Cette Bud Est Pour Vous

That’s French for cha-ching!

The New Yorker Magazine caused a stir on Monday when it revealed the cover of it’s most recent edition. The cartoon features Barack and Michelle Obama in the oval office, Barack dressed in traditional Muslim garb, Michelle as agent Foxy Brown, with an American flag burning in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden hanging above the mantle. The purpose was to expose the absurdity of the false, malicious rumors that have dogged the Obama’s throughout this campaign. But judging from the reaction, most people didn’t get the joke. The editor of the magazine spent most of the day defending the cover art and trying to explain the finer points of satire to an endless stream of reporters and their audiences. What he failed/fails to understand is the inverse relationship of humor to exposition. The more detailed the explanation of the joke and the more times it’s given, the less funny it is.

I have no doubt that the New Yorker intended no harm to Barack Obama. I have little doubt that they still don’t understand what all the drama is about. But that’s just the problem, isn’t it. People that read The New Yorker, and people that know what The New Yorker is about will get the joke. They will look at the cover and say, “Ha ha, aren’t those people stupid for believing this nonsense about Obama?” But what plays well on the Upper West Side, doesn’t play at all in Middle-of-Nowhere Kansas, South-of-Everywhere Alabama and West-of-I-Don’t-Know-Where Kentucky. That image is broadcast all across the country to people who aren’t paying attention and lack the context of the knowledge of of what The New Yorker is all about. All they see is the Muslim dress, the AK-47 and the flag in the fireplace and they remember that anonymous e-mail they received to the same effect and they say, “See, I knew there was something about that guy I didn’t like.” Obama’s political opponents reap the double bonus of being able to denounce the negative perceptions of the cover while reaping the benefits of reinforced negative perceptions of the candidate.

I understand subtlety may be used as an element of satire. I use it all the time. But only six people read this blog. I don’t have to worry about my satire being misinterpreted. In this political climate, political satire needs to be more poignant or less common. You cannot assume that an electorate with the attention span of a sound-bite will get the joke.

Overshadowed by the New Yorker cover incident were comments made by the Reverend Jesse Jackson about Barack Obama and a speech he gave at a black church on Father’s Day this year. Over a microphone he thought was off, Jackson complained that by calling for increased responsibility from black men in relation to their families, Obama was “talking down” to black people and expressed a desire to emasculate the senator for said comments.

This story received far more ink than it deserved given the fact that Jackson has a history of speaking before thinking. There is a serious problem of absentee fatherhood in the black community. Anyone who can interpret a statistic can see that. But for some reason, there is a perception among people of Jackson’s ilk that if white people hear a black man admit that black people need to take responsibility for the health and prosperity of their own families, white society will no longer feel responsible for their well-being. What Jackson fails to realize is that it is not society’s responsibility to make you a better person. America’s duty is to provide opportunity. It is the duty of the individual to seize that opportunity and make the best he or she can out of it. Society is/should be set up to help those who help themselves. When black men take on the responsibility of being fathers to their children they will create communities in which the family and the values of work and duty are cherished. And opportunities will flow toward people who value work and duty. Of course racism and bigotry still exist in America. But under Jackson’s “leadership,” forty plus years of sitting around waiting for society to to solve those problems has accomplished little. Accepting responsibility for one’s own actions is not a sign of weakness, it is a signal that one is mature enough to do what is expected of him, and will command the respect to demand what is due to him. Obama understands this. Jackson does not. Obama’s stock is rising. Jackson’s is falling.

Late last week Senator McCain’s chief financial advisor, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, accused America of being a “nation of whiners,” and added that what we’re actually facing is a “mental recession.” That’s right people. It’s all in your head. A figment of your imagination. To support his contentions, Gramm cites numbers indicating a slow - yet growing economy and an expansion of U.S. exports, and surveys which seem to indicate that when asked about their personal financial situation most people say they are doing all right. All those things might be true, but what Gramm doesn’t seem to understand is that the economy is made up of more than just numbers. That increase in mortgage defaults indicates real people losing their homes. Each of the “several thousand” job cuts General Motors announced Tuesday morning represents an actual family left without a breadwinner. Gas at $4.15 a gallon means it now costs flesh-and-blood mothers and fathers twice as to get to and from work as it did a little over a year ago. Those things are not imaginary. And they cannot be solved through the power of positive thinking. McCain was quick to send Gramm to join Mark Penn and Jeremiah Wright under the bus, stating that Gramm doesn’t speak for him. If that’s true - and I certainly hope it is - perhaps Gramm should not be his chief financial advisor. Seems like you might want to be on the same page as the guy drafting your economic policy.

