Newseum: Inside Media With Frank Bond- P.J. O'Rourke: On American Politics

Source: Newseum- Politicsl humorist P.J. O'Rourke. 

Source:The New Democrat

Again about politician’s, but we get the politician’s that the majority of American voters vote for. That is how American democracy works. So if you vote for someone for public office and lets say within months or weeks or days, perhaps even hours of that person taking office after they won the election, look for the nearest mirror and look at it. Because that is the person you voted for and a lot of other dumb voters voted for. And if you want to say that, “Joe or Mary wasn’t the person that I voted for and is now doing things they said they wouldn’t do. And not doing things they said they would do. They tricked me and that is their fault”. When you were in school and you didn’t do your homework, or didn’t study for a big test, who took the blame for that? Your teacher and parents who told you to do those things, or you? You’re at fault for not doing your homework and that includes politics.

I covered the Tea Party yesterday and by the way, I’m tired of saying the Tea Party, because that is like saying the Marshan, because that person or group doesn’t exist. At least as far as we know, I’m not an astrologist, or pretend to be one. But the Tea Party movement is exactly that and they have plenty of people who look just as sane and as intelligent as you or me. If you’re reading this, I hope you’re sane, especially if you are planning on commenting on this. And then you have people who looked like they were residents of a state mental institution that was lacking funds and was forced to shut down. And as a result all these mentally handicapped being released as a result. The Tea Party ranges from classical Libertarians, like certain members of the Ron Paul movement, to Conservative Libertarians like Rand Paul on the center-right, to the Far-Right, Christian-Conservatives and Christian-Nationalists. It is a very vast and politically diverse movement, that the Republican Party has to have right now.

I like P.J. O’Rourke’s comments on socialism and Margaret Thatcher’s great line about the problem with socialism, is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. And that economic growth and opportunity is not a zero-sum game. That you don’t have to share the current pot to make everyone wealthy enough to live well in America. That what you can do instead is to expand the current pot of wealth. Something I think today’s Socialists may never understand and that they also seeing that everything that is done positively done in a country, has to come from government, especially the big centralized government. When the fact is if Uncle Sam or government in general just gave his nephews and nieces the tools that they need to make a good life for themselves, that chances are most of us will do exactly that. That they just need economic fuel and for Uncle Sam to take his foot off of, well our feet and let us move on our own. And we’ll do very well for ourselves in America.

You know, if you don’t like your politicians, here a few things you can. Stop voting for those politicians. Gee, there’s a crazy idea that just might work. Vote for not better people, because voting for someone better than a crook and idiot, is not much of step forward. Vote for good people who’ll do a good job for you and your community. If those people aren’t running, recruit them to run and find the resources so they can run an effective campaign. If you can’t find that person, but you’re that intelligent, qualified, good person to work in public service, then run yourself. If we had more voters like this, we would have better politician’s and a better political system and government as a result.

Newseum: Inside Media With P.J. O'Rourke

Real Time With Bill Maher: Is Alabama The Stupidest State in America?

Source:The New Democrat

I don’t know the answer to this question what is the stupidest state in America. There are plenty of candidates for that title, including at least one in the Northeast in New York, one in the Midwest in Illinois and one in the Mid-Atlantic in West Virginia and could go down to the Southwest to Texas as well. And if you want to talk about ignorant non-educated people, how you not look at Michigan. I mean is there is another big city with worst public schools than Detroit and has a higher dropout rate than Detroit and with more ignorant and poor people than Detroit. And keep in mind, about half of the State of Michigan lives in the Detroit area.

But I would say this about Alabama and other Southern rural states that do not have a big city and big metro area in them, like Mississippi, South Carolina and Arkansas, to use as examples. Any state like that with a high concentration of poverty that is so underdeveloped as far as its infrastructure, perhaps especially as it relates to education, where you have so many people who do not finish school or even if they did finish school, didn’t get the education they needed to do well in life and puts so much faith, well into their faith, even over things like education and progress, you’re going to have a high concentration of ignorant people in it.

The reason why Alabama is seen as a joke, to even people who are from that state and even in that region of the country, like Georgia and Florida, is because of their high concentration of poverty and ignorance. And then thrown in their redneck country lifestyle with the high-pitch accent, with all the country sayings and how they pronounce certain American-English words, you’re going to look, well less than bright and educated to put it nice, to the rest of the country, which just happens to be most of the country. That is why Alabama gets made fun of so much. “Hey, we might be last in almost everything that’s positive. But at least we’re first in Jesus, guns and football”. Which is sort of another Alabama joke.

Marilyn Monroe Video Archives: Monkey Business (1952) Starring Cary Grant & Ginger Rogers

Source:The New Democrat

I’ve actually seen three Marilyn Monroe movies in the last week where Marilyn wasn’t the cutest gorgeous sexy women in the movie. I’m still somewhat in shocked by that, but after seeing I Married a Women last week and The Unholy Wife a couple nights ago, both with Diana Dors, I now know that Marilyn wasn’t the cutest sexy baby of all-time, at least back then. Pre-formula that makes these people in the movie turn into children as far as maturity level, Ginger Rogers was as cute as a little girl in this movie and absolutely adorable and hysterical in this movie, the whole movie. And the formula makes her act like a little girl who breaks down and cries over nothing.

