Y’all met Joe the Plumber. Now meet some other guys called Joe!

By courtesy of Uylen Spiegel at the Global Mirror

 

Joe the Prophet – One, says:

 

“In the Middle East, there is zero chance of a deal right now, given the rightward tilt of Israeli politics and the fury over Gaza on the Palestinian side.”

Don’t Trust, But Try to Reconcile

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/02/13/dont-trust-but-conciliate/

 

 

Joe the Prophet – Two, says:

 

“Just finished watching the President unveil his new Af/Pak strategy. It is, as advertised, comprehensive. Most of the details were known in advance, but it was impressive to watch Obama lay them out in a coherent fashion. Some highlights”:

Obama on Af/Pak

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/27/obama-on-afpak/

 

 

Joe the Video Analyst, says:

 

“The President had two significant video moments yesterday–in a personal message to the people and government of Iran…and on Jay Leno. He aced both.”

Happy Nowruz!

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/20/happy-nowruz/

 

 

Joe the Seer, says:

 

“The Muslims were, in fact, hopeful about, and slightly amazed by, the new American President. Some even wondered aloud what they could do to help him succeed.”

The Quiet American: How the World Sees Obama

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1880379,00.html

 

 

Joe the Lyric, says:

 

“If the entitlement summit was a conversational concerto, the budget speech was a full-blown symphony featuring a percussive series of simple declarative sentences that conveyed a sense of command, …”

Obama’s Speech: A Tonal Masterpiece

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1881776,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

 

 

Joe the Slaughterer, says:

 

“Gingrich et al [my insert: supposing he is referring to the 46% of voters who disagree with him] will remain banished somewhere in the outer darkness–and the Fox News cave-ghetto–until they realize that the Obama Administration’s economic plans are not at all extreme, …”

No Newts

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/28/no-newts/

 

 

Joe the calm, quiet and humble American, says:

 

“Unlike many of my colleagues in the mass media, I am suffering from outrage-deficit disorder.” Followed by “Over the course of too many years in this business, I have discovered that my two worst sins are anger and impatience.”

 

Don’t Panic — At Least Not Yet

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1886543,00.html

 

 

Joe Soap, Guardian UK says:

Prospect of Barack Obama show causes UK to clear its decks

With an entourage of 500 staff, an armour-plated limousine and a fleet of decoy helicopters, America’s new president will arrive for his first visit to Britain amid huge razzmatazz on Tuesday for the G20 summit. But it will be his closed-door meetings with world leaders that are likely to prove the most significant of the trip

 

Guardian UK

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/obama-london-visit-uk-g20

 

Doesn’t sound like a Quiet American the way one of the Joe’s put it.  Indeed, it sounds like a lot of noise to me.  What’s going to happen if everyone rocks up with all the same razzmatazz?  All being equal, you know?

 

You be the judge.

Wise Words: A tribute [?] from Time Magazine to President George W Bush

 

Perhaps the Time Writer did not realize that the four words would become a tribute to the former President because they are not in the habit of sending tributes in that direction.

 

From Time’s Verbatim Column in the March 30 Edition [verbatim] “He deserves my silence” by “George W Bush, refusing to criticize President Barack Obama during his first public speech since leaving office.”

 

That’s it exactly as Time printed it.  Read whatever you want in it, but I wonder whether a lot of people Worldwide are perhaps thinking the same four words about the new incumbent right now.  Awaiting your Comments, please?

 

I can’t be as short and concise as the Former President and I don’t know what else he said in his speech or to whom he was speaking, but he deserves this comment from me:

 

“President Bush, Sir, I have always admired and respected you and your family, and the four words attributed to you have increased my respect and admiration tenfold.  You have given much under difficult conditions and we are indebted to you, Sir.  God Bless you, Mister President, Sir!”

Comedy at its best….deserving full sets of Oscar and Emmy Awards

Leading by light years for best actor [Freddie Mack Obama], best supporting actor [Timothy Mae Fannie] and a real-life supporting cast of actors/directors from CitiGroup, Goldman Sachs and AIG.

