LC Saturday (Pessimistic) Round-Up
The water's back (came on about 4:30 AM) but full of brownish silt, so I'm waiting for other apartments in our building to run their taps for awhile before I step into the shower. Might as well spend the time catching up with my fellow Liberal Coalition members, even though Jesse and Mustang Bobby and Stradiotto beat me to it (thanks for the plugs, Bobby and Stradiotto!).
Over at the group blog Corrente, Lambert smells something fishy with the way the Plame-outing investigation is proceeding. He also concurs (as do N. Todd Pritsky and Jesse and Peter) with Atrios' assertion that the new Republican buzzword-smear word against Howard Dean is "pessimism." 'Cause, you know, nobody's pessimistic about the world mess our current leaders have gotten us into. It's such an unusual reaction!! We should all be wearing rose-colored glasses!!! Don't tell me I'm the only one who's heard the expression, "I'm not pessimistic, I'm realistic." I think this meme has a huge backfire potential, but I'm going to make fun of it anyway in the rest of this post. You have been warned.
N. Todd calls our attention to what he calls "a new peace site," but quite honestly it just looks to me like a way for this guy to sell his books. N. Todd's also doing his best to spread the meme of NODWISH (a wonderful acronym of Non-Denominational Winter Solstice Holiday), but until Mercury23 returns from vacation and fixes his permalinks I'm afraid I'm not going to bandy that word about that much because I can't link back to the specific post wherein he originated it. I'm such a pessimist!
Steve Gilliard observes, "It's now to the place where every word the government says about Iraq is either wrong or a lie." He also has some very interesting ruminations about gun control. Lots to think about - I had no idea the NRA leadership was more of a problem than the organization itself, but they (like so many other groups) have been pretty much taken over by the wacko right so that kinda leaves level-headed debate in the dust. (Or is that too pessimistic an evaluation?) Also check out Andante's thoughts on the subject.
Scott at the Gamer's Nook recommends seeing Return of the King in IMAX. Good grief, 90 minutes of IMAX is enough for me )and 90 minutes too long for Robin), I couldn't imagine three and a half hours of it! But maybe I'm just being pessimistic. The evil lad also wishes Strom Thurmond's family a happy Kwanzaa.
T. Rex has been counting reasons why Bush won't get "re"elected. Here's Number 64. Gosh, what "pessimism"!
Guy Andrew Hall is pessimistic about the Republican Convention.
Scout is pessimistic about the right-wingers' reactions to their own news that "U.S. women outnumber men in higher paying, white collar managerial and professional occupations." Pardon my intense pessimism skepticism, but I don't believe the pronouncement in the first place, I want to see actual data.
Jeff is sick of people whining about how "Merry Christmas" became "Happy Holidays", although his "WHO FUCKING CARES?" sounds a bit pessimistic to me. In all seriousness, as someone who grew up having stuff thrown at her and her house every December because we dared celebrate Chanukah when the rest of the neighborhood was awash in Christmas decor, I rather like that we're at least paying lip service now to the idea of inclusion during this time of year that's supposed to be about, among other things, togetherness and harmony.
Mustang Bobby excoriates Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. The Times notes pessimistically, "It is hard to argue that Mr. Stevens is breaking any Senate rules, for, stunningly, there is no explicit ban on a senator's engaging in profitable dealings with businesses and individuals who benefit from the lawmaker's official actions."
Peter reviews the Top 10 Words of 2003. He shouts gleefully, " 'Angry Left' is number nine on the Top Phrases list! We made it! Now that we've been recognized by the geniuses at yourDictionary.com, we shall catapult into the mainstream." Pessimist.
Near as I can figure out, Dowingba is in a band called Mozeba, and they have a website. I remain pessimistic at all these foreign-sounding names.
Alex reprints some prime Paul Krassner, a pessimist and sometime correspondent (yeah, back before e-mail) who's inspired me for at least two decades now.
Upyernoz pessimistically sniffs that he didn't discern any noticeable difference at the airport once our terror alert rose to Ernie orange.
Edwardpig has a long dissection of the Bush "ownership society" bullshit. Not surprisingly, he engages in pessimism.
Rivka engaged in some Monday Sunday baseball blogging last week. Call me a pessimist (you will anyway), but I think I'm going to wait until April and see who's on what team before I start talking baseball again...
Andante revisits Afghanistan, one year later. Andante has become one of my favorite Pen-Elayne commenters lately; go visit her blog and help her move up the TTLB food chain.
Total number of LC'ers quoting John Lennon's "Happy Christmas" last Thursday, either in full or in part: only 2! Well below the threshold of folks on my News+Views blogroll. We need more people saying "War is over if you want it" to counter all this pessimism! Now I'm off to shower. Just you wait and see, the water will still be brown...grumble mutter...
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