give 'em hell
now playing: pure prairie league, "jazzman"
addendum to yesterdays' post: add matthew yglesias to the list of folks whose head snapped back at the bush remark that his opponent had no "signature achievements"...
although many of my ilk choose to ignore the modern-day Pravda embodied by the msnbc/fox news conglomerate, i try to keep my ear to the ground on occasion (thus the ease with which i slip into funks personified by yesterday's sick of it all mentality...and it doesn't help to think of it as a watchdog action...it's still pretty tough sometimes).
last night, bill maher was on hardball, and had a couple of great quotes...the one that stood out in my mind was his observation that "there are people who will vote for george w. bush NO MATTER WHAT...if pictures came out tomorrow of george w. bush at abu gharib holding a leash with an iraqi on the other end, they'd still vote for him." (this offered as part of an explanation of the lack of a "bounce" after the convention because of early voter polarization). he also said that he thought there'd be a significant shift toward the challenger after the debates, comparing this election to the 1980 election when carter went into his re-election campaign with what could generously be called "significant baggage"...and how he and reagan were dead even in the polls in spite of this until after the debates (and, in fact, into the last month of the campaign).
and that was really about as good as it got. one channel away on my remote, o'reilly was interviewing june cleav--, um, laura bush...talk about a stepford wife - but she was, of course, given the kid gloves treatment by rush, jr (who gave the impression of actual pity as the interview wore on...leading questions and all). contrast this, though, to someone i used to actually enjoy on sportscenter, still rehashing THK's "shove it" bit and freshly indignant about her putting some hecklers in their place during a rally yesterday. (apparently, as some hitler youth rejects stood in the back yelling "four more years" over a bullhorn, she said from the stage that they want "four more years of hell"). i mean, he actually pondered aloud if people wanted to hear the word hell from a potential first lady...in an era where the vice president can tell a senator to go fuck himself, how is this an issue? why is this worth airtime?
now personally, i would've preferred hearing her (or someone) say, "y'know, it's a kickass country we live in that allows freedom of speech to the mentally handicapped....although, if this were a bush/cheney rally, we'd have screened your asses out of this process before you even got out of your wheelchair-equipped van."
or she could've just stuck her tongue out at them.
i don't remember how the subject came up the other night, but i was working in the basement and wendy mentioned something about me being a nice guy, and i replied without thinking about my reply that i wasn't. "no, i'm not." i just don't feel like a nice guy these days. if you knew me a while back, you wouldn't know me to be the kind of person to make remarks about someone's wheelchair-equipped van as a derogatory statement...but i've regressed quite a bit. attributing it to my perpetual frustration over the constantly declining state of the world could possibly account for a good-sized chunk of my disposition, but i don't think that's all of it. but whatever doorstep i lay it on, i don't really feel like a nice guy these days.
i fear that i may be starting the long descent into becoming yogi, my old next door neighbor. friendly enough in an outward manner, certainly opinionated, but not very social in the grand scheme of things...and potentially downright antisocial under the right circumstances.
maybe i could use that as an album title someday, a la ani difranco..."not a nice guy".
i have it set in my head that i want to make some significant progress in the house before the kids get back from the shore this weekend...it's been baby steps thus far this week, what with not getting home most nights until well after 9 or 10 o'clock and then staying up until 2:30 or 3 in the morning. i did get some significant work done last night in the studio, and i'm going to try to get the remaining components there situated tonight. i'm also going to try to get my carpet guy started so that dylans' room will be inhabitable by the time he's back.
i have this unexplainable need for my house to start resembling a house at some point in the not too distant future. call me crazy.
addendum to yesterdays' post: add matthew yglesias to the list of folks whose head snapped back at the bush remark that his opponent had no "signature achievements"...
although many of my ilk choose to ignore the modern-day Pravda embodied by the msnbc/fox news conglomerate, i try to keep my ear to the ground on occasion (thus the ease with which i slip into funks personified by yesterday's sick of it all mentality...and it doesn't help to think of it as a watchdog action...it's still pretty tough sometimes).
last night, bill maher was on hardball, and had a couple of great quotes...the one that stood out in my mind was his observation that "there are people who will vote for george w. bush NO MATTER WHAT...if pictures came out tomorrow of george w. bush at abu gharib holding a leash with an iraqi on the other end, they'd still vote for him." (this offered as part of an explanation of the lack of a "bounce" after the convention because of early voter polarization). he also said that he thought there'd be a significant shift toward the challenger after the debates, comparing this election to the 1980 election when carter went into his re-election campaign with what could generously be called "significant baggage"...and how he and reagan were dead even in the polls in spite of this until after the debates (and, in fact, into the last month of the campaign).
and that was really about as good as it got. one channel away on my remote, o'reilly was interviewing june cleav--, um, laura bush...talk about a stepford wife - but she was, of course, given the kid gloves treatment by rush, jr (who gave the impression of actual pity as the interview wore on...leading questions and all). contrast this, though, to someone i used to actually enjoy on sportscenter, still rehashing THK's "shove it" bit and freshly indignant about her putting some hecklers in their place during a rally yesterday. (apparently, as some hitler youth rejects stood in the back yelling "four more years" over a bullhorn, she said from the stage that they want "four more years of hell"). i mean, he actually pondered aloud if people wanted to hear the word hell from a potential first lady...in an era where the vice president can tell a senator to go fuck himself, how is this an issue? why is this worth airtime?
now personally, i would've preferred hearing her (or someone) say, "y'know, it's a kickass country we live in that allows freedom of speech to the mentally handicapped....although, if this were a bush/cheney rally, we'd have screened your asses out of this process before you even got out of your wheelchair-equipped van."
or she could've just stuck her tongue out at them.
i don't remember how the subject came up the other night, but i was working in the basement and wendy mentioned something about me being a nice guy, and i replied without thinking about my reply that i wasn't. "no, i'm not." i just don't feel like a nice guy these days. if you knew me a while back, you wouldn't know me to be the kind of person to make remarks about someone's wheelchair-equipped van as a derogatory statement...but i've regressed quite a bit. attributing it to my perpetual frustration over the constantly declining state of the world could possibly account for a good-sized chunk of my disposition, but i don't think that's all of it. but whatever doorstep i lay it on, i don't really feel like a nice guy these days.
i fear that i may be starting the long descent into becoming yogi, my old next door neighbor. friendly enough in an outward manner, certainly opinionated, but not very social in the grand scheme of things...and potentially downright antisocial under the right circumstances.
maybe i could use that as an album title someday, a la ani difranco..."not a nice guy".
i have it set in my head that i want to make some significant progress in the house before the kids get back from the shore this weekend...it's been baby steps thus far this week, what with not getting home most nights until well after 9 or 10 o'clock and then staying up until 2:30 or 3 in the morning. i did get some significant work done last night in the studio, and i'm going to try to get the remaining components there situated tonight. i'm also going to try to get my carpet guy started so that dylans' room will be inhabitable by the time he's back.
i have this unexplainable need for my house to start resembling a house at some point in the not too distant future. call me crazy.
posted by tom at 10:06
<< Home