Posts by Bob Munro
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On first viewing is does look like McCain refused to shake Obama's hand at the end. What do we think here?
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It took me about an hour to recall his name but just a few minutes to find the reference.
Page 152 Gordon McLauchlan’s biography A Life’s Sentences.
“Most of the best writers have rich vocabularies, not the least that remarkable children’s writer Margaret Mahy. I was having breakfast with her some years ago during a writer’s conference in Dunedin, telling her a story but unable to recall a pertinent name. I said ‘I have trouble remembering names’
‘Age’ she said.
‘No I’ve always had it. When I was doing regular television interviews, I would write down names of guests and put the list on the desk in front of me. Even though they may have been famous, I lived in fear of forgetting their names. I was playing Trivial Pursuit once and the answer to a question was Baden-Powell. I could remember the minutiae of his life and times but couldn’t bring up his name. I mimed his biography for an answer and still the name wouldn’t come.Ah’ she said, ‘onomastic aphasia’.
A couple of years later I saw her again and said, Funny, eh, I can remember “onomastic aphasia” easily, all the time, but what’s your name again?’ .
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A sign of a cool blog. Why one that carries ads for 'Little Honey' of course :)
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Exactly Paul. I don't have the reference here but a similar thing happened over the question about taking over as President. Biden took the time to acknowledge what a catastrophic event that would be before saying what he would do while Palin breezily rattled off her 'talking points'. You can see this in the videos of her gubernatorial debates with the question on 'what would your attitude to abortion be if your daughter was raped ' Both the other respondents drop their heads and acknowledge what a terrible situation that would be before giving their opinions. Palin just says matter of factly she believes in the sanctity of life in the same mode she just answered a question on oil revenues.
Sorry I haven't linked to any of this. If Nate Silver's right then the fear that this person could one day be at the heart of power is receding pretty fast and probably not worth wasting too much more energy on.
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That's fair comment I think for the quote in it's isolation. But if you look through Shaw's site there is a collection of material that's pretty fascinating. There's another comment in the thread that quotes in full Palin's 'education' speech. Amongst other things you see how she set him up the start with 'May I call you Joe?' and then used the planned 'Say it ain't so Joe' and then damned his college profesor wife with faint praise by including her in the shout out about school teachers.
In isolated detail these things may be stretching it a bit far but I must confess I find this sort of deconstruction very interesting.
The Reagan quote at the end is expalined by Paul Krugman.Unbelievable. Sarah Palin finished her closing remarks by quoting Ronald Reagan:
It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it to them so that they shall do the same, or we’re going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.When did he say this? It was on a recording he made for Operation Coffeecup — a campaign organized by the American Medical Association to block the passage of Medicare. Doctors’ wives were supposed to organize coffee klatches for patients, where they would play the Reagan recording, which declared that Medicare would lead us to totalitarianism.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
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Yet again clinical psychologist Michael Shaw at The Bag had a perceptive take on the debate. His commentators are also sharp and with him have been developing their insights into visual language via his posts.
One commentator talks about the Palin baby onstage after the debate.Several times I've found it disturbing to see the Palin baby appearing floppy in the arms of multiple family members. Tonight I watched the live feed continue on the NYT site and was really disturbed to see that baby still floppy. (I'm a nurse and watch for parent child interaction as a sign of bonding - especially critical with special needs children). Sarah never looked for or at her child when the family went on stage. She ignored the baby, as did Todd. Fundamentalists often believe that special needs children are a punishment from God, and I'm really wondering if the lack of interest by them in this baby isn't a manifestation of rejecting the child.
If you can get photos of Sarah with the baby I'd be interested in your take. When she did hold him, she never looked at him, didn't do anything other than fast pat his back (pat, pat, pat, pat, pat) as if she was burping him. But he appeared totally floppy - he didn't cry, he didn't open his eyes - he didn't react in any discernible way. She quickly handed him off to her next youngest without any look to assure that she was holding him safely. That was the last the baby had any attention from either parent.
The six year old stood between her and Joe Biden at one point, and Joe had his hands on her shoulders in a grandfather type gesture. Sarah was too busy talking to Joe to take notice of her daughter, who was looking away from both of them and smiling at someone off camera.
There doesn't seem to be any overt warmth between Sarah and her children. Todd just seemed starstruck and was basking in his testosterone fueled glow.
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I have yet to master the dark art of link embedding so can one of you maestros do me a solid?
This is the method I use. I’m sure there are slicker ways.
1. From the column to the left of the ‘Post a reply’ window copy and paste the text after the word ‘Link:’
2. Copy the address from the browser address bar. Delete the letters ‘url’ and paste in the address.
3. Delete the words ’link text’ and type in what you want eg.’Pundit Kitchen’.
4. Check it by pressing ‘Preview’ and then ‘Post reply’ when all is in order.
Good luck.
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Correction. She couldn't name any other ruling she 'disagreed ' with... but then got rather confused.
In response to a question, Ms. Palin also said that she believed there is an inherent right of privacy in the Constitution. She did not explain how she could believe in a right of privacy and still oppose Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a Constitutional right to abortion. The decision rests on the belief in a right to privacy.
Ms. Couric explained that the right to privacy is “the cornerstone” of the decision.
After Ms. Palin said she did believe in the privacy right, she added:
“I do. And I believe that — individual states can handle what the people within the different constituencies in the 50 states would like to see their will ushered in in an issue like that.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/the-palin-interviews-the-supreme-court-question/
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CBS has the 'Supreme Court' question to both candidates up on their site now and it does Look like Palin couldn't name anything but Roe v. Wade.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/01/eveningnews/main4493062.shtml
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Can't find the reference .. but somewhere,
Hamish Keith tells the story of having to find shoes for the potter Barry Brickell when he went to Government House to receive an honour. Brickell's feet were so broad from years of going shoeless that all they could find to fit him were a pair of beige suede desert boots that had to be coated with black nugget to meet the required dress standard.