Oh. Dear. Lord:
Barack Obama isn’t really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.
This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae – or no antennae at all – to all those who just don’t understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama’s aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.
To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?
No, it’s not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn’t have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.
[…]
Here’s where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.
The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.
Are you rolling your eyes and scoffing? Fine by me. But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity?
Probably because idiots like this creepy quartzhumper continue to pass on the myth like it was some modernist version of the Iliad, albeit one composed by dirty Chicago pols, the mafia, Marilyn Monroe’s dead body, and a communist assassin with fairly remarkable aim.
Beyond that, I haven’t much to say about this piece of new-agey dreck — other than the kind of cult of personality worship we’re seeing here almost never ends well, historically.
— Well, that, and I’m not particularly keen on having a Lightworker as President. Because let’s face it: how do you argue against a tax increase or against the enlightened dictate that we join the “world court” when such demands flow from the magic pen of a rare being who has been placed here to help us as a country literally evolve into a higher state of goodliness and virtue?
Answer: you don’t. You just shut up, take the hits, and be thankful He’s making the trains run on time.
BECAUSE OF THE PRESENCE!
(h/t STACLU)
Ah yes, Mark Morford. The moonbattiest moonbat (American) journalist of all.
I qualified that because Fisk and Monbiot still have him beat, believe it or not.
this is the lowest of low-hanging fruit. My hope is that he starts acting like this. I cannot wait until maximum Asshat starts referring to the moderately gifted ultra-liberal as a Lightworker.
The only people I know who maintain belief in something called a “JFK Legacy” are older liberal colleagues in the MSM. Because, well, I guess “Conservative cold-war democrat who would fuck a catcher’s mitt” is less compelling.
Nuance, you see, JG.
As I noted on the other thread:
Oh, I see. Obama is the Beatles. Except for John Lennon, because that would be racist, what with Mark David Chapman and all.
And Morford is a tool, is now, ever has been and always will be, world without end, amen.
JeffG
Lightworker
– I don’t know why, but the other night, watching him on the tube, not paying all that much attention, sort of meshed in that blurry eyed sort of relaxed stupor that too much news in a day leaves you in, it suddenly came over me that this whole Obama thing is not going to end well. I hope I’m wrong, but I just couldn’t shake that eerie feeling. Like one of those times in the past when it seemed things were a bit unraveled around the edges, and there was a strange stir in the air.
– Maybe it was just indigestion.
Was this covered here already? If so, sorry for the redundancy. But it was new to me, so, well, here you have it.
BBH —
If anybody is set up to be a martyr, it’s this guy. Keep an eye on Michael Moore — particularly if he starts sniffing around Wal-Mart for a rifle.
What was nishi saying about the Republic sans religion?
Morford doesn’t realize it, but he’s selling Obama as a Higher Being whose Cosmic Vibrations upset the darker forces in the universe, which leads to their assassination, as a sign that We’re Not Worthy.
Which has a way of being a self-fulfilling prophecy, ya moron.
See, nishi, this is what happens when you vacate traditional religious sentiment: the worship of the earthly as heavenly. This kind of thing NEVER turns out well. Traditional religion always denies that mere humans can function as gods in this realm, which keeps us humble as long as we Get It.
Modern idolatry is what it is. And like all counterfeits, it will end up leaving us with ashes in our mouths.
Jeff: If you paw through your previous thread, it got mentioned. But it’s definitely worth its own thread, so majestic is its stupidity.
Just in the comments on the Provocateurism thread, and just recently, courtesy of Ric Locke. It’s worthy of more prominent ridicule.
Ric’s analysis is worth repeating as well:
This is one of the times again I have to apologize for being a bad writer and just say I agree with the post.
Is there any advice you guys can give me on how to relate my thoughts in writing?
Hype.
And who is the theocon really? The one who worships a living man who would be president?
Of course, Morford is a freak and beyond an outlier. His endorsement is to know to go the other way.
And, to reiterate (which is what lawyers do best) it was in the Provocateurism thread, in the upper 200s.
LFFLR – the best I can say is identify an issue, put emotion behind reason in the same harness, and then speak.
Hi, Jeff. Nice tryong to talk to you (as Yogi Bear says: “That’s a joke, son).
This subject has been nibbled at around the edges, but I think this is the first head-on assault by a brain dead human that I have seen.
I think Mor(on)ford mis-spoke, though. If I can believe my eyes and ears, Obamalamadingdong is not so much a lightworker, as he is a Liteworker.
Excuse me. I think I just threw up a little bit in the back of my mouth.
Since I support Condi I’m a racist, but I just still keep wondering about that “conduct of their character” and how that applies to non-existent accomplishments and pretend halos. I had no doubt that the US was OK to elect an “identity” when Elizabeth Gore and Jesse Jackson ran for president. The electorate just wasn’t that stupid.
Anyway, I was at a little dinner shin dig and this staunch connected to state politics republican blurted out he HOPED and PRAYED an african american was elected president. He was promptly asked if that meant he liked Obama or thought Obama was qualified.
“Oh no, Obama is a gifted politician make no mistake, but not in any way prepared to be Pres. now, oh no”
He went on to say that he couldn’t wait for an african American to be President so therefore the “identity” grievance would be put to rest. He said “an African American president, so how again are you discriminated against????” That brought to mind of people that a President has so little to do with domestic politics really and how would that play out? Would AA’s rebel if Obama was not able to heal all their ails? And what of the culture of smackin’ that bootie and hitEN’ the lane? Obama has something Bill Cosby doesn’t?
You know, I was watching a documentary on the Cultural Revolution the other night, and it struck me how much the Mao reverence expressed by the Red Guards looked like what people are lavishing on Obama these days, including gazing at beneficent-looking portraits of Mao, complete with halo.