 

Financial comedy in true Hollywood tradition?  No Folks, a lot better than that; even Hollywood couldn’t emulate this!  Disney? Never!  Jerry Who?  No way.

 

First they borrow money from China [and print some more] in the anticipation that the taxpayer will cough up when the time for repayment comes but meantime they dish your money out to the Robbing Hoods in Wall Street to spread amongst themselves as “performance bonuses” when the institutions are factually bankrupt.  Then the leading actor and the Oscar nominated supporting actor cozy it up with the same Robbing Hoods on Wall Street [so that they could find out what they are talking about; that in itself deserves an Oscar] “before they talk about it.”

 

Now, don’t think that is the end; no, wait for it; do stay for the rest while we have a brief interval.

 

In comes Timothy the leading supporting actor; and he has a plan [says the leading actor].  Hold on tight to your seats folks; you have not paid for the show yet but that will be rectified shortly.  This is the best.

 

What they have worked out is a true classic; it doesn’t matter none when they first knew, or who knew first, or who still doesn’t know.  The worthless paper shares of three months ago have suddenly doubled/trebled/shot up in value with the White House injection of the money that they had borrowed from China and you the taxpayer must start coughing up next year.

 

This is the pinnacle cinch of stupendous genius!  You know why those worthless paper shares are suddenly “worth” a lot of money.  Because they are going to flog those shares to the public and the public won’t buy anything that is valued at zero.

 

The end will make you happy; good comedy or drama needs a happy ending.  It’s so simple it boggles the mind: you will be repaying yourself.  For every dollar they take from you in 2009 to pay the “performance bonuses of 2008, you will be repaying another thirty dollars [read Time Magazine/CNN/Swampland Blog ‘President Obama on Jay Leno Spoiler’ for President Obama’s personal verbatim arithmetic of thirty dollars for one.  For other Time/CNN/Swampland sites just Google search on AIG and you will find raving daily reviews on the forthcoming attraction.

 

It has Oscar written all over it!  And more History is being made right under your noses.  For the first time ever a show, the movie version as well as the live show, will be sponsored by the White House, the DNC under Pelosi and Harry Reid and by Wall Street.  Certain Republican Governors, Rush Limbaugh and Human Events have indicated that they don’t support the extravaganza but President Obama has reacted in a strongly worded teleprompter message that Michelle and He will attend the opening ceremonies and have twenty Balls.  Joe the Biden will also attend, with Oprah and Michael Moore.

 

Go for it, Folks.  You will be rich; who said He Can’t?  He is doing it!

Who will take over when America goes? Kindly mark your applications Urgent and submit ASAP!

No jokes Folks!  The Brotherhood of World Nations will need a new leader when America vacates the position, and that can happen any day now.  It is also seriously in doubt that President Obama will survive his fall from grace; submit your applications for the most Powerful Position in the World at the same time.

 

It is all well documented and I won’t bore you with my own interpretations; so I will add very little to the quoted sources; indeed very little.  I will give you all the URL’s and merely point to the most important highlights in each.  Then you decide.

 

Number One:

 

Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 11:01 pm

 

President Obama on Jay Leno Spoiler

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/19/president-obama-on-jay-leno-spoiler/

 

Ignore the gaffe arguments; it’s just a highly [un] civil war of words between Americans.  Rather just read the President’s one answer summary on how the financial crisis came to be.  Then take note of how many times he repeats the lack of decency and moral ethics in current day American Business, but he will soon fix that.

 

 

Number Two:

 

Email from Human Events Friday, March 20, 2009 in which this Shining Beacon/outpost of Conservatism cites their agreement with the President on the reasons for the financial meltdown crisis.  I remind you that Americans have been making a lot of new History almost every day since November 4^th of 2008 and this is another one.  Never before, never ever indeed, has it happened that a Democratic President and Human Events agreed on anything; this a great first!  History has been made.

