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Monday, August 3, 2009

OP-ED MONDAY. Palestine Settlements, Julie & Julia, and Obama's favorite beer?.



Frank Rich- Right so often it's scary.

Small Beer, Big Hangover!

The title of this week's Rich column,of course, refers to the tete a tete President Obama arranged this week between Gates and Crowley, the policeman and the prof..No hard stuff here, just suds and pretzels.

Obama played to the masses and had a Bud Light.

In 2042, Whites will be a minority in this country. Rich says this is panicking the "Establishment"and they are coming at the first black president as if it were all his fault.

Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly don't think he was born here and not sure if he is even black but just in case they are staking their claim right now so no bridges can be named after him 10 years from now.

Glen Beck (the Breck gal) labeled Barack as a racist with a deep seated hatred for white people.

Cokie Roberts attacked him for vacationing in Hawaii, a foreign exotic place and said he should go to Myrtle Beach. Wow that got my attention as I live in the Myrtle Beach area and thought it was the most foreign place on earth.

Palin lashed out at those who doubt the President's citizenship. She said he definitely is an American but not a real American. God love her.

Lou Dobbs harrumphed and said I told you so; we shouldn't let anyone in this country.

Rich sums it all up by ending his usual great column with this:

"The one lesson that everyone took away from the latest “national conversation about race” is the same one we’ve taken away from every other “national conversation” in the past couple of years. America has not transcended race. America is not post racial. So we can all say that again. But it must also be said that we’re just at the start of what may be a 30-year struggle. Beer won’t cool the fury of those who can’t accept the reality that America’s racial profile will no longer reflect their own."

Maureen Dowd-That's why the lady is a champ.



Maureen reports on her interview with noted author and filmmaker, Nora Ephron. When Dowd does an interview it takes us a few paragraphs to be sure it is a real interview and not a hypothetical one. This week it's a real one.



Ephron has had some hot movie successes, Heartburn,When Harry Met Sally,Sleepless in Seattle and some not so hot ones,Hanging Up. Her new movie, starring Merle Streep is based on the famous chef, Julia Childs and a blogger cookbook fanatic.



"Julie and Julia" opens this Friday. Let's hope it revives Streep's career after the tragic "Mamma Mia" role.

The funniest Q & A's in Dowd's interview with Ephron:



"Q: Do couples that cook together stay together?
A: No. I have cooked with men I am no longer married to.

"Q: Do you consider any food a romantic deal-breaker?
A: I respect vegetarians, but I could never fall in love with one."

"Q: You told Ariel Levy of The New Yorker that your husband,the writer NickPileggi, has“some insane position about not eating standing up.” What’s that about?
A: He has nice ties"

"Q: How about the case of the South Carolina mother who got arrested for criminal neglect because her 14-year-old son weighed 555 pounds?
A: There is far too much arresting of people going on.Not just Skip Gates. A couple of weeks ago, some poor woman in Montauk was arrested in her bathing suit, marched off the beach and charged with a felony for forging a beach parking sticker."

Funny column.


Thomas Friedman-The world is flat but this writer is not.

Friedman offers Free Marriage Counseling to our country and the Israelis over the settlements issue. Obama has called for a freeze and Israel thinks he has been listening to the "self-hating jews" in his inner circle.

They also think American just doesn't appreciate how much they have already given up in South Lebanon and Gaza. This is no time for a freeze as they see it. Rabbi Yigael Shandorfi, in Nahliel, called Obama “that Arab they call a president.” Holy cow, even Lou Dobbs didn't call him that.

The part of this column I liked best was what Thomas Friedman's friend told him.
“People will give a lot if they think they are not guilty. My mother says to me: ‘Look, I am ready to give them Jerusalem, but don’t tell me that I started it.’” Darn,I should have told the moving company that mugged me on April 15th that they were innocent.

Friedman concludes his marriage counseling with this advice to our President, "Connect with them on a gut level that says you understand where they live, and you can take them anywhere. Don’t connect on a gut level, and you can’t take them anywhere.

An extremely complicated problem that very few columnists, other than this one, could clarify.