Obama Goes Off on Rant at Daley After Netanyahu Visit

[kelincihutan.livejournal.com]

Hat tip to Jim Hoft by way of Adam Baldwin on Twitter. (Yes, that Adam Baldwin she said, seizing the excuse to post a picture :).

Remember how we were all appalled at Obama's moronic "plan" for Israel to go back to its 1967 borders? And the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu very correctly told Obama off for even suggesting it? This article tells the story of Obama throwing a temper tantrum afterwards at not getting his way, apparently yelling loudly enough to be heard up and down the hallway. However, my favorite part is that Richard Daley, afterwards, was reportedly not even in a bad mood. Perhaps such explosive outbursts are not uncommon from the Five-Year-Old-In-Chief?

Anyway, it's a lulzy article and I recommend it for a laugh.

Excuse me while I rant

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

I just want to get something off my chest:

As a Christian, I am so, so, so, so, so, SO sick and tired of hearing about Anne LaMott.

(Raise your hand if you've had this experience.)

Okay, I accept that she's a fellow Christian. I accept that she's a sinful person like me, and that she's very open about her messiness and need for God. Good for her. We all should be so open. I accept that she's a very bright writer and a lot of Christian writers consider her a great guide to the writing life. Fine. Every writer needs guidance; if they find that in her, more power to 'em.

What bugs me is that Christians push her like she's the patron saint of tolerance and open-mindedness, with her arms open to embrace the whole world, when she says and writes stuff like this:

"No wonder a lot of us feel paranoid and hypochondriacal -- it feels more and more as though the Dark Side is truly rising. Did it cross anyone else's mind that Karl Rove was somehow involved in Clinton's heart disease? No? Well, never mind ..."

"I wish Sam didn’t have to grow up in such a violent scary world. There’s so much cancer, so much plague; there are so goddamn many child-snatchers, psychopaths, Republicans."

"I hate to criticize. [Ha!] And I love to kill wolves as much as the next person does. But this woman takes such pride in her ignorance, doesn't have a doubt in the world about her messianic calling, that it makes anyone of decency feel nauseated -- spiritually, emotionally and physically ill." [Haven't guessed who she means? Read on . . .]

"I loathe Sarah Palin. What an idiot."

"It would have been sweeter to me if the careers of Joe Leiberman and Bart Stupak had been destroyed in the [health care] process, but that is because I am an awful person."

Catch that? "I'm an awful person." Translated: "Tee-hee! Aren't I clever? I can spew hatred and vileness and everyone will love me because I'm just so freaking open about my own awfulness." It's like those people who drone on about how they're such great sinners but they won't admit to a single specific sin they've committed. And the thing that makes my heart sink is that it WORKS. You hear the nicest, sweetest Christian people pushing this woman as if she's Mother Teresa. (Just today I saw this on one of my favorite sites: "A week or two ago a friend posted this quote from Anne Lamott on her blog: 'Breathe. Pray. Be kind. Stop grabbing.'" Funny how no one ever quotes her on Clinton, Rove, and heart disease.) It works with people who ought to know better, because we're trained to extend grace, and she's telling us to extend it to her. Even though she doesn't have a thimbleful for anyone who disagrees with her. She's got this twisted act of hers -- the "I'm just so daring and truthful, well, anyone who doesn't like me MUST be a hidebound hypocrite" act -- down to such a science that everywhere you look, people are quoting her as if she invented joy and peace and enlightenment.

And I refuse to accept that.