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Context. Nuance. Narrative.

Via alppuccino:

“Juno” also shares with “Knocked Up” an underlying theme, a message that is not anti-abortion but rather pro-adulthood. It follows its heroine — and by the end she has earned that title — on a twisty path toward responsibility and greater self-understanding.

This is the course followed by most coming-of-age stories, though not many are so daring in their treatment of teenage pregnancy, which this film flirts with presenting not just as bearable but attractive. Kids, please! Heed the cautionary whale. But in the meantime, have a good time at “Juno.” Bring your parents, too.

From the NYT review.

message: personal responsibility is admirable. In, like, fiction.

Reached for comment, Maureen Dowd called Juno, “for all her outward charm and pluck,” nothing more, in the end, than a trailer trash schoolyard slut who, “trust me, would never be invited to the Hamptons, no matter how ‘noble’ the little whore plays to those who sit in the dark sucking down popcorn and giant Diet Cokes like I might Xanax and a fine Tawny Porto.”

87 Replies to “Context. Nuance. Narrative.”

  1. urthshu says:

    Don’t really see what the big whoop is. Surely in the bright, bright future we’ve all come to expect the kids will all be cared for. Right?

  2. quellcrist falconer says:

    oh, i think this is a bit more problematic for a “reform” candidate.
    Pork Princess

    Maverick made an “impulse” choice.
    Ready to lead?

  3. Mr. Pink says:

    You know someone really should give this girl a good shunning. It is for her own good really.

  4. Jeff G. says:

    Keep floating that one, nishi. Then maybe the press will have to look into the CAC, Rezko, etc.

    I’m in no mood to revisit this weekend. If you have “memes” you want to try out to “turn perception into reality,” try another site.

    Or don’t. In fact, never mind. I’ll step away.

  5. Sdferr says:

    “…Maverick made an “impulse” choice.
    Ready to lead?”

    So you reduce yourself to writing lies, nishi? Is lying strategically warranted to achieve your aims,do you think?

  6. quellcrist falconer says:

    flipflop on the infamous “bridge to nowhere”?

    In addition, Palin has reversed course on at least one major earmark: After initially supporting the $223 million bridge, which was to connect the town of Ketchikan with a remote island, she reversed course last year and canceled the project because of cost overruns. Critics have dubbed the project the “Bridge to Nowhere.”

    But her administration remains eager for many other earmarks.

    In February, Palin’s office sent Sen. Stevens a 70-page memo outlining almost $200 million worth of new funding requests for Alaska.

  7. quellcrist falconer says:

    factoids dude

    Church Lady is an earmarker.

  8. Jeff G. says:

    See? Should should have just plowed through it like Kennedy and the Big Dig. That’s how you become the lion of the senate.

    You’re a joke, nishi. Stop bothering me with your bullshit. Or else explain to me Obama’s qualifications to top the ticket and guide the American people.

    Neither he or Biden’s ever had a fucking real job. How does that fit into your meme grinder?

  9. quellcrist falconer says:

    Stop bothering me with your bullshit

    kk

  10. Jeff G. says:

    I have no hope for this country. You all hash it out. I’ll be tending my garden.

  11. Aldo says:

    A couple posts back a commenter with the handle One MRE too many perfectly captured the attitude of those on the Left who feel like taking Palin and her children down a notch:

    It’s the hypocrisy that’s being discussed: “family values”. Hell, my family has more crap than the Palin’s but we don’t flaunt our Perfection and Arrogance.

    It reminds me of the kid with his baseball cap on background who beats the crap out of the little guy in coke-bottle glasses and a scientific calculator at school recess: He thinks he’s so so smart! I’ll teach him!!

  12. Jeff G. says:

    See? Suddenly nishi would rather shut up and act offended rather than answer the fucking question.

    It’s a simple question, memewarrior. Explain to me Obama’s qualifications to top the ticket and guide the American people.

    Neither he or Biden’s ever had a fucking real job. How does that fit into your meme grinder?

    Addendum: and why have you chosen to go after Palin rather than I, Spy?

  13. Jeff G. says:

    Aldo —

    That was datadave. Fuck him.

