Stupid is as stupid does

Earlier this month I posted a brief quote, usually (but incorrectly) attributed to John Wayne, that "Life's tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid."

Let us now welcome to the world of the stupid the Kimberly-Clark company (stupid number 1), which has caved to a social media campaign (stupid number 2) to rid the world of the sexist term "Mansize," as in "Mansize Kleenex."  I don't know that Kleenex, mansize or not, ever harmed anyone unless it was used to stuff the mouth of a kidnap victim, and even then it would take a lot of mansize to accomplish the deed.

I try not to be stupid, though, or any more stupid than I normally have, so I'll let Joe Bob Briggs do the heavy lifting on this critique.

The glory and the burden of democracy

William F. Buckley Jr. once famously said that he'd rather be governed by names selected at random from the phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.  To the faculty, he could have added former professional wrestlers:

Former Minnesota governor and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura took a vicious swipe at Chris Kyle on Tuesday, comparing the deceased SEAL sniper to a Nazi soldier in World War II.

Ventura spoke Tuesday evening on “The Alan Colmes Show,” blasting public support for Kyle in the wake of the blockbuster hit American Sniper and accusing the decorated sniper of being a tool of a war-mongering United States in Iraq.

“A hero should have honor,” he said. “A hero is not how many people you’ve killed. You know he was obviously a great sniper. He’s obviously a great shot. He obviously did his job correctly. Alan, let me fire this one at you: Do you think the Nazis have heroes?”

“When they invaded a country,” Ventura continued, ”when they invaded Poland, when they invaded France, and if a Nazi soldier killed a hundred people that had lived there, would he be classified a hero in Germany?”

“But are you comparing what the Nazi mission was versus what our mission is in war as a country?” Colmes asked. “Are we analogous to the Nazis?”

“Well, and the Communists, yeah,” Ventura said

This really goes beyond being embarrassed to be from Minnesota; it's almost bad enough that you're embarrassed to be an American, or a member of the human race for that matter.  That a fool like this could have been elected dog catcher, let alone governor of a sovereign state, speaks to the shortcomings of democracy.  For as stupid, as offensive, as loathsome as Ventura is - and in all cases that is considerable - we have to remember that he didn't get there alone.

One recalls the great Simpsons episode where Montgomery Burns launches an unsuccessful campaign for governor.  Referring to the voters afterward, he says, "Look at them, Smithers.  This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."  I prefer to remember my own words when I lost my race for the state legislator: "The people have spoken, the bastards."

The glory of democracy, at least in the abstract, is that the people rule.  That is also its burden.

Defiance using opera leads to a DQ at the Marathon

Our Word is naturally big on classical music. We have an appreciation of the orchestra and opera, as you've likely read throughout the years we've written. But an incident last year at Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon XIV turned out to be a disaster for poor Bobby.

After a flu bug weakened me in the last seven days, I thought I was over it by that Thursday and felt confident I could take a shot at marathon #9. About 30km into the race, I came down with dehydration and cramps, and an official wanted me off course, calling an ambulance. After waiting 30 minutes I felt I could continue after hydrating, even becoming defiant I wanted to continue (which I did with a 7:24 marathon). Even was defiant I told a medical tent in humour that I wanted to kill myself off the Ponte Vecchio into the Arno if I wasn't allowed to continue, and those of us who appreciate opera understand the meaning. But I thought I was safe.

Turns out a few days ago, the medical official called race directors and sent me a note that I had been effectively disqualified from this year's race by the medical official who rejected the entry after it had been approved. I was outraged. He thought I was an emotional basket case, with the problem being my satirical look at failure from opera's eyes.

So as events keep adding rock bands, have we lost the art of satire and the look at classical music? When you are taught in your youth failure means you become a beggar on the streets, that's one thing. Failure is symbolised by death as we've seen in entertainment, whether it is failing a video game (your character dies), game shows (on foreign versions of "Family Feud," wrong answers are called losing a life; the term here is a strike), or tragic characters in opera. As an opera fan, failure is akin to watching Lauretta jump off the Ponte Vecchio into the Arno (which she didn't) or Magda Sorel stuff herself in the gas oven of the family kitchen (which she did, leading to the lore between a master's student teacher and her older adult student), let alone Tosca jumping off the castle into her death down below. I don't want that. The ultimate meaning is failure. Sadly, we have people do not appreciate classical music or opera today. They probably did not understand my anger being cast into an opera, and thought I was being too serious.

Mona Charen is right about our society after the Presidential inauguration. We do need a greater appreciation of serious, high culture again. It's clear the lack of understanding of high culture led to my suspension and disqualification, and her January column shows we've lost the seriousness when the Presidential inauguration went to the gutter. "Gutter" music (see the trends towards garage-type rock bands on courses) is not something I can understand compared to the sound of serious music. But gutter music thinking does hurt our society. ◙