Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
When Palin was asked if she knew the difference between Sunni and Shiite she winked at the studio audience and yelped, "I know the answer to that one!" She then proceeded to tell Couric that Shitte was still alive but Sunni got killed hitting a tree when skiing down hill.
And all across the nation 'the base' whooped, hollered and high fived each other because they thought that was the right answer as well.
Pleased as Punch, she then said that she knew Shiite was still alive because only that morning she'd read about Shiite's latest facelift op in The Economist, a paper she read everyday.
God Bless - no - God Save America
"I am not sure what the last line signifies; it seems to be some sort of attempt at humor, or perhaps a fragment from another, unrelated conversation inserted by mistake."
Must you vaccuum every last ounce of enjoyment from my evening? A pity to see my sarcasm go to waste... ah, well. Onward:
"...since the Sixties something more has been added to make the brew dished out dangerously toxic to unsuspecting readers."
Alright, we've established the rearward terminus of your timeline. Roughly. You then place the scene of the crime at the top levels of academia, with some hazily-defined pogrom against "the Western canon", "hard work" and "discipline".
This may shock you, but I will provisionally agree with this particular kernel of your thesis: that, overall, the educational standard in our country went into decline around the time you suggest. I myself descend from two generations of teachers, and my family's experiences would confirm such a decline.
So we have a generational calamity. What of the perpetrators? You wave your hands vaguely in the direction of "feel-good politics," "cheap grace" and a "collectivist yet profoundly self-indulgent fantasy ideology", but what do mean? Please provide specifics, or at minimum, make an attempt to do so.
"Public tastes and values plummeted and tanked across the board and entertainment devolved... one was free to lead as abandoned and even vicious a life as he desired... until the sheer magnitude of the thing broke through the dikes and restraining walls of civilization and flooded out in months and years what had taken centuries and millennia to create."
Telly, I don't know what you do for a living, nor do I wish to know... but I do hope you didn't miss your calling as a literary dramatist of some sort.
This, I suspect, is where our views diverge. You aver that our nation, which had by then survived a civil war, a depression and two world wars... was undone by a generation's rejection of the unworkable and an inquiry into the possible. I wonder what you mean by "sordid, immoral, illegal or at the least shocking and repellent behavior"... Civil rights? Feminism? Premarital sex? Gay sex? The rejection of the triune god? Irresponsible drug use? Responsible drug use? Heeding -too late- Eisenhower's warning of the dangers of an ascendant military-industrial complex? Questioning the necessity/expediency/morality of an undeclared, uprovoked land war in Asia? Rock music? Just pick out one or two, or contribute any that I may have missed.
In essence, you're calling our nation weak. As a patriot, I take umbrage at this.
---
For the benefit of those who don't want to wade through preceding pages to view your original post, I include your conclusion intact:
"The children then began to rule the world - and with what results we now can clearly see.
But the task was not complete for the hateful Reality Principle itself remained to be vanquished in order for the reign of the Pleasure Principle to continue unmolested. Despite the fantastic victory of the Children of the Id, the prophets and apostles of the ugly Reality Principle continued to stalk the land and bring sadness into the hearts and minds of the children even in the hour of their triumph.
They were known as Republicans and they were mean, and cruel, and warlike, and greedy, and they came preaching all sorts of rules and norms and things like right and wrong and good and bad. And they kept trying, even though they had little success, to rain upon the parade of the Children of the Id.
The mean old fuddy-duddy Republicans wanted the frisky, frolicking Children of the Id to shape up, to stand up straight, to take life and personal behavior a bit more seriously, and to learn to act their age again instead of presuming to tell adults what to do.
What were the happy, happy Children to do? They sniggered and giggled and uttered their usual favorite dirty words and gave their three-fingered salutes, they mooned the meanies and barked at them and yelled for them to go away and leave them in peace. We doan need no steenkin Reality! is what the Children said to the mean old Republicans. We think Reality is mean. We are going to make it against the law! But the Republicans would not leave. They took the high offices and held the Presidency. The happy children trembled and sighed and wept and worried.
Then came The One. The One came to set the happy children free from the danger of the Reality Principle! The happy children cheered and cheered and stamped their feet and clapped and shouted until they were dizzy and hoarse and couldn't even stand up any longer. The One! The One! The Liberator!"
Wow. Just... wow.
Up to now, your towering babble has produced in me varying degrees of anger, disbelief and an admittedly abrasive streak of sarcasm.
But this... this is just sad.
Telly, do you have any children of your own? I ask because your thesis seems to be constructed around an abject terror of children. You also seem unable to address/acknowledge us as anything but children/adolescents. Do you wish for a return to some supposed 'childlike' innocence of a pre-1960's America? More to the point: do you wish that innocent little children would halt their growth into pesky teenagers?
And finally, Telly... despite your frantic efforts to insist that we see Obama as some sort of messiah... we in fact simply view him as an applicant for a very important job. As members of the electorate we've done our civic duty and reviewed the bona fides of all four candidates. Based upon what we've learned thereby, we've reached a preliminary consensus that Barrack Obama and Joe Biden are qualified to preside over our government until the year 2012. In our estimation, John McCain and Sarah Palin do not meet the qualifications for the job. We'll ratify the matter in 29 days.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