  14. Jeff G. says:

    ANSWER THE QUESTION, NISHI!

    Lord knows you expect everyone to answer yours.

  15. Jeff G. says:

    Coward.

  16. Education Guy says:

    Saved! was a really good movie along the same topic line and it also wasn’t anti-abortion so much as pro adulthood or something. But it did have a scene with Jesus instructing Jena Malone to have sex to cure her boyfriend of his gayness, so there’s that.

  17. Marco says:

    Jeff. Don’t stop now.

    I think both you and Palin could stand hearing a fellow traveller reminding you of the old bomber pilot’s adage about catching flak and being over the target…

    In the meantime, to hell with the morons…

  18. Ric Locke says:

    Heh. Jeff, a person who’s chosen the most despicable protagonist in recent science fiction, Thomas Covenant not excluded, as a nom de guerre is unlikely to respond to that sort of thing. If you remember back that far, think Jim deGriese (“The Stainless Steel Rat”) as a serial rapist. Of children. That’s “Quellcrist Falconer”.

    Regards,
    Ric

  19. Dread Cthulhu says:

    Jeff G: “See? Suddenly nishi would rather shut up and act offended rather than answer the fucking question.”

    That would require, like, y’know, an *answer* and maybe even a rational argument to back it up… It is a far cry from the blipvert-style talking points she’s been spewing.

    Besides, liberals love to act offended and sulky. It lets them avoid answering questions… unles, of course, you consider the echoing silence to *BE* the answer — she has no good answer, leastwise not a concrete and rational answer bedded in fact.

    Just my two tentacles worth…

  20. mojo says:

    Sorry to interrupt the “All Palin All The Time” fest, but this important announcement just came in from GoreWorld Headquarters in Tennessee:

    It’s Complicated:

    “One of the many complexities that complicate the task I’ve undertaken is complexity,” said Al Gore, the former vice president who won a Noble Peace Prize for his environmental work.
    http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjYyZmFjNTJiY2Y5NWM0MTI5OTBkODYzZjk3NmFlZjY=

    (For the record, they’re apparently now worrying about Nitrogen. Yes, the “70% of the atmosphere” Nitrogen.)

  21. Pablo says:

    See? Suddenly nishi would rather shut up and act offended rather than answer the fucking question.

    That way, she can be a victim and you can be a cudlip. Fuck her and her psychotic bullshit.

  22. Mr. Pink says:

    100 bucks says nishi, if she does respond, will throw in George Bush’s name in her reasons to support Obama.

  23. tanstaafl says:

    MoDo strikes me as a bitter clinger.

    Barry ? Doesn’t know Sarah’s hometown…in a rush to, uh, uh, uh…downgrade her, doesn’t appear to know Palin’s job for the past 2 years…

    Experience, wot’s dat ?

  24. JHoward says:

    What? Our Moonbatist “libertarian” trolls have no platform, no identifiable philosophy, no reason, no essence?

    Surely it cannot be, O no, say no more, woe am I, et al.

  25. Rusty says:

    Well. It got to shut up for awhile anyway.I really don’t think the left should persue this with any great energy. That particular weathervane can just as easily point in the Obama direction. Thusfar he’s managed to keep his and his families past, shall we say, confused.

  26. Rob Crawford says:

    100 bucks says nishi, if she does respond, will throw in George Bush’s name in her reasons to support Obama.

    No way. That’s a given.

  27. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    Nishbot is rebooting. Getting new memes. Maybe even de-fragging.

  28. Mr. Pink says:

    Nishi’s deranged hatred of Palin has gone from “I hate her cause of her hair, and the fact she has babies. She is not of my tribe”, to now cutting and pasting any anti-Palin article she can find into her comment box. If someone spots a burning effigy of Palin at the protests outside the RNC it will probably be her.

  29. alppuccino says:

    Have I unwittingly inspired the post that started the thread where Mr. Goldstein chased off the griefer?

    Swing low sweet chariot. I’m ready to come home.

