Letters to the Editor
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When She Gets Mad, She Stays Mad
Noonan has been grinding that axe about "real men" not brushing their hair for two minutes ever since General George Armstrong Custer spurned her advances.
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Refining Tropes (or tripe)
If Romney, Brylcreemed to the nines, gets the nod for the GOP nomination (it may already be a done deal, unless McCain, resplendent in his shiny suit of armor, seizes Mitt's mike in New Hampshire), his appeals to the necessary 30 percent of the party's base, will be refined to a few neat tropes, homilies if you like - talking points - for the comfort of the base.
These handy phrases, a blend of global English and the Reader's Digest, will be tweaked for the wider electorate, but only slightly. All public comment, even in the storm of reporting, assuming that there is a proper storm of inquiry and vetting, will always refer back to the tropes, the comfort zone, the lullaby, just as it was done by Reagan's handlers.
What is the alternative narrative, the set of tropes or metaphors, that people who want real change - not more fairy tales - can put together?
John Edwards has been framed as a "socialist" trial lawyer with a poof and a taste for $400 poof cuts, a man, maybe, who (possibly) has cheated on his cancer-ridden wife.
Who's next on the "progressive" side?
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Peggy and Ronnie
Peggy Noonan used to be Ronald Reagan's speech writer-talk about poofing for a living.
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eastriver
Noonan's article wasn't meant to be taken seriously by serious people. It's meant to sway opinion. It's not about Peg's personal opinions, whatever they may be. They're irrelevant.
It's like debating how passionately the Bushies want(ed) democracy in Iraq, when the real truth is that we invaded for the oil. To discuss anything else is obfuscation and a waste of ink and finger juice.
Once you engage in this sort of debate you've wasted valuable time. Time that you won't get back at the end of your life. (Just like the couple of hours spent watching Rocky III; that time is goneGoneGONE and you can't get it back.)
I agree that the Pegster deserves to be knocked and thwarted at every available opportunity. Bravo, Glenn.
The tone of the presidential campaign conversation is vitally important. But you are also now a part of that conversation, Glenn. When you choose to devote a few hundred words on the day after Bhutto's assasination to attacking a minor media figure, it seems a little, um, petulant.
(And the poofing thing was meant to emasculate in a general sense. I don't believe that Peggy is that up on Brit homophobe slang. And poof or poofster is always a noun, never a verb.)
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@art
may use the word poofy/poofed up to legitimately (and accurately) describe a universal hair condition
Are you deliberately missing the point.
The only possible reason to bring up Edward's hair in the first place is to reference his attention to it. Even if the words used were "teased" or "primped" or "fussed over", the fact that it's an attack on his masculinity is unmistakable.
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art guerrilla
Get back in the wood shop. Shave some curly maple boards or Birdseye maple with a sharp block plane. Play harp melodies. Put the curled wool slivers or your head. Sit crossword, sip green tea. Ignite a match to the curled wood slivers atop your head. Here's a gust of wind. I'll toss a kiss for your wife? You are supposed to jump up in the air as high as you can and hug somebody. Then,
say, "Good tossed kiss!" You can get unfired up.
Then, you are spared a curly-head fire Immolation!~
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Bush at a fire, I can just see it.
First, he trips over the fire hose. Then, he stumbles over the fire hose. Then, he gets knocked down by the fire hose. When a competent firefighter finally takes over the fire hose, Bush runs up, grabs the end, and cause the stream of high-pressure water to knock down other firefighters. And also to spray the wrong house, breaking windows and soaking the living room.
When they finally get him away from the fire hose, he then starts counting the missing children of the widowed grandmother who lives in the burning house. He can't find Sally. He runs around in a panic! Where is Sally? At about that time, the grandmother's cell phone rings. It is Sally, the 43-year-old daughter, calling to check on her mother.
Yeah, I want Bush taking charge at a fire in my neighborhood. Because, after all, he is not an intellectual.
And I am a grown-up.
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Ahh....
I love the smell of peggery on those cold winter mornings when Glenn has just set fire to it on the public altar. It smells like...well, what it must smell like, if the gods are to be appeased.
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Transformations...
She might morph at the podium into Robert DeNiro in "Raging Bull" and ad-lib the taunt: You didn't knock me down Ray! I'm still standing!
Not only does she "homo-genize" Edwards, but she turns Clinton into Robert DeNiro. Edwards 'poofs' and Hillary is a 'bull' (implication being 'dyke'). How lovely.
And it's always interesting to note that while Willard's wealth is a plus,
He hasn't made himself wealthy by seeing the world through a romantic mist.
Edward's wealth is not because he's such a 'hypocrite' by having concerns about poor people.
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eastriver
The tone of the presidential campaign conversation is vitally important. But you are also now a part of that conversation, Glenn. When you choose to devote a few hundred words on the day after Bhutto's assasination to attacking a minor media figure, it seems a little, um, petulant.
I don't think Noonan is a "minor media figure." Just look at the media outlets where she opines. And I also think, as I made clear, that her column is illustrative of our media's dialogue.
Nonetheless, what would you like me to say about Bhutto's assasination? I don't run around immediately commenting on every single news event just to say something about it. Go watch Katie Couric or read Instapundit if you want that. It's sad and bad that she was killed. What else would you like me to say? Nobody even knows yet who is responsible. It's been less than 24 hours and Pakistan is an incredibly complex country. You want me to just start churning out analysis just for the sake of it?