Monday, August 10, 2009

Sentential Links #180

Wow, I've done 180 of these posts now. Where does the madness end! Where, I ask you!!!

Anyhow, the linkage:

:: I've long wondered if there would be a point at which Sarah Palin went just a little too far for the political mainstream. A whole lot of political observers noticed the obvious lies, the cringe-worthy ignorance, the petty feuds, and the bizarre behavior, but wanted to maintain the fiction that Palin was a credible political figure. After all, John McCain wanted her to be one heartbeat from the presidency -- and 60 million Americans agreed.

Maybe, just maybe, her "death panel" message on Facebook -- complete with lies, poor writing, policy confusion, and family exploitation -- will be enough to convince the skeptical that Palin really is that far gone?
(God, we can only hope so. What amuses me about Palin isn't so much her brazen stupidity, but rather her stunning hypocrisy. Citing her family's apparent trailer-park morality is just an awful, beyond-the-pale use of her family to make a political point, but holding up Little Trig while squealing "Barack Obama wants to kill my baby!" like the Stepford Moron is A-OK, I guess. Whatever.)

:: End of rant. But since every post is required to have a political point of some kind these days, here it is for this one: there was nothing unusual about my experience. Barely even anything to get upset about, really. So if you wonder why I'm not bothered by the idea of government-funded healthcare, that's why. Frankly, my dealings with the government, on average, are better than most of my dealings with corporations. The government might sometimes provide poor customer service just because they lack the motivation to do better, but corporate America routinely provides crappy customer service as part of a deliberate and minutely planned strategy. I'll take my chances with the feds. (I couldn't agree more. The "free market" does not magically generate great service. It just doesn't.)

:: If you're like us, you saw this image and thought, "sweet, finally a circular saw that comes with its own roll of toilet paper!" But unfortunately, tool technology isn't that advanced yet. (One evening a couple of weeks back, I was finished up my online stuff and gearing up to do some writing when I clicked one more link and found myself at Tool Snob, a blog about tools. I then spent the next two hours wandering through the archives there, tool-obsessed geek I have become. Seriously, I've become one of those guys who gets the same excitement for a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's or even the local hardware joint that I used to get for a decent toy store when I was a kid. Now, I haven't quite rated those places up in my heart to equal status with a trip to a bookstore, but the day may soon come.)

:: Television, I'm sorry to say to those moralist Republicans, is extremely conservative, because all television executives care about is money, which means they can't piss off any portion of their audience.

:: “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” (It was "Cat Week" over there, so go have a look.)

:: Oh my God, is she going to TAKE WALLY TO HIS OWN GRAVE? (Yup, that's exactly what she's doing. Wow.)

:: Why, you may ask, would you want to learn facts that are wholly fictional? Would you not be better off learning facts that are, in fact, factual? Don't be foolish. Factual facts are boring, pedantic, pedestrian things. Fictional facts are scintillating, interesting, and other attractive adjectives.

:: I knew this was unwise, but hey: Girlfriend and Nintendo? (What a choice...and condolences to Shamus.)

:: I was babysitting for my mom's friend Kathleen's daughter the night I wrote that first fan letter to John Hughes. I can literally remember the yellow grid paper, the blue ball point pen and sitting alone in the dim light in the living room, the baby having gone to bed. (Everybody and their brother is linking this, but sometimes there's a reason why everybody and their brother links something.)

More next week!

7 comments:

Thee Earl of Obvious said...

Kevin Drum first challenges Ms Palin's competencies, on seemingly everything. He then uses the poor customer service at his phone carrier to as justification for government run health care.

Uh, what?

Is Ma Jones little boy pining for Ma Bell? Is Kevin forgetting he would not even have the plethora of phone services he has now if government sanctioned monopolies were still in effect?

Kevin must not remember the "choices" available back then: black or white. Oh and for the really radical: the princess model. Lets not forget the customer service available. So atrocious that a comedy skit by Lily Tomlin was understood and applauded by oh, the entire country.

