Walking to Matthew Berry’s debate tonight, I passed a car sporting these bumper stickers in deepest blue Arlington.

Something tells me that one would have earned a large grin from my co-blogger.

So, what did y’all think?  I missed it.  Had made enough progress in my dissertation that I treated myself to a fun movie about training your dragon or something.  A lot of fun.  Good score.  Fun animation.

Missed Betty White on Saturday Night Live.  So, a reader suggested a do an open thread.  As per his suggestion, here it is.

As Dan blogged yesterday, National Security Advisor General James Jones over the weekend started his remarks to the Washington Institute For Near East Policy with a joke I heard when I was in grade school.*

Quite the furor from all sides. Nobody seems to be giving the guy a pass here. As usual, I find I’m the only one who seems to feel the way I do. Which is:

Two things:
First: Um, it was a joke. Without getting into a long discussion of the use of hyperbole and stereotype in humor, I’ll leave it at: Some stuff’s funny, some stuff’s not. I don’t think Jones did a great job with his delivery (took way too long), and perhaps any joke with racial or cultural overtones would be inappropriate if you’re representing your boss. But it was a joke. Have we grown so calous as a Nation to the actual things going on around us that it’s peoples’ choice of humor that drives us so mad with indignation? Isn’t that (granted, on a much, much smaller scale) what we’re fighting against?

Second: I have much more problem with this Administration’s anti-Israel positions than the jokes his NSA tells. Here’s a guy who brow-beats Israel for building apartments in Jerusalem. (Um, is there any part of the “peace process” that takes that off the table?) Here’s a guy who is cuddling up with Syria. Here’s a guy who seems, shall we say, cavalier about Iranian nukes. Here’s a guy who treats their head of state like some sort of pariah. Looking for some sort of “undertone” or “hidden anti-Semitic agenda” in a silly joke is along the lines of the old sledge-hammer analogy. Obama’s anti-Israel agenda is pretty clear to see.

What I care about is what he’s doing. There’s enough there to not spend my energy getting too wound up about a joke.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

*(Full disclosure, when I was a kid, I knew an old Jewish guy. He loved his Jewish jokes, thus early on I was exposed to the self-depricating humor one appreciates when he’s a wise old guy. Methinks this has a lot to do, also, with my historic lack of sensitivity to most charges of “racism” based only on things someone says, rather than his actions. Perhaps having been raised out West and among tolerant people, I developed my aw, get over it reaction to perceived slights.)

UPDATE (from Dan): Nick, it’s one thing for a Jew to tell a self-deprecating joke. It’s quite another for a man with a questionable record on Israel telling the joke. Not just that, given the Administration’s anti-Israel positions, it showed a terrible absence of judgment. There’s no problem with telling a joke. That’s not the issue here. The issue is the context which you get at with your second point.

There is an emerging tension between this Administration and its Jewish supporters as per its Israel policies. (See e.g., this Jewish Obama supporter’s lament.) And this joke exacerbated the tensions while playing into the worst stereotypes of Jews.

Okay, so let me get this straight:

The ever-so nuanced and most brilliant leader in a generation, President Obama, comes out after the passage of Obamacare and declares that:

I’m not exaggerating…Leaders of the Republican Party … called the passage of [The Stalinization of Health Care Act of 2010] “Armageddon.”…

So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling or some cracks opening up in the earth. Turned out it was a nice day. Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall.

(my emphasis)

Now there’s a guy who knows the power of words. Or something. We’re to believe the leader of the Free World and what they’d have us believe is the most eloquent speaker of our generation is so dense he can’t tell a rhetorical flourish when he hears one? He can’t discern methaphorical language? Perhaps it’s a certain font on the TelePrompter, and if he’s not reading it, he doesn’t recognize it.

Anyway, comes now the toadies in the left to once again jump on an actual professional speaker, Rush Limbaugh.

