Country First

The Voguer-in-Chief strikes a pose denouncing posturing.  But can anyone figure this out?

So Cantor suggested a possible short-term extension in order to avoid default, with another vote next year.

The president -- frustrated -- said there would be no short term extensions. It would be bad for the economy, and resolving the deficit issue certainly won't be easier next year in the throes of the political season, he said.

If we can't do this now, we won't be able to do it next year, he said.

“This process is confirming what the American people think is the worst about Washington," the president said. "Everyone is more interested in posturing, political position and protecting their base than in solving problems.”

...

There needs to be a long-term debt extension, the president argued.

"This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this,” he said.

Then he stood up.

"Enough is enough,” the president insisted. “We have to be willing to compromise. It shouldn't be about positioning and politics, and I'll see you all tomorrow."

Then he left the room.

Just what is it that is going to bring down his Presidency?  I don't see how a short term clean debt ceiling extension could do that; presumably, he means the economic chaos likely to ensue after a debt default will bring down his Presidency.

So after threatening (implausibly) to throw Grandma off the train by holding up Social Security checks despite the clear intent of the Social Security Trust Fund,  Obama is now holding the US economy hostage to his desire for a long term deal that lets him duck this problemduring an election year. Very dramatic, but where is our Mediator-in-Chief?

Comments

[MayBee]

I support the TM plan.

[anduril]

Anyone interested in the flavor of C. Peter Wagner, check this out: Controversial Spiritual Warfare Against Catholic Saints.

There is no surer way to get Obama re-elected than to nominate anti-Catholic kooks like Perry or Bachmann. 70 million Catholics. Problem is, who wants Romney? Draft Christie!

[JM Hanes]

anduril:

"This is a perfect example of the kooks I want to keep out of the WH."

Lucky you, then. Hagee isn't running.

Lucky us. TM's got a new thread up, although I'm glad to see this one rolled over to page 2.

Perhaps I should be taking bets on whether you will show up dragging Hagee behind you.

[Porchlight]

Today's HotAir comment gem:

POUTUS

pilamaye on July 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM

[Melinda Romanoff]

JMH-

Who dragged the tranny out of here?

[Mike Giles]

Make Obama give them the cuts upfront. We've been through this tax hikes for spending cuts, shuck and jive, before. Pass a bill specifically prioritizing spending: debt service, Social Security, Medicare, essential defense. I think the numbers leave him $44 billion short. Then raise the debt ceiling to allow him to cover $30 billion - THIS MONTH - and this month alone. Let's keep the numbers the same - except next month we only allow $25 billion. And then next month $20. And so on and so on. Not only does he have to make the tough choices, but he has to keep making them month after month. Once the monthly discretionary plus essential, matches monthly revenues you really start to turn the screws. Oh and to show their hearts are in the right places, Republicans should vote to get rid of every GOP earmark.

[Jack is Back!]

Talking about tests, here is a different one for our euridite and quite brilliant writers at JOM. Since I am working on a book about the Victorian age of sports and sports entrepreneurship, I was stunned to find out that I write like Jules Verne. Not what I wanted for a historical compilation. Give it a try at the LUN and let our compiler of profile data know. LUN

[jimmyk]

Great--I write like David Foster Wallace, the guy who committed suicide a couple of years ago.

I'm a little suspicious, as the "analysis" took about 0.1 seconds.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Since Verne is often described as being years ahead of his time in his scifi writing, perhaps that is not the best roll model for someone trying to write after the fact with an historical account.

[Clarice]

H. P. Lovecraft

[Southside]

HP Lovecraft, P. G. Wodehouse, and Gertrude Stein.

[narciso]

HP Lovecraft, according to that blog post, the uncorrected one,

[Chubby]

I cheated and pasted in the 23rd Psalm (NIV)

David wrote like Vladimir Nabokov

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Lovecraft and Dan Brown.

Lovecraft? I hate scifi and horror genres.

[Clarice]

I do, too, Sara. I can't imagine this is a relaiable test.

[jimmyk]

Lovecraft? I hate scifi and horror genres.

It's not testing content, just writing style. Still, I have my doubts (see above).

[Chubby]

my own writing:

I write like Daniel Defoe

[Chubby]

true confession:

I first pasted in a short post from JOM, and it came out HP Lovecraft. I found that unacceptable. So I found a much longer text I had written elsewhere and inserted that, and got Daniel Dafoe, which I can grudgingly accept.

Presumably the longer the text you paste in, the better the analysis will be?

[Chubby]

Sara, one thing about Jules Verne, for some of us at least, he is a page turner. When I went through my Jules Verne reading stage, I could never put his books down. And if I read them all again, it would be the same.

[sbw]

H.P. Madison.

[sbw]

Hah!

I put in some Madison from The Federalist Papers #10 and it comes out H.P. Lovecraft.

[Chubby]

we are all HP Lovecrafts LOL!!!!!!

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Chubby: As a pre-teen back in the "good ol' days," I saw "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" over 20 times. But I don't take that to heart too much as I also saw the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" multiple times along with "Rage to Live" and "Pillow Talk." I think it had more to do with being in a small town than in actual fandom.

Did you happen to see the special Discovery Science (I think?) did on scifi writers? It is amazing how prescient Verne was in so many areas.

My own likes tend to run toward complicated spy novels and long, character-intensive historical novels. For instance, I couldn't get enough of Colleen McCullough's First Man in Rome series and my Mother, who normally never met a book she didn't love, hated all the books in the series.

