Several times now, I have had someone look at me with a startled look and say:
You’re a die-hard Conservative? Wow. But you seem so nice…
The take-home on this I guess is that they expect a conservative to drink babies’ blood and laugh when whole families are torn apart by something as simple as rabid wolves.
Cruel Wife had a great rejoinder:
You are Liberal? But you seem so smart…
I’m working from home today and won’t post much but I will update the Acupuncture Chronicles this evening. Today was… interesting.
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Free speech is wonderful, but exercising your asshole opinion at a graduation so you can take the spotlight during someone ELSE’S recognition of achievement makes you doubly and asshole. So, hey, Brian Williams, this one is for you (pig).
Many thanks to Brent Baker for posting this – go hunt him down and read more of his stuff. Embedded in Baker’s account, here’s a funny one that the Moronosphere will laugh at:
Williams scolded bloggers for writing about themselves
Yeah, blogging sure has been terrible for it’s ability to keep the media honest. Damn us! We’re BASTARDS. And now, the article.
NBC’s Williams Tells Grads U.S. Broken, ‘Need You to Fix the Country’
By Brent Baker | June 9, 2008 – 21:30 ETDelivering the commencement address Sunday at Ohio State University in Columbus, where we was awarded an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams implied America is broken as he told the graduates: “We need you to fix the country.” That clip, squeezed in between Al Gore at Carnegie Mellon and Martin Sheen at Notre Dame, aired as part of an annual compilation of commencement advice run at the end of Monday’s NBC Nightly News. NBC also aired this from Williams: “We need you all now to step up. And every adult in this place has every faith that you’re up to the job.”
Video of a commencement story on the Web site of NBC’s Columbus affiliate, WCMH-TV, featured a longer version of the line from Williams: “We need you to fix the country — and I’m sorry to ask this of you.” In another soundbite aired by the local station, Williams paraphrased Bill Clinton: “There is nothing wrong with America that someone from Ohio State can’t fix. Go get them OH!”
[UPDATE, 10:30 PM EDT: I found full video on MSNBC.com, and the entire address isn’t as political as the “we need you to fix the country” comment suggested. Williams, however, apologized: “On behalf of my generation, I’m so sorry, the Internet is so cool we got sidetracked.” He urged the graduates to “pick one area” and do something about it, recommending they “start with climate” since “something tells me this may be a challenge in the years ahead” to “find a way to get around without fuel in our tanks that comes from an enemy of this country.”
Echoing a theme of those calling for “change,” Williams pleaded:
We won’t see an election like this for decades again in this country. We are at a crossroads. They don’t get more important and it’s so important that you all get involved. Put your generational stamp on American politics.
Williams scolded bloggers for writing about themselves, exhorting bloggers to talk “about all of us” since “we need to start thinking of us as the collective, the United States that we used to know.”]
It may well be that polls show many Americans think the nation is heading in the wrong direction, but does that mean it is appropriate for a journalist — in a national election year — to declare that America needs to be “fixed,” clearly suggesting the country is broken?
I looked around the Web extensively for more of what Williams said, June 8, in order to get a fuller quote to put it all in context, but came up empty. The Columbus Dispatch‘s Monday story didn’t quote Williams, the Ohio State commencement page does not have text of the prepared remarks, the OSU press release page offers nothing, the student newspaper hasn’t published since June 2 and the WOSU-TV channel 34 site has a page with video highlights of past commencements, but nothing yet from the latest one. And Williams has not posted anything about it on his Daily Nightly blog.
UPDATE: The portion I transcribed from the Flash video posted on MSNBC.com of nearly the entire June 8 remarks:
…I come here today with a request for the Class of ’08: We need you to fix the country — and I’m sorry to ask this of you. And I’m deadly serious and we really do. I am 49 and on behalf of my generation, I’m so sorry, the Internet is so cool we got sidetracked. I can burn an hour on Perez Hilton like that. And I know I speak for a lot of you: WebMD, very cool, except anything I’ve ever punched in comes back “thyroid cancer.”
The Internet is fantastic and it takes way too much of our time, so, with apologies, we need you all now to step up and every adult in this place has every faith that you’re up to the job. You are today, as of today, as fearsome a weapon as the one they assembled during the Manhattan project in a similar place — Soldier Field up in Chicago. You are the most fearsome weapon in the world. You are students in the United States of America armed with a newly-minted college degree from the Ohio State University.
So pick one area: energy, politics, diplomacy, science, education, military, transportation. Start with climate. Something tells me this may be a challenge in the years ahead. Tomorrow’s predicted high for Columbus is 220 degrees.
Energy policy: Can you please help us find a way to get around without fuel in our tanks that comes from an enemy of this country?
We can no longer fly dependably, commercially point to point in this country…
Politics: Pick a campaign. Campaign for McCain, campaign for Obama, campaign for the Libertarian, for the Vegan Party, but volunteer, get out there and campaign for someone. We won’t see an election like this for decades again in this country. We are at a crossroads. They don’t get more important and it’s so important that you all get involved. Put your generational stamp on American politics.
