Friday Mashup (5/14/10)

(By the way, for some reason, there was no congressional votes writeup in the Inquirer last Sunday, so I can’t bore you with my opinions on that subject for today...and I also posted here.)

Looks like Just Plain Folks Sarah Palin Dontcha Know has put on her red high heels again and is stomping around on the war path about some other make-believe instance of umbrage (and yes, I suppose I shouldn’t care either).

Anyway, she’s being interviewed here by Fix Noise humanoid Megyn Kelly on an Illinois school administrator's decision to cancel a girls' basketball team's trip to Arizona, which has apparently attracted nationwide attention. George Fornero, superintendent of District 113 in Illinois, which oversees Highland Park High School, defended the decision by Assistant Superintendent Suzan Hebson and said it was not a political statement in response to Arizona's new law.

Yeah, right (and as noted here, the girls had apparently been selling cookies to pay the expense for the trip – I think, on balance, Hebson did the right thing, though it was deflating to the players I’ll admit, and for Hebson to claim that this is not a response to the law is ridiculous).

With that in mind, I now give you Palin…

I want these girls to feel empowered and "go rogue" if they must. Figure out a way to protest a decision like this and figure out a way to get there on their own. If it can be done, not being sanctioned by the school, [they should still go to] this tournament.

Without their parents or a family member? Does thinking like this give us some unintentional insight into how Palin’s daughter ended up “in the family way” before marriage (hey, the ex-guv is the one who put her family in the spotlight, not me)?

As I read this, though, I couldn’t help but think that many people who side with Palin no doubt opposed the initiative noted here, which was “midnight basketball” proposed by Bill Clinton in the early ‘90s (soo…it’s OK for people with whom Palin feels a kinship to develop their character through the sport, but nobody else?).

And by the way, before you tell me that, “yeah, well, what Sarah is proposing has nothing to do with the ‘gumint’ and you tax-and-spend li-bu-ruuls,” remember that midnight basketball was first proposed by Poppy Bush as one of his “thousand points of light.”

Update 5/15/10: More on Hebson with the appropriate context here (h/t Atrios)...

As noted here, U.S. House Repug Mike Pence of Indiana has been busy propagating another wingnut talking point making the rounds, namely that the U.S. shouldn’t do anything to help bail out Greece through the International Monetary Fund, which makes me wonder what on earth Greece ever did to earn wingnut enmity in this country (yes, I know the country is a little “leaky” when it comes to Terra! Terra! Terra!, but as nearly as I can see, its worst crime has been financial ineptitude and nothing more...I got into some of this also here).

This post, though, tells us that, though the cost of any U.S. funds is still in question because aid would be pooled among at least 15 IMF countries, it could end up to be the comparatively small amount of $3 billion.

I’m sorry, but given that number, I’m not inclined to beat up on Greece over an aid request of this amount, when you consider that, as noted here, “allowing (Dubya’s) tax cuts to expire for married filers with incomes above $250,000 and single filers with incomes above $200,000— the top 2 percent of U.S. households[1] — will avert $826 billion in added deficits and debt over the next ten years.”

And guess who favors continuing those tax cuts? Why, that would be the same Mike Pence, as noted here.

Also, the perpetually angry Brent Bozell criticized Comedy Central here for “censoring images that might offend Muslims,” though, as he sees it, they have no problem with satirizing Christianity and a certain 43rd president, focusing his ire on “South Park” in particular (disclosure: I don’t watch the show any more because the gross-outs got tiresome).

I give you Bozell…

In the 2005 Comedy Central special "Merry F-ing Christmas," Denis Leary called the Christmas story "bull(bleep)" and said the Virgin Mary must be a myth since someone surely "banged the hell" out of her. In the 2006 "South Park" episode that spiked Mohammad themes, the show ended with Jesus wildly defecating on President Bush: "Look at me, I'm Jesus. Would you like me to crap on you, Mr.

Bush? Mmm, yummy, yummy crap!" And there was Stephen Colbert’s 2008 Christmas special, where Toby Keith sang about (and a cartoon Santa laughed at) Christians blowing up an ACLU lawyer's house.

Gee, I would have thought Bozell would like something like that. Color me shocked!

And by the way, criticizing cartoons is one thing, but criticizing a live adult person who allegedly is not a cartoon (and I’m referring to Keith) is something else, since the Dixie Chicks basher-and-non-apologizer at least has a say in whether or not he chooses to participate in the behavior Bozell finds objectionable (and as noted here, Keith certainly isn’t a stranger when it comes to objectionable behavior).

Finally, in a story related to behavior one might consider objectionable, the New York Times reported today on ads in which words for “ass” and other terms related to male body parts have been bleeped or sanitized in one way or another.

Even though I am a parent of a child, I will not get myself exercised if he occasionally uses the word “ass” or some kind of mild scatological reference, as long as we point out to him that he is not to use these words in the company of others. Besides, I was always taught that kids react inversely to the extent of the original adult response generated by their behavior; in other words, if the young one sees me overreact in response to something, he might be more inclined to try it again as part of a game of one-upsmanship (of course, as a parent, I am a final arbiter of bad behavior, and doling out the correct response and/or punishment is my responsibility).

With that in mind, I should tell you that we stress to him that proper communication using age appropriate, reasonably intelligent language is something we expect, and to do any less diminishes the way others see him and, in all likelihood, the way he sees himself.

Oh, and by the way, I found out today that “Law and Order” was cancelled (here).

…

What the fuck??!! :-)