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TODAY’S QUOTE
“The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” — Christopher Morley
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BARRY’S OKAY — JUST OKAY
I have no idea why but I feel I must defend Barack Obama these days — tepidly, of course, because his presidency has been rather ho-hum, for my money.
For all the excitement he generated among the commie, pinko, homo, abortion-crazed, tax-happy, put-the-white-man-in-jail, apologize-for-America, femi-nazi, Manchurian-candidate-cabalist population of this otherwise holy land when he was merely candidate Obama, Boss Obama’s reign has been pretty much a let down.
Every Right Winger’s Wet Nightmare
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Many of my lefty pals feel their blood pressure reach quadruple digits when the current POTUS is mentioned. The radical lawyer Jerry Boyle goes so far as to call him a “traitor” (to the left‘s cause — not, as the other side would have it, to the nation.)
How can a guy be a traitor when he was never part of the club?
If anybody had paid a bit of attention to how he voted when he was Senator Obama, they’d know he was, in truth, the biggest Rockefeller Republican since that very man who passed from this vale of tears at the age of 70 while banging his secretary on her desk back in 1977. (Yeah, yeah, I know — allegedly.)
The Original Rocky (Bust In The Senate Gallery)
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Anyway, as I’ve pontificated before, perhaps my happiest day as a voter and taxpayer in this greatest nation in the history of our corner of the Solar System was when Barack Obama was elected president. Not that I expected him to outlaw guns in cities, care for the sick, tend to the poor, pull the soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan the next day, and order the summary executions of Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon, but because the election of a (half) black man demonstrated that these United States had grown up a bit since, oh say, the 1970s.
That and the fact that Obama wasn’t George W. Bush nor was he craven enough to have chosen as his running mate a MILF-y knucklehead from Alaska.
Every Right Winger’s Wet Dream
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The fact that Obama has surrounded himself with so many unindicted felons from the Goldman Sachs mob makes me want to retch. Then again, I never expected him to name among his advisers Dennis Kucinich, Howard Zinn, and Rachel Maddow.
So, that’s my roundabout way getting to the fact that I am categorically, incontrovertibly, without question or fail, voting for Barry come November. As long as nobody better comes along.
You think I want to see Roe v. Wade overturned? And all those Wall Street baboons given free reign? The privatization and profit-ization of basic human services? The digging for oil in every citizen’s backyard? Rush Limbaugh smiling?
Hell no, babies. I’m a staunch(ish) Obama man from here on out.
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TRUTH — REALLY
Bloomington author Julia Karr waltzed into the Book Corner Monday, carrying the galley copy of her forthcoming book, “Truth.”
It’s the follow-up to her successful 2011 release, “XVI,” a murder chiller set in a dystopian future.
‘Truth” will go on sale a week from tomorrow with a book release party Friday, January 20, at Boxcar Books.
Julia Karr
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Karr brought in “Truth” for our town’s Book Babe R.E. Paris, who’s reviewing it for Ryder magazine.
I was chatting with another customer at the time, a man whom I don’t know. When I told him he was in the presence of a big time pen lady and then told him about all the other successful authors in town, he said, “No kidding? I had had no idea this was such a center for authors.”
It is, pal. It is.
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BLOOMINGTON’S BOOK BABE LOOKS BACK AT 2011
Speaking of R.E. Paris, I mentioned yesterday that she looks at the year in publishing in the current issue of the Ryder. Peter LoPilato, the Ryder’s majordomo, has been kind enough to let us run selected pieces from the magazine in these precincts.
The Ryder
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So, let’s take a look at R.E.’s retrospective, no?
◗ 2011: The Year in Books, by R.E. Paris
In which I discuss some interesting titles from 2011, note others, and leave out yet many more worthy of mention among the hundreds of thousands of books published last year.
Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt, (Norton), is a very readable history of the intellectual inheritance of the Renaissance. Greenbaltt shows that history ties the modern world to the classical one…. read more
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TRUE FAITH
New Order was born of Joy Division after that band’s lead singer committed suicide. Joy Divison had led the post-punk movement in the late 1970s and New Order took the sound to a new level with its incorporation of then-new electronic technology.
And, BTW, New Order has a bit of a Bloomington connection. The video for “Round & Round” featured the face of super-model and recent local divorcee Elaine Irwin (go to the 3:15 mark.)
Elaine Irwin Decorates New Order’s “Round & Round” Video
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Anyway, here’s “True Faith”:
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Barack’s candidacy was first and foremost about proving that an African-American could not only join, but become the “club.” A John Edwards-supporting friend of mine noted early and often that “Barry” was merely a black-corporatist. My candidate was Hilary — in my view, a brilliant and wonderfully tough bitch who, while polarizing the Republicans, could have Field Generaled through more legislation than “Mr. Mild-Mannered.” Or maybe not. I voted for him anyway. Not because I bought into all the hopes and dreams that were projected onto him, and his campaign so brilliantly manipulated, but because of the fact that his campaign was itself socially revolutionary. It was more than time. That he surrounded himself with “liberal” members of the Establishment was no surprise. After all, “Barry” came to praise Capitalism and “The American Way,” not to bury it, and certainly not to Islamicize it, particularly when a little tweaking would do. And, like every other President, to get himself re-elected.
That’s where we’re at now. I’ll be voting for him again. He’s made some mistakes, had some rough patches, but seems now to have a grip on things. By design, his presidency has always been about the art of the possible, not the revolutionary. While this hasn’t been a particularly HEROIC stance on his part, that traveling clown show, otherwise known as the Republican primaries, offers an alternative no sane adult would consider. Which means about 48% will vote for the Republican in November. Voting for Obama with reservations loudly noted is a good thing; petulantly withholding one’s vote could be disastrous.
Well, Mike, worked out my thoughts on this election. Once again, thanks for the forum.
John, you pretty much voiced my position on Mr. O, and very well done. Thanks. BTW Mikey, I found the rest of your Ryder article. It jumped to page 19, not 33.