This morning’s gem from Vice President Joe Biden is his declaration that Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is a “leading legal scholar.” It just goes to show that you can do great thing if you believe “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.”
Just for the record, I wrote a column bemoaning Franken’s instant domination of the Democratic primary over humanitarian and Nobel Prize winner Peter Agre as a sign of what is wrong with our political process. Franken wrote in response that I was suggesting the end of life as we know it.
Franken is clearly smart and has proven a leader on many issues. However, Biden’s tendency to use superlatives where mere adjectives would do has become rather pathological.
I think the admin of this site is genuinely working hard for his web site, for the reason that here every material is quality
based information.
Blouise, Woosty, my apologies. Really I am not an experienced Internetizer — I jumped into the Turley blog because of the Trayvon Martin case, which absolutely obsessed me (a psychiatrist confirmed that for me and I pled nolo) so I didn’t see that you were looking around for me. If you use a handle that I can recognize, and you want to speak OT with me, you can go to hushmail.com and send me messages at MalishaGarcia@hushmail.com.
I will say that I am a Franken fan and I don’t think he has to be a legal scholar — why should he be? I will even add that the legal scholars that I know have never — NONE OF THEM HAS EVER — addressed the issue of the “life interest,” which to me is the major issue to be dealt with now in our culture at this point in time. People don’t even know what it means. Every time I try to address it I hit the wall — if I could arrange a kind of group of minds to start delving into it, this would be a — oh well, talk to me.
And both, belatedly, thank you so kindly.
WoW, I have missed a lot of interesting discussions Ms. Blouise! I never cared much for Franken’s SNL comedy but I did enjoy his more mainstream commentary. Two things impressed me about him as a candidate: very early in the campaign he was asked something and ended up drawing a map of the continental US, to darn fine scale, one state at a time. It could be dismissed as a memory-trick but if my life depended on it I couldn’t come close and I’d venture not many could from among any group of candidates running in any election. It caught my eye, he was doing his homework.
The other thing was his demand that every vote be counted, that all votes be legal and all disputes argued and settled according to the law. He would not concede, he would have to be beaten fair and square. He said to the effect that the race was not up to the candidates but the voters. I liked that. It placed the voting front and center and recognized the gravity of the endeavor. He treated it with respect.
——-
Franken should have remained a comedian, and he wasn’t very good at that. He’s an embarrassment, and a dyed in the wool carpetbagger. He has very little to do with Minnesotans, he’s an East Coast douche who came back home and the Dems ate him up. Why gosh darn it, he’s smarter than us maw…..and the Dems saw Stewart Smally, and it was so….cuz Stewart once again promised that gosh darn it, I deserve to be a Senator. Can’t wait for him to go again for his seat. I also was embarrassed at how he treated another member of Congress. He has NO CLASS whatsoever, he’s just lining up his retirement, as his other job wasn’t doing so well…
Thanks for the comment rafflaw. I don’t dispute that ‘blastocysts’ is the appropriate term. I haven’t had biology since 10th grade, when dinosaurs still roamed – its been a long time so maybe I am confused about that. But I accept Franken’s expertise in this matter of blastocysts and embryos.
If I was not clear, let me say I don’t think whether the term is embryo or blastocyst makes a difference to the argument. If you believe that it is necessary to protect this biological process which is not viable outside the mothers body, does it matter whether it is blastocyst or embryo. I don’t think so. And if you believe that the mothers right to choose is the most important consideration, does it matter whether we are discussing embryo or blastocyst. I don’t think so.
It seems to me that the important biological distinction between blastocyst and embryo is completely irrelevant to the discussion of abortion. It does not matter where you stand on the issue of abortion. The distinction, between a blastocyst in the first few cell divisions or an embryo with much of the form of of the human body, is irrelevant to the moral, philosophical, and legal issues of abortion.
Yet Franken’s attitude seemed to be that if only we, the listeners in the audience, could understand that we were really talking about a blastocyst instead of an embryo then we would be compelled to agree with him.
To me it seemed that Franken tried to avoid real discussion of the issue by the ploy of appealing to superior knowledge. The problem was that the superior knowledge was irrelevant to the discussion.
Well that is my take on Franken anyway – a smart guy who thinks he is so smart he does not have to take seriously or engage in the discussion with lessors who don’t know as much as he does.
Franken has made part of his career taking down Limbaugh and I applaud him for that. But when it comes to thoughtful discussion, I think of Franken and Limbaugh as the two great intellectual sumo wrestlers of our time engaged in the great arena of ideas.
This is entertainment folks. When it comes to Franken and Limbaugh whats truth got to do with it.
Bigfatmike,
Franken’s label “blastocysts” was an accurate one.
I am having the same “funky” problems with this page that others have mentioned.
lotta,
Hope your computer is fixed soon. You’re missing some great stuff.
Blouise1, April 12, 2012 at 1:52 pm
—————————
yes, found her…she seems forthright and having had an unfortunate legal experience I can relate to much of what she says….thanks for the tip 🙂
Perhaps Joe (“I am a Zionist”) Biden tends to reflexively irk those who start out shuddering anytime a career pol open his/her mouth. ; )
Frankenstein is a freak of nature. He stole that election and he knows it. The damn liberals will stoop at nothing in order to declare victory. My thought is he will not win reelection.
Woosty,
Malisha, here.
I first started reading her on the early Zimmerman threads. She stood up well to a slight challenge (slight meaning small) from mespo. I like what she has to say and the way she says it. (There’s a pleasant exchange between her and id707 on Zimmerman: Shooting Was “Life Altering Event” thread … I think that’s the same thread with the mespo challenge)
This page is funky on my computer too.
Biden is a pandering moron and an asshole, though I can respect his ability to get on a train to commute in order to be a parent.
Al Franken has shown himself to be a giant, first in comedy, first in the senate, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
I’d gladly donate to the Franken 2016 campaign.
I think Biden’s remark tells us a lot more about Biden than it does about the ability of Franken.
Franken is a smart guy but maybe not as smart as he thinks.
On his old AirAmerica talk show he had a habit of making precocious but specious arguments, frequently with a great deal of contempt for those who disagreed with him.
The one I remember clearly after all these year had to do with abortion. (note: My remarks here have nothing to do with one side or the other of this divisive issue. My point has to do with how we discuss this issue.) Franken with real contempt in his voice would remark that it wasn’t even a embryo it was a blastocyst. Now there may sound biological reasons to distinguish embryos from blastocysts. But do the semantics, the biological terms, really cut to the essential issues of this important debate. I don’t think so. To my mind, how we label the body parts really does not address the relevant point of consideration.
I am pointing this out because, in my view, it is not unusual or atypical for Franken – to dismiss his adversaries with a smart, contemptuous but irrelevant quip.
Liberals and Democrats can never have too many smart assertive minds, and Franken is that. But I support Franken as a counter balance to the excesses of the other side, not because I trust him.
As a political operative, Franken was much funnier on SNL.
plus, this page goes all wonky on my puter….
Blouise, Malisha here or have you a link?
I think Jeff Metz was kidding….’cause Franken was amazing in Hollywood…
Woosty,
🙂
If you haven’t given Malisha a read, I highly recommend you do so.
Blouise1, April 12, 2012 at 10:17 am
——————————————
thank you! Blouise!