Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Phil Bronstein's Pearls of Wisdom.
Phil Bronstein delivers his weekly pearls of wisdom. This week, it can be summed up as:
"The world is a complex place, and a black-and-white approach is too simplistic, you need nuance."
"Nuanced" is Phil's new motto. His word of 2010.
Here for instance, 'nuanced' means I don't know jack-shit about the story, but it won't stop me from conjecturing:
Why did David Goldman's wife take their son back to Brazil five years ago, however illegal it was? Were all the Brazilians wearing the black hats in this high noon stand-off? Is the step-dad just a tom cat tough with big political connections, or is there some back story that's more nuanced?
But back to this week, talking about the Prop 8 judge: In fact, gay and lesbian officials get elected all over the country - Houston, Detroit, Chapel Hill, N.C., St. Petersburg, Fla. That's because, noisy demonstrations aside, voters don't like to have their opinions dictated by laws. Most voters are more understanding of other individuals and know that people's real lives are more nuanced.
So voters don't want laws, like Prop 8, dictating their opinion about gay marriage. And most voters are understanding of other individuals, gay or not. Except they made Prop 8 the law by voting for it. Phildoes not make sense! makes a complicated and nuanced argument that's beyond our grasp.
Also, about Mark Sanford: ...his long-suffering wife just made her own admission: The South Carolina governor told her up front that he didn't want fidelity to be part of their wedding vows. That's a distinctly more adult reality than the original cartoonish Sanford tale of good and evil.
See? It's more complicated, it's not cartoonish. Except that: the issue with Sanford was not that his wife condoned infidelity (she is seeking a divorce, by the way, it's more "nuanced" than Phil says), it was that he lied to the people he represents that he was hiking on the Appalachian trail while having a tryst in Argentina. It's the cover up that got him in trouble.
But yeah, the nuance is lost on Phil.
"The world is a complex place, and a black-and-white approach is too simplistic, you need nuance."
"Nuanced" is Phil's new motto. His word of 2010.
Here for instance, 'nuanced' means I don't know jack-shit about the story, but it won't stop me from conjecturing:
Why did David Goldman's wife take their son back to Brazil five years ago, however illegal it was? Were all the Brazilians wearing the black hats in this high noon stand-off? Is the step-dad just a tom cat tough with big political connections, or is there some back story that's more nuanced?
But back to this week, talking about the Prop 8 judge: In fact, gay and lesbian officials get elected all over the country - Houston, Detroit, Chapel Hill, N.C., St. Petersburg, Fla. That's because, noisy demonstrations aside, voters don't like to have their opinions dictated by laws. Most voters are more understanding of other individuals and know that people's real lives are more nuanced.
So voters don't want laws, like Prop 8, dictating their opinion about gay marriage. And most voters are understanding of other individuals, gay or not. Except they made Prop 8 the law by voting for it. Phil
Also, about Mark Sanford: ...his long-suffering wife just made her own admission: The South Carolina governor told her up front that he didn't want fidelity to be part of their wedding vows. That's a distinctly more adult reality than the original cartoonish Sanford tale of good and evil.
See? It's more complicated, it's not cartoonish. Except that: the issue with Sanford was not that his wife condoned infidelity (she is seeking a divorce, by the way, it's more "nuanced" than Phil says), it was that he lied to the people he represents that he was hiking on the Appalachian trail while having a tryst in Argentina. It's the cover up that got him in trouble.
But yeah, the nuance is lost on Phil.
Friday, February 12, 2010
The Chron Makes No Sense, but Disses Democrats.
Here's the lede of a piece by the Chron hack team of Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli:
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' career went down in flames in the last month with sordid revelations about his lies and infidelity, but his reputation wasn't the only thing demolished.
Still emerging from the political wreckage in California are the crowds of campaign workers, donors and volunteers who put their lives and hearts into Edwards' quixotic quests for the White House.
Anything wrong with the picture? How about: the race for the White House is OVER, and a guy has not only be elected, but been in office for over A YEAR. Obama is his name, I believe.
Edwards gave up in the primary OVER TWO YEARS ago, in January 2008.
Yet, for Carla & Joe, the career went down over the last month, and campaign workers are still heart broken. That does not pass a basic bullshit detector test.
Yes, Edwards was sleazy. But so are a million other has-been former politicians. So what? It's funny that a sex scandal is discrediting for Edwards, while Senator Vitter is running for re-election in Louisiana or Gov. Sanford has not resigned and Sen. Craig never did. The difference: sex scandals are OK if you are a Republican. If you are a Democrat like Edwards, the Chron will never ever forgive you, and will never ever forget you.
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' career went down in flames in the last month with sordid revelations about his lies and infidelity, but his reputation wasn't the only thing demolished.
Still emerging from the political wreckage in California are the crowds of campaign workers, donors and volunteers who put their lives and hearts into Edwards' quixotic quests for the White House.
Anything wrong with the picture? How about: the race for the White House is OVER, and a guy has not only be elected, but been in office for over A YEAR. Obama is his name, I believe.
Edwards gave up in the primary OVER TWO YEARS ago, in January 2008.
Yet, for Carla & Joe, the career went down over the last month, and campaign workers are still heart broken. That does not pass a basic bullshit detector test.
Yes, Edwards was sleazy. But so are a million other has-been former politicians. So what? It's funny that a sex scandal is discrediting for Edwards, while Senator Vitter is running for re-election in Louisiana or Gov. Sanford has not resigned and Sen. Craig never did. The difference: sex scandals are OK if you are a Republican. If you are a Democrat like Edwards, the Chron will never ever forgive you, and will never ever forget you.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
BHL, French Philosopher
BHL is Bernard-Henri Levy, a French "philosopher" who is more famous for his wide open white shirts than for his thoughts. He seems to come up regularly on this blog, here or here. So we could not resits putting out this gem about him:
In his latest title, Lévy launches a scathing attack on the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, calling him “raving mad” and a “fake”.
In framing his case, Lévy ....drew on the writings of the little-known 20th century thinker Jean-Baptiste Botul – author of The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant , and a man Lévy has cited in lectures.
The problem? Botul never existed. He was invented by a journalist from the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné 10 years ago as an elaborate joke. And since the hoax was revealed, BHL has become a laughing stock.
Technically, he has not become a laughing stock, he was already one. But that's our BHL, indeed.
In his latest title, Lévy launches a scathing attack on the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, calling him “raving mad” and a “fake”.
In framing his case, Lévy ....drew on the writings of the little-known 20th century thinker Jean-Baptiste Botul – author of The Sex Life of Immanuel Kant , and a man Lévy has cited in lectures.
The problem? Botul never existed. He was invented by a journalist from the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné 10 years ago as an elaborate joke. And since the hoax was revealed, BHL has become a laughing stock.
Technically, he has not become a laughing stock, he was already one. But that's our BHL, indeed.
Friday, February 05, 2010
Mercredi, C'est Ravioli
While we were sad to see Meredith Brody disappear from the page of the Weekly for various reasons, we have to admit that her replacement, Jon Kauffman is excellent. Exactly what we're looking for in a food curious: curious, adventurous and a nice writer to boot. No blog fodder, unfortunately, but that's a small price to pay for reading with pleasure about restaurants.
