Thursday, July 17, 2008

MY SCATHING NOTE TO THE NEW YORKER FROM NOW!

I thought I had eliminated the stupid, trite NOW note when I sent in my "outraged" letter to the New Yorker, but instead, here's what happened. Kinda cool, yeah?


Thank you for using NOW Mail System

Message sent to the following recipients:
Mr. Remnick
Message text follows:

Peter McQuaid
336 S Occidental Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057-1553



July 17, 2008

[recipient address was inserted here]


[recipient name was inserted here],

I am writing to you as a media consumer to request that you
stop promoting
racist imagery in the New Yorker.

The biggest problem with the cover was that it was only
kinda funny
instead of really funny. It was only kinda funny because
there actually
are lots of people in America who are stupid enough to
believe that
Michelle Obama is Angela Davis redux and her husband,
Barack "HUSSEIN"
Obama, is a stealth agent of Osama and together, they're
going to "destroy
America" (insert fistbump here).

Anyone who has been paying attention and has even half a
brain can
comprehend the irony in the New Yorker cover. I'm not
buying the notion
that the leadership of NOW misses the point anymore than I
believe that
two people with the Obamas' education and intellect miss
it.

So given the brou-ha-ha-ha, the only conclusion I can come
to is that my
liberal brethren and sisteren are just exercising the
compassion we are
known for by speaking for the folks who have had half their
brains removed
- or were born missing half. They are trying to protect
them from
wrestling with issues like context, and sarcasm, and stuff
like that
there.

Which means we now have yet another empty, meaningless,
expulsion of hot
air in which my side overreacts to a cartoon, and abuses
thousands of
innocent words demanding that an apology be issued along
with the promise
that there will be no more racist, sexist or homophobic
editorial or ads
in the New Yorker. (Note to ed staff: Kill the Naomi
Klein/Susan
Faludi/Barbara Ehrenreich "Hot Ladies of the Leftwing
Intelligentsia"
lingerie spread - D.R.) (note to ad staff: Kill the "Girls
Gone Wild Goes
to Yaddo" full-bleed vid ad on the back cover - D.R.) (note
to ed staff:
Hold "The Bell Curve, Re-examined" til further notice).

Yep, nothing makes for an exciting intellectual climate
like dispensing
with wit, humor, sarcasm and of course, irony.

Well, there is one bright spot in that evil David Remmick
has given the
Obama campaign a sterling opportunity to not only
demonstrate that its
capacity for feigned outrage is on par with even the
oiliest McCain
utterance, but also to rid itself of any charges of
elitism. What could be
more anti-elitist than beating up on the New Yorker?

Perhaps this isn't the juncture at which to make the stand
for
intellectual integrity, but the opportunities are getting
further and
further apart - we're not getting much to work with here.
We've just
suffered through eight years of political/social/economic
discussions for
imbeciles and before that, we had twenty years of
political/social/economic discussions for the "challenged".


And from that we got Reagan, and we got Bush, Sr. and we
got Clinton, and
in the intellectual coup de grace, we got Smirky the Chimp.

I'm tired of stupid. I'm tired of willful obtuseness. I
don't want it from
my President, and I certainly don't want it from
organizations purporting
to stand against sexism and racism. If the leadership of
NOW is as obtuse
as it appears in this mailing, I'm sure we can count on
battling sexism
for a very, very long time.

In future editions of the New Yorker, and especially on its
cover, please
refrain from publishing articles, cartoons, or
advertisements that promote
racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, or
bigotry of any kind.

Sincerely,


Peter McQuaid

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