Jive Talkin'

… you're telling me lies:

  • I am a huge Charles Krauthammer fan, and am totally in agreement with the spirit of his recent column about President Obama's narcissism. But in the following paragraphs:
    It began with the almost comical self-inflation of his presidential campaign, from the still inexplicable mass rally in Berlin in front of a Prussian victory column to the Greek columns framing him at the Democratic convention. And it carried into his presidency, from his posture of philosopher-king adjudicating between America's sins and the world's to his speeches marked by a spectacularly promiscuous use of the word "I."

    Notice, too, how Obama habitually refers to Cabinet members and other high government officials as "my" -- "my secretary of homeland security," "my national security team," "my ambassador." The more normal -- and respectful -- usage is to say "the," as in "the secretary of state." These are, after all, public officials sworn to serve the nation and the Constitution -- not just the man who appointed them.

    … just about every checkable claim about the President's language is easily debunked. Dr. K and others should stick to making claims they can actually back up; goodness knows, in Obama's case, there should be enough of them.

  • The only soccer-related URLs you're likely to see from Pun Salad: (a) Dave Barry reporting on the Holland-Uruguay match from South Africa:
    Holland won the game, after which tens of thousands of ecstatic vuvuzela-blaring Dutch fans spilled into the streets and resumed partying, while the Uruguayan fans climbed into their VW microbus for the long sad drive home.
    And P. J. O'Rourke in the WSJ on how to make soccer more interesting:
    I have one suggestion: Use your hands, dummies. Is this something that you simply forget to do? I recall from being beaten up in the schoolyard that sometimes the bully gets so involved in kicking that he fails to remember to punch too. Or is using your hands something that hasn't occurred to you? In the sport of "kick-the-can," for instance, there's no particular reason for the winning player not to run in and toss the can instead of giving it the boot. True, kicking something generally makes a more satisfying sound than throwing it (the shot put excepted). But is it worth ruining a whole athletic contest for the sake of a sound effect?
    Also: "play it on an extremely steep slope. This did wonders for the luge."

  • Sign of the Apocalypse: Lindsay Lohan quoted a Cato Institute article in a number of Tweets moaning about her mandated 90-day vacation in one of L. A. County's fine facilties, where she follows a long line of celebrities. And Lindsay should have paid more attention to what one of them used to say: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."


Last Modified 2012-10-03 9:11 AM EDT