Dial in and pay attention, and I say that as part of a group we all have to start thinking and acting as one. There are, as of this week, 117 million blogs in the United States. One more time: 117 million blogs. And I stand here today as one of them. And what do most of us bloggers talk about? Us. And the problem is we need to start talking about us, all of us. We need to start thinking of us as the collective, the United States that we used to know. It’s going to require a lot of work.
I am proud to say that in my life and my job I am able to spend a lot of time with American in uniform. They are magnificent and would so enjoy this here today….They too, as you are, are the very best of your generation. Think of them when you think you’re having a bad day….Will all veterans of the U.S. armed forces please do us the honor of standing up in place?…
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
Note: The only reason I will paste text in verbatim from someone else’s blog is if I am reasonably certain that people will be interested in that person’s site and visit them more (or for the first time). This material is important enough that “seeding” like this is worth doing. Important? Yes, because it highlights how many levels at which the indoctrination is occurring.
Haha! My boss was shocked, shocked! to find out I was a conservative. “But, but…you’re a Nartist!!”
He’s a really intelligent guy, but alas he usually votes for democrats. He also doesn’t pay any attention to politics whatsoever.
A Nartist? Ok, I’m stumped. Does it hurt to be a Nartist? How do I identify one? 🙂
Ha, sorry – I sprung a Weaselism on you. A Nartist = An Artist.
Sneaky Weaseleses and their words. I wondered if per’aps you were feeling snergeley or had smallish bees up your nose.
(sorry, read The Lorax to my daughter, and it sticks in the head)
Heh. The fun thing about working out here is that there litereally is NO LIBERALS AROUND ME.
Seriously I think that if one tried to get on this project their heads, they would ASPLODE.
Here’s the background on it.
I’ve noticed something… not always true but there’s enough truth to warrant a glance. Conservatives are largely successful and have jobs, pay the bills, and have a comfortable existence (pick two or three).
Liberals generally are unhappy with life, don’t work or don’t have a financially rewarding job, or have some sort of hardship (worse yet, “issues”).
It’s really easy when you are unhappy to convince yourself that YOUR problem should be EVERYBODY’S problem.
Thing is, I’m not buying into it willingly.
Why’d I go off on that tangent? You’re working as the antichrist – making a living raping the land and the soil, likely in no danger of paying bills, and odds are you are fairly good at what you do or they wouldn’t pay you to be there. Same goes for a lot of people around you, is my guess.
I’m going to get flamed by someone out there, but so what? My blog. My freedom of speech, and if anybody is abusive I’ll delete ’em. Calm rational discussion/argument is welcomed however.
-You ever read that article that talked about conservatives being generally psychologically happier than liberals? I think I wrote about it when it came out but seeing as how I am too lazy to dig it out of my archives I will summarize.
It had something to do with how we categorize issues and how the conservative mindset did not dwell on the issues that were out of our direct control or ones that we could not “change”. There were some other aspects to it but that one I really dialled in on as it states that we don’t waste effort on a path that will not bear fruit, but will instead focus on attainable goals such as those three things that you mentioned.
-I personally felt like it was one of the most wasted studies I have ever heard of as what they found was basic common sense, but it still assisted in validating my mindset (and massaging my ego).
Are you not also indirectly implying that conservative moronblogger sites are really not much more than Ego “Massage Parlors”?
Now that you mention it, that does sound familiar (study conserv/lib).
Sadly, you can take an otherwise productive well-adjusted individual and mind-wipe them and reprogram them at any one of our fine collegiate institutions if you haven’t prepared them as kids to recognize those tactics. They go in confident and leave the doors as individuals fearful of conspiracy theory “industrial-military-complex” machinations. CONVINCED that no one can succeed until we tear down the old and start anew and that everyone who is down must have been put there by force.
I’ve seen the mind-wipe in process with my old friends from high school. Somehow that english major curriculum caused them to be devoid of independent thought. Which might be why no one stood up and told the speaker (Williams) to stop pushing his own causes.
(still waiting for flames)
Oh. I am seriously rethinking attending this I AM CONSERVATIVE HEAR ME ROAR BBQ… There will be no room for anything but conservatism… and this Liberal/Libertarian/Independent might just self-combust with all the hot air I’ve been reading from you Moronsphere bloggers.
I don’t think this is a good idea anymore…
First off, KC, I don’t mix BBQ with politics. It’d be like playing an accordion at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (nothing against accordions). I don’t do politics with my kids around either.
You’d be surprised how close a conservative comes to libertarian. I tend to make a distinction between Republican and conservative. Republicans are anything but conservative and I think most of the conservatives you see now are much more interested in the libertarian model. Altogether too much say one thing do another kind of stuff. I lean more towards less federal government and allow the state and local levels to decide what you want your back yard to look like. It’s when we have federal dictates that there’s such a huge amount of friction with people’s right to play a part in how they want to do things.