In a mockery of the mockery, Rush has this to say:

You know, a couple of days after the health care bill had been signed into law Obama ran around all over the country saying, ‘Hey, you know, I’m looking around. The earth hadn’t opened up. There’s no Armageddon out there. The birds are still chirping.’ I think the earth has opened up. God may have replied. This volcano in Iceland has grounded more airplanes — airspace has more affected — than even after 9/11 because of this plume…Earth has opened up. I don’t know whether it’s a rebirth or Armageddon. Hopefully it’s a rebirth.

How does the Left play this? deadpan serious and completely without irony.

It’s not the president to them who looks like the jackass by completely missing the point and condescendingly belittling those who’d rather not have Kathleen Sebelius determine thier health care needs. It’s Rush Limbaugh for pointing it out.

Coming next? Criticism for Limbaugh saying “Obama ran around all over the country”. Technically, he flew on Air Force One. Sheesh, doesn’t this guy do any fact-checking before he shoots his mouth off?

Score another one for the death of Poetry.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from TML)

UPDATE (from Dan, trying to be funny):  But, doesn’t Obama realize that the bill doesn’t kick in until 2014.  Guess he wanted to give us time to prepare for Armageddon.

Unlike Bruce, I have only recently become a fan of Ann Coulter.

I knew her when we were both in law school, she at Michigan, I at U-VA and while impressed with her intellect, I was irritated by her schtick, playing the leggy blond right-winger who said outrageous things. She used her looks as did Helen, daughter of Tyndarus (later of Troy), Cleopatra and Evita, to advance her career, especially as they (those looks) contrasted with the pock-marked, pot-bellied stereotypical outspoken conservative who also said outlandish things.

In an ideal world, her commentary would be beyond the pale.  She says some things which are deliberately provocative, but her commentary is no less provocative than that which passes for serious liberal thought on the editorial pages of our nation’s major dailies and on cable TV.

We are, however, not living in an ideal world.  We live in a world, at evidenced by the attacks on the Tea Party when some in the media report as news stories about racist conservative activists which exist only in the heads of Democratic Congressmen and their various and sundry echo chambers.

I had an insight about Ann about the time last year I heard her speak at David Horowitz’s birthday celebration.  (I went not so much to hear her speak, but to honor David, a man I have long respected.)  I realized that in the world as it is — and not as we’d like it to be — she is an ideal conservative spokesman (no spokesperchild she).

What Ann does is just throw the left’s broadsides on conservatives back at them, returning with a playful smile what lefties send out with a self-righteous scowl.  She mocks in good fun and to make a point.

I thought of Ann today when Byron York was looking into the left hyperventilating over Rush Limbaugh responding to the president’s attack on him, calling his Administration a regime:  ”By using the word ‘regime,’ Limbaugh was doing something he does all the time: throwing the language of the opposition back in their faces.“

In short, Coulter’s “schtick” is a lot like Limbaugh’s.

Ann, I apologize for not getting you before.  I was holding our side to a higher standard.  Sometimes in the current media atmosphere, you have to respond in kind to get heard.  And to make a point.

Last week, I received a dewy-eyed e-mail from Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, all misty because Congress had just passed health care reform.  You see, when it comes to items on the Democratic agenda, they just have to be good for gay people, you see, because, well, they’re on the Democratic agenda and the Democrats are good people.

And anyway, Republicans opposed it and those nasty obstructionists are meanies!

The last time Miss Kendell got all misty-eyed was last September 11, when ignoring the anti-gay animosity of Islamicists, you know, those folks who had orchestrated the attacks eight years previously on that very day, she insisted that LGBT people, need health care reform “as much as anyone, and because [Obama's] entire national agenda of greater inclusion, security, and humanity for all of us hangs in the balance.”  And anyway, those who oppose it are Republicans who are meanies who hate gay people.

