Month: May 2012
Tennesse Williams to Gore Vidal While Skeet Shooting with JKF in 1958: ‘Get That Ass!’
Get that ass!
– Tennessee Williams whispering to Gore Vidal while skeet shooting with Sen. John F. Kennedy in Palm Beach, in 1958, referring to the senator’s derriere. When Vidal repeated the comment to the future president, grinning he replied, “Now that’s very exciting!”
Finally, We ‘Indies’ Get Us Some Representation
Trish is fond of characterizing independents like myself as wishy-washy fence-sitters she says always vote for the same party every election anyway, so we might as well get off the fence and join the Democrat Party.
Well, Trish, today I got up on a higher, more solid fence and joined the Independent Voters of America.
Here’s a video that succinctly sums up the IVA’s position:
According to Tech President:
Veteran political ad-maker Bill Hillsman — the man behind “hilarious and highly effective ads” for Paul Wellstone, Jesse Ventura, Ross Perot and others — has launched Independent Voters of America.
Said Hillsman: “We are building the largest online community of self-identified independent voters, with the goals of bringing fresh voices and more choices into our politics, acting as a counterweight to the two major political parties, and to reduce gridlock, force progress and bring a new accountability to Washington.”
My iVoter score is 533. I don’t know what that means yet, so I’ll assume it’s somewhere on the left of the political spectrum because the old white guy in the video was in the 300s and the middle-aged black guy was 675.
The Trump ‘Political Calculus’ Explained
There is no more naked celebrity in America than Donald Trump. He doesn’t do subtlety. He doesn’t do ‘thought.’ To say he has a political calculus is a wild overstatement. His strategy amounts to no more than junior high school algebra. The equation is: Trump + infantile public statement x infinite repetitions on TV and Twitter = maximum publicity for flailing Trump products and insatiable Trump ego.
— Frank Rich, commenting on what he calls “Mitt’s Bleach-Bottle Bimbo” in New York magazine.
Hoekstra: Vetting POTUS is ‘Not Brain Surgery’
This is not brain surgery. It should be an FBI person, maybe a CIA person. If you want to run for president, you’ve got to go with the proper documentation and get it certified that you meet the qualifications to be the President of the United States.
— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra (R), telling the Detroit Free Press he’d like to “create a federal office in Washington that would verify that presidential candidates meet the minimum requirements to hold the office.”
Editor’s note: We suggest a name for the office — the BBI, or the Birther Bureau of Investigation. We have some creative ideas for the badge design, too, that involve the “not brain surgery” meme.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Spell
In an attempt to fight off campaign inertia,
Mitt Romney’s renamed our country for ya.
While there’s no way of telling
If you lose votes for bad spelling —
Welcome, fellow citizens, to AMERCIA!
A Video Reminder that Breitbart Added Nothing to Cultural Dialogue but Noise, Lies
When Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly in March 2012,* he was hailed by those on both the right and the left who lauded his “mischievous spirit and Barnum-esque knack for creating a stir.” But he wasn’t really like some little bad boy, he was a big bad boy, capable of mean-spirited and dishonest acts.
As this long-lost video shows, however, the only thing Breitbart really cared about was winning the argument and defeating — by any means — the monolithic, juggernaught-like LEFT, which seeks to impose “cultural Marxism” and “political correctness” on the poor little helpless right.
So watch the tape (not the whole thing, it’s 18:30), but enough to remind you of Breitbart’s ability to talk and never really say anything. Given the current level of discourse in this country — an environment ripe for Breitbart’s brand of creative video editing and aggressive smear campaigns — we’re better off without him.
* Thanks for the correction, Paula.
Vodka’s Name Offends People Who Don’t Drink It with Reference to Custom They Don’t Practice
Since everyone knows that Mormons no longer practice polygamy (in this life) and they also don’t consume alcohol, how could they be offended by a vodka named “Fives Wives?” Uh, you got us there.
But the Idaho State Liquor Division has banned the new libation from being sold in the state, based on the idea that the 23 percent of Idahoans who are Mormon might take it personally.
“We feel Five Wives Vodka concept is offensive to a prominent segment of our population and will not be carried,” according to a letter from the Idaho State Liquor Division to an Idaho distributor wishing to carry it…
The head of Idaho’s liquor division acknowledged that Mormons don’t drink, or at least that they don’t admit it if they do.
“Presumably, people of the LDS faith would not be shopping in our [liquor] stores, but that does not mean that we are not sensitive to them.” But [Jeff Anderson] said Five Wives was rejected for other reasons, too, including the fact that vodka is a “crowded and competitive category” and that “there was nothing that really differentiated [Five Wives] other than its name and its label that had five women with cats in their crotches covering their genitals.
How anything differentiates a clear liquor with no taste is debatable. One wonders where Anderson worships, but that’s beside the point. Or is it?
While [Steve Conlin, director of marketing and a partner at Ogden’s Own, the Utah micro-distiller which makes the product] concedes the name could be seen as referencing polygamy (especially since it’s made in Utah), he said it carries many meanings. “The person who came up with name, she really liked the idea of five wives sitting around having a drink. There really is no pointed meaning to it and everyone can bring what they want to it … it’s not about making fun of Mormons at all. Quite simply it’s a name that seemed to fit.”
We’ll take his word, not having tried his vodka, that the name “fits” but I see no reason to protect the sensibilities of people who practice polygamy. Which of course, Mormons don’t. Anymore.
Leading Psychiatrist Recants Study Suggesting Gays Could Be Cured
In just 28 years, Dr. Robert Spitzer went from hero to betrayer among advocates of gay civil rights. In 1973, he led efforts to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. But in 2001, he released a study that suggested that homosexuality could be cured. Now he has recanted the 2001 study and apologized to gays who have been harmed.
The harm has been significant in that hate groups have often cited the 2001 study in their lawsuits to restrict civil rights for gays, including the Proposition 8 case in California. The study was so foundational to the hate groups’ case in support of Prop 8 that some legal scholars believe it may be the final strew that leads to striking down the anti-gay marriage amendment to the California state constitution that was added when the initiative passed.
Now Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out has interviewed Dr. Spitzer about his recanting of the study and concomitant apology. Highlights are here.
