Tag Archives: Glen Beck

July 17, 2010

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It’s been gangster movie festival here at St. John’s Infirmary lately.

First, the Godfather trilogy of course; followed by Pesci and DeNiro in Casino with Sharon Stone; then, Goodfellows with that knockout Ray Liotto performance. I branched out with the Coen Brothers’ Millers Crossing, but came right back to the good stuff with Pacino and Depp in Donny Brasco and then Nicholson, DeCaprio and Matt Damon in The Departed. Just when I think I’m out, they keep sucking me back in and Public Enemies found its way into the DVD player.

I’d like to get out of the house and do something. Maybe go to the mall and see Inception for something different. Uhmm. There’s a bit of irony in that sentence, but I can’t quite parse it out. Maybe some reader like RebL will be able to help me with that.

I complained in the last post about what a stick figure I’ve become, but to be honest I just don’t feel like eating in this 100 degree and humid weather we’ve been having. By the way, does this hot weather mean that Al Gore is still fat but that climate studies are maybe just a little right? I keep getting mixed up when I don’t watch Glen Beck every day and need someone with mainstream thinking to help keep me on the straight and narrow.

Read an interesting piece about how the radical right is now interpreting the Constitution in the same way religious fundamentalists treat the text of the New Testament. Who knew John Calhoun would take the place of Elijah in legal thinking? I can’t get over this 10th Amendment talk from the Tea Party folks. I suppose they slept through that whole 1860-1865 week in high school U.S. history. Maybe they had the flu or the dog ate their homework. That’s the ticket, as some SNL guy used to say.

I’m really sorry I missed Lady GaGa in town. No, really. I would have liked to see that show. In fact, I would have liked to be the guy who confirmed her gender up close and personal. I might be a sick old guy, but I’m still a sick old guy. Speaking of newer singing acts, will the fact that Pink fell mean that from now on, it’s after the fall?

December 2, 2009

shut up, he explained

shut up, he explained


Obama’s speech at West Point yesterday left me with nothing, really, but cognitive dissonance. A Nobel Peace Laureate wants to put 100,000 American troops into Afghanistan to kill brown people for peace. Right. No, wrong. Uhm…

Just about 40 years ago today, I think I was carrying a sign that read “Killing for peace is like f***ing for chastity”. Obama said this isn’t like Vietnam and maybe he’s right, but some things sure seem to be the same.

The only thing I know for sure is that my Red State Republican friends who tell me they don’t like this president because they are birthers or some other form of craziness are going to be told by me that anyone who doesn’t support my president in a time of war is an unpatriotic traitor. Been waiting to do that for a while.

Do we know yet whether the troops that are going to Kabul will be troops we are pulling out of Bagdhad? Do we have any iron-clad guarantees that the wall of troops we will put in Kandahar will be part of a Pakistani effort on the other side of the border?

Sure hope that Rep. David Obey, who proposed a war tax on the superrich to pay for this, holds the GOP feet to the fire on what they want to cut to pay for this, etc., so at least we have some exposure of Republican perfidy.

What does the real presidential power think? You know, Sen. Joe Lieberman. Has he told us how the world is shaped yet?

Obama mentioned that there will be support civilians also going to Kabul, but do we know how many and of what kind?

One thing that does seem to advance the ball from the Bush Administration is a clear committment by us to withdraw on some timeline from both Iraq and Afghanistan, I’m just not sure that the getting out part is as clear as the getting in deeper part.

I know this: when the enemy is stateless, attacking any nation is just an illusion. Somehow, the warlords in Waziristan, the Northwest Territories of Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and other “failed” states, all have to get the idea that it’s a bad idea to let Al Qaeda have a place to rest their heads. I don’t think it takes 100,000 Marines to get that idea across, but we seem too stupid and clumsy to figure that out.

Colbert seems similarly confused:

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