-
Knowing Congressman Ryan
August 20, 2012 | 27 comments
-
Drug Legalization Chic
January 11, 2012 | 287 comments
-
The Country Post Office
September 14, 2011 | 29 comments
-
Defending Deviancy Down
June 22, 2011 | 45 comments
-
A Bright Spot
March 16, 2011 | 7 comments
Eminentoes
A Tale of Two Julias
One of them didn’t let government cook for her.
This is the story of two ladies named Julia — one real and one not — and of their ties to the land of France. The real Julia found her fate and fortune among the Gauls when she discovered French cuisine and determined to spread the word, and the recipes, to all American cooks. For its ability to inspire and teach her, the real Julia truly belonged in France; and made the most of all it had to offer her.
The imaginary Julia lives in cyberspace on a timeline created by the Obama reelection campaign. Imaginary Julia is depicted as a lifelong — from ages 3 to 67 — dependent of the federal government, and specifically of President Obama who mysteriously seems to be in office all 64 years. For her propensity toward public handouts and seeming lack of self-reliance, she too belongs in France. Dependent Julia will certainly make the most of all that the new socialist government there has to offer her.
The real Julia came of age during World War II and was too tall for military service, and so she worked in Washington as a file clerk and then a research assistant for the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor to the CIA). By 1944 she was posted in Asia with the OSS and received an “Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service” for her “drive and inherent cheerfulness.” In Asia she met and married her husband and following the war, went with him to his new posting in Paris. It was in the town of Rouen that Julia had her first meal — oysters, sole meunière and fine wine — a meal that “opened up the soul and spirit for me.” More than that it opened years of hard work, failures, restarts, rejections, and single minded drive before Julia Child finally published her famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961.
The imaginary Julia, though we cannot tell about her “soul and spirit” other than her spirited reliance on government, certainly does not seem to show the “drive” that won real Julia that Emblem award, or that led to the real Julia’s culinary masterpiece. Imaginary Julia simply moves from Head Start to Pell Grants to low interest repayments, to guaranteed birth control, to government sponsored business loans and finally to her golden years on Medicare and Social Security. Columnist Ross Douthat finds in “the whole production a curiously patriarchal quality, with Obama as a beneficent Daddy Warbucks.” And says Congressman Paul Ryan, “it’s just the narrative that they’re trying to tell, that for this woman to succeed, she has to have really big government.”
Even the Left has objected. Here is MSNBC’s Morning Joe Scarborough: “Who brushes her teeth?” and his sidekick Willie Geist: “No one wants to think that from the age of three they are going to need the government to take care of them.” Plus Mike Allen of Politico: “those young people in the [Obama] headquarters… create viral pieces of content for the web.… This one I think may be viral in the wrong way.”
The real Julia was what Americans should be and always have been: entrepreneurial, determined, persevering and self-reliant. Imaginary Julia is the ideal vision of the liberal woman: entitled, dependent, weak and unquestioning. Worst of all, she is the “forward” direction that Obama and the Democrats want to take us. Let’s send them all to France.
Appleby| 5.10.12 @ 6:45AM
If your name is Julia, or your wife's name is Julia, tell us her story.
In point of fact, her name wouldn't be Julia. It would be "Afrodyti" or "Congolia" or "Tajeeka". And her son would not be named Zack, but Antjuan or Ontario or Keeshjan (and inevitably would be plural.) And the fathers, all conspicuously absent from the narrative, would be in jail.
Mike 3/505| 5.10.12 @ 9:23AM
Or Si Fly Es, or Go Nor Iya....
Lee Ghume| 5.10.12 @ 1:01PM
"Her name be K-a , pronounce kay dash ah, because the dash don't be silent." True story that really happened in an elementary school in Virginia.
Occam's Tool| 5.14.12 @ 11:31AM
What drives me crazy about Liberals is that they always, when their hideous Rube Goldberg schemes go ker-splat, argue that "it doesn't have to be this way if we just did this."
Goodness, folks, any mechanism of government that doesn't predicate its responses on the fact that the great majority of men are selfish and want to better themselves to live better, and sets things up so that selfishness can both 1) be properly met within the confines of lawful action and 2) that acting on those drives benefits society as a whole, doesn't have a whale dung's chance of floating to the top.