  30. PalmettoTiger says:

    It’d be helpful to see those “earmarks” broken down. Not all such directed spending items are created equal. Some items are the responsibility of the Federal government – US highways, keeping rivers and harbors dredged, defense, ATON updates, etc. Creating a Woodstock Museum is, umm, not. Just because someone puts in a funding request doesn’t automatically make it a big, scary sow’s earmark. YMMV

    PT

  31. Victor. says:

    Nish does realize that she just completely destroyed the “no experience” argument that she’s been riding all weekend, right?

    When you sift gears that hard the risk of whiplash increases exponentially -it’s scientifically proven!

  32. tanstaafl says:

    “Obama direction. Thus far he’s managed to keep his and his families past, shall we say, confused…”

    Maybe you can sort it out :) (including a recently uncovered half brother by a heretofore not known of “wife” of Barack Sr. who recently turned up in Kenya living on $12/year and another half brother (who I believe is offspring of Barack Sr. with third wife, Ruth Nidesand), currently living as a mild entrepreneur in China…)

    The love of Barry Srs. life (first wife, Kezia) currently lives in England and likes to play Bingo !

    One convoluted family tree

  33. Jeff G. says:

    ANSWER THE QUESTION, CUDLIP!

  34. Obstreperous Infidel says:

    “Nish does realize…”

    Can computers realize anything?

  35. thor says:

    Dressed in her black leather coat (I saw it on youtube), surrounded by her bodyguards, like a cheap B-movie SS impersonator, her shadow scarred every Main street. A real weathervane-Jesus, even in caricature, still, her frondist militiamen rounded up suspected liberals, foreigners, non-workers and “decadents,” as Sarah called ’em. The killings made hot morning conversation on Fox and Friends where they debated the necessity for clowns and acrobats between executions.

    First Herr Governess banned talking of the past. If you did that you’d never last. Phrases populist and dogmatic, if not too garish, were all that was legal as well as the eerie backdrop to her deactivations, as she called the murderous afternoon show.

    The gendarmes brought forth a shackled thor and hung him long in the sun. He’d wore out that exact line in almost everything he wrote, thus the judge sentenced said same upon him. Having been found guilty days earlier of behaving incomprehensible and coded, and of course, guilty of repeated failures of judgment, he was sentenced to die alongside dozens of others.

    Before his death he whispered only “death exonerates me, ya’ll shall miss me, just wait’n see” while his tormentors shouted “he threw that same bullshit line out every time!” and “a hoisted mime never rhymes!”

    Between his death and reincarnation, his life-death beginning-ending, were persistent rumors that he was actually a Russian named Gorbek, but they called him “Grob” for short, which translated means grave, or that he was a Tibetan named Bardo, which equates to Gordo in Canadian.

  36. A3k says:

    Mojo,

    It’s not the atmospheric nitrogen they’re talking about.

    Gore is a bulbous moron whose exaggeration makes Biden look almost normal in comparison, but his presence on the national scene is not relevant to the AGW theory any more than a certain Oklahoma Senator is. The facts exist as they are regardless how it plays out politically.

    In this case, the fact supports AGW theory by and large, though many of the claims attributed to it are obviously false and hyperbolic. It’s unfortunate the science has become politicized because both sides then throw everything they know (which is usually bullshit) up against the wall to try to win.

    Off topic, I know.

  37. thor says:

    Comment by Jeff G. on 9/2 @ 12:05 pm #

    ANSWER THE QUESTION, CUDLIP!

    Barack Obama hit the stump twenty months back and made his case the old fashioned way, namely, before the American people from the podium.

    Obama was given nothing, appointed by no one. He’s the McCoy, Hatfield.

    O!

  38. Pablo says:

    Leave the fiction to Jeff, ya zero. You’re no fucking good at it. Do something worthwhile like answering us this: If Obama or Biden had a 17 year old pregnant daughter would that disqualify them from the office they seek?

    Alternately, tell us what it’s like getting punked by a girl.

  39. Pablo says:

    Obama was given nothing, appointed by no one.

    He was appointed by the superdelegates. He did not win the primary race.

  40. thor says:

    wHatEvAH, ya igno peddler.

