A Simple Desultory Phillipic

Absurdity Still Reigns at the DNC

2006-04-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

I really have to hand it to the brain-dead occupants at the DNC. Howard Dean is so desperate to garner Democrat gains in the Hispanic vote that he'll say anything. Not almost anything, but ANYTHING.

One of the chief complaints conservatives have with Bush is that he has fallen all over himself not to cause any friction with the Hispanic community, to the point of ignoring the security of the Mexican border almost entirely. That policy, in opposition to the feelings of a large majority of Americans, and especially of American conservatives, is what has prompted such people as Tom Tancredo to sponsor strong anti-immigration measures.

These guys are so rabidly hateful over their loss of power that they'll say anything to get it back. It's "hate Bush", without offering any meaningful or constructive alternatives. And the sheer absurdity of their efforts is there for all to see.

Incredible !!

2005-05-14T11:23:00.000-04:00

For those who either haven't seen it or haven't thought much about its message, the Pixar animated movie The Incredibles has a running theme that gives me hope. The story starts out with Mr. Incredible and Elastogirl saving lives and preventing disasters. They marry, but are soon afterward sued repeatedly for, in one case, saving a man attempting suicide who didn't want to be saved, and for contingent liability for injuries incurred while riding a commuter train he'd stopped from crashing into a chasm. The government, in gratitude for past heroic deeds, paid their claims and put them in a relocation program, where they were to "fit in" as normal people.

Fifteen years, fifty pounds and three kids later, Mr. Incredible is miserable as an insurance claims adjuster, and their son, Dash, who is gifted with amazing speed, has been called to the office because a teacher believes he somehow, though he couldn't see him do it, put a tack on his chair as he was sitting down. As Dash and his mother are leaving the principal's office, his mother admonishes him to find something constructive to do with his energy. Dash wants to go out for sports, but his mother fears he will show off too much. The important dialogue follows:

Dash --- You always say, "Do your best," but you don't really mean it. Why can't I do the best that I can do?

Mom --- Right now, honey, the world just wants us to fit in, and to fit in, we just gotta be like everybody else.

Dash --- Dad always said our powers were nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers made us special.

Mom --- Everyone's special, Dash.

Dash --- (dejectedly) Which is another way of saying no one is....

This is the first time an a very long time that I have seen anything coming out of Hollywood that actually acknowledges that some people have greater talents than others, that it's OK to have those talents, and that encourages those who have them to use them to their fullest. There is indeed hope, Matilda.

New Martha Stewart investigation

2005-04-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

I note that Martha Stewart is now being investigated to see "whether [her] appearance at a glitzy Manhattan ball last week was proper under her workrelease program." A spokesman for law enforcement authorities said that her appearance "may not have been directly work-related," despite the fact that she'd received permission from the Probation Department.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/303132p-259487c.html

Now doesn't it strike you that there's a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye? I'm no big fan of Martha's, but it has always seemed to me that there was an incredible push to convict her for what amounted to a trivial offense. Indeed, the obstruction charge for which she was convicted was so contrived as to border on the absurd.

It leads one to wonder just which government official she offended, or about whom she possesses damaging information. I can conceive of not other reason why officials would engage in such dogged pursuit of any conceivable "violation".