Remember, we have to learn to walk before we can learn to run

37 thoughts on “Remember, we have to learn to walk before we can learn to run”

1. Yeah, I’m sick of those filthy Arabs claiming Jesus looked like them.Report

   1. He probably looked more like Dan Ariely. Probably not so much like Woody Allen.Report

      1. “No man cometh unto the Father, but through me. Or you could try taking the subway.”Report

2. Baby Steps, I suppose it is.Report

3. Fox host Megyn Kelly starts out the segment saying she was prepared to use Harris’s piece as WOC fodder, but then – I can’t believe this is Fox news saying this – took the time to actually read it, and found she could empathize with where Harris is coming from.

   On the one hand, this seems such a little thing. But for Fox to take a lobbed softball like this and let it go over the plate without swinging is actually kind of heartening.

   This was of course preceded by the whole “Santa is White, that is a fact” and “Jesus was white, that’s a historical fact” type statements.Report

   1. Let’s be fair, Kelly said that Jesus was a historical figure just like Santa; there’s a few ways that can be parsed.

      But yeah, it’s an awful lot of throat-clearing just to admit that sometimes minorities feel left out.Report

      1. I’m surprised she didn’t bring up Black Pete from Holland as a way of saying “See? Black people can be part of Christmas, too”.Report

4. Kelly must really have internalized the idea that black kids might be put off by a white Santa Claus. Why else would she feel it necessary to reassure the white kids every 30 seconds that Santa’s still white?Report

   1. She’s dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones she used to know.Report

5. Years ago, I had a very good friend from Tobago. Though the nation itself is “Trinidad and Tobago,” and we tend to think of them as being much the same, the people of that place view the two as markedly different.
   I think that’s a lot how FOX news is to people of the other side of the aisle, or to non-viewers generally.

   Kelly can be really cool at times.
   I also tend to like O’Reilly.
   I don’t have much use for the rest of them.Report

   1. RE: “Trinidad AND Tobago” – my wife and I were recently debating the difference on this in a quasi-Seinfeldian manner (having just met a family from there).Report

6. It’s all quite stupid (and damned offensive), but I hope you all remember that Santa is Canadian.Report

   1. @jonathan-mcleod – OT, but when I was compiling tracks for my shoegaze post, I think I stumbled across your YouTube channel or some playlists or whatever.

      You’re slightly less furry than I was expecting.Report

      1. Yes, my Youtube profile has my “I’m a serious person” picture because that’s attached to my gmail and Google+ accounts.

         I’m thinking of putting together a drone post for you/Chris, but I’m not sure I can listen to that much drone to pick out the best stuff. That’s a rabbit hole I may never escape from.Report

      2. DO IT!Report

      3. Oh jeez. I may as well let the cat out of the bag.

         There’s a now-sort-of-mythical first post I wanted to do at MD, that was all about the concept/meaning of “repetition”. And it incorporated, as part of it, a music section that incorporated drone (among other genres, and additionally examining the concept in philosophy, literature, visual arts, mental health, and other tangents).

         Perhaps appropriately, I have never been able to wrangle the thing into publishable shape. At one point it was a three-parter. Every once in a while I return to it, only to lose my way again.

         So…yeah. That’s potentially a black rabbit hole, from which no post may escape.Report

      4. I assume it has some Deleuze in it? And Kierkegaard? And Deleuze?Report

      5. No, but it did have Nietzche (well, Eternal Return) Sorites paradox, and Quine.

         And Spacemen 3, of course.Report

      6. Ah, then I have some required reading for you:

         http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Concept_of_Irony_with_Continual_Refe.html?id=XZd7QgAACAAJ

         http://books.google.com/books?id=CqGaVuSXKbEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=kierkegaard+repetition&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pS-rUombEOqK2gXv5IHACQ&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=kierkegaard%20repetition&f=false

         http://books.google.com/books?id=xoHsexDBgmEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=deleuze+difference+and+repetition&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uy-rUrnCOajq2AWK7oDQCQ&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=deleuze%20difference%20and%20repetition&f=false