Herb| 5.10.12 @ 7:55AM
The real Julia was also a hardcore New Deal democrat who once said that she could not abide breaking bread at the same table with a Republican.
As for cuisine, I'll stick with Greek or Italian.
Dick Nome| 5.10.12 @ 12:16PM
I'll take N. Italian. Far better than froggy stuff. It is prepared to be eaten not to be looked at, admired and nibbled in small portions.
Trencherman| 5.10.12 @ 1:15PM
Who gives a flying f@*#&$^%?! what Ms. Child's politics were, her legacy is culinary. My sister gave me a book titled, "From Julia Child's Kitchen" and I treasure it. Some of the recipes in the book I have applied to barbeque, and it has not turned me into a left wing kook. As for Ms. Child's PBS television show, it was a hoot. My dad watched it and then went into the kitchen to prepare Boeuf Bourguignon, getting almost as stewed as the lady did on her program. It was a cooking show with no politics mentioned.
KyMouse| 5.10.12 @ 4:17PM
The political views of celebrities should concern us because many people are influenced by stars they admire. Advertisers have known for decades that people buy what celebrities sell.
Julia Child told Ms. magazine in 2003, "Pro-choice is the only way to be -- because women are human beings, after all, and should be treated as such."
Such ignorance makes me lose my appetite. The unborn babies of women are human beings as well, and should be treated as such.
Minuteman78| 5.10.12 @ 5:33PM
Thanks for sharing that. I'll probably go home and throw the wife's Julia Child cookbook in the trash. Graham Kerr's Boeuf Bourguignon was much better than hers' anyway...
Trencherman| 5.10.12 @ 8:20PM
The politics of the celebrities on big and little screen matter little to those of us who think for ourselves, Ms. Mouse. The doofi who follow the lead of some Hollywood or New York doofus merely because of the fame of said doofus are truly small minds. Julia Child inspired me to experiment in my own kitchen and my progeny have benefited as well, but no babies have died because of it.
KyMouse| 5.11.12 @ 11:03AM
Good for you, Trencherman. Congratulations for not being influenced by celebrities. However, if star-power didn't impress a whole lot of other people, advertisers wouldn't hire ballplayers to peddle shaving cream.
An estimated 53 million babies in America have been aborted since 1973, and pro-abortion celebrities such as Julia Child have helped create our "culture of death" through their remarks.
I'm sure we're all delighted that "no babies have died" because of your kitchen experiments. Keep up the good work.
Occam's Tool| 5.14.12 @ 11:32AM
I'd rather have food prepared by you, Mouse. You sound like a woman to match my legendary and saintly mother in law in the kitchen.
wodiej| 5.10.12 @ 8:04AM
I think Obama has a "daddy" complex since he basically didn't have one growing up. Most kids from divorced parents still see their Dad on weekends. Obama didn't.
I just think he's a twisted soul that needs some serious therapy and I'm not even sure that could reverse the damage that was done to him during his childhood. He needs to be doing something productive where he can inflict the least harm. The White House isn't it.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.10.12 @ 9:08AM
I don't disagree with your analysis of his psyche, though I am not on board completely with your conclusion about what he needs to be doing. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of something I would want him doing.
-Community organizing: we know how that turned out
-state legislator: voting present for everything but infanticide
-day care worker: see record as state legislator
-US Senator: out campaigning, unless he was in Russia with Dick Lugar
-Human Resources: selected Joe Biden, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sebelius, etc.
-dog catcher: Consult “Dreams of My Father” for dietary history
Von Mises Jr| 5.10.12 @ 9:31AM
I wonder if the real Julia had any good recipes for Bo. Not to feed Bo, but for serving Bo.
Perhaps Obama's composite female should have been named Zoe. Then his dog and his favorite female would be "Bo-Zoe."
Stan Redmond| 5.10.12 @ 12:20PM
Julia Child certainly could create a recipe where the meat was tender and moist. Not tough like Barry's 'nanny.'
Historian| 5.10.12 @ 8:28AM
This Obama Julia; Can she cook?
c. j. acworth| 5.10.12 @ 9:03AM
Absolutely, but you better like food that is all-natural, low fat, low sodium, locally grown, and most likely vegan. Meat and potatoes, not so much.
Lost| 5.10.12 @ 12:17PM
But only if it comes out of a box.