 

 

For Number Three:

 

Consult the following impeccable Time/CNN sources and their Swampland Blogsite:

 

Friday, March 20, 2009 at 10:43 am

 

When And What They Should Have Known

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/20/when-and-what-they-should-have-known/

 

 

Friday, March 20, 2009 at 9:40 am

 

Congress’s Clawing AIG Efforts

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/20/congress%e2%80%99s-clawing-aig-efforts/

 

 

Citigroup Plans Big Bonuses Despite Rules Against Them

 

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1886778,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily

 

By STEPHEN GANDEL

 

Now let us assume President Obama is an honorable man, that he is an honest man, and that he is sincere when he says [see the Jay Leno Spoiler posting] that he wants to put honor, principles, and “the old values that have always carried America through difficult times in the past” back in American business.  He refers to these values in every second line; how many more times do you want him to do that?  Ignore the gossip that his Campaign Contributions did not come from millions of small donors.  Ignore the vile accusations that his campaign finance came from these large institutions; ignore the fact that Senior Senator Chris Dodd has now admitted after he had at first denied that he had received millions from the same sources and that he has promised to “return” the tainted money.  Ignore the vicious lies that they [these unprincipled institutions] bought the Presidency for him, that they own him and that they are now presenting their YOM’s [You Owe Me] for payment.

 

Take President Obama at his word.  It is no use and no achievement bragging about shooting a lame duck with a broken wing with a double barrel shotgun at twenty yards as all Americans are now doing to each other.

 

Maybe you can also read this one last article in the latest Time Edition:

 

China’s Takeoff in the Space Industry

 

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1881966,00.html?xid=rss-world

 

They [China] seem ready to take over when America goes.  In fact, if you believe the article [so well researched and documented as you can always expect from Time] well, if you believe that article it seems China has already taken over the Commercial Space Industry while all them silly Americans are squabbling amongst themselves over gay marriages and human rights for terrorists in Gitmo.  What a way to end?

 

Study these impeccable sources and decide for yourself.  If you are still not convinced or if you believe like Americans do, that “if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a lame duck with a broken wing then it must be a duck,” I suggest you get those applications for new World Leadership Roles in at the appropriate place [special UN desk manned by Muamar Gadaffi] on the double.

If you have a nice story to share…. Go ahead and make someone glad!

I first had this posted as a comment in another Blog but then I took another look at it.  The punch line I had borrowed from somewhere I have long forgotten but the story you will read now is my own.

 

This old couple lived way north where there is sometimes lots of snow with rain and fog and it was almost Xmas.  Their great-great grandchildren would be coming in a few days to spend the time with them.  It was approaching fast; the tree was ready and they went out for a walk; they loved each other in their golden age and were looking forward to all the visitors coming.  Santa Claus had never missed a visit with them in all those years ever since their own children were born and who are now grandparents.  There would be many faces and ages around the tree that Xmas.

 

It was a chilly night; the air was wet; maybe it was rain, fog and snow and they were discussing what it was when the old guy said:

 

‘’But mother, this is the street where Rudolf the Reindeer lives; let’s ask him.’’

 

They were almost in front of Rudolf’s house now and the old guy walked up to the door and knocked.  Mother waited in the street and saw the door opening and them having a short few words and smiles; the old guy came briskly down the neat little garden path and hugged her.

 

‘’Rudolf says it’s rain my dear, and asked me to tell you that you are as pretty as ever.’’

 

‘’But how would he know that so quick, having been inside when you knocked on the door?’’ the old lady asked.

 

‘’Don’t you fret, mother, Rudolf knows.’’

 

‘’But how does he know?’’ she asked.

 

He looked at her with the love of seventy years between them and said:

 

‘’Rudolf knows the rain, dear,’’ and he held her tight to him.

 

It’s a nice story, isn’t it?  Do share your own with us and make someone remember.

