I have inflicted very few posts on the world lately. My kids were here visiting this weekend, so my output has decreased quite a bit.
Tomorrow, it’s unlikely that I’ll have much to say. We’re going to the JJB dinner to hear Joe Biden speak. Once again, we expect to see nothing of Joe Lieberman, for which relief, much thanks.
This is Sunday, so it’s entirely appropriate that we turn to religion today. By a happy coincidence, religion is in the news, at least it was in today’s Courant, which reports that the Archdiocese of Hartford is kicking the Protestants off of its radio station, including the Episcopalians.
I was shocked when I read the article. What true Catholic wouldn’t be if he had found out that the One True Church had been letting the Protestant heretics broadcast over holy airwaves for the past 30 years? I’m just glad I haven’t happened to listen to the Catholic station for just about that length of time, because had I found out that some mushy brainers in Hartford had given the forces of evil free air time I might have cared.
Now some might say that we should at least give the Episcopalians a free pass, seeing as they’re practically Catholics anyway. But that’s only on the surface. Deep down, their cult is rife with heresy. For instance, whereas we Catholics believe that we eat the real Jesus every week, the Episcopalians believe they are only eating his essence. I’m sure there’s a difference there, and I’m ready to burn anyone who disagrees. Moreover, the Episcopalians let their priests get married, seriously impacting the number of pedophiles preaching the word of God. To make matters worse, some of them let women become priests, which has to have an impact on the number of misogynists in the priesthood. Where would the one true church be without misogynistic pedophiles? To put the icing on the cake, they are willing to allow their relatively few gay priests to be open about it, while we rightly insist that our priests, the majority of whom are gay (those that aren’t pedophiles, that is) stay in the closet and engage in virulent, albeit ritualistic condemnation of gay people. We don’t need all this Episcopalian “tolerance” and common sense infesting our church.
So I say, keep those Episcopalians, those white bread pseudo-Catholics, off our airwaves. We don’t need no ecumenicalism. We just need more thought control.
We are rapidly approaching the 5th anniversary of our victory in the war in Iraq. Tonight marks another anniversary, the 2nd anniversary of Stephen Colbert’s appearance at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. Editor and Publisher reports that the New York Times has, since (because of?) that appearance, decided that it is inappropriate to attend the function. Colbert’s routine is still great. I don’t think you can get the complete video for free, but this is a pretty good excerpt.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSE_saVX_2A[/youtube]
If the press had half his guts, a quarter of his brains, and a tenth of his integrity, Bush would not be president and we would never have gone to war in Iraq.
I Shall Be Released
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nbrmP9kQCc[/youtube]
Wow. Check out the reaction of former ABC reporter Robert Zelnick and current journalism professor to the recent revelations in the Times that the Pentagon was recruiting former military people to spread pro-war propaganda. This is from PBS, the only TV network (other than Jon Stewart on the Comedy Channel) to address this issue:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm813muGhVg[/youtube]
He really doesn’t seem to understand the problem. And he is being inflicted on the next generation of “journalists”. What chance do we have?
The first Thursday of May is also the First Day of May, so Drinking Liberally comes early. Join us at the Bulkeley House on May 1st, at 7:00 PM. Who knows, it may be nice enough for us to move outside.
Delusional thinking is a common failing among politicians. It appears, for instance, that Joe Biden really thought he could be elected president. This type of thinking infects politicians at all levels. I myself am not immune, having run unsuccessfully for every elective position in Groton, except justice of the peace and judge of probate.
Few suffer from this disease more acutely than James Amann (D?, Milford), who apparently believes he can be elected governor of Connecticut as a Democrat. Having existed in the other-worldly cocoon in the state legislature for lo these many years, he has no conception of the reception he will get from real live Democrats, the ones who donate money and work to support candidates. You know, the ones who supported Ned Lamont, and will not forget that Amann turned his back on the Democratic party in 2006.
We here in Southeastern Connecticut know only one thing more about Amann. He is the guy who tried to prop up scam artist Joe Gentile even after it became apparent that he was a complete fraud. It was probably the first time Amann became aware that this part of the state even existed.
I personally am looking forward to Amann’s visit to our town committee as he tries to sell himself as a credible candidate for governor. Aside from the Lamont issue, and aside from the Gentile issue, it will be interesting to hear him explain why, as the Speaker of the House, he did precisely nothing to articulate any time of progressive alternative to the hack we have in office now. In fact, sad to say, the hack we have now is possibly preferable to Amann.
But we need not worry. Unless Amann is the only candidate, he will not get the nomination. He will find, as he traverses the state next year, that being a former Speaker of the House means nothing. Among those of us who donate money and time, he will mainly be remembered as the guy who “stuck with Joe”. He is, in a word, delusional. But let us give thanks that he suffers from this disease so common to politicians. Next year he will be out of office completely. His replacements, as state representative and speaker, can’t be worse, and he will be relegated to the political wasteland from which, the forces of blind chance willing, he will never return.
Dear Joe:
This has gone on long enough. Nothing that happens in the next few weeks is going to change the fundamentals. Obama will go into the convention with more delegates and a higher popular vote than Clinton. She will be able to win only be warping the process and tearing the party apart, effectively throwing away the younger generation of voters that Obama has drawn, and Bush has pushed, to the Democrats.
No doubt Bill Clinton did you some favors. He appeared at a fundraiser years ago. Considering the stakes, that’s trivial. You owe more to your party and to your country than you owe to them. Bill and Hillary have long since made it clear that they consider their interests to be paramount to the party’s or to the country’s. It’s time for the superdelegates to come out. Your state voted for Obama. Your party as a whole has made its preference clear. You, and the other superdelegates who are staying mum are damaging your party. Whatever it is you and the other silent superdelegates hope to gain by holding back is trivial in comparison to what we all stand to lose.
If this contest goes on for another ten weeks Hillary Clinton will legitimize another ten Republican talking points. We can’t afford that. It’s time for you and the other superdelegates to step up. At this point, the only Clinton win would be an illegitimate one. We can’t afford that either. It’s time for our leaders to show some leadership. You and your compatriots, either singly or together, have to drive the message home. Hillary is not fighting against the odds, she’s desperately trying to fix the game. She has to be stopped now. Endorsing her is no longer a responsible option. Back Obama now.
When I upgraded WordPress my old spamcatcher stopped working, so I downloaded another plug in, which seems to be working eerily well. Before I’d get about 10-15 bogus comments a day to delete; now I get none.
This has me a little worried that some real comments are not getting through. If any of you actual human readers try to post a comment, and it doesn’t go up, please send an email. The address is on the “Contact me” link on the upper right.
Thanks.
As expected, it looks like Clinton will win Pennsylvania. For six weeks we’ve been hearing that this is a critical primary. Tomorrow we’ll be hearing that it settled nothing. From here on, it’s all down hill for Clinton. The only question is whether she’ll take the Democratic party (and the nation and the world) down with her.
A friend of mine called me to rant today. He mentioned that he was reading Doris Kearn Goodwins No Ordinary Time. The title is derived from Franklin Roosevelt’s statement explaining his reasons for running for a third term. My friend said that these too, are no ordinary times, and he was distressed that our politicians, not to mention the press, seem to be unaware of this fact. We are faced with the threat of economic ruin and global environmental disaster, to mention only the top two. Oh, I forgot to mention the gravest threat to our own system of government since the Republic was founded. Lot’s of people recognize the fact that these are, indeed, extraordinary times. I hope, somewhere in her ambitious little soul, that Clinton does too. We do need an end to this.