This is nice to see: a liberal talk show host—Sam Seder—talking to a conservative caller. A couple of things I noticed. First, Seder is much nicer to the caller than conservative hosts are to the few liberal callers who make it past their screeners. Second, I love this entitled caller. He makes a quarter million dollars a year, but the idea that he would be taxed is tyranny; tyranny I tell you! People like this never understand how lucky they are. Plus, the guy doesn’t sound that smart. Which is as typical of the rich as the poor. And that just proves the point.

Update (23 November 2012 11:34 am)

The caller claims that taxes going to the Iraq War are just paying for national security. This is typical of conservatives to see national security as solely a matter of wars. The truth is that income inequality is a major national security issue. If large parts of the society are not able to get by, they will revolt, which is a much more serious security threat than Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The main thing is that the caller is just an asshole. His statement about how hard he’s worked is laughable. If you are making that kind of money, you probably spend your time behind a desk. Waiters and janitors work a whole lot harder for a fraction of the pay.

I feel old, but that isn’t always a bad thing. One of the benefits is that I have a long memory. And whether it is on the national level or the micro level, I know desperation when I see it.

Michelle Goldberg uncovers some startling goings on deep in Conservative World, With ‘Dreams From My Real Father,’ Have Obama Haters Hit Rock Bottom? It discusses a new documentary that has reportedly been sent to over a million voters in swing states, and may eventually be sent to 2 million more. The DVD, Dreams from My Real Father is a riff on Barack Obama’s memoir Dreams from My Father. But in the tradition of other conservative propaganda like The Real Anita Hill, this film pretends to provide you with the truth that the mainstream outlets won’t tell you.

In the case of Dreams from My Real Father, this truth includes the fact that Obama’s real father was journalist, poet, and political and labor movement activist Frank Marshall Davis. Apparently, because Davis was married to a white woman, he must have seduced all white women. Hence, Davis and Ann Dunham are the true parents of the 44th President of the United States. But there’s more.

Davis was known to be a avid photographer. Therefore, he took pornographic pictures of Dunham and sold them to girly magazines in the early 60s. I swear I’m not making this stuff up about them making this stuff up. This reminds me of this guy who hung around my college in the early years. He believed that Stephen King was a homicidal maniac who was used as a hit man by the CIA. This is kind of like Chuck Barris’ autobiography (!) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but a few years earlier. Coincidence? I think not!

In all seriousness, these claims are more nutty than offensive—and they are very offensive. But they are indicative of the current state of conservatism in America. Goldberg notes that this film is being “promoted by several Tea Party groups and by at least one high-level Republican.” What’s more, “Tea Party groups and conservative churches are screening it.” And perhaps most incredible, Dinesh D’Souza—a loon, but one who is taken very seriously by the mainstream—says in his book Obama’s America that his documentary 2016 is based on:

This is what comes from calling centrists socialists. This is what comes from insisting that black presidents must be foreigners. This is what the conservative movement has reaped for what they have long sown.

But there is an upside to all this. It shows just how desperate and devoid of ideas the conservative movement is. For decades, I haven’t thought much of conservative thinking. But at least there was thinking going on. Now it is nothing but the dark id of fear and hatred.

According to Nate Silver, Romney now has a 16% chance of winning the election.

[From Karen Finney tweet to Hollywood Reporter article.]

Update (30 September 2012 1:42 pm)

I just realized. If Frank Marshall Davis is Obama’s father, then the President really is an American citizen. Yea!

You’ve probably heard about Karateci Kiz (“Karate Girl”). Cyriaque Lamar at io9 claimed, this is the worst death scene ever committed to film. This claim is as silly as said death scene. But the internet loves this kind of thing; everything is the worst or best. But okay. It is certainly quite an interesting bit of film making.

Geek Tyrant notes that the video that has been making the rounds on the internet has been altered. During the death scene, a male scream is heard throughout. It takes what is already a silly scene and makes it ridiculous.

The story is that a bunch of bad guys killed the husband of our hero (Karate Girl), and she is going to take revenge. So it’s part of the great tradition of revenge theater—things like Titus Andronicus and The Duchess of Malfi. But while these plays are unbelievable in their details, Karateci Kiz is just unbelievable:

The death scene here is not bad. In fact, I would argue that it is brilliant. No compromise is made to continuity. I can’t imagine that this is an accident. What’s more, the bloody hand-prints on the wall is great.

I would think that people would understand the film makers’ intent. But I’ve seen this before. International Secret Police: Key of Keys—the film that Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? is based on—is a comedy. Secret Agent Super Dragon is a comedy.[1] I don’t know if Karateci Kiz is a comedy, but it is something other than a typical action film. And from what I’ve seen, it is better than the mega-hit The Expendables 2 (AKA “The Old Action Heroes’ Retirement Fund”).

Afterword

I’m sure to get ridiculed by Andrea about this, but doesn’t the guy who dies look a lot like Rowan Atkinson?

[1] Secret Agent Super Dragon was notably spoofed by MST3K. Here is my favorite scene. “It ain’t supposed to be commercial, man; it’s jazz!”

