The month of November in which you don’t shave any hair of your body but instead you grow more bestial, brutish, and manly.

The months of December, January, February, and so on follow and may also be included in this celebration of masculinity.

December = ("Don’t Shave December")

January = ("Just Don’t Shave January")

February = ("Forget to Shave February")

March = ("Masculine March")

April = ("Atrocious April")

May = ("Manly May")

My buddies and I all participated in No Shave November to raise awareness for the important and educational month of November. It is now a recognized national month that identifies the worth and meaning of celebrating masculinity.

“Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.” –Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

“You keep using that word,” Inigo Montoya says to Vizzini in The Princess Bride. “I do not think it means what you think it means.”

The word that Vizzini so frequently…

1. Boyfriend or girlfriend

2. Word used to scare people

1. Can you handle me? If you can’t you ain’t gonna be my boo.

2. Guy: BOO!

Guy 2: Holy sh*t!

Via Balloonjuice, a deeply weird (and long) pdf file with this title: AN EXAMINATION OF OBAMA’S USE OF HIDDEN HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES IN HIS SPEECHES. (from the Penny Press, “the conservative weekly voice of Las Vegas”)

Keep it classy, Young Conservatives of Texas. (By the way, isn’t YCT registered as a non-profit non-partisan organization, in which case aren’t they breaking federal law by taking a partisan stance here?)

Just a reminder that proposals for the Kairos special issue on rhetoric and the military are due November 1, 2008.

farting while walking;

walking while farting;

i crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store

farting while walking;

walking while farting;

i crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store

‘Tis the season for job searches (I’m chairing a search committee) and recommendation letters. I received a recommendation letter this morning via email, and I’m puzzling about our evolving ‘Netiquette on these matters. What’s others’ experiences? Am I supposed to require a followup on letterhead? (I certainly would for a tenure file.) Or doesn’t it matter any more? Graduate school recommendations are increasingly done online. Any thoughts?

I’m still pondering Josh Gunn’s and Chuck Morris’ talks on “voice” from the Wisconsin Public Address conference. “The Gender of Sound” is a very cool essay by Anne Carson, a Canadian classics professor and poet, in her 1995 book Glass, Irony, and God. Here’s how it starts: “It is in large part according to the sounds people make that we judge them sane or insane, male or female, good, evil, trustworthy, depressive, marriageable, moribund, likely or unlikely to make war on us, little better than animals, inspired by God. These judgments happen fast and can be brutal.

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the local corporate rag reports on tonight’s visit by gov palin and tomorrow’s — i mean today’s — visit by president clinton:

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/929401.html
http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/929425.html

is it me, or does gov palin seem to be soaked in astroglide?
.

A colleague’s recent post–Out With Apostrophes–provides the excuse to reprint an article that first appeared here in the spring of 2007. Since then, a London reader has created a website…

The feeling that you have heard this bull before.

Katie: " How come you guys didn’t go out and celebrate your anniversary?"

Nicole: " We were going to, but he had to take care of his little sister again."

Katie: "That sounds like deja moo to me."

Thinking a lot about rural Minnesota today, for some reason. This poem comes to mind. From Robert Bly, “Driving Towards the Lac Qui Parle River”:

I am driving; it is dusk; Minnesota.
The stubble field catches the last growth of sun.
The soybeans are breathing on all sides.
Old men are sitting before their houses on carseats
In the small towns. I am happy,
The moon rising above the turkey sheds.

Soft money ads from places like Neverfindout.org are flooding the airwaves. One series in particular will end with this button image:
.
My question: How can ‘never find out’ be a means to ‘think beyond rhetoric’?

Excellent.

Sarah Palin’s a Jew? Or maybe not? I can hear Omri Ceren dancing. . . .

Juliette Greco singing Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise”:

After watching Tina Fey et al. on SNL, is it possible to do a comedic imitation of Barack? If so, which actor would be best? (Richard Pryor comes to mind, but alas. . . .) This thought was sparked by Robert Lichter’s report from that den of right-wing hackery, the Center for Media and Public Affairs at GMU.