What does Evolution have in common with BP? …. Quite a lot, actually! [Part One]

Courtesy of Uylen Spiegel at the Global Mirror

 

America is the land of Origin of many things besides Disney.  Indeed it is!

 

There is the Time Rag [Time Magazine] and lately, by change through natural selection, there is BP [it does not stand for British Petroleum and I will get to that shortly].

 

Let me first deal with the Rag.  As expected in this year of commemoration it published a lengthy article on Evolution called: The Ever Evolving Theories of Darwin by Carl Zimmer Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009.  See:

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879213,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

 

The headline is all you have to read in the article; the rest is BP!

 

Now turn to a book called “Almost like a Whale” by Steve Jones who was a Professor in Genetics at the famous University College of London when he published his findings.  It is hilariously funny and it turns Darwinist Evolution on its head, whilst exposing the above article by the Rag as just a lot of drivel and more BP.

 

Professor Jones designed the layout of “Whale” on the same basis as Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” with every chapter starting with a short summary of what is to follow in that chapter and what has already been attended to in previous ones.  The major [almost only] other difference is that Jones uses modern English terminology and added a new first chapter on Aids, DNA and the “sexual habits of the Fruit Fly” that is not covered by Darwin.

 

And he discusses the measurement of Time [not the Rag this time] in periods called Darwin.  So, for instance, when the ordinary mortal says something happened one year or fifty years ago [counting 365 days in every year plus the additional one every four years] one Darwin can be one hundred million years, or fifty trillion years, anything you want it to be but certainly never less than a million years per one Darwin per one fruit fly, and five million or more per one pig.

 

That’s where Jones knocked the Rag out of the Park years ago and it is clear that they [the folks at the Rag] make a mockery out of Darwin’s Evolution by saying in 2009 that Evolution has evolved a heck of a lot since Darwin wrote the Species 150 years ago.  Of course things have changed [nothing ever stays the same] but 150 years, or one thousand years, is not Darwin’s theory, not even remotely.

 

OK, that does it with the Rag.  Back to “Whale” then.  And I shall be short to give the reader enough time to read up elsewhere.

 

Jones mocks Darwin in the additional new Chapter on modern DNA research by agreeing that it has indeed found some sort of similar particles between the present day ocean whale [if the Jap’s don’t kill and eat them all], the fruit fly and modern mankind [the so-called Anatomically Modern Man, meaning those of us who walk up straight in stead of on all fours] and he concludes that it is natural for these similarities because one eats the other.  Shucks, if you eat only peaches every day for a year, leave alone six Darwin’s, you will end up with a heck of a lot of fruit fly juice in the stomach.

 

Jones further explains the similarities between the mechanisms of the small side fins on the whale and the wings of the fruit fly and the arms of AMM [Anatomically Modern Man] but does not explain what happened to the human inhabitants of Atlantis way back many Darwin’s ago when the whale was a bird and they descended in great flocks over Atlantis on the south west coast of Africa comes evening time, to rest and mate.  Perhaps that is why Atlantis fell into the ocean.

 

The Professor also poses the question: Why do pigs not fly?  If you answer that it is because pigs don’t have wings you will be quite wrong because the correct answer is that they don’t fly because their ancestors did not have wings, and that is so because the flying squadrons of whales had caught all the little pigs by a process of natural selection and ate the wings because flying whales loved pig wings and that is why pigs stopped growing wings and became land animals.

 

Now the Professor knocks Darwin and the Rag out with a real sneaky punch coming in real low below the belt.  Why, he asks, is it that AMM walks up straight when that is the most uncomfortable position for the human body?  Why, he asks, do they [that’s us AMM’s] sunbathe or do other things lying down flat on the back or the tummy, as would be the natural position for the human body to be in?  What on earth made us stand up straight but sprawl down on the beach?

