IDEA WHIPLASH

Talk To The Hand

2010-02-07T20:03:00.001-08:00

That's right. Sarah Palin is real presidential material. Pity she couldn't keep her main talking points in her head instead of on her hand.

Sheesh....

Avatar: Left Wing Plot

2010-02-07T19:57:00.001-08:00

Consider what you haven't heard about Avatar. The themes in the movie are classic culture war bait. The denigration of the industrial military complex. The "Dances With Wolves" genocide of indigenous peoples story. The pagan religious rituals. Just let your mind run wild and you have all the elements for the perfect "real people" against "Hollywood" culture war dust up. Why haven't we heard a peep from the right?

Pretty simple really: Avatar is a FOX production. If you, like me, watch Fox News to see what fair and balanced is doing, then you have seen the commercials lauding Avatar and revving up the Oscar promotion machine. You see, cash trumps culture, or in this case, culture war.

A New Christian Dilemma

2010-02-06T19:47:00.001-08:00

What if the Anti-Christ isn't a man?

My Other Favorite Sport

2010-02-01T20:43:00.001-08:00

Look what showed up on my Email today.

I'd say that with Formula One testing and the America's Cup both springing to life in Spain that my sporting glee is just around the corner. On Sunday, we are finally free of the national blight of the NFL. All we need is for pitchers and catchers to report and all is right with the world.

Can Obama Work With The Republicans?

2010-02-01T20:36:00.001-08:00

In a word, No. Why? Because they are unhinged.

It is almost impossible to begin a dialogue with the willfully ignorant. These folks live deep on the right wing echo chamber where facts are but butterflies in a hurricane. Some of these numbers are mind boggling.

• 39% of Republicans want President Obama to be impeached.

• 63% think Obama is a socialist.

• Only 42% believe Obama was born in the United States.

• 21% think ACORN stole the 2008 election -- that is, that Obama didn't actually win it, and isn't legitimately the president, with 55% saying they are "not sure."

• 53% think Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama to be president.

• 23% want to secede from the United States.

• 73% think gay people should not be allowed to teach in public schools.

• 31% want contraception to be outlawed.

I have long contended that 1/3 of America in either political direction is unswayable. The contraception number bares that out. But these poll number push the edge of reality. Clearly, for many Americans, an African-American, liberal president is simply beyond their cognition. Not possible. Clearly a mistake. Absolutely a fraud. I wager most of these folks could not define socialism, but don't let that deny a good lie.

Most cynical in all of this is the role of the right-wing media and the Republican party. In both cases, there are smart people at work who are playing these poor slobs like a piano in a whore house.

God, Guns And Democracy

2010-01-26T21:15:00.001-08:00

Is there anything more frightening than a political zealot who thinks God is on his side?

Arrogant Democrats And Dancing Republicans

2010-01-18T21:01:00.001-08:00

If I am reading the polls right, my guess is that they have just blow it in Massachusetts. The evil irony that losing Ted Kennedy could be the end of national health care reform is just too much to consider. The old party machine picked a barking dog of a candidate and kept her in the cage. Now it has occurred to them that there are independent thinkers out there.

The glee on the right wing blogs and Fox is unbearable. It's all about bringing the country to a freaking halt for them. Fittingly, with the biblical literalism they enjoy, I fear they are setting us all up to inherit the wind.

Stupid Can Be Very Funny

2010-01-12T21:36:00.001-08:00

Palin on Fox is going to be the gift that keep on giving.

In her debut as a contributor to Fox News, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin admitted Tuesday that leading up to her 2008 vice presidential debate she thought Iraq may have been behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Two reactions: First, isn't fun to think that about 30% of America just eats this stuff up? Kind of makes any trip to the 7-11 seem more interesting. Second, John McCain hates America. There can be no other rational explanation for him attempting to put this woman a heartbeat from the presidency.

But wait . . .

But while Palin had issues with her depiction, she had no problem seizing on quotes within the book from Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who credited President Barack Obama’s attractiveness as a candidate to his lighter skin color and lack of a “Negro dialect.”

“You can’t defend those comments,” she said. “His thinking and articulation of that thought are quite perplexing.”

I concede. On this point she is an absolute authority.

