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Finally read The Hunger Games

Consumption, Language, Leisure, Popular Culture 7 Responses »

May 212012

Stayed home today nursing a tender tummy.

Despite its cultural saturation, I managed to stay away from The Hunger Games completely until I read it, which was today. I actually managed a fresh read of it in May 2012. Yay, me. Hey, it was only five months after Lea gave it to me for Christmas.

It’s the first book I’ve read in a long time during which I had to make a real effort to slow down. Particularly in the middle third, I was going as fast as I could because I was impatient to see what was going to happen next. That’s not a good way to appreciate writing, though, so I dialed it back just a bit.

What a marvelous time! I think I’ll read the next two, then start over and read all three again. I wanted the story today, and I’m sure I’ll want the story just as quickly with Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The second reading will be one to better appreciate any subtleties I’m missing.

“Barack Obama…was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”

Annoyances, Current Events, History, Language, Politics 3 Responses »

May 202012

This is the 1,985th post on BoWilliams.com. It appears roughly halfway through my blog’s sixth year in existence. It contains my blog’s first ever occurrence of “Kenya,” and only its fifth of “Hawaii.”

I trust this is sufficient testimony to my general lack of interest in questioning Barack Obama’s birthplace. My position has always been that there’s plenty enough wrong with the guy without going there. We don’t need to root through dumpsters in back alleys when we can read the billboards on the interstate.

So last week Breitbart, with a similar we’re-not-birthers disclaimer, ran a story describing a biography of Barack Obama published by his literary agency in 1991. The biography begins:

Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.

Obama’s literary agent, Miriam Goderich, describes how this happened:

This was nothing more than a fact-checking error by me.

The “error” was eventually corrected—in 2007. It was just a pesky little mistake that persisted for 16 years—right up until, oh, about the time Mr. Obama ran for president. See, it got kind of inconvenient then.

Now this shall certainly inflame the passions of those already inclined to believe our president is illegitimate because he was not born in the United States. This is a solid piece that seems to confirm that premise, the authenticity of which has been denied by no one.

My take on it is that I still really rather doubt Barack Obama was born overseas. However, I do find this biography eminently consistent with the way he operates. You see, in 1991, it was very cool for Obama to have been born in Kenya, so he was. He’s all things to all people. What do you need from me? What do you want to hear? Well, that’s who I am, that guy you’re looking for. Who is he again? Kenyan? Yeah, that’s me. See? It says so right here in my bio.

We all present different sides, to different people, in different circumstances. When you’re looking for conversation on a first date, you don’t lead with the zit in the middle of your back you can’t quite reach. But, gee, that’s not quite the same as a manufactured birthplace, is it?

(And don’t try to tell me Barack Obama never read it. In 1991, Obama would have read, at least ten times, anything in print in which his name appeared. He’d do it now, were it practical.)

So, my dear Obama supporters: can you write a plausible narrative through this that exonerates your hero? How do you think Obama’s birthplace came to be identified as Kenya? How did it continue as such for 16 years? Is this really a simple “fact-checking error”?

Are you nodding, saying “of course it is,” and still feeling the hope and change?

Is there any sand in the Astroglide for you yet?

The Acoustic Cafe: where tunes and tyranny intersect

Annoyances, Consumption, Current Events, Leisure, Liberty, Popular Culture 2 Responses »

May 182012

Did you know we have an alternative music festival in northern Alabama? The Acoustic Cafe started in 1996, and has recently moved to a site in rural Marion County. It happens again next weekend—May 25 and 26.

I learned of The Acoustic Cafe from a friend of mine. She mentioned it not to tell me about the music, but to entertain me with stories of her attendance experience. You see, festival owner Steve Masterson rules The Acoustic Cafe with an iron fist. The “three-day village of harmony, love, and tolerance” has a whole bunch of rules, and you better follow ‘em, buddy boy:

If you think this is a place where you can come and get wild, we do not want you here. If you had rather talk while sitting in front of the stage instead of listening to music, we do not want you here. If you can’t deal with your trash and recyclables in the proper manner, we do not want you here. If you are one of those people who think you are special and the rules do not apply to you – well, you guessed it – we do not want you here.

Is there a bit of sadistic pleasure in there? Would you believe this guy actually polices the crowd and shushes people?

I thought surely my friend was overplaying it just a little bit for comedic effect. Then, she shared with me email she received earlier this week, from Steve to his list. (The email subject is Now that we got your money.) Quoting:

Well now that we got your ticket money we don’t have to be near so nice to you. You new people need to know a few things, come prepared to take care of yourself. Try to bring as little trash as possible. For instance if you have bought a new air mattress take it out of the box at home instead of throwing the box away up here. It will make it easier on us. DO NOT BRING GLASS. Think how bad it would ruin your weekend if we took you [sic] cooler full of glass bottles. Do what you are told to do by our people when you arrive. Our goal is to get your vehicle parked and settled in.

