FRIDAY FOLLIES: On Legendary Liz, Cute Joe Biden, the Moon and the Loon

Elizabeth Taylor was the most beautiful human being on this earth for so many years you had to wonder if her not-of-this-world violet eyes didn't have something to do with it.  Because, honestly, who else on this earth ever had violet eyes?  But beyond her beauty, she had something else that most incredibly pampered child stars never had: an ability to look outside herself and see the other half of the world.  She worked tirelessly to bring attention to HIV/Aids, bringing honest assessments and putting human faces on a scourge that others chose to ignore because it was only a "gay issue" and didn't affect the rest of us.  Except it did, and she showed us why.

I adored her when she was young, but I admit it was because she was so gorgeous, so wonderful to look at.  I loved her even more as she matured and became an advocate for afflicted shadow people who, at the height of the Aids epidemic, had to endure more than just the physical aspects of the disease.  There were many who saw it as appropriate punishment for a "deviant" lifestyle, but Elizabeth Taylor waded right into that fight and, I believe, changed minds.  What a dame!

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This was the week of the Supermoon.  The moon was the closest it has been to earth in 18 years, and the hype before it happened gave cause to be prepared for something spectacular.  Luckily, we were in a place where the skies were clear and we could watch as it cleared the horizon and rose higher and higher.  At first, because we so wanted to believe it, we convinced ourselves that what we were seeing was more special than usual.  But how long can you keep that up?  It was a moonrise and it didn't look any different, no matter how clear the sky or how unobstructed the view.  On a scale of one to 10 I'd give it a C-minus.

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The Latin word for moon is "Luna".  The word "lunatic" comes from "Luna", because there is still some thought that a full moon brings out the craziness in some people.  It's all explained in this nutty video, but I bring it up here because of this next FF segment:

The Snewz Guyz spent days talking about Michele Bachmann's hint at a chance she might consider the possibility of throwing her goofy hat into the presidential ring. That's THIS Michele Bachmann.  For president.  Of the United States.

Makes you just want to crawl under the covers and pretend the 21st century never got started, doesn't it?

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Oops.  Dave Weigel thinks "Wait, wait, don't tell me" is a legitimate news program?  This is what he had to say (It's short so I post it here in its entirety.  Dave can sue me if he wants, but I doubt he wants to bring any more attention to it):

A Weird Smear Against Michelle Malkin

Posted Monday, March 21, 2011 4:44 PM | By David Weigel

I happened to catch this snippet of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" while driving in Austin -- my excuse is that the reception on the Alex Jones channel was choppy -- and Michelle Malkin is right. It made little sense for a fake news segment about a Muslim-fearing conservative pundit to start this way.

Conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin has expressed her fear that there are Muslims amongst us who are hiding their true identity. The most prominent, she claims, being Barack Obama. 

This has never been Malkin's position. She writes a whole lot of words. None of them go there. Her long-running, consistent, un-PC argument has been that the Obama administration is blowing the war on terror and the search for Islamic extremists by refusing to recognize that the extremism exists. This is not a crazy position held by crazy people. It is, occasionally, Joe Lieberman's position.

See, the ridiculous question was one of three where only one answer is right.  The Malkin question was a wrong one,  That's the fun of the program, all that silly stuff.  But Dave took it as one in a long list of left-wing NPR smears against the poor, abused Right Wing Wackos, and just another reason (hidden, but there nonetheless) to quit giving money to those radicals.
Sorta backfired.
How sad. . .
Pathetic, even.

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 Okay, on to better stuff:  Did I ever tell you I LOVE Joe Biden?  I do.  Yes, he can be slightly wacky at times but in a good way.  A cute way.  He's fluffy tough and the reason the word "gaffe" was invented.  But the other day he spoke to union activists and every word was a keeper.  Try parsing THIS, Faux News!  Ha!