It was creepy.
“coweringly religious”? Sometimes I write stuff like that but different and what I do is I get ice cream from the Ralph’s next door and watch some episodic broadcast network television and generally have a little quiet time. But if it got published under my for real name I would pretty much think it was over for me as an individual to be taken seriously. Coweringly religious. It’s not so much that it’s malicious, it’s the part where it’s screamingly pompous that I’d be mortified about.
I mean it would be ok if he had a cool name like Cap’n Lightworker or something. Then it would be just one of those good old Cap’n Lightworker screeds you chance upon now and again and maybe could be parody. But when he publishes it in a newspaper under his real name like that it’s like he’s saying no really, I’m serious about this here. And it’s just kind of embarrassing for everybody.
Wow. Morford got ahold of some good shit, sounds like.
This campaign needs a soundtrack by Blue Oyster Cult.
But no cowbell.
feets,
Am I the only one who read “not coweringly religious,” and realized immediately knew he meant “Christians”? Although he probably sez it like “Xtians” or “Kristians” in his oh-so-clever little lizard brain.
And am I the only one who wouldn’t have written a phrase like “and realized immediately knew he meant” had I not been drinking?
Tossing rat poison into the gingerbread house is so.. not nice.
You know times are hard when people are this hungry for a fairy tale.
“The preservation and public display of Lenin’s body provided the inspiration for the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, and a similar one for Ho Chi Minh and Kim Il Sung, violating their wishes to be cremated…The family of Lenin’s embalmers states that the corpse is real and requires daily work to moisturize the features and inject preservatives under the clothes.”
Power Line disputes the contention that Obama is a Marxist.
But what about the blinking green dot on KK’s Marxist-dar?
I linked it for the sake of reasoned discussion, thor, a pleasure I’ve been pretty much denied over the 20 years I worked among Progressives.
While Obama’s certainly an entire universe away from George W. Bush in terms of quality, integrity, intelligence and overall inspirational energy, well, so is your dog. Hell, it isn’t hard to stand far above and beyond the worst president in American history.
When the NYT printed the “General Betray Us” add, my dog bit the delivery guy’s nuts off. What did Obama do? Oh yeah, he snuck out the back when it was time to denounce the ad, saying something about his “fried egg sandwich just went off”. Obama is a coward. Look it up.
Comment by Sean M. on 6/7 @ 2:41 am #
(not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual)
Exactly.
My thought was ‘Not like those filthy xtians. And Joooooos’
You can’t leave out the Jooooooos.
Mmm, fried egg sandwich and a glass of oj. Gears suddenly turning in brain. Top of the morning, Alp.
I’m sure Hitler had a similar following!
thanks for this article. it’s one of the creepier things to come out of the obamabot alternate universe recently.
how indeed could anyone argue with any position a god-king takes on an issue without being against the moral order of things? yet it’s that kind of deranged hero-worship that the obama campaign promotes (all their flyers and posters with obama with a halo around his head, or standing in a shaft of light, or the candidate’s statements that the listener will have “a revelation” in a shaft of light and will realise he must cast his ballot for obama) coupled and it’s made even worse by the cooperation of their shills and allies in the press corps who are now already saying that obama is more important than the emancipation proclamation and other such banal but dangerous nonsense.
how does any country maintain freedom when one half of it is willing to scream and shout and engage in quasi religious hysteria about their latest figure of devotion? so many of these weird little indicators make it seem like a version of the cultural revolution directed by the mainstream media is about to be inflicted on the usa.
obama and his cult or arrogance must absolutely be stopped at the elections. puma power: mccain in 2008!
Somehow I still prefer Lightworkers of the opposite sex, and they don’t get to fuck with all other Americans, either – and especially not with the brain dead.
You know, the “coweringly religious” thing is a cute perjorative, but it was a parenthetical to the more scary part. Yet again, in a different way, the Left displays it elitism.
In this case it’s “Many spiritually advanced people” – not you, you booger eating moron, your betters – have determined that this is the Real Thing leader-wise and you have merely to accede and vote in your real best interests.
#26,
wow, me and powerline agree…
(looking around) where is Ric?
Hey, Jeff, good timely post.
We , as “typical” Jews, do not recognize “Messiah” , never, including the one 2000 years ago.
ZOMG!
Obama isn’t a lightworker!
He’s the Philosopher King!
hahaha, i just realised it.
that is why i like him…..i can’t speak for those others.
;)
hahaha, Jeff kinda functions as an epiphany engine for me.
awesum.
inna way, that explains both my enchantment with him, and Jeff’s fierce opposition.
O simply has too much power.
Between BDS and Obamamania, the claim as to the existence of rampant Bipolarness finally makes sense. I blame Big Pharma – or maybe Starbucks?……Eureka, that’s it: cell phones!
[And your key to an enhanced retirement, sashal. Sue.]
… it occurs to me that it really is a shame, it’s unfair – no, it’s a travesty that a superior being like O! has to be subjected to politicking and shilling for votes. I’m surprised no one has proposed that we just short-circuit the whole electoral process, inaugurate O! now that the weather is reasonably nice, and get on with the Bush cabal impeachment hearings.
And free pies!
an elected Philosopher King.
what a concept.
How does the sacred lightworker find time to make the oceans stop rising? If he is so freakin’ special, why can’t he take a few precious moments and help Michelle keep some fresh fruit around the house – FOR THE KIDS !!!!
Morford’s BDS has been eclipsed by his Baracky lightworker-love. I never thought I would see the day. He must be related to thor.
Yeah, Obama is no Marxist: but he’s indeed nothing if not Marxist. Our choice.
“Comment by nishizonoshinji on 6/7 @ 6:45 am #
O simply has too much power.”