Joshie Juice ought to like this one: (via Marc Ambinder). Zane Starkwolf is a Republican running against Democrat Mike Thompson in California’s first district:

http://zane2008.com/uploads/soundclip.wav

(I didn’t know that robocalls are illegal in California.)

I’m teaching a graduate course on presidential rhetoric this semester–not my strong suit, but the quality of my students makes up for my deficiencies.

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I just got home from the Alamo Drafthouse where I saw the movie, Crawford. Filmmakers David Modigliani and Matt Naylor ask the question: What happened when W came to town? This is not a Michael Moore hack job. In fact, the film premiered in Crawford (on the football field!), and just about everyone who’s in the movie agreed that it’s a fair depiction of Crawford. You can watch the whole thing, for free, on Hulu.

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Subtly adding the fact that you have a boyfriend into the conversation in order to deter anyone who is potentially interested. The first time this happens is the boyfriend drop. Also can be used in describing this event by the other person who was interested.

Related to girlfriend drop.

Harvey: ‘She boyfriend dropped in our last conversation but I’m still interested.’

Any Mad Men fans out there? Last night’s season finale was strong. Of course, as I was watching the characters deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was reading Jim’s post about Syria…life imitating art? Given all the discussion of whether or not Sarah Palin blinks, it was interesting to watch the Mad Men characters dealing with JFK’s staring contest.

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Stanley Fish compares Obama and McCain, in Miltonic terms.

We appear to have just bombed Syria. BBC here. And Aljazeera. Juan Cole analyzes: “What is odd is that the Bush administration did not behave that way when the infiltration of fundamentalist vigilantes from the Syrian side was a more significant problem.

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As Americans stagger toward Election Day, we’d like to offer an antidote to the incessant sound bites, robocalls, attack ads, and rhetorical flourishes. A corrective to the hype, hooey, and…

To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker.

Wendy: So are you avail-

Jimmy: No. (Presponse)

Wendy: -ible Monday?

(silence)

Wendy: Are you?

(via Marc Ambinder) This website contains all the robocalls on both sides, as well as down-ballot races this year, among other things.

The hazy feeling one gets after spending too much time shopping at large chain stores including but not limited to Walmart, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Characterized by a headache, dry eyes, blurred vision, blank stare, sore feet.

Jane had to return home immediately, take two tylenol, and a large glass of water as her day of shopping was beginning to result in a textbook case of mass merchanditis.

Paul and Sheila died 4 years ago this week. How I miss them, still. His Senate speech against the Iraq war:

When I saw the photo of Obama’s shoes last week I thought of an ominous parallel (but this blogger at Huffington Post beat me to it). This whole election I have worried that Obama is too Stevenson-esque, but it’s starting to look like the slow-and-steady strategy (or is it a tactic?) is working.

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The origin is finally discovered of the odd English idiom red herring.

Jackpot does indeed derive from gambling, but from poker, not lotteries.

Jackpot does indeed derive from gambling, but from poker, not lotteries.

Though Apricate is defunct, it might with profit be reintroduced, since it means to bask in the sun.

Though Apricate is defunct, it might with profit be reintroduced, since it means to bask in the sun.

Politics: Formerly known as "the double-cross," it refers to infiltration and sabotage of the opposition party, particuarly during (but not limited to) an election campaign. The second half of "All the President’s Men" describes ratfucking done to 1972 Democratic presidential candidates by employees of the Committee to Re-Elect Nixon.

Ken Clawson, Nixon’s communications director, confessed to a ratfuck when he told how he forged a letter making it look like a Democratic candidate was a racist.

A typical ratfuck is to falsely claim there’s a political rally for the opposition party, order 300 pizzas for delivery in the name of the party, and then nobody shows up.

I take a fair amount of grief for being an “Apple cultist,” as one of my colleagues once called it. (I still can’t get on our server for Liberal Arts at TAMU–God’s Harvard, as Colbert called it the other night)Here’s the first item on their Start page today:

No on Prop 8

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I’m so glad my name isn’t Joe. Annnnyway…..here’s an interesting piece on NPR about a focus group from Pennsylvania asked to analyze the rhetoric of the campaigns. Too bad they won’t invite rhetoricians on CNN, rather than the pundits (and/or fundits on SNL).

