or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 19, 2007
Now That's Vibrant!
Here's Kenneth Pollack in The Threatening Storm:
We are at a fork in the road of our policy toward Iraq, and the path we choose to take will have enormous repercussions. We are part of the world's most vibrant democracy...it is critical that we engage in a comprehensive and informed public debate and make a choice that the American people can strongly support.
When one of Deborah Mayer's elementary school students asked her on the eve of the Iraq war whether she would ever take part in a peace march, the veteran teacher recalls answering, "I honk for peace."Soon afterward, Mayer lost her job and her home in Indiana. She was out of work for nearly three years. And when she complained to federal courts that her free-speech rights had been violated, the courts replied, essentially, that as a public school teacher she didn't have any.
If Kenneth Pollack ever asks my opinion about how he got everything so wrong, I will point him to the "world's most vibrant democracy" sentence, and say, "That was your mistake right there."
Posted at May 19, 2007 08:10 PM | TrackBackI just want to live in the Constitutional Republic I was promised and you can keep your Legislative Democracies, Thank You. Deborah NEEDS a vicious lawyer.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 19, 2007 10:14 PM“We are part of the world's most vibrant democracy…” What a load of poop. Every politician in the country is obligated by law to tell us how wonderful we all are, I think it is in the constitution.
Besides, we would not want little Billy Bob Bumpkin to grow up thinking there was something wrong with war, oh no. In America war is God and God is war, the two are inseparable. We be good, God be good, War be good, they bad, we kill them now then everyone good.
A democracy is called "vibrant" when you can write a Call To War without a single paragraph that is not plain, unadulterated crap, and then get rewarded for it with the reputation of an "expert" and a plum position at Brookings.
A democracy is called "vibrant" when, the minute people realize that you don't speak a word of Persian and you've never ever set foot in the country, ask you to write a book... on Iran. Of course you'll title the book "The Persian Puzzle" to advertise the fact that you don't have a clue what you're talking about. Which will land you more opportunities to pontificate on NPR about subjects you don't know squat about.
It's the vibrancy of the Great Vibrator of Ignorance that the country loves to stick up its collective ass.
KY, Crisco, or organic olive oil?
Posted by: Freddy el Desfibradddoro at May 20, 2007 11:47 AMIn Alabama, you can't get vibrant democracy, not even if you're married.
Or something.
Posted by: Davis X. Machina at May 20, 2007 06:29 PMLook on the bright side at least 25% is happy. You can't blame everything on the government.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 20, 2007 09:41 PMAccording to the federal courts, we are all in the military.
We are all in the God Damn military.
Jesus fucking Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!
ken pollack certainly has a vibrant imagination
Posted by: almostinfamous at May 21, 2007 11:50 AMrich: CORRECT--1903 Militia Act.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 21, 2007 12:10 PMYou know what I hate most about this Deborah Mayers story? The fact that it took place in Bloomington fricking Indiana, the only bright spot in the state. At a time when I was living there (and incidentally holding a "honk for peace" sign on the square, so did I get her fired???)
But then I saw she was at Clear Creek Elementary. One of my daughter's friends goes there. Place sucks, it's a boot camp. Definitely an anaphylactic reaction to the livid liberalism closer to campus.
It's egregious that the school corporation supported the dismissal, and pathetic that they felt the need to lie about it. I'm wondering how many people in B-town even know this story. I just heard it today, for instance. Time for a letter to the editor, methinks.
Posted by: Michael at May 22, 2007 01:05 AM
