Roger's Booknotes

I'll probably be back to wasting too much time in front of the telly by next Monday, as I just came to the realization that I'm paying for cable service I haven't been using for the past few weeks.

Most of the extra time I filled with reading, primarily of recent books I wouldn't touch but for the fact they're available for free at the library -- and not exactly leaping off the shelves at that price.

I'm slogging through The Bush Tragedy by Jacob Weisberg of Slate infamy. It's well-written, if nothing else. So far it seems Weisberg thinks Bush is the tragic figure, as if the smirking Chief Executive was a dynastic heir who had responsibility thrust upon him before he reached maturity rather than an incompetent egomanic who created tragedy for millions and doesn't give a fuck. Weisberg seems to be siding with stupid in the stupid v. evil debate, when the obvious answer is both.

One tome I couldn't make it through was The Book Unreadable The Party Faithful by unrelenting God-botherer Amy Sullivan. (Yes, I saw the praise by Jon Meacham on the cover, but I refused to heed the warning.) I made it to the bit where Jimmy Carter wasn't religious enough and only won the White House because Ford pissed off the Catholics with his remarks about Poland in the presidential debate. If you need further encouragement not to read Sullivan, check out this link.

With books like these, television is looking better all the time.

The Black Souls of White Folk

Roy Edroso has the recap on wingnut reaction to Senator Obama's speech. (Bonus material here.)

And if that isn't fucked up enough for you, check out the Man from Depends. And contrast.

More here. And here.

Update: I don't wish to suggest that Simon's invocation of his childhood's friend's murder was made in anything less than good faith, despite the fact that crime has nothing to do with Senator Obama or the Reverend Wright. Still, I can't help but compare Rog's reaction to Obama's speech re: Wright to a post composed by Rog the same month as one of Goodman's killers, a Klansman, received a small measure of justice. Back in June 2005, three days before Edgar Ray Killen was convicted of manslaughter (and not of murder), Rog wrote the following:

Andy Goodman was my best friend in kindergarten and first grade at the Walden School in New York. In the second grade, my family moved across town and I went to another school, but we remained close friends for several years before losing touch when my family moved once again, this time to the suburbs, when I went to high school. Of course, I knew what happened to Andy in June of 1964 and it was in my head almost every day when I went south two summers later to participate in the civil rights movement. But it has been many years and when I saw his young face on the front page of CNN tonight, I gasped.

Not a word about the man then accused, and later convicted, of killing Mr. Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Cheney. His only reaction on rogerlsimon.com was about his reaction to seeing Goodman's face on the CNN website.

We all have our own priorities.

Generations

I've only read and heard part of Senator Obama's speech in Philadelphia, but the parts I heard rang true. Particularly the part about "the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up."

Frankly, it is also the generation in which Senator Obama and his generation grew up. Say, hypothetically, that you are younger than the Senator and the date of your birth coincided with this infamous speech, made not so long ago:

Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.

And let's not forget how that speech ended:

And my prayer is that the Father who reigns above us will bless all the people of this great sovereign State and nation, both white and black.

If you were born on that day, you're still relatively young.

The men and women of Reverend Wright's generation need to explain what they were doing (or weren't doing) when that was going on. But I'm certain the feeble-minded bigots of this generation who are sneering about the Senator's speech (no links to the bigots; you know where to find them) would fall all over themselves praising Governor Wallace as a man of faith.

Does Jim Cramer Shit In The Woods?

READER MAIL: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there?

CRAMER: No! No! No! Bear Stearns is fine. Do not take your money out. If there's one take away (other than this up 400 [day]) ... Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything they're more likely to be taken over. Don't move your money from Bear. That's just being silly! Don't be silly!

Said the Carrot Top of investotainment.

Update (3/18): I'm striking the last paragraph in light of some of the comments. Kudlow's the confirmed cokehead -- and he was chief economist for Bear Stearns back in the day. Is there a long white trail between Kudblow's drug abuse and the fall of Stearns? I doubt it.

The Everending Story

Good news from the front, fellow Warriors on Christmas. John Gibson, Christian soldier, has fallen in battle. And not from enemy fire -- he collapsed under the weight of his lumpy albino head, which was carrying too many rocks for his emaciated frame.

Fox News Channel, tinkering for the first time in eight years with its popular early evening lineup, is replacing its 5 p.m. news broadcast, "The Big Story," with an election-theme program for the foreseeable future. The network confirmed this week that "America's Election HQ," a program that displaced "The Big Story" temporarily last month, would continue indefinitely. The program’s hosts, Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly, also anchor the network’s mid-morning newscast and are seen as rising stars on the channel. The change was first reported by the blog TVNewser.com. John Gibson, the longtime host of "The Big Story," will continue to have a role on television, the network said, although it appears that his future for now lies mostly on radio.

Victory is in sight. Christmas will not live to see another secular Winter Festival, mark my words.

It's too early to call it a trend, but with the cancellation of Tucker!, it can't be too early to send Glen Beck a gallon of Ancient Age with which to drown his sorrows. Just in case.

Meanwhile, Howie Kurtz thinks he's the perfect host to fill John Gibson's shoes, and submits this fluffgasmic audition tape to the powers at Fox News. Eliot Spitzer wishes he'd gotten that kind of full service.

That Takes Some Balls

We must hold Congressional hearings before this spreads to darts, Pop-A-Shot and liar's poker.

DUESSELDORF, Germany -- Germany's first case of doping in billiards was announced Monday after national champion Axel Buescher tested positive for an EPO masking agent.

Buescher's positive test came at November's German championships, where he captured the carom billiards title, the German Billiard Union said.

Buescher said the masking agent was in prescription medicine he failed to have approved.

The Union suspended Buescher for one year and stripped him of his title after he passed on his right to have the "B" sample tested.

EPO is a blood booster most closely associated with endurance sports, such as cycling, where it has played a central role in several Tour de France scandals.*

How can there be doping in a sport meant to be played while drunk?

* EPO link added.