The Third Debate as Viewed from the Jurassic:
This dinosaur says Obama did better than McCain. McCain's dig about how pro-choicers have been shamefully stretching the definition of "the mother's health" (presumably to cover the sniffles and mild headaches) was shocking--I agree with Fogg's comment in Octo's post, for which post many thanks. I had no idea McCain would say anything that insensitive on national television. He managed to express his "pro-life" stance in a way that's hard not to take as bordering on open contempt for women.
McCain also had been issuing Viking boasts about how he was going to bring a whole case of whoop-ass (at least 24 units with the tops already off and the cans properly shaken) to the debate, whereas in fact the whole thing was fairly civil. Obama bested him on the Ayers issue and managed to avoid "repudiating" John Lewis for telling the truth about the atmosphere McCain and Palin have allowed to develop at their rallies. McCain's "hide behind the flag" defense of the imbeciles who attend his rallies was contemptible, period. Obama, by contrast, was comfortable as an old shoe: just the sort of person we ought to make president at a difficult time. Nothing either candidate said was particularly memorable, which no doubt helps Barack at this late date.
The stuff about Joe the Plumber had me rolling my eyes and sighing like Allosaurus Gore: my fondest hope is that Joe the Plumber will immediately sit down and write a highly theoretical rejoinder to both candidates and the moderator, one that will bring to bear Kant, Hegel, Foucault, Nietzsche, and even Derrida on all the things they said about him.... Deconstruct, baby, deconstruct! Really -- how hokey and condescending can a candidate get? Even Joe and Jane Sixpack are insulted at being summed up as "Joe the Plumber."
Finally, I think McCain done sunk himself good with all that ridiculous talk about school vouchers and similar things at a time when -- yet again -- the stock market is collapsing and we are "on the eve of destruction," at least financially. What piffle! "Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace...."
His sneering, oozing and repetitious bit of theater about "spreading the wealth around" as though Obama were the Marxist the Palin crowd accuses him of being, makes my skin crawl even this morning.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell a tax break for 95% of us has to do with "spreading the wealth around" is the question that should have been asked by Obama, the Moderator, the audience -- and should be asked by us.
The answer is two fold: the first part is "not a damned thing" and the second is that John McCain is a lizard, a crawling, scaly, cold blooded reptile (present company excluded, of course)
Now don't be hatin' on the lizards, Capt. Fogg.... McCain is a Gila Monster, so some of his reptilian behaviors may be explained by that fact. But yes, he really seems like a candidate stuck in a time warp; his rhetoric is anachronistic by several decades; it might appeal to a majority if he could step into a time machine and go back to, say, the 1970's, era of Dirty Harry films mocking "namby pamby socialist liberals" who protect criminals' rights and not victims', ad nauseam. His party is so bankrupt right now that it seems a fair amount of his supporters use the same rhetoric themselves.
ReplyDeleteFogg: We have been on the same page on so many issues, but this is ohh soo ... politically incorrect ... the thing about lizards. “Present company excluded” is like saying “some of my best friends are lizards but … “
ReplyDeleteCompared to humanoids, lizards are older, wiser, and morally superior. Not like you have to marry one, but face it: There IS something charming and endearing about a pair of lizards copulating on the sidewalk on hot sunny days … and something unwholesome about funlessmentalists who would outlaw lizard licentiousness. I keep an active pair on top of my computer screen. I call them “monitor lizards.”
Blogging Dino: bordering on open contempt for women
The comment about “stretching the definition of mothers’ health” cost McCain the election, and I would be shocked if the pundits fail to pick this up. Women have been such an important factor in this election, and McCain's remark was more than an insult.
I watched the debate last night on CNN, which had a live audience response feed across the bottom of the TV screen. The differences in response between men and women were considerable.
I noticed, for instance, that women responded more favorably to Obama’s answers on health care and education. Men responded more favorably to McCain on “Drill, baby, drill.”
Why are human males always fascinated with mechanical penetration devices, as if there was nothing more to life than burning long-deceased liquefied lizards? Those humans should call themselves “Homo sapiens sacrilegious.
"Tell me over & over & over & over again, my friend, that you don't believe . . "
ReplyDeleteOh Dino - I have been a hummin' that song for months!
I applaud your take on the Joe plummer drivel.
