Being There II: The Woman from Alaska

Does this description of Chauncey Gardiner remind anyone of a certain person who is making the talk-show and lecture circuit these days?

Rand is also the confidant and adviser of the U.S. President (Jack Warden), whom he introduces to "Chauncey." Chance's remarks about how the garden changes with the seasons are interpreted by the President as economic and political advice, relating to his concerns about the mid-term unpopularity that many administrations face while in office. Chance, as Chauncey Gardiner, quickly rises to national public prominence. He becomes a media celebrity with appearances on television talk shows, and is soon on the A-list of the most wanted in Washington society. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his "simple brand of wisdom" resonates with the jaded American public.

The original "Being There" with Peter Sellers was a comedy that I thoroughly enjoyed. The sequel is a reality show that I find unbearable to watch.

Astonishing

"Snowstorm puts W.H. press corps in danger"

So, there is a winter storm happening on the East Coast and the national news coverage is hysterical. And, now, we get a story with this point -- the reporter is scared because a tree branch snapped, and that in itself is a story that should be on the front page. Everybody panic!

These people are serious candy-asses.

Circular firing squad

"Top Democrats at war - with each other"

In a display of contempt unfathomable in the feel-good days after Obama’s Inauguration, freshman Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) stood up at a meeting with Pelosi last week to declare: “Reid is done; he’s going to lose” in November, according to three people who were in the room.

A Toles cartoon from last week sums it up. As a Vikings fan who saw his team dominate in total yardage, first downs, and time of possession in the NFC Championship Game, only to be done in by unforced errors, I find the cartoon even more insightful than ever:

Vikings: Deja vu all over again

Clearly, somebody was sticking pins in a voodoo doll yesterday at the critical junctures. Whoever you are, you made my 10 year old cry. I hope that you are happy.

A fun game

Try to hit Tiger's girlfriends with golf balls before they get to the press. It takes a little practice to get the timing on the release of the mouse button and to judge the wind, but I made back to back hole in ones on a par 4 and par 5 before I was done. Link.

Olbermann = Coulter

In describing the new junior Senator from Massachusetts, Keith Olbermann's quest to earn the dubious title of "The Ann Coulter of Left" is finally complete.

“In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”

Now he can transition to the lucrative book market, where I have a suggested title for him that would be Coulter-esque: "Why All Republicans are Nazis Who Want to Rape Your Daughter". Well, have you ever heard a Republican reassure you that he doesn't want to rape your daughter? Hah!, I thought so.*

*When confronted, Olbermann defended the violence against women charge by claiming that some anonymous person at a Brown rally allegedly suggested that his opponent be physically hurt and that Brown did not publicly come out against the alleged remark which there is no reason to believe that he ever heard in the first place, if it was ever in fact made.

Vikings 34, Cowboys 3

What Favre is doing is ridiculous. Highlights here. Revenge for this.

Dallas columnist writes:

When there are 31-point margins of victory in both NFC semifinals, then it's understood that the two best teams in the conference are still standing.

New Orleans, here we come.

Red Cross: Haiti

Click here to donate to the Haiti relief fund. The Red Cross deserves and needs your contribution; Pat Robertson does not.

Uff da

Link. "The reaction people have to Sarah Palin is very much the reaction many people have to Jesus".

Haiti: Scope of Disaster

Hiroshima 1945: "On Monday, August 6, 1945, at 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb 'Little Boy' was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay,^[14] directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000."

Haiti 2010: "Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, although he acknowledged that nobody really knows."

I don't have words.

Earthquake in Haiti

I'm confused. Did the devil cause the earthquake, or did God cause the earthquake as a punishment for the Haitian people's collective pact with the devil?

Game Change: Followup

To be clear, the book is apparently as unflattering to the Clintons and the Edwards as it is to Sarah Palin. But despite the protestations of unfairness on each side of the political aisle, I think that this kind of a book serves a public purpose--even if it is not perfectly sourced--if it in some way keeps honest the people who ask us to vest absolute power in them.

The lesson is that if you can't stand the heat either (1) get out of the kitchen, or (2) don't be a self-absorbed, narcissistic, phony asshole.

Game Change: Palin

Yikes..

