Cartoon Wars
Cartoonist insults an entire culture, then threatens to sue when another cartoonist insults him back.
I seem to remember a big flap some time ago where cartoonists said they had the right — no, the duty — to be intentionally offensive. I’m guessing this guy wasn’t on board with that. No, wait.
Choosing between sane and crazy
The basic problem with the two party system is that when one party goes massively, rat-chokingly insane, you’re pretty much forced to go with the sane candidate. “Sane” is a low bar for public office. It includes the subsets of the sane-but-stupid, sane-but-criminal, and the sane-but-disagrees-for-everything-you-stand-for. For example, here in the ninth district I get to choose between Rick Boucher, a Democrat who voted against health care reform and thinks Arizona’s immigration laws are a peachy idea, and Morgan Griffith, a friend of the Roanoke Tea Party.
I can’t say I’m happy about my options.
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Gay Marriage violates the “kinship system.”
One excellent point Sam Schulman makes in “The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage” is that heterosexual romantic love (and heterosexual romantic marriage) is not threatened by same-sex marriage. Rather, it’s the political “kinship system” of marriage that’s threatened.
The kinship system the the method through which women are treated as sexual property and breeding stock, and the “marriage” is not really the marriage of a woman and a man but one family unit to another family unit. Schulman says same sex marriage makes these elements of the kinship system inoperative:
- Families protect the honor and virginity of women until marriage.
- After marriage the groom joins the bride’s male family members in peerage, while the bride joins the groom’s family in service to the more senior female family members.
- The kinship system allows the family or wider society to determine what sexual relationships are legitimate or illicit.
- Marriage is an initiation rite which marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adult responsibilities.
Most people I know are glad to see the end of features one, two, and three. If same sex marriage can put a nail into the coffin of this vision of marriage, the funeral can’t happen fast enough.
Not Schulman, though. He thinks same sex marriage is a fad that will pass because it’s not compatible with this, the bedrock principles of marriage.
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Never underestimate the end-user
You do know the Al Franken / Norm Coleman recount is still going on, don’t you?
In an election where any fool can vote, it’s important to have a system that any fool can use. Op-scan sheets seem simple enough, and heaven knows most of us have filled in plenty of the damn things before we ever purchase our first gown and mortar board. But still…
Actual ballot.
“What’s so hard in figuring out how to fill in the dot?” said David Schultz, an election law professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. “It’s not that tough.” [ Al Franken grabs lead… ]
It would be nice if David Schultz could spend some time watching web site usability testing, then he’d see how many ways perfectly simple tasks can get mangled and why. Some people are in too much of a hurry to care. Others don’t bother to read the directions. Still others think the directions are made-up rules and doing things differently has no impact.
And in the case of filling in little ovals, I am sure there are plenty of people with arthritis who have a lot of difficulty with the task indeed. Those people are a little harder to sneer at…
Gesture of Reconcilliation
I respect Ze Frank. But he’s nuts with this:
i would love to see a group project where obama supporters reached out to the mccain folk (and others) in a gesture of reconciliation… [ From 52 to 48 With Love ]
The aggrieved party is not usually the one to reach out and say “I’m sorry.” And I think Ze’s message in that post is flatly arrogant: Obama supporters won, but they did it by being extremists and it’s time to make nice again.
But it was the Republican campaign events where people shouted “traitor,” “terrorist,” and “kill him.” And when McCain gave his concession speech, his supporters booed Obama more than once. And we, as liberals, have been called any number of things over the last eight years: anti-American, objectively pro-terrorist, sympathizers with Islamic extremists, useful idiots.
And what seemed to make the right wing the most angry was we wanted to see due process and dedication to Constitutional principles.
I am not against reconciliation. But I do think I will wait until the other side admits that I’m an American, my principles mean something, and Obama isn’t a stealth Muslim socialist terrorist criminal. And that’s a pretty freaking low bar.
We can’t make it here
James McMurtry describes the problem:
And what are we talking about? Pig lipstick.
Update: I clarified what’s in the video since the Elf said she originally thought I meant hippies with guitars were the problem.
They are a problem, but not the most urgent problem we face.
Separated by mere reality
A friend says Sarah Palin reminds her of Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter books.
Considering that she once asked a librarian how to go about banning books, I can see her point.
Show of force
Surprising show of force against American citizens ahead of the Republican National Convention:
Lawyers on the scene to represent the detainees were handcuffed. Computers, laptops, journals, diaries, and political pamphlets were seized from people’s homes. And all of this occurred against U.S. citizens, without a single act of violence having taken place, and nothing more serious than traffic blockage even alleged by authorities to have been planned. [ Federal government involved in raids on protesters ]
Anyone can be alleged to be doing anything. Are you doing anything? Think about it.
Maybe he meant Michael Palin?
I’m mystified. McCain chose Sarah Palin? And he’s supposed to be the hardheaded realist, sober, experienced, good-judgement candidate?
The Vice President spot is a serious job. And there are a lot of serious people McCain could have tapped for this slot. I’ve seen Kay Bailey Hutchison’s name floated more than once, and PoliGazette suggested the politically inexperienced but very corporate Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP) in June. Liddy Dole might have been an interesting choice. There have to be others. But instead, McCain picked a candidate that highlighted his age. Weakened his argument from experience. From a state that’s had many of its prominent Republicans indicted on corruption charges.
Picked someone who is currently under investigation for abuse of power. That’s the breathtaking part. The vetting committee didn’t even have to dig to find that one, all they’d have to do is pick up a newspaper in Fairbanks. It’s summer there, they wouldn’t even had to have worn mittens.
And we’re supposed to trust this guy’s judgement? Listen, I know I’m a liberal and I can’t be expected to approve of any decision. But selecting Palin is either dangerously flippant or totally insane. I didn’t like McCain before. Now I’d probably prefer four more years of Bush/Cheney. McCain is like Bush but more erratic. Less logical. And that’s a feat.
We can all breathe easier
Finally. After years of extra-legal argument, torture, and a Supreme Court decision, Osama bin Laden’s driver has been convicted of being Osama bin Laden’s driver. For which he will serve five months, having already served sixty-one months of his term prior to being convicted.
It’s been worth it though. Since Hamdan was captured, bin Laden has presumably been forced to drive himself.