Here is my own "not even the same species" picture
~~sigh~~ But he's lonely, and she's VERY pretty. ;)
Posted on 05/04/2005 5:59:04 AM PDT by OESY
I'll get to First Lady Laura Bush's bawdy stand-up routine in a minute. But I want to highlight a related new book out about how young conservatives are shaking up the dominant liberal media culture. It's called "South Park Conservatives." My name is listed on the cover along with many other (mostly) right-leaning pundits, websites, and bloggers, but I must confess to having mixed feelings about the honor.
The best-selling book's author, Brian C. Anderson of the Manhattan Institute, writes a fun, breezy survey documenting the rise of talk radio, FOX News, the Internet, conservative publishing, and college Republican activism. Anderson's chapter on the success of conservative talk radio and the abysmal failure of liberal Air America to replicate it is incisive. Another chapter on the blogosphere (alone worth the price of the book) gives readers a useful history of the explosion of news, opinion, and political websites that have smashed the left-wing media monopoly.
But how did such a wide-ranging list of individuals and organizations -- Anderson's book cover includes the names of conservative-leaning Internet pioneer Matt Drudge and center-left journalist Mickey Kaus, the libertarian Tech Central Station, the culturally conservative WorldNetDaily, political upstart Arnold Schwarzenegger and political chameleon Andrew Sullivan, plus Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and myself, along with a feature blurb from Jonah Goldberg -- all get lumped under the umbrella term "South Park Conservatives"?
Anderson argues that Comedy Central's cartoon series "South Park" embodies the "fiercely anti-liberal comedic spirit" of the "new media" from Kaus to Coulter. The cartoon, he writes, reflects a "post-liberal counterculture" that is "particularly appealing to the young, however much it might offend older conservatives."
Well, I'm 34 and no fan of "South Park." I have many good friends who are indeed huge boosters of the show, but I find that the characters' foul language overwhelms any entertainment I might otherwise derive from the show's occasional, right-leaning iconoclastic themes.
"South Park" may be "politically incorrect." But "politically incorrect" is not always a synonym for "conservative."
My discomfort with "South Park's" increasingly mainstream vulgarity is not a matter of nitpicking. We're not just talking about a stray curse word here or there. As liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich points out, "South Park" "holds the record for the largest number of bleeped-out repetitions (162) of a single four-letter expletive in a single television half-hour." That's probably about the same number of profanities uttered at John Kerry's infamous New York City celebrity fundraiser last summer, which Republicans rightly condemned for its excessive obscenities.
Rich is wrong about most things, but he's painfully on target in noting the incongruous pandering now taking place by some in the cool-kids clique on the Right. Conservatives criticize Hollywood relentlessly, but as Rich notes, "the embarrassing reality is that they want to be hip, too."
Which brings me to Mrs. Bush. She demonstrated at the celebrity-studded White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend that you can entertain without being profane. Most of her humor was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But her off-color stripper and horse jokes crossed the line. Can you blame Howard Stern for feeling peeved and perplexed? And let's face it: If Teresa ("I'm cheeky!") Heinz Kerry had delivered Mrs. Bush's First Lady Gone Mildly Wild routine, social conservative pundits would be up in arms over her bad taste and lack of dignity.
The First Lady resorting to horse masturbation jokes is not much better than Whoopi Goldberg trafficking in dumb puns on the Bush family name. It was wholly unnecessary.
Self-censorship is a conservative value. In a brilliant commencement speech at Hillsdale College last year, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner called on his audience to resist the coarsened rhetoric of our time: "If we are to prevail as a free, self-governing people, we must first govern our tongues and our pens. Restoring civility to public discourse is not an option. It is a necessity."
Lighten up, you say? No thanks. I'd rather be a G-rated conservative who can only make my kids giggle than a "South Park"/"Desperate Housewives" conservative whose goal is getting Richard Gere and Jane Fonda to snicker. Giving the Hollyweird Left the last laugh is not my idea of success.
And conservatives wonder why they have problems! Just when we start gaining ground some holier-than-thou type tries to divide the group.
Now here's someone who gets it. The Republican Party wants to project that they are a big tent party welcoming anybody that agrees with some of the party platform. What I've noticed, all too often, is that the older generation is less accepting of the younger generation.
As a college student who attends county Republican meetings often, I've noticed that the old Elephants are reluctant in accepting the fresh new ideas that we 'young uns' bring to the party. If the party wants to move forward, the older generation needs to accept the younger generation, regardless of how 'radical' we may be. Our generation isn't going to reflect June Cleaver values. We can take a joke and appreciate the context that it was told in.
In regards to Michelle Malkin referring to one of the jokes Mrs. Bush said as horse masturbation, that is off base and ignorant. As so many have clearly explained, it's poking fun at the city slicker who doesn't know the difference between cow and horse, male and female. Apparently it's Michelle's and all these liberal turned moralty polices perogative to shape it as a masturbation joke in order to make a far-fetched argument that Mrs. Bush is classless and tasteless and vulgar.
And you haven't?
It's an occupational symptom, I guess. :)
I have, in the past, agreed with many of Malkin's columns. Not this time.
But reasonable people should be able to disagree, so I'm not going to stomp off in a huff and say I'll never read her columns again.
Of course, anyone who disagrees with anything that anyone attached to the administration does is obviously a DNC plant. Your tinfoil hat seems to be firmly in place, but I would still be worried about those black helicopters if I were you.
Please show me during this debate where I have called into question someone's intelligence, or called them depraved or sick.
Howlin (saw the "radical" Beatles 3 times)
Wow; I am duly impressed with your seemingly endless supply of boilerplate.
I absolutely agree and have stated this many times myself. It is so immature and gets on my nerves, BIGTIME!
I neither want to be weird or cool. I want to be me.
You might want to contact farmer18th.
Here is my own "not even the same species" picture
~~sigh~~ But he's lonely, and she's VERY pretty. ;)
The dr. told me to drink that. Have you tried the Light Cranberry juice? I like the Cranapple. It is pretty good.
Umbrella 'too?
Well Shakespeare was just pop-culture.
As Americans, we really didn't get the current stick up our collective butts until the Victorian era.
The misnomered "Victorian era" began in America before Victoria was born, and remained long after she died.
(I think it was the early 1830s when Louisa M Alcott's father changed his name from Alcock)
I love your huge aviary. I've often pondered getting birds again myself, if I could build a large airy enclosure like that.
Amen!!!!!
Moluccan,
Think the color of Peach sherbet with a Tangerine colored crest.
Of course my boy was in love when he laid eyes on her ;)
But, he's now very jealous and bites the bejeezus out of me when I get between him and her.
You get the idea, though.
Victoria was the one who really made prudery a fashion-statement.
Those are BEAUTIFUL birds!
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