Random Whines

1. Is DeMint going to bring new ideas to Heritage?? He could hire Pete and allow him to clean house.

2. I’m agreeing with those who say that the Republicans now seem to have two principles: Don’t raise taxes on the wealthy and cut the entitlements (particularly Medicare) that everyone but the wealthy really need. I know this is a caricature, but we just noticed that the guy with the better caricatures wins the election. Obama narrowly won the election, but the post-election is a landslide for him so far.

3. I would love to add to Mr. Ceaser’s excellent intervention in support of our unrivaled and hugely postmodern coverage of trends in popular culture. But for some reason I’ve been cured of insomnia in recent years. “Cured of” is ironic; insomnia is a blessing for those who can live well with it. My opposition to “infomercials” is the same as mine to Vampires. They just don’t seem realistic. Now AM conservative talk radio in the SOUTH is full of commercials for cheap herbal Viagra and pills that remove blockages from your arteries and spare you expensive and risky surgery. Of course I only listen once in a while in the car and can never get to a pen quickly enough to jot down the number.

4. I’m still waiting for Pete’s post praising Romney. No candidate has been so thoroughly and somewhat ungratefully disowned by his party. Sure, his campaign stunk compared to Obama’s. I could go on and talk about his lack of real organization, his ridiculous pollsters, his clueless comments, his one-dimensional campaign, and his allowing those extremely rich guys to waste their money on overpriced and worthless commercials. As Pete pointed out, maybe Romney would have been better off with longer “infomercials” that actually said stuff. At least he could have gotten the insomniac vote. But anyone who’s looked at the studies can notice that his biggest problem was that Obama managed to get enough people to still blame Bush for how screwed up things are both at home and abroad for our country. It’s less clear that you might think how Romney could have prevented that.

5. I appreciate Carl exposing the genealogy of the Beatles’ greatness for us. But finally you gotta say that nobody has come up with so many memorable tunes with, yes, strangely original lyrics. I’ll take the Beatles’ “songbook” over Cole Porter or Gershwin eight days a week.