I think the most telling bit is the directive about the air mattress box. That serves no interest but feeding someone’s freak—as in control.

I have written before of homeowners’ associations, and specifically my belief that they tend to attract people who crave power but have been unable to achieve it in any other area of their lives. It sounds as if dear Steve may have similar cravings (and attendant trouble satisfying them). However, rather than worrying people incessantly about whether their window treatments are white or ivory, he charges them $50 to submit and be berated for the weekend (under the auspices of being a music lover). Hey, give the guy credit for finding an original path through it all.

Tickets are $50 in advance, or $60 at the ~~compound entrance~~ gate. If you’re into alternative music and recreational totalitarianism, it could be just what you should do with next weekend.

Thursday miscellanea #188

Menagerie No Responses »

May 172012

In an effort to increase Alabama Gulf tourism dollars, the state legislature has mandated a long summer with a late starting date for the upcoming school year. (The logic of this is dubious, even if it were suddenly somehow more important than children’s education.) Many school systems’ calendars, including the one with which I planned our fall vacation, have been in place for months. Alabama, when I can feel Montgomery here, it’s too much. And I promise you’ll pay at the ballot box.
I can’t remember the last time I had an all-you-can-eat buffet (besides a salad bar). Not my thing anymore. But they’re still out there, and shouldn’t they make good? Isn’t this part of the business model—balancing out this guy with little old ladies and such?
As I watched a late-model Mustang exit 565 yesterday, I wondered whether cool turn signals, like the sequential ones on this car, made them more likely to be used. I don’t think anyone’s really doing anything with “motion” like that except this Ford example and Chevrolet with the Corvette, but with the increasingly complex LED arrays that are making up some rear lights, the possibilities are endless. The thing I still haven’t seen that I think would be neat is using the same lens for turn signals and back-up lights. The first-generation Ford Fusion would have been a great candidate for this.
Breaking into ambulances for pain and anti-anxiety drugs. Nice.
I was thinking I’d go with a reprise of a classic look for my niece’s wedding this weekend. Lea was not quite so enthusiastic.
Did you catch Sylvester Stallone in a painting from 1511?
The fourth-best quarterback prospect in the United States has committed to Alabama. Cooper Bateman chose the Crimson Tide over scholarship offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Auburn, Boise State, BYU, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Ole Miss, Purdue, UCLA, Utah, Utah State, and Washington.

Obama brings a knife to a gunfight

Annoyances, Current Events, Language, Mobile Blogging, Politics 6 Responses »

May 152012

Game on!

We have a presumptive nominee, so Obama has begun in earnest. So far, the Obama campaign and allied forces have made sure we know that Mitt Romney put the family dog on top of a station wagon 30 years ago. Also, he was a party to restraining a long-haired feller and cutting his hair in high school, and the guy might have been gay, except maybe none of that was true after all. Or something.

It is perhaps a bit superficially jarring that such seems to be the Obama campaign’s main approach now, most of six months from Election Day. I mean, to the degree that these sorts of attacks are ever indicated, aren’t they best used as “throw-ins,” ancillary to the primary message?

But think about it. What else can Obama do? Talk about all of his kept promises? Trumpet the efficacy of his economic policy? Tell most of America they’re wrong when they consistently say they want Obamacare repealed? Brag about arming drug cartels? Discuss how deftly he handles world leaders in casual conversation? Say “I’m President Obama, who ordered Osama bin Laden killed” again?

See, Barack Obama has something he’s never had before: a record of his performance. This is new to both him and his campaign team. They’ve never had to deal with it before. So far, 1) Show up; 2) Orate; 3) Repeat has been the whole plan—and it’s been enough.

But gee, that’s not working anymore. There’s this pesky little matter of three disastrous years under The One’s leadership.

So it’s straight to the little anecdotes that demonstrate how rotten Mitt Romney is. There’s a problem with the little anecdotes, though. Thanks both to a ceaselessly sycophantic media machine and inept opposition in 2008, Obama’s never had to deal with his own little anecdotes before. The media was all in on the hopey-changey stuff. McCain decided it was beneath him, so he played rope-a-dope with it (except he forgot to win at the end).

But the Romney campaign hits back—quickly. (And poetically. Loved the reiteration of the Dreams from My Father bit about eating dogs.)

So let’s examine what we have here. We all know the level of genuine vetting Barack Obama received in 2008, which went something like: “he’s so inspiring, and he’s the first black president. Get him in there. Ayers? Wright? Chicago-style thuggery? Nothing to see here. Move along.” OK, so we’re playing on this level and comparing these largely unplumbed depths to…

…quite possibly the straightest arrow to run for president in the modern era.

Had a look at this week’s polling?

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