Month: November 2010

Esquire combed their archives and pulled together an impressive spread of "odd recipes from the November 1984 issue," including William F. Buckley's Thanksgiving Pheasant and Jimmy Carter's Special Cheese Ring. The editor's introduction:

In it, such era-appropriate icons like Walter Mondale, Malcolm Forbes, and Nancy Reagan espoused the virtues of persimmon puddings, goose with prunes, and coconut drinks at a Thanksgiving meal. While we cannot vouch for these fourteen recipes — oddly, no one wanted to make former New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne's "Mousse of Saltcod" — we've republished them in the interest of kitsch, irony, and sheer amusement.

A reader writes, "It's worth reading his Wikipedia page, if only so that you feel a smidgen of guilt for tarring as complex a figure as Merle Haggard":

"Okie From Muskogee", 1969's apparent political statement, was actually written as an abjectly humorous character portrait.

Haggard called the song a "documentation of the uneducated that lived in America at the time." He said later on the Bob Edwards Show that "I wrote it when I recently got out of the joint. I knew what it was like to lose my freedom, and I was getting really mad at these protesters. They didn't know anything more about the war in Vietnam than I did. I thought how my dad, who was from Oklahoma, would have felt. I felt I knew how those boys fighting in Vietnam felt."

Actually, Haggard said had only started smoking marijuana when he was 41 years old. He admitted that in 1983 he bought "$2,000 (worth) of cocaine" and to partying for five days afterward, when he says he finally realized his condition and quit for good.

More from the song's Wiki page:

Critic Kurt Wolff wrote that Haggard always considered what became a redneck anthem to be a spoof, and that today fans – even the hippies that are derided in the lyrics – have taken a liking to the song and take humor in some of the lyrics.

Another reader:

Taking a shot at one of the greatest country singers of all time?  Now you've gone too far. Yes, he did do that song.  But he's also distanced himself from it repeatedly. I saw him live in Salinas a decade ago and after he sung that song, he received the applause, paused, and then said "You know, when I wrote that song, I was dumber than a rock."

He's also criticized the US war in Iraq.  As Wikipedia notes: "In October 2005, Haggard released his album, "Chicago Wind (Merle Haggard album)", to mostly positive reviews. The album contained an anti-Iraq war song titled "America First," in which he laments the nation's economy and faltering infrastructure, applauds its soldiers, and sings, "Let's get out of Iraq, and get back on track."

Scott F. Aikin and Robert B. Talisse offer some holiday advice:

First, stay home on Thanksgiving weekend.  Do not shop on “Black Friday.”  Sleep in instead.  Spend time with your family; relax, eat leftovers, have a drink, watch a movie, take a walk.  The shopping malls will survive, the sales will continue, the shelves will remain stocked.  You have plenty of time.

No doubt some will dispute that last claim.  They will say that time is short, and that they need the long Thanksgiving weekend in order make a dent in their Christmas shopping list.  Hence the second front of our war on Christmas:

Second, rethink gift-giving.  It is a simple and lamentable fact that the percentage of the Christmas gifts you receive that are useless to you is pretty high.  Yes, it’s the thought that counts.  But if it’s the thought that counts, then it is perfectly acceptable for people to exchange the kind of gift that cannot be purchased in a store, namely, the gift of time.  Tell the adults on your Christmas list that this year you’re giving them the gift of free time; you are releasing them from the obligation to buy for you a gift, and you are encouraging them to spend in some other way the time they would otherwise spend at the mall purchasing a material gift for you.

Today on the Dish, Andrew reviewed the Palin of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," and America debated Obama's turkey pardon. Andrew pushed back on the Vatican's unconscionable position on condoms and HIV, readers contributed their own stories about Truvada, and Elizabeth Pisani searched out the bigger picture. Sarah Palin started a class war over blue bloods, allied with the North Koreans, and Bristol wanted to give the finger to all those who hate her and her mom. Evan Osnos weighed China's options on North Korea, and Conor and Marc Thiessen counted our memories of 9/11. The Likudnik/ Ben Smith debate waged on, with Goldblog adding his two cents, the Soviets ruined Tolstoy, Iraq was still a morass, and Israel gets what Israel wants.

