Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Heaven help us
I watched the Obamas last night and thought it was refreshing to see a candidate's wife in atypical candidates-wife attire (sleeveless and colorful but not red, white or blue). I suppose I should have realized there'd be a negative way to react, however, and I fear there will be lots of this kind of thing. Few people permit themselves to make outright racist comments, but the feelings are there for many, and they're ingrained, and they won't go away. Unexpressed or unknown thoughts and feelings can easily be deflected into remarks that are much too intense and frantic to be simple opinions about, as in this case, dresses and belts.
The writer of the linked post is generally aware and perceptive, a highly educated writer and poet. He's often kind and usually extraordinarily careful with the precision of his language. Yet he could not resist making a personal and irrelevant attack. He'd undoubtedly be righteously indignant - and would both recognize and note the displacement - were anyone to criticize his friends' and his clothing. Blogs have a bad rap among many because of precisely this kind of pointless, petty, nasty and ugly diatribe. Such a rant does not help in any way except to relate the writer's high opinion of his and his friends' taste. I don't think this is the kind of thing that's meant when the virtues and benefits of "critical thinking" are encouraged and extolled, do you?
I fear it would have been the same if it were Hillary who won the democratic nomination, except that it would be gender jokes and kidding-on-the-square about girls instead of blacks.
Heaven help us for the next five months.
On the other hand, McCain wants town hall meetings with Obama instead of contentious debates, and they've both asserted they'll avoid ad hominem attacks. With all the issues at stake, there is more than enough fodder for intense debate, even anger and frustration, without wasting our time or attention on anything that isn't relevant and doesn't matter.
The writer of the linked post is generally aware and perceptive, a highly educated writer and poet. He's often kind and usually extraordinarily careful with the precision of his language. Yet he could not resist making a personal and irrelevant attack. He'd undoubtedly be righteously indignant - and would both recognize and note the displacement - were anyone to criticize his friends' and his clothing. Blogs have a bad rap among many because of precisely this kind of pointless, petty, nasty and ugly diatribe. Such a rant does not help in any way except to relate the writer's high opinion of his and his friends' taste. I don't think this is the kind of thing that's meant when the virtues and benefits of "critical thinking" are encouraged and extolled, do you?
I fear it would have been the same if it were Hillary who won the democratic nomination, except that it would be gender jokes and kidding-on-the-square about girls instead of blacks.
Heaven help us for the next five months.
On the other hand, McCain wants town hall meetings with Obama instead of contentious debates, and they've both asserted they'll avoid ad hominem attacks. With all the issues at stake, there is more than enough fodder for intense debate, even anger and frustration, without wasting our time or attention on anything that isn't relevant and doesn't matter.
Labels: 2008 election, blogs (others'), people, reflections, writing
Permalink | 
| posted by jau at 9:26 AM
ligneus — at 11:26 PM, June 04, 2008:
jau — at 10:31 AM, June 05, 2008:
— at 6:17 PM, June 07, 2008:
— at 8:57 AM, June 09, 2008:
| posted by jau at 9:26 AM
5 more:
ligneus — at 11:26 PM, June 04, 2008:
I don't know, I thought it was kinda funny when I read it but then I really don't like the Obamas, truly awful people, no better than all the awful people they associate with. They're like McGovern in jack boots. Difficult creature to imagine that, wouldn't you say?
Here's something to show just how staggeringly wet behind the jug ears Obama is.
Here's something to show just how staggeringly wet behind the jug ears Obama is.
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jau — at 10:31 AM, June 05, 2008:
Alan, I agree that culture is not irrelevant in the broadest scheme of things. I am adamant about the need for high culture in the arts, for example, but the world of today has many active and varied cultures - yours being one of them, by the way - some of which are more or less palatable to each of us. But it's one thing to prefer one culture to another and quite another to dismiss some and call them reprehensible or unacceptable. Who made you the cultural arbiter of the universe? And anyway, what culture(s?) are "adequate" and "graceful" as far as you're concerned? And what makes your judgment of cultural preferences correct? Even more to the point, Mrs.O's clothing has nothing to do with her husband's ability to be president. What a wife wears is not a testament to her husband's professional skills or adequacies, unless you'd have us return to the moralistic mores-dictating knees-together neighbor-spying 1950s.
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— at 6:17 PM, June 07, 2008:
Jau, black liberation theology is entirely odious. It leads to a new enslavement -- when has Marxism not enslaved people?
The clothing bespeaks the unearned wealth of an urban elite. Obama and his Chicago friends are looters. They have no notion how wealth is generated. They only wish it redistributed -- chiefly to themselves, secondarily to their constituencies.
The clothing bespeaks the unearned wealth of an urban elite. Obama and his Chicago friends are looters. They have no notion how wealth is generated. They only wish it redistributed -- chiefly to themselves, secondarily to their constituencies.
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— at 8:57 AM, June 09, 2008:
PS: Not to put to fine a point on it, but Cindy McCain dresses like a ho. As Thomas Sowell says, these are the worst candidates since 1972. I would add that the wives may be the worst evah.
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Moreover, when Obama protests that he respects McCain, but does not get respect in return, it sounds like the whine of the adolescent Obama is. He is not unfit because of his race -- Colin Powell would have been fine. Obama is unfit because of his personal affinities and inadequacies.
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