You retarded marmoset, the O! that’s making your panties all damp is a hack Chicago politician. An inexperienced, trite, hack politician.
That is if you wear panties.
Lightweight, not “lightworker”.
Whatever the fuck THAT is.
“but he’s indeed nothing if not Marxist”
Considering the tingle he arouses, I prefer to consider him a Lightweight Vibrator. Apparently Morford was sitting on him as he typed. Obama must have ascertained his need without checking on his ability.
an elected Philosopher King.
what a concept.
I’ll stick with Bush.
Just poured my second cup of coffee, sashal. Let me tell you about the time I got fired, OK?
Background: I was born and raised in the American Old South. There were rumblings, particularly among vets back from Europe, and Jackie Robinson caused more bemusement than outright hate among my circle, but the existential inferiority of black people fell pretty much in the category of “things fall down” for all of us, including me. Later, I came to change my mind. The arguments of liberals, my observations, and my father’s guidance combined to convince me that “with Liberty, and Justice for all” ought to be taken seriously. Thinking back on those days makes me… not ashamed, really, because it was no more than accepting the imperatives of the culture I was embedded in; but recalling those attitudes (and some actions) makes my skin crawl. How could we have done that?
Fast forward to the mid-Seventies, after I was out of the service. I was living in the SF Bay area, and had just gotten a good job, never mind the details. Riding the elevator with my boss and a co-worker, I was sort of daydreaming, thinking about what needed to be done next about some technical stuff, the “social” part of my brain freewheeling. Just as the elevator door opened, a chance association triggered something, and I came out with a one-liner… that would’ve been funny in a gang of my fellow crackers circa, say, 1959.
Did I mention that the co-worker was black, and the guy who was supposed to train me in the details of the job?
Raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it, says the Bible verse. Give me a child until he is seven, and he is mine for the rest of his life, the cynic avers. The Bible doesn’t mention that that is also true of the way he shouldn’t go… and the cynic is at least partly wrong. Lots of people depart profoundly from their upbringings; if they did not, nothing would change. But for everybody, the stuff we learned at our mother’s breast and our father’s knee is still there, still lurking, waiting to emerge at awkward or stressed moments, or something appears that points up the difference between their genuinely-held present beliefs and those of their childhood. I summarize in an aphorism: Nobody ever fully overcomes their toilet training.
All of Obama’s early life-experience occurred in a Marxist or pseudo-Marxist atmosphere. I agree with Mirengoff, and have said here: Obama isn’t a Marxist, in the sense of a cell-organizer working to advance the International. But all his early life was spent among people who took Marxist tropes and basic Marxist analysis as givens, and reasoned from there in exactly the same way I and my fellows assumed that it was perfectly correct to require a black astrophysicist to use the Colored rest rooms and water fountains. There is no doubt that he has changed his mind. He hasn’t changed the deep emotional parts of it, because he can’t — it’s there, like an embarrassing tattoo. Under stress it’s gonna come out, and I consider that dangerous.
Regards,
Ric
I think he’s got all of this power because he’s half white.
Considering the tingle he arouses, I prefer to consider him a Lightweight Vibrator.
More like an overripe banana, imo. But beware the Tarantula, er, Black Widow.
Pffffffit!Ding! That’s the filament of the light of reason going out in San Francisco.
Y’know, this super-vibrating Obama thing puts a whole new slant on Chris Matthews’ tingling leg.
I’m just sayin’.
This was written by Mark “Plastic Turkey” Morford, after all. The permutations of stupidity that the guy can bring are…many.
Ric.
Excellent post.
I love your writings. People do not have to be ideological siblings to appreciate the other’s talents.
I in my heart agree with many of your postulates, on the other hand my scientific training and logic refuses to accept total predetermination of one’s life based on the certain facts of youth . It is so static…
If Blackdom and “friends” can’t produce anything better than Barack and Michelle as real Blacks, I’m going to be Neville Chamberlain depressed. Civilization just won’t be worth pursuing, including Viagra.
my scientific training and logic
And just what might that “training” be?
Ric didn’t acce3pt total predetermination due to upbringing either, sashal. No one who believes in free will could believe that. He just said it is a big influence.
sashal, “total predetermination” is a strawman. I wasn’t arguing for it, and I would not. Many, perhaps most, of us change intellectually as we grow out of our childhoods; those changes are genuine, and most of our actions will be based on our new attitudes and beliefs. The cynic was wrong in fundamental ways.
But the old stuff still lurks, down in the depths next to the Old Reptile, and it takes constant alertness to notice and slap it down when it rears its ugly head. For a person whose upbringing was noticeably different from current society, it’s an ongoing effort requiring examination of our reactions to issues, lest the zombies rise. Sometimes, when our attention wanders or something else occupies our intellect, it can get out, often with disastrous results. This is especially true of people who believe themselves truly changed, the Old Soul destroyed or bound in unbreakable chains. They may not, in fact likely will not, realize when it’s got away — or, which is worse, insinuated itself into their current lines of thinking and belief, distorting them in ways they can’t detect because they’re inside.
Regards,
Ric
O’K.
Like I said my heart is totally with you.
We will see how correct was my thinking.
I am off to watch French Open and Soccer European Championship.
The Obarator’s response to the question concerning a capital gains tax increase actually decreasing revenue is a clear indication of Red Diaper rash. He promised to screw the “rich” (which would be the vast majority of Americans holding capital) out of “fairness”.
He’s a commie, right down to his little toe nail. He is also absolutely pig ignorant about economics, but I repeat myself.
…the sacred lightworker…
Do the black ones have bigger light sabers?
I denounce myself and blame my early toilet training.
…off to watch French Open…
Wife just made me watch Safina vs. Ivanovich. What’s with the Russkies turning out all these tennis babes?
tennis babes, mail order brides ….