First, there was the strange case of the Romney-Ryan direct mail campaign, Doing more to fight the spread of Lyme Disease. The pamphlet claims that Lyme Disease is a, “Massive epidemic threatening Virginia.” Massive? I don’t know. I guess that it sucks if you get it, but only about 900 people get it in the state each year. That’s 0.01% of the population. Count me as one who will never visit Virginia because of the enormous chance of getting Lyme Disease!

My working theory is that the Romney campaign really isn’t that bad. They must be a bunch of smart people. But campaigning is hard. This direct mail campaign has me a bit confused, however. Perhaps Lyme Disease is a great concern to people in Virginia. Maybe it is an especially compelling pro-Romney argument for women. But I don’t think so. It sounds too much like an act of desperation. “Did you know that a thousand people are hit by lightning every year? That’s why Mitt Romney is dedicated to putting a lightning rod on every house. Paul Ryan will install it himself!”

As much of a mystery as this campaign pamphlet is, I’m even more confused about Laura Helmuth’s article in Slate, Why Is Romney Campaigning on Medical Quackery? It would be one thing if the article were one thing. But it isn’t. It’s flying off in a couple of directions. It starts off sounding very serious with information that indicates that depression is often misdiagnosed as Lyme Disease. Strange, but I have no doubt that it is true. But then she starts ranting—taking a few jabs at Romney. Finally:

Okay, after reading it several times, I guess that’s a good idea: kill some deer, because God knows, that is what you should do to stop Lyme Disease, which is really no big deal, because what you really have is depression.

By the end of the article, I’m not sure what the hell she’s trying to say, nor have I figured out the tone. And she writes, “I don’t mean to make fun of people who are suffering from what they think is chronic Lyme disease.” So I go back. Was she, “making fun”? Not that I can tell. But she ties it all together with a light and inspiring story about a girlfriend whose depression was misdiagnosed as Lyme Disease. And killed herself. And that’s why Mitt Romney should not be making a big deal out of bad treatments for Lyme Disease especially when it is really depression that we should be worried about.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree. Lyme Disease almost never kills and depression kills commonly. But Laura Helmuth’s column makes me wonder why I’m not writing for Slate. After all, I can write weird articles that are vaguely about various things but don’t exactly connect. Also: my official crush has moved from Karen Finney to Laura Helmuth (even though she is probably too young for me).

So there you are: a double mystery for the 2012 campaign. I’m thinking it would make a great movie, “Mitt Romney, Deer Ticks, and the Sassy Reporter.” Hollywood, here I come!

Matt Yglesias is a writer for Slate. He mostly writes about the financial industry. (Although last night he was on a plane and so sending out a long string of the most banal tweets I’ve ever seen.) And he’s good; I read him every day. But he definitely has his blind spots and often falls ill with Serious Centrist Syndrome. This week, he got Corey Robin angry, and Robin is a mellow guy.

Yglesias wrote that there is a lot of labor organizing in China right now and that it is very much like the “heyday of western labor activism”—that is, not today. He claimed that the reason for this was that productivity in China has been going up but wages have not.

Wait! Did you catch that? Corey Robin did. When I saw the quote, I got a chill. I knew this was going to be good, because even I am capable of decimating Yglesias over his blindness about what’s been happening in America lo these several decades.

So Corey Robin contacts Matt Yglesias. And Matt comes back with the lamest answer I’ve ever heard. Really, this may qualify him to quit Slate and take a high paying job at the Heritage Foundation. (You know: the people who invented Obamacare and then suddenly hadn’t heard of it as soon as a Democrat proposed it!) Yglesias responded, “I should explain the difference more clearly. US is a median issue, China is a mean issue.” Robin responds the way any reasonable person would, “I’m not clear what point he’s trying to make here.” And then he goes on to explain that economic principals show that this situation would make labor organizing in China less likely.

Then Robin finishes off with what has got to be a devastating attack:

That’s got to hurt. Or it would if Matt Yglesias weren’t so busy tweeting.

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. —Anatole France

This is a great quote that cuts to the heart of conservative thought. This is exactly the thinking behind the flat tax. It is also why conservatives think of themselves as, well, “fair and balanced.” And when you think like that, you need a lot of balance!

While looking for the exact quote, I came upon another: “Remember: It’s Only Class Warfare When the Poor Fight Back.” It comes from a blog called The Angry Bureaucrat. The guy tends to be a bit wordy, but he has a lot to say, and—in great Frankly Curious fashion—on a lot of different subjects. Check him out.

I hear this is from the same people who brought you the great Sarah Silverman Let My People Vote 2012 video. This time we get Samuel L. Jackson, who happens to say “Mother fucker!” better than anyone on the planet. I don’t have much to say other than that this is also a fucking great video:

Also: the little girl is adorable.

Update (28 September 2012 9:24 am)

I found the non-bleeped version:

I saw in comments that some people were asking, “What good will this do?” They seem to think it is an ad aimed at Romney voters or something. Just to be clear: it is part of a long history ads designed not to convince but to excite the already convinced. And it succeeds brilliantly.