Mort Sahl: No desire to meet clinton / "With no morality, there's nothing there"

CNN | 1-16-02 | Mia T

[Mia T]

Mort Sahl: No desire to meet clinton

"With no morality, there's nothing there"

Proud to know "the 2 Bushes," the Kennedys, Nixon

by Mia T

ASHINGTON, Jan.16-- Mort Sahl,"Will Rogers with fangs," the 60s satirist and self-professed "radical independent" who cut his political-eyeteeth at the Hungry i, put, if not the final, the intellectual, nail in the clinton legacy coffin on the Aaron Brown Show (CNN) tonight.

Brown asked Sahl what he thought of clinton. "Never met him," the terse Sahl non sequitur. Brown probed further with the polite imprecision that has become his hallmark. "Would you like to meet him?" With no hesitation nor the slightest hint of irony, Sahl explained, "I have no desire to meet clinton; with no morality, there's nothing there."

By way of contrast, the intrepid iconoclast, who never knew a president he didn't skewer, went on to express pride in knowing "the two Bushes," the Kennedys and Nixon.

So much for the clinton legacy. The CLINTON-WAS-AN-UTTER-FAILURE Containment Team Scheme, counterproductive on its face, is now officially dead. If the clintons had any concern for the American aesthetic, they would bury it...and, while they're at it, themselves.

Two hundred years ago, we had Jefferson, Washington, Ben Franklin and Tom Paine, and there were four million people. Today we have 220 million, and look at our leaders...Darwin was wrong."

Mort Sahl, 1998

contingency principle

 

by Mia T

 

 

A trait or strategy that is successful at one time may be unsuccessful at another. Evolution is not progress. Populations are simply adapting to their current surroundings. Populations do not necessarily become better in any absolute sense over time.

 

Take RAPE. It may have been an evolutionary imperative for Homo erectus in the Pleistocene Epoch, but one can hardly argue that it is adaptive behavior for Homo sapiens in the year 2000, Boy Rapist-President notwithstanding.

 

 

 

This contingency principle was demonstrated experimentally (Paquin and Adams) with a yeast culture that was maintained for many generations. Occasionally, a mutant strain would arise that increased reproductive success. These mutant strains would crowd out the formerly dominant strains. Samples of the most successful strains from the culture were taken across time. In later competition experiments, each strain would outcompete the immediately previously dominant type in a culture. However, some earlier isolates could outcompete strains that arose late in the experiment. (Would that we could put clinton in Jefferson's petri dish.) Competitive ability of a strain was always better than its previous type, but competitiveness in a general sense was not increasing.

 

Any organism's success depends on the behavior of its contemporaries. (If you doubt this, just ask David Schippers.) For most traits or behaviors, there is likely no optimal design or strategy, only contingent ones.

 

 

But even as Clinton fails to grasp the scandal's metabolism

he understands all too well its most significant byproduct.

You can see it in his eyes.

 

Once reflecting a Machiavellian confidence,

they now dart back and forth reflexively,

searching futilely for approval,

attempting desperately to dispel his own certain knowledge

that his moral authority is gone. . .

forever

-- Mia T

 

It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope.

We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth,

and listen to the song of that siren

till she transforms us into beasts.

Is this the part of wise men,

engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?

Are we disposed to be the number of those

who, having eyes, see not,

and having ears, hear not,

the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?

For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost,

I am willing to know the whole truth;

to know the worst, and to provide for it.

--Patrick Henry

In a dark time, the eye begins to see.

--Theodore Roethke

 

Mindless rhinestone-studded-and-tented kleptocracy

by Mia T

John Podhoretz recently asked, "Whence comes hillary clinton's reputation for brilliance?" For the answer, he intuitively, rather brilliantly in fact, looked to her anatomy and noted,"This isn't the first time she's shot herself in the foot."

 

 

The above anatomical analysis supports the Podhoretz thesis. Notwithstanding The Pod's erroneous conclusions concerning hillary clinton's heart and nerve, he basically has it right. Anatomy is destiny...

 

Ian Hunter recently observed that our leaders are shrinking. "From a Churchill (or, for that matter, a Margaret Thatcher) to a Tony Blair; from Eisenhower to Clinton; from Diefenbaker to Joe Clark; from Trudeau to Chretien -- we seem destined to be governed by pygmies."

 

The pols understand their anatomical limitations well; they attempt to mitigate them with veneer. And so we suffer mindless alpha-beta-beelzebubba grotesquerie. . .

 

 

and rhinestone-studded-and-tented kleptocracy.

