This Week in the News
This week, radio talk show host Don Imus was fired from his job after calling the Rutgers women's basketball team a bunch of "nappy headed 'hoes." Rising to his defense, television talk show host Sean Hannity complained that Imus was simply influenced by hip hop music that often refers to women in similar terms. Apparently unaware of the irony involved in saying that 60 year old white man should be excused because he was following the lead of black rappers, Hannity went on to blame Imus' celebrated alcoholism on television ads that glamorize alcohol, Imus' smoking on the the macho image of the Marlboro man, and Imus' vaunted temper on violent video games. Hannity ended his appeal to take back America from the "p/c thought police:" "It is a sad day when an white man cannot hurl a racial slur at a group of college students over the airwaves without having to fear backlash."
This week, Salon.com published an interview with Harvard Professor Robert J Sampson on the issue of immigration. In a recently published paper, Sampson and his colleagues used decades of immigration data to show that immigrant populations are less prone to crime then native born Americans. More precisely, it takes three generations for the level of criminality in immigrant populations to catch up to that of native populations. If true, Sampson's work undermines the argument that legal and illegal immigrants contribute to rising crime rates. Contacted for comment, Perry Aerosol, Chair of the National Union for Republican Domination (NURD) noted dryly, "It is always a shame when someone puts the lie to our most cherished stereotypes and assumptions. However, we are confident that there is some other group of people we can blame for the ills of our society. " Suiting word to deed, NURD convened a meeting to consider a new national scapegoat. TWN was able to procures a partially complete set of meeting notes kept by one participant.
This week the novelist Kurt Vonnegut died. This came as a blow to many people my age who read books. At a time when our so called leaders are so very adept at fanning the fires of our tribal love of guns, money and hubris he will be missed. I learned three things from the handful of Vonnegut novels and dumptruck of Vonnegut essays I read: 1) Kindness is something worth talking about. 2) We are all terribly flawed and equally insignificant. 3) Innocence is just as dangerous an any of the seven deadly sins. God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut.
This week White House officials admitted that many White House advisors may have used e-mail accounts issued to them by the Republican National Committee to conduct governmental business. As a result, many e-mails related to official duties that are supposed to be retained under federal law may have been destroyed. This includes e-mails related to the US Attorney Scandal. (Interestingly, one e-mail from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicated that White House officials should use their RNC accounts when communicating with Abramoff to avoid retention of the e-mails.) Responding to the disclosure White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten stated, "To think there is anything improper here, one would have to assume that the government is somehow separate from the Party. That is not true. We know the state is the Party and the Party is the State. If you criticize the Party, you criticize the State. The marvelous glories of the Party are the marvelous glories of the State. He who betrays the Party betrays the State." Bolten then announced plans for national parade on the Washington Mall to be held on May 1 of each year. The parade, said Bolten, will have "tanks and everything."
This week, Salon.com published an interview with Harvard Professor Robert J Sampson on the issue of immigration. In a recently published paper, Sampson and his colleagues used decades of immigration data to show that immigrant populations are less prone to crime then native born Americans. More precisely, it takes three generations for the level of criminality in immigrant populations to catch up to that of native populations. If true, Sampson's work undermines the argument that legal and illegal immigrants contribute to rising crime rates. Contacted for comment, Perry Aerosol, Chair of the National Union for Republican Domination (NURD) noted dryly, "It is always a shame when someone puts the lie to our most cherished stereotypes and assumptions. However, we are confident that there is some other group of people we can blame for the ills of our society. " Suiting word to deed, NURD convened a meeting to consider a new national scapegoat. TWN was able to procures a partially complete set of meeting notes kept by one participant.
This week, presidential hopeful John McCain wrote and op -ed piece inwhich he argued that the US. surge in Iraq was working but the US media was not fairly reporting the success of our military forces. (The very next day, a bomb was detonated in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament in the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone killing fifteen.) McCain castigated the liberal media and accused war opponents of not understanding what is at stake in Iraq. Once aboard the Straight Talk Express, however, the bus' magical truth telling powers took hold and a glassy eyed McCain took a different tack: "Iraq? Total f-cking disaster. Blood everywhere and not an end in sight. But what am I supposed to do? If I oppose the surge I am just like all the other candidates and I can kiss right wing money goodbye. That f-ck Romney and his f-cking hair will get it. Plus what about my credentials as the uber macho candidate? Manly men do not oppose manly surges."National Scapegoats -- Possible Candidates. Must be easily villified minority. Must tie to crime. Easily caricatured. See below:
Jews -- been there. done that
Feminists -- rely to heavily on Marge's income to support family. also no sex for weeks. Backlash possibility
Gays -- too effete and effeminate to commit violent crimes
liberal academics -- see gays above
Hillary Rodham Clinton -- three names. aliases? shifty eyes. lives in NY. possible candidate. responsible for most things bad.
Urban blacks -- why make too complicated. Keep it simple. Call Imus.
This week the novelist Kurt Vonnegut died. This came as a blow to many people my age who read books. At a time when our so called leaders are so very adept at fanning the fires of our tribal love of guns, money and hubris he will be missed. I learned three things from the handful of Vonnegut novels and dumptruck of Vonnegut essays I read: 1) Kindness is something worth talking about. 2) We are all terribly flawed and equally insignificant. 3) Innocence is just as dangerous an any of the seven deadly sins. God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut.
This week White House officials admitted that many White House advisors may have used e-mail accounts issued to them by the Republican National Committee to conduct governmental business. As a result, many e-mails related to official duties that are supposed to be retained under federal law may have been destroyed. This includes e-mails related to the US Attorney Scandal. (Interestingly, one e-mail from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicated that White House officials should use their RNC accounts when communicating with Abramoff to avoid retention of the e-mails.) Responding to the disclosure White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten stated, "To think there is anything improper here, one would have to assume that the government is somehow separate from the Party. That is not true. We know the state is the Party and the Party is the State. If you criticize the Party, you criticize the State. The marvelous glories of the Party are the marvelous glories of the State. He who betrays the Party betrays the State." Bolten then announced plans for national parade on the Washington Mall to be held on May 1 of each year. The parade, said Bolten, will have "tanks and everything."
posted by Jack Reed at 12:19 PM
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