I know you all want to keep up with Michelle Bachmann’s Twitter feed.

With the holiday break coming up, I thought ya’ll might appreciate some tips on some fun, non-violent adventure games to wile away those lonely wintry hours.

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With the holiday break coming up, I thought ya’ll might appreciate some tips on some fun, non-violent adventure games to wile away those lonely wintry hours.

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Today we continue our fall campaign to cut the clutter by looking at eight more common redundancies. The sentences in italics were found in newspapers, newsletters, advertisements, and blogs. The…

When you’re about to high five someone, and your hands are just about to hit, then the other high-fiver quickly moves their hand away leaving you with a non-returned air five… you dork.

I had just gotten a new job and turned to give Amy a high five to celebrate my coolness, and she quickly dodged my hand leaving me with a faux five. I then felt very un-cool.

The last election I voted in before leaving Minnesota for Texas was the contest between Republican, pro-choice Arne Carlson and Democratic, pro-life Rudy Perpich (if you don’t think that “liberals” are single-issue voters, that was a good counter-example), but today Arne endorses Obama. Amazing.

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

Along the lines of “Swing Vote” with Kevin Costner, organizations are trying innovative ways to “guilt” people into voting with the whole “what if Obama lost by ONE vote–YOUR NON-VOTE” scenario.

I received this email from “MoveOn.Org” now, and I laughed out loud. The video takes a few minutes to load, but it’s worth it:

Dear MoveOn member,

Oversleeping. Getting the car fixed. Having to pick up the second-cousin’s stepkids on the other side of town. These are just a few of the reasons millions of Americans won’t vote on November 4th.

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When the braking of a car is left to one’s choice due to an unnecessary stop sign.

Passenger: Did you just blow through that stop sign?

Driver: Oh, no worries. It was stoptional.

The Statement, sent this morning to national media, is attached. Ed Schiappa ads, “Feel free to encourage research faculty to contact me if they want to be added to the list [of signatories]. No grad students–nothing personal, it is partly for their own protection.”

from Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1960):

“Western civilization is not the first civilization to turn around and question its own foundations, but it is the one that has gone furthest in doing so. I identify Modernism with the intensification, almost the exacerbation, of this self-critical tendency that began with the philosopher Kant. Because he was the first to criticize the means itself of criticism, I conceive of Kant as, the first real Modernist.

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ah, another paper that used to be. i grew up reading at least three newspapers each day. the philadelphia inquirer was one of them. but all that was a long time ago.

The Caucus | A New York Times Blog
October 21, 2008, 4:03 pm
Endorsement Dissent at The Inquirer
By Mitchell L. Blumenthal

Solomonic or schizophrenic?

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Writing about the golden age of sports reporting, baseball historian Harold Seymour illustrated the sort of colorful language that was in vogue at the end of the 19th century:

Teams…

The act of, or state of being a slacker. Describes the attitude typically associated with being a slacker.

Most appropriately applies to one with no responsibilities, one that gets by pretending to be hard at work, or the co-worker that is found hanging out near the coffee machine for most of the day.

I just can’t tolerate that guy’s slackitude! If I were his manager, I’d sack him, no doubt.

I was wondering why Obama is doing so well.

Hat tip to Nate Krueter.

It was a lot of fun to try to explain this, too, in Europe. All the “pro-life” people. Where do they all come from?….

John McKenzie sent me this article today (Jim, you’re familiar with the author, David Cheshier):

Are there images we ought not see?

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A prerecorded call that is sent to hundreds or thousands of telephone numbers. An automatic dialing computer goes through a targeted list of phone numbers.

Or: an individual call received.

political consultant says… We need to record a celebrity robocall, provision it, and hit our base at least ten weeks before early voting.

voter says… Damn, I came home to seven robocalls on my answering machine. And nothing from Match.com.

