Category: The Dish

There’s a new treatment for sleep apnea: playing your didgeridoo. I will refrain from the obvious gag.

Brokeback’s Number One at the box office.

A reader writes:

The reader’s letter you posted regarding the bad company of Christopher Hitchens nails my sentiments. But while I think Hitch is as aware of this administration’s incompetence and moral bankruptcy as any of us, we are unlikely to hear him speak forcefully against Bush’s execution of the Iraq war anytime soon. As he wrote in the Weekly Standard (Sept. 5th, 2005, "A War to be Proud Of"):

"If the great effort to remake Iraq as a demilitarized federal and secular democracy should fail or be defeated, I shall lose sleep for the rest of my life in reproaching myself for doing too little. But at least I shall have the comfort of not having offered, so far as I can recall, any word or deed that contributed to a defeat."

I have to say that Hitch is a friend and his motives, as far as I am concerned, are unimpeachable. As is his commitment to freedom and secularism everywhere. For my part, I don’t believe criticizing this administration’s conduct of the war is contributing to our defeat. Democracies do better in wars precisely because we have more internal criticism and therefore more flexibility and capacity to correct error. Sadly, this administration seems to specialize in sticking its fingers in its ears.

Robert George thinks the former veep is a more formidable opponent of the Bush administration than Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton. I’m not so sure. But Al’s recent speech is definitely worth a read. Frankly, I hope neither runs next time (yes, I know: fat chance). But Gore’s nuanced and powerful critique of the president’s use and abuse of executive power is a public service. Money quote:

"The executive branch has also claimed a previously unrecognized authority to mistreat prisoners in its custody in ways that plainly constitute torture and have plainly constituted torture — in a widespread pattern that has been extensively documented in U.S. facilities located in several countries around the world.

Over 100 of these captives have reportedly died while being tortured by executive branch interrogators. Many more have been broken and humiliated. And, in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, investigators who documented the pattern of torture estimated that more than 90 percent of the victims were completely innocent of any criminal charges whatsoever.

This is a shameful exercise of power that overturns a set of principles that our nation has observed since General George Washington first enunciated them during our Revolutionary War. They have been observed by every president since then until now.

They violate the Geneva Conventions, the International Convention Against Torture and our own laws against torture."

Alas, all of this is indisputable.

I would have voted against the new Medicare entitlement on fiscal grounds alone. It’s an insanely expensive new entitlement that we simply cannot afford – and it’s dedicated to the most prosperous elderly generation ever. But if you’re going to do it, you should at least pull it off half-way competently. But, then, this is the Bush administration, and, once again, it’s doing a heckuva job. Jon Cohn explains what went wrong, and how the worst could have been avoided.

Wait, there’s more:

"I grew up in a very liberal, pc area. I remember that when I was five, I corrected my father and told him to call the Indian Ocean the Native American Ocean. I’m actually happy that I had the PC upbringing that I had, as it made me more able to enjoy this post-PC era.

Post-PC deserves at least two-cheers, but at least one other post-PC pop culture item deserves mention, the Family Guy. For a majority of twenty-somethings this is the post-PC show.

First, the Family Guy has taken offensiveness to a whole new level, and recognized that if you offend everyone, you offend nobody. Any show that makes domestic violence humorous by realizing we are in on the joke is one that deserves acclaim. It’s a show where the lead character can: wish his son were Jewish so he was smarter; find out he is black and then spend reparations money on turning his living room into Pee Wee’s play house; take his son to an Irish museum where there is a mechanical woman that has a baby constantly; and have a baby that wishes he were homosexual when he was older so that he wouldn’t have to deal with women like his mother.

It even mocks Slobodan Milosevich and Saddam Hussein (the scene where Hussein is talking about an episode of Seinfeld at Peter‚Äôs house was amazing. I‚Äôm waiting for an Ahmadinejad joke).   

Still, the ultimate acknowledgement of post-PC came within the show, so in an attempt to win a poseur award I‚Äôll call it ‚Äúmeta-post-PC‚Äù.  It was when Brian the talking dog barked at a black character on the show, apologized noting that his father was from a different era, and then said, ‚ÄúI‚Äôm sorry, really, I vote Democrat.‚Äù  As a Democrat, I know it‚Äôs exactly how many of us feel, but shouldn‚Äôt.

The post-PC thing is much more helpful than the PC era of the 90’s, but could we have been as comfortable with the jokes that exist post-PC without having been through the PC era?"

Maybe political correctness was indeed a necessary phase in our churning popular culture. I’m just glad it’s over.

Is he gaining traction?

Several readers have added some names to the post-PC list of current entertainers. Item One:

Don’t forget Ali G.  Although I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s inoffensive, he deconstructs pre-conceived notions about identity as brilliantly as anyone on your list, and in ways that the older generations (as represented on his show, at least) consistently fail to understand.

Agreed. The "Little Britain" series deserves an honorable mention. And then there’s Sarah Silverman, who has pushed the post-PC envelope about as far as it goes. Post-post-PC?  Check out her new movie, "Jesus Is Magic."  But not if you’re squeamish in a left or right sort of way. 

The hyper-links in the Dish now appear in a separate window. You asked for it …

In Oklahoma, a gay cowboy couple brought up three kids on a ranch. They did fine – "I was raised to be independent. I didn’t really care what other people thought," – until one of them died. Now, because there is no legal protection for their relationship, the surviving husband has lost everything. Money quote:

Meadows’ will, which left everything to Beaumont, was fought in court by a cousin of the deceased and was declared invalid by the Oklahoma Court of Appeals in 2003 because it was short one witness signature.

A judge ruled the rancher had to put the property, which was appraised at $100,000, on the market. The animals were sold. Beaumont had to move.

Because Meadows had no biological children or surviving parents, his estate was divided up among his heirs. When the ranch sells, the proceeds are to be divided among dozens of Meadows’ cousins.

And people ask why gay couples want the right to civil marriage. Because they are always one ornery relative away from having their relationships shredded under the law. For some of the most insightful criticism of the movie, check out Misty Irons’ response linked on her website here.