October 11, 2010

Things you may have missed if you didn't hang out here over the weekend.

1. "Witch! Whore!... Nazi!" How evil is it for a candidate to play the role of a Nazi in war reenactments? How evil is it for a journalist to write about that and bury — in the 13th paragraph — the news that the same man — Rich Iott —  has also done reenactment as a Civil War Union infantryman, a World War I doughboy and a World War II American infantryman and paratrooper?

2. It's sexist to worry about calling Meg Whitman a whore. If women are going to join men in politics, they deserve to be called whores like the rest of them.  

3. Woeful/wilful metaphor deafness: Some people just don't/won't understand what it means to say "some people are just born to be slaves."

4. "Watch Russ Feingold confidently assert that he represents Tea Party values."

5. The story of a pregnant woman who had to pee invokes an old memory of the time I was persecuted by Episcopalians. 

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

You missed that the President and Vice President are getting all voters (across the US) excited about Democratic candidates in 2010 and 2012. This news was everywhere - NPR, NYT, etc.

This is the most important news of the weekend.

I cannot wait to celebrate after 11/2.

MadisonMan said...

If you were hanging out here all weekend, then you missed the best October Weekend, weatherwise, that I can recall in the past 30 years.

Psota said...

Step aside Tea Party, the Culture Wars are back!

Ann Althouse said...

@MM It was too hot to deserve that award, and I have mosquito bites to prove it, but it was damned nice.

MadisonMan said...

Yeah, I killed mosquitoes and Asian Lady Beetles yesterday. What a bummer!

The sun filtered through leaves that are changing color -- I love that. The occasional breeze and you get a blizzard of falling leaves. It was really warm, but not so warm that a good iced coffee didn't fix things!

kjbe said...

MM, I love that, too. There's nothing better that going for a run (in October, in shorts) while watching the leaves turn and fall. It'll be gray and cold out soon enough, thank you.

Unknown said...

Don't know if it was the best October weekend in a long time (our weather's a little milder), but it was very nice. Not only did you not miss the weekend, you shared it with us.

You were also on a blogging roll and had some good posts, as you indicate.

Big Mike said...

I'm still bothered the use of "whore" towards Meg Whitman. While it's true that most politicians are whores of a sort (you badly overstate the case when you say "all," Althouse -- I'd have expected better of a law professor) the word "whore" when applied to a woman cuts deeper and is more nasty than when applied to a man.

If Brown wants to engage in gutter politics then I suppose one can fall back on the adage that "politics ain't beanbag." But my own take is that you want to aid and abet that worthless twerp Brown in his race to the bottom, then don't expect sympathy from me when you complain about how tired you are getting over politics.

Pastafarian said...

I read that Episcopalian post too late to comment, but that was a remarkable story.

What a bunch of assholes.

I don't know if I've ever encountered people behaving so assholishly -- but particularly not in a setting like that, on your way to some sort of religious retreat, among your fellow parishoners. That's bordering on insane.

I'd like to hope that a one or two of them are readers, and read that post, and felt like shit.

Pastafarian said...

I agree, to an extent, with BigMike re. the use of the word "whore."

In many situations, as I think it was here, it's used as a general anti-woman slur, the equivalent of "cunt", but with a little less gusto.

There was no reason to suggest that Whitman ever accepted money for sex; or even that she's a political whore. It was just an ugly misogynistic slur.

Hell, I just commented on that nasty little trollop from Duke with her "sex list" and I didn't use the word "whore" once. And in that case, it's actually literally true.

Phil 314 said...

Professor;
Maybe I've missed it but is this the first time you've done the weekend/last week/my re-runs blog post?

Not impressed

traditionalguy said...

C3...I liked seeing that result of a weekend of efforts listed. We certainly never want for interesting takes on current happenings. I am reminded that the job of a teacher is many fold, but the first thing a good teacher is to repeat what she said three times. Nicely done, Professor.

Sigivald said...

How evil is it for a candidate to play the role of a Nazi in war reenactments?

How evil is it for a journalist to write about that and bury — in the 13th paragraph — the news that the same man — Rich Iott — has also done reenactment as a Civil War Union infantryman, a World War I doughboy and a World War II American infantryman and paratrooper?


Not at all, and ... well, not "evil" - but "dishonest" and "creepy" and "a good reason to assume he's doing that same sort of misleading in every other context".

In that order.

fivewheels said...

"Evokes." The story evokes your memory. You invoke the memory to make a point about the pregnant woman.

Anonymous said...

ok, i read to much information, i work in online pharmacy and i was bore but sometimes you can find funny stuff on internet, like the politics womens, ok i wonder why, is because of money or social status.