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2008-09-10 Home Front: Culture Wars

Lileks field-dresses clueless urban sophisticate

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Posted by Mike 2008-09-10 08:14|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 I'd wager that Todd Palin does, in fact, own a Snugli, and will be using it this year for Trig. The cars and guns thing? Nah.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2008-09-10 08:27|| 2008-09-10 08:27|| Front Page Top

#2 I swear, it's media drones like the one that JL evicerates who will ensure that The Chosen One crashes and burns in the next few months, while McCain/Palin wins it all.

Keep up with the contemptious snobbery, folks. Obama Needs You!

(And that was almost as nice a Lileks put down as the Olive Garden essay, of blessed memory(

Posted by Sgt. Mom">Sgt. Mom 2008-09-10 08:45|| http://www.celiahayes.com]">[http://www.celiahayes.com] 2008-09-10 08:45|| Front Page Top

#3 What the pseudo-feminist socialist failed to grasp in their pursuit of power was that it wasn't in the acquisition and exercise thereof that real power is derived. Their concept was to castrate the male in order to garner the power and destroy those who dared contest them. Instead their strategy has only brought them a 'piece of the pie' in the structure of the system they so poorly ascertain.

Look at Elizabeth I at Tilbury. The manhood of England was prepared to die for her and the country she embodied. That is real power. Strong men love and respect strong women. That is whole pie. The matriarch of a jackal pack doesn't respect the males within the group, she only demands subservience. Elizabeth didn't demand subservience, she had earned their loyalty. It is a process that is beyond the comprehension of minions like Lilek's cited writer.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-09-10 08:46|| 2008-09-10 08:46|| Front Page Top

#4 The Olive Garden Screed to which Sgt. Mom refers may be found here.

Posted by Mike 2008-09-10 08:52|| 2008-09-10 08:52|| Front Page Top

#5 They're going for broke now, they don't care if they come out of this without a scrap of credibility as long as they get this commie plant into the white house. They can work on their image later. But what if he loses? Where will they be then?

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-10 08:54|| 2008-09-10 08:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Its pretty unique in that I don't remember any op-ed or column written in any American newspaper about any and all elections in Canada and their candidates (albeit they are parlimentary not national candidates). It must be nice to live in such a plain vanilla, boring, politically correct, arugala eating, cold and humorless country. The fact that the foreign press, not just idiots like Heather, are paying attention and writing hairy-scary screeds, is that they see their boy Obama in a nut crusher and there is nothing they can do about it but vent.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2008-09-10 09:54|| 2008-09-10 09:54|| Front Page Top

#7 Rending their garments and gnashing their teeth, just like today.

Posted by Seafarious 2008-09-10 10:00|| 2008-09-10 10:00|| Front Page Top

#8 Heather Mallick has always been like that. I remember fondly the time she denounced white picket fences. I don't know why newspapers employ people who seem to be on the verge of madness. Particularly when they're not very good writers.

Speaking of which, if y'all liked that, you'll love this. Be sure and read the comments. Take your blood pressure medicine before you do. And some air freshener, for the stench of spilled wee-wee is heavy in the air.

Posted by Angie Schultz 2008-09-10 10:28|| 2008-09-10 10:28|| Front Page Top

#9 The manhood of England was prepared to die for her and the country she embodied. That is real power. Strong men love and respect strong women.

Played golf in a foursome yesterday. Three Reagan Dems and me (sole Trunk). Bill sez..."so Z, whatcha think of Gov. Palin"? I said "she is Obama's worst nightmare: A strong, self-made, independent woman running on the Republican ticket. Woman isn't an affirmative action baby."

Bill sez..." don't know about you guys (referring to Mike and Ron the other two Reagan Dems in the group), but I think this woman is the real thing. She's no fake. I like her style. I like what she says and how she says it. I like how she lives her life."

Mike pipes and says...."aaah...you just like a woman who looks good in a skirt and heels." We all chuckle.

Bill says..."yeah...I like that too. But right now I'd be willing to take a bullet for that lady."

whoa...

Pause....

All agreed by nods of heads...yeah...yeah (all understand what Bill meant)...

I asked...."Anybody here willing to take a bullet for Obama or Biden?"

Laughter all around...no...no...no...

Just an anecdote to suggest a tide is turning....in Ohio...

