Tuesday Titillation

More cultural observations… Watching football exposes me to “new” advertisements, stuff I don’t normally see on The History Channel, The WX Channel, and so on. The following are a couple of ads for shows on ABC that set my teeth on edge.

Trailer: Desperate Housewives.
The scene: Middle-aged woman in bed with a male who is just off camera.
Dialog: (Woman) “I don’t do that! I’m a Republican!”

Don’t do what? What the Hell is that supposed to mean? This might reinforce the stereotype of the stuffy, uptight Repug amongst the Liberal Lefties, but is pretty damned far from the truth in my experience. Just sayin’.

Trailer: Some new show starring Ted Danson as a shrink.
The Scene: Group therapy; scene changes to man in underwear getting into one side of bed with woman, who immediately shrieks and jumps out of the bed, along with another man who is on the other side of the bed.
Dialog: (Danson, voice-over) “I once had a patient who was so frustrated he got into bed with his ex-wife…”

Yeah, like that would happen. You can’t get that unbalanced. It’s not possible. I know, it’s a sitcom…but still and even, credulity should be maintained in at least a small part.

And finally, I picked up this bit of wisdom from an ad for “Mystery!” on PBS…

(Woman speaking to man) “Sex is quite simple, really. In the end it all comes down to money. In one way or another.”

So that’s my problem! Truth, revealed.

Speaking of football… I normally don’t watch pro ball, but I did watch the Saints beat Atlanta last evening. The whole game was a “feel good” moment for N’Awlins. And the Saints are now three and oh, which equals their total number of wins for the entire season last year. Well done!

SWWNBN Update… From an on-line conversation hosted by the WaPo yesterday:

Annandale, Va.: Do you believe George Bush is a greater threat to America than terrorism?

(SWWNBN): Oh, absolutely. I believe that he has damaged our credibility in the world; he has increased, as I said earlier, the amount of jihadism in the world; he has made my children and my grandchildren more vulnerable -- not only physically but economically -- and our country used to be respected. Now we have no moral standing to tell other countries how they should behave.

On Sept. 11, almost 3,000 of our citizens were tragically killed. Now over that amount of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been killed and tens of thousands of innocent people.

Oh, spare me. And shut up, for God’s Sake. Your 15 minutes were up a long time ago.

This is interesting… From the Washington Times:

President Bush has invited bloggers to join him today as he signs into law a bill creating a database of federal spending -- a recognition of their role in forcing the bill through Congress over the objections of senior senators and an indication of how much bloggers are changing the political process.

A coalition of bloggers from the left and the right last month did what the Senate's Republican leadership could not: smoke out obstructing senators, bring public pressure to break their hold and move the bill to the Senate floor, where it passed by a voice vote.

The article didn’t identify the members of “the coalition of bloggers.” Glenn Reynolds got a mention in the piece, but the article didn’t specifically identify the Instapundit as a participant. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine any of the Left-Wing bloggers I read accepting an invitation from Bush to witness him doing anything, unless it was jumping off a bridge. The proprietors of the Big Dog Lefty blogs are all poster children for BDS. Every single one. I wanna know just who on the Left will be there, so I can go comment on their “sell-out” later today or tomorrow… (That last statement is facetious, btw.)

That Odious Olbermann… From Inside Cable News:

Tonight on Countdown, Keith Olbermann called FNC’s Chris Wallace “a monkey posing as a newscaster” for his question that got Bill Clinton all riled up. This is beyond patently ridiculous. It’s offensive. Wallace asked a perfectly legitimate question. It doesn’t matter that nobody else bothered to ask the question. That’s their problem to answer for. Clinton was hardly sanbagged. He agreed in advance that part of the interview would be about any subject and part would be about the Clinton Initiative.

[…]

Ever since Olbermann’s first, and I would argue necessary and proper, finger wagging commentary at Donald Rumsfeld, his successive criticisms on the Bush administration in recent weeks have gotten shriller and shriller. It appears to me like it’s almost as if he feels he has to top himself with each new commentary. Be more outlandish…more daring…more critical. At some point he was bound to go too far. And tonight he did just that. Olbermann should apologize to Wallace.

Allahpundit, who directed me to Inside Cable News, is more to the point:

Watching this douche clumsily trying to channel his paranoid rage into lofty rhetoric has been one of the true joys of blogging these past few weeks. There’s nothing so pathetic, or entertaining, as someone stupid trying to sound smart; the fact that it’s happening on national TV every night makes it almost too good to be true. And the best part is, the nutroots keep egging him on. Each time he gets a little angrier and the prose gets a little purpler and nastier, and the nutroots fist pumps get a little faster and more intense. We’re building to something here; Olby might not know it yet but he’s fast running out of room to run. Soon he’ll reach the point where there are no more accusations to level at Bush and he’ll have to cross the final frontier. He’s not there yet, but give him time: he’s been scrupulous about referring to the UK terror plot as the “purported plot,” a qualifier that for some reason doesn’t manifest itself when the subject turns to, say, Haditha. He’s inching his way towards the big one. Soon enough.

I haven’t commented on Bubba’s outburst. I didn’t watch Fox News Sunday; I rarely watch the Sunday talking head shows coz Sunday’s my day off from politics. Add the fact that I really don’t care what Bubba sez or thinks, he’s irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. But Olbermann’s another story. As a very minor opinion-maker, he counts, sorta. Allahpundit is right: watching this boob self-destruct has to be amusing. I’m getting my kicks second-hand, because I cannot stand the smug, sarcastic SOB.

Johhny Dollar has more, of course:

How many times have we heard America's most dangerous demagogue rail at Tony Snow, or "Mister" Bush, or Rumsfeld, or any of them for being critical of reporters, or raising their voices to them, or looking cross-eyed at them. Do we not recall KO intoning about our "deep national shame" because someone in government dares to take exception with "those loyal Americans who disagree with his policies—or even question their effectiveness or execution"? All of a sudden, when it's B.J.'s policies that are the subject, Olby does a double-flip, full-reverse half-somersault and it's time to demonize dissent! Don't try to make sense out of it. It's OlbyLogic.

This was Reverend Olby at his most sanctimonious. As each "special comment" tries to top the previous one, they become increasingly preposterous and frenzied. This latest embarrassment, chock full of unsubstantiated drivel, citing nonexistent statements, never documented, is so farcical it could seal Herr Olbermann's fate once and for all.

“Truer words…” and all that.

Today’s Pic: The old Fort Andross Mill (now a mini-mall) on the Androscoggin River, Brunswick, Maine. June, 2005.