ABC's debate tonight was a shameful exhibition, mostly on the part of Stephanopolous and Gibson. It would be charitable to call the questions insipid. Does ABC hate America? That is my question. Yuck.
That said, Obama did best when attacked, and Clinton did best on policy. I'm not sure why the question of registering and licensing all hand guns is one that needs to be danced around - who is arguing otherwise - but they both danced like it was 1999. Boy it will be nice when the primary is over.
And what a weird day in the news...on one hand you have the supreme court delivering its verdict on a case of whether it is cruel and unusual to impose the death penalty on child rapists and on the other you have Texas raiding the compound of a Mormon cult marrying off 12 year old girls to men of all ages. Girls who then are bearing children at 13 and 14 years old. One girl they mentioned on NPR was 16 years old and just had her 4th child. Holy fucking shit.
Now back in the old days it was probably fairly normal for females to be married off and begin their job of reproducing (yes, notice the satire) once they passed the age of puberty. That's what puberty was a signal of, and quite common throughout the animal world. Those societies, such as they were, may have also allowed polygamy (or possibly even polygyny) as a acceptable practice (just as with apes and the dominant male) and no one was the wiser for it.
But that really seems beyond the pale at this point. We've generally made the decision that while our parents and adults in general get to tell children what to do, there are some clearly drawn lines in the sand, at least in western society, beyond which parental control can not pass. Arranged marriages are a thing of the past, and coercing naive teenage girls into acting as baby machines with no sense of other possible paths that their lives could take is really sickening.
So, as the TX solicitor general was arguing for the ability to execute child rapists (though different from LA in that TX actually has restrictions on the practice) will this issue bring those two sordid tales together?
For the record, I oppose the death penalty for nearly every crime (excepting perhaps genocide), for a whole host of reasons starting with the practical - more expensive, no evidence of it acting as a deterrent, wildly discriminatory and impossible to administer fairly across racial and economic lines - to the moral - basically that society is not very trustworthy when handing out that degree of justice and a tiny benefit of the doubt (life in prison) seems quite prudent given the possibility of fuck up.
That is all.
13 comments:
Missed the debate last night. That one, anyway. Sharon was gone for the evening and I was putting both girls down for the night.
I took the opportunity to make a first introduction of Lucy to old Scooby Doo episodes. Boy, shattered is another nostalgic, rose-colored lenses of my glasses to the past. I may have to submit to you that you were not the one watching the most insipid thing on TV last night.
I was watching a debate to shape the future of the country.
You were watching cartoons.
I was caring for the children who will BE the future of this country. You were alone in a room with your TV.
If there is a future...
That said, for all your decrying of the pop culture of our youth (and the current day) being shitty, and I have no reason to argue that it wasn't (and isn't), is there no room for candy, for fluff?
I don't feel like Scooby Doo did me harm as a child. Sure, I could have been exposed to even MORE quality culture, but you've ridiculed the people that grew up in that environment too (see C.Bubser).
When exactly has pop culture NOT been heavily weighted toward the shitty?
In Scooby Doo you had highly motivated teens taking on entrenched interests for the betterment of the many. Sure, I never thought about it that way, but through all the weird thinly veiled drug references, and painful stereotypes, they were at least people that took a stand for good. How is that especially insipid?
It may be your nature to react more strongly than your actual feelings justify, but the sense your conveying through all of this is seeking some sort of unattainable utopia.
And yes I can appreciate in part the sense of your obligation as a parent to give the best to your child, but your own personal story should give you comfort that being exposed to a lifetime of mediocrity doesn't mean you are doomed to mediocrity.
The fact is that Lucy and Rose are on a fantastic arc of lifetime experiences and achievement, with nearly every possibility before them. If Lucy finds Scooby Doo fun, great. If she doesn't, great. But neither option is closing off any paths she may choose to take.
Why can't it just be over? The longer this goes on the more Something bad could happen. Will Obama drop the ball? No, but Hill will digg up some crazy detail that is blown all out of proportion. That is her only hope. Can't people see this? She is a caged animal that will stop at nothing to get ahead. Even her husband is quietly trying to derail her campaign with calculated misspoken comments. He is too smart for that kind of thing to happen time and time again. Come on Penn vote for BO! Can you smell it? :)
Mix - Hey, hey hey! Stand down. Did I or did I not actually go to the trouble to rent Scooby Doo episodes from Video Universe in order to expose Lucy?
All I was saying is - man, those were dumber than I remembered or hoped. Really - it was par for the course for Hanna Barbara. Superfriends, Herculoids, Scooby Doo, you name it. By all appearances, these were cobbed together by lazy and/or stoned scriptwriters and animators. On the plus side, the voice actors for all are fantastic.
In light of my H.B. experiences, I actually appreciate Looney Toons all the more.
T-Clog: I love a politically-engaged T-Clog. Finally, he sees where we're coming from in these rants we've been having all these years.
Stand down I will...it was a combination of general annoyance yesterday as a result of the calamity of the debate, and the tendency of your unequivocal statements to make me crazy.
As to the engaged (and enraged) Bearclog - fantastic.
I feel a bit like Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.
I also like the Vote for BO! Can You Smell It! slogan possibilities.
If you were trying to get elected with "Vote for B.O!" can you think of a better campaign manager than our own T-Clog?
Absolutely no one would be questioning our dear friend's patriotism, flag lapel pin or no. They might wonder if (and hope) he owned more than one American flag tie.
That's what Obama needs. T-Clog standing in bheind him, in full Statesman regalia & shades, arms folded, and nodding like some sort of patriotic posse.
Post a Comment