We all know the merely ‘great’ moments of 2011. Everyone has their own list.
To wit, the usual suspects: the Kardashian wedding, Weiner’s Tweets, the movie ‘Cowboys and Aliens’, Glenn Beck ‘parting ways’ with Fox, the Beatles’ song ‘In My Life’ used to sell mattresses by Sleepy’s, and so on. Toss in various pedantic finger jabs at the camera by Laurence (‘I was Chief of Staff to the Senate Finance Committee!’) O’Donnell or Rachel (‘Check this out, it is sooo cool. In the 1970s, they actually had LED wristwatches!’) Maddow.
Life defining moments all, surely.
Still, we can sift through the cacophony and seek greater refinement. To kickstart conversation, here’s one stab at a Top Ten:
10. Michele Bachmann
9. ‘Teh Gays’ Invading C-PAC, causing a Counter-Revolution and Coup
8. Khadaffi’s PG-Rated Cher Condi Photo Book
7. Season 2 of ‘Walking Dead’
6. Hewlett-Packard
5. Herman Caine’s Smoking Commercial
4. The Republican Debates (pick your moment)
3. Boehner/Cantor Road Show
2. US/ISI Divorce (and drone war migrating to Africa)
1. The U.S. Default/Debt Debacle/People Realizing Goldilocks Doesn’t Work
Submit your suggestions. Anything missing? What should be here?
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Dr Leo Strauss says
@Aldershot Happy New Year. Aldershot! Yeah, Newt. Wow. After the last news cycle of Newt in tears, we were tempted to email the two parties involved (one a multi-decades long friend) and proclaim “You are now the Newt whisperer!” If we had some tequila, probably would have done it.
Aldershot says
Alright, in the middle of riding high, Newt fails to secure a slot in the Virginia primary. Kind of like a deflating whoopy cushion.
DrLeoStrauss says
@anxiousmodernman
All good points, serious has come a long way, baby – to quote an old cigarette ad campaign. Just look at Fareed Zakaria’s GPS, right?
Swap outs duly noted. Will be incorporated in final, revised version.
But then, recall, that a at-the-time-front-running Republican campaign (not Newt) asked the Stiftung for foreign policy advice and help assembling an advisory team – even though a team ostensibly was already in place. So serious has its degrees.
Folks here may recall we took the call/meeting and nodded politely. Listened to the lunacy and waited for the whole thing to explode. Which it did within a week thereafter. It was seriously . . . entertaining!
anxiousmodernman says
I mean, this is serious business y’all.
anxiousmodernman says
Scott Adams likes to make predictions. The Greenpeace drone thing reminds me of this.
Of course, not all his predictions have worked out. He predicted in the 90s that cable companies would never become players in data/internet because “the people who work at cable companies are the ones who could not get jobs at [traditional] phone companies.” Adams is a former AT&T employee, and may be expressing some deeply rooted bias for his cubefarm vs. theirs.
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Also, I think we should keep the mostly serious frame for our reflections. So I withdraw my swagged out Libyan rebel, retain pepper spray cop, and offer up the European debt crisis as an addition to the list.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Yeah, it seems this list is an apparent fail re collecting snarky irony for non-achievement. It’s our fault. We cut back on posting a bit over the last month. Have gotten rusty/clumsy/obvious. Out of shape.
Spent more time with the instruments lately and just tuned out. Merely thinking about the Movement clown show and the fake enthusiasm beginning to clump around the Boy King makes 2012 loom like a root canal. Synthetic audacity is worse the second time around.
For the first time we envy the 20-30 somethings now put forward as pundits to lower salary costs. Everything is new. Over the holidays one of the cable channels played Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” back to back (we have the DVDs but left it on as background noise). And it dawned: Tolkein has the whole thing screwed up (and way too long).
None of the immortal races would be around by the time of Frodo et al. Elrond, Galadriel, the elfs, Ents — the whole lot — would have overdosed or jumped off a cliff long ago. Spending thousands of years watching hobbits and men run around, clueless, while Sauron rebuilt Mordor, Nazgul seized Minas Ithil, took over Mirkwood, etc.? At the very least Gandalf would have developed a serious drinking and substance abuse problem.
To mix franchises, it would be like ‘Tim the Sorcerer’ warning ‘Look at the bones, man!’ And . . . nothing.
Can you imagine if Obama found the One Ring? What would he do? You know. *THAT* story writes itself.
He would arrange to meet with Sauron and the Nazgul and concede Gondor, Rohan, Rivendell and the Shire but draw a line in the sand at Grey Havens. Meanwhile, Glorfindel or some other Elf Lord would turn on his TV at 8:00AM on the weekend and see MSNBC has another new TV show with a Baggins leading a “Roundtable of Experts”.
Or maybe Tolkein really did understand the Gift of Men. Bob Shrum is enough for one lifespan. And in that sense MSNBC surprisingly wise.
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Bonus points for those who spotted ‘Galadriel’ melting, supra.
Comment says
Anthoney Balongna pepper spraying innocent girls at ows
Dr Leo Strauss says
‘Netflix’ – someone reminded it deserved at least a tie with HP for crash and burn.
DrLeoStrauss says
More innocent casualties of the laughably ‘covert’ U.S. drone program over Pakistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-death-squads-20111228,0,3614850.story
While we reserve judgment about a particular think tank’s programming (and marketing) in the sphere, we do agree that all involved (including the Agency) would benefit bringing the program overtly into the white world – and offering Pakistan buy-in for accepting responsibility.
The WaPo deserves as much withering contempt as can be spared. That’s a given. Nonetheless, there’s a good summary of how much the kill cycle has consumed institutional resources, mind share and careers — and how much it is a distinct legacy of the Boy King.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/under-obama-an-emerging-global-apparatus-for-drone-killing/2011/12/13/gIQANPdILP_story.html
And as a portent of things to come, private groups like Greenpeace are now deploying drones, in December 2011 against Japanese whalers.
DrLeoStrauss says
@Aldershot Yeah, that Obama flub was pretty epic. And those pepper spray cops at Berkeley meme transformation left one gob smacked. 0-60 in nanoseconds. So which spot gets replaced on the list? @Anxious, let’s grant one spot for something Khaddafi-riffic. Would the gold chains go in the Cher Condi iPhoto book slot?
Aldershot says
Obama’s heart-rending flub when toasting Elizabeth II.
anxiousmodernman says
Pepper spray cop.
The Libyan rebel that stole Khadaffi’s gold chain and hat.