I don't often tweak the template here at Blue Gal, but I like this feature enough to mess with code. There is now a "Share This" button at the bottom of each of my posts. If you see something you like here and want to tweet it or share it on Facebook or elsewhere, this button provides a quick pop-up window with multiple options. And I know I don't say it often enough: thanks for reading my blog.
Matthews: This is really deep Charlie. I think that I'm not absolutely sure of myself on issues. I know that my opinion, and I know that other people that I have different ones. And I feel like ending every show with not everything I say can be wrong. I mean I do think it's possible everything I said is wrong. I have a very strange view.
Some of the bloggers jumped on me. And this is what I think explains what some people think about me. When we first went into Iraq...
Rose: What do you think they think about you?
Matthews: Well they don't quite get me. They, I'm first of all a grown up and they resent that, but secondly, and also, I have a job...they don't like that either. That's really going to fester them with anger. But when we first went into Iraq and when they set it up this way or not and whether or not Mike Deaver still had his hand in this or not, you know like it all looked good, they all tore down the statues and everything looked great, I thought you know I've been dead wrong about this.
Rose: At that point everything was great.
Matthews: I thought I was wrong, but I thought it was good for the country.
Social liberals in the country’s “blue states” tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter’s pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in “red states” generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn’t choose to have an abortion.So Bristol Palin gets pregnant and doesn't get an abortion, and her choices are understood and even accepted in Red State world. And Meghan McCain is clearly sexually active but doesn't get pregnant, and describes herself as a "progressive Republican."
HIGGINS [carried away] Yes: in six months -- in three if she has a good ear and a quick tongue -- I'll take her anywhere and pass her off as anything. We'll start today: now! this moment! Take her away and clean her, Mrs. Pearce. Is there a good fire in the kitchen?Behaving like a duchess means having no concern over whether society thinks you are a 'good girl' sexually. George Bernard Shaw understood that the cultural battle over sexual morals is not about sex. It's about whether you need to position yourself as morally superior about sex, because that is your economic class's only claim to gentility. (Notice Eliza's slum prudery extends so far as to getting naked for a bath.)
MRS. PEARCE [protesting]. Yes; but—
HIGGINS [storming on] Take all her clothes off and burn them. Ring up Whitely or somebody for new ones. Wrap her up in brown paper til they come.
LIZA. You're no gentleman, you're not, to talk of such things. I'm a good girl, I am; and I know what the like of you are, I do.
HIGGINS. We want none of your slum prudery here, young woman. You've got to learn to behave like a duchess.
It's not just that Gingrich doesn't realize that people can look up what he said five years or five minutes ago on the internet tubes. Newt has become a Catholic, I believe, because old-style Catholicism buys into what he (and Republicanism) have believed all along: that you may not be perfect, but you are always forgiven, provided you profess loyalty and devotion to the ideology involved. So as long as you SAY you believe in the Holy Catholic See/Grand Old Party ideology, no matter how much you lie or how big a hypocrite you are, the indulgences will come at you fast and easy.
From Wikipedia, which in this case is a pretty accurate rendition:
An indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution. The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit acquired by Jesus' sacrifice and the virtues and penances of the saints. They are granted for specific good works and prayers.
The Republican Party and the 24 hour news cycle (that apparently needs them to fill up 'fair and balanced' programming minutes) doles out indulgences all the time. That's why compulsive gambler Bill Bennett and Christian Right/Gambling benefactor Ralph Reed can appear on CNN as Republican analysts and Wolf Blitzer doesn't bat a eye. It's why Newt Gingrich himself is allowed into the green room at This Week any Sunday morning he likes, whether Paul Krugman sits next to him or not.
It's why despite his horrible record and affairs and total hypocrisy he may be the standard bearer of his party, the party of family values, in 2012.
And notice, John Edwards won't.
By acquiescing to the cover-up of unpleasant truths in the treatment of prisoners, Pelosi contributed to the betrayal of the ideal of public accountability that is the bedrock of our system of governance, which Congress is charged with protecting.
The reason for this change is fairly simple: I'm in need of something more creative, and I want to get back to the basics of writing. It is my passion, it is what I love - and I am interested in more than just the hard-core political world, whose media (blogospheric/magazines/TV shows/etc.) and activist outlets in the Dear Leader Era I believe are becoming less and less creative, more and more sycophantic, and ultimately, completely unstimulating.
I say that with an asterisk, though - and that asterisk is In These Times and OpenLeft. Those are two of the few places where I think generally creative and bold-thinking writing is still being done - by journalists, front-pagers, diarists and commenters. That's why, in fact, I am going to keep writing on a limited basis for both.
Elizabeth Edwards has been willing to talk about most anything in interviews about her new memoir that details her husband John's affair, but only under one condition: Interviewers must agree not to mention the name of the other woman in their broadcasts or stories.
From The Absence of Alternatives, a very well-written blog by a woman who happens to be a mommy:
In the Bush White House, I served on a five-person committee charged with recommending nominees for Supreme Court vacancies. We had the opportunity to do so twice, though admittedly it took us three nominees.
This confirmation battle will remind people that elections have consequences, few of which are as important or lasting as a Supreme Court nomination.
John Lynch: First, keep taxes low and regulations fewer. Second, beef up funding for fixing the roads. Better roads would make Michigan a more attractive place to live and work. Third, encourage entrepreneurs - make it as easy as possible to start a new business.Cut taxes while beefing up funding. Fix the roads and encourage entrepreneurs. I guess entrepreneurs are the ones "beefing" without tax revenue. Mister Lynch? Your answer severely lacks in the beef department. So does your congressional career, since you lost.
John W. Golden's wonderful "By Order of the Management" Stickers available on Etsy. No promotional consideration, etc.
At this point in the argument, a gender difference reared its head. Justice Breyer suggested that it's no big deal when kids strip, after all, they do it for gym class all the time. Savanna Redding didn't reveal her body beyond her underclothes, said Breyer. Justice Ginsburg, the court's only female justice, bristled. Her eyes flashing with anger, she noted that there's no dispute that Savana was required to shake out her bra and the crotch of her panties. Ginsburg seemed to all but shout, "Boys may like to preen in the locker room, but girls, particularly teenage girls, do not."
