CURRENT WISDOM
Jackasses, Assorted
Washington Monthly Onthemarmorealpagesof WMthe Tawana Brawley of 1991 remains, infallible, cherished, and with the hintofahalo: Nothing much changed until...
...Save some room up there, Molly: You have inspired us earthbound wretchestokeeptryingtoliveuptoyourlegacy in the hope of joining you there some day...
...More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column...
...But she was carried out on the crowd's shoulders, as right now she is being ushered into the Council of Ink-Stained Immortals, where the only religion is truth...
...TheAfricanAmericanstendtobefairly reserved--quiet pride, knowing nods and be-careful-now looks...
...Lastweek,FreeForAllrananimpassioned letter about football from a namesake in Bethesda I didn't know I had.Iamaninvestigativereporteratthe NewYorkermagazine,andItrytosteer awayfromopinionandsticktothenews...
...January/February 2007)Texas Observer The Rev...
...At a PBS meeting a few years ago, she ended her talk with a joke that wouldhavegottenanyoneelsearrested or excommunicated...
...February 12, 2007) WashingtonPost.com Onafamedwebsitewherefourout of five readers sit in their underwear (and are proud of it), the Post's justly obscure Mr...
...Want serious intercourse...
...Please send resume, self-introduction with photo to Room 308, 3-2-21 Komazawa, Setagayaku, Tokyo 154 or call 424-8070 nights...
...We don't see very many "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon...
...Jane Mayer Chevy Chase (February 3, 2007) Newsweek International Actor George Clooney unburdens himself of some very troubling news for any American planning to travel throughEuropethisseason,perhaps with stops at Auschwitz and a few other Holocaust sites, and at the Place de la Bastille, and on to Normandyoranyofthelovelycemeteries containingAmericanwardead: [Growing up,] I was taught to look at the United States not from the inside out but from the outside in...
...Respectable, reliable man aged 45 to 58...
...We support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society...
...William M. Arkin, salutes our troops without whom he would be wearing a burkha out by the purdah as flies buzz by: Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha,througheveryrapeandmurder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that theincidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order...
...Bill Moyers, acting as a stomach pump, on the occasion of Molly Ivins's reversion to room temperature: What a foot-stompin' reunion there must be at this very moment in the great Purgatory of Journalists in the Sky...
...Supreme Court...
...January 30, 2007)C U R R E N TW I S D O M M A R C H 2 0 0 7 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R 8 1From the Archives Timeless Tosh From Current Wisdoms Past (March 1987): Washington Post Miss Jeanette S. Miller apprises readers of the Post's squall page of achievements of a higher civilization: Doapesabusetheiroffspring,battertheirmatesandothers,performghastly experiments on other species, degrade the environment and devise evermore-efficient ways to reduce the world to rubble...
...Anita Hill, a Yale-educated law professor, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Thomas had sexually intimidated and embarrassed her whensheworkedforhimattheEqual Employment Opportunity Commission...
...Castintheheroicstyleofthe19th-century statesman found in any City Hall park, it showed the New York senator with a long, elegant neck and solemn expression above two perfectly round, youthful, barely covered breasts...
...A nurse named Greta, just off a 12-hour shift, tentatively reaches 8 0 T H E A M E R I C A N S P E C T A T O R M A R C H 2 0 0 7 C U R R E N TW I S D O M outtotouchtheSenator'ssleeve...
...In the celestial light she glows as irrepressibly and vividly as she did here onEarth,whereshemadethemighty humble, the wicked ashamed, and the good ol' boys reach for the barrel to hide their forlorn nakedness...
...Hillary Rodham Clinton inspire a modernday Michelangelo: DanielEdwardsisthatsculptorwhose workincludesashinydollopsaidtobe the bronzed poop of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' baby, the severed head of baseball legend Ted Williams, and a nude Britney Spears in a primal birth position...
...A few months ago, the MuseumofSexinManhattanunveiledhis latest work: a bust of Hillary Clinton...
...The signs you see are very disheartening...
...She apologized to King, and her column continued...
...December 20, 1986) Tokyo Weekender Proof that America still enjoys world respect: PERSONAL AN INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE...
...It is probablytheworsttimeeverforusin-ternationally.WhenyougotoEurope, for the most part, they just hate us...
...In1995,shegavehercriticsahandy excuse when she admitted to having borrowed without attribution from a bookbythewriterFlorenceKingfora Mother Jones article she wrote on life in the South...
...I just touched a future President...
...February 2, 2007)Washington Post Thus passes an utterly mediocre writer duly swaddled in liberal cliches by an adoring obituarist, who evenremembersthedeceased'smembershipinthatprogressivenewliterary movement still sweeping the nation,theNewPlagiarists: Molly Ivins, 62, an unabashedly liberal columnist and best-selling author whosewickedwitandgoodol'girl-style Texas humor regularly skewered conservative politicians and targeted the pomposities of elected officials regardlessofpoliticalstripe,diedJan.31ather homeinAustinofcancer...
...Look at her--big-hearted as ever, leaning over the balustrade and reaching down to the tormented of Hades, moisteningTomDeLay'slips,patting down Bob Perry's hair, erasing George W's sandstone scribblings...
...And, oh, the stories she must be telling as we speak...
...So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them...
...If we were to start "acting like apes," that might a real advance...
...Oh, my, how she comes trailing clouds of truth-telling glory...
...The white people, by contrast, are out of control...
...But even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy...
...I can't believe it...
...Sure, it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail...
...Oh, my God...
...Washington Monthly Onthemarmorealpagesof WMthe Tawana Brawley of 1991 remains, infallible, cherished, and with the hintofahalo: Nothing much changed until 1991, whenClarenceThomaswasnominated to the U.S...
...The image of 14 white male Senators interrogating and humiliating the young black woman on national television incensed female viewers, symbolizing the lack of representation for women and their interests on Capitol Hill...
...October 15, 2006) Washington Post In the "Free for All" section of the esteemed Post, proof that neurosis can be amusing: Notlongago,ThePostranafront-page story about confusion ensuing from three people named Mark Plotkin in town being mistaken for one another [frontpage,Nov.6].Icanrelate...
...So the letter generated a slew of quizzical responses from friends and colleagues...
...I'd guessa36B...
...A charming Japanese single lady in her 30s is looking for single, superior American businessman & professor...
...Notindividually,buttheythinkweare just like these big bullies--and quite honestly,wehaveactedlikethat.That hasbeenthemostunusualtwistinthe last few years, having to defend being an American...
...A quick reading of any daily paper will confirm that it is the human animal who has brought inhumane behavior to its present state of the art...
...I can see them now--Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, UptonSinclair,HenryDemarestLloyd, Ida B. Wells, David Graham Phillips, GeorgeSeldes,I.F.Stone,WalterKarp, Willie Morris--welcoming our darlin' totheirbosoms...
...June 20, 1986...
...February 1, 2007) Time Political reporter Joe Klein--butterfly net in hand--follows the lepidopteral Sen...
...She is literally shaking with delight--her voice is quivering--as she asks Obama for an autograph and then a hug...
...But for the record, I'm the Jane Mayer more likely to be on the receiving end of critical letters to the editorthantheonesendingthemout...
...January/February 2007) Mother Jones The fleshy curves of Sen...
...Barack Obama to a recent public appearance in Rockford,Illinois,andobserveswithhis usual sociological precision an obvious lunatic: ...the difference in reaction between whites and blacks is subtly striking...
...Some were actually quite admiring...
Vol. 40 • March 2007 • No. 2
