My Daily Paris
Years ago a friend (Gil Rodman, for the curious) told me about his daily Elvis. Every day, in some medium or another, he would run across Elvis--a picture of Elvis in the newspaper, Elvis on the radio, and Elvis movie on TV, an Elvis impersonator in a bar, something. When he told me this (in the 1980s) I thought he was wrong, but then I realized that, yes, every day in some way Elvis was with me. A couple of years ago, though, I began to notice that I was no longer getting my daily Elvis. Apparently he's fallen off, or been getthoed in. I dunno.
But I do get my daily Paris, i.e. Paris Hilton. This without paying any attention to the media that seem to dwell on her, the supermarket tabloids (ok, I read them sometimes) or the entertainment news shows on tv.
Today's daily Paris comes from Josh Marshall at TPM, who notes that "Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby." Indeed. Finally, someone who can make Paris Hilton seem like an ordinary joe. You'd think they were going to send him to Gitmo or something. (By the way, what does Scooter think of Gitmo? What does Scooter think of Abu Ghraib? Should we think of Scooter as a force for enlightened penal systems?)
As for Scooter's get-out-of-jail-free card, I find it hard to be outraged when Rove and Cheney are still in their jobs, but it does kind of miss the point of having a fall guy. He has to take the fall, see? This is the sublime self absorption of the establishment, who are happy to invoke the same "higher law" arguments as civil rights marchers and picketers and Solidarity and Thoreau, but who will never spend a day in jail. Again, that's the point of civil disobedience: You must do the time. Oh, I forgot. There was nothing civil about his disobedience. He lied for political advantage. Of course, that's a different rationale altogether. Who goes to jail, or gets impeached, for something like that?
Years ago a friend (Gil Rodman, for the curious) told me about his daily Elvis. Every day, in some medium or another, he would run across Elvis--a picture of Elvis in the newspaper, Elvis on the radio, and Elvis movie on TV, an Elvis impersonator in a bar, something. When he told me this (in the 1980s) I thought he was wrong, but then I realized that, yes, every day in some way Elvis was with me. A couple of years ago, though, I began to notice that I was no longer getting my daily Elvis. Apparently he's fallen off, or been getthoed in. I dunno.
But I do get my daily Paris, i.e. Paris Hilton. This without paying any attention to the media that seem to dwell on her, the supermarket tabloids (ok, I read them sometimes) or the entertainment news shows on tv.
Today's daily Paris comes from Josh Marshall at TPM, who notes that "Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby." Indeed. Finally, someone who can make Paris Hilton seem like an ordinary joe. You'd think they were going to send him to Gitmo or something. (By the way, what does Scooter think of Gitmo? What does Scooter think of Abu Ghraib? Should we think of Scooter as a force for enlightened penal systems?)
As for Scooter's get-out-of-jail-free card, I find it hard to be outraged when Rove and Cheney are still in their jobs, but it does kind of miss the point of having a fall guy. He has to take the fall, see? This is the sublime self absorption of the establishment, who are happy to invoke the same "higher law" arguments as civil rights marchers and picketers and Solidarity and Thoreau, but who will never spend a day in jail. Again, that's the point of civil disobedience: You must do the time. Oh, I forgot. There was nothing civil about his disobedience. He lied for political advantage. Of course, that's a different rationale altogether. Who goes to jail, or gets impeached, for something like that?
posted by jnerone at 2:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home