Hold on, am I supposed to masturbate to this guy or vote for him?
On days like this, I think I will just sit back and read. Ric, dicentra, Mikey, and many others make my grasp of the English language seem like it was my 3rd language. I sit back and read your words with great pleasure, my friends.
I actually think that satirizing Obama’s followers is a very effective election strategy.
On the one hand, you put the older, “swing” bitter white voters on notice that somethin’ ain’t right with this guy and his followers.
At the same time, you’re making it “uncool” to be a brainless Obamaphile. Two birds, one stone.
Lost Cookies:
You are suppose to masturbate while voting.
That will give the league of women voters something to talk about.
I’m almost convinced that what really irks the Red Diapered followers most is that they seem to believe that their stupifyingly dumb fixed-pie wealth model also applies to explain their limited or deranged brain power.
Also at wich point, voila, the Red Diaper Doper Babies also become the workers.
O! is simply the self-asserted community organizer/Savior of the Oppressor-Victim-Savior schema. [That, or nothing.] If you don’t believe what Barack says and has done, just ask Michelle.
Alec, I think that is true. Nothing punctures hype like mockery.
JD – thanks. I can run for quite a while on an unsolicited compliment.
#45 N.O.
See #4 above …
I knew Morford’s “spiritually advanced” did NOT mean Xtians or Jooooos or any ethical monotheism. It screamed New Age I Am God, We Are God, crystals, patachouli and f*cking.
“Fine by me. But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity?”
Oh, I don’t know…Because enough of those old pricks haven’t died yet?
I mean shit, have you seen the Just For Men ad out now? The one with the Creem song in it? That was my father’s favorite song…in 1968. My father’s 67 years old. Morford’s what 36? I’m 36. I couldn’t give two shits about Kennedy and if this jackass was honest, neither does he.
This Obama asshole is ten years older than us and other than fucking law school is arguably less professionally accoplished than either. The only thing he has in common with Kennedy is the machine politics pushing his ass into the Presidency. At least Kennedy knew who the bad guys were.
Kennedy’s a manufactured pop culture, Andy Warhol silk screen martyr like Marylin, James Dean and that fucking banana. If it wasn’t for his VP pick he’d have a couple of cold war footnotes and that’s it. He had good speechwriters and a tragic end, but he didn’t do much otherwise.
One can only hope that after a few weeks of this shit that Obama starts believing his own press. He’s naturally the most arrogant SOB I’ve ever heard outside of an Al Gore global warming seminar or Canadian airport bar. That can only help McCain, who may not be the guy you want holding the purse strings, but at least he won’t put the country in a dress and make us serve drinks to every jackass with a seat at the UN and a good score on his TOEFL.
OK, that’s enough. I’m done, gotta mow before the next round of thunderstorms.
But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long, is so vital to our national identity?
That’s just the thing: it’s not. The Kennedy legacy isn’t significant at all to the national identity, any more than the Garfield legacy. He’s significant to boomers, but most other folks shrug and don’t care – or don’t even know much about him, in the younger generations. Like Lost My Cookies points out, he’s pop culture, not US culture, he’s not enduring, he’s not a folk legend, he’s an artificially propped up legend that a generation idolizes, and others don’t much care about.
sashal
What Ric is describing (and Ric, this is *my* take on your comments, I am not trying to put words in your mouth) is the essense of morality. Being a moral person is a conscious act. Our parents/church/society/culture can hand up one or more moral ladders, but it comes to a point where we decide to embrace one and climb it.
This is what makes Morford and so much of the We Are All God “spirituality” so God-awful. It’s the “spirituality” of a feral child. Actually, maybe worst, because at least a feral child has developed a morality of self-survival. Lightworkers are the ones that want to benefit from their “coweringly religious” neighbors who make society work while denigrating them. To one degree or another they are still the little kid who is laying in bed at 8 pm mumbling under his breath “When I get big I’ll go to bed late as I want and have ice cream for breakfast all the time and never ever eat another green vegetable.”
I know an inevitable tension was set up between myself, my spirituality and the Presbyterian church, and hence the Trinity and organized religion itself, when I was made to sit quietly in the large santuary , my slight frame four years old, in a wooden pew in ruffled underpants, hrough an incomphrehensible sermon in ruffled underpants for nigh unto two hours. I would return home, with road tracks lasting at least until tuesday.
I will say I this was entre into the world of the skeptic.
Have you ever sat your slight frame four years old, in a wooden pew in ruffled underpants, with a father who knew the Vulcan neck pinch? And yet somehow my idea of proper adult behaviour now includes sitting still and reflecting on higher powers, enduring the scourges of life in the human form and remaining dignified and reverent despite them – ones cotton gloves clean, dime at the ready,
When I see congregations get up and hoot like hotentots for a luau missionary boil and clam bake, in praise of the Lord or risque joke in church, I have to say the four year old in me is absolutely revolted.
You have to be carefully taught, I suppose.
I might have made redundant mention of the underpants. Modern feminism may owe much to ruffled underpants in church.
JD:
If you’re still sitting back, reading, my email address is mathew1421 at yahoo dot com.
Are you enjoying this thunderstorm we’re experiencing up north?
This is precisely what I mean when I talk about the structural level — that, for instance, an idea about how interpretation works has become so accepted and ingrained in us that we cannot readily recognize its flaws or linguistic incoherence. And yet we legislate, socially engineer, etc., directly from the flawed kernel assumption.
Fruit of the poisonous tree, if you will.
Alec —
Funny you should mention that. I said the same thing to Michelle Malkin a couple weeks back. I think the best way to take this guy down is satire and/or parody. In fact, something like a short Youtube bit that goes viral might be enough to act as a splash of cold water.