The Italian government has issued an order, validated by the Italian Supreme Court, demanding all “Roma”, or gypsies, be fingerprinted and registered with law enforcement. According to the government, Italy’s crime rate is directly related to the Roma and their children, and therefore, “for their own protection,” the police must be able to keep an eye on them at all times. Anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe isn’t limited to Italy. Neo-Nazism is on the rise in Germany, physical confrontations between police and African/Middle-Eastern immigrants in France are becoming commonplace, and Sweden - perhaps the most tolerant country in the world - is considering ending immigration altogether. There are many things the Europeans do better than we do. Unfortunately, xenophobia happens to be one of those things. How far are we really, from tattooing numbers on people’s arms again?

Both the Iraqi foreign minister and prime minister noted last week that there can be no agreement on the future of U.S forces in the country without a timetable for withdrawal. Oops. Apparently they didn’t get the Bush/McCain memo. You know, the one about the Iraqis not wanting a timetable for withdrawal and said timetable being beneficial to the purveyors of terrorism. The president has largely chosen to ignore al-Maliki’s statement, preferring instead to take credit for passing bills he opposed and whining about the congressional ban on off-shore drilling. But there is the pesky matter of a statement Bush has made multiple time before to the effect of, “...when the Iraqis want us to leave, we will leave...” Anybody care to make a wager on the validity of that statement?

I hate to bring up the past, but remember when gas hit $2.50 a gallon? You know, about a year ago? Remember the oil companies’ mantra? “Oil supply isn’t the problem, refining capacity is the problem.” According to industry “experts,” there simply wasn’t adequate refining capacity in this country to take advantage of an abundant crude oil supply. And the reason we were short on refining capacity is that industry-hating liberals we blocking attempts to construct new refineries. Didn’t anyone find it odd that in six years, an administration run by two oil men, with the power to invalidate environmental guidelines and legislation simply by refusing to open their e-mail couldn’t produce a single permit to construct a new refinery. And where did that discussion go? If there was a refining deficit then, isn’t there a refining deficit now? If crude from off-shore drilling magically showed up in the pipeline tomorrow morning, wouldn’t we still be unable to convert it into refined product? The truth, of course, is that with gasoline nearing $5.00 a gallon in some parts of the country, and profits (that means after expenses) nearing $50 billion a year, there is no incentive to build any additional refineries. For that matter, there is little incentive to retrieve additional supply. The scarcer the commodity, the more valuable it becomes. Simple economics, right?

Earlier this week Apple announced it has sold over 1 million new iPhones in their first week at two to three hundred dollars a piece. Guess we know where all those stimulus cheques went.

On a sad note, former radio talk show host and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow passed away from cancer over the weekend. Whether you agreed with his politics or not, one thing you could expect from Snow was a reasoned, rational, passionate defense of his views at a reasonable volume. Don’t underestimate how rare that was in the modern political/entertainment climate. He never complained about his situation, never seemed to feel sorry for himself and had a genuine zest for life, love of debate and concern for those he came in contact with. Rest in peace Tony Snow.

Miss Venezuela was crowned Miss Universe 2008 at the annual pageant broadcast this year from Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. I’m not sure which part of this travishamockery was more amusing; watching Jerry Springer flounder, completely out of his element as host of a show without mispronounced expletives, incestuous cousins, food fights and partial nudity, or the sight of Miss U.S.A. wiping out in the evening gown competition on slippery high-heeled shoes - for the second year in a row. Somebody get that lady a pair of Nikes.

I don’t often get the opportunity to talk hockey, so I beg the indulgence of my reader. On New Year’s Day, the Detroit Red Wings will face the Chicago BlackHawks at Wrigley Field in the NHL’s third outdoor regular season contest, and second annual Winter Classic game. I have to say, there is nothing like a hockey game in January in the great outdoors. Speaking as a kid who grew up learning to skate in the backyard on a rink my dad made from 2x4s and a roll of plastic, this is the way hockey should be played. If the snow isn’t blowing and your face isn’t frozen, you aren’t playing hard enough. If the NHL could capture the energy of the 76,000 screaming, frost-bitten fans who showed up at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo last year to watch the Sabres play the Penguins with the players in turtleneck sweaters and the goalies in touques, and translate it to a wider American audience, professional hockey in this country would not be in the hole it’s in today.

Finally, Belgian conglomerate In-Bev agreed to purchase 150-year-old American brewing giant Anheuser-Busch this week for a premium of $70 per share. This after years of advertising ridiculing other brewers’ foreign ownership, and emphatically insisting not more than two weeks ago, in the wake of In-Bev’s initial offer of $65 per share, that the St. Louis icon would remain an all American brand. The price of patriotism? Approximately five dollars.