The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Frank Luntz at the pearly gates.

    By Oxy Mora on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 2:14pm |

    Interview with St. Peter.

    Let's see, it's "Luntz" with a "z", is that correct?

         Yes sir.

    Under "occupational field" I have crossed out the "word" "wordsmithing" and substituted the "word" "word-murdering".

         Yes sir. I was going to ask you why I'm standing on a trap door. And isn't that a "lynchpin" there or do you call it a "linchpin"?

    You parse words like "lynch" with me at your peril, Mr. Luntz.. "Word Murder" is a serious charge. And that noose over your head and trap door under you is a design from a 1910  Texas jail used for people of color suspected of murder although none of them ever went on trial.

         I understand that the facts surrounding the hanging of minorities in Texas are unsettled --that is, the jury is still out on that.

    I'm going to give you about one minute to understand something. When we wired the human brain for language the purpose was for you to "clarify", find new avenues of worship, work together to build communities, write eulogies to six year olds who die from lung cancer--all as experiment to see if the human race could rise to a recognition of absolute truths of good and evil--that sort of thing. You have done the opposite with words. Used them to distort the meaning of things. Used them to stifle logical debate. Used them selfishly, in the pursuit of money.

         Sir, it was only a job.

    Mr. Luntz, up here we consider "words" sacred, inviolate. Words are the center of Godliness. In fact the word "word" is identical to the word "bible" and even the word "God". Now I don't suppose your friends in your religious circle would refer to the book, the "Word" as "My Junk", would they, Mr. Luntz? A word means what it means. Words are sacred, Mr. Luntz, and you have spent a lifetime desecrating them. No, you are not a wordsmith, Mr. Luntz, you are a word murderer.

         Is there nothing I can say?

    It is time to pull the pin on you, Mr. Luntz. We have had a place in Hell reserved for you for many years. Pull the pin, Genghis.

         But what about "energy exploration" instead of "drilling into God's green earth"? Was that so bad?

    Tell it to the Devil, Mr. Lunch, er Mr. Luntz. Tell it to the Devil.

     

    Comments

    Jeez, Genghis is going to be sitting at the right hand of St. Peter? I need to start sucking up more.


    by acanuck on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 3:22pm

    Jeez, I need to start believing in Heaven.


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 3:56pm

    Now, if St. Peter had a lick of entrepreneurial spirit in him, he would have set up bleachers and charged people 20 bucks apiece to watch this event.  The overflow crowds alone would have more than paid to fix the infrastructure problems on the highway to heaven.


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 4:05pm

    Perhaps we will all sit in judgment on that final day in front of a bleacher full of faceless ghosts. I wonder if politics is just rhetoric with no issues of morality involved. When I look at the successful ploy of a phrase like "clean skies" or "the science isn't settled", and realize the amount of time which may have been lost in limiting carbon emissions and the power company emissions which are affecting young children, I am very saddened. So a man like Luntz is very very good at what he does. Like a boxer, Luntz has an almost lethal talent.

    Are Luntz's distortions of words moral? Would any of us do the same thing if we had his talent. Is it necessary to undermine our own language to gain political advantage? I don't know. But I wonder if Luntz might be called to account some day by St. Peter. A man with skills like his--what a waste. What a power for sensible regulations and community-building has been lost.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 4:48pm

    If only he had used his skills for good, rather than evil ... so to speak.  I believe Luntz's purposeful distortion of words has been despicable and have served only evil ends. And he has profited handsomely from his talent to manipulate public opinion through creating the euphemistic words and phrases that will fool enough people to get the Conservative agenda enacted. 


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 5:14pm

    Well, he's beat the crap out of Democrats, particularly with respect to air quality. I suppose none on the other side would think he's evil, just good politics. But I think that there is a touch of evil in what he has done. Is it immoral to emulate him? Or is it stupid not to? I'm really not sure.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 5:31pm

    Do you pick up a sword to defend your village and your family or do you refrain from fighting back against the invaders because religion tells us, "Thou shall not kill" and to "Love thy neighbor"?


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 5:38pm

    Before I can answer that, I need to ask you a couple questions: What are the invaders' 401k plans like? Are they accepting applications?


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 5:59pm

    Pillagers don't have 401k plans, it's all about the gratuities and the commissions. 


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 6:17pm

    gratuities and the commissions

    And the rapine..."all your base and all your women are belong to us"

    We like stuff that is portable, or self-propelled...Stilicho's fall opened the way on one hand to friendly relations with Constantinople, and on the other to the ambitions of Alaric. It was the expression of the simmering hostility of Italy towards men of barbarian blood, in fact the massacre of many of the foreigners in the country, which gave the Gothic king more than adequate excuse for swooping on Italy before the year was out. Alaric marched straight on Rome, ignoring Honorius in Ravenna. The city was rapidly reduced to starvation, and plague broke out. Alaric demanded all the treasure within it and all the barbarian slaves. For a brief period Alaric and Honorius existed alongside each other in Italy. But in the next year the emperor's evasions irritated the Goth into setting up the prefect Attalus as puppet emperor.Honorius, however, was made safe in Ravenna by the arrival of troops from the east. Attalus was declined to be altogether a puppet and was subsequently deposed. Further negotiations with Honorius broke down. Alaric lost patience and on August 24, AD 410 he let loose his Goths and other followers on Rome, which was sacked for three days.


    by jollyroger on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 9:07pm

    And that's it? Where's the rapes.

    Actually the invaders seem to go more for treasures, as in art, symbols of the vanquished, more so than straight material goods. They want to destroy the will of the conquered. And if at all possible they want to fuck with their native language.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 10:07pm

    Barbarian slaves.... mmmmmmm.

    Then again, Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles said it best:



    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 11:30pm

    Oh Pudge!

    I remember him in 2000 on FOX as in FOX YOU!

    Oh yeah, who could forget Pudge.

    A real lyin, cheatin, money grubbing bastard pollster.

    Who in the hell could forget good ole Pudge Luntz!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 7:54pm

    Something made this guy want to get back at Liberals. Maybe the socialist University crowd snubbed him. Or maybe he was shunned by Democrats. I know a woman who lost her job under a Democratic governor and she is now a strident Republican.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 08/18/2011 - 10:00pm

    Am I the only one who thinks of 30 Rock when I hear of Frank Luntz?


    by Verified Atheist on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 6:28am

    Very funny clips. I think it's dead-on, so to speak. Luntz in high school. And man is he getting even.


    by Oxy Mora on Fri, 08/19/2011 - 9:17am