  41. thor says:


    Comment by Pablo on 9/2 @ 12:20 pm #

    Alternately, tell us what it’s like getting punked by a girl.

    I’ll do a reading from your replies to nishi. Mad punkage that.

  42. Sdferr says:

    The president of the Illinois senate didn’t give obama top sponsorship billing on over a hundred bills obama didn’t write?

    Oh, wait, yes he did.

    With bowties wrapped around them, delivered on sweet little silver platters fit for a messiah. And a side of frankincense and myrhh. Or was that waffles?

  43. JD says:

    Nishit went silent. SWEET!

  44. thor says:

    Ever the optimist, JD.

  45. JD says:

    Pkay, prolly not silent. Just a cowardly scared little child, unable to come up with anything other than Meme’s 1-8. When pressed, she flees. Childish. Cowardly. A genocide promoting eugenicist that has the online balls to savage a successful woman and her daughter because she has a mouthful of Baracky’s dingleberries. Sad, and pathetic, it is.

  46. Patrick says:

    Obama was given nothing, appointed by no one. He’s the McCoy, Hatfield.

     Given nothing.  Appointed by no one.  Yep, he’s the real deal.  All new.  Like no politician we’ve ever seen.

     Fluffy pablum bullshit.  He’s a typical Chicago machine politician, pushed up to the national stage.  All bun and no burger.  Extra melanin.

  47. emmotd says:

    “You’re a joke, nishi. Stop bothering me with your bullshit. Or else explain to me Obama’s qualifications to top the ticket and guide the American people.”

    I’ll take a stab. I think obama is more qualified because he’ll pick better judges and make the judiciary more balanced.

  48. Thats not typical Chicago.

    heh. KEEP BELIEVING!!!

  49. also, you forgot getting the sealed divorce records of your opponent opened.

  50. “That was Chicago politics,” said John Kass, a veteran Chicago Tribune columnist. “Knock out your opposition, challenge their petitions, destroy your enemy, right? It is how Barack Obama destroyed his enemies back in 1996 that conflicts with his message today. He may have gotten his start registering thousands of voters. But in that first race, he made sure voters had just one choice.”

    link for starters. do a site search for more. or not.

  51. Carin says:

    “He’s a typical Chicago machine politician, ”

    This makes very little sense. He tossed out improper signatures. Thats not typical Chicago. Thats taking on typical Chicago!

    What a hoot! That kool-aid must have been delicious.

  52. Carin says:

    emmotd needs to do a bit of research.

    Obama is the epitome of Chicago politics.

  53. to be fair Carin, ithinkthatespressochocolatebarihadiskickingin.

  54. Carin says:

    No, it’s not just the expresso. Immotd is nuts if she thinks he came from anything but “they system.”
    HOPE you’re not paying attention, because i’m not gonna CHANGE a thing.

  55. Andrew the Noisy says:

    I’ll take a stab. I think obama is more qualified because he’ll pick better judges and make the judiciary more balanced.

    Because 4 conservatives is just too many.

  56. serr8d says:

    # Comment by quellcrist falconer on 9/2 @ 11:01 am #

    Stop bothering me with your bullshit

    kk

    Careful, Jeff. She’ll want her armadillo back.

    Or maybe set it on fire..

  57. Rusty says:

    Comment by emmotdb on 9/2 @ 4:20 pm #

    ” Given nothing. Appointed by no one. ”

    At the convention, he was appointed by the acclamation of thousands of delegates representing millions of voters.

    “He’s a typical Chicago machine politician, ”

    This makes very little sense. He tossed out improper signatures.he tossed out republican signatures. Thats not typical Chicago. Thats taking on typical Chicago!

    Fixed that for you.

  58. Jeff G. says:

    I’ll take a stab. I think obama is more qualified because he’ll pick better judges and make the judiciary more balanced.

    I think the ability to choose is fairly ordinary.

  59. Carin says:

    But, but but …Palin would be JUST A HEARTBEAT AWAY from picking the judges.

    Or, didn’t you hear? McCain, apparently, is old.

  60. well, not as VP, Jeff G. kinda as Governor.

