Tag: The Stars Hollow Gazette

Picking Fights and Drawing Lines in the Dirt.

Oh Noses. Daily Kos once again has it’s recommended list filled with scurrilous Consipracy Theories (CT stands for “Completely True” BTW).

While the point of this story doesn’t depend on the particulars I’ll briefly rehearse them so you understand the issues I’m really addressing.

So at Rick Warren’s “debate” John McCain told this heartfelt story about how he shared a moment of Christian worship with a guard who scratched out a cross in the dirt at his feet.  One problem with that story is it’s been attributed to Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In Honor of Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Writer, Leader, Hero

Monday, August 04, 2008

By Paul M. Weyrich

This man who Solzhenitsyn said he had never seen at the gulag took a stick and drew a cross in the dirt. And he left, never to be seen again. Solzhenitsyn later came to believe that that kindly figure was Christ himself.

Other details differ, in Solzhenitsyn’s story the person who scratches the cross in the dirt is a fellow prisoner.

I can’t myself prove it comes from The Gulag Archipelago, it’s Googlebook search indicates no relevant matches from ‘cross’ or ‘dirt’ or ‘guard’, but there are redacted pages and I don’t have an account.  It might be from One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I haven’t checked that.

What I do know is that Paul Weyrich is this Paul Weyrich and if he remembers it from TWO STINKING WEEKS AGO! so should John McShame or at least his PLAGIRIZING SPEECH WRITERS!  Otherwise they’re incompetent fools.

Just like when they plagiarized the Wikipedia article about Georgia (last week!) and those cookie recipes.

Thought seems to be split into three main camps, ‘Completely True’, ‘Cone of Silence’, and ‘Shut Up’.  ‘Cone of Silence’ isn’t what you think, it’s the contention that McShame’s cheating by knowing the questions before is the more important story.

‘Shut Up’ is exactly what you would think, Democrats too cowardly to challenge McShame’s character as if Mr. Wetstart had any.

So they’re putting the band back together.

Oh Brad, I’m frightened.  What kind of place is this?

Oh, it’s probably some kind of hunting lodge for rich weirdos.

This way.

Are you – giving a party?

No.  You’ve arrived on a rather special night.  It’s one of the master’s affairs.

Oh, lucky him.

He’s lucky.  You’re lucky, I’m lucky, we’re all lucky!

So I ran across this while surfing Yahoo News-

You’ll note it’s from the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol’s rag.

David Zucker is doing an allegorical remake of A Chrismas Carol called An American Carol, which like Ben Stein’s Expelled is supposed to combat left wing Hollywood bias.

Oh and it’s entertaining and funny and will make money too.  Would I lie to you?

Yes he’s that Zucker from Airplane, one of two and part of a team of 3; but he belongs like some to the Muslim Racist Paranoia Dennis Miller types who were scared so shitless of finding a brown skinned bomber under the bed that they wet themselves every night.

A coward.

Zucker was still nominally a Democrat when George W. Bush was elected in 2000. “Then 9/11 happened, and I couldn’t take it anymore,” he says. “The response to 9/11–the right was saying this is pure evil we’re facing and the left was saying how are we at fault for this? I think I’d just had enough. And I said ‘I quit.'”

He hooked up with an ex-Boxer staffer Sokoloff who- Hallelujah shares the save conversion story.

Although she didn’t vote for George W. Bush in 2000, Sokoloff says she was glad that he won. Less than a year later, she understood why. “When 9/11 happened, I knew Democrats wouldn’t be strong enough to fight this war.”

And started making commericials.

As the 2004 presidential election approached, Sokoloff and Zucker looked for a way to influence the debate. Their first effort was an ad mocking John Kerry for his flip-flops that the conservative Club for Growth paid to put on the air. In 2006, Sokoloff and Zucker followed that with a series of uproarious short spots mocking, in turn, the Iraq Study Group, Madeleine Albright and pro-appeasement foreign policy, and pro-tax congressional Democrats.

Spoilers below the fold.

So tonight I had an epic failure and I want to confess it so I can avoid it in the future.

Well so far this week my writing has had a pretty fair reception, even the pieces where I mostly quote someone else.

I like to think I have an audience for the off topic stuff I post here too.  I think that if you’re a regular reader you should find nothing out of the ordinary in my obnoxiousness.

Sometimes I indulge my own tangents and peculiarities and don’t worry too much about the consequences until it’s far too late.

Anyway I’m always looking for bright and shiny objects for you and when I find the next distraction I’ll be right back.

Sure.  Let’s pick a fight at another blog.

Well, we’ve quite a large backlog of worthy essays to work off but I’ll not consign them the late night ghetto that is The Stars Hollow Gazette.

Instead I’ve been requested to do something in a lighter hearted, more literary vein and I’ll point out one of my favorites- The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll.

"Why are you a Republican?"

“Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican.”

“What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?”

“Aside from the president, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.”

Greg McKendry

Yesterday, when a stranger pulled a shotgun out of a guitar case and started firing into a crowd of 200 watching a children’s perfomance of the musical Annie at the Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, this 60 year old church usher stood up and did the right thing when everyone else was running away.

Community Organizing is a lot more like being a Corleone than most people are willing to admit.

You know everybody and the kills are up close and personal while being strictly business.

Drop the gun, take the cannoli.

And then they sit across from you at the DAR dinners and smile and exchange pleasantries while you laugh and they plot revenge.

Just like living in a Village.

One of my odd skill sets is that I am a public speaker, a trainer of public speaking, and a judge of the same in 2 different formats.

One is the traditional 3 to 5 (minutes) either to inform, persuade, or move emotionally.  If you ever come before me I must admit what most impresses is continuity and performance, so your points better be logically laid out and have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

AND STOP MUMBLING!

After a while you can work on points for style, like the club tie and the firm handshake, a certain look in the eye and an easy smile.

The other format is called Debate.  2 Teams of 3.  Each Team consists of 2 Speakers both of whom must speak at least once, and a Captain who does not speak.  You have 90 seconds each to make a Primary argument and a Rebuttal argument, and a final 60 second Summation.  30 Seconds between each round for Judges to work and Team consultation.  You need not use your full time, but there are penalties for going over.  Argument goes Pro Primary, Con Primary, Pro Rebuttal, Con Rebuttal, Con Summary, Pro Summary.

The scoring is heavily weighted to encourage Teams to remember to promote their positive arguments in the Primary segment and refute their opponent’s argument in the Rebuttal segment, but you’d be amazed at how many Teams waste their time arguing against imaginary strawmen in the Primary and only advance their positive points in Rebuttal.  Teams often forget to summarize the points they’ve made that are un-refuted too and waste their time re-arguing settled issues.

It’s a really fun party game.  I mostly work with half in the bag conventioneers or hung over ones.

Well I must say… as fatigued as I am by my exertions on your behalf, I’m reluctant to subject any Front Page worthy essay to exposure to your ridicule at this point.

Pick on me instead.