That's Pa(g)lia.Did you order decaffeinated coffee, Miss Paglia?
Yes I did.Oops.
Oops what?Oops there goes my tip.
This video produced by Reason is trending all over my timeline tonight. Nick Gillespie gives us a great interview sticking with Paglia all the way through never letting Paglia wander too far afield and never showing annoyance with her unnecessary urgency that leads directly to stuttering and disjointed associations along her very strange speech pattern that jams emphasis on key words by doubling the volume on one of the word's syllables, and her insane speed. I know a guy with this same cadence and pattern except he is even more annoying because whereas his form of avid conversation is to challenge your every sentence so that conversation advances slowly if at all, continuously redirected down desultory unhelpful avenues, by contrast Paglia's avid conversation is to expand the idea, explain and expatiate by using her own history, splashing it in overlapping daubs crammed in rapid sequence.
To me Paglia is most interesting when talking about history and art history. Her perspective is interesting, in discussing what has become of academic humanities, she answers that canon is not determined by art critics sitting there analyzing art, the canon is determined by other artists. The canon is identified by who influenced the most artists over time. She draws an organization hierarchy chart in the air as she continues, "this is the story of art history, that I believe in, that has been discarded."
I like that.
I cannot find it now, one of the Twitter threads, commenters take issue with Paglia singling out Dianne Feinstein as the type of female leader who fits Paglia's model of female leader that Paglia had been waiting for decades. She is the only one. Some viewers stopped at that point because nothing that follows can balance that inanity and make the trouble of watching further worth the pain. Paglia is looking for character traits that she sees in Feinstein, strength, understanding, compassion. They run an early film clip of a young Feinstein responding to the San Francisco murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk by another City Supervisor Dan White and you can see by the film how this demeanor by a woman right there in the next office at the time of the murder, at the time so grabbed Paglia's interest. Paglia is making a comparative analysis of quality female leaders who confirm to Paglia's preconceived template, over time, then explaining how she got from where she was then, but because of recent events and because of how Feinstein exited so damagingly and with such partisan impetus and with bogus government report constructing, viewers were unable and unwilling to follow.
24 comments:
She looks like she doesn't have any eyelashes.
I've been reading the meta about this all over, but this post is the one that made me actually interested in listening. Wow, she is excited about talking! I agree with most of her stuff here, but the Feinstein thing is just like Chip says. Feinstein is the better of the two CA senators, one of the better Democrats, but still far from admirable. I can't admire any American Congress person who stays there that long. That very accomplishment is proof of lacking in the things I respect most.
This interview is all over the place. Intellectuals apparently - at least non-leftist - ones love her, but I just hear viewpoints and ideas I hear all the time from others. Paglia just says them while wearing the Liberal garb. She's an evolving classical liberal, which is common, close to my own perspective and, I think, just right thinking and open minded - not all that amazing. It is stuff that rarely gets any airing, despite being a very very common view.
What Camille she says at 8:15++++
THIS!!!!!
To capture Nick's Question make that 7:40+
I mean to say that this middle, bridging viewpoint is not aired much in the press. It is very common among normal people (us hoi polloi).
"People see everything through the lens of race and gender."
And why shouldn't they? Nothing is more important than race. Nothing. I give you Ferguson.
As to gender: it was absolutely inevitable that giving women the vote would result in worldwide socialism. And it has.
"Administration bureaucracy " that has ruined our universities is the same that has ruined our government.
She admits that leftists have destroyed everything, but she is still a democrat.
She speaks like a libertarian "conservative" or a classical liberal. She isn't a radical leftist at all. That is refreshing.
Leftwing heads must be exploding.
22:48+
She can feel the nothingness and the vacuum in Amercian Journalism.
Sing it, sister.
She says a lot of true and interesting things, but hearing and watching her say them isn't enjoyable. I much prefer reading her observations.
She says a lot of true and interesting things, but hearing and watching her say them isn't enjoyable. I much prefer reading her observations.
Ugh.
Feinstein.
Paglia likes the IDEA of Feinstein, she likes that Feinstein has history and some gravitas. There's perception and then there's reality and the reality of Feinstein is that she's just a slightly different flavor of Hillary! or Obama!
Or, sadly, Boehner.
They're all the same grifting double-dealing power-mongers underneath their exterior presentation.
I agree Amartel. When reason played the clip to explain Paglia's point it makes sense in terms of gravitas. The image might be there but Feinstein has long shown what she really is.
"Mr. and Mrs. America, turn'em all in!" is just more of the same corrupt plutocrat.
Agree, Fr. Martin. Camille's cadences detract from her presentation.
Amartel:
On her premises, Diane Feinstein makes sense.
I actually went through a mental exercise and reached a similar conclusion. I was watching some reruns of the West Wing, and when we got to the part where the VP position was vacant, I got thinking: what if Biden were somehow out of the picture? Who would Obama pick, especially with a GOP Senate?
Of course there are many possible choices, but one that came to mind was Feinstein. And, given the alternatives in the Democratic Party, we could do a lot worse.
I think Ms. Paglia is what they call an opinion leader.
I'm not much of a follower on those sorts of things so I just get out of the way.
Seems to have done me no harm.
Fr. Martin - Feinstein used her position on the Senate Military Construction Committee to direct billions of dollars in contracts to her husband's company. Her husband has also profitted in real estate deals connected to the California high speed rail project. There's more Feinstein insider profiteering. It's just depressing. She ratted out the CIA over allegedly abusive interrogation techniques, WHICH SHE KNEW ABOUT AND APPROVED WHEN IT WAS CONVENIENCE, jeopardizing intelligence gathering and the people who did the gathering. Is that why she makes sense to you?
Amartel:
No, I'm not a Democrat. If a Democratic President in his sixth year needs a VP, he's going to look at other Democrats, and he should want someone who not only can do the job, but seems credible in that regard.
And he'd be thinking about whether this is someone who would run for the job after him, or whether he wants someone who isn't likely to, despite other qualifications.
My point was that when I tried to think of potential Democratic figures who would be chosen under such a scenario, she fits the right categories.
Now, it may be here thing with the contracts and her husband would become a disqualifying scandal; but they haven't so far. I'm not saying that's right.
I'm sorry and I don't think you're a Democrat. I just can't stand most of these people and I find it far more illuminating to examine who they really are, which means what they've actually done (regardless of whether the media and their political peers have called them on it) as opposed to what they say or whether their presentation is credible for window dressing purposes.
That's what has captured Paglia's imagination, the IDEA of Feinstein, her presentation. I doubt Paglia knows much about who she really is these days and if such information were introduced would probably just dismiss it as something they all do.
A lot of people vote for the IDEA of the candidate, the presentation part (viz., first black/female president), without examining too closely who the candidate actually is. It's easier.
Feinstein in 81 years old. Not sure she'd be right for even the vice-presidency at this point.
Also, didn't most of the charges about her husband profiting from defense contracts coming his way arise on the left because of her support of the Iraq War? I think it was all part of attacking the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, and Cheney.
Paglia is to be read, not viewed, as the Padre said earlier.. She is an lesbian who loves men. She is an atheist, that respects religion. She is tough as nails. I have followed her for 20 years. Paglia is the real deal.
Feinstein is 81? I didn't realize that.
That would make her an unlikely choice for VP, my mistake.
She sure doesn't look that old.
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