This just might very well be the beginning of a series of posts on how the Presidential candidates would answer silly ice breaker questions about their opposing nominees. Questions like, "If you were a food what would you be and why?", "If you could have 3 wishes, how would you use them (obviously you can't wish for more wishes)", or "If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why".
So today, we start with what John McCain might say about Barack Obama in answering the question.....
Q: "If Barack Obama were a food, what would he be and why?"
A: My friends, if Senator Obama were a food, he would be a Flatbread Pizza. To be more specific, a Wild Mushroom and Roasted Asparagus Flatbread Pizza. Why?
Flatbreads represent to me this ultra hip and exotic food.....but in reality it's just a downgrade on real pizza, right? Let me give you an anecdote.....It's Friday night, you young bucs put a little extra gel in the hair, slide into those designer jeans you overpaid for and go socialize over flatbreads and wine.....now that is a hot scene. So hot, in fact, after putting lipstick on them, farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs....a smokin' scene. Did I mention that I spent 5 years as a POW?.....I digress.
Senator Obama has this exterior about him that just feels really really good. His rhetoric even sounds sophisticated (i.e. - Wild Mushroom and Roasted Asparagus).....but my friends, you will eat that flatbread and you will feel really good about yourself......for about 30 minutes. But not too long after your body will tell you the truth and you will not be satisfied.....the substance is just not there. Like the infamous Wendy's commercial, you will be asking yourself the proverbial question of, "Where's the beef?".
My friends, Flatbreads may be fun for Friday nights and happy hours, but if you are looking for a steady diet that will carry you through the long hours of the night........look no further than John McCain and Sarah Palin....the real reformers for Washington in 2008. In closing, Senator Obama and his Flatbread Pizza, one might call it a "meal to nowhere".
Don't worry, McCain's food is in the kitchen and coming soon....
If you never watched The West Wing, I'm sorry, you just have no idea. It is/was and amazing show. Watching an episode of Season 3 last night, I was struck by a bit of dialogue (sorry for the length). But it highlighted a principle of life and faith, easily glossed over in Ephesians...and did it with humor. What does it mean for us to be subject to one another?
Bartlet - President of the United States
Abbey - First Lady
Charlie - Personal assistant to the President
(The doors to the presidential limo open. President Bartlet and Abbey walk inside.)
CHARLIE: Good afternoon.
ABBEY: Hi, Charlie.
CHARLIE: How was church?
BARTLET: [mumbles] It sucked.
ABBEY: It was fine. Stop it!
BARTLET: It sucked!
ABBEY: [sighs] You're talking about church.
BARTLET: Oh, like I'm not already going to hell.
CHARLIE: What was the problem?
ABBEY: He feels the homily lacked panache.
BARTLET: It did lack panache.
ABBEY: It was a perfectly lovely homily on Ephesians 5:21. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."
BARTLET: Yeah. She's skipping over the part that says, "Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, for a husband is the head of a wife as Christ is the head of the church."
ABBEY: I do skip over that part.
BARTLET: Why?
ABBEY: Because it's stupid!
(They walk in THE OVAL OFFICE)
BARTLET: Okay.
ABBEY: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in...something.”
BARTLET: "In splendor." And I have no problem with Ephesians. And any time you want me to cleanse you with the washing of water, you know I'm up for it.
ABBEY: Then what is your problem?
BARTLET: Hackery! This guy was a hack! He had a captive audience! And the way I know that is that I tried to tunnel out of there several times. He had an audience and he didn't know what to do with it.
ABBEY: You want him to sing "Volare?"
BARTLET: Couldn't have hurt. Words...
ABBEY: Oh, God, no…
BARTLET: Words, when spoken out loud for the sake of performance, are music. They have rhythm, and pitch, and timbre, and volume. These are the properties of music, and music has the ability to find us and move us, and lift us up in ways that literal meanings can't. Do you see?
ABBEY: You are an oratorical snob.
BARTLET: Yes, I am. And God loves me for it.
ABBEY: You said he was sending you to hell.
BARTLET: For other stuff, not for this.
You can't just trod out Ephesians, which he blew, by the way, it has nothing to do with husbands and wives, it's all of us! Saint Paul begins the passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ." [passionately] "Be subject to one another." In this day and age of 24-hour cable crap, devoted to feeding the voyeuristic gluttony of the American public, hooked on a bad soap opera that's passing itself off as important, don't you think you might be able to find some relevance in verse 21? How do end the cycle? Be subject to one another!
ABBEY: So...this is about you.
