February 24, 2012

DING DING DING! Warren DeMontague, you're our grand prize winner!

But moral panic


and anti-sex prudishness


ARE issues in our society.

To me, pearl-clutching should have nothing do with gender, sexual orientation, or even wearing pearls -- it should be about outrage that is either fabricated (like Newt's) or misplaced (like Hyacinth's), then blown out of proportion.

Just last night, Gingrich clutched his pearls over Obama's apology for U.S.-led troops "accidentally" burning Korans in a prison. But was he REALLY outraged, or just grabbing an opportunity to bash Obama and advance his ambitions? Put another way, can you imagine Gingrich praising Obama for NOT apologizing? No, he'd probably point to it as proof that he has no control as commander-in-chief. Glenn Beck and and Sarah are fabricating pearl clutchers, too.

As for Hyacinth Bucket, she once told her husband that all she wants is to ensure that his life "flows in a placid stream." As long as she's controlling that stream, of course -- so much so that HER pearl clutching was turbo-charged. A cracked teacup, a newsboy scratching his ear, someone brushing against her walls or talking loudly in the street, her sister's mini-skirts, her brother-in-law's right to bare arms: the tiniest deviation of her world order had her grasping at her throat, then blindly counterattacking. We laughed at Hyacinth hardest when she found herself stranded in the debris of her laid-to-waste planning.

That's why I'm comfortable with the term "pearl clutching": it's not just for prudes anymore.


rocktivity

February 24, 2012

Pearl-clutching is no longer about gender, sexual orientation, or even pearls

It's about outrage that is either fabricated or misplaced, then blown out of proportion.



For example, Gingrich clutched his pearls over Obama's apology for U.S.-led troops "accidentally" burning Korans in a prison. But was he REALLY outraged, or just grabbing an opportunity to bash Obama and advance his own ambitions? Put another way, can you imagine Gingrich praising Obama if he HADN'T apologized? No, he very likely would have tried to use it as proof that Obama is an unfit commander-in-chief. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are fabricating pearl clutchers, too.




As for Hyacinth Bucket, she once told her husband that all she wants is to ensure that his "life flows in a placid stream." As long as she's controlling that stream, of course -- so much so that HER pearl clutching was turbo-charged. A cracked teacup, a newsboy scratching his ear, someone brushing against her walls or talking loudly in the street, her sister's mini-skirts, her brother-in-law's right to bare arms: the tiniest deviation of her world order had her grasping at her throat, then blindly counterattacking. We laughed at Hyacinth hardest when she found herself stranded in the debris of her laid-to-waste planning.

That's why I'm comfortable with the term "pearl clutching": it's not just for prudes or homophobes anymore.


rocktivity

February 14, 2012

DING DING DING! Iscooterliberally, you're our grand prize winner!

She became so famous so fast that IMHO she had no chance to live a 'normal' life...She seemed so vulnerable when I saw her...

She spent her teens singing with her mother Cissy Houston at nightclubs, recording backing vocals (including Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman), and modeling after being spotted by a fashion photographer. Unlike singers having to start from the bottom with no connections, she had access to her parents (her father was a music industry executive), Dionne Warwick, and Aretha Franklin. When you're young and vulnerable, and you have so many "advantages" at your disposal, not being good enough (never mind screwing up) can feel like original sin.

And it doesn't sound like she was looked out for financially, either. Her record album income was based on recording and performing the songs of others, not writing, composing, or producing her own; she had to fight off a lawsuit from her own management company; she had to sell two multi-million-dollar homes. No wonder she became so reliant on movies, commercial jingles, exhausting tours -- and too many drugs.


rocktivity

February 13, 2012

DING DING DING! Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen, you're our grand prize winner!

“Republican voters aren’t ready to run through a wall for any of these candidates, in contrast to the way Democrats felt about Clinton and Obama in 2008...”

Yes, I remember it well -- here at DU, the "Obamatrons" and the "Hillbots" went at each other like rams during the rutting season.

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It was painful -- so painful that I feared DU would see its first unsuccessful donation drives. But I would gladly re-live every second of it, because I realize now that we had candidates who were WORTH fighting over. And since no one was pre-selected and force-fed upon us, the landslide majority of the "Hillbots" were able to get behind "Obamatrons" when the smoke cleared.

As for the tsunami of anti-Obama sentiment that the GOP is reduced to counting on, it might happen, but I don't think it will be big enough. Even if the GOP voters get their wish and end up with a Chris Christie or a Tim Pawlenty, the GOP primary season has soured too many moderates and independents for them to get within even a cheatproof margin.


rocktivity

February 7, 2012

I was going to watch the launch at home and get to work a little late

But once I learned it was 32 degrees in Florida, I left at my usual time because I didn't think for one second that they'd attempt to launch in such weather when they'd never done it before.

I arrived at work to find people gathered around the TV in a conference room. Though the temperature had skyrocketed to a scorching 36 degrees, my exact words were "They're STILL going through with it? They're CRAZY!" Nonetheless, I was still so confident that the launch would be called off that I went to my cubicle, turned on the radio and proceeded with my work day. It was the radio that told me what had happened, and I rushed back to the conference room where I saw the "replay."

I recall that the launch had already been delayed at least once. News reports suggested that NASA was under political pressure to produce results, and no doubt Morton Thiokol wanted to protect their reputation (not to mention collect their fees). Now it turns out that frozen O-rings had been a potential danger since they got off the drawing board; that the engineers had been overruled by corporate management; that another engineer was branded a whistleblower for telling the truth; that Boisjoly couldn't bring himself to watch the launch; and that NASA juggled safety and political expediency routinely.

So it turns out that I had been right: they WERE crazy.

Roger Boisjoly's career was hijacked because he did the right thing. Postponing the launch until the weather improved would have been the right thing. Doing the right thing isn't always fun or comfortable or easy or convenient -- but it IS always right.

There's no need to hope that Roger Boisjoly will rest in peace -- he's already taken care of that. So I'll call just him a great American hero and patriot, and thank him for his service.


rocktivity

February 5, 2012

Throat slashed, woman reads Bible to her attacker

According to this followup story, Wood ended up with close to two dozen stitches. I don't know what I find more unlikely -- that for an hour, the mother was able to talk while bleeding, or that for an hour, the son did absolutely nothing.

I hope this isn't a actually a case of her being attacked by a punk kid who was tired of living the religious life, and her trying to cover it up in the name of "forgiveness."


rocktivity

February 2, 2012

It's called "living in the moment" -- and it's the cornerstone of the Rethug pyschosis.

(link) Combine interpersonal exploitation ("tak(ing) advantage of others to achieve (one's) own ends" ) with a sense of entitlement ("unreasonable expectations of...favorable treatment or automatic compliance" ) and arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes, and you get people who are so egotistical it doesn't occur to them to contemplate the possible consequences of their actions. Rethugs are TOTALLY INCAPABLE of this kind of thinking:

Remember when Tom Delay went on trial, and he got a judge removed from the case because he was a Democratic contributor? To his total surprise, the prosecutor struck back by having the replacement judge removed for being a Republican contributor! Rethugs are so morally tunnel-visioned on achieving their ends, they don't see anything else -- such as the fact that Penn State, which is under criminal investigation due to the Jerry Sandusky case, also qualifies for their new policy!


rocktivity