Comments on: On hiatus.

By: Gasman

Gasman — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:08:33 +0000

Danny,
I don’t know if anyone is still reading this besides me, but I must assume that I am included in those writing “negative” comments about the apparently now sainted Tony Snow. How were my comments “negative?” Merely because I was not a fawning sycophant? Because I had the audacity to recall his 20+ year service to the arch conservative lie machine? Thank goodness that you cleared things up by pronouncing me wrong. You could have done so earlier and saved me from writing so much.

I don’t believe for a moment that there is a conservative who would be content to read an obituary of Teddy Kennedy that failed to mention Chappaquiddick and Mary Jo Kopechne. How about a Clinton obit with no mention of bimbo eruptions or Monica Lewinsky? Why were so many right wingers content to gloss over the less than flattering aspects of Snow and Jesse Helms? Could it be that it is much easier to pronounce them great if we forget their flaws, even major ones?

We will all be remembered, like it or not, for the sum of our lives, not just the best parts. I cannot remain silent as many practice a very Orwellian retroactive editing of history to suit someone’s “preferred” memory of Tony Snow.

On immigration: As someone who lives in a border state, any “solution” to immigration that does not take into account our dependence on cheap immigrant labor and does not help to buttress economies south of us is doomed to failure. We’ve been addicted to cheap immigrant labor for centuries. It’s not just employers.

By: Dexter

Dexter — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:18:35 +0000

Fuck Brett Favre. Strong commentary to follow.
(apologies for style to Dick Cavett)

By: del

del — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:29:04 +0000

Sue, send Favre to Detroit. My little connection to the Packers (think LA Mary), my great-great uncle was a publisher of the Green Bay Press Gazette (Andy Turnbull) who co-founded the Packer corporation in 1922, and, more recently, I attended a current Packers’ coach’s wedding. Favre seems to provoke some ambivalence among the locals I’m told. They love him, but because he keeps his family in Baton Rouge he’s perceived as aloof.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:25:18 +0000

No, moe. I do not. And I know that Tony did and sadly became invested in that process to too high a degree, imo. But he was also opposed to the border fence and I was not and he brought me around on that issue. Going after employers is the way to curb immigration of the illegal variety. The drug runners are another issue altogether that a fence will not cure.

By: moe99

moe99 — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:45:37 +0000

So tell me Danny, do you think Clinton should have been impeached?

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:10:39 +0000

You know, one final note about Tony Snow. I reflected on the negative comments from a few of you yesterday and have come to the conclusion that (surprise!!) you are all wrong. Incredibly so.

He was a gem of a human being and just because you disagree with him on issues does not give you license to besmirch his name. Anyone taking joy in his passing, I have to wonder how puny their soul must be to be to have no room in it for the truth of this man’s humanity, but only for the empheral bullshit partisanship of the modern political circus.

Shame on you. I expect better. Maybe in the future.

That is all.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:06:18 +0000

“Heck, they may make a plea for Favre to get a release so they can get a back-up.”
Jeff, that’s the problem. Brett is coming back as a starter. He will not discuss anything less with the Packers. Apparently he expects them to throw Aaron Rodgers under the bus, with the blessings of the whole state of Wisconsin.

By: Jeff (the mild-mannered one)

Jeff (the mild-mannered one) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:51:34 +0000

May i proudly note that Obama has tapped Unidue Purversity, my alma mater, as the site for tomorrow’s much needed (by both parties, by the whole frickin’ world) conference on nucular weapons and materials management, with the magisterial Sam Nunn and other luminaries gathered with His Barackness and Evan “Prince Charming” Bayh at the Purdue Memorial Union, where i proudly flipped burgers and made carmel corn in copper kettles for many years.

If the tall, lanky railsplitter from Illinois is head-faking for Indiana, he’s leaving lots of R’s shaking right out of their shoes. Meanwhile, if Obama can bring more attention to the need to nail down and control fissile material around the world, this GOP-er says “huzzah!”

Brian, don’t give the Bears any ideas. Here in Indy, Obama in West Lay-flat is utterly overshadowed by the grim news that Lord Payton has basic medical needs which may keep him out of . . . exhibition games. Heck, they may make a plea for Favre to get a release so they can get a back-up.

By: brian stouder

brian stouder — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:08:57 +0000

I think people are actually embarrassed.

Sue – I think that captures the thing, exactly. He has been the admired hero for so long, and personified the invested hopes of so many, that this slow-motion personal implosion of his has got to be almost unwatchable.

Frank Deford could write a tremendously incisive, universally recognizeable column about the human frailty on display here – if he hasn’t already (and Nance’s favorite Albom could do the Top-40 version!)

edit: forgot to answer the question And while I’m asking, would you snap him up as your team’s starter…?

YES! If you ran da Bears or da Vikings, grabbing the guy just for the in-your-face factor would be good enough….and if you had almost any other team (other than, say, the Patriots & Brady, or the Colts and Manning) the turnstile/TV effect would be plenty of justification

By: coozledad

coozledad — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:03:18 +0000

My biggest beef with the cover is that the conceit was stolen wholesale, without attribution, from an old issue of Nest magazine. It was a cartoon picturing two households- one Arab-American, One Jewish. It centered on popular perceptions of how the two groups would decorate their homes. It was funny, that first time. This is clearly a ripoff, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a plagiarism suit.