"This has nothing to do with not going to the convention to send a message to the president, nothing of the sort. This has to do with maximizing the time you spend connecting with your constituents..."Even if that were true, the appearance of trying to distance themselves from Obama is bad enough to provide an incentive to sacrifice a bit of time connecting with constituents in order to demonstrate support. So, obviously, Van Hollen is bullshitting.
***
I'm using the word "bullshit" more now. I hope it doesn't distress you, but ever since Jonathan Turley went all "civility bullshit" on me for saying "spare me the bullshit" to him and I started reading the excellent 72-page book "On Bullshit," I've been feeling like saying it more.
From page 16 of Harry G. Frankfurt's slim tome:
In the old days, craftsmen did not cut corners. They worked carefully, and they took care with every aspect of their work. Every part of the product was considered, and each was designed and made to be exactly as it should be. These craftsmen did not relax their thoughtful self-discipline even with respect to features of their work that would ordinarily not be visible. Although no one would notice if those features were not quite right, the craftsmen would be bothered by their consciences. So nothing was swept under the rug. Or, one might perhaps also say, there was no bullshit.I'm re-distracted back to the Supreme Court case. I wonder how good the judicial craftsmanship will be. Will there be bullshit?
Wittgenstein once said that the following bit of verse by Longfellow could serve him as a motto:
In the elder days of art
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part,
For the Gods are everywhere.
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20 comments:
Notice that the democrats not attending are democrats in a tough race. Coincidence?
Well, they're sure not falling all over themselves to ride his coattails...
Van Hollen is a partisan hack. A DWS with more testosterone. (I think)
anyway, all you have to do is look at somebody like Joe Manchin. The Won, lost WV by like 14 points, in a perfect year. Manchin has said:
1. I don't support Teh Won's agenda
2. I won't support him
3. I won't go to the convention
4. I won't vote for him.
The first duty of a Pol is to get elected. Manchin knows Obama is radioactive and getting worse...
The semi vulgarity appears to be saying something is "Bull" instead of Bullshit.
But the full vulgarity gets more attention to the speaker/writer's courage in face of enemies.
I don't understand.
Obama is popular (and smart!) and so why would anyone avoid him?
These must be all lies or something.
"In the old days" is bullshit. There is nothing new under the sun and people have been cutting corners for tens of thousands of years.
Obama's a super user of whatever he can find to gut the other side.
That is a leadership trait that makes people in a poll chose Obama as the leader to fight an invasion of outerspace aliens.
But American's are the space invaders of the rest of the world in Obama's evil world view.
An example of Democrats "crossing to the other side of the street... because they don't feel safe"?
SCOTUS BLOG:
Tom:
FWIW, the count going into 10am is 344,000 contemporaneous readers.
Valor can be stolen :(
"344,000 contemporaneous readers"
But does it say how many readers are using time machines?
Van Hollen tries, but he is not a natural born liar, and he is not very good at it.
They know he has proven to be the Kiss of Death.
In fact, the head of the DCCC is now giving dispensation to office holders to stay away.
PS The Demos only have about 6 mil of the 36 mil they need for the big shindig.
Bring on the bullshit. -- I mean, shovel it out.
Ann Althouse said...
I'm using the word "bullshit" more now. I hope it doesn't distress you, but ever since Jonathan Turley went all "civility bullshit" on me for saying "spare me the bullshit" to him and I started reading the excellent 72-page book "On Bullshit," I've been feeling like saying it more.
It does, really.
I've always regarded you as a lady and I hate hearing women (any women) talk like longshoremen.
(I know, liberation and all...)
I also was raised with the idea that a sufficient command of the language makes the use of profanity unnecessary.
And you certainly have that.
(and some people will still call me an apple polisher (I guess I can kiss the free toaster good-bye))
There is a good scene in "On Golden Pond" in which Henry Fonda, the elderly professor, is talking to the adolescent boy his daughter (Jane Fonda) and her boyfriend have left with them (Fonda and Hepburn) while they take a trip. The kid is surly and resentful. "Bullshit" seems to be his favorite punctuation. Fonda says, "You like that word, Bullshit, a lot don't you ?" The kid says, "Yeah." Fonda says, "Good word."
That was Fonda's last movie. He died the following year. He was too ill to attend the Academy Awards where he won his only Oscar.
Who says that bulls are not fine craftsmen (craftsbulls?) in generating their output?
While there are finely crafted alternatives ("horse hockey!" and "road apples!" come to mind), they have a light-weight feel that tells of prissiness and an unwillingness to meet the world as it is.
I wonder how good the judicial craftsmanship will be. Will there be bullshit?
And will you call it?
Now that we know what happened.
Genuine people do the job they're elected to do, and campaign for that job on behalf of the people who hire/elect them.
But phonies just get corporate surrogates to do their campaigning for them.
So I can see why this was difficult for you to understand.
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