Nishi —
Elected Philosopher Kings isn’t something new. Let me again point you to Jonah’s Liberal Fascism…
See? Like the ending of a great novel, all the threads are beginning to come together to form a perfect hairshirt.
“still the little kid who is laying in bed at 8 pm mumbling under his breath “When I get big I’ll go to bed late as I want and have ice cream for breakfast all the time and never ever eat another green vegetable.â€Â
Oh, and also show off to all the other kids with their icecream manifesting powers. Manifesting ice cream for the deserving, which is totally not that Nancy with the fabulous sparkle blue tricyle who hogs it and is rawther spirtitually dark.
I’d put twenty on not fewer than three urban neighborhoods going up in flames on election eve, even as O! is handed the septre.
He’s significant to boomers
I don’t know… I’m a boomer (my 54th b-day was last thursday) and I don’t swoon over JFK or RFK. I was 9 when JFK was assassinated and 14 for RFK. I lived those eras and the swooning you see is from people who have reinvented the history of the time. Nixon came within a hair’s breath of winning. JFK was smacked around pretty hard by Kruschev at Vienna (and it is reasonably argued that was what lead Kruschev to be emboldened to put missiles in Cuba – he dismissed JFK as an unserious, immature empty suit). JFK’s speeches would be considered downright Bushian today with all their “God talk” and “a rising tide lifts all boats”. RFK was a mixed bag .. worked with Joe McCarthy, authorized wiretaps on MLK, was pro-civil rights and pro-Israel (the latter leading to his assassination by Arab Sirhan Sirhan). RFK also had 11 children, so we can add “prolife” to the mixture, too.
So the attempt to tie O! to a Kennedy legacy is based on only the most superficial – O!’s age, smile, young family and a “D” after his name. Cynical boomer Dems push it and younger, ignorant Dems mainline it.
About that Lightworker page
Why do all crazy religious/cult/new age web pages look the same?
Is there some sort of Dreamweaver template that all these groups use?
A lot of scrolling text, pictures of the universe, youtube links, buttons to click and a lot of words.
I’d put twenty on not fewer than three urban neighborhoods going up in flames on election eve, even as O! is handed the septre.
J Howard:
How many do you hazard will burn if he is not handed the sceptre of ocean-controlling?
Ah Sarah,
If it wasn’t ruffled underpants of the 50’s leading to 60’s feminism, I bet it was also the hard-plastic, pink curlers. Trying to sleep on a headful of them on Saturday night was torture.
Happily, my Presbyterian church had Sunday School .. with stories, drawing pictures and toys while the adults went to the Big Church.
Still…those curlers….
Elected Philosopher Kings isn’t something new.
new for us. ;)
that is why the amorphism works, like the mirror of erised or the boy in the Bradbury story, he becomes whatever we need/want him to be.
i need/want him to be the realization of the Philosopher King, the perfect confluence of heredity and training and environment.
for Morford hes a lightworker w/e that is.
Jeff wants to say he sees him true……but does he?
I think for Jeff Obama has to be someone that is a worse disaster for the country than mccain.
;)
Schoolmarm, it’s just another crazzee club, like gothkids or scenegirls.
Lots of Celtic indians with Mucha fairies. For the AUTHENTICITY. Because if you are teh lightandspiritual, you have the gossamer rainbot sparklies and feather flapping going ON.
That was self-parody, SarahW, so I’ll cut my losses and decline an answer. But it’s an interesting statement on what we’ve become…
BTW, The Onion is sending O! up the river on a regular basis…
Cheezit, Darleen, do you remember those portable headboiler vinylcap hair dryers?
I found one in Mom’s linen closet the other day. I remember not pink curlers, but these mesh ones that contained prickly bottlebrushes. Which were impaled to the scalp by means of metal bobby pins which liked dryer heat.
J Howard, the prospect of city-burning actually hadn’t yet occurred to me till you mentioned it. I denounce myself and think I will manifest me a sugar-free popsicle.
And I denounce myself and request an Intentionalist visit. So there.
SarahW
You mean like this one?
I was blessed not to have the prickly one. I actually considered the pink sponge curlers an immense improvement! Thank god for the late 60’s when long straight hair (parted in the middle, natch) because fashion.
Are you so totally incapable of introspection that you cannot look at that statement and be horrified?
Tinkerbell is a story, Nishi. Tinkerbama is a horror story.
Regards,
Ric
nishi
O! is a worst disaster for this country than McCain. No question.
He said “an African American president, so how again are you discriminated against????”
Because the Neocons still
tried to lynchvoted against him?Tinkerbama
O geez… I just got an image of Barry dressed as Michael Jackson …
must.scrub.brain.
No, it’s not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn’t have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.
Vibrates in ecstasy. Batteries run out. Shakes in anger.
i need/want him to be the realization of the Philosopher King, the perfect confluence of heredity and training and environment.
Well then just audaciously repeat it a few times, and it will become true! Or you could breed midget horses.
Well, I try not to look at the mirror, nishi — lest I inadvertantly launch a thousand ships.
Instead, I base my opinions of Obama on his writings, his careful avoidance at registering votes in the Senate, his background and upbringing, his friends and political supporters, and his own declarations of policy — both social and otherwise. Anti-assimiliationist rhetoric coming from a race “uniter” seems to me paradoxical. And, no offense, but I like my “Philosopher Kings” to have some sort of philosophy beyond promoting class warfare, and weakening the sovereignty of the country he hopes to run in order to win kudos from countries around the world whose approbation is, frankly, meaningless.
But then, I don’t like Philosopher Kings anyway, so I probably shouldn’t be offering up examples of acceptable ones. We already have troubles from such types because the judiciary has “evolved” beyond its mandate and become politicized and, in their minds, socially proactive.
Bad form, that. And a definite weakening of the separation of powers and checks and balances when such things occur.
