Too Beautiful, the blog

Too Beautiful

| wishlist

Monday, May 18, 2009

The new McCarthyism

A Syracuse professor alleges that he was denied tenure after Fox News talker Bill O'Reilly attacked him and dubbed him "the new Ward Churchill."

One no longer has to be called a Communist, one only has to be compared to the latest neocon hobbyhorse. If you're a professor and you disagree with them, you're "the new Ward Churchill." If you're a minister, you might be dubbed "the new Jeremiah Wright" or "the new Al Sharpton." And so on. But compare some flamebot like Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck to McCarthy and you'll either get squawks of outrage or an out-of-right-field screed asking what was so bad about McCarthy in the first place?

technorati: Fox, Bill O'Reilly

Labels: Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Fox News

Friday, March 09, 2007

It's Bad Behavior Friday™! -- Special Alexis edition

Judging by her submission of an instance of Bad Behavior in this completely off-topic comment, my pal Alexis either has forgotten my email address, or just misses the Bad Behavior feature of this blog, which has languished since I got my new job three weeks ago.

Okay, kid, this one's for you: a 20-year-old off-duty Northwest Airlines employee was arrested this week for sexually assaulting a sleeping passenger. And in other airlines news, two Delta employees were found to have used their employee status to smuggle guns and drugs on flights. Finally, a customer revolt has caused Air New Zealand to reconsider not giving out "biscuits" (which I think refers to what we call a cookie) on flights.

Of course, this week we had the flap over Ann Coulter's f-bomb. A SF Chronicle reporter compiled the condemnations, which included denunciations from Republican presidential candidates on the right and the not-quite-so-far right, and concludes that the reaction might represent a tipping point in favor of less tolerance for such language. Of course reporter Wyatt Buchanan is totally gay himself.

In Chicago, of all places, a columnist attempts to answer the question: Should you eat food that's been dropped on the floor? I know that is going to get a lot of hits, for even 80 years ago, T.S. Eliot was wondering, "Do I dare to eat a peach?" and many people have wondered about that line in "The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock." The best explanation is, of course, that the narrator had dropped his peach on the floor.

Finally, best of all: the Westchester Co., New York dominatrix who was recently busted pleaded not guilty to prostitution charges, declaring:

I am fighting for the women of America.

technorati: Ann Coulter, dominatrix, Delta Airlines

Labels: airlines, Alexis, Ann Coulter, Bad Behavior, dominatrix, poetry, prostitution

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Hateful Republicans love Coulter for talking shit

Very nice piece on Salon by Glenn Greenwald, talking about why Republicans love Ann Coulter and keep inviting her to speak at fundraisers and functions as she customarily drops bombs (like her recent "faggot" reference to John Edwards) -- she simply says what they're all thinking, namely that the Democratic party is mainly driven by gay people and that it's up to Republicans to protect the rest of the country.

technorati: Ann Coulter, Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald

Labels: Ann Coulter, Republicans

Monday, March 05, 2007

Focus on the Fundies: Haggard's church in 12% staff layoff

New Life Church, the former fiefdom of Ted Haggard, has suffered such a drop in attendance and donations that it has been forced to lay off 44 staffers, about 12% of its 350-strong workforce.

Of course it's not just the drop in attendance and dough. They also paid at least $130,000 as go-away money to the formerly influental Republican fund-raiser and secret cock-sucking meth snorter. That could have paid for more than a few staffers, because I'll bet most of the minions at a place like that get paid pretty bad -- and are expected to tithe ten percent of it back to their employer, to boot.

In other news, a blogger asks, "Why is Ann Coulter the darling of the religious right?" That's a good question, as she ought to scare them nearly as much as she does blue-staters. But by calling John Edwards a faggot, she showed how much she has in common with foamers like Rod Parsley and Ken Blackwell.

In other news, there's a new book out called The Jesus Machine, about James Dobson and his ilk; its author was interviewed on Terry Gross today. Contrary to the book's subtitle ("How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War"), the interview was mainly about how the generation of Dobson and Jerry Falwell is about to pass from the scene and the Christianists have no one obvious to replace him with, especially now that Haggard is out.

technorati: Ted Haggard, James Dobson, Jesus Machine, New Life Church, John Edwards, Ann Coulter

Labels: Ann Coulter, Focus on the Fundies, James Dobson, JohnEdwards, New Life Church, Rod Parsley, Ted Haggard