Posted by MarkZ 2008-09-10 10:47|| 2008-09-10 10:47|| Front Page Top

#10 From Angie's link, this comment is unparodyable:

http://tiny.cc/OUb2Y

SFDavid

Sep 10 08, 2:52am (about 13 hours ago)

What many of us Blue-State Americans have sadly come to realize is that the US has never really been "our" Country. The US has never been a country of intellectuals or sophisticates or much given to nuance and analysis. Starting from Andrew Jackson with minor detours for the Roosevelts and Wilson, and of course the founding fathers, most Americans have always taken the dim view anyone who is an intellectual is effete, ineffective, and somehow alien. Americans have always valued action over deliberation, excess over moderation, gut instinct over reasoned analysis and an excess of hyper-emotional patriotism & religious fervor. That's why Caibou Barbie Palin has generated such a huge response here. She is the perfect embodiment of the American mentality - with the added benefit that she is a mother. Nothing strikes a more perfect note in the juvenile American psyche than mom. There seemed to be a moment during the Clinton administration when it seemed that America had turned the corner. That the forces of innovation and entrepreneurialism would help us see beyond our usual narrow conceits. Unfortunately it was just attributable to the fact that flat screen TVs & SUVs finally became affordable for the Bubbas, and sated with consumer goods they could go back to their usual narrow mindset. Needless to say if Obama loses this election it will be the clearest sign of all that you can't take back what you never owned.

Also from Angie's link, wtf is the grauniad *thinking*, chiseling it's logo into Mt. Rushmore? (The ad in the right sidebar)

Posted by Seafarious 2008-09-10 10:54|| 2008-09-10 10:54|| Front Page Top

#11 The liberal rational and thinking is on pure display now that Palin is out of the gates.

I wonder how many Americans are really going to be turned off by it. I know the blue-dogs and the independents are really getting fed up and disgusted with it.

It is a long way to go before the election, but it seems Bambi is on a steep slide down. I hope it continues.

Posted by DarthVader 2008-09-10 11:07|| 2008-09-10 11:07|| Front Page Top

#12 For those who don't have a strong enough stomache to read all the drivel that was posted on those sites, let me sum it up for you -

"We're not elitist. We're just smarter than everyone who doesn't vote Dem."

Posted by DLR 2008-09-10 13:23|| http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html]">[http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html] 2008-09-10 13:23|| Front Page Top

#13 I assume John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential partner in a fit of pique because the Republican money men refused to let him have the stuffed male shirt he really wanted.

wrong on sI assume John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential partner in a fit of pique because the Republican money men refused to let him have the stuffed male shirt he really wanted.

wrong on several counts

A. It wasnt the money men, it was the far right fundies
B. Joe Lieberman is not a stuffed shirt.
C. It wasnt so much a fit of pique, as a deft changing of the subject from the last 8 years

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-10 13:26|| 2008-09-10 13:26|| Front Page Top

#14 I believe he picked her because he wants to win and he figured she would add the most value to the ticket. And she did.

Posted by Darrell 2008-09-10 13:29|| 2008-09-10 13:29|| Front Page Top

#15 Yup, whereas Leiberman or Ridge would have been best at GOVERNING, which is presumably why McCain wanted them before the hard right cast its veto.

And Palin helps the ticket because of who and what she is, not what shes done.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-10 13:32|| 2008-09-10 13:32|| Front Page Top

#16 Nice bait, LH, but let's leave Obama's thin gruel of qualifications out of this. Otherwise, you'll have to explain his accomplishments as a community organizer and all those "present" votes in Illinois. I wouldn't want you to have to go there.

Posted by Darrell 2008-09-10 13:44|| 2008-09-10 13:44|| Front Page Top

#17
Sure. Her energy experience is quite irrelevant to us, especially today LH.

LOL

Posted by lotp 2008-09-10 13:49|| 2008-09-10 13:49|| Front Page Top

#18 well i think Biden and McCain are hands down more qualified than either Obama or Palin. I did NOT want the Dems to nominate Obama, I voted for Hillary (and yeah, Id have liked more experience than that - in my ideal world Gore would have remained a hawk and run)

But Obama did achieve some things in the legislature, and he does show alot of potential for understanding the nuances of policy. And he had the wisdom to pick Joe Biden, recognizing his own weakness.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-10 13:52|| 2008-09-10 13:52|| Front Page Top

#19 I'd like to know Obama's efficiency in "votes per gallon" on that recent world tour. Was the petroleum waste and global warming worth it?

