Silent but deadly
I love this picture, which probably is not accurately depicted by the caption. Probably.
I nicked it off this National Review article. He says Oprah started her long decline after choosing to endorse Obama over Hillary, shocking her (mostly white, mostly female) fans by choosing the black thing over the girl thing. Hilarious if true.
Identity politics is hard.
Early in our relationship, Uncle B treated me to a lecture on The Problem With Americans: we sit around watching opera all day and take our marching orders from opera and only think what opera tells us to.
And I was, like, “that’s just so weird and wrong and unfair. I mean, my dad quite likes Verdi, but he’s the only American I know who’s really into opera.”
I have, of course, stepped on my own punchline here: he meant Oprah, he just can’t talk right. He’s English.
Which is really weird because, here again, my dad is the only American I know who’s really into Oprah.
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PSYCH! Good weekend, everyone!
Posted: May 18th, 2012 under personal, politics, race.
Comments: 28
Comments
Comment from Scubafreak
Time: May 18, 2012, 10:35 pm
Not that it matters. Oprah has been in a tailspin since she hitched her wagon to Obama and refused to interview Sarah Palin until AFTER Obama won……
She has no-one to blame but herself.
Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: May 18, 2012, 10:45 pm
Shouldn’t that be “Opry?”
Amazing how one of the richest women in the US of A, who created her own empire, can still believe that Obama Ideology is what the country needs.
P.S. How does one become a member of the Moronosphere?
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:25 pm
So wide is the gulf (still) that I don’t even know what was wrong!
I still don’t get the cleb-worship thing. Sadly, we have followed suit. I mean… who is this person? Why is she haunting the goldfish bowl in the corner of my room? Why am I supposed to care what she thinks? What time was the cricket on?
I think they must have left a circuit board out of my head.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:30 pm
Opry! Of course! My dad is, in fact, a *huge* fan of the Opry.
If you mean get your blog on the list, FG, Conservative Belle was keeping the official link list, but that was a long time ago and her blog link appears dead.
If you want on my blogroll, that’s easy enough. I’ll do that (and anyone else who wants on) next time I’m browsing around in the bowels of the blog.
If you just want to declare yourself a moron and get on board (which is how it’s done), you can find the color logo for the sidebar online with an images search.
Comment from Oceania
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:34 pm
Blacks.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:36 pm
Short and to the point. You’ve distilled yourself to the very essence Oceania.
Comment from Allen
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:44 pm
I know it’s a typo, but, Uncle B that one is just waiting to be hit out of the park. BTW I don’t remember is there an out of the park in cricket?
I digress, no, American no worship Cleb, American worship Gog. 🙂
Sorry, couldn’t help it, it won’t happen again…
Soon.
Comment from Nina
Time: May 18, 2012, 11:47 pm
I worship blog gods and goddesses like Stoaty.
(your arse should feel well and truly kissed now. :))
Comment from JeffS
Time: May 19, 2012, 12:33 am
Meh, people around the world look for someone to take marching orders from; it’s human nature. The intelligent and self-aware person questions those orders, and often the person issuing the orders. This is one difference between the sheep and the sheepdogs*.
America differs only in that we made an industry out of it, where the marks get fleeced on a regular (and relatively painless) basis through buying hinky merchandise, and the hucksters in question (normally) don’t incite open civil war.
(Obama and his minions would like make that industry mandatory, to their exclusive benefit. But that’s another, (familiar) story.)
Oprah was just one of those hucksters who forgot that marks must treated carefully. Not with respect, mind you, but in catering to their beliefs. She broke that rule when she endorsed President Zero, and her resulting face plant has been most gratifying.
======
*: Down, Oceania! Down! There are no sheep here.
Comment from Redd
Time: May 19, 2012, 1:05 am
She has a net worth of $2.7 billion – yes, BILLION. Gimme some of her type of decline.
Comment from JeffS
Time: May 19, 2012, 1:07 am
Oprah has plenty of money, Redd, true, but she lost a huge amount of her adoring audience. Which is a stunning loss for anyone in the entertainment business, and more so for egotists.