    Alaska uses a Missouri Plan merit selection system for judges and justices. The governor appoints a supreme court justice or a judge of the court of appeals, superior court, or district court from a list of qualified candidates submitted by the Alaska Judicial Council. The governor has 45 days from receipt of the list to make the appointment. All judges and justices in Alaska must stand for judicial retention elections (approval by the voters) on a nonpartisan ballot at the first statewide general election held more than three years after appointment, and periodically thereafter.

  61. DAMN YOU GOLDSTEIN!!!!

  62. I can explain. Evidently Obama spent the last two years running a CAMPAIGN FOR NATIONAL OFFICE. All that while Palin ran…Alaska. See? You know, moose, oddball DJ’s, hot bush pilots and what, one fucking astronaut? vs. three big speeches, two autobiographies and one pissed-off wife.

    According to TV, Obie wins.

  63. I think he’ll make better choices.

    because of ???

    When I think of Chicago, I don’t think of operating within the rules

    um. okay, except you just acknowledged the “good shot” that wasn’t exactly legal….

    and the Chicago Tribune guy disagrees with you, among others. whatevs.

    got any other faint praise for O!?

  64. RTO Trainer says:

    I’ll take a stab.

    Yeah. You will.

    I think obama is more qualified because he’ll pick better judges and make the judiciary more balanced.

    How the fuck does that help? I don’t want the judiciary balanced. I want it slanted firmly toward my ideology. If you ain’t in it to win, boy, why play the game?

  65. Andrew the Noisy says:

    “Its not just the supreme court, but the whole judiciary is too republican for my tastes.”

    In what sense? They’ve yet to rule that “From Each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is actually somewhere under the penumbra of Article III?

  66. emmotdb says:

    “um. okay, except you just acknowledged the “good shot” that wasn’t exactly legal….”

    I thought the judge opened those records according to the rules of how records get opened. I asked if it was really “chicago.” If its according to the rules, it doesn’t seem so.

    But yeah the guy from the chicago trib said it, so now it means that the candidate with the improper names losing is “chicago style.” no matter how much sense that makes.

    “because of ???”

    His candidates will go through the ACS, not the federalist society.

    “How the fuck does that help? I don’t want the judiciary balanced. I want it slanted firmly toward my ideology.”

    On the way toward it being slanted my way it will first be balanced. I won’t get a slant in 4 years though.

    “In what sense?”

    In the sense that there are more of them than democrats.

  67. Dread Cthulhu says:

    emmotdb: “And for those opposing challenging signatures, should he have won with more improper signatures, would that have been “chicago”? I agree its scrappy, but seems quite within the rules to knock out your opponent’s improper signatures. When I think of Chicago, I don’t think of operating within the rules, of enforcing them against your opponents. I think of bending them. Of false votes and false signatures.”

    So your argument is that because he used the least objectionable tools of the Chicago machine style of politics, he didn’t use the Chicago machine style of politics? Throw in the social aspect of the Chicago machine — hobnobbing with crooks (Rezko), thugs (Ayers) and racists (Wright), I’d say Barry O’Emptysuit is pretty much par for the course… not quite ol’ Hinky Dink, but pretty close.

    emmotdb: “I think he’ll make better choices.”

    Feh — he’ll pick idiots who “discover” “penumbral” rights and ignore inconvenient aspects of Constitution.

  68. emmotdb says:

    “So your argument is that because he used the least objectionable tools of the Chicago machine style of politics, he didn’t use the Chicago machine style of politics?”

    He challenged improper activity by his opponent! It’s just hard to see that as something objectionable. It was real scrappy and smart, because he disqualified his opponent. And his opponent may not have expected such a strong challenge, but its still hard to see this as THAT objectionable. If obama is improperly on the ballot in Ohio, and the GOP challenges it, obama supporters are going to made, sure, but it won’t be ‘chicago style’ would it?

    “Feh — he’ll pick idiots who “discover” “penumbral” rights and ignore inconvenient aspects of Constitution.”

    That penumbra has worked out just fine as far as i’m concerned.

