Tag Archives: ” war

liveblogging john “walnuts” mccain’s acceptance speech.

Since Kathleen is off doing actually important things, you’re stuck with me for liveblogging. You can expect me to have an extremely unsophisticated analysis. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

10:00 — Football is still on. NBC doesn’t care about the Republicans.

10:01 — Ah, there we go. Shot of Palin and Cindy. They’re both wearing shiny suits. Today I had several anxiety attacks thinking about what would happen if John McCain was elected president and then died.

10:05 — Here we go with the video. Ha ha he’s a momma’s boy.

10:06 — Everyone is John McCain’s family was in a war. Had you heard that McCain fought in Vietnam? And he almost died? But he was DESTINED TO BE PRESIDENT. Oh also, he was tortured.

10:07 — Okay, sure, John McCain was once sort of attractive. He spent years in HELL…nice dramatic rhetoric, there.

10:09 — Cindy really does look like an alien. Ha, he’s not in this to support any political party…then why didn’t he act like a real maverick and pick Lieberman?

10:10 — Pictures of babies and old women. He has seven children? I did not know that. Oh wait, I do remember that blonde girl who writes the terrible blog.

10:11 — “The stars are aligned…”? Really? He’s stealing Barry’s “change” word.

10:11 — Wait, did they MENTION that McCain was tortured? In Vietnam? He lived in a BOX, PEOPLE. Ha ha, box.  He will keep other people from enduring that box. Sexist!

10:13 — Here he comes. They set aside seven minutes for applause. Hmm. He is wearing a gold tie, which means he hates America.

10:14 — It’s sort of sad that Barry filled Invesco and what ever small St. Paul place this speech is in isn’t even full. 

10:14 — Weird, someone in the crowd has a disposable camera.

10:15 — Ha, three minutes and he’s already talking. GREEN SCREEN ALERT. Or wait, is that a lawn?

10:16 — “USA! USA! USA!”

10:16 — Surprise surprise, he accepts the nomination.

10:16 — Reference to Bush, but he quickly ties it to 9/11. Good save, Johnny. 

10:17 — His signs so aren’t as cool as Barry’s.

10:18 — “I’m indebted to my robot wife Cindy, whom I selected once my other wife got crippled.”

10:18 — Cindy ALMOST looks like she might cry. She has really thin lips.

10:19 — McCain’s mom is sort of adorable. I like her big blue earrings. 

10:21 — Says some nice things about Barry. Can they PLEASE stop chanting USA?

10:22 — McCain holds his shoulders awkwardly as he promises to win the election.

10:23 — AH A CRAZY WOMAN JUST RUSHED THE STAGE! No one knows what to do! This is amazing! Wait is that a Code Pinker? McCain calms them down with his creepy laugh. I think there are two crazy women. One in a suit, one in a weird pink satin shirt with writing on it. Hmm.

10:24 — He seems to be annoyed that they keep chanting “USA.” He could use some Crest White Strips. They’re only like $17 now.

10:25 — Everyone loves Sarah Palin. Did he just pronounce her name wrong?

10:25 — “I want to thank everyone in American for ignoring Sarah’s lack of experience and instead focusing on the fact that she’s sort of hot.”

10:26 — Shot of the Palin kids. Ah, there’s Bristol. Where’s hot hot baby daddy Levi?

10:27 — He can’t wait to introduce Palin to Washington because SHE’S BASICALLY NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE.

10:27 — “Change is coming.” Seriously dude, that’s basically plagarism.

10:29 — “Heh heh. Did I mention I’ve been called a maverick?” Ha, someone’s McCain-Palin sign is upside-down.

10:31 — I still get email updates about concerts coming to Denver, and I get really angry when there are good people coming when I’m not there. Anyone want to fly me out to Denver on October 16 to see Conor Oberst?

10:32 — THE Georgetown bar is “hoppin,” according to my roommate. I wish I was liveblogging this from a bar.

10:33 — Okay, so he talked about Iraq for a while, but so far this speech seems kind of fluffy.

10:33 — Ooh here come the personal sob stories. Aw, a dad is crying.

10:34 — McCain wears a bracelet of a young man who died in Iraq. The kid’s parents look so sad.

10:36 — He promises to get back to basics. Shot of a kid with a phallic elephant hat on his head.

10:36 — American Dream rhetoric. “We’re all God’s children, and we’re all Americans.”

10:37 — Rattles off the romantic reasons that people like my dad are Republicans. Too bad that’s quite far from reality.

10:38 — He’ll give us a government that doesn’t make our choices for us, but rather lets us make more choices for ourselves. They’re booing Obama. WATCH IT PEOPLE WE LOVE BARRY.

10:39 — I wonder who all those people in the straw hats are.

10:41 — Do I want to go watch this speech at my roommate’s boyfriend’s house and eat ice cream? Hmmm.

