Lèse Majesté

Best blog headline of the week, at the very least

And it's even about Michele Bachmann: this.

Why I like New York

Nearly got run over by a young Korean gal running down the sidewalk on Kimchi Alley (32nd St.) on my way back to my hotel at 1:00 a.m. from a faux Irish bar a couple blocks away. Where I had just been discussing the plight of Polish immigrant workers in Ireland's economic downturn (a question I asked) with the real Irish bartender and two Danish tourists who were heading up to Harlem tomorrow, all of whom were telling me how great a city Berlin is to visit as I sipped a couple Manhattans. This after a late dinner at a Japanese fast food joint (Yoshinoya) after watching Frank Langella rage against the machine in A Man For All Seasons. Wherein one of the supporting roles (Roper) was played by an American actor who looked very familiar because, as it turns out, I had seen him in a loooooong, full production of Long Day's Journey Into Night in Dublin a year ago, the night I arrived suffering from a combination of a sleepless night on the way over and inability to sleep due to jet lag.

Where else could all of this happen in one evening, and it would be one of the least eventful nights of a trip?

Michele Bachmann - the new McCarthy?

I've been vacationing in New York City and too busy to keep up here, but holy crap! The idiot from Anoka County went totally over the top Friday on Chris Matthews' show. If you haven't seen it yet it bears watching:

Does she have a list of commies, do you think? Just when you think she has plumbed the depths of stupidity, she reaches a new low.

Well, the good news is that she hopefully just handed that district over to the Dems. In the 24 hours following her rant, nearly a half million in contributions flowed in to the campaign of her opponent, El Tinklenberg. This dim bulb needs to be sent back to the obscurity she so richly deserves.

Winning friends and influencing people

Wow, McCain and Palin are doing a fabulous job of turning off conservatives. Today Christopher Buckley, son of revered icon William F. Jr., announced in his blog at The Daily Beast that he would be voting for Obama. The screaming at The National Review must be painful to hear.

And David Brooks discussed in his NYT column yesterday the anti-intellectual turn of the Republican party in general and McCain/Palin in particular, noting:

The political effects of this trend have been obvious. Republicans have alienated the highly educated regions — Silicon Valley, northern Virginia, the suburbs outside of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone.

The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

Bwaaaaahahahahahahaaaaa!!!

Karl Wallinger had it right 20+ years ago

After watching Palin's performance followed by passage of the Great Bail Out, his song just nails my mood today...

Avarice and greed are gonna drive you over the endless sea
They will leave you drifting in the shallows
Drowning in the oceans of history
Travellin' the world, you're in search of no good
But I'm sure you'll build your Sodom like I knew you would
Using all the good people for your galley slaves
As your little boat struggles through the warning waves
But you don't pay, you will pay tomorrow
You're gonna pay tomorrow
You gonna pay tomorrow
Save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no
Oh, save me, save me from tomorrow
I don't want to sail with this ship of fools, no