Friday Afternoon Palate Cleanser

Is this a simple humorous palate cleanser or an oblique reference to the mode of thinking of Episcopal Church deputies at General Convention?


Hat Tip: Comment from Michael at Midwest Conservative Journal

Hanson on Palin Hatred

Victor Davis Hanson has a great article that concludes with an analysis of why Palin so enrages the progressive elites:

Let us count the ways in which Palin enrages:

False Consciousness

1) The sophisticated elite “sees” the real world behind the middle-American façade-how the mob is led, fooled, mesmerized-exploited and manipulated through addiction to idiotic things like Wal-Mart, wall-to-wall carpeting, tract houses, Yukons, etc. Can’t smart people see that Palin’s naugahyde family is a reification of all this middle-class, mindless consumerism, without style, erudition, nuance and skepticism? How infuriating to sit here in New York and think that a winking tart could ever be elected, when seasoned sophisticates like Joe Biden and cosmopolitan metrosexuals like Barack Obama, who see it all, might not have been.

Powermen-Not Powerful Men

2) Twenty-first century power women do not marry men like Todd Palin. Looks, physicality, practicality, courage even-all these are nineteenth-century virtues that now mean nothing in a post-modern, post-industrial society. The fixer in finance, law, academia, politics, or the media-geek, nerd, wimp, who cares?-is the new Alpha male. He has three things that we are all supposed to crave-power, capital, and influence. If one were simply to draw up a list of the fiercest female critics of Palin and trace their own lineages, one would discover that they either are married to powerful insiders, dated powerful insiders, or are the daughters of powerful insiders. (some feminists these!) Who do this Wasilla PTA mom and her broken-arm, snow-mobiling wannabe think they are?

Too Many Rug Rats

3) Smart women do not get pregnant when it is inconvenient, especially when it interferes with one’s cursus honorum. Palin foolishly had a baby as governor, and waddled around with it the entire time-with other snotty kids in tow (just like those trashy folk at the mall who pile out of the Tahoe, in the way just as you are parking your Volvo)! And worse, in the age of sonograms and abortion, she delivered a mentally-challenged child. And worse still, the mom of five encouraged her daughter to deliver an out-of-wedlock child. (Is it in Oklahoma or Arkansas where moms and daughters have children about the same time?) And which is worse, to have a kid at 17 or one after 40? And worse, worse yet, she does not support abortion! Here is Hell in Sarah Palin’s world: I am up for a promotion at CNN, foolishly become pregnant at 42, and discover “it” has chromosomal “issues”. Am I supposed to deliver this thing? I don’t think so (nor would my daughter, should she become pregnant by her boyfriend the summer before starting off at Vassar [all that SAT camp for nothing?]).

The Alaskan Clampetts

4) Taste, taste, taste. Sara gushes and talks like she works at Supercuts (cannot someone teach Sarah to drone through her nose?). She shops like she walked out of Wal-Mart. She winks, and gestures as if she’s running a raffle stand at a PTA carnival and flirting with the local State Farm insurance agent. These Palins and their extended family, are, well, like the Clampetts who descend on Beverly Hills. (cf. “Trig”, “Piper” and “Bristol”-the Alaskan equivalents of “Jethro Bodine”, “Jed”, and “Granny”). And if you are to have scandals in your trailer-park family, let them be elegant ones-cf. Ted Kennedy, Ted, Kennedy, Jr., Michael Kennedy, William Kennedy Smith, David Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Jr. and their assorted sins such as drug convictions, drug overdoses, serial sexual predations, loss of life, etc-At least sin and quote Niebuhr, or discuss alleviation of the sin in Palm Beach or Hyannis Port.