This quote I find especially ironic in light of his criticism of Sarah Palin's intelligence:

"... but corporate America routinely provides crappy customer service as part of a deliberate and minutely planned strategy."

Yes, Kevin corporations WANT to get their customers angry. They want you to switch your plan and go to another carrier. It is part of their master plan.

Does he not realize that the failings he is witnessing is coming from apathy brought on by bureaucracy? The corporate version is just as damaging as the government version. At least the corporations are purged and pink slips are sent out (Oh the atrocity of people being fired!)every so often in the business cycles. Provided of course they are allowed to cycle._

Thee Earl of Obvious said...

The double standard we have embraced and that has been oh so grossly illustrated in the chastising of Sarah Palin does not bother you in the least?

Living in the trailer park is a moral failure. Living in a ghetto will get you nominated to the highest court in the land. Trent lott can not say what she says. Oh the indignation.

Sarah Palin's husband is called all sorts of vile names in name of Skit show ratings. Yet nothing about Mr. Speaker of the house husband.

The police acted stupidly leads to a beer summit. Can you imagine if those words were uttered by W? Can you imagine if he called a beer summit?

Almost a year since King Henry railroaded the bailout. Now we applaud a railroad of healthcare.

Institutionalized double standards leads to institutionalized hypocrisy.

Kelly Sedinger said...

Earl, I haven't the slightest idea what you're rambling on about. Nobody ever said that living in a trailer park is immoral, nobody ever said that living in a ghetto makes you Supreme Court material, nobody ever said that bad service from a phone company implies that the government can do health care, et cetera. Nobody ever said that Trent Lott can't say what he said -- but they took exception to its clear racist implications. I don't care about "the speaker of the house husband", whatever that means. Nor am I interested in entertaining counterfactuals about George W. Bush. Sorry to disappoint.

Thee Earl of Obvious said...

nobody ever said that living in a ghetto makes you Supreme Court material, nobody ever said that bad service from a phone company implies that the government can do health care

I beg to differ but perhaps I was watching a different confirmation hearing and read a different article than the one posted here.

Also, I did not realize the Duke of Obtuse is apparently handing his majesty's mail today.

Roger Owen Green said...

Earl - I suppose one should deal with specifics of Sarah Palin, but one example will do. The govt would have killed her son Trig under "Obamacare". Not only is it false, but it's provocative. Maybe she didn't think it would be provocative [I must say I have a difficult tiime believing that], in which case she's merely tone deaf.

As for the new SC justice, her bio is what the "American dream" is supposed to be all about. Bootstrap pulling and all that. YOUR generalization that "Living in a ghetto will get you nominated" is just silly; just how many of her 110 predecessors and current colleagues lived in a ghetto? Your point here is just argumentative.

Thee Earl of Obvious said...

Sarah Palin is now a private citizen, just like Al Sharpton. An active person who is prone to making statements that are provocative in a quest to build a populist platform. Does YOUR double standard fail to recognize the similarities between these two individuals? Bu excusing those who have responsibilities far greater than citizens of similar behavior is a much more abdominal application of your standards.

Kelly Sedinger said...

Sarah Palin: on the Republican national ticket last year, a strong possibility for the 2012 nomination, and a voice beloved, albeit inexplicably, by the party base.

Al Sharpton: has never held office, has never been nominated for anything, has no chance of ever being nominated for anything of import, and a voice beloved by certain factions of the Democratic party.

Yeah, Palin and Sharpton are exactly the same.

And the "living in the ghetto" thing is just dumb. Sorry, but it is. Every person who is ever nominated for anything, be it an appointed or an elected post, will in addition to citing relevant qualifications also refer to things in their personal history that may depict them as being more compelling in terms of personal qualities. That's why every time John McCain was asked a question on any subject last year, he'd somehow mention that he'd been a POW. So what.

And with that, I'm closing this thread. I'll go off to The Corner when I want to read Republican talking points.