Michael Is Really Back

2010-01-12T21:22:00.001-08:00

Amid this deadly dull nonsense that is the NBA and NFL, there is light at the pit exit in Jerez.

Schumacher in Spain tossing a GP2 car around.

Frankenstein's Monster

2010-01-11T21:21:00.001-08:00

Home at last.

Honestly, I thought that Sarah Palin was already a FOX contributor. Well, they know their audience and the nodding class will love it now that Sarah is home.

Let's see . . . if she had chosen to finish the job she was elected to do then she wouldn't be . . . that's right . . . filthy rich. Who says quitters never win.

Sheesh...

Never Underestimate

2010-01-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

A Nerd.

The Big Unit Hangs Em Up

2010-01-05T22:00:00.001-08:00

Best of all. He got number 300 as a Giant.

Nothing better than a baseball story in January.

OK, an F1 story is fine too.

Feeling Small . . .

2010-01-05T21:32:00.001-08:00

Is a good thing. Hubble provides perspective. Again.

Need a 16 billion year old galaxy anyone?

That's right . . . we have only existed for 6,000 years. Back to you Brit.

Yea. Why Not?

2010-01-04T21:07:00.001-08:00

When I landed my dream job in City Hall, I shut down access to the blog. Mostly, I just didn't have time to even think about anything else but getting my feet on the ground in a new career. I am still climbing that hill, and the hours are long, but I wouldn't change a thing. It feels like grad school every day. New things to learn under tight deadlines. Writing at a machine gun pace. Interesting people to meet. And, for an information junkie, I now have a job where the latest information is the coin of the realm.

But, when I am not swamped or exhausted, I still think about posts all the time. I just haven't had a place to put them. I even got back on a limited Facebook account, but I will never be happy with just those little artificial slices of life. So, I decided to fire up Idea Whiplash again. At this point, I am not sure anyone but my Dad will read it. Still, it is good therapy for me to vent and think about other things in front of a keyboard.

Admittedly, my new career requires I think carefully about my posts, a small trade-off actually. As I looked back on my work here, I mostly commented on the national scene and those oddities that strike my fancy. I don't have the time to surf my reader and do a bunch of links. My current reading list is smaller but far more concentrated. When something interesting hits my radar, or is just too strange to ignore, I will jot a note or two here.

Who knows, maybe I will figure out my new gig and have more spare time? Yea, and Brit Hume will become a Buddhist.

Sheesh.....

Reviving This?

2010-01-02T12:30:00.001-08:00

Thinking about it. I miss the multi-topic brain dumping moments. Turns out I write posts in my head all the time anyhow.

Perfect Call

2009-10-03T17:23:00.001-07:00

Now It Is "The People's" Green Car

2009-09-22T21:01:00.001-07:00

It's not like any of us are going to get to drive this silly green indulgence.

Fisker Automotive, a California manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles, will receive more than $500 million in federal loans to develop a plug-in hybrid sports car with a sticker price of nearly $90,000 and a new plug-in hybrid vehicle to be built in the United States.

Cash. Meet rat hole.

Sheesh....

Now, Was That So Hard?

2009-09-22T20:43:00.001-07:00

Sheesh....

Our Democracy Doomed?

2009-09-18T18:29:00.001-07:00

Cringe.

Only one in four Oklahoma public high school students can name the first President of the United States, according to a survey released today.

The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.

"They're questions taken from the actual exam that you have to take to become a U.S. citizen," Dutcher said.

A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens.

About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on their first try, according to immigration service data. However, Oklahoma students did not fare as well. Only about 3 percent of the students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test.

Dutcher said this is not just a problem in Oklahoma. He said Arizona had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.

"Jefferson later said that a nation can't expect to be ignorant and free," Dutcher said. "It points to a real serious problem. We're not going to remain ignorant and free."

Question

% of Students
Who Answered Correctly

What is the supreme law of the land?

28

What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

26

What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?

27

How many justices are there on the Supreme Court?

10

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

14

What ocean is on the east coast of the United States?

61

What are the two major political parities in the United States?

43

We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?

11

Who was the first President of the United States?

23

Who is in charge of the executive branch?

29

The good news is that naturalized citizens know the answers. I say we open up the borders and save America.

Sheesh....

