Nobody # 830

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Nobody # 830

Nobody Asked Me But:

The more I think about it, the more I am sure that Howard Beale was right. And, like him, “I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more.”

DAMN IT BARACK – stop equivocating and get on message!

I can understand your political ambivalence about the Islamic center close to 9/11’s Ground Zero. But make up your mind. You have 3 choices. (1) Yes, religious freedom guarantees this right. (2) No, it doesn’t. (3) This is a close call, and I haven’t made up my mind yet. Numbers 1 and 2 are the decisive responses, which most Americans want from their president. Number 3 is weak. And contradicting yourself overnight is the weakest of all – especially when your reason for doing it is political expediency.<<<

One of the reasons many give for opposing the center is because Abdul Rauf once said that U.S. foreign policy was “an accessory to the crime of 9/11.”

Guess what? He’s right.

Don’t misunderstand me. The Islamic terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 was both evil and wrong. But, in the decades prior to 9/11, United States policies in and towards the Islamic world were sometimes wrong to the point of being immoral, and gave, not legitimacy, but excuse to the terrorists.<<<

Action: Here’s the Newter on Arab emulation - "There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.”

Reaction: Freedom of religion is a weakness?

Reaction # 2: Tolerance is a weakness?

Reaction # 3: It sounds like Newt is a (not-so) secret admirer of Arab intolerance or, to paraphrase two lines out Harry Chapin, “He wants to be like them, boy, you know he wants to be like them.”

One of the people Newt, and other Republican leaders are listening to in this debate to is blogger Pam Geller. Ah, yes, this is the same Pam Geller who promoted the view that Obama is Malcolm X’s love child.

THE ISLAMIC CENTER - THE BOTTOM LINE

Newt and company join with the neoconservatives in not really believing in American values. They see them as idealistic and weak, deserving only lip-service support.<<<

A TALE OF TWO PRODUCTIONS

I finally watched the over praised AA nominee from last year, Inglorious Bastards, last week. I thought it was mediocre enough to consider erasing it from my DVR at mid-point, but good enough that I didn’t.

I watched the Lincoln Center’s superb production of South Pacific last week on PBS and did not want it to end.<<<

The host for South Pacific was Alan Alda. Some of you may know that his father, Robert Alda was a Broadway star. A few of you may even remember that he was the original Sky Masterson in Guys And Dolls. But I’ll bet that none of you know that his real name was Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D’Abruzzo.<<<

GOOGLE AGAIN

The Giuseppe in Robert Alda’s name reminded me of a poem we studied in 8^th grade English that delighted me and that I had never seen since. So I googled Giuseppe the barber, and there it was. And here it is:

Mia Carlotta, written in 1916 by Thomas Augustine Daily

GIUSEPPE, da barber, ees greata for "mash,"

He gotta da bigga, da blacka mustache,

Good clo'es an' good styla an' playnta good cash.

W'enevra Giuseppe ees walk on da street,

Da peopla dey talka, "how nobby! how neat!

How softa da handa, how smalla da feet."

He raisa hees hat an' he shaka hees curls,

An' smila weeth teetha so shiny like pearls;

O! many da heart of da seelly young girls

He gotta.

Yes, playnta he gotta—

But notta

Carlotta!

Giuseppe, da barber, he maka da eye,

An' lika da steam engine puffa an' sigh,

For catcha Carlotta w'en she ees go by.

Carlotta she walka weeth nose in da air,

An' look through Giuseppe weeth far-away stare,

As eef she no see dere ees som'body dere.

Giuseppe, da barber, he gotta da cash,

He gotta da clo'es an' da bigga mustache,

He gotta da seely young girls for da "mash,"

But notta—

You bat my life, notta—

Carlotta.

I gotta!

Two views on the LA Times series in which teachers are publicly evaluated based on their student’s standardized test score improvement:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supports the series asking, "What is there to hide?"

Diane Ravitch, a former federal education official and author of the bestselling book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" says "I thought it was disgraceful," "There was a fundamental meanness about [the story] that turned my stomach."

I’m with Diane. Whatever the merits of the evaluation plan, what is to be gained by publicly humiliating teachers whose students, for bad reasons or good, failed to improve or failed to improve as much as those in another classroom? If it is to be used as part of the evaluation process, it should be limited to teacher, administrator, student and parents.<<<

Mr. President – What is your core belief about “Don’t ask, don’t tell?”

Obama – “Don’t ask, because I won’t tell.”<<<

Confusing quote of the week:

“Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself,” LeBron James

Say again LeBron? If you give 100% every time, then why do you ever need to criticize yourself for not giving 100%?<<<

Signs of the Hypocralipse:

Isn’t there something contradictory between being a Born-again Christian and listing Las Vegas as one’s favorite city to visit?<<<

John McCain and other Republican leaders are calling for Obama to heed the public will by not supporting the Islamic Center, and, at the same time,

John McCain and other Republican leaders are calling for Obama to ignore the public will by continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<<<

Breaking news – pictures at 10: A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.<<<

Tee-shirt sighting – My Indian name is yes dear. Which leads me to he who laughs last:

This summer I found some Calvin Klein shorts with a mid-calf length that is perfect. So I bought them in two colors. Having passed on a third color, navy, and with them being in short (no pun intended) supply, Barb found and reserved a pair for me at Macy’s in Burbank. We stopped to get them yesterday and, to my surprise, they also had my size in a fourth color – a beige. I told my wife, “I think I need these.” “You already have that color,” she pointed out. Ah, ha, the I’m finally going to be right trap was sprung. It just so happens I had looked at the disputed shorts the night before and they were not beige but bone. We debated for a few minutes, and then I said I was going to buy them and that I was so sure I was right (this time) that, if wrong, I would give her foot rubs for life. Fat chance.

So when we got home I headed for the closet, grabbed and waved at her my ………beige shorts.

Excuse me. I have to wind this up. I am scheduled to give a foot rub in five minutes.<<<