What began as a little housecleaning noted in a previous post has evolved into a major project, indeed, the first major reorganization of my apartment since I moved here back at the end of the last century.
As I created more space by moving some furniture around, I started sorting through piles, both to reduce the clutter and to collect any and all notes I had written for my dissertation. In the meanwhile, I have discovered countless other notes, some related to movie scripts, others to my long-dormant fantasy epic as well as myriad ideas for blog posts.
I was delighted to discover a remarkable consistency to my thoughts on gay marriage, with ideas for posts in 2004 relevant to the current debate, a suspicion of courts deciding the issue and a concern that the debate focuses more on the “right” to marry than the meaning of the institution.
Given that I have written an average of three posts a day for the past two months, perhaps I needed this time off from blogging, so as to take a step back, gather my thoughts (as I’ve been gathering my notes) and let the ideas stew a bit before blogging at a pace similar to that of this spring.
I’ll segue from that thought to one (undated) note I discovered as it reminded me of something I had read Friday in the New Republic. A while ago, I had written:
[The] Left doesn’t even see their (sic) [own] hate even as many define their relation to the current president in such terms.
Writing about the HBO movie Recount, Jonathan Chait observes:
Yet the Democrats still believed in the power of the establishment and its ideals. This is a major theme of Recount. Al Gore and his lieutenants agonized about their reputation, their duty, and winning the approval of The New York Times, while Republicans saw the episode as a pure street fight. The Republicans were teeming with rage and paranoia, well-captured in the movie by the “Brooks Brothers Riot” and the bitter commentaries of GOP recount lawyer Ben Ginsburg. This was the political culture of the moment. Liberal editorial pages studiously urged both sides to fight fair, while conservative organs like the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard printed deranged conspiracy theories and urged Bush to do whatever it took to win.
Sounds like the movie’s theme is at odds with the facts. After all, it was Gore and his “lieutenants” who pressed for additional recounts when the first two did not yield the results they wanted.
What struck me most of all was not learning about the bias of the film (which given Hollywood is to be expected), but reading the article’s author, Jonathan Chait musing about the GOP engaging in a “pure street fight” while contending conservative editorials were “deranged.” This from the guy who, in September 2003, had written how much he hated President Bush.
This man doesn’t even see his own hatred. And it reflects even in his current commentary on a movie whose producers delight in demonizing the Republican players in the 2000 election controversy.
I guess it was for the best then that I chose to watch The Americanization of Emily on DVD last night instead of tuning in HBO. If I wanted left-wing conspiracy theories, I could just check out a few blogs, perhaps even a post or two by the self-professed Bush-hater Jonathan Chait.
UPDATE: According to Brent Baker of Newsbusters, despite the film’s implication “that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked an accurate vote count,” it did deliver “some anti-Democratic points rarely heard in the news media.“
Another antidote about the left’s hatred of Bush. My dil was telling me about a musical performance at the local college this weekend. The first song was a very depressing song about life in America today – with many references to our terrible president.
After the show, she went up to the director, who was her teacher for a number of years, and complained that that was no way to start what should have been an upbeat concert – especially on Memorial Day weekend. His immediate response to her was:’ Oh so you’re a Republican now” (Give her a few more years, and that statement will be true). She said: no, I am simply a person who is proud of my country! That shut him up.
What a sad statement – are only Republicans considered patriots and lovers of America? Are the Dems really so willing to give that up and cede it away – as something morally wrong or useless?
Leah, for the most part, yes they are.
GPW, you ought to cancel your subscription to HBO for carrying that biased, lying nonsense.
The Dems tried to steal the election in 2000; the still can’t get over the fact that the Repubs stood up to them and won.
Good idea, David, I’ll call the cable company tomorrow and cancel.
The Dems not only tried to steal Florida, they used exactly the same tactics here in Washington 4 years later to steal the governorship. And they got away with it — on the third recount.
Which is why I won’t count Hillary out yet. The Dems keep coming up with creative ways to get what they want. First they turn to the courts, and if that doesn’t work, they find new and interesting ways to count votes. All the while labeling good Americans as: stupid, racist homophobes – because they dare not vote for the Democrats.
Elephant, some of us do remember that. Gregoire was elevated to her office by fraud, pure and simple. Let us also not forget that the US attorneys, so tragically fired, were fired for not investigating this sort of thing. Indeed, our Democrat fellow citizens will cheat and lie with abandon as anything is permissible to end this long, national nightmare. A Democrat couldn’t be elected to dog catcher outside of urban areas without fraud and they know it. Kerry mysteriously but providentially had a few thousand votes racked up on machines in the Phila area before the polls ever opened. Mary Landrieu’s campaign just bought votes; just straight up and publicly bought them. The supposed paranoia of Republicans in Florida was right on; the Goroids WERE manufacturing votes since excluding active military absentee ballots failed to provide a winning margin. DO NOT allow anyone to casually anounce that the 2000 election was stolen. It was not but a serious attempt was made by Prince Albert Gore. We cannot allow the Hollywood types to make this retarded slander a historical fact. Call them liars. They are.
As I’ve always said, it’s ironic that the political party that helped spawn MoveOn.org, can’t.
Regards,
Peter H.
John Fund of The Wall Street Journal does an excellent job of following Democrats election antics.
Obama has shamlessly used the Holocaust yesterday for his own self-agrandizement.
He said his uncle served in the US army and helped liberate the Achwitz (sp?) camp… but in fact it was the Red Army that freed that camp.
But who knows maybe I’m wrong, and Obama’s family really are authentically Soviet Communists. 🙂
9: yes, and the republicans used 9/11 for their own purposes by holding their 2004 convention in NYC, as close to the anniversary date of 9/11 as possible as a way to use that tragedy to get votes. Also, as the press and his own campaign pointed out, Obama simply misspoke and meant to say Buchenwald, where those events actually did take place, not Auschwitz.
Key difference, Kevin; Republicans opposed 9/11.
Obama supports regimes like Iran and Syria whose stated goal is genocide of Jews, and black Americans like Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, who rant against “filthy Jews”.
#10 – How in the hell do you mistake Auschwitz from Buchenwald? They aren’t even in the same freakin’ country!
Kev, you are a partisan hack and a shill. Just admit it.
Regards,
Peter H.
HBO’s going to get worse and worse.
They brought in Frank Rich.
#13 – Luckily we don’t get HBO. Instead we watch Showtime, especially “The Tudors” starring that hunk Jonathan Rhys Myers. WOOF!
Regards,
Peter H.
Yes, isn’t it funny how whenever national security comes up people just naturally prefer Republicans?
Uh huh.. “tragedy”.. you probably were like “We deserved it!”
Well, there was an indescribably bad Val Kilmer film, Conspiracy, on HBO at the same time and I had a hard time deciding which was worse. Though the image of terrified Democrats hiding in nonair conditioned rooms while dozens of Bill’s Khaki and button-down Polo wearing preppies were rioting in the hallways and creating a hostile environment was an image for the ages. I suspect that if it was noticed that some of those same preppies were wearing saddle oxfords and D-ring belts then some of those traumatized Democrats to dive out of the windows in fear for their souls.