Posted by Darrell 2008-09-10 13:53|| 2008-09-10 13:53|| Front Page Top

#20 "in my ideal world Gore"
BARF!

Posted by Darrell 2008-09-10 13:55|| 2008-09-10 13:55|| Front Page Top

#21 She got one pipeline through. One damned project. You dont think there are other GOP governors whove done as much or more? Really? I mean its good she DID something as gov of Alaska, but do you really think thats why McCain picked her? Do you think if she was a male, and someone with an Ivy league degree from a big city who seldom attended church, McCain would have picked? I dont. I dont see the Republican base enthused because they care so much about natural gas pipelines. Theyre enthused cause shes ONE OF THEM, a hockey mom with a bunch of kids and a blue collar husband whos playing victim about them nasty ivy league cultural elitists.

Somebody said, from the tone of the GOP convention youd think Adlai Stevenson was president the last 8 years, not George W Bush.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-10 13:56|| 2008-09-10 13:56|| Front Page Top

#22 That's because the Adlai Stevenson-wannabes and the other liberals have been "winning" the argument about Energy policy for the last twenty to thirty years; their policies are the national policy.

We have a policy where we shovel tens to hundreds of billions a year to the likes of the House of Saud and Vladimir Putin, but that's OK, we're gonna send over more marines to stick their fingers in the dike over in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Posted by Abdominal Snowman 2008-09-10 14:20|| 2008-09-10 14:20|| Front Page Top

#23 'Hawk, with all due respect, where did you get this narrative of the internal deliberations of the McCain campaign from?

I've seen Sarah Palin's name being kicked around as a potential VP in the usual conservative places for several months. I've also seen the names of Tim Pawlenty, Bobby Jindal, Rob Portman, Eric Cantor, Michael Steele, Mike Huckabee, and J.C. Watts floated in one place or another. There was a cover story in National Review that argued against Ridge and Lieberman and Huckabee and a couple of others I can't remember right now, and there were other discussions of other people in other places.

There was said to have been a bunch of inquiries to party officials about how acceptable a pro-abortion running mate would have been. That may be an indication that Lieberman was being considered at one point. I suspect that maybe there was someone on the staff who kept insisting that pro-life wasn't important, and someone else tol him he was full of argula, and so they did some polling to settle the argument--or maybe it was all maskirovka to lead the Dems to focus their oppo research in the wrong place. If the latter, it seems to have worked, beautifully.

Posted by Mike 2008-09-10 14:52|| 2008-09-10 14:52|| Front Page Top

#24 I think you guys need to cut LH a break. It's a fact that Gore was a hawk at one time.

If he had stayed at that and not turned AGW into a religion, he probably would have been a contender this time around. I wouldn't be voting for him, but he would have cleaned both Obama's and Hillary's clock.

Posted by no mo uro 2008-09-10 15:05|| 2008-09-10 15:05|| Front Page Top

#25 nmr,
"If he had stayed at that and not turned AGW into a religion, he ..."

If my dog had opposable thumbs and ate bananas he'd be a monkey. Unfortunately for LH, and the rest of us, we live in the real world (except the loony left of course).

I go back to the days of JFK & Scoop Jackson. Give the Dems one of them or a Zell Miller and maybe we can talk. But now? Cripes, Lieberman is too close to the center for that crowd.

Posted by AlanC 2008-09-10 15:18|| 2008-09-10 15:18|| Front Page Top

#26 So all this aside: what's wrong with the 'Dukes of Hazzard Documentaries?"
Daisy in cut offs works for me.
/blatant sexist pig remark

Posted by USN, Ret. 2008-09-10 16:16|| 2008-09-10 16:16|| Front Page Top

#27 'Hawk, with all due respect, where did you get this narrative of the internal deliberations of the McCain campaign from?

the same clueless MSM types who gave me the narrative that there was division in the Bush admin on Iraq, that Powell and Tenet were not on the same side as Rummy, etc,etc. I was told here at the time that I didnt know what i was talking about, that this was all scurrilous, that they were all playing good cop bad cop, and other such stuff.