For Folks Who Don't Believe In Evolution

2009-09-16T22:42:00.001-07:00

They sure start tossing around the genetic material mighty young. But then, what's a little hypocrisy and ignorance among friends.

Sheesh....

The Pause

2009-09-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

Have I run out of snarky thoughts? Not likely. I just have some more diverse demands on my time. And no, the return of Project Runway is not on that list. A high performance driving class and track day with my MINI was a massively fun distraction. I am also doing research as part of my Portland City Club Research Board duties. While events are compelling, I am more of a mind to fill the intellectual tank. I will have a book recommendation directly. For the moment I am letting my two dog staff do most the blogging. The result is dubious thus far.
Mobile via Blackberry

Some Place You Don't Want To Be

2009-09-08T14:16:00.001-07:00

Really . . . Really want to avoid.

Czars?

2009-09-07T22:38:00.001-07:00

You have to hand it to the Republicans, they are message masters. The term "czar" to label a special advisor to the president has been around for decades, through Democratic and Republican administrations. Generally, it is used sparingly, as in the "drug czar." No one has given it a second thought.

Then, last week, our favorite unhinged FoxNews screamer, Glenn Beck, started a campaign against Obama's czars. He identified 30 of them. Van Jones, an advisor stupid enough to sign a goofball 9/11 petition, resigned due to this new pressure from the right. But was he a czar?

All executive branches are littered with special advisors to the president. Rarely are they called czars. But here is where the Republicans are brilliant. They kept hammering away at the bogus title for the last 10 days. I watched FoxNews over the weekend and every newsreader used the term. Members of the administration with relatively low power, policy wonks, are now classified as czars and, as we all know, czars are scary and unconstitutional. Sheesh . . .

Now, even CNN is using the term in the context originally presented by FoxNews. Just wait, the czar crisis has just begun. We are going to be wading in this made-up muck for the next 4 years. From socialist medicine to indoctrinating school kids to czars -- one distraction after another.

Kind of makes you wonder: Why do the Democrats suck at this sort of messaging? I guess we liberals just think too hard. Nuance overdose kills a good message.

Will we ever learn? Well, let's see of Obama has a pithy slogan from his Wednesday speech. As awful as it may seem to the nuance crowd, getting health care reform depends on it.

There Was A Time . . .

2009-09-04T20:56:00.001-07:00

When Americans of any stripe would be delighted to have the President of the United States give a little speech to their children telling them to work hard and stay in school. Not anymore.

The White House said the address, set for Tuesday, and accompanying suggested lesson plans are simply meant to encourage students to study hard and stay in school.

Many conservative parents aren't buying it. They're convinced the president is going to use the opportunity to press a partisan political agenda on impressionable young minds.

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH. "I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

Note the code. "I'm an American." Listen closely when the angry conservative mob scream, "I want MY American back." This isn't about politics. It is about race and a vision of America that never really existed. In their America, no black man ever talks to their kids. What they are afraid of is the simple fact that America is changing. That melting pot thing was just fine as long as everyone was the right color. Fear, especially this fear hyped by the cynical Republican party leadership, is a lubricant. It frees notions and desires that lay just below the surface in a civil society. Ignorance is bliss for these folks because they are dealing in articles of faith, and faith cannot be challenged.

My fear is that we have just seen the beginning of this. The right wing has its back to the wall. They are absolutely correct America is changing. The demographic tidal wave is about to wash over them. And please, none of that nonsense about "playing the race card" by the left. The Republican wingers have thrown down all their cards. They are all in now with a campaign of ignorance and fear that appeals to our most ugly views on race.

So what do the rest of us do? We exercise the power of the majority and do the right thing for America. We enact universal healthcare, and call on all of America's children to do their best and stay in school. In the face of the unyielding, unrepentant screams of ignorance and division, we move forward. In the end, America is changing. Come along for the ride or sit on the sidelines, face to the radio, a choir for the preachers of hate and division.

An Indian Fulfills An Italian's Dream

2009-09-03T21:10:00.001-07:00

Don't you just love Formula 1?

Giancarlo Fisichella has described his switch to Ferrari as ‘a dream come true’ after Force India agreed to release him from his contract with immediate effect.

An Italian in a Ferrari at Monza surrounded by adoring Tifosi.

Bella. Bella.