A Little Less Local

Via Nancy Nall, here's an account of a narrow escape:

McCain fields audience question on whether he called wife an expletive

A Clive man drew gasps from fellow audience members at today’s presidential candidate forum by using a four-letter word in a question to Sen. John McCain.

A member of the audience, identified as Marty Parrish of Clive, asked McCain during the event at the Polk County Convention Complex about a rumor that McCain had once used a profane word referencing female genitalia to describe his wife.

A book, “The Real McCain” by Cliff Schecter, accuses McCain of using the word in an exchange with his wife, Cindy, in 1992.


Here’s a transcript of today’s remarks:

PARRISH: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I’ve been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?

MCCAIN: Now, now. You don’t want to … Um, you know that’s the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don’t, there’s people here who don’t respect that kind of language. So I’ll move on to the next questioner in the back.

The audience gasped at the question and applauded at McCain’s handling of it. Parrish was escorted from the event and questioned by Secret Service, but not charged. Parrish had checked in to the event as a member of the press.

Parrish, a 45-year-old Baptist minister and technology business owner, said he attended the event specifically to confront McCain about the rumor.

“This is about character,” Parrish said, when reached by telephone afterward. “And in a moment of intemperance, he called his wife the most despicable name a person can call a woman.

I guess what interested me here was not the business of Old Man Bombs Away being called on his famously psychotic conduct, so much as it was the little bit at the end of the story about how Mr. Parrish was "escorted from the event" -- fair enough, I suppose -- and "questioned by the Secret Service." Once again, what the hell sort of police state are we living in these days, anyway?

At least, as far as we know now, they didn't hand out some summary Taser punishment. Maybe they were feeling kind of lazy and logged up on Krispy Kremes, or something.

A Note of Local Interest

Hey. we're all just white nizzles in our little hizzle, here. That's OK.

Via Drudge, of all places.

Or Don't You Think So?

Some things are just too scary to think about. But nothing's too scary to make a fine reality TV show out of!

The New Kind of Politics

Now, let's see if I've got this correct.

Sen. Obama is really, really annoyed with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright:

"... when he equates the United States's wartime efforts with terrorism; there are no excuses. They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans."

Now, Sen. Obama, would it make any difference if, in fact, it would turn out that there actually is substantial parallelism between "America's wartime efforts" and "terrorism?"

Of course, I'm not talking about ancient history, like Hiroshima, or Nagasaki, or the firestorms of Tokyo or Dresden. That's two-thirds of a century ago. I'm not even talking about stale news, like Abu Ghraib. I'm talking about tomorrow, man. I'm talking about the 99.9999% or more of Iranians who don't have squat to say about what their supervisors might do. And I'm talking about America's progressive candidates, not some ancient psycho like Bomber McCain. I'm talking about Momma Hillary:

"Well, the question was, if Iran were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, what would our response be? I want the Iranians to know that if I am president, we will attack Iran. And I want them to understand that. Because it does mean that they have to look very carefully at their society. Because whatever stage of development they might be in their nuclear weapons program, in the next 10 years during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

And Saint Obama:

Obama said keeping Iran free of nuclear weapons would be one of his top priorities in the White House.

"I will take no options off the table when it comes to preventing them from using nuclear weapons or obtaining nuclear weapons," he said. "And that would include any threats directed at Israel, or any of our allies."

No, the acceptability of any statement to any Real Responsible American -- and that emphatically includes Barack Obama, apostle of a new kind of politics -- is quite independent of whether or not it's true. Truth is the one thing that matters not at all.

Be sure to vote, now. Voting changes things. And Sen. Obama ... he's very different, don'tcha know.

Mr. Wetzel, Meet Mr. Obvious

At 09:30, I was filling out paperwork at the oral surgeon's office. By 11:30 or so, I was home, having lost a little weight -- whatever three wisdom teeth weigh, that is.

Now, it's a little before 5 pm, and my mouth does not feel very good. I suppose that's what I expected, but I feel like whining anyway. So: I will. Waa-a-a-a-aaah, waa-a-a-a-aaah, waa-a-a-a-aaah!

Yeah, I've got pain pills. But this is serious. I think I'm going to have to hit the crack pipe for a while. Oh, yeah. That should just about do it.

Signing off now ...

Wisdom or Foolishness?

I'm reporting to the oral surgeon tomorrow morning in order that he may deprive me of all three of my extant wisdom teeth.

I'll have to ask him whether he'll replace them with some sort of prosthetics -- foolishness teeth, perhaps? Or maybe he's just relying on me to be foolish on my own?

I'll try not to disappoint.