U.S. Department of State Diplomacy in
Action
The Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the
greatest secretary of state since Elihu P. Root and husband of Boy
Clinton, sends felicitations to a fledgling superpower in hopes of
creating another Axis of Benevolence:
On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United
States, I am delighted to send congratulations to the people of San
Marino as you celebrate your national holiday, the Feast of San
Marino, this September 3.
The Republic of San Marino is an inspiring example to the world.
You have transcended centuries of political turmoil, and today you
are unwavering in your commitment to democracy and human rights.
Around the world your contributions to development and humanitarian
assistance, and your continued partnership in international
organizations, have impacted the lives of so many.
As you celebrate this special day with family, friends, and
loved ones, know that the United States stands with you as a
partner and friend.
(September 1, 2011)
New York Times
The hyena in Doctor
Paul Krugman finally emerges on his blog at the fabulous
Times:
Is it just me, or are the 9/11 commemorations oddly subdued?
Actually, I don’t think it’s me, and it’s not really that
odd.
What happened after 9/11—and I think even people on the right
know this, whether they admit it or not—was deeply shameful. The
atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a
wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and,
yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the
attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to
fight, for all the wrong reasons.
A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our
professional pundits—people who should have understood very well
what was happening—took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to
the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the
atrocity?
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become
an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
I’m not going to allow comments on this, for obvious
reasons.
(September 11, 2011)
Seattle Times
On the correspondence
page of a great daily, Joe from Seattle climbs the literary heights
to boom a cult leader from the Big Apple:
Ignorance is “tragic”
Paul Krugman is
right to call attention to the benighted anti-intellectualism that
pervades much of the GOP [“Don’t dazzle them with science,”
Opinion, Aug. 30].
In the vapid tradition of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Rick
Perry is the latest opportunistic Republican to regale the American
public with superficial bloviation that is as simplistic as it is
just plain wrong.
Perry may or may not believe the silly nonsense he so generously
spouts. However, it is tragic that so much stupidity is taken for
serious discourse by so many citizens.
More tragic still is that willful ignorance would be considered
advantageous to any political party in these parlous times.
— Joe Martin, Seattle
(August 31, 2011)
Harvard Magazine
In the pages of the
Harvard State University gazette, a notice from a pest:
Exquisite Thin Brunette; 44
She is 5’6”, graceful, funny, happy, creative and accomplished.
She seeks a kind, intelligent, affectionate man 45–55. True
intimacy matters.
No Republican need apply.
If you’d like to meet her, please e-mail: info@everythingbutyou.com or
phone us: 617.335.5353
Our client has paid all fees.
(Sept.– Oct. 2011)
Poughkeepsie Journal
DeWayne Wickham,
columnist for Gannett News Service and a gentleman of color, taps
out his last lines as the all-white mobs don their sheets and
prepare to descend on the Republic:
For much of his time in the White House, the rap against Barack
Obama has been that he is a weak leader—a man who is a much better
talker than doer when it comes to managing the nation’s
affairs.
Don’t believe it.
This knock against the nation’s first black president stems from
his low-key approach to combating Republican opposition to
virtually everything he does—and his passive response to the
disrespect of GOP members, such as those who called him a liar
during a speech on the House floor, who wouldn’t take his call in
the middle of the debt-ceiling crisis, and who referred to him as a
“boy” and his policy as a “tar baby.”
(September 17, 2011)
The Progressive
Experimental prose
employed on behalf of wit and hilaritas at the agelastic
Prog:
New York Representative Anthony Weiner finally admitted to
online ickiness. Everyone has a right to be icky, but it made for
an odd gay-straight reversal in New York. There were the junk
shots, greased ab shots, accusations, and tearful denials from a
straight guy while the gay people were fully clothed in Albany,
lobbying for the right to gentrify marriage.
(September 2011)
New York
In the pages of an urban
American journal of New Age esotery, a report on placentophagia.
Can cannibalism be far off?
Jennifer Hughes’s placenta was delivered ten minutes after her
first child, just before midnight on March 31. It was on the large
side, with a liverish texture and bluish tinge; it measured nine
inches in diameter and weighed a pound and a half. Placentas are
considered biohazardous waste by the medical establishment and are
usually disposed of accordingly. Some hospitals send the afterbirth
in formaldehyde to a pathology lab for analysis before it is carted
off by a tissue-disposal service; others toss it out with bloody
miscellany in special containers.
But in the birth plan that Hughes brought with her to Beth
Israel Medical Center, she specified that she wanted to keep her
placenta, for cultural reasons. Complying with New York State
health regulations, which state that hospitals, “may, at the
request of a patient or a patient’s representative, return a
healthy placenta for disposition by the patient,” the hospital
allows her to take it home, and even packed it up for her.
In some cultures, it is customary to bury the placenta and plant
a tree over it.
Hughes had other plans. She was going to eat it.
(August 29, 2011)
**********
From the Archives
Timeless Tosh from
Current Wisdoms
Past
(November
1991)
Federal News Service
The Wall
Street Journal passes on another oratorical masterpiece
preserved by the Federal News Service some time after its point of
origin, the Hon. Joseph Biden, finished his three-martini
lunch:
Senator Biden: “Okay. I’m beginning to understand. So, natural
law informed the notion of liberty. You and I have both
read—because of our backgrounds, I suspect—we’ve both read—I
won’t get into Aquinas and Augustine and all that, but Locke looked
back to the concept of natural law as an evolving notion.
Montesquieu talked about it. Jefferson understood it. He was in
Paris. He was probably the only one that fully understood it. But
others who were there writing the Constitution, they talked about
it, they had what they wrote—both the Declaration, as you say, in
other places and in the Constitution—they reduced these broad
notions of natural law—the natural rights of man to this
document.”
(September 12, 1991)
Vancouver Sun
The Vancouver Sun
reports on another Toronto tourist trap:
Two lesbians, who say they enjoy bondage, order a drink and
retire to the club’s whipping bench. They take turns thrashing each
others’ behinds as one at a time they arch their backs over the
leather-bound table, securing their wrists in buckled
stirrups.…
For Gallo, Fetish Night is like a sexual supermarket where she
can spend the evening shopping around before making a final
selection. She says it’s one of the few places in Toronto where she
can find what she’s looking for—a man who wants to be
controlled.
“If you go to [an average singles club], it’s hard going up to a
guy and saying: ‘Excuse me, do you mind tying me up?’
“Here, I’ll approach people, find out what they’re into and
arrange to met them later if we’re in sync.” …
Heymes notes that police regularly check the club and have made
no complaints.
“We’re offering a venue for people who are into that lifestyle
to show themselves off.
“Isn’t it fantastic that Toronto has something like that to
offer?”
(August 13, 1991)