BARTLET: No, it's not about me! Well, yes, it is about me, but tomorrow it'll be about somebody else. We'll watch Larry King and see who. All hacks, off the stage, right now! That's a national security order.
ABBEY: I'm going to the Residence. I'm taking a bath; I'm turning on Sinatra.
BARTLET: How does Mrs. Sinatra feel about that?
ABBEY: Peace be with you.
And the following is posted in case you ever wondered why The West Wing was the best written/acted show on television. The president is questioning a man who has fled China due to religious persecution, but wants to test if he is legit - Shibboleth (might want to check Judges 12:5-6):
And it happens on both sides...we like this Joe Biden (start at 4:00):
But then the "handlers/strategists" get involved:
"Having now reviewed the ad, it is even more clear to me that given the disgraceful tenor of Senator McCain's ads and their persistent falsehoods, his campaign is in no position to criticize." -- Senator Joe Biden
The high road is no longer.
Michael Gerson, via Politico Playbook nails it:
THE BIG IDEA -- Michael GERSON on “the death of policy in this election”: “[I]t is President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, by proposing the massive government purchase of bad debt, who have assumed the mantle of Franklin D. Roosevelt. It is John McCain and Barack Obama who are playing the role of Roosevelt's more timid, forgotten foils, ‘Martin, Barton and Fish.’ Having last week criticized the role of the Federal Reserve in bailouts -- demonstrating a tin ear of elephantine proportions -- McCain now calls for a bipartisan oversight board to review the government's rescue attempt. Mankind perishes. The world grows dark. McCain calls for a review board.
“Obama has been no better, responding with his usual mix of caution and blame. … The 2008 presidential campaign has become notable for its vacuity … It did not begin this way. Early in the campaign, McCain talked about his un-Republican environmental views and undertook a national poverty tour that brought him to places such as Gee's Bend, Ala., and Inez, Ky. Obama endorsed the outlines of Bush's faith-based agenda and stated in a Father's Day speech at an African-American church: ‘We need (fathers) to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child -- it's the courage to raise one.’ But those sparks of originality and outreach have been doused.”
The ever-astute Newt is saying the bailout is only going to make things worse.
In an interview with NPR, he says, "I think you have a Goldman Sachs chief of staff to the president and the Goldman Sachs secretary of the Treasury. And they convinced the president that the American people ought to send $700 billion to Wall Street, which I think is a very, very bad idea...."
Let's not forget that someone is paying for this thing. See full details here...
Obviously this is more significant than a restaurant failure, i.e. it's our entire financial system, but I certainly look forward to seeing some thoughtful responses to his argument.
Some retailers are starting to experiment with even more advanced tools. Merchants can now, for instance, install tiny cameras that scan shoppers' faces to determine their sex, race, and approximate age, and then flash appropriately targeted ads. YCD Multimedia, an Israeli company that sells digital-display systems, is already integrating such technology in some of its systems and is discreetly testing them in some U.S. retail outlets, though it won't say where.
So, long story short, a tiny camera can now guess your demographic profile, process an algorithm and suggest which muffin from the bake case that someone of your age, gender and race would most likely enjoy with [insert long, complicated coffee order here].
Is this the next evolution of television? If we can manage to take the "mass" out of mass-market advertising, will consumers listen? Or, will they revolt? Will our culture reject any and all "recommendations" and flock to establishments that value human relationships -- where a chef still makes his recommendation based on the fresh fish, the seasonal vegetables? Are we OK with Amazon's or iTunes' suggestions as long as they are delivered in privacy?
How could similar technology affect billboards and digital displays in the 2012 election? Do you think "they" will have figured out how to track our credit cards to these displays by then to process our spending habits, too?
Y.........such an elusive alphabetic character....sometimes a vowel as well as a consonant. Our blog presents an observation on the world and a somewhat satirical presentation of the common tensions that exists between such polarities as Republican & Democrat, Now & Not Yet, Good & Evil, Rich & Poor, SEC & Non-SEC, Mercy & Justice, Church & State, among others......
As we seek to find truth among the varying data points we encounter, we laugh, we think, and most importantly we listen, admitting that learning is a lifelong endeavor and sometimes you need to be a consonant and sometimes a vowel.
"The deck of life is always shifting....and balance is nothing more than momentary synchronicity" -Richard Pratt
As we seek to find truth among the varying data points we encounter, we laugh, we think, and most importantly we listen - admitting that learning is a lifelong endeavor...sometimes you need to be a consonant and sometimes a vowel.
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