2008 will now officially be known as the year of death for me.
February 14 - Zak, my 10 year old cat
April 10 - my Uncle
July - Quincy (my parent's dog), the landlord's puppy (who I adored) had to be put down
August 3 - my cousin's wife
September 11 - my Aunt
October 3- Holly (the dog that brought me dead stuff)
October 7 - Shere-Khan, my 14 year old cat
I'm holding out hope that 2009 will be much less deathier. It's not a word, I know, but it's my blog so I can make up words if I want. So there!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Even conservatives hate the McCain ticket
FIGHTING WORDS
Vote for Obama
McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is simply a disgrace.
Posted Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, at 10:44 AM ET
I used to nod wisely when people said: "Let's discuss issues rather than personalities." It seemed so obvious that in politics an issue was an issue and a personality was a personality, and that the more one could separate the two, the more serious one was. After all, in a debate on serious issues, any mention of the opponent's personality would be ad hominem at best and at worst would stoop as low as ad feminam.
At my old English boarding school, we had a sporting saying that one should "tackle the ball and not the man." I carried on echoing this sort of unexamined nonsense for quite some time—in fact, until the New Hampshire primary of 1992, when it hit me very forcibly that the "personality" of one of the candidates was itself an "issue." In later years, I had little cause to revise my view that Bill Clinton's abysmal character was such as to be a "game changer" in itself, at least as important as his claim to be a "new Democrat." To summarize what little I learned from all this: A candidate may well change his or her position on, say, universal health care or
On "the issues" in these closing weeks, there really isn't a very sharp or highly noticeable distinction to be made between the two nominees, and their "debates" have been cramped and boring affairs as a result. But the difference in character and temperament has become plainer by the day, and there is no decent way of avoiding the fact. Last week's so-called town-hall eventshowed Sen. John McCain to be someone suffering from an increasingly obvious and embarrassing deficit, both cognitive and physical. And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience. McCain occasionally remembers to stress matters like honor and to disown innuendoes and slanders, but this only makes him look both more senile and more cynical, since it cannot (can it?) be other than his wish and design that he has engaged a deputy who does the innuendoes and slanders for him.
I suppose it could be said, as Michael Gerson has alleged, that the Obama campaign's choice of the word erratic to describe McCain is also an insinuation. But really, it's only a euphemism. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear had to feel sorry for the old lion on his last outing and wish that he could be taken somewhere soothing and restful before the night was out. The train-wreck sentences, the whistlings in the pipes, the alarming and bewildered handhold phrases—"My friends"—to get him through the next 10 seconds. I haven't felt such pity for anyone since the late Adm. James Stockdale humiliated himself as Ross Perot's running mate. And I am sorry to have to say it, but Stockdale had also distinguished himself in
The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.
It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.
I used to call myself a single-issue voter on the essential question of defending civilization against its terrorist enemies and their totalitarian protectors, and on that "issue" I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity. Obama is greatly overrated in my opinion, but the Obama-Biden ticket is not a capitulationist one, even if it does accept the support of the surrender faction, and it does show some signs of being able and willing to profit from experience. With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke. One only wishes that the election could be over now and a proper and dignified verdict rendered, so as to spare democracy and civility the degradation to which they look like being subjected in the remaining days of a low, dishonest campaign.
Christopher Hitchens is a columnist for Vanity Fair.
Monday, October 13, 2008
McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire
McCain and Palin Are Playing With Fire
By Khaled Hosseini
Sunday, October 12, 2008; B05
I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed
these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have
referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein
Obama.
Never mind that this evokes -- and brazenly tries to resurrect -- the
unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind.
Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful,
law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by
some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama's
middle name makes him someone to distrust -- and, judging by some of the
crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As
a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama's middle name differs from
my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me
as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with
my name?
But never mind any of that.
The real affront is the lack of firm response from either McCain or
Palin. Neither has had the moral courage, when taking the stage, to
grasp the microphone, turn to the presenter and, right then and there,
denounce the use of Obama's middle name as an insult. Instead, they have
simply delivered their stump speeches, lacing into Obama as if nothing
out-of-bounds had just happened. The McCain-Palin ticket has given toxic
speeches accusing Obama of being a friend of terrorists, then released
short, meek repudiations of some of the rough stuff, including McCain's
call Friday to "be respectful." Back in February, the Arizona senator
apologized for the "disparaging remarks" from a talk-radio host who
sneered repeatedly about "Barack Hussein Obama" before a McCain rally.