10:42 — “Something related to education is the civil rights movement of this century.” Interesting analogy. I might have said that the GLBT movement is the most important civil rights issue right now. Not that education’s not important, but you know…

10:44 — People are yawning. I am too.

10:45 — Did Palin get new glasses?

10:45 —  “We will drill off-shore and we will drill NOW!” Someone is holding up an “Environmentalists for McCain” sign. Really? Did they notice that Palin doesn’t believe humans are responsible for global warming?

10:46 — Stop making fun of Barry; we all know off-shore drilling isn’t a long-term option. 

10:47 — “We must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly.” True, let’s do that.

10:48 — “Iran is evil. So is Russia.” But I don’t understand…I have a REALLY adorable teacher from Iran. He wears bow ties.

10:49 — “I’m not afraid; I’m prepared. I know how the military works…yada yada.”

10:50 — My roommate just left. She took the ice cream. Now I’m bored and lonely again with no one but McCain to keep me company.

10:51 — Okay, he spoke sort of eloquently there about war and peace and keeping us safe. 

10:52 — I don’t think I’m very good at liveblogging. I’m exceptionally bored and don’t have anything insightful to say. I wish I had something delicious to snack on. Let’s see what Wonkette just liveblogged: “He’s like, I will not send Young People To Die for no good reason. And yet… just… and yet.” Dear Wonkette, I love you. 

10:53 — “I WAS IN A WAR, REMEMBER? THAT BLACK GUY WASN’T.”

10:54 — Girl with yellow eyeshadow cries.

10:55 — Ooh valuable life lesson time. Oh, shocker, it’s about how he was in the war. “Vietnam Vietnam…torture torture torture…I was a maverick…I was shot down…and remember, I was tortured!!!” Two other soldiers he was with took care of him and saved his life. That does make me feel sort of warm and fuzzy inside.

11:02 — “We’ve gotta fight for our right to party.” Okay he didn’t really say that. Now he’s talking like a robot through the cheers of the crowd. Ha, they, they worked in a shot of a guy wearing a yarmulke and a black woman right at the end. Republicans are so diverse!

11:05 — Phew, it’s over. What is that music at the end? Oh, it’s really bad, tacky country music, that’s what.

11:07 — The balloons just dropped, awkwardly late. What is this, THE PROM?! (Zing!)

Okay I’m finished with this. Hopefully Kathleen will be back tomorrow with some legitimate commentary.

[Posted by Mallory]

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Filed under blogging, family, news, politics, TV

words from wolff for your weekend.

Faithful readers, I’m back! I’m home from my annual family vacation up in the mountains, and I’m rested, ready to write, and armed with plenty of stories that I can use to blackmail my cousins one day.

I wrote a couple of posts last week about some interesting things I read in July’s issue of Oprah, and despite my shame at being so intrigued by magazine made for stay-at-home moms, I’m about to continue that trend. There’s one article from the magazine that I’ve been thinking about since I read it, and I wanted to share it with those of you who don’t faithfully read O Magazine (which, I suspect, includes most of you). The story comes from a collection of articles written to tell us all “Why Men Do Stupid Things.” At first glance, that title made me immediately skeptical and annoyed and aware of why I don’t typically read O. That being said, I read the section anyway and was quite impressed. (You can read about half of the articles on Oprah’s website.)

Unfortunately, the best and most thought-provoking article of the bunch is not on the website, and though I considered typing up the whole thing for your reading pleasure, I’m fairly certain that would break a bunch of copyright laws. Instead, I’ll sum up the story and leave you with a choice quote or two.

Oprah tells us that with a brief article, Tobias Wolff is going to tell us silly little women about war stories. Wolff fought in Vietnam, and he writes about an experience he had during the 1980s, when people were finally starting to talk about what happened during the war. He joins a discussion group with Ed, who also fought in Vietnam; Robert, who fought in Korea; and Will, who was a conscientious objector and had “refused the draft and performed alternate service as an orderly in a VA hospital.”

After some initial hesitation, the men begin talking, and they get caught up in their own stories. Wolff writes:

…Robert and Ed and I were topping each other with stories about the meanness of our garrison towns — at Fort Bragg we’d called the citizens of Fayetteville “Fayette Cong” — when I caught Will staring at us in despair.

“You’re doing it again,” he said.

“What?”

“Making it sound like a lark. Like some great adventure. And you guys know better. No wonder kids keep joining up.”

I could see that he felt left out, perhaps at some instinctive level even rued missing the experience that bound us. But he was right. We knew better, yet could not speak of all this, even to deplore it, without giving it a certain glamour, the glamour of blood mystery and exclusive, ultimate fraternity.

I have never forgotten Will’s sadness, its profound ambiguity.

Yes. No wonder kids keep joining up.

To be sure, those are words worth thinking about these days.

[Posted by Mallory]

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