The quote of the day comes from Barack Obama, responding to the latest accusation from the McCain campaign that he’s pally with “a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization”:
I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week, he’ll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
I bet someone in McCain’s campaign heard of that quote and said, “Damn, wish we’d thought of that first.” Really, there are many reasonable arguments that can be made against Barack Obama’s ideas, but the McCain campaign has disgraced itself (and the Republican Party) by choosing to try and smear the man instead. I hope they pay the price for it soon—and if so, McCain would have lost more than just a presidency.
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Meanwhile, Stanley Fish examines the McCain and Obama campaigns:
What’s going on here? I find an answer in a most unlikely place, John Milton’s “Paradise Regained,” a four-book poem in which a very busy and agitated Satan dances around a preternaturally still Jesus until, driven half-crazy by the response he’s not getting, the arch-rebel (i.e., maverick) loses it, crying in exasperation, “What dost thou in this world?”
Now, I don’t mean to suggest that McCain is the devil or that Obama is the Messiah (although some of his supporters think of him that way), just that the rhetorical strategies the two literary figures employ match up with the strategies employed by the two candidates. What Satan wants to do is draw Jesus out, provoke him to an unwisely exasperated response, get him to claim too much for his own powers. What Jesus does is reply with an equanimity conveyed by the adjectives and adverbs that preface his words: “unaltered,” “temperately,” “patiently,” “calmly,” “unmoved,” “sagely,” “in brief.”
In response, Satan gets ever more desperate; he conjures up rain and wind storms (in the midst of which Jesus sits “unappalled in calm”); he tempts him with the riches of poetry and philosophy (which Jesus is careful neither to reject nor deify); and finally, having run out of schemes and scares and “swollen with rage,” he resorts to physical violence (McCain has not gone so far, although some of his supporters clearly want to), picking Jesus up bodily and depositing him on the spire of the temple in the hope that he will either fall to his death or turn into Superman and undermine the entire point of his 40-day trial in the wilderness. He doesn’t do either. He does nothing, and Satan, “smitten with amazement” — even this hasn’t worked — “fell.”
This reminds me of McCain’s bluster about following Osama bin Laden “to the gates of hell.” First he’s got to beat Barack Obama to the gates of heaven, and he’s huffing and he’s puffing and he’s “swollen with rage”, but it’s all no good.
Posted by Amit Varma on 30 October, 2008 in
News |
Politics
... to Barton Hinkle, the winner of the 2008 Bastiat Prize. And also to Swaminathan Aiyar and Fraser Nelson, who came second and third respectively. Their shortlisted articles are here (pdf link). I particularly loved the first of Barton’s pieces—it’s satire that Bastiat would have been proud of.
Barton was also shortlisted last year, and his pieces then were also exceptional—you can read them here (pdf link).
Posted by Amit Varma on 30 October, 2008 in
Freedom |
Journalism |
Media |
Personal
My good pal Manish Vij sacrifices lunch to express support for Barack Obama:
Posted by Amit Varma on 29 October, 2008 in
Politics
"If there were a sex Olympics,” I wrote last year, “India would win the gold medal in all the sprints.”
Well, guess what—there is a Sex Olympics. Vanessa Mei writes in:
I read your blog about Indians not doing well if there was a sex olympics. Well, we are hosting Sex Olympia 2009. I’m sure there are some events that Indians will do well in. After all, the Kama Sutra does come from your holy land!
Here’s a list of events, in case you wish to participate. National pride is at stake, so I insist that India sends a contingent. We’ll dominate the sprints, and Raj Thackeray’s MNS boys would surely excel at the Team Clean and Jerk. Go India!
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 October, 2008 in
India |
Miscellaneous
Devangshu Datta, in a wonderful tribute to RK Laxman, comes up with a good reason to buy The Times of India:
Unfortunately, even Laxman’s presence wasn’t enough for me to continue with my daily ritual of passing the paper onto the raddi-wallah after that one brief moment of homage. For a while, I continued to take it because I was rearing kittens — it was absorbent and useful for little misunderstandings during the house-breaking phase. Once the cats became civilised, I stepped aside from that value-chain.
So if you have kittens at home, you’re excused. Otherwise, why do you read ToI?
Posted by Amit Varma on 28 October, 2008 in
India |
Journalism |
Media
Dr Tara Tatiana Pandey explains the “deeper cultural subtext to Savita Bhabhi.” Heh.
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More on Savita Bhabhi: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
Miscellaneous
Mumbai Mirror reports:
There are probably very few Mumbaikars who have never had their pockets picked at one time or another while travelling on a bus. So, it will probably come as shock to know that most of these thieves are in cahoots with bus conductors.
The Andheri police who recently busted a gang of pickpockets who robbed commuters in BEST buses across the city were surprised to find out during investigations that the crooks worked hand-in-glove with bus conductors. The thieves would actually share their booty with the conductors for being allowed to ‘operate’ on the bus.
Pickpockets and conductors, of course, aren’t restricted only to buses. They’re all around us.
No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Small thoughts
Consider these two headlines from today’s papers:
Youth opens fire in Mumbai bus, 1 dead
MNS leader held for setting buses on fire
And now, a question for you: Aren’t these both acts of terrorism?
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Also read: Mobs Are Above The Law.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Politics |
Small thoughts
Rediff reports:
In a curious case of mistaken identity that could cause serious embarrassment to national selectors, a Saurashtra Cricket Association official on Sunday claimed that little known Punjab player Ravi Inder Singh was thought to be prolific all-rounder Ravindrasinh Jadeja and got selected for the Challenger Trophy.
[...]
One of the selectors ... conceded that it’s a bloomer from their part but there was hardly any time to get it corrected.
Ravi Inder played in Blue’s first match against the Red and scored 17 before being bowled by Laxmipathy Balaji.
This reminds me of the famous mix-up between JP Yadav and Jai P Yadav. And Abhijit Kale once reportedly missed out on selection (I forget whether it was for a Ranji team or a zonal team) because the then-selector Chandu Borde couldn’t remember his name. Borde was famous for mangling names, and had there been an Indian player named Gaurav Ganguly when Borde was chief selector, India might well have suddenly found itself a new captain.
Anyway, I wish Ravi Inder Singh all the best. And I also wish Ajay Jadeja all the best, for who knows what mistake the selectors will make the next time they want to select poor Ravindrasinh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 27 October, 2008 in
India |
News |
Sport |
WTF
I must be the only person who thinks this is a melancholy story.
Update: Abi writes in to point me to Lonesome George, who, I agree, sets a new bar for lonesomeness. (He has recently mated, I’m pleased to report, which should give hope to all lonesome people out there.)
And Chandrasekaran Balakrishnan points out that lonesome pythons can be dangerous. Who’d a Thunk it?
Posted by Amit Varma on 25 October, 2008 in
News |
Small thoughts