Elly May, Not Jackie

5) There are looks and then there are looks. Brainless men without taste think Palin is “hot.” And she is in a sort of unsophisticated Carny way. But looks are really defined by an Audrey Hepburn/Jackie O understated grace, a slightly emaciated look with a grimace now and then. Or through race and gender prisms-a Michelle Obama or a model that is half-Asian, a quarter-Native American, three-quarters African-American. But a pink woman with curves that delivers kids about every two years? Come on!-in the old days, who would have preferred an Ann Margaret to a Candice Bergen? A Raquel Welch to a Mia Farrow? In our postmodern DC-NY nexus, women who are highly educated, with Ivy-League degrees, with some sort of exoticism-a French name, a trace of Indonesian ancestry, a first husband who was Nigerian-a good title such as Senior Editor at Knopf, or Executive Producer at CNN-are, by definition, sexy. And then along comes “It Came From Wasilla”, who excited these Neanderthal males at NASCAR who know nothing of classical understated, real beauty, of real pillow talk.

Hah! As if it was only the "brainless men without taste" who think Palin is “hot.” I think he missed a huge part of the reason the elite women are so upset. A lot of elite men have acknowledged that they think Palin is "hot", too.

(Hmmm,or maybe that was in there in a a subtle way.)

The Bank Stress Tests Are Graded

Golf Ball Walks On Water for Hole in One

Vijay Singh makes hole in one on practice round Tuesday at Augusta National Golf Course. Watch his ball bounce off the surface of the lake and onto the green, rolling back into the hole in this video by Andres Lopez.



As Bill Byler described it in the Augusta Chronicle:

A big roar erupted Tuesday afternoon when Vijay Singh made a hole-in-one at the par-3 16th hole -- by skipping his shot across the water.

Players often indulge fans by skipping their tee shots across the pond that guards the green, but Singh set a standard that is unlikely to be matched.

According to a tournament official, Singh's ball skipped across the water, hit the bank, landed on the green and rolled about 15 feet into the cup.

Playing partner Ken Duke teed it up after Singh, but he thought better of trying to match the 2000 Masters Tournament winner's feat and put his ball into his pocket.

Oregon Zoo Training Baby Elephant to Play Soccer?

I guess this is a new money making idea at the Oregon Zoo. In this video, they seem to be training Samudra, a 5 months old baby elephant to play soccer. Maybe when he gets older he can go professional.



Hat Tip Little Green Footballs

The Other War on Christmas

"Santa Claus will take you to hell"
"And Merry Christmas to you, Uncle Scrooge."

I have the most embarrassing sense of humor. I can't stop laughing at the latest from Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. They seem to have created alternative lyrics to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and wish to post it along with all the other contestants at the Washington state capitol building:

"You'd better watch out,
get ready to cry,
You'd better go hide,
I'm telling you why
'cuz Santa Claus will take you to hell.

He is your favorite idol,
you worship at his feet,
but when you stand before your God
He won't help you take the heat.
So get this fact straight:
you're feeling God's hate,
Santa's to blame for
the economy's fate,
Santa Claus will take you to hell."

According to Monica Guzman of the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

The sign would join a Christian Nativity set, three signs mocking atheism, and the one that started it all - the sign from the atheist group Freedom From Religion whose message that "religion hardens hearts and enslaves minds" sparked a furious nationwide debate over the nature of atheism and the boundaries between church and state.

But it gets worse:

The state is also reviewing requests for a display depicting "The Spaghetti Monster," a fictional figure often cited in philosophical debates about the existence of God, a "Festivus" pole, which refers to a mock holiday from a "Seinfeld" episode and - in a surprising show of normalcy - a sign from a Christian woman in Bellevue who wants to offer blessings on all people.

Read it all in the Seattle PI

Hat Tip to Terry Mattingly at Get Religion

Bark for Barak: Yes We Can

TM, Metrodog 2008. All rights reserved. Design by Timbuktu Design and Alexander Rodchenko. ; )

This image is being sold by MetroDog as posters with the website address at the bottom www.obamadogsunite.com

Rodchenko was a Soviet artist and the image is derived from this poster:


For a more serious discussion of the relationship between Obama poster art and Soviet poster art see here.

H/T to Zomblog