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Steve Burns generously offered me a holiday gift of the following article by Beau Friedlander, which he calls "pure comedy gold," though for the life of me I can't find anything the smallest bit objectionable about it:

Here's what's missing from the grouch and brainstorm so rife among the dyspeptic tide of liberal resentment: a coherent thought. Obama is precisely who we wanted. He's going to deliver the promised change, and we just can't see it. And that's how it should be, folks, because if we could see what Obama sees, we wouldn't need a transformative leader. Remember, we elected him because he had the vision thing. ...

Rick Warren was the perfect choice. Obama is not throwing the LGBT community under Rosa Parks's bus. He's doing what Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong advocated in their book Crashing the Gate. He's saying to the lefty throng: I'll take care of your needs later. Right now, let's get everyone on the same page. The page we want everyone on right now is the one that says the president-elect can do no wrong. Once we're there, he can be an incredible ally to the LGBT community and realize the many promises he made during the election cycle.

See what I mean?  Nothing interesting there, right?  Steve offered this commentary, which I believe is meant to explain the joke:

At first, I thought it was a parody, but now I think the guy's really serious. Three phrases I expect to hear more often in the future:

1) if we could see what Obama sees, we wouldn't need a transformative leader.

2) I'll take care of your needs later

and:

3) The page we want everyone on right now is the one that says the president-elect can do no wrong.

Huh.  I'm still not sure what he felt was so funny about this article—something about parody and maybe Obama, I guess?  "Dyspeptic" is an amusing word, and "lgbt" is pretty crazy-looking and has no vowels at all (Polish?) so I suppose that's kind of funny.  Maybe that's it.  Anyway, Steve's a smart guy, so I'm sure it must be something.  And gifts should be shared, right?  So, enjoy!

And a Merry Christmas, Chappy Chanukah, and Kool Kwanzaa to y'all.

Comments

[lover of jazz]

friedlander seems deadly serious to me.
he and obama are both a bit on the dopey side if they think warren giving the invocation is going to placate people who were upset about reverend wright's supposedly hateful "god damn america!" sermon. and that certainly seems to be friedlander's point.
the "funny" will come when obama gets jack-squat in return for pandering to the "oogedy-boogedy" crowd.
part of me is almost looking forward to that.

[KDelphi]

I am really beginning to doubt some of Obama's supporters sanity. I am not kidding. This is for real, right? Reminds me of the "Hitler speech" that young girl gave in "Billy Jack"~~ LOL!! I am going to try to find it...

[paul of the clue-by-four]

I like the free-verse imagery of "grouch and brainstorm." It makes no sense as prose, but it'd be an awesome name for a blog or a garage band...

[cemmcs]

I can't tell if he's kidding or not. I hope he is but I just can't tell.

[KDelphi]

It looks like some of the posts that Samson has put on his blog from CD--by Joe Hope...they would be funny, but..theyre not..

[SteveB]

As my second holiday gift, I offer this reply from NY Times writer Timothy Williams to my emailed question about his self-contradictory report on shoe-throwing journalist Muntader al-Zaidi:

Hi Steve,

It is unfortunately, confusing, but it appears as if there are two letters. However, since we don't have access to the letters, the journalist, or even someone from the gov't, the best we can do at this point is to quote a brother relating what he says he was told.

Hopefully, this will be cleared up once the gov't allows the journalist to have visitors; barring that, we'll have to wait for the start of the trial Dec. 31.

My best,
timothy