I think you would say there are no acceptable philosopher kings.
what would thomas jefferson say i wonder…..
“Fetch me some hard cider, negro.”
“Democracy cannot be imposed”?
/giggles
see, right there Jeff.
me and Jefferson=elitists
you and Jackson=populists
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
I suspect Jefferson would not have much issue with spitting in your face, nishi, given your positions. He may defer to your gender, but we’re talking about the author of the Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom; his opinion of philosopher kings is pretty clear in it.
You, no doubt.
Jefferson? Not in the sense you mean it. He may have deferred to an expert on issues within that expert’s purview, and may have been blunt on the difference between men of education and quality vs. the avrage Joe, but he would have rejected the idea that anyone, on any basis, has the right to rule over anyone.
blunt on the difference between men of education and quality vs. the avrage Joe
yup, elitist. ;)
an yah, the “yeoman farmer” is the salt of the earth, but not essentially qualified for selfgovernment with a filter.
withOUT a filter, ie the electoral college
Jeffeson would probably say, “Go ask Madison.”
But you gotta wonder, why has, say, the JFK legacy lasted so long…
His legacy lasted so long because he didn’t.
Nishi, there’s an insurmountable gap between Jefferson’s Republic and your lusting for a philosopher king:
“Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government.” –Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Residence Bill, 1790. ME 3:60
“We are a people capable of self-government, and worthy of it.” –Thomas Jefferson to Isaac Weaver, Jr., 1807. ME 11:220
“There is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready to make himself absolute.” –Thomas Jefferson to George Wythe, 1786. ME 5:398
“I was much an enemy of monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries which may not be traced to their king as its source, nor a good which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them.” –Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1788. ME 6:454
“All… being equally free, no one has a right to say what shall be law for the others. Our way is to put these questions to the vote, and to consider that as law for which the majority votes.” –Thomas Jefferson: Address to the Cherokee Nation, 1809. ME 16:456
“[We acknowledge] the principle that the majority must give the law.” –Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1788. ME 7:28
“This… [is] a country where the will of the majority is the law, and ought to be the law.” –Thomas Jefferson: Answers to de Meusnier Questions, 1786. ME 17:85
“me and Jefferson=elitists”
Teher’s a difference between elitism and fascism.
Not that you’d understand, of course.
“Jefferson, although no churchgoer,was a sincere Christian, “a real Christian,” as he called himself. He did not oppose the church but certain churchmen. He fully accepted the moral principles of Jesus, whom he regarded as one of the greatest figures in history. What Jefferson rejected was sectarianism.”
-Saul K. Padover, Jefferson
I’d believe you but, you know, it’s like this: KK used up all your shiny trust-me-I-did-my-homework-on-Obama coins while you were away. If you don’t like what little you care to know about Barack Obama I’m OK with that. But if you care to, describe where and what you see as problematic, disturbing or otherwise noteworthy concerning Barack Obama’s upbringing, or his friends, that long list, enlighten me, surprise me, tell me of his friends, inasmuch as you can name names outside the ones Sean Hannity nightly woofs on Fox. So there you go, I think I stated myself clearly enough and without my usual lyrical low-information signaling distortion.
Show me up. Hit me where I live. Bring your funk. Go flat primitive.
I agree that humor and satire are the best way to handle the Obama cult, any time someone becomes unbearably pompous and arrogant, the best way to take them down is satire and humor. Few politicians in my memory even come close to the level of bloated pomposity and egregious arrogance that Senator Obama displays.
By the way, Thomas Jefferson might have been a moralist or religious in his own independent way, but he was not in any way a Christian.
Yeah, Jeff, do you like actually have pictures of O! sucking the barbed cock of Satan? Because otherwise thor is all about the light.
thor translated: “lalalalalalalalalala….”
Maybe Jeff’s watching the “whitey” tape. It’s as Bob Novak said, “he’s clean, there’s nothing out there on the guy.” Sad faces all around.
I bet Obama even has mild-mannered house pets. PW’s collective anti-Obama-Fu isn’t worth goat squirt.
O!
thor
It is not up to Jeff, or me or any other of the people who look beyond O!’s shiny suit and one-page resume (in 14 font, doubled spaced, with 1.5 inch margins) to prove O!’s lack. It is O! or any of his acolytes to prove there is actually something there there.
And so far, I haven’t seen a thing. Except this kind of desperate “oh you poopy, lying racists!” whenever the O! non-believers bring up inconvenient facts or lacks in His Holiness.
O! has the leftleaning media acting like bobby soxers at a Sinatra sighting, but that doesn’t quite coverup the giant black hole that is Barry.
Should’a never gotten little thor his first ball peen – seems to think ringing his bell is like playing a guitar, or something.
I bet Obama even has mild-mannered house pets.
If he doesn’t, he will soon. Mandatory photo-op, that.
Well, Darleen, I’ve been consistent in questioning and mocking damn near everyone here. I didn’t want Jeff to feel left out.
When you attack then your attack is held up to the light, not the other way around. Think in terms of vetting an anonymous phone call before issuing an arrest warrant.
Obama is a helluva person as far as people go. You can interchange politician with person in the aforementioned phrase if you can’t stop yourself from hating his person.
O!
Obama is a helluva person as far as people go
Friend of yours?
Maybe Jeff’s watching the “whitey†tape. It’s as Bob Novak said, “he’s clean, there’s nothing out there on the guy.†Sad faces all around.
Yep, sure hasn’t led to little thor having a very rich fantasy life, either.
Obama is a helluva person as far as people go.
You know who else is a great guy? That Dr. House dude. I mean, to go through all that pain and still manage to heal others? Dude has a heart of gold and people should just lay the fuck off because he ain’t all nicey nice all the time! I think Obama should look at him as a veep candidate, really he should.
