palin's big night

I sat through all the speeches last night, to get to know the other side a little better. What a crappy evening I had. There’s nothing likable about that bunch, as far as I’m concerned. And they like me no better. Evidently, as a liberal, I can’t even call myself an American.

According to one speaker (was it Huckabee? Giuliani? All the mean-spiritedness has blurred into one hateful creature) this election, “won’t be decided by the liberal media or Hollywood celebrities but by AMERICANS.” Hm, so are members of the media and Hollywood celebrities illegal aliens? Creatures from outer space? French?

The was something chilling about the enormous crowd chanting, “drill, baby, drill.” I expected to see pitchforks and flaming torches. KILL that environment! Drill it DEAD! We want HUMMERS!

Of course the star of the show was Sarah Palin, who was no more appealing to me than the rest of them, though I will concede her hotness. But the crowd loved her. They LOVED her. She’s a “hockey mom” and is there anything more exalted in this society than a mom of any sort? It’s a shortcut to credibility and lovability. Yes, well, it doesn’t mean anything in this context. Palin’s speech was full of entertaining one-liners and zingers but I didn’t hear anything that gave me any faith in her ability to be second in command of my country.

But I sure wish I felt more confident about Democrats’ ability to win this election. Yes, I have hope. Is that all I have, though?

Maybe if I were blinded by Obama’s light, I’d feel differently and could be as confident as my friends who have drunk the Kool-Aid. But while I see his appeal and support his candidacy, the smoke and mirrors aspect is even more frightening to me now that he has an equally appealing (to the other side) shadow opponent. It seems increasingly like rhetoric vs. rhetoric, a beauty pageant and popularity contest.

The evil, God-hating media is digging as hard as it can to find Palin’s skeletons, but I’m putting a lot of faith in the VP debate now. Go, Joe, go. Please.

On a related but basically irrelevant subject, I wonder what poor Levi Johnston was thinking as he stood there on that stage, chomping on gum, roped into a situation he couldn’t possibly have imagined when he pulled out his dick five months ago.

this n that tuesday

The Dallas Morning News is launching a new publication called The Briefing, which will be an abbreviated newspaper—a one-section broadsheet, that will be delivered free to non-subscribers. Full story here.

Hm…interesting concept. I’m trying to decide how I feel about this. Advertisers will like it since it will deliver their ads into more hands. And that may keep the the dinosaur lumbering along a little longer. I'm all for that.

Funny--I can’t imagine my newspaper taking any less time to read in the morning than it already does, although I do have the benefit of spending days at my computer, keeping up with news online, so I can breeze through much of it. A lot of people don’t have that luxury. (I spoke to a busy working single mom recently who, when I mentioned the earthquake in China, said, “There was an earthquake in China?”)

Still, I’m always slightly irked at the benefits showered on new customers/non customers by companies. You know, the old open a bank account, get a free toaster thing. No interest introductory rates on credit cards.

At best, existing customers can opt-in to be barraged by offers of nominal discounts from various “partners.” (I don’t consider 10% off to be anything but a come-on) If my credit card company really wanted to show its appreciation, it would reward me with a couple of interest-free months. My newspaper—I pay $228 a year for a daily subscription--would cut me a price deal or give me access to its online archives free. My bank could toss $25 in my account for every year I stick with it. That kind of thing. Show me some love.
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I’m not usually a National Review kind of girl, but this essay by Mark Steyn tickled me. Yes, I support Obama and will vote for him. No question. I think the army of malevolent Hillary supporters planning to vote for McCain are some sort of invented bogeywomen.

But I admit that I will get some small satisfaction in seeing Obama parsed with the same glee and attention that Hillary was throughout the campaign, as in Steyn’s essay.
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Here is a fabulous blog post from Judith Warner (thanks Mary) that ties together Hillary and Sex in the City. Take a moment to take a look.

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And finally, watch this video and tell me again how there was no sexism and misogyny in this past campaign.

follow-up

MsKrit, whose depth of celebrity knowledge always surprises me, sends me this news about our insane young woman wearing her underwear over her clothes. Yeah, I suppose if you're annoying three times in the same ad, that would count as overexposed.