 

 

With all the media genuflecting before the press-conference podium of bill clinton, it bears remarking yet again that the clinton intellect (an oxymoron even more jarring than AlGoreRhythm and meant to encompass the cognitive ability of both clintons) is remarkable only for its utter ordinariness, its lack of creative spark, its lack of analytic precision, its lack of depth.

 

The clintons' fundamental error: They are too arrogant and dim-witted to understand that the demagogic process in this fiberoptic age isn't about counting spun heads; it's about not discounting circumambient brains.

 

Politicos and reporters are not rocket scientists . . .

Professions tend to be self-selected, intellectually homogeneous subgroups of Homo sapiens. Great intellects (especially these days) do not generally gravitate towards careers in the media or politics. Mediocre, power-obsessed types with poor self-images do.

 

Thus, clinton mediocrity goes undetected primarily because of media mediocrity. ("Mediocrity" and "media" don't come from the same Latin root (medius) for no reason.) Insofar as the clintons are concerned, the media confuse form with substance, smoothness with coherence, data-spewing with ratiocination, pre-programmed recitation with real-time analysis, an idiosyncratic degeneracy with creativity.

Jimmy Breslin agrees. In Hillary Is the 'Me-First' Lady, Breslin laments:

"At the end of all these years and years that are being celebrated this week, the national press of America consists of people with dried minds and weak backbones and the pack of them can't utter a new phrase for the language or show the least bit of anger at a business or profession or trade or whatever this business is that is dying of mediocrity."

 

Listen carefully to the clintons. You will hear a shallow parody of the class president. Not only do they say nothing; they say nothing with superfluous ineloquence. Their speeches are sophomoric, shopworn, shallow, specious. Platitudinous pandering piled atop p.c. cliché

In seven years, they have, collectively, uttered not one memorable word save, "It was a vast right-wing conspiracy," "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky,"and, "It all depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

 

Even the clintons' attempts at alliteration fall flat. Compare Agnew's (Safire's) "nattering nabobs of negativism" with clinton's "preachers of pessimism," an impotent, one-dimensional, plagiaristic echo (its apt self-descriptiveness notwithstanding).

 

Before they destroy their backs along with their reputations, media gentry genuflecting at the altar of the clinton brain should consider Edith Efron's, Can the President Think?

A wasted brain is a terrible thing.

 

[Mia T]

Both. ;)

[f.Christian]

America as a... Battered Woman
by Robert L. Kocher

"I remember this country when it was sane. That was more than 40 years ago. The end really started with John Kennedy. The minute I first heard him, I recognized there was something terribly wrong with that man. He was lying to me without shame or conscience. He did not have respect for me or for the presidency. It was the same impression I received, more strongly, upon seeing or hearing Bill Clinton..."

[Mia T]

I'm having the same problem today. Maybe the servers are busy or down. Try holding the mouse button down while the mouse is over the image; then select "open image" from the pull-down menu.

[TwoStep]

Thanks, for the ping. A great mind, with artistic talent--creates original, inspiring posts!

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Ah! Now I can see all the images except the first one for some reason and the "show picture" thingie doesn't work. Oh well.

Mort Sahl - loathes Clinton - maybe we could get him on some high profile "program" for him to repeat these epithets......or maybe the world will come to Free Republic and find your posts!

[StarFan]

HA! BUMP

[editor-surveyor]

I am sure tired of hearing the name Clinton.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...I will NEVER FORGET having been blessed with the opportunity to meet MORT SAHL in Year 2000 during the Saga of Little ELIAN.

...I reminded MORT of his great line from his 1961 Comedy ..'The New Frontier'.. Album he recorded at Miami's Hotel Fountainbleu right after JFK's Bay of Pigs Invasion Fiasco against Communist FIDEL CASTRO =

"Well, here we are, Ladies and Gentlemen, with -The New Frontier- ...CUBA..!"

to which a deeply listening MORT answered "Yes."

...I then continued with =

"And now here we are 40 years later, Ladies and Gentlemen, with -The Last Frontier- ...CUBA...!"

to which a deeply listening MORT slowly answered back..."Y-E-S"...!!!!

Guess some things just NEVER change with Time?

"Y-E-S"...!!!!

[OKSooner]

Mia likes her privacy.

[Mia T]

Mort-Sahl: "I've arranged with my executor to be buried in Chicago. Because when I die, I want to still remain active politically." Q ERTY1 ping!

"Back in Chi' in the old days, we count the votes, and we keep counting them again and again until we get what we want."--Key Largo: Johnny Rocco - Chicago mobster, explaining his rise to power, boasting about fixing elections back in Chicago

BUSH CAMP ALERT!