Yep, she devoted her 9/11 letter to attacking and vilifying conservatives for opposing Obama’s agenda.  (Wonder if Barney’s gonna ask Democrats to “differentiate themselves” from Miss Kendell.  If not, we can deem her a spokesperchild* for his party.)   You see, for her (and folks like her toiling for the national gay organizations), the Obama agenda is the gay agenda because she so closely ties her politics to left-wing ideology and Democratic partisanship.

Doesn’t bother her Obama’s health care reforms will likely make it easier for government bureaucrats to gain access to our medical records.  It doesn’t matter “that a provision giving” same-sex partners “the same tax exclusion” as different-sex “spouses on the value of employer-provided health benefits was also removed.”  What does does matter to her that this was a big bill high on the agenda of a Democratic Administration.

As Charles Winecoff put it in his most humorous must-read post on folks like Miss Kendell, ever faithful to “their religion (D-ism)”:  ”Domestic fairies enjoyed many fetishes, but none was so great as their fetish for the letter ‘D.’”  It’s all about that “D” and because of that (D) after Obama’s name, any provision he supports must needs be most excellent.

* (more…)

Just received a link to this from a reader:

H/T – jaxy89 on Twitter

Priceless!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Enjoy!

And Happy Halloween.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Last night, while doing my cardio, I was struck by a segment on Larry King Live where the eponymous host and his guests commented on a recent Saturday Night Live mocking the President of the United States.  ”SNL Skit Slams Obama,” read the chyron (as beat as I can remember).

It shouldn’t be news that a program known for its satire mocks the President for such is the stuff of the show.  Indeed, such has been the stuff of American politics at least as far back as Lincoln (and indeed probably further).  People have always made fun of the President.  And that’s a good thing, a sign we don’t take our leaders too seriously, that we see them as human beings capable of foibles and folly.  Making fun of our leaders is the stuff of freedom and a sign that no one should be immune from mockery.

But, it is news (to CNN) when a show which has mocked all previous Presidents back to (and including) Gerald R. Ford devotes an entire sketch to mocking the incumbent (to be sure, this has not been the first time they have made fun of the Democrat).

King’s statement was only a taste of CNN’s worshipful attitude toward Obama.  In his Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer, in Mary Katharine Ham’s words, has treated the comedy sketch as “as an attack ad“:

Sycophancy you can believe in, right this way.

In other news, upon further investigation, CNN has discovered that those two guys weren’t “wild and crazy,” but merely socially awkward and Eastern European. For more goofs on CNN, which would make for a superb SNL follow-up spoof of Wolf Blitzer, check the Twitter tag, #CNNFactCheck.

I’m just guessing Blitzer never produced a segment fact-checking Tina Fey’s grossly inaccurate representation of Sarah Palin.  She may have looked the part, but, well, put words into that good, but much-maligned, woman’s mouth.

As per my last post, seems the hatred coming from the left is so close to the mainstream that it oozes from the website of the leader of the Democratic Party.  Now, someone blogging there is calling us “heirs of bin Laden” for opposing the President’s health care plan.

Jim Hoft links to a screed there, obviously by someone like Keith Olbermann, who took seriously this obviously sarcastic comment of a participant at a town hall for U.S. Representative Wally Herger  in Redding, California:

I have been known to say things that are fishy. I’ve even been known to attend Redding Tea Party dot com protests. And I want to say that I’m a proud right wing terrorist. (applause) I didn’t come prepared with a lot of notes tonight; I left them, actually, at home while I was looking for my birth certificate.

Burt Stead, the guy who uttered those words, admitted that with he did so in order to “poke fun” at things Obama Obama Administration officials have said and done.

But a left-winger blogging on the President’s behalf, missed the humor, reading Republican reaction as

Republican Representatives, Senators, GOP Party Leader, GOP Political Machine top personnel (e.g., Gingritch), etc etc etc — they’re ALL every one of them applauding and encouraging their zealot-horde by merrily referring to them as “Proud Right-Wing Terrorists”. Google it – I’m not pulling your leg. 