I’m currently at work on my prospectus for my dissertation. A few of my research questions thus far (in rough draft stage, I know):
•How has the ideological terrain of free speech changed since nine-eleven? Why?
•How have the changes in free speech impacted political agency/political practice?
•How have the changes in free speech restrained or opened up new sites of struggle/political agency?
•How are the norms of free speech located in power? Under what conditions is free speech oppressive? Who has free speech? Who gets to decide who has free speech?

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I’m on a visual rhetoric kick this week, but the BBC’s post of “In Pictures: US Election Memorabilia” is just too awesome to not post.

Wait until you see Palin’s head photo-shopped into the classic “We Can Do It” Rosie the Riveter image….ummm….I’m getting more and more annoyed with the fallacious reasoning that just because she is a woman ergo she is a feminist. Sigh.

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile, Louis Soriano’s Biblioburro is a small institution: one man and two donkeys. He created it out of the simple belief that the act of taking books to people who do not have them can somehow improve this impoverished region, and perhaps Colombia.

Used thoughtfully, figures of speech can enrich and enliven our writing. But when laid on too thick, stretched beyond recognition, bent out of shape, or mixed like a Mai Tai…

a passenger who reads and replies to any and all text messages recieved on the drivers phone, thus alowing the driver to focus on the road and not hit anything or get pulled over for reckless driving.

Guy 1: "Woah, i almost hit that telephone pole back there, Dude you should be my designated texter "

Guy 2: "Yeah no problem bro"

The best part of his comments today:

And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

…

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Lee Sustar critiques the bailout plan of 2008.

Around 1am this morning, I was perched on the sofa grading, watching the History Channel. They had a great special on “Secrets of Body Language” where experts dissected the nuanced gestures, facial expressions, voice, etc of social and political leaders, including McCain and Obama. It’s worth a watch (or purchase) for classroom discussions, methinks. It airs again this coming Saturday, October 25th at 5pm.

The Houston Chronicle endorses Obama-Biden. It has not endorsed a Democrat for President since 1964. And, in case you were asleep this morning: Colin Powell endorsed Obama on Meet the Press:

“Cheese crumbs spread in front of a copulating pair of rats may distract the female, but not the male.” –Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

I want to write something about this. Where would I start? Her website is here.

1.) A bunch of bullshit; unsupported bullshit; a notion stated a fact.

Aww, thats haberdash if he says he can jump across that huge river in one bound.

This looks like a good thing.

David Iglesias (did you know he was the model for the Tom Cruise character in A Few Good Men?)talks about the politicization of the FBI and the ACORN issue. We know that the FBI used agents provocateurs in the antiwar/campus left movements in the ’60’s (and turned a blind eye to racist terrorism in the South). And the politicization of the DOJ has been intense under the Bush regime. Is it too much to imagine a coordinated effort on Election Day to: 1. engage in obvious voter suppression, and 2.

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What’s the story behind the common term Jay-walking for crossing the street illegally?

Nympholepsy has been tarnished by its associates with paedophilia, but it really refers to an unnattainable ideal.

a phone call (or a text) to arrange an immediate cuddle date. Not a booty call but similar in the call for satisfaction nature of the behavior.

"Hey Baby. What’s going on?"

"Hi. Cuddle Call?"

"See you in ten minutes"

The Two McCains Episode 3 “My Foreign Fallacy”Uploaded by NationalLampoon

per curiam, no less. The very brief opinion is attached below in pdf. Commentary here.

PBS doesn’t have the courage to show this before the election, but the whole documentary is on the web. Calling ‘wingers, explain to me, just once, why evangelicals don’t care about torture?

Read/Write/Web reports on Rheingold’s new project–the “Social Classroom.” According to the story, it is “an open-source Drupal-based web service to teachers and students for the purpose of introducing social media into the classroom.”

So, is this anything more that a Drupal distribution designed for learning and teaching? I think a lot of us who use Drupal-based sites already do that stuff. Perhaps I am missing something.

Read/Write/Web reports on Rheingold’s new project–the “Social Classroom.” According to the story, it is “an open-source Drupal-based web service to teachers and students for the purpose of introducing social media into the classroom.”

So, is this anything more that a Drupal distribution designed for learning and teaching? I think a lot of us who use Drupal-based sites already do that stuff. Perhaps I am missing something.