GORE-DALEY-DEM ELECTION-THEFT-BY-MANUAL-RECOUNT PLOY DOCUMENTED BY DEMOCRAT ATTORNEY

COROLLARY: Do Democrat Precincts Prefer Punch Card Over More Accurate Optical Scan Ballots PRECISELY to Enable This Type of Election Theft?

"Our strength is not in the ballot but in the counting...As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?"

--Boss Tweed, November 1871

 

Why the Manual Recount is Unconstitutional:

Due Process, Equal Protection and Carol Roberts

 

"Explicit statistical evidence of massive ballot tampering in Palm Beach, Fl"

[AKA Elena]

For the acerbic Mort to see the shallow vacancy of the Clinton's raises him 10,000 in my former estimates of him!

How funny Granite, that Mia -- the best at linking and reminding us of sets of several among the thousands of random acts of filth of the Clinton's ... comes to us in disguise ... I never went to look!

[YaYa123]

I actually saw this interview with Mort Sahl. (He looks pretty good for a geezer.) His terse comment on not wanting to meet Clinton really caught whazhisname CNN guy off guard. Just as funny, when Mort Sahl said something about Geraldo and whazhisname cautioned not to mention Geraldo again, then mumbled something about Sahl could say anything he liked, but he couldn't.

Delicious moments, memorialized by Mia!

[Mia T]

How funny Granite, that Mia... comes to us in disguise...

Not exactly...I did post my pic in the photo album... ;)

[Mia T]

Thanx! I actually turned on the show mid-interview and missed the Geraldo gem. Worthy of its own headline:

Brown bowdlerizes, Geraldo taboo

[Mia T]

Some tweaks and additions to the story:

Mort Sahl: No desire to meet clinton

"With no morality, there's nothing there"

Proud to know "the 2 Bushes," the Kennedys, Nixon

by Mia T

ASHINGTON, Jan.16-- Mort Sahl,"Will Rogers with fangs," the 60s satirist and self-professed "radical independent" who cut his political-eyeteeth at the Hungry i, put the intellectual--if not the final--nail in the clinton legacy coffin on the Aaron Brown Show tonight. (Who is Aaron Brown? Imagine Charlie Rose plus paunch minus Southern suavity.) That the eponymous Clinton News Network (CNN) televised the demise only added to the irony.

Brown asked Sahl what he thought of clinton. "Never met him." The terse Sahl non sequitur did not deter the host. Brown probed further with polite imprecision, which is his hallmark. "Would you like to meet him?" With neither hesitation nor the slightest hint of irony, Sahl explained, "I have no desire to meet clinton; with no morality, there's nothing there."

By way of contrast, the intrepid iconoclast, who never knew a president he didn't skewer, went on to express pride in knowing "the two Bushes," the Kennedys and Nixon.

So much for the clinton legacy.

The CLINTON-WAS-AN-UTTER-FAILURE Containment Team Scheme, counterproductive on its face, is now officially dead. If the clintons had any concern for the American aesthetic, they would bury it...and, while they're at it, themselves.

[Republic]

Mort-Sahl: "I've arranged with my executor to be buried in Chicago. Because when I die, I want to still remain active politically."

Practically perfect! ROFLMAO!

Mia, you are not only our performance artist, but your wit and writing are absolutely devastating-funny, sharp, seriously on target and absolutely refreshing. I know exactly what you mean about the story that is now told simply by watching clinton's eyes. Spooky, sick and telling. Very telling. And deserved. I can't even summon pity for him because underneath it all, even considering his great void in the character dept, ...he betrayed all of us, he betrayed his nation for money, bottom line.

You, dear, are our resident philosopher....you are you know. Your artistic talent only adds gloss.

And Morty---what can one say.....he is an American gem. What he said regarding not being interested in meeting clinton reminds me of reading once something said by jesse jackson (of all people-yuck); it went something like ' when you look up close and personal at bill clinton, glancing deeply into his eyes, you see that there is nothing there but a black hole, that it is empty. Again, very spooky to my way of thinking

[Urbane_Guerilla]

Am I the only one that finds it funny that you create mega-posts with images and html code, but your profile is completely blank?

GSC ... no, you are not. That is part of Mia's creative allure. She deliberately operates in a different zone. She has a secret, but we will never find out what it is. In the meanwhile, she is telling us more about herself than almost anyone on the internet.

[Iconoclast2]

Bump. The reference to the study of Paquin and Adams has made my day by teaching me something new about evolution. Thanks.

[Graewoulf]

Thanks for the ping! Great thread!

[RJayneJ]

Thanks for the heads up! };^D)