Money can’t buy you love, after all…..
Comment from AliceH
Time: May 19, 2012, 2:11 am
I’ve watched maybe an hour of Oprah (generous estimate of aggregated 5 minutes here or there over forever). Not my kind of show, but I was always quite impressed with her ability to appear interested and be interesting on queue. That’s a rare talent.
I have no idea how much her endorsing/supporting Obama plays into her current ratings woes. I do think a lot of it has to do with her cable station not being carried AT ALL by a lot of providers, and where it is carried, it’s not part of a basic package. I am just going to guess that her primary audience was not made up of top price premium cable/satellite customers. That decision struck me as being like the first NYT Paywall idea.
Comment from AliceH
Time: May 19, 2012, 2:20 am
Oh – and I doubt a day went by that I didn’t have at least one “the thing that’s wrong with Americans” conversation during my year at U. of Sussex. Make that not an evening at the pub went by without etc. etc. (It’s nearly the same thing). Too long ago (also, Pub ?)… to remember anything in particular but in general I recall the same surprise and total ignorance on whatever “americans say/do/think” premise was under the knife on any given evening.
OH! Here’s one – LOT’S of opinions about and inspired by Dallas, the TV show. Which, to this day, I’ve never seen.
Comment from Oceania
Time: May 19, 2012, 11:09 am
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=maori&page=2
Early settlers of New Zealand, often wrongly described as ‘native’ or ‘indigenous’. There are no people native or indigenous to the New Zealand islands. Everyone arrived by boat in one form or another, very recently in human and geological terms, and Maori were by no means the first.
The word “Maori” was coined by Maori themselves to differentiate them from the white people (or ‘Pakeha’) who arrived after them from Britain, Australia, America, and Europe. The word has been defined as meaning “ordinary” or “normal” people. It did not exist in pre-European New Zealand, where the various tribes knew themselves and one another by individual family and tribal names.
Maori are generally accepted to have been in residence in New Zealand since around 1200 – 1300 AD.
Maori are said to be a Polynesian race, although parts of their geneology have been traced to Taiwan and China, and there are other influences from as far away as Egypt and Sri Lanka. Some East Coast tribes from the North Island possess Portugese genetic markers.
Much of the truth of the origins of Maori is muddied by the editing of history to suit contemporary politics, and by the intermingling of Maori bloodlines with those of the peoples they found already living in New Zealand upon their own arrival.
First British Naval Officer: “We have made a Treaty with the Maori, Sir. All New Zealand land now belongs to us.”
Second British Naval Officer: “Excellent. Release the Hounds.”
First etc.: “Aye aye, Sir. More rum, Sir?”
Second etc.: “Abso-bloody-lutely. And bring me a Maori wench. I’m tired of all this Naval arse-buggery, never mind how traditional it is. It smacks of homosexuality, if you ask me.”
First: “Very good Sir.”
Comment from Feynmangroupie
Time: May 19, 2012, 4:14 pm
Oceania,
Interesting history lesson.
So, does that mean you are the descendent of non-white normal people or buggerers?
Comment from Bob Mulroy
Time: May 19, 2012, 6:48 pm
We finally got most of our China images downloaded and sorted.
A childish joke:
http://eugeneunderground.blogspot.com/2012/05/at-great-wall.html
Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: May 19, 2012, 8:53 pm
Allen: BTW I don’t remember is there an out of the park in cricket?
Yup.
On the bounce is a “four” – automatic four runs. On the fly, a “six” – automatic six runs.
Thus “hit for six” being British slang for doing great.
Before the British attack at El Alamein, Montgomery told the Eighth Army
“All that is necessary is that each and every officer and men should enter this battle with the determination to see it through, to fight and kill, and finally to win. If we do this, there can be only one result – together, we will hit the enemy for six out of Africa.”
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 19, 2012, 9:48 pm
I’ve been having a slow trawl through your vacation pictures at the moment, Bob. My current pausing place is a plasticized corpse. I keep forgetting that and shifting to that tab with a big mouthful of food.
At least I don’t have any beef jerky in the house.