No, this guy’s not pulling our leg, but he is taking himself far too seriously.  A clever Republican was having a bit of fun.  And he and his counterparts on the left, so eager to demonize us, saw this “wing-nut” defining himself (with a straight face) exactly as they see us (with their faces reddening).

Please note that I changed the title to eliminate a confusing double negative.

Read the whole thing!  Via Instapundit.

I just finished Roger Simon’s book, Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror, and quite enjoyed it, particularly the last three-quarters (short review to follow). Toward the end, Roger said something which reminded me of a joke I heard Friday at the LA Tea Party for Freedom.

Roger described himself as “the same old Groucho Marxist who would never join a club that had him as a member.” Al Sonja Schmidt (seen below), author of Deb & Seby’s Real Deal on Global Warming, offered this on Friday, “The leading comedians in America were once the Marx Brothers; the leading American is now a Marxist brother.”

Welcome Instapundit Readers!!

The last time I remember reading something on the left-wing blog firedoglake, I found it so offensive I didn’t think I’d ever return to the website.  Well, just a few moments ago, while scanning Instapundit, I followed Glenn’s link JANE HAMSHER: I want to play poker with Harry Reid to a post there which pretty much reflected my views on how the corrupt Democratic Governor of Illinois rolled his party’s leader in the US Senate.

Of course, Jane Hamsher has a style entirely different from my own.  And, I gotta admit, despite her politics, she’s a lot of fun to read, well, at least, in this post.

With his party enjoying the largest Senate majority in over thirty years, you’d think Reid would be having a field day as Democratic leader.  But, Hamsher shows how the ham-handed Harry has had his hat handed to him by the appointee of a hapless governor disowned by his own party:  “A seventy-one year old dude who hasn’t held office for 14 years, appointed by a crook, takes the Senate Majority Leader to the cleaners.“

Read the whole thing.  It’s witty and on the money.

Sure seems so.  I was actually going to give the angry lesbian a chance and watch her new show “Rosie Live.”  As I woke up this morning, it seems I missed my chance.   PatriotPartner and I just conferred:  we don’t think it was even aired on our local NBC affiliate station, despite the promo ads.

Seems like it was just as well.  It appears to be one of those hours of life that would have been lost forever.

Rosie O’Donnell gave NBC a real turkey.

The network’s attempt to revive the primetime variety show failed to draw an audience Wednesday night, tying for the evening’s lowest-rated program.

“There’s a notion that the climate is right for the genre to make a comeback,” emailed one executive at a rival network. “I guess we now know what not to do, thanks to Rosie.”

Critics were not kind. The NY Times described it as “hokey comedy with an enemies list.” TV Guide called it a “ghastly ego trip.” And the LA Times asked, “Rosie, what on earth were you thinking?”

Yikers.

I guess I will just have to look forward to something else on my boob tube besides an angry boob who hates squirrels.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Now for something completely different: a moment of levity in this grueling campaign season…

Drivers beware: the Commonwealth is now enlisting “angry Rednecks” into its anti-litter brigades (or are they battalions, Senator Biden?) so throwing trash on the road may become an even greater risk to one’s health! Remember, these “bitter” folks “cling to guns or religion” so won’t have any problem taking care of scofflaws. In the name of Jesus of course.

Spotted this sign today on a country road whilst driving around. Pretty damn funny!

– John (Average Gay Joe)

I’ve mostly been taking a break from politics lately, but this one is just too good to pass up:

“We should be led by Osama bin Laden,” he said, then quickly corrected himself. “I mean Obama and Biden.” – former Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-TX)

Ah, good times…

– John (Average Gay Joe)

Poll: Mitt Romney Is Candidate Most Voters Want To Get Into Bar Fight With

Hmm… I’m thinking that offering voters the opportunity to mess up Edwards’ perfectly-coiffed hair might help to raise his standing the polls.

– John (Average Gay Joe)