Conor and Bernstein debated whether the presidency was too big for one man, and Pareene hacked away at the worst political hacks. Nyhan assessed the economy's impact on 2012, Chris Christie was the Justin Bieber of politics, and even he rolled his eyes at Palin. Matt Yglesias and Pete Wehner argued over whether our political system is broken while Andrew thought only one party was. Andrew avoided flying, and you can send your TSA stories here.

Whip My Hair got the exorcist treatment, and Kanye was the Sarah Palin of music. Beliefs change, Alex Morgan proposed school vouchers for bullied gay kids, and readers reacted to "that's so gay." Merle Haggard, Pink, Barry McGuire, Michael Jackson were inducted into Shut Up And Sing, and readers defended their preachy lyrics. Yglesias award here, DADT tea leaves here, creepy ad watch here, Malkin award here and here, quote for the day here, VFYW here, MHB here, FOTD here, and poseur alert here.

–Z.P.

Timothy Kincaid reads them:

[W]e should be cautious not to be overly optimistic about the report. The recommendations, while based on survey responses which are leaked to be positive, may well be far less than we hope for. I very much doubt that this report will call for an immediate repeal of the ban.

Rather, I suspect that it will suggest a phase-in of repeal, perhaps emphasizing certain branches of service enacting open service earlier than others. I also suspect that it will involve the transfer of openly gay servicemembers from certain forms of service to other forms, rather than discharge.

Whatever the recommendations, they are likely to be disappointing. Which, ironically, may make them more palatable to legislators on the fence.

"I spoke with [John] Tyner several days ago and he was very worried that his public stance would jeopardize exactly the ordinariness which The Nation claims is fake:  his job, his family, his reputation, and the cost from government recriminations.  This highly irresponsible, evidence-free Nation attack demonstrates how valid those concerns were.  It may be that several vocal opponents of the new TSA process are Koch-funded — that wouldn't surprise me — but that has absolutely nothing to do with Tyner, and The Nation, for which I have high regard, owes him an apology and retraction for the innuendo it smeared on him without a shred of evidence," – Glenn Greenwald.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is particularly appalled by the vile rhetoric of Peter Sprigg. But this may be the bottom line:

The SPLC designation of the Family Research Council as an anti-gay hate group potentially poses a challenge for Republicans. Though many conservatives view the SPLC as a progressive group and therefore no more worthy of respect than, say, ACORN, the SPLC hate group label will almost undoubtedly make it into press reports about future events like the Values Voter Summit. That means Republican presidential hopefuls who may want to reach out to gay and lesbian Republican groups like the Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud — which can be good sources of fundraising as well as "I'm not anti-gay" cred on the campaign trail — may have to explain why they publicly praised and rushed to address a group that SPLC is calling one of the worst perpetrators of ugly myths about gays.

Tom DeLay gets his jury verdict:

Prosecutors presented a mountain of circumstantial evidence — emails, telephone records, calendars, brochures and other documents — trying to persuade jurors that Mr. DeLay played a leading role in the plan and intended to break the Texas election law from the moment his political operatives solicited the donations.

But the lead defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, maintained the money swap was legal and a common practice. He also presented evidence to distance Mr. DeLay from the actions of his political operatives, arguing that while Mr. Ellis told Mr. DeLay about the transaction, Mr. DeLay never gave his approval.

Judge Pat Priest has wide discretion in sentencing the former majority leader, who was known as “The Hammer” for his no-holds-barred style during 20 years in the House of Representatives. Mr. Delay could be sentenced from 2 years to 20 years in prison for the conspiracy count, and from 5 years to 99 years, or life in prison, for the money-laundering count.