The other day “actress” Janeane Garofalo imparted more of her sage knowledge on one of those pseudo political cum comedy shows. You know the kind, the comedy shows that pretend to do real news, and hoodwink the under 25 crowd who doesn’t know the difference. They are nothing but snide, sarcastic snark without the facts.
Then again, to people like Garofalo, facts don’t matter. For several months now she has been on a anti-anti-Obama binge, condemning anyone who does not worship the Great Leader the way she does as racist. That’s fine, she’s welcome to her opinion. My annoyance with people like Garofalo is their abject failure to comprehend that not everyone agrees with them, all the time. It’s rather juvenile, actually. Pathetic.
Garofalo considers anyone who takes part in the Tea Parties or any other sort of protest to be racist. Good for her. One of the more annoying aspects of such rants is that Republicans such as myself who don’t quite agree with the methods or what is going on are forced to defend their right to make fools of themselves. If you look at it that way, then Garofalo has a right to make a fool of herself, even if it is reaching the point of abject boorishness.
People like Garofalo need not be political to be single-mindedly partisan. They have a tendency to spring forth like weeds in a well tended flower bed. You can’t completely destroy them without ruining the flowers and you can’t let them spread. They remind me of one of the desk-top Zen Gardens I once sold when I was in retail.
It was a great idea perfect if you did not have small children or cats. The ones I sold were rectangular, being something like 6” X 10”, rosewood, with a half inch rim. The kits included a little bag of white sand, a little bamboo rake, and a handful of stones, always in an odd number. I kept one on my check-out counter as a point of purchase sale. My customers would play in the sand and arrange the stones.
The best designs were quite simple, with no more than five stones. My favorite arrangement had three stones, two placed closely together and the other some distance from it. Five stones was cluttered. If the designer went beyond five stones, the whole process just did not work.
People like Janeane Garofalo are like a Zen Garden. As long as they can snuggle up to the larger stone, and have only one other stone or rock in the little garden, things look good. Two additional stones detract from the primary stone. Add a couple more and you don’t notice the main stone at all, there’s just too much competition.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Arch Conservative
Garfolo....aka "Queen Anti-Viagara" has about as much objective insight into and influence on American politics and political discourse as the pumpkin pie I mistakenly left out on the counter uncovered last night and now must be thrown in the trash.
Although it is her right to voice her opinion I think her time would be better spent doing what she does best, making awful movies that nobody wants to see and making all male members of our species within earshot or eyesight flaccid.
2 - Deano
Seriously, you guys really don't have anything to write about more relevant and meaningful than Jeanne Garfalo...really? Honestly even a paragraph on her seems to me to be an overreaction and waste of everyone's time but two multi-page stories?
Or is this the new official Republican talking point now that "death panels" has fallen by the wayside?
3 - SJ Reidhead
I just thought her nitwit actions were the perfect example of how pathetic dialogue has become - right or left. Garfalo is no different than the idiot kid who decided to burn I should burn my science fiction library because I would go to hell for reading them. But, because she is "famous" she gets a microphone, not that anyone cares. Once upon a time her epitaphs would be written off as a "crank".
Don't you want to know what has changed in our society?
SJR
4 - Cobra
SJ writes:
"The other day “actress” Janeane Garofalo imparted more of her sage knowledge on one of those pseudo political cum comedy shows. You know the kind, the comedy shows that pretend to do real news, and hoodwink the under 25 crowd who doesn’t know the difference. They are nothing but snide, sarcastic snark without the facts."
As opposed to Fox News, where a college drop out like Sean Hannity read GOP talking points and opposition research, fellow drop out Glenn Beck calls the President "racist", and people like Mark Furhman can get hired and put on the payroll.
I'm sure the Southern fried, senior citizen demographic that sparks Fox News' ratings boom is every bit as concerned about "facts" as the young folks you claim to blindly listen to Garafolo.
When you can explain to me, a conscious Minority living in America, how what I've seen on Fox News, heard on Hate Radio, and witnessed at Palin Rallies, Tea Bag Parties and the cyberklanning that permeates the right winged blogosphere against President Obama ISN'T at least partially motivated by race, I'll be all ears.
You haven't made your case as of yet.
--Cobra
5 - Dave Nalle
Seriously, you guys really don't have anything to write about more relevant and meaningful than Jeanne Garfalo...really? Honestly even a paragraph on her seems to me to be an overreaction and waste of everyone's time but two multi-page stories?
The reason that Garofalo gets this attention is that she's a convenient example of the kind of bigotry which Cobra is here to represent in his most recent comment here. In Cobra's absence we can point to Garofalo to show how the left is spinning and smearing to try to advance their illiberal agenda.
Dave
6 - Cobra
Dave,
Are you referring to my comment above, or some other comment on a different thread?
--Cobra
7 - SJ Reidhead
Never fear, tomorrow I am laying into conservatives, but I will be doing it on my personal blog. I don't thing BC wants to go where I'm going with my complaints there.
The right can be just as nasty as the left, trust me. At least the left rarely eats its own, like the right does.
