July 14th, 2008 — free speech, satire
This is the headline of the summer:
And this is the line of the summer, from Pareene at Gawker, about the “tasteless and offensive” cartoon (or possible “anti-Obama propaganda”) that is making a fool of nearly*** everyone on cable “news” tonight:
This obvious and heavy-handed satire has enraged Democrats and liberal media critics because now they are pretty sure this nation of child-like imbeciles will believe it to be an un-retouched photograph from the FUTURE.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the FUTURE:
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*** Everyone except Jesse Ventura, bless him, who just told Larry King (I’m paraphrasing) that we live in the era of free speech, and everyone remembers Larry Flynt took his case to the Supreme Court and won for his magazine’s satires of Jerry Falwell, and the First Amendment is there to protect offensive speech because inoffensive speech doesn’t need protecting.
Go, Jesse, go!
July 14th, 2008 — books, reading
Norm Geras, displaying the unfailing common sense to which his readers have become accustomed, suggests the obvious for those who worry that the internet is ruining their book habit:
Me, I don’t get it. It’s true that sometimes, if you have to switch rapidly from one type of activity to another, there can be a problem. For example, if you’ve been in charge of boisterous young children for some hours, and have to sit down immediately to something requiring intense mental concentration, you may find that you’d be better placed coming to it after a break. Switching from much online hopping and skipping about to serious reading is no different. The problem isn’t with the internet. And the solution is straightforward. Here’s one version of it: however much of your spare time you spend online, spend at least 50 percent of that reading (books and such). You’ll find you can do it just as well as ever. This is if you want to. And if you don’t, then you don’t. But that’s you, in that case, and not the internet. [e.a.]
Geras was responding to the hand-wringing of this guy.
The number of links I’d have to provide for previous hues and cries about the death of books and reading would fill all the space that WordPress offers, so I won’t even try. I have written about the supposed death of reading before, though: here.
July 14th, 2008 — America, cultural deprivation, culture war, demagogues
Barack Obama doesn’t approve of political satire.
Barack Obama doesn’t approve of Bernie Mac’s comedy routine.
Barack Obama doesn’t approve of his daughters offering up personal details about their family life.
Unfortunately, John McCain doesn’t approve of political satire, either; and he never talks about his family. Plus, he thinks Viagra vs. birth control is a very serious debate.
Lighten up!
Folks: We are in for an excruciatingly moralistic four (or eight!) years.
I wish our culture warriors would get cracking! (Though, truth to tell, from the controversy surrounding the latest animated blockbuster from Hollywood, it seems like they’re not moribund after all.)