"We will have a respectful debate," McCain insisted afterward. But
pretending to douse flames that you are busy fanning does not qualify as
straight talk.
What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin
tandem to publicly condemn the cries of "traitor," "liar," "terrorist"
and (worst of all) "kill him!" that could be heard at recent rallies.
McCain is perfectly capable of telling hecklers off. But not once did he
or his running mate bother to admonish the people yelling these obscene
-- and potentially dangerous -- words. They may not have been able to
hear the slurs at the rallies, but surely they have had ample time since
to get on camera and warn that this sort of ugliness has no place in an
election season. But they have not. Simply calling Obama "a decent
person" is not enough.
Is inaction tantamount to consent? The McCain campaign certainly thinks
so when it comes to Obama and incendiary remarks from the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright. By their own inaction, then, are McCain and Palin condoning
these slurs? Or worse, are they willfully inciting the angry and
venomous response that we have been witnessing at their rallies? If not,
then what reaction are they hoping to evoke by their relentless public
suggestions that Obama is basically an anti-American liar who won't put
"country first" and has an affection for terrorists? Do they not
understand the kind of fire they are playing with?
I -- and, I suspect, millions of Americans like me, Republicans and
Democrats alike -- couldn't care less about Obama's middle name or the
ridiculous six-degrees-of-separation game that is the William Ayers
non-issue. The Taliban are clawing their way back in Afghanistan, the
country that I hope many of my fellow Americans have come to understand
better through my novels. People are losing their homes and their jobs
and are watching the future slip away from them. But instead of
addressing these problems, the McCain-Palin ticket is doing its best to
distract Americans by provoking fear, anxiety and hatred. Country first?
Hardly.
Khaled Hosseini is the author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand
Splendid Suns."
By Khaled Hosseini
Sunday, October 12, 2008; B05
I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed
these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have
referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein
Obama.
Never mind that this evokes -- and brazenly tries to resurrect -- the
unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind.
Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful,
law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by
some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama's
middle name makes him someone to distrust -- and, judging by some of the
crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As
a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama's middle name differs from
my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me
as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with
my name?
But never mind any of that.
The real affront is the lack of firm response from either McCain or
Palin. Neither has had the moral courage, when taking the stage, to
grasp the microphone, turn to the presenter and, right then and there,
denounce the use of Obama's middle name as an insult. Instead, they have
simply delivered their stump speeches, lacing into Obama as if nothing
out-of-bounds had just happened. The McCain-Palin ticket has given toxic
speeches accusing Obama of being a friend of terrorists, then released
short, meek repudiations of some of the rough stuff, including McCain's
call Friday to "be respectful." Back in February, the Arizona senator
apologized for the "disparaging remarks" from a talk-radio host who
sneered repeatedly about "Barack Hussein Obama" before a McCain rally.
"We will have a respectful debate," McCain insisted afterward. But
pretending to douse flames that you are busy fanning does not qualify as
straight talk.
What I find most unconscionable is the refusal of the McCain-Palin
tandem to publicly condemn the cries of "traitor," "liar," "terrorist"
and (worst of all) "kill him!" that could be heard at recent rallies.
McCain is perfectly capable of telling hecklers off. But not once did he
or his running mate bother to admonish the people yelling these obscene
-- and potentially dangerous -- words. They may not have been able to
hear the slurs at the rallies, but surely they have had ample time since
to get on camera and warn that this sort of ugliness has no place in an
election season. But they have not. Simply calling Obama "a decent
person" is not enough.
Is inaction tantamount to consent? The McCain campaign certainly thinks
so when it comes to Obama and incendiary remarks from the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright. By their own inaction, then, are McCain and Palin condoning
these slurs? Or worse, are they willfully inciting the angry and
venomous response that we have been witnessing at their rallies? If not,
then what reaction are they hoping to evoke by their relentless public
suggestions that Obama is basically an anti-American liar who won't put
"country first" and has an affection for terrorists? Do they not
understand the kind of fire they are playing with?
I -- and, I suspect, millions of Americans like me, Republicans and
Democrats alike -- couldn't care less about Obama's middle name or the
ridiculous six-degrees-of-separation game that is the William Ayers
non-issue. The Taliban are clawing their way back in Afghanistan, the
country that I hope many of my fellow Americans have come to understand
better through my novels. People are losing their homes and their jobs
and are watching the future slip away from them. But instead of
addressing these problems, the McCain-Palin ticket is doing its best to
distract Americans by provoking fear, anxiety and hatred. Country first?
Hardly.
Khaled Hosseini is the author of "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand
Splendid Suns."
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