The Nation
Thus begins an anfractuous little essay by one Miss JoAnn
Wypijewski, apparently a recent participant in the Nation’s Learn
to Write English Project. How this rubbish ends God only knows,
though it appears to be about sex:
In the beginning there was sex. And sex begat skill, and skill
(or its absence) begat judgment, and judgment begat insecurity, and
insecurity begat doctors’ visits, which begat treatments, which
have flourished into a multibillion- dollar industry, so that sex
between men and women is today almost inconceivable without the
shadow of disorder, dysfunction, the “little blue pill” or myriad
other medical interventions designed to bring sex back to some
longed-for beginning: a state of certified healthfulness, the
illusion of normal.”
(September 28, 2009)
Palo Alto Daily News
On the howl page of a great California daily Fox News’ plot
against Muslims and Mexicans is exposed, apparently by a retired
professor, possibly with a criminal record:
Dear Editor:
The hatred fostered by Fox News and some right-wing cable talk
shows has to be held responsible for the shootings at Fort Hood.
They have consistently tried to blame Muslims and Mexicans for all
the ills in “merica” and I fear it is just about to get worse.
These people have to be shut down for the good of world peace.
If they’re not a real news show, take them off the air.
If they’re a so-called church preaching hatred take away their
tax-exempt status so they can stop funding rightwing candidates who
reject all forms of legislation that can solve America’s
problems-global warming, the environment, education, health care
and Iraq.
Jan Krieg,
Palo Alto
(November 10, 2009)
The Progressive
A dispiriting report from one of the Women of the Fevered
Brow’s diehards, Miss Barbara Ehrenreich, lifelong opponent of
lingerie:
Feminism made women miserable. This, anyway, seems to be the
most popular takeaway from The Paradox of Declining Female
Happiness, a recent study by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers,
which purports to show that women have become steadily unhappier
since 1972. Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington greeted the news
with somber perplexity, but the more common response has been a
triumphant: I told you so.
On Slate’s DoubleX website, a columnist concluded from the study
that “the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s gave us a steady
stream of women’s complaints disguised as manifestos…and a brand
of female sexual power so promiscuous that it celebrates everything
from prostitution to nipple piercing as a feminist act-in other
words, whine, womyn, and thongs.”
(December 2009/January 2010)
The Atlantic
Thanks to historian Andrew Roberts’ sedulous researches into
the anti-American archives, we reproduce a lewd rant that the
Current Wisdom Department had inexcusably missed from Joyce Carol
Oates, leading proponent of the Hangover Theory of
History:
How heartily sick the world has grown, in the first seven years
of the 21st century, of the American idea! Speak with any
non-American, travel to any foreign country, and the consensus is:
The American idea has become a cruel joke, a blustery and bellicose
bodybuilder luridly bulked up on steroids, consequently low on
natural testosterone, deranged and myopic, dangerous.”
(November 2007)
Salon.com
On a famed lunatic Web site Mr. Andrew Leonard traces the Vast
Right-Wing Conspiracy back to its artistic roots, and of course,
slanders An American Hero:
I am always on the lookout for interesting interconnections
between unexpected endpoints, but today’s installment-bridging
together cyclisthate and the infamous right-wing Arkansas Project
witch-hunt against Bill and Hillary Clinton-is a doozy, even by my
standards.
Copenhagenize.com, The Copenhagen Bike Culture Blog, somehow
managed to dig up clipping from the Indianapolis Star, circa 1980,
that trashes the notion of bike lanes in New York City in language
so malevolent as to beggar description.
A couple of excerpts:
Millions of trucks, buses, taxis, and privately owned vehicles
have been squeezed into narrowed streets. Months have been sliced
from the lives of drivers and passengers; a drive from 30th Street
to Central Park south is now five to 10 minutes longer-God knows
how much longer it is if one begins in Greenwich Village. Access to
nearby shops is more difficult, and neighborhood dogs, answering
nature’s call, are terrified to venture toward the curb.
In fact millions of pedestrians, standing at crosswalks, have
experienced real terror, exposed as they now are to the mercy and
moderation of bicycle riders, people whose lawlessness and
viciousness are a matter of record…
Not only are bicycles dangerous, they are as antiquated a form
of transportation as the rickshaw. In no advanced city on earth
will you find civilized people cycling to work. The urban cyclist
is generally a crank, either profoundly antisocial or hopelessly
narcissistic and following the strenuous life in hopes of achieving
immortality or a legendary sex life. When you encounter him give
him a wide berth and never turn your back on him….
Now, I will acknowledge a certain felicity of phrasing and
tendency towards what some might call outrageous hyperbole that
could lead one to believe that the author of this screed was
attempting to be humorous. But then I looked closer at the byline,
and saw that said author was R. Emmett Tyrrell, the founder of
The American Spectator, one of the pillars of the modern
right-wing propaganda establishment, and a name likely to be quite
familiar to Salon readers who have been hanging around these parts
for more than a decade.
But in case you weren’t around back then, the Arkansas Project,
in which The American Spectator, funded by right-wing
philanthropist/evil mastermind Richard Mellon Scaife, spent
millions of dollars in a mostly futile effort to dig up dirt on
Bill and Hillary Clinton’s pre-White House days, played a role in
the national conversation somewhat analogous to that fulfilled by
birthers today. In other words, rampant, unhinged conspiracy
theorizing! Good times, good times.
Anyway, to learn that R. Emmett Tyrrell hates bicycles is an
epiphanycausing event that tempts me to believe that there is a
greater purpose to the universe than I am normally prepared to
contemplate. Maybe there is a god, and if so, she is laughing at
me.
(November 17, 2009)
Washington Post
As the Prophet Obama flops around desperately on the beach, his
popularity below 50 percent, his collectivist Democrats still
spending madly, columnist Ruth Marcus dusts off adjectives once
applied to President Jimmy Peanut and forgets that anile little
scamp’s eventual doom:
If the dominant figure of the past decade was Bush, the dominant
figure of this decade-and assuming he wins reelection-will be
Barack Obama. That is trading up.
I’ve never believed that Obama’s election ushered in a magical
era of national harmony. But the president is thoughtful and
pragmatic. He may have too many priorities, but they are the right
ones. His first year in office has demonstrated a useful
combination of steadiness in pursuit of a goal and
flexibility-steadiness in pursuit of a goal and flexibility in the
means to achieve it.”
(December 23, 2009)
