Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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Like my brownhouse:
   starved of those qualities
Monday, July 26 2004
I didn't intend to pay any attention to the Democratic convention, except to monitor whether or not Osama bin Laden's head had yet materialized on a silver platter or whether Rove was still keeping it on ice until late October. But I was programming today, one of the few activities I can do at a computer while listening to talk radio. (When I'm writing text, the only thing I can listen to is music.) So I was listening to the liberal talking heads at AirAmericaRadio.com, and they were all broadcasting live from the Democratic convention in Boston. It's good stuff, but it's commercial radio, full of advertisements for Home Depot and (mysteriously, given their presumably affluent New York City audience) payday loans. When they interrupted Al Gore's speech with an ad, I thought "This is ridiculous!" and immediately switched to a public radio stream, KCRW in Santa Monica, my old stomping ground.
I rather enjoyed Al Gore's speech. The guy has clearly taken lessons and now does a good approximation of heartfelt oratory. My feeling is that the man has had a soul (I mean that in the black eyed peas and collard greens sense) frightened into his body. That soul drifted in like a lonely feather during the course of the Florida debacle and has been progressively nailed in place with every week of George W. Bush's misadministration. Gore speaks like a man who has been wronged and can barely-contain his well-channeled rage. If the tragedy that had befallen him had instead been the losing of a son to a meteorite impact, I'm sure he'd be head of an organization to prevent future needless deaths caused by rocks falling from the sky.
More surprising than my reaction to Al Gore's speech was the one I had to the speech delivered by Bill Clinton. Mind you, I've never been a fan of Bill Clinton. When he was President he was a spineless Igor for the Republicans in Congress, doing their bidding even as they humiliated and demeaned him. His administration made Richard Nixon's look liberal (and libertarian) by comparison. Clinton found amazingly innovative ways to squander every good arrow in his quiver. Who but he could turn an desperately-needed health care reform initiative into a mid-term election massacre? Who but he would pick a loose cannon like Monica Lewinsky for Oval Orifice entertainment? That said, tonight's address was the best speech Bill Clinton has ever delivered. It nailed all the right points and did so with humor, self-effacement, and grace. We've been so starved of those qualities for the past four years that when Clinton spoke it was as if someone had opened the windows and parted the blinds and behold! The morning was arriving! We can only hope we're so lucky. We can only hope (continuing the metaphor) that it's not just that the neighbor finally got around to fixing the busted bulb in his goddamn redneck light.


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http://asecular.com/blog.php?040726

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