Linkage of the week….

:: What happened to the right wing swagger? When did they turn into such a bunch of scared wimps? When did they go from standing there in the rubble with George Bush and his megaphone to hiding under Dick Cheney’s desk cowering in fear?

:: The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes. You see it in the way they treat women, you see it in the way they treat minorities, you see it in the way they treat homosexuals, you see it in the way they treat anyone who is not a white Christian, and you see it in the way they treat anyone who disagrees with them slightly about anything. They just have no respect for anyone, and it shows. People don’t like to be treated like crap, and grown-ups don’t want to be associated with people who yell “You lie” or scream “socialism” or “Hitler” or accuse you of being a terrorist whenever they don’t get their way. (Two from the same blog, but I couldn’t choose.)

:: I’m in a bit of a hungover haze at the moment, but as I understand it the two big new attacks on the President are that he (a) bows at formal meetings with Japanese people and (b) wants to see terrorists tried for their crimes. Is that right? Really? Strange times.

:: Now we know that Joe Lieberman isn’t a loyal Democrat or an actual Independent. He probably wouldn’t be a good Republican if and when he switches parties. He’s a die-hard Libermantonian, a staunch Joe-ist, and nothing else, and it’s hard to believe that people in the position to know this about him, like Gore himself, missed this about him.

:: What wakes liberal writers up at night — I mean that eye-snap of soul-gnawing, nauseating dread — is not social injustice, is not the fear of creeping fascism, is not rage against corporate greed …

:: I’ve got no problem with the White House making some real moves to cut the deficit. But the devil is in the details. It would be insane, for instance, to sharply cut spending in the midst of a recession. But it makes sense to build out policies to increase revenues in 2012 or after.

:: Moby Dick remains an unclassifiable novel for me – would I call it “my favorite”? I would not. But I will say this: It is, hands down, the most exciting read I have ever had. Not exciting because of all that exciting action, because as we all know, the majority of the book is one long marine biology lesson – and those were the sections that seemed to be the stumbling blocks for early reviewers and readers – like: why the hell do I care about blubber? Get back to Ahab!

:: Whenever I find myself in a difficult situation or experience, I try to ask myself, “What is it about love that I’m not learning?”. Sometimes the answer is a bit convoluted and I have to dig around a bit to find it, and sometimes it’s looking me in the face.

:: “My Cousin Vinny” is a lawyer movie that believes in lawyers and the legal system. A just result– the correct result– is reached, and it ends that way because the defendants’ lawyer, Vinny, did his job. That’s a good reason to put it on anybody’s list of great lawyer movies, and congratulations to the ABA for getting it. (That movie is so often viewed as “fluff”, and I’ve always thought it very unfair — in fact, an urban legend holds that Marisa Tomei was awarded the Oscar by accident when the presenter read the wrong name. It’s really a very good movie in itself, and I never even realized the competence of the film’s treatment of the legal proceedings.)

More next week.

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