My dad hardly ever forwards email jokes, but whenever he does it's a good one. Here's a post of one he just sent me. I think it's funny, but I've heard that sense of humor is genetic -- you get it from your kids.
"Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace." Attributed to John Lennon. I notice they didn't include the more controversial claim that the Beatles were more popular than chickens.
Here's something I don't get. Why do these guys have to play dress-up anyway? It always gets them in trouble. I couldn't care less if Barack Obama is a closet-Muslim. I know he isn't; no self-respecting Muslim would let his wife put her foot in her mouth at his expense on a regular basis. But he's plenty frightening with his wild-card, implicit socialism without being the member of a violent religion.
But many Democratic voters don't use reasoning, they just look at pictures. And who is the most famous man pictured in a white turban?
These high-powered politicians have handlers, don't they? They employ people to shield them from every sort of danger and trickery, they have immense resources, they have people doing everything for them, but they still manage to make fools of themselves by being photographed while wearing weird clothes? Look, even the African dude is laughing at him.
My wife got me a Steeler hat for Christmas, but do you think I'm going to wear that around Cleveland? Hell, no, and I'm not even running for office. Likewise, I can't see why Obama didn't politely thank the Kenyan tribal dudes for the nice duds and swiftly handed them to an aide who would directly relegate them to storage alongside the "I slept on a Virgin Island" t-shirt that his Uncle Ted bought him on his vacation.
I don't think I'll ever forget the image that was seared, seared into my memory, of a grown man, John Kerry, who wanted to be my President, on all fours wearing powder blue pajamas with a matching blue hoodie.
Why?
Was this to soften his image... uh, to make him appear more accessible? More like a friendly cartoon character?
I need to buy a vowel.
I know you readers understand why this is, please explain it to me. Explain it to me the way you would to a child.
Update:
Just for good measure, I give you prince of the dress-up dunces, Corporal Michael Dukakis. Talk about "you'll shoot your eye out."
The guy who calls himself Spengler lets loose on Obama, and doesn't leave much. This is definitely the most negative thing I've read about Mr. Hope yet. The intro is a grabber:
"Cherchez la femme," advised Alexander Dumas in: "When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman." In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama's women reveal his secret: he hates America.
Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother's milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.
Well, inadvertently, of course, in his article about the train wreck named Frankie Schaeffer. Excerpt:
The problem is not so much that Frank exposes and trumpets his parents' flaws and frailties, or that he skewers them with his characteristic mockery. It is more than that. For all his softening, the portrait he paints amounts to a death-dealing charge of hypocrisy and insincerity at the very heart of their life and work. In Frank's own words, his parents were "crazy for God." Their call to the ministry "actually drove them crazy," so that "religion was actually the source of their tragedy." His dad was under "the crushing belief that God had 'called' him to save the world." Because of this, his parents were "happiest when farthest away from their missionary work." Back at their calling, they were "professional proselytizers," their teaching was "indoctrination," and it was unclear whether people came to faith or were "brainwashed" and "under the spell" of his parents. Frank's own arguments in their support, he now says, were a kind of "circus trick."
....Frank describes his mother as a "high-powered nut," who was "best at the martyrdom game." He mocks her with vitriol in several of his books, and her incredible and justly celebrated passion for beauty and excellence he dismisses with a postmodern sneer as a mission that was "nothing less than repairing the image of fundamentalism." Several times I saw her reduced to tears in private after his barbs against her. But now in her nineties, with her failing memory, she neither fully knows nor is able to respond to all he has written about her. "If I read it," she said to me about one of Frank's earlier books, "it would probably break my heart."
Second, Frank's descriptions of other people and events are often equally irresponsible and wildly inaccurate. He rightly disavows the immaturity of his early books and films. He was as "addicted to mediocrity" as anyone he attacked. But for all his improved writing style, his manner of sneering dismissals is unchanged. Sometimes he is ludicrously negative, as in his remarks about Billy Graham and Carl Henry. Sometimes he is self-servingly positive, citing compliments from people—such as Malcolm Muggeridge—who were well known for their overall scathing dismissals of both Francis and Frank. Sometimes he is just plain cruel, as in his description of the woman assigned to be his home school tutor—and as in most cruelty, he is worst when mocking those unable to reply.
Really interesting Telegraph article regarding Augustus Toplady, author of the famous hymn "Rock of Ages". Excerpt:
And this is what is so strange about Toplady's devotion to the wounds of Christ, the real subject of his hymn. They (standing for Christ's one sacrifice in his suffering and death) have saving power. The hymn writer wants to "hide himself" in them - at face value a grisly desire. Yet it is one that medieval mystics expressed too - Julian of Norwich springs to mind.
The notion is also expressed in a prayer that dates from the 14th century, which later became a favourite of Ignatius Loyola's in the 16th, and remains popular today. It is generally known as the Anima Christi, after the words with which it begins in Latin. In English it goes: "Soul of Christ, sanctify me./Body of Christ, save me./Blood of Christ, inebriate me./Water from Christ's side, wash me./Passion of Christ, strengthen me./O good Jesus, hear me./Within Thy wounds hide me./Suffer me not to be separated from Thee."
Nothing in this would have disgusted Toplady. There would, I think, be difficulty in the way that the medieval devotion connects with the Eucharist. Obviously, Toplady believed in a link between the service of Holy Communion and the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. He'd have been less happy about the connection between the wounds of Christ and the sacrifice of Masses. Devotion to the five wounds of Christ reached its height at the time of the Reformation, during John Calvin's lifetime. The image of Christ's wounds would appear in popular prayerbooks, accompanied by suitable prayers, partly designed to encourage empathy with the suffering Saviour, but also emblematic of the objective redemption of mankind by the death of Christ.
Dianne Mueller reports on McCain's stop in Rocky River, OH.
I noticed today during both his opening remarks and the question-and-answer period afterward that there's something quite endearing about a guy who's not afraid to tell you things you might not want to hear.
McCain talked about the "transcendent" threat of our time (radical Muslim extremists), keeping the tax cuts, treating our war veterans to a more efficient way to get their health conditions treated, fuel concerns - from having to get our oil from country's unfriendly to the U.S. - to the need for nuclear energy development. (I think I was the only one in the room who clapped when he brought up the advantages of nuclear energy.)
Although I didn't succeed in convincing him to change his name to "Marki", Mark Adams has agreed to become a contributor here. Mark is a law student, a veteran of the "culture war" and all-around smart guy, so readers will be happy to have the benefits of his insights. He lives a couple states down the highway with his wife and kids. Welcome aboard, mate.
