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David Brooks, the insouciant conservative.

by Oxy Mora 12/28/2011 - 1:02 am

The insouciant conservative is back to work after Christmas, sharing his typical rationalizations of the core beliefs of conservatives and the failings of, for example, Obama. 

Framing his criticism of Obama's Teddy Roosevelt pitch within his own vast perspective of three centuries of social norms and economics, Brooks debunks Obama's attempt to compare the Progressive movement in the early 1900's with our current state of affairs. In criticizing the Obama team for making inept comparisons, he does worse himself. [Read more]

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x(mas) poem by mr. X.

by Oxy Mora 12/26/2011 - 12:29 pm

 

Sweetie, you want to love everybody else?

Go over there and move in with them, then.

They don't believe in God!

No money, no manners, pregnant every weekend,

Line up for abortions Monday morning

Instead of going to their jobs!

(If I had my way, they wouldn't need abortions.) [Read more]

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The christmas myth of creation---jobs, that is.

by Oxy Mora 12/23/2011 - 1:07 pm

There are a host of myths about Christmas---as well as anti-myths. There is a myth, particularly around this website that evil forces are not attempting to take Christ out of Christmas---when it is perfectly clear they are. Thus the anti-myth must be reinforced by Christians, particularly around North Dallas mega churches. Cops who control mega traffic for Christmas service goers are stopping drivers and motioning for them to roll down their windows and take a bumper sticker--Don't let them steal Christmas!. I was pulled over to the curb, a Cop asked me about my bumper sticker---which reads, I reject the myth that they are not trying to steal Christmas.  [Read more]

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Some static ideas about upward mobility

by Oxy Mora 12/18/2011 - 2:12 pm

No one can predict what impact the OWS movement ultimately will have on our society and our politics but the irrepressible tangible result is that the top 1% of income earners has been objectified---the result of which has been to put questions of equality into the headlines of our political debate. 

Re-framing the political debate has alarmed chief word polluter Frank Luntz who is now advising Republicans to say "they get" OWS but then essentially ignore it while searching for synonyms for the word "capitalism"---and, as always, blaming everything on big government. [Read more]

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That Girl speaks the word.

by Oxy Mora 12/15/2011 - 12:38 pm

 

They all lived over near Justin's pass,

the center of gravity for throw-backs,

rebounders from God-less frontiers,

a trove of Aryan-migration enders. 

 

Inside a cabin in an Appalachian hollow

the little girl was hidden from others;

God's will---never to hear spoken words--- [Read more]

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Mr. Gingrich, bwana, what about Freddy Mac?

by Oxy Mora 12/7/2011 - 3:53 pm

The Swedish author Henning Mankel who created the "Kurt Wallander" series has written a novel about Africa, where he lived for twenty years. In "The Eye of the Leopard", a young Swede travels to Zambia on a two week trip and stays eighteen years. It is the late 60's, post independence, and the white farmers are carrying on their work in a dangerous and uneasy balance with the Africans. The country is a pressurized tank of steam ready to blow. The Swede takes a "temporary" job as the foreman of a farm but has never managed workers. 

"How should I treat them?", he asks.

"Firmly", the owner says. "The Africans are always looking for your weak point, those moments when you can be talked into something. Give them nothing; find something to complain about the first time they wash your clothes. Even if there's nothing; then they'll know that you make demands...."

It is not hard to imagine bwana Gingrich in the role of the privileged farm owner. Following his quick rise in the polls Gingrich's messages quickly became focused on the degrading "southern strategy" of using coded messages for blacks and minorities to scapegoat them for the nation's ills. The strategy apparently appeals to a large part of the Republican base. "Poor people in the projects don't know about work", "they get their money from drugs", they'd make good janitors if you got them young enough. And of course, their leader, Barack Obama, is the best "food stamp President" we've ever had. [Read more]

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A turd blossom economy.

by Oxy Mora 12/2/2011 - 1:21 pm

George Bush misapplied the term "turd blossom" to Karl Rove because the term requires a person to hold two opposing images in mind at the same time---cow dung vs. flowers---and Rove is definitely not a flower. But the term does accurately describe the economic green shoots which are now, after three years, beginning to push their way up through the pile of crap left behind by George Bush. And for the economy itself there are definitely two distinct lines of thought---a bit of complexity---will the sprigs of blue bells and lavender continue to grow and prosper or is our economy still all just a pile of doo-doo? [Read more]

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Newt Gingrich is not a pretty bird.

by Oxy Mora 11/28/2011 - 12:28 pm

Newt Gingrich is now the front runner in a discordant Republican primary process as beautiful as angry alligators mating in a swamp or birds fighting over a smeared hamburger wrapper from a fast food dumpster. One might think that troubled times at home and abroad would bring forth American citizens from great traditions of military service, public service, economics, science or notable business careers. Instead Republicans have a field of flawed candidates. If these candidates somehow managed to slip into a conference of distinguished Americans they would be seated at a table by themselves in the corner of the banquet hall fighting over rolls and butter like a flock or voracious grackles. What is the cause of such low brow Republican candidates and a selection process which seems to go against our better nature? Why an ugly bird like Gingrich?  [Read more]

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NEWT Gingrich: Thought Leader for Hire.

by Oxy Mora 11/20/2011 - 1:15 pm

For the past decade Newt Gingrich has been called a "Thought Leader"—a glib PR term coined in the '90's and one which in my opinion should be stood up against a fence and shot along with gag-response phrases like "nuanced argument", "heavy hitter" and "core competency". Since his Speakership, Gingrich has amassed a fortune speaking and writing his thoughts on issues as diverse as home ownership, health care, abortion, cap and trade, and education—to name a few. It seems that Gingrich's thoughts matter. Stanley Elkin in his essay, "Some Overrated Masterpieces", stated that, "... the odd thing about words is the cockeyed weight they're permitted to bear." In Gingrich's case—even more so. He's quotable and printable.

What Gingrich's thoughts are worth in a Presidential run we are about to find out. His speaking style is facile. He is the invented character—used car salesman with a PHD. His followers regard him as very, very smart. His numerous segues from arcane references, to the appearance of moderation and then to hell-fire-demonizing of the Left occur at lightning speed. A reference to the Transcontinental Railroad will send his followers rummaging around the labyrinths of their minds to find an association and finding none they conclude that the man must be brilliant. [Read more]

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The 1% fail to manage perceptions.

by Oxy Mora 11/9/2011 - 2:49 pm

The Democratic victories in yesterday's elections coupled with the recent birth of the Occupy movement seem to be evidence of a different political climate than we had even two or three months ago. It appears that we are out of the doldrums, a bit of a wind in the mainsail. I am tempted to meld all the different events into a pattern, disregarding the nature of the separate events. I want to say things like, "changed perceptions got people up off the couch," "now Democrats have a new reality," as if there were clear relationships between cause and effect. But it's not that easy. If my car stopped on the freeway because it "ran out of gas", contingent causes might be that my gas gage was broken and I was too cheap to repair it. But aside from the complexities of cause and effect and the invention of new realities, why do Democrats seem to have things going their way?  [Read more]

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