Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

The SC&A Academy of Extremely Peculiar Pathologies, is pleased to announce that beginning on February 28, 2007, we will commence the Weekly Wednesday Whackjob Awards, commonly referred to as the ‘Whacky’s.’

Nominations will open each week until 10:00 PM, EST (After the broadcast of House, M.D.).

Each week, a ‘Whacky‘ will be in each of the following categories:

The Thorazine Shuffle and Dance Award, will be presented each week to the politician who dances and shuffles without actually answering a question.

The Thomas Szasz Psychotherapy Award, will be presented each week to the biggest idiot therapist we can find. (Sanity Squad members are ineligible due to their sustained and documented brilliance).

The Valium Award, will be presented to the dullard of the week (Al Gore cannot be nominated. He had already won the Lifetime Achievement Award in that category).

The Trojan Award will presented each week to the person we wish had never been born (Boy George is not eligible for nomination in this category. Mr George, with Marilyn Manson, have already won the ‘This is What You Get When You Use Contraceptives Past The Expiration Date’ Award).

The Prozac Prize, awarded each week to the most unrelentingly depressing person in the news with little likelihood of improved prognosis.

The NutriSystem “I’m Not So digusting to My Spouse Anymore” Award, will be given to the biggest loser of the week.

The Haldol Honor will be awarded each week to the person most out of touch with reality, either on or off medication.

The Methamphetamine Medal will be awarded each week to the most hyper, histrionic, hysterical, spaced out documented behavior.

The Viagra Statuette will be awarded to the wimpiest metro sexual.

The ECT Battery Award will be presented to the most shocking news story of the week.

The HRT Prize, will be awarded weekly to the loudest and most inconsequential feminist drivel the SC&A jury can find.

Nominations can be emailed to sigmundcarlandalfred at gmail.com

Check out Small Dead Animals, for an always filling smörgåsbord of interesting posts, links and ideas.

The Paradox Of Multiculturalism. “When the concept of “multiculturalism” was introduced to Canadians, most assumed it meant “more pavilions at Folkfest.”

An Open Letter On Iranian Holocaust Denial Conference. Even in what is a jungle, civilized voices can be found.

Take the Warmonger Test.

“Under which US President (1980-2004) was a US soldier most likely to die while on active duty?”

No trick questions.

Fighting The Law, and the law lost…

Justice of the Peace Kristine Robidoux decided to release Albert Walter Brazill, despite the fact he had 65 convictions for crimes from kidnapping, extortion and armed robbery to forcible confinement — and was wanted on Canada-wide warrants.

More Clinton era grab ass.

Al Gore supported rendition before al Qaeda had declared war on the United States and hung its battle flag on the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole, the African embassies, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Bali disco, the Madrid trains, and the United Nations. But after those defeats, Al Gore changed his mind. Has any reporter for any major news organization bothered to ask Gore to explain his reasoning?

Be sure the click the link Kate provides.

And The Number One Issue Of 2007 is…

Thank you, Kate.

As the Lewis ‘Scooter‘ Libby verdict rests in the hands of a jury, The Anchoress free associates and contemplates the candidacy and antics of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Those Damned Anti Clintites Strike Again! Geffen!, is dryer than a James Bond martini, stirred not shaken:

…it seems to me that a strong and confident campaign does not demand that other candidates denounce their supporters and return contribution checks to them, but this is what Hillary Clinton’s campaign does all the time! Particularly if an opponant’s donor has dared to say something mean about poor old Hillary, who is just a girl and should be treated nice, because politics is about niceness and sweetness, and she would never, never indulge in a scorched earth, slash-and-burn sort of politics, herself…

I guess when you feel you’re entitled to your presidency and don’t really have to do the hard work of explaining much of anything, then you shouldn’t have to endure the typical heat of politics. But all of this demonstrates to me exactly why Hillary has stayed out of the kitchen and away from baking cookies all these years: She cannot stand the heat. And she is utterly artless. She gallumphs, spins, ducks, weaves, hauls out Bill (or simply mentions his holy name) as soon as things get difficult, and then runs for cover.

