Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Christine O'Donnell walks off interview
Funny, isn't it? There's a real connection here to my last post. The myth of the Tea Party is that it's all about economic issues, about smaller government, less spending, and lower taxes. But the reality is quite different.
These are basically the same right-wing Christian evangelicals who gave us George W. Bush. He was their candidate, and they supported him enthusiastically. These are the same religious fanatics who've been fighting a "culture war," the same people who want to tear down the separation of church and state in America.
And Christine O'Donnell - who you can bet hasn't given up on her political aspirations, even though she might not be running for office right this minute - is trying to minimize that "culture war" stuff only because it's unpopular among the majority of Americans. She's just trying to position herself to best political advantage (since the Republican base already knows she's one of them).
Obviously, most people won't ever read her book. And of those who do, most will be true believers, just like her. But a TV interview is a completely different matter. So she won't talk about her real beliefs there, even walking off the set to avoid it.
Now, is Christine O'Donnell smart enough to think of all this on her own? I suspect not. I suspect that she - and other Tea Party favorites - have been taking instruction from people who do know what works best politically. I think they're deliberately pushing that myth of the Tea Party, while avoiding the loony social and religious issues, as much as possible - at least when they're not among supporters alone.
The loony social and religious issues are what they're really all about. But that's not going to fly among most of the American electorate. So they promote that myth of the Tea Party and plan to ride it all the way to electoral success.
Ever since Fox news Republicans don't seem to understand who journalists are or what journalism is.
Journalists come up with their questions and then ask them. Interviewers answer them.
If interviewers were allowed to come up with the questions then there would be no reason to have journalists. It might as well just be O'Donnell talking to herself at that point. What makes her think she can get free advertising for her book?
I hope every interview she goes on asks her about this interview. Maybe eventually she'll get so frustrated with that she'll just stop giving interviews and then she'll retire to the island Peter Thiel is building, never to be seen again!
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It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
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We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
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1 comment:
Ever since Fox news Republicans don't seem to understand who journalists are or what journalism is.
Journalists come up with their questions and then ask them. Interviewers answer them.
If interviewers were allowed to come up with the questions then there would be no reason to have journalists. It might as well just be O'Donnell talking to herself at that point. What makes her think she can get free advertising for her book?
I hope every interview she goes on asks her about this interview. Maybe eventually she'll get so frustrated with that she'll just stop giving interviews and then she'll retire to the island Peter Thiel is building, never to be seen again!
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