Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Wednesday's wash

PRESIDENT OBAMA ON KANYE WEST:
Apparently the president made his candid comment concerning Mr. West before an official interview began:
"During what sounds like informal banter before the interview begins, Obama is asked whether his daughters were annoyed by West's hijacking of Swift's acceptance statement, according to an audio copy that was posted on TMZ.com. "I thought that was really inappropriate," Obama says. "What are you butting in (for)? ... The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She's getting her award. What's he doing up there?" A questioner chimes in, "Why would he do it?"
"He's a jackass," Obama replies, which is met with laughter from several people. The president seems to quickly realize he may have gone too far, and jovially appeals to those assembled that the remark be kept private. "Come on guys," he says. "Cut the president some slack. I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate."

My only point here? Simple: why does President Obama want his remark kept private? Why is he worried about it?

I mean--finally, he's said something on which all Americans can agree.

STUPID POLITICALLY-CORRECT NONSENSE UPDATE:
They're at it again--this time it's the mavens of political correctness who happen to be re-writing a social studies curriculum in Texas. Their target? Christmas, of course:
"A proposal for new social studies curriculum in Texas public schools removes a mention of Christmas in a sixth-grade lesson, replacing it with a Hindu religious festival, a change that has riled conservatives who say it's another battle in the "war" against the Christian holiday....The standards now instruct sixth-grade students to be able to explain the significance of religious holidays such as the Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. The proposal, which is set to be debated during a hearing this week, removes Christmas and Rosh Hashanah from the listing. Diwali, a Hindu festival, is added. In a note explaining the change, members of a review committee wrote, "the examples include the key holiday from each of the five major religions."

Wow. Now, the way to attack this is simple. Folks should ask those working on this curriculum a simple question: given that we're talking about American students studying in American schools in a country where, let's face it, Christmas is a very important holiday...why do you people insist that your curriculum on this point include only one holiday from each of five major religions? A curriculum shouldn't only be about politically-correct topics such as this kind of silly religious nose-counting/let's-be-sure-and-give-equal-time-to-every-religion-everywhere. It should, rather, be about teaching young Americans about our country, our culture, the values we hold dear...and surely Christmas must be part of that.
Something tells me this curriculum, as proposed, won't stand, though; and that's a good thing.

GOOD GRIEF, WHAT SILLY THING HAS JIMMY CARTER DONE NOW? DEPT:
Now he's claiming that opposition to President Obama's positions on health care etc are examples of "racism." National Review's editors have the best response:
"...he has gone from hammering nails into Habitat for Humanity houses to hammering what remains of his reputation to smithereens. The nation was poorer for his presidency and is poorer still for his emeritus shenanigans."
Speaking of health care...

OBAMACARE POLL WATCH:
The latest Gallup Poll is out.
It asked: "As you may know, President Obama is proposing a healthcare plan that is designed to expand coverage to nearly all Americans without raising taxes on the middle class or lowering the quality of health care. If Obama’s plan is passed, do you think it would or would not be able to accomplish all of these goals?"
The poll found: 38% said yes; 60% said no.
Doesn't sound like Obama's recent speech convinced a lot of people.

BASEBALL DIARY: the Tigers had a bad night last night, losing to KC 11-1; a lot of the trouble stemmed from the fact that starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn still has a bad knee and is hurt. Who will replace him in the rotation? Who knows. Suddenly that lead over Minnesota doesn't seem so safe.
The Cubs beat Milwaukee 13-7 last night. But... Carlos Zambrano still didn't pitch that well, the victory largely came due to a Brewer pitching meltdown, and...the playoffs seem far away.
The playoffs seem far away as well now for the Texas Rangers, who lost last night to Oakland 6-1, and are now 5 and 1/2 games out of the playoffs. The Rangers have found a bad time to go into a hitting slump; they've scored only 1 run in the last 28 innings.