This is a woman who never, ever apologizes for anything but she always seems to need apologizing to.

She wants to lead the nation, and the free world. And our troops. But let someone with a little disposable cash cast a disagreeable eye her way, and Hillary thrusts out her lip, plays the victim, calls them “mean” and demands that they pull back and let her win!

‘Artless.‘ Did you read that? Is that beautiful and perfect, or what?

Anway, The Anchoress post caused us to reflect. We have some questions we’d like to ask.

Firstly, how the hell did up to 900 FBI files of Clinton political opponents get into the White House, make their way into Hillary Clinton’s private study, and then into her desk? How is it possible that no one knows anything about that?

And thereare people who believe Lewis ‘Scooter‘ Libby posed a security problem??

See this for a brief bit of background.

Judical Watch has more to say- and they have more questions.

Now, why aren’t the MSM asking the same questions? How is it possible that the Libby farce is front page news while the illegal procurement of Clinton political enemies FBI files into the White House is shrugged off?

Notwithstanding Hillary’s recently discovered pain at the ‘politics of persoal destruction,’ why aren’t the media asking about the Clinton’s decades long use of private investigators to dig up dirt and to intimidate political opponents? We asked,

…why wasn’t Hillary Clinton’s hiring of of private investigator Anthony Pellicano looked into? Why would she hire a man who reputation for intimidation, brutality and propensity to violence was well known? One time Clinton confidant and political ’spin doctor,’ Dick Morris said the hiring of a man with Pellicano’s reputation was deliberate. Hillary’s objective was to oversee

a systematic campaign to intimidate, threaten, frighten, discredit and punish innocent Americans whose only misdeed is their desire to tell the truth in public.

Anthony Pellicano had just the credentials Hillary Clinton was looking for.

Barbara Olsen, former congressional investigator wrote that

In the political life of the Clinton’s is was she [Hillary] who pioneered the use of private detectives. It was she who brought in and cultivated the professional dirt-diggers and smear artists.

While it is true that the break-in at the Watergate Hotel was a terrible- and illegal- dirty trick, it is safe to say that a middle of night burglary is nowhere near as despicable- and probably illegal- threats of intimidation and retribution for simply wanting to tell the truth.

The Anchoress also takes a critical look at pop culture in America and the media, not through the lens fashion or entertainment, but rather, through an examination of our values- or lack thereof. This is no small matter.

She casts a critical eye at a culture and the journalistic ethics that would devote more time and attention to Britnety Spears than to Nazanin Afshin-Jam, the Canadian beauty pageant winner that once and for all dispels the notion that brains, beauty and compassion can’t be found in one package. Afshin-Jam worked tirelessly to secure the freedom of ‘a woman imprisoned in Iran for the crime of defending herself against rape. ‘ The Anchoress, in Britney&Nazanin And Our Warped View Of News notes ,

The feminist left does not lionize her and shout her name and call her “good for women.” The press doesn’t cover her. But Britney…she’s ubiquitous, she’s and her sad, desperate bald head are all over the place…not for doing anything heroic, mind you, but for entertaining us with her misery, for allowing herself to be consumed, if that is what it takes to get our attention. Where is the press on this story? Why is Nazanin Afshin-Jam not on the cover of Newsweek? Why aren’t they covering this remarkable celebrity, when any two-bit pissant Hollywood cracker can be heralded as a wise and benevolent prophet for cursing at the president and Christians, or crying over Africa? Why isn’t the new feminist icon of journalism, Katie Couric - or Oprah - talking about this story, and the larger story behind it - the one that for some reason “liberal” feminists are too timid to mention - honor killings, the cold-blooded murders of rape victims who have “dishonored” their families by being unfortunate enough to be raped.

Many have wondered how it has to pass that we do not demand better from the media. The media in turn, respond and reply that they are only serving the demands of the community they represent.

What drivel. What utter drivel.