SJR
8 - Arch Conservative
Kudos to you Cobra for lapping up the propaganda of the People's Demokratic party that has enslaved minorities over the last 40 years through welfare and other government programs.
Surely Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck have done more to oppress minorities than the liberal inspired programs which have done nothing but perpetuate poverty and dependency on the government.......
The left rarely eats it's own? Tell that to Joe Lieberman or any of the sorry individuals who either went to prison or died for the sins of the Clintons.
Cobra was right about Garofalo though. No one takes her seriously and considering she said the things she said on Olbermann and Mahr I'd say the number of people that actually heard them is less than you could pack into the Sizzler on all you can eat Wednesday night.
9 - SJ Reidhead
Re: #8 - Arch Conservative;
I do not take Garofalo serious. She is simply my choice of an example of an irrational idiot who is more interested in her own personal opinion than she is the fact that others have a right to their personal ideas and opinions.
We have a heck of a lot of far far far right conservatives like that, screwing things up for the GOP.
Then again - everyone has a right to make a fool of themselves in public.
SJR
10 - Arch Conservative
Like who SJ? Beck and Hannity aren't even as close to being as far right as Garofalo is to the left.
11 - Cobra
Arch Conservative writes:
"Kudos to you Cobra for lapping up the propaganda of the People's Demokratic party that has enslaved minorities over the last 40 years through welfare and other government programs."
A. Since I can identify actual slaves in my ancestoral tree, that kind of statement means absolutely nothing to me. It actually makes you sound silly.
B. There are more WHITES on government programs than minorities.
C. If White Conservatives like Reagan, Bush Sr., Reinquist and Bork had there way, there would be no Civil Rights or Voting Rights for minorities in America today (they were ALL OPPOSED to and CAMPAIGNED AGAINST those acts.)
D. You have the right to your opinions. I have the right to call you out on them.
--Cobra
12 - roger nowosielski
"Beck and Hannity aren't even as close to being as far right as Garofalo is to the left."
How much further you want them to go, Arch, and that's a serious question? To become KKKers? I really don't know. What factions of the far far Right you're talking about that apparently I'm not familiar with?
13 - Doug Hunter
"How much further you want them to go, Arch, and that's a serious question? To become KKKers?"
Logic Fail. Too far would turn them anarchist, not KKK.
14 - roger nowosielski
I was just wondering, Doug, what kinds of people Arch associates with, since apparently he knows them fairly intimately.
So it wasn't an exercise in logic on my part, only a good old philosophical bait.
15 - roger nowosielski
Are you trying to rebel against me, Doug?
16 - Doug Hunter
I've never agreed with you in the first place. You're generally civil towards me so I act in kind. You know labeling the right as racist/KKK/etc gets under my skin. I'll be the first to admit it's a useful, if unethical, ploy.
17 - roger nowosielski
But I wasn't doing that, Doug, as you can see. And I'd well understand your resistance to reading the comment "the right way" and putting an antagonistic slant on it.
18 - roger nowosielski
And why do you say the ploy was "unethical" rather than philosophical? All I wanted to accomplish is to trip Archie, not to peg him or anything of the sort. Is that "unethical"?
19 - roger nowosielski
Indeed, even Arch knows that because he didn't take the bait. And I doubt whether he'd call me unethical for baiting him. He's too smart for that.
20 - Doug Hunter
"And why do you say the ploy was 'unethical' rather than philosophical?"
A normal reading of your comment placed the KKK to the right then you said that was the only faction you were 'familiar with'. That displays either unethical behavior, misrepresenting your knowledge of the right, or your own ignorance.
If it's ignorance research anarcho-capitalism, otherwise please try and avoid purposeful misrepresentation in your attempts at glorified namecalling in the service of race and class warfare.
21 - Joanne Huspek
Garofalo is so not worthy of two minutes of serious thought.
BTW I liked the Zen garden analogy.
22 - Mark Saleski
Garofalo is so not worthy of two minutes of serious thought.
a good thing, because there wasn't any in this post.
23 - doug m
Why would you swipe at the Left and hide your swipes at the Right on your blog? Extremely dishonest and disingenous. I wouldn't defend her statements, but how is Garofalo not an actress? The use of quotes by the "writer" reveals ignorance.
Speaking of ignorance, I continue to see this Arch person discuss women only in context with sex. Sounds like he is overcompensating.
24 - SJ Reidhead
Re: #23 Doug M
The reason I snipe at conservatives on my blog is because I do try to be halfway polite on BC. I feel freer on my own blog to go for the jugular, which I have done today with one specific person.
The Pink Flamingo is my personal blog. It comes first. BC comes second. It is my choice to do what I want with my blog and what I put there. I can't imagine anyone having the audacity to say I am dishonest because I chose to make my personal blog a priority. Yikes!
One other thing - lighten up a little. I am fully aware that Garofalo has a rather impressive body of movie/television roles. Just because someone has appeared in dozens of movies. Please, do not assume I am that ignorant.
SJR
25 - Mark Saleski
Please, do not assume I am that ignorant.
then perhaps you should not write as if you are.