Marilyn Monroe never needed some special formula or medicine to act immature and like a little girl, With that face and personality, she always sort of seemed like one anyway. So good thing her character was never on that formula in this movie, because she was very funny and also a pretty good actress and then throw in her natural personality and physical appearance, she probably could’ve played the role of a four-year old girl in the movie, with the body of sex sexy twenty-five year old women, which she was at this time. Cary Grant is at his funniest in this movie, at least from what I’ve seen of him, which is saying a lot. Perhaps the best comedic actor of all-time.

Ginger Rogers was incredible and not just incredibly adorable, essentially acting like a little girl in this movie. But she was very funny and this movie is essentially about a brilliant scientist played by Cary Grant as Doctor Barnaby Fulton, who creates this new formula that reverses the aging process of people and makes them much younger. And Barnaby decides to try the formula on himself and becomes a nineteen-year old guy as far as personality, energy and maturity level instantly and no longer needs his glasses to use as an example. His wife played by Ginger Rogers finds out about that and decides that the experiment should be used on her. And goes nuts as a result.

This is one of the funniest movies you’ll ever see with Ginger Rogers absolutely adorable and hysterical the whole movie. With an excellent cast around her with Cary Grant, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn and others. And one of the funniest and cutest movies you’ll ever see with perfectly normal middle-age adults becoming like little children instantly and making this an hysterical movie.

Pink Fairy Girl: The Unholy Wife (1957) Starring Diana Dors & Rod Steiger

Source:The New Democrat

I believe Diana Dors, or someone like her would be perhaps the last person you I could imagine being a killer, especially a murderer and a women who murdered multiple people. But that is exactly what she plays in this movie as someone who likes being married to a wealthy man and the money and lifestyle that comes with that. But doesn’t want the responsibility that comes with being a wife or a mother. And finds another man that she is interested in, but not sure she wants to leave her husband and even son for this new man.

Diana Dors plays someone with a checkered past to say the least, I believe she was already in prison at one point. Settles down with a another man pre-Paul played by Rod Steiger and doesn’t like her first husband at all, even hates him and takes their son with her and meets Paul and they eventually get married. Paul not being full aware of his new gorgeous baby-face wife’s past history, falls in love with her fairly quickly and integrates her with his Northern California lifestyle. He owns a vineyard and ranch in Napa Valley.

Paul has an elder mother who is pretty sick that he is responsible for taking care of. Phyllis as Paul’s wife and his mother’s daughter in law has similar responsibilities and she finds her new mother in law to be a pain to say the least. The question in this movie, is does Phyllis kill her mother in law intentionally or not by poisoning her and giving her too much medication that is very strong. But she’s already killed two people including I believe a man from her past.

The Unholy Wife is the best Diana Dors movie I’ve seen before. It is a very entertaining murder mystery that never slows down and Diana looks great in it and as adorable as possible. And because she looks so cute and sweet, she plays the perfect murder suspect, because she would be one of the last people you would expect to murder anyone. But her physical baby adorability is just a cover for the plotting murderer inside of her.

Hardball With Chris Matthews: P.J. O'Rourke (December, 2000)

Source:The New Democrat  

Sounds to me at least that Chris Matthews voted for George W. Bush for president at least once. 2004 I think is pretty much a given the way he was talking about President Bush and seemed unimpressed by Senator John Kerry. And never saw Senator Kerry as someone who could beat President Bush. But in this interview, it sounds to me that he voted for then Governor George W. Bush for president in 2000 as well. Or maybe Matthews is just a fair-weather fan and goes with the winner no matter who the winner is. The ultimate blind-follower and faddist who’s addicted to the crowd and making sure he’s always part of the crowd. Sounds like a personality description for a lot of Americans. So now I like Matthews even less or dislike even more, you know what I mean.

As far as the Baby Boom Generation, I agree with P.J. O’Rourke especially on this. But hey without the Boomers, there wouldn’t be a lot of Gen-Xers and I would probably be somewhat lonely in Generation X, because my parents are from the 1930s, or what Millennial’s call the dinosaur age that they only know about because of what they’ve seen from their video games. But to go back to the Boomers, P.J. is right that they are the most self-absorbed generation at least in recent American history. You don’t get labeled the M Generation otherwise. Me, meaning “government give me what I want after the you tax me to death, bring me back to life and take care of me”.

As far as Bill Clinton, again I’m a liberal New Democrat, but if you look at where the country was when he became President and how he left it and look at his policies as President that he was able to put through, I don’t see unless you just hate the guy how you can’t call him a successful President. Whether that is very good or great, at least good, but I put him down as very good. A B+, that if he had personal discipline, 1998 is a completely different year for him and it is not wasted because of the Monica Lewinski scandal. We’ll never know that obviously, but President Clinton, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Leader Trent Lott were working on a broad bipartisan agenda together for 1998.

