. They usually say something like “well, I have a right to my own opinion.”
Of course, a legal right to express yourself does not mean other people are not allowed to judge you or disagree with you, even in public, and even in a rather rude way. If freedom of speech required everyone to treat everyone else’s utterances with utmost respect and never ever ever criticize someone aloud, we simply would not have a democracy.
Now, I say I hear this from people who don’t understand politics or political discussion, so usually when someone says this to me I take it as a hint to talk about the weather or something. But I’m not sure what to do when this ignorance is expressed by
a sitting governor and vice-presidential candidate.
Many years ago I seriously thought about moving to Alaska. And I have always, just a little bit, considered it an opportunity missed. Palin has made me feel better about my decision to stay in Virginia.
Obama once said a few good things about a man named Khalidi, and Khalidi — we are told — is an anti-Semite, former PLO spokesmodel, and supporter of terrorism. Of course,
Khalidi is none of those things. It’s just the McCain campaign having one last ooga-booga before Halloween. No, I don’t take the charge seriously. No, I don’t think it warrants deeper investigation.
Look. This is the party that’s been going around for quite some time saying Barack Obama is a socialist when he is quite obviously a centrist. They’ve called a middle-class tax cut “welfare.” This party called Sarah Palin the nation’s most knowledgeable energy expert.
They’ve called large swaths of the American public anti-American because they don’t back John McCain, and suggested liberal Virginians (like myself) are not real Virginians but foreigners from the exotic, heathen realms of Maryland and Washington DC. This party has a man on their campaign trail called “Joe the Plumber” who is not named Joe, is not a plumber, and does not make nearly as much money as he at first implied.
This is also the party of Elizabeth Dole, who — I noted yesterday — ran an ad calling her opponent Kay Hagen a “godless heathen” even though Hagan is an elder in her Presbyterian church. Liddy even had a voice impersonator to put the words “there is no God” in Kay Hagan’s mouth.
The day after I write about how the Republicans don’t “get” identity politics, I’m reminded that they use identity politics when it suits them. Actually, that’s probably what Reagan was thinking when he hitched the Republicans up to the until-then relatively apolitical Christian Conservatives: Democrats have black people, women, immigrants — we need some “identity” of our own.
Here is Elizabeth Dole’s latest ad in North Carolina:
“A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan,” the 30-second spot says, showing footage of the group’s members talking about their atheist beliefs on cable news.
“Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money,” the ad concludes. “What did Kay Hagan promise in return?”
At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan’s says: “There is no God.”
I am a scare word for a political campaign ad for a mainstream sitting Senator.
When Republicans talk about “our values,” they mean Conservative Christian values. And it’s more clear than ever that when Republicans talk about “American Values,” they also mean Conservative Christian values. The message I’ve heard from the McCain campaign is that people like me — non-Christian and/or liberal — are not real Americans. And what I’m hearing from Palin and Dole is that people like me are scary and despicable.
Obama once said a few good things about a man named Khalidi, and Khalidi — we are told — is an anti-Semite, former PLO spokesmodel, and supporter of terrorism. Of course,
The day after I write about how the Republicans don’t “get” identity politics, I’m reminded that they use identity politics when it suits them. Actually, that’s probably what Reagan was thinking when he hitched the Republicans up to the until-then relatively apolitical Christian Conservatives: Democrats have black people, women, immigrants — we need some “identity” of our own.