I had my Honor's Lit teacher tell me once that I better decide whether I wanted to be George Bernard Shaw or Walt Whitman. I don't think she met it as a compliment. At that stage of my life, I think I thought of myself as a cross between Emily Dickinson, Gidget, and Scarlet O'Hara.

[Porchlight]

I got David Foster Wallace. I wanted George Eliot or Jane Austen. Guess I better find a different passage to paste...

[Frau Arzneimittel]

"Great--I write like David Foster Wallace, the guy who committed suicide a couple of years ago."
while teaching at Pomona College in Claremont--that carphole in the desert.

[DrJ]

*snort*

I entered two paragraphs from a recent technical proposal. One analysis suggested my style was Margaret Atwood; the other was everyone's favorite Lovecraft.

[DrJ]

I tried three different paragraphs from the same proposal: all Atwood.

I've not read her -- what does this mean?

[Frau Arzneimittel]

I'll see your *snort* and raise, you DrJ. My short sample came up with Cory Doctorow.

omg Will Janet still let me stay on the porch with Jess the dog?

[DrJ]

Frau, I had to look up Doctorow to learn who he is. Never heard of him before!

[Frau Arzneimittel]

I hadn't either, DrJ.
The second analysis was with part of a poem of mine and I came out James Joyce.
Verrrry interesting.

[Frau Arzneimittel]

"David wrote like Vladimir Nabokov"
with the footnote fetish of Will Cuppy!

[Clarice]

Doctorow's great but H.P.?

[Chubby]

I've read several Peggy Atwood books but was at a loss to summarize her style, but found this in a write-up about her that I think is quite apt:

(( Atwood’s writing is varied in many ways yet soundly consistent ))

she's extremely cynical and her humor is very dry

((Margared Atwood was born in Ottawa, Canada, the second of three children. He father, Carl Atwood, was a forest entomologist, and her mother, Margaret Killam, a nutritionist. Part of her early years Atwood spent in the bush of northern Quebec, where her father undertook research. Later these childhood experiences gave material to her metaphorical use of the wilderness and its animals in WILDERNESS TIPS (1991). ))

[Chubby]

Dr. J. another intereting tidbit about Margaret Atwood:

((During World War II, Carl Atwood was employed as a forester by the federal government. The Atwoods spent most of the war years living in a tent at his research station in the wilds of northern Quebec. Dr. and Mrs. Atwood taught their children a love of nature and of literature—the main (and only) past-times possible in such isolation))

[Chubby]

Sara

No I haven't seen that particular show, maybe I can find some excerpts on youtube. It's amazing how Verne continues to fascinate even the sophisticated kids of today. The kids who are into steampunk subculture seem to be having a lot of fun.

Do you like Catherine Cookson? Not all of of her novels are historical but a lot of them are, and they are all about complex family relationships and intermingling between the classes in the rigid British class system. My mom was very fond of her novels and tried to get me interested in them, but it wasn't until after my mom had passed on that I started watching the BBC's productions of Cookson's novels on YouTube, and it was like cocaine, I could not stop. A totally amazing talent and the stories are so gripping.

It sounds like your lit prof was prodding you into becoming a writer?

[PD]

I pasted in a hunk of one of my technical articles and it came back with Arthur [C.?] Clarke.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

It sounds like your lit prof was prodding you into becoming a writer?

I did do my Senior Thesis on George Bernard Shaw. I got an A++ on it. It was about 60 pages in addition to many pages of a bibliography and lots of footnotes. I was proud of my work and my grade until I found out that my class nemesis also got an A++ for her paper on Albert Camus and it consisted of two words: Know thyself.

[kave]

I came out with Stephen King. Hmmmmmm.

[Agent J. (formally known as "J"..]

i am going to try again, I came out 'James Joyce".

[Stephanie]

I got Doctorow, too.

[DrJ]

Chubby,

thanks for the background. BTW, why did you change your handle from PL?

[Chubby]

Dr. J.

I thought Atwood's unusual scientific and research family background sounded kinda, sorta like it paralleled your life somewhat, going from what I've read in your posts.

By way of explanation for my nic change, I used the search tip Porchlight suggested yesterday and I am amazed that Google instantly turned up. The following exchange that explains the nic change took place almost a year ago, but unfortunately I couldn't find Rick Ballard's original post that inspired the change.

thread: Sen. James Webb, Jersey Boy
July 24, 2010

I must have missed it Chub, but what prompted the name change?

Posted by: Ignatz | July 24, 2010 at 05:42 PM
........................

Several threads back I commented that I found it mystifying that the obesity registry rule is in the fin reg bill, and the bullion tax law is in the healthcare bill. When Rick answered me he called me Chubby (he probably doesn't remember but I thought it was kinda funny.)

Posted by: Chubby (formerly Parking Lot) | July 24, 2010 at 05:52 PM

.............................

"he probably doesn't remember"

Of course I remember it, I've got a memory like... one of those metal catchy thingies.

Posted by: Rick Ballard | July 24, 2010 at 06:01 PM

[Chubby]

"amazed at what Google instantly turned up"

[sbw]

I liked Cory Doctorow's Down and out in the Magic Kingdom. Download it here for free, and if you like it, buy the book.

[Manuel Transmission]

re: Jules Verne, he was a remote viewer. An unpublished manuscript was discovered in a barn a few years ago that described Paris today to a tee. It so scared the publishers that they refused to print it, even though JV was the hottest author of the day.

(I'll try to find a link.)