Paying Attention to Al Sharpton

At the Democratic convention*, Rev. Al Sharpton uttered this:

"I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the [Supreme] court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school. "

My anonymous friend Rob wrote...

"Re: Reverend Sharpton:

"I am slow on the uptake, and missed your subtle point: that Rev Al is giving the speech to the people who did their damndest to keep Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court when he was nominated by none other than George H. W. Bush. Good God, words fail me. Words would probably also fail Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Rod Paine, etc."

Since words failed Rob, I had to show that they would not fail me...

That’s the trouble with all forms of race politics: invariably you end up with the absurd.

See, Clarence is indisputably black, all right, but he doesn’t believe in the right stuff (gospel as preached by Al). He became was Communists used to call a capitalist lackey.

My few principles on race:

1. Racial distinctions are inherently stupid
2. They are gradually disappearing anyway because of intermarriage
3. If somebody tells me that specifically because I’m a white man I’m expected to believe in certain things, I always check to see if I still have my wallet.
4. Black people are gradually coming around to point no. 3, but not fast enough
5. All Reverend Al can see is race politics because he senses empowerment from it…just like how OJ won acquittal through adroitly playing the race card. BUT
6. Johnnie Cochrane could not have played the race card unless somebody dealt it to him right off the top. This is extremely important for white people to understand deeply...
7. See no 1. and repeat as necessary.

Everyone needs to think for themselves after trying to get as well informed as possible.

The Dems got themselves scared into putting Al on the podium, and it was a terrible mistake. He does not represent unity; he makes a living dividing people for personal purposes.

Or, as another black opinion leader once said so poignantly, why can’t we all just get along?

----

* the one before the Repulican Convention that's going on now,

Harelip The Judge

Q: Where does the phrase "harelip the Judge" come from, and what does it mean?

A: Geez Bernat, where the Cripes do you get these?

Ok, being the anal retentive, I've been sneaking about in various sources....the librarian even raised eyebrows at me when I asked...!!

The best I can come up with for you, is what the Dictionary of Slang told us, and that the use of "harelip" in this figure of speech{of course outside the standard use of the disorder for which young children have surgery}, is to "discomfit, destroy, or disfigure" ==== as in to 'harelip the governor", it said...

{A good word to define harelip as a verb in your figure of speech is Discomfit, which now means, to make uneasy or perplexed or disconcert because we've confused it in English with 'discomfort' in its use - it originally is derived from the Old French "decomfit or descumfire" which means to defeat or to overcome.}

So I guess you're doing something like discrediting, taking down the judge, or in a less severe sense, making him/her uneasy, vexed, etc.

Does that work?

Bernat writes back:

That is incredible investigative work on your part! Thanks so much for sticking with it. Where did I get it? I don’t know. One day, while idly considering my lack of professional future, the phrase entered my mind and stuck there…sort of like one of those tunes you cannot get out of your head.

Example: When you hear the words, “Double your pleasure, double your fun, with doublemint, doublemint, doublemint gum,” does a melody get stuck in your head?

We picked ____ up from Princeton last week and stayed at a Princeton, NJ Holiday Inn. Suddenly, from the TV set, came, “588-2300, Empire,” song and all. We thought it was only in Chicago but, I swear, this was in the New York local TV market. Tunes we cannot shake loose from…

Iraq

Who was it that said, "It is what it is."

Very wise, indeed. It now seems that we should never have gone into Iraq on the argument stated. If it was not about WMDs, then it was that we want to show the world how to make democracy work.

Such an example for democracy we set...the 2000 election makes one wonder about how democratic we can really be. But let's not forget how Joe Kennedy bought Illinois and West Virginia for his son in 1960. Election muscle knows no party lines. People run for office because they want power, and power (or thirst for it) corrupts the very best of us.

It is what it is.

We've done it, gotten into the business of nation-building, and should learn from our mistakes. But what about where we are?

Our military is getting kind of tired doing stuff they were not really trained for. We need to leave, but don't want to leave things as untidy as they appear now. From what I can tell, we're trying our best to negotiate with the native insurgents there (trying to be democratic, eh). But, of course, if they won't see reason, we'll kill them. What choice do we have?

I think we should never do anything like Iraq again. If we invade, we do so with international support (like Gulf War I). But, we're there now. Our soldiers are there now, and more are being sent every day.

It is what it is.

So here's the deal: the first person that posts a fantastic detailed plan for what to do in Iraq now will not only get my full support, but I'll actually forward your post to Dr. Tom Frist, brother of the Senator from Tennessee (where I live). I'm sure he'll get it to where it will do the most good.

Contest ends Wendesday, August 25. Some restrictions apply. No purchase is necessary.

Ready?

Six Feet Under

Lynne and I have Bill Dowgiallo to thank for introducing us to the HBO series Six Feet Under. Once you check out, have you left anything worth following??

Ponder these famous, real epitaphs...

Here lies
Ezekial Aikle
Age 102
The Good
Die Young

Here lies
Johnny Yeast
Pardon me
For not rising.

Here lies the body
of Jonathan Blake
Stepped on the gas
Instead of the brake.*

She always said her feet were killing her
but nobody believed her.

Here lies an Atheist
All dressed up
And no place to go

Looked up the elevator shaft to see if
the car was on the way down.
It was.

Under the sod and under the trees; Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.
He is not here, there's only the pod: Pease shelled out and went to God.

And here is the one that says it all:

I was somebody.

Who, is no business
Of yours.



*Drove an Audi 100LS??

Found these at http://www.olivija.com/epitaph/
More where that came from...

Ethos and Pathos

...what's the difference? If you've studied Greek theatre, you tell me.

I'll try not to be pathetic. Many years ago, I wrote for a college newspaper which had a column called "Stimulus." Since it was an engineering school, the focus of these columns was how engineers and scientists would weigh their ethical and moral obligations against the demands of their profession.

After discussing some great ethical issue, I would invariably end the exposition with:

"So...what gives?"

I invite you to tell me what gives...in any event, look here for inspiration, mindless rambling, but always civil discourse, if not civil engineering. An island of peace in a world crazed with confrontation and shouting matches. Wit and ... well, wit.