John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin may have been a bold stroke that narrowed what would otherwise have been a blowout defeat. But it was also, as the authors depict it, an act of extreme recklessness, a seat-of-the-pants improvisation that allowed for almost no serious vetting of someone who knew diddly-squat about the world we live in and who would have been a heartbeat from the presidency.

"In the days leading up to an interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson, aides were worried with Ms. Palin's grasp of facts. She couldn't explain why North and South Korea were separate nations and she did not know what the Federal Reserve did. She also said she believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001."

Where'd they find her? Well, on the Internet, as it happens. "McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, spotted Sarah Palin while searching the Internet for possible female vice presidential candidates." More from CBS News:

"Her foreign policy tutors are literally taking her through, 'This is World War I, this is World War II, this is the Korean War. This is the how the Cold War worked.' Steve Schmidt had gone to them and said, 'She knows nothing,'" Heilemann told Cooper. "A week later, after the convention was over, she still didn't really understand why there was a North Korea and a South Korea. She was still regularly saying that Saddam Hussein had been behind 9/11. And, literally, the next day her son was about to ship off to Iraq. And when they asked her who her son was going to fight, she couldn't explain that."

Hello, people! Does the name Jim Jones mean anything to you?

Link.

Fox News host Glenn Beck's national domination

By Dana Milbank
Sunday, January 3, 2010; A13

It's official: Americans admire Glenn Beck more than they admire the pope.

This news, at once unsettling and unsurprising, came from the Gallup polling organization on Wednesday. Beck, the new Fox News host who has said President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and alternately likens administration officials to Nazis and Marxists, was also more admired by Americans than Billy Graham and Bill Gates, not to mention Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. In Americans' esteem, Beck only narrowly trailed South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the man who defeated apartheid.

The 45-year-old recovering alcoholic and Mormon convert has become the first true demagogue of the information age. His nightly diet of falsehoods and conspiracies on Fox, and his daily outrages on the radio, have propelled his popularity past even Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. His method is simple: He goes places where others are forbidden by conscience. . .

In terms of the political culture, he's more parasite than host. Yet, by any measure, he's had a huge impact on the body politic. . .

As Glenn Beck likes to say: I fear for my country.

Me too.

All is well that ends well

Impressive victory yesterday to close out the season. The result, after getting a little help from the Cowboys, is the #2 seed and first round bye.

Also, any Vikings fan will never forget the Giants' humiliation of the Vikings in the NFC Championship. Whenever someone says "41-donut", we know exactly what they are talking about. So I couldn't have been the only person who was begging Childress to go for it on 4th down near the goal line when the Vikings were leading 34-0, and they did and scored the touchdown. I so much wanted the game to end 41-0, but just seeing that score posted for a few minutes was cathartic.

Highlights here.

Happy New Year

Link.

BAGHDAD - December was the first month since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq nearly seven years ago in which no U.S. forces died in combat in the country.

Irrationality

Seriously, I again have to question the wisdom of the idiots who run the stock market asylum. Either (1) the experts really thought that Tiger Woods brought a combined $12 billion in goodwill value to these companies when they were buying these stocks, or (2) the experts are just panicing now. Neither choice (1) nor choice (2) suggests that they really have a clue.

Link.

Tiger Woods' extramarital affairs could cost you if you hold stock in a company he sponsors or a mutual fund that holds stock in those companies.

A new study - not yet published in a journal - finds the market value lost to companies that had the golfer as a sponsor is already as high as $12 billion.

Iran

Link.

I predict this is the single event that will crush the tyrant regime of Khamenei and 'Nejad.

Let it be so.

Dumbass

Link.

Passengers told federal investigators that Abdulmutallab went to the bathroom for about 20 minutes. When he returned to his seat, he said he had an upset stomach and pulled a blanket over him. Passengers then heard a popping noise, similar to a firecracker. They smelled an odor and some passengers saw Abdulmutallab's pant leg and the wall of the airplane on fire.

Here is what I don't get: Why did he return to his seat instead of trying to ignite the explosive in the bathroom, where no one would be able to stop him? And why didn't Richard Reid try to light his shoe bomb in the bathroom where no one could stop him? It doesn't make any sense.

Santa

We have been following Santa tonight on the NORAD tracker. Currently, he is in Hartford, CT, with Providence, RI his next stop. Ella is beside herself with excitement. She has insisted on sleeping with the shades open so that she can see him if he flies by her side of the house and she happens to be awake.