My friend Nancy sent me this fabulous Salon.com essay by Joan Walsh about what Obama must do to win over Hillary's constituency--especially women. Especially middle-aged women, who were brutalized by this campaign.

I've been stunned by the extent to which trashing Clinton supporters as washed up old white women is acceptable,Walsh writes. A writer whose work I respect submitted a piece addressed to "old white feminists," telling them to get out of Obama's way. I've found my own writing often dismissed not on its merits (or lack thereof) but because as a woman who will turn 50 in September, I'm supposed to be Clinton's demographic. Salon's letters pages, as well as the comments sections around the blogosphere, are studded with dismissive, derisive references to bitter old white women.

I'm all verklempt.

watch your language, assholes

This AP story about Obama's candidacy is so full of slanted language, I can barely see my computer screen for the smoke coming out of my ears.

Some cherce bits:

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation's first black president. A defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket.

Way to patronize...And as the story goes on to explain, she said she was open to being on the ticket as VP. How is that maneuvering? The language here paints Hillary as both pathetic and Machiavellian.

Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who was virtually unknown on the national stage four years ago, defeated Clinton, the former first lady and one-time campaign front-runner, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination.

AND TWO-TERM SENATOR! The sexism that affected Hillary's campaign is not blatant but reveals itself in this sort of insidious language that ignores her concrete accomplishments to present her merely an appendage to a man.

Obama drew strength from blacks, and from the younger, more liberal and wealthier voters in many states. Clinton was preferred by older, more downscale voters, and women, of course.

Of course. Dumb bitches.

Why not "Obama drew strengths from blacks, of course...."?

Blablablablablabla...until we reach PARAGRAPH 20:

With her husband's two White House terms as a backdrop, Clinton campaigned for months as the candidate of experience, a former first lady and second-term senator ready to be commander in chief.

Ah, there it is, the FIRST mention of her current office. More than halfway into the article and only inserted in this paragraph after yet another mention of the fact that she was first lady.

As the strongest female presidential candidate in history, Clinton drew large, enthusiastic audiences. Yet Obama's were bigger.

Nyah, nyah.

This story was written by a committee of 87 writers, I believe. They should all get their asses solidly kicked. This is the kind of subtle and destructive use of language that sinks any pretension of balance in the media. It is odious because of its subtlety--it affects casual readers on a subliminal level.

flotsam friday

Check out this video (sound optional but interesting.) It’s Dallas teens doing a new sport called Parkour. I was never so fearless but I like to watch.

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According to this article, the whole emoticons ‘n’ acronyms writing style is creeping into teenagers’ schoolwork.

The idea of emoticons in a term paper makes my eyes roll, and I’m not even
anti-emoticon, as is fashionable among smart people. Wiseguys like me sometimes need to flag our wiseguyitude. I don’t emoticon often but I use them when it seems prudent.

However, the statement that really struck me in the article was from Richard Sterling, a Berkeley prof and emeritus executive director of the National Writing Project. He predicts that eventually, the convention of starting sentences with a capital letter will disappear.

Hm, I’m not liking that idea. I’m not a language purist. I think the evolution of language is fun and exciting. But I also think that what we write should be easy to read and that includes graphically. The capitalized first letter is an important cue—at least as important as the period and the properly placed comma. I like capitalizations, paragraph breaks, commas and clarity of communication.

Unlike this sentence, which I pulled from the Fair Shares for All: A Memoir of Family and Food, which I’m trying to finish but have stalled out on:

"...Dad's minaciously short-winded frame had just been rushed to Oldchurch Hospital, the rack-rent lazaretto where I had reflexively frowned when a scalpel's intrusion spelled spasms of flashlight and seizures of bawling where once in umblical darkness I'd dozed to the clockwork berceuse of Mum's heart..."

I think it means the author's father was taken to the same hospital where the author was born by Cesarean section.

I have a decent vocabulary but in that statement alone are four words requiring a dictionary (minaciously, rack-rent, lazaretto, berceuse). One or two words, OK. I blame myself. Four? That's too many obscure words in one convoluted description. It's reader unfriendly.

The whole book is like that. MEGO. That the book was written by a national magazine copy chief makes the rococo writing all the more puzzling. A copy editor's job is to help make writing clearer.