  69. lee says:

    Gore is a bulbous moron whose exaggeration makes Biden look almost normal in comparison, but his presence on the national scene is not relevant to the AGW theory any more than a certain Oklahoma Senator is. The facts exist as they are regardless how it plays out politically.

    Yes, yes they do.

    Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously

    The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

    It didn’t happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

    The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth’s climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

    Think we should start buying SUV’s again, and drive around on under inflated tires?

  70. Pablo says:

    I’ll do a reading from your replies to nishi. Mad punkage that.

    Yeah, you can tell by the way she’s successfully contradicted me so many times, and the throngs of people she’s drawn to her POV. Feel free to link to some of that, hammer boy.

    At least, unlike you, nishi might actually be dangerous if she managed to get enough people to take her seriously. You’re just a zero with a big mouth and no balls.

  71. RTO Trainer says:

    That penumbra has worked out just fine as far as i’m concerned.

    Of course you think so. A senile Supreme Court Justice gets confused by shadows one night and thinks he sees them moving about on the pages of the Constitution. Convenient shadows that blot out inconvenient phrases and change the meanings of others regardless of the plain, properly illuminated, text.

  72. B Moe says:

    His candidates will go through the ACS, not the federalist society.
    Heh.
    http://www.acslaw.org/about/mission
    Can you believe those pigs? Walking up on their hind legs like that?

  73. emmotdb says:

    And then the ghost of the 11th amendment comes to my door…

  74. B Moe says:

    You ever get a chance to talk to the tenth, I would recommend it.

  75. emmotdb says:

    Ain’t that everyone’s fav?

  76. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    I’m inclined to go with the chart-toppers, First and Second.

    I’m a little stodgy that way.

    The 16th is definitely subpar.

  77. Spies, Brigands, and Pirates says:

    In the “classic amendments” category, the Fourth and Fifth are good, as is the (completely ignored) Ninth.

    Among your “new wave” amendments, I don’t care much for the Sixteenth, as I said, but the Nineteenth and Fourteenth are fine. The Eighteenth is definitely the Disco Duck of the lot: lousy, and it never gets any airplay nowadays.

  78. Justice Souter could not be reached for comment….

  79. okay, so far we’ve got, um, that O! can, uh, pick judges. not that he’s ever, ya know, um, demonstrated this ability, so I’m a little skeptical (his picking abilities in associates is a bit questionable. unless of course you like racists and terrorists), but whatevs. any other qualifications?

  80. Pablo says:

    Well, we know he wouldn’t have picked Justice Thomas because he didn’t have enough exper…er, didn’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation.

    But executive experience? Hell, he’s a great campaigner!

  81. Rusty says:

    #67
    You have sooooo much to learn about Chicago politics. Keep this in mind as you go to the polls this November, young person.
    You do not even get on the ballot in that city unless somebody sent you. That means you got recomended by someone connected in the machine. Yeah there are turf wars. The rumor was his opponent was gettiing too greedy. The man you so admire is entwined with a corrupt system that would make the Borgias blush.
    There’s a reason that there are more US attournys in the city of Chicago than any other city in America. “o”s cabinet will look like the Cook County Board. Trust me. You don’t want them running the country.

  82. Silver Whistle says:

    I don’t think Maureen Dowd is a tawny sort of girl, more of a crusted old white.

  83. BuddyPC says:

    40. Comment by thor on 9/2 @ 12:19 pm #

    Comment by Jeff G. on 9/2 @ 12:05 pm #
    ANSWER THE QUESTION, CUDLIP!

    Barack Obama hit the stump twenty months back and made his case the old fashioned way, namely, before the American people from the podium.

    Obama was given nothing, appointed by no one. He’s the McCoy, Hatfield.

    Right. Tell that to Jack Ryan.

    ————
    Re: Context. Nuance. Narrative.

    So Sarah Palin also finds time to ghost write for AO Scott? That’s like Profiles In Courage in reverse.
    Is there anything she doesn’t do?

  84. The Lost Dog says:

    “That penumbra has worked out just fine as far as i’m concerned.”

    Yeah. Fuck those morons who wrote the constitution!

Comments are closed.