Comment from Oceania
Time: May 20, 2012, 2:18 am
Your entry is under review by editors.
Maori
A sub-human genetic mix of Taiwanese and European ancestory which has produce a mongrel race of people whom lie, steal, cheat, rape and murder without hesitation.
Propaganda by the New Zealand Government has them as the first indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand around 1200 AD. This has been proven to be false, as radio-argon dating of pottery fragments found on the Antipodes Islands (BP3200 years), and Carbon-14 dating (Australian National University Research Physics) of rat jaw bones found under the Taupo Ash Layers (BP2500 years) demonstrate other ethnic inhabitation of New Zealand.
This lie is continued, as Treaty Claims stipulate payment of billions of dollars to unknown greedy unaccountable corporate entities.
Maori DNA sequencing traces their origins to Taiwan approximately 2400 years ago. Other Maori exist within the Pacific (namely Easter Island, being the closest genetic match) while other Pacific ethnic Groups show markers indicating wide separation and none common ancestory.
Maori genetics based upon a tiny ‘Founder Effect’ population make them susceptible to a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, gout, heart disease, premature aging and mental illness problems; arising from this are seen in the classical criminality, lower mental capabilities, and anti-social behaviour.
Maori traditionally molest their own children, and those of their extended relatives. It is uncommon for a Maori child not to have been sexually violated by a relative, and familial impregnation is common, even between siblings.
This research was funded by New Zealand’s Leading Research University.
Comment from JC
Time: May 20, 2012, 4:55 am
Mentored by Scruggs, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-doug-dillard-obituary-20120518,0,663551.story.
Pull quote, on his first hearing Scruggs:
“I was driving down the road with the radio on,” Dillard recalled. “All of a sudden I heard this incredible banjo music. I got so excited that I drove off the road and down into a ditch. I had to be towed out.”
Now that’s influence!
Played electric banjo too, IIRC, and so lives on through Bela Fleck.
Comment from surly ermine
Time: May 20, 2012, 5:28 am
Saw Bela Fleck with the Flecktones many years ago JC. Never heard of them before that and have never forgotten them since. As great as Bela is, Victor Wooten is his equal on bass…imho of course.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 20, 2012, 10:28 am
Fleck has unbelievable musicianship, but he’s way too jazzy for my taste. Which is an affliction suffered by many incredibly talented instrumentalists.
The Dillards, though, they went in the folk-rock direction. For the life of me, the only track of theirs I can remember this morning is “What’s Time to a Hog?” (…what’s Clair Booth Luce to a goose or a fiddle to a frog…?)
There are so many amazing banjo players out there today. Guys who grew up practicing pentatonic scales to a metronome <shakes fist>
Comment from Oceania
Time: May 20, 2012, 12:18 pm
Hmmm someone has found U196 scuttled in 15 meters of water off NZ
Comment from Frit
Time: May 21, 2012, 2:00 am
Totally OT: Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees has died. RIP Robin.
Comment from mojo
Time: May 21, 2012, 2:40 pm
There’s someplace around NZ where the water is only 15 meters deep?
Comment from Wolfus Aurelius
Time: May 21, 2012, 3:30 pm
Oceania’s screeds brought up a memory of something I’ve read, that the Maori originally practiced cannibalism. Not on their own tribe, which would tend to be self-defeating in a short time, but on peoples they conquered, like the Chatham Islanders. True?
The story goes that a modern New Zealander asked a Maori-descended minister, “And what of the cannibalism issue?” Said minister smiled, toothily, and said, “We’re digesting the problem.” (Again, I dunno if that’s true. It makes a good story in any case.)
Comment from MikeW
Time: May 21, 2012, 9:04 pm
This post reminded me of my all time fav-o-rite racehorse name:
Comment from Oceania
Time: May 23, 2012, 7:02 am
Wolfus Auricular
Indeed. Cannibalism is practice in some areas of the Pacific even today. There are Celtic remains here, but they are ‘off limits’ as it would indicate European habitation 3600 years ago … and even Maori legends speak of white people.
They hunted them down, and exterminated them.
History here is perplexed with turning points.
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