You know, thinking back, I don’t believe I should have exposed little thor to quite as much of the Teletubbies as I did – might-could even make a guy want to go upside his own head?
Dr. House is a Lightbringer, too, the pain just acts like a basket sometimes.
I’ve got my nose so far up his ass that I’m eyeing his kidneys. But no, I can’t say we’re friends.
O!
All this stuff about the philosopher king is koo-koo. The philosopher king is an explicit oxy-moron. He cannot possibly happen, since he would refuse to rule, period. The philosopher who is eligible to be king is not interested in being king, it is not what he does, not what he wants to do, not what he would do. He’d rather be dead. And if he’s dead, he can’t rule, savvy? Any person who claims to be a philosopher and wishes to be king is by definition not a philosopher, he is a fake (or sophist, if you prefer).
But no, I can’t say we’re friends
Probably lucky there. Most of his friends come in for a beating then he drops them under the bus. That would piss me off.
I don’t know the guy from Adam, but “helluva guy?” c’mon. Listen to him talk. Could you imagine having a beer with him? I bet he’d say “present company excluded” about six times in the first ten minutes. Now McCain’s probably no better, but his wife is part owner in a beer distributor so at the very least, we might be drinking free. I got the feeling that Barry’d be at the payphone when it was his round. Let’s face it, we think he’s wrong. He thinks we’re stupid. It shows.
– thor is like one of those street corner sign twirlers. You know the ones. You’d run them over if it didn’t mean you’d lose your place in traffic.
– He’s here every day bleeting the O! hype like a used car salesman that knows his stock is crap, but sells it with high bling to move it as much as he can. What the fuck, the rubes won’t see the truth til its sitting in their political driveways, leaking oil all over their futures.
– I’ll add my agreement to the parody approach. It will be doubly effective, since Obama is a living parody already. To wit. Darleen came close in one of her posts, but stopped just short of sliding the drop clouth off of:
“The Candy Man!”
Who can take a sunrise
Sparkle it for Jooossss
Cover it in chocolate
and some earmarks or two?
The candyman
The candyman can
The candyman can cause he mixes it with victimhood and makes the world taste good
Who can take a rainbow
Wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in your taxes
and make a nannystate pie?
The candyman
The candyman can
The candyman can cause he mixes it with class wars and makes the world taste good
Who can take tomorrow
Dip it in a dream
Seperate the races
And collect up Whiteys cream?
The candyman
The candyman can cause he mixes it with lies
And makes the world taste good
And the world tastes good, yes the world tastes good
cause the candyman says that it should
– There. Houston control…We have parody! ~O~!
I think one of the saddest parts of this election season is seeing people believe that a politician – a Chicago machine politician no less – is a nice guy, not a venal, corrupt, power hungry arrogant person like all politicians, but a great man, a glowing leader who is above all that. Of all the politicians on earth, Senator Obama is somehow not actually a politician or lawyer, he’s above that like Jesus walking on water. It’s hard to believe anyone could be that credulous, or foolish.
Christopher
Yeah, but who you gonna believe, me, or your lying eyes?
schoolmarm-
You are suppose to masturbate while voting.
Here in Ohio, we recently switched to the new-fangled “electronic” machines- and they don’t have any ‘curtains’!
I was nearly arrested in 2006…
Not really a fan of Hannity’s (see the series, “Random Sean Hannity thoughts,” eg), but I must ask: how does the messenger negate the message, if the message itself happens to be true.
As for my describing where and what I see “as problematic, disturbing or otherwise noteworthy concerning Barack Obama’s upbringing, or his friends, that long list,” well, you need to pay better attention, because I’ve done that before. From thermostats to diets to putting me to work to being anti-assimilationist to being steeped in Black Liberation Theology to having connections to Rezko, Ayers, Dohrne, Khaladi, Wright, the Chicago political machine, to capital gains tax increases to an idea of “fairness” that seems steeped in equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity to a belief that the courts should be ruling using “social justice” (rather than the law) as their guide to his very “liberal” voting record in the Senate…I can’t for the life of me find one reason to support the guy.
In short, he is a progressive — and one who is particularly drawn to radical chic. And if you’ve been paying attention, you’d recognize that I believe that progressivism is grounded in illiberal ideas, and that radical chic is lazy self-approbation.
And as Ric noted earlier, his upbringing — and, more importantly, his social networking — seems steeped in the kind of academic utopianism and soft radicalism peculiar to a certain type of liberal elite. His foreign policy ideas scream “Carteresque.” His “hope” and “change” involves putting on a sweater, while his wife lays out a litany of our collective sins. All that’s missing is a run-in with a giant water rabbit and a drunk brother.
Fuck ALL of that, so far as I’m concerned.
Now, let’s turn this back around. What is it about Obama, besides his bringing the funk and looking all PDiddy in his custom suits OF THE PEOPLE, that has your dick perpetually hard, and your arugula perpetually fresh?
And Hillary’s crowd chants: Iceberg Lettuce! Iceberg Lettuce!
Obama’s probably not so drawn to radical sheik. He explains his rejection of 1960’s political radicalism in either ch. 1 or 2 in Audacity of Hope. I mean, how cool is it to be just like your mom? I thought you read Obama.
I don’t do flying chest bumps when passing the more radical leaning prof.s in the hallway but I neither snarl or spit at them. It’s not unusual to have more friends – or shall I say “be on friendly terms with?” – than the normal leftards we all, for one reason or another, have to share time with. Obama states he’s on friendly terms with both George Bush and Bill Ayers so I think you’re selectively shaping who you believe Obama’s “friends” and “connections” are.
The reason my dick is perpetually hard, in your view, for Barack is he seems thoughtful, collected, confident and he seems to have a gentrified grace in his dealings with people. Frankly, one of George Bush’s better attributes is he too has the ability to remain un-phased in the face of all the lunatic name-calling that’s directed at him. I’m OK with GWB, though I really hate that he didn’t close our southern fuckin’ border after he promised to.
