As IF Times

link Janeane Garofalo: Racist Republicans Support Herman Cain | RealClearPolitics.

The perpetuation of drivel from entertainment personalities continues.  At this time of year, while most people are critically assessing the new crop of TV shows for the fall season, the best reality show going on is the battle for the public’s mind concerning the upcoming 2012 presidential elections.

For the average person, it’s a big snooze-fest, as exciting as watching infomercials on late night TV.  For those with an interest in human nature and a stake in the future of the country, it’s enormously entertaining.  Just as TV has descended from  programming offering compelling dramas and witty comedy to now showcasing contrived cartoons and base humor, political discourse has also pushed to new levels of coarseness.  Despite characterizations to the contrary by most media outlets, it is the ongoing opinions of the left that are the most amusing and wildly entertaining if not for the seriousness of the topics.

For most people, determining who is sane and who isn’t sane is relatively easy.  You observe what they say and compare it to reality.  If there’s a significant and consistent divergence, then questioning sanity is valid.  Good examples of the latter would be Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore and as evidenced by the linked article, Janeane Garofalo.  An interesting give-away of insanity is the apportment of the hipster horn-rimmed glasses in which they are often photographed.  Rather than create an image of intelligence however, it instead conveys a look of crazed fanaticism with the only missing element being foam at the mouth.  Some may notice that from time to time, in an effort to look intelligent, Rachel Maddow and Matt Damon also wear these types of frames. 

The opinions of acting and entertainment personalities are frequently employed in the media to push a particular point of view, typically the so-called liberal or progressive perspective.  We assume this is done, not to just display the obvious nuttiness of the messenger, but to curry influence with the target audience of the TV network or newspaper.  After all, these people are paid entertainers who ACT for a living; in essence, they are  like hand puppets , tools used to convey a message.  For that vast number of people who don’t have their own formed opinions, this tactic will work.  For most people over the age of 12 with a modest exposure to real life, it won’t or shouldn’t. 

In the recent bleat by Garofalo, obviously important enough to be publicized by media outlets, she joins another actor, Morgan Freeman of assigning racism as the root of the troubles that befall Americans today.  Freeman recently opined that the troubles of Obama center on his race and not the record of ineptitude that has marked his time in office.  For Garofalo’ s part, she thinks that a Republican presidential contender, Herman Cain, is merely a ruse and a cover for the racist base of the Tea Party movement.   Cain is about as wholesome and apple pie as you can get, but this is moot.  In other words, it doesn’t matter how valid a person is, if they are playing for the other team, they are dismissed as being irrelevant.  No racism there. 

It’s impossible to satisfy their ideological biases.   They are unwilling to accept that in a free society, people can have opinions that differ from theirs.  Global warming is a fact, if you don’t believe it, you are a denier of truth.  When someone has a cup of coffee from Starbucks, they are contributing to the massive “military, industrial complex enslaving indigenous people and depleting resources”.  Or, they may just be having a cup of coffee.  If current political policies are not working well, it may not be because of racism.  It may be just that they’re stupid.

It’s great to watch the ongoing melodrama of political sparring,  it makes for great TV.   I only wish the dialogue from the left gets better…or they get credible actors.

link Rep. David Wu’s staff confronted him over concerns about his mental health | OregonLive.com.

The bizarre behavior of Mr. Wu has been documented by the local papers and paints a picture of someone who may not have all his wires connected.  What the newspaper fails to say is whether his odd behaviour is something that is normal for him and just became apparent, or if he just only recently went Hollywood star on them.  

Mr. Wu is hardly the first politician to exhibit bizarre behaviour.  The donning of a tiger costume may have been a bit unusual, but hey, it’s all good, he’s just eccentric.   The important thing is that he is of the correct political persuasion, so personal eccentricities can be overlooked.  When you take into account the recent utterances of many of his ideological brethren, wearing a tiger outfit and yelling incoherencies hardly moves the needle on the wacko meter.    According to staffers, he was loud and sometimes angry.  Has anyone ever heard of Alan Grayson, thankfully now the ex congressman from Florida?   The article goes on to state that he recently delivered a “belligerent and rambling 19 minute monologue” to fellow Democrats.  Does the name Keith Olbermann mean anything to anyone?  Finally, staffers testified that  “…Wu became unpredictable and sometimes loopy, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and often not making sense …”   Boy, should we list some names alphabetically?

I’m not sure exactly how they could discern that Wu was exhibiting anything other than acceptable  normal behavior for that party.  Incoherency, belligerence, anger?  The article goes on to recount how in 2007, he accused the Bush White House of acting like  “fake Klingons”, whatever that means.   The best incident was in 2003, when he appeared to go catatonic before a vote.  Clearly the sane response was to flee to another state and avoid the vote altogether.   I’m not sure what’s happening in the Democratic party, but if they start to weed out people like David Wu, good luck  fielding candidates in the next vote. 

As far as David Wu is concerned, he just had the misfortune to pick the wrong profession.  If he was in the entertainment business, he’d be adored, have his picture all over the gossip rags and his own TV show.  There just happens to be a job opening at CBS now that Charlie Sheen has gone.  That show would have had to be renamed One and Half Men, but didn’t poll well with focus groups.  On the other hand, Charlie has a possible career in politics…or MSNBC.