As IF Times

link Randy Newman writes new satirical, political song – Yahoo! News.

It’s difficult to refute an argument about a topic if the rebuttals have no reference to basic logic.  Liberals love to demonstrate how enlightened they are by taking the sides of issues that have little logical foundation.  If one reads the argument of the artiste Randy Newman, one will get that he is trying to prove how enlightened and non racist he is.  Yet the thrust of his argument is that the President should be embraced BECAUSE he is black, not for any particular aspect of ability.   What if that same logic were  applied to his music business?  Why don’t we all buy music that’s performed by black artists regardless of their quality?  Hey wait a minute….

In our modern American Idol culture, popularity is the same thing as being legitimate.  If there weren’t sane people in the world, (a shrinking contingent to be sure ), George Clooney or Brad Pitt would be elected to lead the country.  It makes very little difference to most that neither one of those talented individuals have any genuine grounding in economics or geopolitics.  Oh sure, they may look good on TV and probably even smell nice.  However , it should not shock most people that the opinions of folks like those are considerably less illuminating than your average first year economics student. In an increasingly dumbed down society in which David Letterman is considered a source of real information, people farm out their critical thinking and merely adopt what they hear in the pop media and from pop artists as fact.  As if people who live in fantasy can give advice on reality.  An artiste like Newman may think it’s logical to support someone solely because of their ‘minority’ status, but it’s the very racism he’s trying to parody.

If we are going to appoint people solely because of their membership in a favored constituency, why don’t we elect more female leaders? They do represent more than half of the population and it would only be appropriate in an enlightened, modern society.  I recommend Kim Kardashian.  She appears to be popular.  Some may perhaps argue that a Hilary Clinton would be eligible; they had that chance.  But as we recall, the DNC thought that it was more important to install someone with no real life experience but who happened to be a person of color, than it was to embrace someone with a lifetime of political experience.  Any racism or sexism there is incidental.  Now if Hilary looked less like Hilary and more like Kim, who knows?

Like most people, when I get my car fixed, I want the guy who knows what he’s doing, not the grad student who has University credits for studying engine theory or because he belonged to a favored minority.    I’d bet  that even the socially sensitive Randy Newman doesn’t specifically ask for the black mechanic, nor would he write satirical songs about it.  We keep hearing that racism is the great issue of our society.  For people like Newman at least, it must be,  they find it everywhere.  Sort of like lawyers and lawsuits.  Americans have the largest numbers of lawyers per capita in the world.   Coincidently, they are the most litigious nation as well….lawbreakers are everywhere.  As the old saying goes, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

link Facebook May Hire Robert Gibbs, Former Obama Aide – NYTimes.com.

There may be the odd person who has been in a coma for the past 3  years that doesn’t know who Robert Gibbs is.  He was until recently, the official White House communications director charged with explaining policy to the press in daily briefings.  Of course, explaining and making sense of White House policy was challenging enough given what he had to work with every day.  Sort of like explaining  current events through interpretive dance.  Some say he did a commendable job, for the most part keeping a straight face while offering the most fanciful versions of events to the assembled reporters.  The only giveaway was the over worked use of the “uh” mannerism, which over time came to be associated with Gibbs as much as handcuffs  did with Lindsay Lohan.

You have to admire his willingness to take on challenges, because in a previous role, he was in charge of John Kerry’s campaign communications.  Remember John Kerry?  He of the “I was for the war before I was against it” Kerry?  Gibbs is actually a career spokesman, having assumed that role for numerous Democratic contenders over the years.  That being the case, you would expect a little more polish in his delivery as he became more adept at spinning.  It’s not for me to criticize someone who has to make molehills out of mountains, but let’s just say by the end of his tenure  we’d expect more Leno and less Pee Wee Herman. 

Very amusing then, to find that Gibbs is rumored to be courted by Facebook, that juggernaut of social media communications, to advise on their activities in advance of a public offering.  Like George Bush when he was in office trying to explain something, Gibbs not only had words fail him, they were seen headed on planes out of the country.   You can almost imagine that  Gibbs got away with lots of naughty things as a child because his parents couldn’t bear to hear the explanations.   Despite all of this, his talents appear to be of great value to Facebook as they build the depth of their management team.  Of course, Facebook is a texting medium, not an audio medium, so maybe Gibbs’  talents will really shine there.  Unlike his previous gigs however, he doesn’t have to explain away questionable policies, so his experience may be wasted.  Still, if I were him, I would patent the “uh” abbreviation before it falls into popular use like LOL, or OMG.  That alone could be worth millions.