But to go back to P.J.’s point about the Boomers, they are the most self-absorbed generation that we know of. Bill Clinton is the President or the King of this generation and everything in his life is about him. Not saying he doesn’t care about anyone else, but everything he does has something to do about him for good and bad and for mostly good. And to a certain extent and not trying to take any responsibility away from Wild Bill as I call him, but perhaps he is a victim of his own generation. And so is Chris Matthews, speaking of self-absorbed selfish assholes, Matthews could be Wild Bill’s Vice President or Prince.

Real Time With Bill Maher: The Hypocrisy of Evangelical Christians

Source:The New Democrat

I’m going to be careful here, because there some actual Christians who I actually respect, including Protestants and Evangelicals and who are also still living. And when I think of Christianity and Christians as someone who isn’t, I think of these people and I think of their groups. And all of those charities that they run. That house the homeless, feed the hungry, some groups even go as far as educating the ignorant so they can get themselves a good job. All things that the so-called Christian-Right and a certain segment of the Tea Party views as socialism or communism.

When I think of Christians, I don’t think of Michelle Bachmann, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, all these so-called leaders of the Christian-Right. Who go out of their of putting people down and hating and saying so many horrible things about people who don’t live exactly the way they do, or look at the world exactly as they do. You know, I’m happy to look at those people as fascists, statists, theocrats, hypocrites, especially when they are preaching against big government. Liars, crooks, assholes, bullshit artists, con-people, all of those labels would fit them perfectly. But calling them Christians would be an insult to Christians.

There are people who are truly religious and actually believe in the religion that they say they follow. Those people I respect, even if I disagree with their religion. Christianity especially as it relates to lifestyle, is simply too conservative for me, but so is Islam. But I can respect people who truly believe in and follow the values of those religions. But what I can’t respect are people who use a great religion like Christianity to put down other people simply because they disagree with them. Those people are assholes and make Americans look as stupid as we get stereotyped as.

Rick Mercer Report: Canada Explained

Source:The New Democrat 

Take hockey out of Canada, which is what Gary Bettman and the NHL have tried to do for about twenty-years now and would Canadians have any interest in sports? Would there be any point of having indoor sports arenas in Canada at all? I mean they would be down to the CFL and what skiing and perhaps ice skating for their sports entertainment. Canada a small, but charming country right, but with a tone of land that people don’t seem to know what to do with up there on the frozen tundra, where you can hie to the North Pole, from Toronto.

If you look at the Canadian Parliament and the American Congress, they aren’t that much different. Canada has a House and Senate, so does America, we both have bicameral national legislatures, for any of you not keeping score at home. The Senate is the upper chamber in Congress. We don’t just tell people who, but that is the actual truth. But in Canada even though their Senate is their upper chamber in Parliament, they lie to their people, because really most of the power in Parliament resides in the House of Commons. The Canadian Senate is basically a debating society of people either appointed by the Prime Minister, or related to rich Canadian men.

Rick Mercer talking about dumb Canadians. Hey welcome to America! We have more dumb people, than Canada has snow and have a surplus of dumb people like the Middle East has a surplus of sand and dirt. So Canada if you’re looking for anymore dumb people, feel free to come to America or just call us and we’ll give away boat loads of idiots for free. We have idiot conventions we are looking to unload. And since Canada is only a country thirty-six-million people and a continent of land, have plenty of room for a lot more people. And have the room for our idiots.

As far as the no-confidence vote. Again liberal democracy with a federalist system with checks and balances in America’s case. Versus a social democracy with a parliamentary form of government where the chief executive is also a member of the House of Commons. Seems to me at least that one of the requirements of being Prime Minster of Canada is that you also have to be a workaholic, perhaps also a caffeine junky. Because you have to be able to hold two jobs at the same time and perhaps both jobs like in Steve Harper’s case is thousands of miles away. Representing Calgary, Alberta in the House and being Prime Minister in Ottawa.

That wouldn’t work in America and besides over our previous history the last ten-years or so, even though it has been about as rare as the New York Jets playing in the Super Bowl that our President has been popular, the President in this same time period has always been roughly twice as popular as Congress and sometimes even more than that. So before Congress tries to throw the Chief Executive out who was probably elected with fifty-million votes and perhaps reelected with even more than that, they should look out their own jobs and perhaps fire themselves first. Put their lobbyist money where their mouths are.

Canada a country of thirty-six million people and yet it is still interesting to talk about and pay attention to. Perhaps because they sound so much like Americans and have similar interests and lifestyles. Hell, even though they enjoy making fun of America so much to the point it is becoming their second national sport, right behind hockey. And yet they watch all of our news, all our entertainment, all of our sports, perhaps because they have so little of their own in all three areas and get bored. That this tells Americans that there are people just to the North that cares about us.