living in a post-racial society is so awesome

Overseen in Athens delves into the burgeoning market for racist amputee humor.

But did you hear the story about Obama’s radical pastor? Obama did a favor to all Good Americans — both Right and Sensible Left — by denouncing Jeremiah Wright. Now the only question is, did he denounce him hard enough? I shore do hope so. It’s great to see Obama denounce and reject race pimps like Wright. You see, what professional victims like Wright don’t understand is that racism is no longer tolerated in America. And that means we have to make it our solemn duty never to discuss it again — ever.

“we saw ‘o africa, brave africa.’ it was a laugh riot.”

One of the more annoying tendencies of editorial cartoons is the reflexive reliance on cheap heavy-handedness to mask stupid arguments. You want a crying Statue of Liberty (“DEMOCRACY”) to act as pro-American propaganda? You got it. You want a crying Uncle Sam (“AMERICA”) or a shadowy, beckoning Grim Reaper (“DEATH”) to represent The Cost Of War? You got it. You want a teary-eyed kid in a baseball cap (“THE CHILDREN”) with the caption “say it ain’t so” to represent steroids in baseball? You got it. In fact, you’re probably already the editorial cartoonist for the Omaha World-Herald. Jeff, quit reading this!

There are too many such tropes to mention, but one of the most-abused ones is the image of the starving African child. A cursory glance at the situation in Africa would leave you thinking that the starving African child is most threatened by Janjaweed death squads and the ebola virus. This is a bald-faced lie. Starving African children are being abused daily by editorial cartoonists on deadlines, most recently in the context of rising U.S. investment in corn ethanol. Take these examples from this weekend:

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner:

M.E. Cohen:

Sandy Huffaker:

And lastly, my BFF Kirk Carter in The Red & Black:

It works for Nike, it works for the Gap, and it’ll work for you, kids: when in doubt, go for the starving child.

you wanna battle, get a deal first

This would be interesting to watch. Not because I’d expect “Clinton, Hillary Rodham” to be added to the index in future copies of American Rhetorical Discourse, and not because it would change the race (unless PBS sandwiched the debate between new episodes of “Charlie Rose Presents: Mudfighting with America’s Next Top Model” — but oh, my elitism betrays me), but because it would be interesting to see how the campaigns stayed on message in an L/D format. Or, failing that, how drastically the format would have to be changed to accommodate a politics that isn’t currently debated from a rational-critical perspective at all, even among elite actors.

rj-matson-convoluted-movie-analogy watch

Today’s installment? Morass from the past:

[borat voice] Great success! [/borat voice]

prolonged service advisory

Several major obligations related to a recent change in living arrangements (both figurative and literal) will leave us with little opportunity to update this blog regularly for the next couple of weeks.

In other words, if this is the first blog you turn to daily for incoherent rants about politics and other people’s cartoons, it might be best just to stick us on your RSS feed. Because there won’t be much going on here (if there ever was). Don’t call us; we’ll call you.

don’t forget that senator told ya

Among liberals my age, a major warrant for supporting Obama is that he “gets” them. Aside from his stump speeches, they’ve got no empirical evidence to support this belief, but they do so anyway. That’s why we’re skeptical whenever Obama supporters like Matthew Yglesias hear an alleged dog whistle like yesterday’s “dirt off your shoulder” gesture. We saw the clip in question, but thought the chances of Obama intentionally making reference to what the kids call the “Jigga Man” minimal at best.

Here’s why: despite what dewy-eyed optimists like to argue, Obama isn’t “one of us.” He’s not even a Gen-Xer. He’s a United States Senator in his late 40s with degrees from Columbia and Harvard. He’s already at the pinnacle of the ruling class, and he’s aiming to climb even higher. We can find his campaign and oratory styles more agreeable than the other candidates, but the uncomfortable truth is that Obama, like Sens. Clinton and McCain, isn’t down with OPP. He’s a power-hungry, megalomaniacal freak. But if it amounts to anything at all — and nothing aside from Obama’s skin color would suggest that it does — Obama’s (as Yglesias puts it) “reverse Sistah Souljah” should be viewed as a shrewd political move that intensifies his support among the already-converted.

Update. No, I’m not faulting Obama. I’m just pointing out what I’d hoped was obvious — that we shouldn’t project all our hopes and dreams onto the guy. That’s a different issue than the question of whether or not Obama is the best candidate. You can support Obama while at the same time remaining skeptical about his capacity to change politics or be some sort of “cool older brother.”

an excellent source of velveetium

Because old family recipes are in the news again, and because it is a proud blogospheric tradition to punctuate shrill and reactionary leftist rants with the occasional tasty recipe, I thought I’d break out one of my own for you folks.

Home Style Shells & Cheese

Ingredients
1 box Velveeta Shells & Cheese
6 cups water

Directions
1) Boil 6 cups water
2) Stir shell pasta into boiling water. Boil 8 to 10 minutes or to desired tenderness, stirring occasionally. Drain. Do not rinse. Return to pan.
3) Cut off corner of Velveeta cheese sauce pouch. Squeeze cheese sauce over hot pasta.
4) Stir well. Makes 2 to 3 servings.

Update. After much introspection (30 seconds of it, to be specific) I have removed references to suggested accompaniments. I’d hate to give the landed gentry the false impression that I am anything but an upstanding citizen who roots for the St. Louis Cardinals and goes to church every Sunday.

Bon appetit, bitches friends and neighbors.

“there is always some madness in the family circus, but there is also always some reason in madness.”

If you’re as tired of campaign news as I am, check out The Nietzsche Family Circus. The Family Circus is easy to make fun of, but at least this is a somewhat original method.

shorter douglas e. schoen

Mrs. Clinton shouldn’t be so reluctant to criticize Mr. Obama.

“e pur si muove!”

The Pope came to DC today. It’s somehow fitting that the Nationals’ new mallpark is hosting His Popeness, given the uniformly fellatory coverage of the stadium’s debut. If you’d been subjected to the steady stream of excited twittering surrounding the Nationals’ first month in the new mallpark, you’d think that the Shining Stadium on a Hill was the only inanimate object worship-worthy enough to handle Christendom’s own favorite inanimate object. And that’s why I’m proud to say that I’ve been here for three months and never laid eyes on the new stadium.

I’ll miss a lot of things about DC, but I won’t miss the tendency of its central planners to stick a Target and a construction fence on a block and call it “progress.”