Turned out I was right.

I also said Rumsfeld and the admin strategy didnt ahve enough troops in Iraq, and that this was a point of contention and a big deal. I was AGAIN roughed up on that. Well now the GOP candidates main claim to dissenting from Bush, and being especially wise on defense policy is - guess what - that he was for more troops in Iraq, and that he attacked Rumsfeld.

Well all that ive read that purports to speak to McCains decision making in the last weeks before the convention, is that he really wanted Lieberman or Ridge, and the family values crowd threatened a floor fight. Blame that on the scurrilous MSM if you will.

Posted by liberalhawk 2008-09-10 16:17|| 2008-09-10 16:17|| Front Page Top

#28 pretty obviously Gore's "hawk"ishness was a political posture, and not a deep-seated trait. Hypocrite who got even worse with the AGW cult. *spit*

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-09-10 16:18|| 2008-09-10 16:18|| Front Page Top

#29 AlanC and FrankG-

Sorry about the dog.

Seriously, though, Gore did support a lot of defense spending, even outside TN. Is the switch to lefty the political calculation, or was the original position? Or both? At the time Gore seemed pretty much into strong defense. In retrospect I was mistaken in all likelihood, but the data seemed pretty much in support of that conclusion.

And as I've pointed out, I'm certainly no supporter of his at this point. I've posted enough critique on the bullbleep of AGW on this site that this should be evident. In 2008, Gore is no Scoop Jackson.

Posted by no mo uro 2008-09-10 17:00|| 2008-09-10 17:00|| Front Page Top

#30 YES Barry - did - I got a GAS TAX HOLIDAY!

And he joked he wanted his name on the pump sticker trumpeting it was from our state legislature!

Still not gonna vote for the marxist.

Posted by anonymous2u 2008-09-10 18:02|| 2008-09-10 18:02|| Front Page Top

#31 no problem no mo uro:-)

FWIW I voted John Anderson when I was in college...

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-09-10 18:06|| 2008-09-10 18:06|| Front Page Top

#32 That's okay Frank. I worked for CREEP before I could vote. Difference is, I'd work for CREEP again.

;)

Posted by .5MT 2008-09-10 18:38|| www.cybernations.net]">[www.cybernations.net] 2008-09-10 18:38|| Front Page Top

#33 Speaking as one who has before, and will again, made his living off his writing skills, I must say that newspapers hire writers who agree with that newspaper's and that publisher's editorial policy by and large.

They invariably get the Columbia or Ivy League grad who's never been outside the comfortable confines of NYC or Washington or Boston or LA and don't have a clue what life's really like outside the big city. They have an innate disdain for anything or anyone who is not them and doesn't have their lofty elitist mentality that they're better than anyone else who has not had their education at their finest elitist schools.

When/If these people ever get their grand "revolution" they're a) going to switch sides faster than a rabbit evading a truck on the highway, b) mourn the loss of their precious socialist dreams, and/or c) cower under their desks as the real people of this nation round them up and march them off to Guantanamo for being the seditionist bastards and cowards they truly are.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2008-09-10 18:50|| 2008-09-10 18:50|| Front Page Top

#34 she's talking about the thin crust of coastal dwellers who regard Manhattan as some sort of precious monastery that keeps the dim flickering light of civilization alive

Some men, however, are made deeply uneasy by her, because shes the one who ignored the sensitive poet-guys in high school for the jocks, and didnt seem to grasp the essential high-school truth that its cool to be a loser.

He nails it.

Posted by Betty Grating2215 2008-09-10 19:00|| 2008-09-10 19:00|| Front Page Top

#35 She got one pipeline through. One damned project.

Well, only one $40 Billion project, arguably the single largest civil engineering project ever in North America, one mired in red tape and corruption since she was a teenager, but I guess negotiating with the oil companies, Canada, Native Tribes, Federal Agencies, and only being Governor for less than two years, I guess that is failure.

I vote for recall.

Posted by Skunky Glins 5***">Skunky Glins 5*** 2008-09-10 21:05|| 2008-09-10 21:05|| Front Page Top

#36 but but but ,....it's no contest with voting "present" on the tough votes

/LH's credibility

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-09-10 22:04|| 2008-09-10 22:04|| Front Page Top

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