 

Maybe at first the people in modern day Atlantis off the south west coast of Africa stayed flat down and later learned to stand up and run for their lives when the flying whales came over at evening time.  Jones does not say but French, Belgium and South African archeologists have discovered a mountain cave near the position that previous research indicated to be the position of the lost city of Old Atlantis.  The digs have yielded plenty of evidence backed by scientific testing procedures in lead chambers and what have you that also points to the Origin of Species AMM in the lost City of Atlantis and the nearby other lost City of Monomotapa, the City of Gold, more than seventy thousand years ago, maybe as far back as one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and that is not even half one Darwin.

 

That’s a lot longer than six thousand years in America and sixteen thousand they have found evidence for in China.  And this concludes part One.  More will follow.

 

So:  Is Evolution a Science or is it an Illusion?  Correct answer is: Neither.  What is it then?  I would say it is a lot of BP.  And that means I must tell you about the latter.

 

PS.  America is of course also the origin of the old saying “BS baffles Brains” but I don’t like to use profanity in public hence I use BP for Bull Poop.  Same thing really; also accurately describes the Time Rag and Darwin’s Evolution!

Courtesy of His Friends …. Quotes: Verbatim

I am not senile; stone sober, indeed I am; never took dope; and I can read and write reasonable English.

 

Will someone please tell me why I am baffled?

 

In ‘’God as Their Running Mate’’ By Michael Kinsley in Time Magazine Thursday, Sep. 06, 2007 Edition it is printed:

 

”These days presidential candidates are required to wear their religion on their sleeve. God is a personal adviser and inspiration to all of them. They all pray relentlessly. Or so they say. If that’s not true, I want to know it. … And just a little further: ‘’If religion is central to their lives and moral systems, then it cannot be the candidates’ “own private affair.” To evaluate them, we need to know in some detail the doctrines of their faith and the extent to which they accept these doctrines.’’

 

Kinsley and Klein at Time are the very best of Friends with Obama; they have a passionate abiding love affair between them.

Why then ‘’No, said Obama’’ [verbatim again] “But don’t give people some sort of religious litmus test because I don’t want somebody to question my faith and I’m certainly not going to question somebody else’s.” [See FoxNews article Obama Accuses McCain Campaign of ‘Swift Boat Politics’ dated Wednesday, September 10, 2008.] 

That was BO but now it is AO and Joe Klein enters the debate.

 

Joe hits the stratosphere in ‘’Obama’s Speech: A Tonal Masterpiece’’ By Joe Klein Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 at:

 

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1881776,00.html?xid=rss-topstories

 

Verbatim: ‘’If the entitlement summit was a conversational concerto, the budget speech was a full-blown symphony featuring a percussive series of simple declarative sentences that conveyed a sense of command.’’

 

Now that should have convinced even the greatest skeptic but it doesn’t end there because the Pastor has the last word:

 

Jeremiah Wright says: ‘’No, He Can’t’’ when he tells Fox News/AP that ‘’his former congregant is just like any other president and that he “ain’t gonna improve your child’s reading score.”  In fact what Jeremiah is saying is not only ‘’No, He Can’t’’ because [some more verbatim]: “He’s like any other president,” Wright said. “He’s a politician and he’s got to do what politicians do.” effectively saying ‘’No, He Won’t’’ even if He could.

See: Rev. Wright Cautions: Obama ‘Ain’t Jesus’ at: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/05/rev-jeremiah-wright-cautions-obama-aint-jesus/

With Friends like these, who needs enemies?

Courtesy of El Campeador who unearthed the FoxNews article and published the links to it.

Books I have read …. and read again …. and soon once more …. [# one]

My all-time favorite and the most beautiful book I have ever read is Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor. Many reviews refer to the book as a Civil War novel [Kantor got a Pulitzer for it] but it is not about the War as such. It deals with the people involved in the Southern Prison of War stockade in the small town of Andersonville South West Georgia.

All reviews are full of praise but none gives full justice for the craftsmanship in dealing with the ordinary people who got drawn into the sad event where thousands of Northern prisoners of War were dumped in a place hardly fit for one thousand and left to their own devices.