Perhaps it is true that we have gotten the journalism - the media - that we deserve. I hope not. Gerard Vanderleun writes affectingly here about how easy it is to look at a picture of a machete-chopped-up child and then go out to supper with friends and have a good time. We compartmentalize. We read or see a news story, we gasp and wonder, and maybe we even tear up a bit…then we turn the page, or a commercial comes on, or a newscaster brightly announces the debut of a water-skiing canary, and we forget - we move on…

Journalism can cast down or raise up. It can serve us horrifyingly clear pictures of mutilated children, or it can mutilate a celebrity for us, just to keep our interest piqued. But it needn’t. If we would stop reading the crap, the sinful stuff, the stuff that treats human beings like mere things to be used to increase circulation for as long as they last - then maybe the press would stop serving it up. If we would stop treating barely literate celebrities like PhD’s and Eco-scientists because they once played a character who wore a lab coat, maybe the press would stop trotting them out to speak their assigned lines, and there would be room in the paper for redemptive and hopeful stories about people like Nazanin Afshin-Jam. Maybe attention might finally be paid to Caneze Riaz, and her daughters, Hannah, age 3, Sayrah, 16, Sophia, 13, and Alisha, age 10, whose deaths surely deserve notice.

Children learn from what they see. No parent can be perceived as a credible or moral authority by a child that grows up in a home devoid of real values and real morality.

A while back, The Anchoress wrote about what happens when values are predicated on pop culture. She wrote about the deflating cult of Madonna:

…am I the only one who finds her latest stunts merely predictable and perfunctory? Hey Madonna, it takes no courage to ape the Crucifixion of Christ or make a vulgar joke about George W. Bush - those are the safest things in the world to do - you want to really be daring, try this. Instead of simulating sex and bondage (didn’t you DO that back in the ’80’s?) why not come onstage wearing a Burka…yeah, that’s it…and then you can have your crew simulate a genital mutilation or an honor killing…got it? Now that’s edgy, honey, especially if you then have some dancers show up like US Troops who liberate you, and you kiss a mask of George W. Bush…now THAT would be brave and daring. THAT would be something worth looking at, too. THAT would justify the press’ pavlovian response to every ringing of your bell.

Why haven’t I written more? Well, to be honest, I just don’t care about either of these over-hyped, over-exposed things.

I have not bothered to get myself into an uproar about Madonna and her crucifix (how old, anyway…remember the burning-crosses, necking with St. Martin de Porres in church while she gets stigmata video…from the 1980’s? She’s been confused for a long time…) or about DVC is because…well…

There’s a reason Madonna goes by the name Madonna and there’s a reason she uses religious imagery in her show. Like a McDonald’s quarter pounder, we know what we will get- predicatbility. It isn’t fine dining, for sure, any more than Madonna is ‘art.’ As had been said for years, Madonna, like McDonald’s, is about extraordinary- and successful, marketing. Instead of burgers and fries, she’s pitching S&M and religious symbols as expressions of phallic pathologies.

Of course, there is a reason the media are so attached to Madonna, too.

Madonna offers the media a vacation, a way to not have to work or offer a meaningful contribution to society. Madonna also offers the media an outlet from which they can predicate the deceit that says values and morals need to ‘challenged’ by art and that we evolve and grow as a community by accepting ‘progressive’ values and morals.

It’s just business, of course, for Madonna and the media. When she isn’t on tour, articles about Madonna extol her new found religious and moral sensibilities and her devotion to home and hearth.

In fact, the media, like Madonna, are repeating themselves. They have come to believe that they are the arbiters of culture and values. Madonna and the media have nothing new to offer- and they know it. As long as silly critics and even less sophiticated music consumers rehash and redefine the same McDonald’s quarter pounder as fine dining, why should she redefine herself and her art, and why shoud the media really extend itself?

The Anchoress notes that in the end, the pendulum always swings back. She notes that

And thirty years from now there will be another book, another play, another photograph of a Holy Thing dunked in urine. And everyone will gasp again and controversy will fly…and it still won’t matter.

What The Anchoress does not address is the cost of all this shallowness.

Then again, that’s what windows and mirrors are for.