It’s the start of Banned Books Week, kids, and the candidate of the future has joined in the fun. Apparently, Obama supports censorship. In Missouri, the Obama campaign has asked state officials “to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading television ad during the presidential campaign.” Now, who could argue with this. I mean everyone agrees on what “misleading” is in any given situation. (via View from the Foothills)
All posts by Phil
The Blogging Ten
I don’t quite understand the rationale for working on a list like this, but the result is good: The Ten Commandments of Blogging.
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.”
True.
Paul Newman
Paul Newman has died of cancer at age 83. (HT: Terry Teachout)
Strength in Amiguity?
Life is Short, so Help Me Out
Help me out here. There’s an old Lutheran proverb that says, “Life’s too short to have fun” or something like that. Do you remember it or one along the line of life being too short to somethingorother?
All I can think of is . . .
Life’s too short to drink the house wine.
Life’s too short to eat cheap chocolate.
Life’s too short to play the back nine. (That doesn’t make sense, and I’m not a golfer.)
Life’s too short to vote for Democrats.
Life’s too short to keep the yard mowed. (I wish that were true.)
Life’s too short to spend it thinking only about myself.
Life’s too short to avoid the next Andy Griffith marathon.
Life’s too short to avoid prayer.
What do you think? What is life too short for?
Old Pro Golfing
In case there are some golfers reading our humble, but highly intelligent, blog, here is a site with resources from an old golf pro.
The Anti-McCain Org
Roger Kimball suggests we–at least John McCain’s people should–ignore The New York Times because of its consistent anti-McCain reporting. He explains:
Here’s how the Times structures its non-stories about John McCain:
1. Prissy introductory sentence or two noting that Mr. McCain has a reputation [read “unearned reputation”] for taking the ethical high road on issues like campaign finance reform.
2. “The-Times-has-learned” sentence intimating some tort or misbehavior.
3. A paragraph or two of exposition that simultaneously reveals that a) Mr. McCain actually didn’t do anything wrong but b) he would have if only the law had been different and besides everyone knows he is guilty in spirit.
Duck
Mr. Holtsberry is talking about a “quirky novella” called Duck by Nic Bettauer. “It is a sort of melancholic dystopian sentimental minimalist story; if that makes any sense,” he says.
Who’s the Smug One?
Author Anne Lamott doesn’t like McCain-Palin. She even left church the other Sunday over it:
A man and a woman whose values we loathe and despise — lying, rageful and incompetent, so dangerous to children and old people, to innocent people in every part of the world — are being worshiped, exalted by the media, in a position to take a swing at all that is loveliest about this earth and what’s left of our precious freedoms.
When I got home from church, I drank a bunch of water to metabolize the Dove bar and called my Jesuit friend, who I know hates these people, too. I asked, “Don’t you think God finds these smug egomaniacs morally repellent? Recoils from their smugness as from hot flame?”
And he said, “Absolutely. They are everything He or She hates in a Christian.”
Later on, she devotes a paragraph to ridiculing the names of the Palin children. The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto observes that she and her friend appear to be the very “stereotype people on the left typically hold of conservatives, and religious conservatives in particular: smug yet insecure, dogmatic and intolerant and filled with hate and rage. Even Lamott’s descriptions of Palin more aptly describe Lamott in the act of describing Palin!”
Coke Blech
I haven’t tried Coke Blak, so I can’t opine on its flavor. I don’t need to say that I don’t think it is a good idea–first blush–because I haven’t given it a chance to impress me. But this video of Anderson Cooper trying Coke Blak on live TV is worth the click. The clip is too long for my taste, but its fun.