I turned off the debate after I was informed that SP was a role model for me - BLAH! (hence my ranting post today.)
So....I missed the abortion stuff. So please inform me - what the heck did McCain say?!
Octo, you should just see the children throwing rocks at me almost every day.... "nah nah big stoopit lizard hey lizard! Pull his tail! No wonder you're extinct!"
ReplyDeleteSquid, we are indeed on the eve of something, destruction or damn close. Anyhow, the abortion thang consisted in McCain's wretched remark that phrases like "exceptions for the mother's health" with regard to late-term abortions were basically lame excuses put out by people who just sort of think abortion is a wonderful thing and there oughtta be lots more of them. I guess "a woman's health" is a non-issue for McCain. I think there are some clips of McCain using air-quotes around the phrase on HuffPo, your one-stop destination for everything that makes McCain and Palin look dumb, in Headless-Body-Found-in-Topless-Bar screaming headline type. I'm pretty sure millions of women (and men, by the way) will put together JMac's remark with uber-feminist Say-ruh Palin's stated view that abortion is wrong no matter what the circumstances, and vote accordingly.
That crash you just heard was my phone smashing against the wall of my office.
ReplyDeleteOOps - CRASH - there goes my desk lamp to the same fate . . .
(I KNEW I would regret asking that question)
Squid, the quotation goes like this:
ReplyDelete"Just again, the example of the eloquence of Sen. Obama. He's health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, 'health.'"
There's an article on HuffPo here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cecile-richards/mccain-says-womens-health_b_135205.html
. . . as I furiously tip over a bookcase full of textbooks onto the floor to mingle with the debris of my office equipment . . .
ReplyDeleteI read the article you linked to, Dino.
OK, fellow male bloggers (& the world) - guess what? It's time for my annual pap smear - you know - that annual rite of passage for the betterment of women's HEALTH. Why have I been remiss about scheduling my apt? Because I am too stressed these days to handle my anger when I am forced to PAY for the office visit. I have health insurance & my deductable has been met but I must PAY for this form of cancer prevention.
Oh my fellow male bloggers & men of the world - if you need an office visit for viagra on my health care plan - never fear - it is covered. You all can have sex while we women can die of cancer.
(Am I ever an ANGRY squid today!)
John McCain & his ilk need to GO!
And don't even get me started on the amount of sex women aren't allowed to enjoy courtesy of our country's health care plans!
"nah nah big stoopit lizard hey lizard! Pull his tail! No wonder you're extinct!"
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, there are lizards who can swallow those kids like candy. As they say in the movies: "Size Matters."
Well really - are you insinuating that dinosaurs are lizards? They're not. They taste better too - like chickens and turkeys and ostriches and other feathered modern offspring of the Theropods.
ReplyDeleteBut of course it's the bipedal scaleless lizards I detest, not the cute little green guys that are all over the place here, selling car insurance and eating Mosquitoes.
We shouldn't forget that the Palin/McCain position is that there should be no contraception nor talk about contraception, but only pontification about abstinence - and if it's counterproductive, if it doesn't work, so much the better. Life is all about suffering anyway. Who cares if they die in childbirth - it's God's will!
I know, but try telling the rock-throwing little rogues that. You can't reason with them.... And they never realize they're in over their heads until you actually chomp a few of the brats, Jurassic Park-style....
ReplyDeleteOn McCain/Palin's exquisitely progressive abortion/contraception/medicine in general views, yes, they really are building a bridge to the fourteenth century, those two. Right next to the bridge to nowhere, which is exactly how far I hope they get this Nov. 4th.
Time for damage assessment:
ReplyDeleteOne telephone
Desk lamp
Bookcase
Full of textbooks
Hell hath no fury like a cephalopod scorned.
Shall we take a collection?
Well really - are you insinuating that dinosaurs are lizards? They're not. They taste better too - like chickens and turkeys and ostriches and other feathered modern offspring ...
ReplyDeleteReally, Fogg, there is nothing poultry about our friend Dino. That was most egretable.
My guess is McCain knows he blew the gender vote, so the wedge-heads will be his last refuge. My prediction is there will be a price-meltdown on mud due to over-supply.
Sounds like you'll have a chance to do some redecorating, Octo. It will be worth it so long as McCain loses and Palin goes back home to Alaska.
ReplyDelete