Crassus| 5.10.12 @ 5:01PM
Dude, she can't even use a microwave.
kwan| 5.10.12 @ 9:17AM
A trillion here a trillion there pretty soon we're talking about real money. The fact is the country can no longer afford an endless array of government programs that is driving the country deeper into debt to finance. To top it off Obama's Marxist economic policies have created an anemic economy that can not generate the tax revenues to fund Obama's collectivist/egalitarian utopia.
Stan Redmond| 5.10.12 @ 12:21PM
Haven't you heard. It's as simple as raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires. If only those darned Bush tax cuts were never passed we'd have trillions and trillions of dollars just sitting around.
Citizen Jerry| 5.10.12 @ 10:34AM
I wonder if our poseur-in-chief is trying to tell us something when he's in office for all 64 years that Julia is dependent on government largess.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.10.12 @ 1:19PM
In which case, perhaps the acronym POTUS needs to be updated to PFLOTUS.
Too Late To Impeach| 5.10.12 @ 10:22PM
Oh by the way...
Notice that they don't tell you what happens when she hits 75... that's because that's when the death panels decide she's had a long enough life and they'd rather forgo expensive cancer treatments or the occasional cardiac surgeries needed to keep her alive. Then after she has passed on, what would have been Zachary's inheritance is scooped up by the government to provide all of this inspiring government assistance to the next "Julias" in line.
Gosh! If Obama wanted to make this inspirational, he could have at least built in a scenario where she was able to INVEST so she could show a little resourcefulness and independence. Maybe like using the government as a springboard to bigger and better things aimed at getting off the dole once and for all. Then again, maybe this President is comfortable with "neediness" as a permanent state of existence. Hail! The New American Woman!!
shipley130| 5.10.12 @ 12:38PM
Cheers. Too bad about their politics, though.
Richard Baker| 5.10.12 @ 1:58PM
Great article. Julia Childs brought French cuisine to the average American without government largesse or handouts. Read about her struggles in getting started and one can only admire her accomplishment. Bon appetit!
Marion| 5.10.12 @ 1:58PM
I'm sorry but I have to disagree with your description of the liberal woman being, "entitled, dependent, weak and unquestioning." The imaginary Julia you speak of isn't either a liberal or conservative. She knows how to use the system, but beyond that is woefully ignorant. I worked for an organization helping pregnant addicts for several years. I never met one woman who had any clue as to where the program money was coming from and why it was hurting them (and the country)in the long run to continue being on the dole. The self named liberal women I worked with were doctors, nurses, and attorneys who (aside from a few) paid their own way through college. They, like me, wanted to try to end the cycle of single mother addicts who have children who become the same.
POST American| 5.10.12 @ 10:12PM
---Putting aside those pieces on
Monsanto's own STRICT bans on GMO
in its cafeterias ------
We wonder what Child would have
made of the GMO soft kill op?
---of dead babies used for sweeteners
in our Pepsi? --in the cosmetics? and
who knows what else?
Would she have been a complete
go along get along CYPHER like
Martha Stewart and all the others?
OR, ---would Child have, in a
sustained, unflinching and spotlighted
way, ---spoken out for the children?
We wonder.
Ed Morrow| 5.11.12 @ 1:01AM
The author of the article obviously knows nothing about the real Julia Child. Mrs. Child was a liberal of the first order. She despised McCarthy and his right wing friends. She supported Stevenson with fervor.
The fact that the author used Mrs. Child as a foil in his bogus argument must have Mrs. Child roiling in her grave. I would not be surprised if henceforth the author's dough will never rise and his souffles always fall. It will be Mrs. Child's curse from the grave.
Richard Baker| 5.13.12 @ 4:44PM
Ed:
Her accomplishments in bringing French cuisine to the US and not her politics are what endeared her to the US public along with her voice. As I mentioned above, she did this without the dead hand of government interfering. That's her lasting monument whether she recognized it or not.
FLIT ANDERSEN| 5.14.12 @ 11:40PM
It's called "irony", Ed.
FLIT ANDERSEN| 5.14.12 @ 11:30PM
"...with Obama as a beneficent Daddy Warbucks...."
Excuse me, but Daddy W. engaged in HIS acts of largesse with his OWN dough, not Punjab's!