I like both John McCain and Barack Obama because I see neither as so extreme that America can’t outlive either one of them and, as I said, they are quality people, which is something you can’t say that about most of the ilk pod in DC. Yes, I like Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush, Ed Koch, Justice Roberts, Sen, Chuck Hagel, etc.., all for similar reasons of respectable conduct as public servants.
…he seems thoughtful, collected, confident and he seems to have a gentrified grace in his dealings with people.
Chauncey Gardiner for President.
how does the messenger negate the message, if the message itself happens to be true.
You know better than that, truth is relative, the messenger is everything to the radical leftist.
He also notes that Wright is his spiritual advisor. Pretty selective about when to take him seriously, aren’t you, thor?
Plus, most guys who reject radical chic don’t try to mainstream unrepentant domestic terrorists. Or have them organize his political career, for that matter. Ayers and he worked together politically.
For all I know, Obama may be a swell guy. But where you see attributes that you believe would make him a passable President, I see policy ideas and advisors that suggest to me that he’d be Carter redux. And having made it through the first one — even though he’s still here to dry hump dictators and terrorists at the expense of his own country — I’m in no mood to welcome to the Oval Office his ideological compatriot.
If he wants to spot me to a beer and regale me with stories about banging a pair of coeds in the Harvard Library, cool. Unless he demands I pay the check.
I’m an atheist, dude, who’d simply like to see Islam remain the fastest growing religion. I think if we should rain bombs on the enough Islamos so that every year there won’t be enough Muslims to fill and Ark. Islamos should grow organically from only 2, every year, allow only 2, until they get it. Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians rarely get crazy enough to threaten the world, so, you know, the love in my atheist heart gives me the strength to grant Rev. Jeremiah or Pat Robinson the freedom to go crazy with the scripture in anyway they see fit. I couldn’t give a shit. As long as the fat ladies are singing and dancing in the choir, it’s all good.
Ayers once held a coffee fund raiser for Obama. He’s a cow turd too small for a shroom to bloom out of and hardly the nurturing political incubator of right-wing lore.
You’re the rad-winger, not me and not Obama. I’m cool with the dude because he’s vibing a lot of proper swag. Still, McCain is hard with the war-mongering, and I’m down with that more than anything. It’s not that there are too many bad people in the world, it’s that we haven’t killed enough bad people, yet. I feel a responsibility to the planet. Ir could be said I am the anti-Gore.
–“….I’m an atheist, dude”
– Which, of course, is the ultimate gamble that requires the pen-ultimate of faith in the idea of “nothing”. Right on “Dude”.
You know what it is, folks. These guys are the same ones who suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome, and they’ve shifted all that frothing, goofy hate into mindless, wide eyed worship of Obama. As much as they hated Bush, they adore Obama, with the same irrational fixation and reality-proof ideology. We always wondered what would happen when they didn’t have President Bush around to hate, now we know.
Ayers once held a coffee fund raiser for Obama.
It was more than a coffee fund raiser, but he also worked with him for years as a community organizer and was on Obama’s website, praised for his work and visited each other’s homes. That’s way, way, WAY more association that would be sufficient to eternally condemn a Republican. Hell, people condemn McCain for having some dude he’s barely met endorse him.
At’s right, doooodes. I wouldn’t give a fuck if they were tight, one, but they weren’t according to Obama, two, so that sort’a leaves you dudes pissing dreamy hypotheticals in a wind storm.
This place has morphed into a playground for Obama hate-parrots doing Jung’s word association.
It’s time to scale back in Iraq anyway and Obama wants to add troops to Afghanistan, hardly Carteresque, which is spot on if you’re asking me. None of your Obama-dudder sticks because it’s mostly misplaced prog projection, truth be told. Dems have a big advantage in this election and we as a country are lucky as hell it’s going to be Obama running on the Dem side instead of that barking lie-bot with tits.
You want to counter Obama? Then elect some Repubs to the House and Senate who are worth a shit. There’s your reality bolo-punch of the day, suckers.
…who has absolutely no reason to dissemble, what with running for president and all.
…and R-wingers have absolutely no reason to inflate, what with Obama running for President and all.
Still waiting for Jeff to cough up a few of the names of those Republican Illinois state senators who supported Barack when Barack ran for the U.S. Senate. You know, those pansy card-playing, cigarette-smoking, beer drinking buddies of Obama’s whose names are widely known to those who’ve widely read all on Obama.
An unabridged list of names might, um, not be so kind to Jeff’s convenient “friends and connections” construct.
You can tell how much a team player, how much someone is a mindless follower when they reject any and all possible criticisms of their favorite politician. Only someone close to worship would think a politician is above criticism.
Unlike matoko, who is a scientist! I prefer to keep both reason and emotion under rein and in twin harness, both pulling together where I want them to go. Dropping the reins of judgment and letting either have it’s head is a sure recipe for disaster.
Hype plays on emotion, it is manipulation, and I do not like being manipulated, and reason can quickly become rationalization, where the most immoral acts, a great evil can be justified easily.
I will not be dragged by either, I will keep them in rein.
“I think I am! I think I am!…”:
The Little Epiphany Engine That Could
— Rene Descartes
#149
That’s not how things are done in Illinois. The Cook County Board and the City of Chicago got him in office. The same machine that got Kennedy elected president.Foolish boy.
Sure it did, sure it did, Rusty.
I’m cool with the dude because he’s vibing a lot of proper swag.
Groovy Baby! Maybe he will pick Austin Powers for VP.
Thor. You got no fuckin’ idea. But you keep thinkin’, cause that’s what yer good at.
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