Kantor deals with the cruelty, the heartlessness, the stupidity and the incompetence of both sides; he doesn’t defend anyone; indeed he calls both sides guilty. But the War is not what makes the book great [he should have got Nobel for it]; the story is the people on both sides and the locals who had to deal with the horror in their midst. I won’t tell you too much because you must buy the book. So I shall tell you just a little.

Ira Claffey appears in the very first line and stays through to the end; there is his daughter Lucy and Cousin [Cos] who came to cure the bodies and found his own soul and love; and the widow Tebbs, Coral [one of her sons] and the parson. We find Nathan Dreyfoos [you must take care of him when you read your own copy of Andersonville]; and you meet the brutal hoodlum slum killer Norton who continued his “career” killing his own, and Captain Wirz, the Camp Commander, with his own pains and fears. You walk with Ira Claffey; he talks to you and unbeknown to him he compels [forces] you to say: “What would I have done in his shoes, or in the shoes of any of the characters that come alive in every page?” Kantor does single the top brass in the Southern Military out for their lack of interest [without grudge or hate, and does not put it in this way] but he questions the chain of command that had put some of them in the positions that they held.

But even that is secondary. You meet those who died but lived forever; and those who survived but never lived again. In every chapter you will find those who tried to heal body and soul and those who destroyed both; there is utter despair but hope is born for some. A few did not kill intentionally; others did and had no remorse. A few came out better people than before, which means there may be hope if such a horror comes to pass again. And there is a chapter near the end where two twisted souls who could have hated each other but found a need to help and love instead; the man Claffey stumbles onto the scene and both twisted souls found a common need from which Claffey encouraged [and connived] to produce a miracle that grips you by the throat.

Appomattox came and the stockade was opened. Some walked; others hobbled home somewhere in one of the Northern States; many stayed behind because they would never walk again; they didn’t know they were free because where they now stayed everyone is free [or is he?]. To be ‘’of human bondage’’ [to quote and acknowledge Somerset Maugham] is often a more severe prison for freedom than those that endured Andersonville had. That comes out so clear in my favorite book that I am trying to encourage you to buy and read.

I found my [used] copy of the original 1955 edition at a small rusty novelty store in the Main Street of Andersonville, just a few yards down from the statue of Henry Wirz at the small roundabout. I can’t remember what I paid for it [probably one or two bucks] but it is worth one hundred and I am given to understand it can still be found at specialty book suppliers.

Get it; it will change your life [it did mine] and next time I shall tell you about the town of Andersonville today and my next book that I have read six or eight times.

A letter every human being alive should read

I am borrowing the following letter from the Blog of Michael Eden at:

 

http://startthinkingright.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/no-he-cant-by-prof-anne-wortham/

 

 

The letter is authentic and many responded in different ways; you must read more on Michael’s research in his Blog but I borrow just the letter because it speaks for itself about a person who knows herself.

 

Then you decide for your own self.

 

 

No He Can’t
by Anne Wortham

Fellow Americans,

Please know: I am black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul’s name as my choice for president.

Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a black president to love the ideal of America.

I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival, – all that I know about the history of the United States of America, all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the “change” that Obama asserts has come to America.

Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared “progressive” whites who voted for him because he doesn’t look like them. I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration, – political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

I would have to believe that “fairness” is the equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to “go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice” is speaking in my interest. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the “bottom up,” and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting “Yes We Can!” Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead – and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over – and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a black person. So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America . Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to – Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine, – what little there is left, – for the chance to feel good. There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

November 6, 2008

Taking of the Oath at the Wall

I Barry Both Ways hereby solemnly swear that I shall preserve and protect the lies about my past and that I shall continue to do so because I Can. And in the Faith of my Dreams from my Father and his Ancestors I despise having to wear this darn Lapel Pin. So help me Time Magazine and Joe Klein!