On a related subject: Call me unsophisticated but nothing turns me off a book more than hearing it described as "lyrical." Possibly the only lyrical book I've ever really enjoyed was Bel Canto, which I loved. So nice I read it twice.

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Fickle, fickle media (heh heh heh).

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The Google searches that brought people to my blog got better and better as the week passed.

newspapers:watergate scandal

for sale xoloescuintle

sophie Razzle magazine

"eating is boring"

+2 Bangkok contact email address of doctors of Bangkok "email directory update" OR 2008 OR 2009 "@yahoo.com" –indians

I-35 between dallas and austin fun stops

i can make you thin but jean fain

eagle creek subcontinent pack

2008 @yahoo.com @gmail.com florida company doctors

%2

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Maybe later I’ll come up with more flotsam for our Friday. Maybe not.

get real

I was reading Daily Kos last night, a political blog that is strongly behind Obama, and I got to thinking about all the calls for Hillary to drop out of the race. My own beloved husband has been saying she should, and even I’ve had that thought (though I hate to admit it), what with the campaign fatigue we’re all feeling.

And it suddenly hit me.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Really, let’s think this through…

This campaign is the culmination of Hillary’s life’s work.

It’s a key moment in the history of the United States.

She’s not exactly being steamrolled or Obama would already be the Democratic candidate.

Would YOU quit?

Don’t give me that “for the good of the party” bullshit. How can it be bad for Democrats to have two viable candidates fighting for the privilege of running for president?

And how bad can it be to put Obama thoroughly through his paces before we even think about entrusting him with the country’s most important job? I say let him jump through some hoops, put his feet to the fire, throw all those clichés at him and if he’s still standing at the end, then maybe he’s more ready for the job than I think he is. (Maybe. I think he’s a good guy but at this point in his life and career, I still think he's 75% smoke and mirrors.)

This is a nation of people that won’t even give up SUVs for the good of the Earth, but we’re saying this intelligent, accomplished, ambitious, determined woman should give up the race of her life because we’re tired of hearing about it?

Tell me another joke.

elections

Dallas is accepting nominations for a new name for Industrial Boulevard. The DMN says:

There are Postal Service restrictions. Names can't be more than 14 characters, so "Down By The River I Shot My Baby Boulevard" is out. Apostrophes aren't permitted, so "What's That Smell Street" won't work. And it can't closely resemble an existing street name. "Turtle Creek Boulevard" is taken.

Want to nominate a name? Click here.

That’s the good writing du jour, IMO. Another fine line comes from Joyce Saenz Harris’ Taste section story about a book/cooking club whose motto, she says, “…might well be a chicken in every plot.” Cute. Too bad the paragraph started with the dreaded “Welcome to…”

In other election news, Oklahoma is accepting nominations for an official rock song. It already has an official state song (“”Oklahoma"), C&W song (“Faded Love”--not my guilty pleasure "You're The Reason God Made Oklahoma"), folk song (“Oklahoma Hills”) and waltz (“Oklahoma Wind.”)

Goodness gracious, who knew Oklahoma was so melodic?

Want to nominate an Oklahoma rocker? Click here.

So, Hillary pulled it out again. You want my theory about why Obama isn’t campaigning negative? He doesn’t have to because his supporters (I call them IOS---Insufferable Obama Supporters) do it for him. I hear many more Obama supporters going on about Hillary’s (and Bill’s) horns and tail than about Obama’s accomplishments. It's perfect--Obama can keep his halo and Hillary still gets smeared.

I would vote for Obama over McCain. No question. I like the guy--what I know of him. It’s his fan base for which I’ve developed a healthy loathing.

passing the buck

I'm trying really hard to get something accomplished today. I've had a very silly week of wasted time. But now I'm enjoying discussing yesterday's topic further at Ruth's blog, The Fabulous Geezersisters' Weblog.

I'll glom off of Ruth's post today so I don't waste my entire day. Again. Stop on by. Ruth is a swell writer and thinker.

gloria sez

Much better than I.

afternoon laff

Perspective.

i hate talking politics

But here’s my incendiary question du jour:

If Barak Obama were a woman (young, attractive, inexperienced, touchy-feely message) and Hillary Clinton were a man (wrinkling, graying, seasoned, dry presentation)—all other things being just as they are—do you think Obama would have a chance?