But you are correct, my comments earlier are way rabid, and I’m sorry for doing such an insulting job of trying to make a case. I have painted with broad brush strokes an entire mode of thinking with my observations from a few individuals.
It really was scary because these friends gave up independent thought. There was no way they could have arrived at those ideas so soon, which were so cross-grain with what they were before, I could find no other way to describe what had happened. It really was like three weeks later when I saw this. Those same individuals have gone on to be extremely unhappy with nearly everything (very long story and I can relate it but not here).
When I was able to compare that to other classmates who retained their core principles and let them evolve at a natural pace, I found more and more satisfaction and excitement about things that were going on around them and what they were doing.
KC, these are just opinions, which, like a certain part of the human anatomy that will go nameless on this blog (but seems to be mentioned quite frequently in my forums), everyone has.
I will be too fat and happy to even care about bashing anyone except the quality of the grub vs. the GARBAGE that I eat while out here. Hell, I’ll be suprised if I even can form a thought based on how lethargic I am prodicting myself to be.
Good to hear. And my apologies here – because I wasn’t implying the two of you. I just happened to pass by your place and see your comments after reading countless Moronsphere blogs bashing everyone not American and Conservative. For this – I expressed my concerns that this is going to be a gathering of politics – rather than people just meeting to have a good time – “sans toute chose politique!” Anyone smart enough that doesn’t share the same sentiment would not willingly go into the lion’s den – unless he/she had a death wish.
And being that I have come to know you and OI outside of blogsphere – AND the undertones of both of your blogs – although greatly differ from mine (and that is MORE THAN fine) – it leaves this lone standing Canadian LLI amongst all things PRO-AMERICA & F$%K THE REST OF Y’ALL just a little gun shy – no punn intended.
I’m looking forward to good company, good food, lots of laughter and insanity to ensue… not signing up for anything less… and am watching with one eye opened, cautiously at anything more.
KC… forgive an ignorant fool but I don’t speak spanish – what does “sans toute chose politique!” mean?
(yes, I intentionally feigned gross ignorance – I know darned well it’s greek)
Seriously, though, I catch “without” or “not” and “political” but I’m hazy beyond that. And what context does the phrase derive from, if’n you don’t mind?
Do not fear, I will lock my undertones in the closet for the duration. 🙂
Translation:
‘Without all things political’
(French)
Thank you!
I knew it was French. I just don’t speak it.
I could teach you the swear words if you like?? I use them all the time… and you might hear me mutter some of them under my breathe if necessary… LOL!!!
Sort of like the characters in Firefly swearing in Chinese? Sure, why not? I know a number of ’em in spanish. It’ll come under the heading of “Learning” and “Personal Improvement”.
Are you completely bilingual? I imagine quite a few folks in Canada are but I hate to assume.
Actually there are not that many who are completely bilingual… but I am completely bilingual and I once taught/tutored it. I am certifiably bilingual… amongst many things!
I know someone that is certifiably bi-ological.
I have read some ads in the back of dirty magazines that say “bi-curious”.
My pops used to wear bi-focals prior to eye surgery.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
I left this wide open for you to take it wherever your heart desires. And now exactly what that is… LOL!!!
Hey, another Firefly fan! Well, of course you are. Check this out: My Own Kind of Freedom. I’ve only just started it, but I’m sure it’s good – Steven Brust is one of my favorite authors.
I hope y’all have fun at your BlogBQ!
How can one NOT like Firefly? To say “space western” just doesn’t do it justice. It is packed full of Joss Whedon’s special ability to make a world come alive.
Whedon sure did a number on the movie Serenity, which upset me terribly (I have no life), but I’ve still got the DVD set to watch over and over again. I think one of my favorite features is that I have no favorite character – they are ALL good.
I’ll check out the link – thanks Enas!
I -ahem!- “acquired” the entire season of Firefly off of the intertubes prior to coming out here on this rotation and I do have to say that the show was specatacular. Well-developed characters, great story lines, and a ship that had actual personality were just a few of the elements that made the show a great one to watch.
-And yeah, the movie was pretty shoddy but I have seen it multiple times as well.
And you gotta admit, bringing Vera into the show, it added a nice touch. Jayne needs to get a girlfriend…
I liked the movie actually. But then I saw it before I watched the series, so I didn’t see it with any of the contextual nuance around it. Sure, it had some biggish plot holes but I’m pretty forgving about such things if I’m otherwise entertained. I’ll have to see it again.
Have a happy Father’s Day LK!
Thanks Enas! They let me nap today (sans guilt) and tonight I get one of my favorite – pad krapow (beef with chilies and basil).
Serenity outright re-wrote history for Hollywood’s sake. I have to believe that Whedon was forced into some plot changes that muddied his story a bit too much and pissed him off.