"You guys built the middle class," said Biden in a virtual town hall conversation hosted by the AFL-CIO. "I would just emphasize what Hilda [Solis] said and say it slightly different: We don't see the value of collective bargaining, we see the absolute positive necessity of collective bargaining. Let's get something straight: The only people who have the capacity -- organizational capacity and muscle -- to keep, as they say, the barbarians from the gate, is organized labor. And make no mistake about it, the guys on the other team get it. They know if they cripple labor, the gate is open, man. The gate is wide open. And we know that too."

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So let's keep those good thoughts about Joe Biden as we wade into the mire caused by Maine's Right Wing governor, Paul LePage.  One day he got a visit from his Big Business bosses and it seems they got their feelings hurt because the 36-foot LABOR mural depicting LABOR history in the LABOR department wasn't all about them.  What gives?  So pretty soon Pauly sees the light and tells the LABOR department that it's absolutely the wrong place for a LABOR mural.  It's going to be moved, possibly to the locked bathroom at the gas station down the street.   (See, this is why we need our Vice President (could use a little help from the Prez. . .) talking to union activists.  And the rest of us listening and making ready to DO SOMETHING.)

 

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Cartoon of the Week

Courtesy of Mikeb30200 - Thanks!

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Sliding Toward a More Social Union

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
Warren Buffett
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Throughout the entire reign of the devastating Bush years, and even during the pro-business Clinton years, (when we all watched Bill Clinton cozy up to the Republicans in a misguided and futile attempt to make them stop their incessant bullying), I felt like the lone voice whimpering that you just can't let raging Capitalism take hold without allowing social consciousness to follow in its wake, caring for the inevitable battered and bloodied.

Capitalism, by its very nature, rewards greed. Greed, by its very nature, rewards selfishness. A country that claims to be By the People, For the People, and Of the People can't afford to give Greed its day.

If you want to call a recognition of the need for social programs "Socialism", fine with me. I've argued for a long time that Capitalism has to get in bed with Socialism in order to survive. I've argued, too, that Socialism has to suck up to Capitalism in order to--okay--get its programs funded.

Michael Winship wrote a piece in Bill Moyers' Journal's The Blog yesterday called, "Oh, what a lovely class war!". He starts it this way:

"My goodness, how they howl when the proverbial shoe is on the proverbial other foot. You’d think the Red Army had just left Moscow and was preparing a frontal assault on the Federal Reserve.

So what are conservatives, Wall Street and financial television commentators shouting? Socialists! That's right. Spread the word: Socialists are swarming over our nation's capitol, and making off with the means of production, otherwise known as campaign contributions and the Federal budget. You got trouble, my friends."

To Michelle Malkin the opposite of Socialism is apparently "individual responsibility". Is that what we've seen for the past eight to twelve years? Individual responsibility? Which individuals were responsible for screwing the American people out of their livelihoods, out of their homes, out of any chance at getting quality health care? How exactly does this individual responsibility work? Every person is an island? We don't need no lousy handouts? Tell that to the Fat Cats who not only had their hands out, they had their vaults open, ready to be filled with OUR money.

North Carolina senator Jim DeMint doesn't want a thing to do with nationalizing banks, and he uses the threat of "socialism" to make his argument: "I think the idea of nationalization is the same idea as socialization," DeMint said. "I think we need to do everything we can to make the private markets work and not use this as an excuse to expand government into owning banks and other companies."A little late for that, Jim. The private markets blew it. That's why we're where we are now. If even the slightest hint of regulation had been in the mix, we might not now be looking at having to own the banks in order to make them do right by us. (Or we might not be watching Bernie Madoff this very day do the perp walk to face the thousands he swindled out of billions without fear of detection.)

We're in a mess now, and the people who put us there want a chance to mess it up again. We can't let them. We must allow this administration to bring in their interpretation of a New Deal. The Reaganites are wrong when they say the best government is no government. Barack Obama is right when he says the best government is good government. And right now good government is BIG government--like it or not.

What we're hearing now is the bleating sounds of sheep dying a hard death. Pay no attention. We don't have time for them.

Ramona