         Kierkegaard’s “repetition” (particularly as detailed in the first linked book) is a sort of proto-Nietzschean “recollecting forward,” which seems like perfect description of some music.Report

      7. Dude, needing additional material is NOT my problem here.Report

      8. Just as they [the Greeks] taught that all knowing is recollecting, modern philosophy will teach that all life is a repetition. — — — Repetition and recollection are the same movement, except in opposite directions, for what is recollected has been, is repeated backward, whereas genuine repetition is recollected forward — — — One never grows weary of the old, and when one has that, one is happy. He alone is truly happy who is not deluded into thinking that the repetition should be something new, for then one grows weary of it. — — — He who does not grasp that life is a repetition and that this is the beauty of life has pronounced his own verdict and deserves nothing better than what will happen to him anyway—he will perish; for hope is a beckoning fruit that does not satisfy, recollection is petty travel money that does not satisfy, but repetition is the daily bread that satisfies with blessing. When existence has been circumnavigated, it will be manifest whether one has the courage to understand that life is a repetition and has the desire to rejoice in it.

         Just sayin’.Report

      9. OK, that IS pretty killer. Is that Kierkegaard?

         Dammit, I may have to return to that piece again.

         But when I do, you just signed up for editing duties, sucker!Report

      10. Yeah, that’s from a few passages in Repetition.Report

   2. It’s all quite stupid (and damned offensive), but I hope you all remember that Santa is Canadian.

      What are you talking about, Santa is Indian!

      Report

      1. Dammnit here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&gl=SG&v=-fQrY1r5OD4Report

7. Wait, am I supposed to feel irritation when Jennifer Lawrence is cast as Katniss or not?Report

   1. I think that one depends a lot on the special effects.Report

8. My friend’s girlfriend is an aspiring actress and recently took a gig as an elf. The casting call for Santa said he absolutely, positively could not have an accent. This in spite of the fact that the area they were working was predominantly Hispanic immigrants. Now, I get that it is probably important that Santa be able to communicate in a manner which is clear to children and that certain accents could impede this, but she was pretty bothered by it.

   This was the same woman I mentioned a while back who got a casting call for the Mulan musical which said that people need not be Asian to apply for Asian character roles.

   Gooses and ganders and stuff.Report

9. Kelly now insists that she was joking. If that’s your idea of comedy, kid, don’t quit your day job.Report

   1. To be fair, it does have the form of a joke (particularly the mentioning of Jesus, and calling them both “real life” people).

      It almost has the sound of a joke tuned to a liberal audience. Odd for someone working a foxnews gig.Report

   2. I don’t know why she just didn’t come clean and explain that her claim “Santa is white” relies on the historical conception of a culturally constructed contemporary myth deriving from traditional white European origins and then apologize for not making that clear during the discussion regarding the political aspects of the current dispute because she assumed – incorrectly, unfortunately – that viewers were intelligent enough to understand the distinction her comment relied on, a mistake she’s very apologetic about.

      That would have been so much easier.Report

      1. Because that doesn’t translate into “liberals are the real racists.”Report

      2. Saint Nicholas, upon whom Santa Claus is based, was a Greek, so he was probably white. But given Greece’s proximity to Turkey and the Levant presumably meant there were a number of people from those regions in Greece, and possibly a number of intermarriages, so there’s no real certainty that he was white. Personally, I find Santa as a product of miscegenation to be most satisfying.Report

      3. James, he was born in Greek-occupied Turkey.Report

      4. As God is my witness, I thought Turkish reindeer could fly.Report

      5. Also, SNL set the record straight.Report

      6. @chris

         Ah, even better. Thanks. So both Baby Jesus and Jolly Old St. Nick were probably dark-skinned. I want someone to tell Megyn Kelly this on live TV so I can watch her head explode.Report

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