Am I allowed to mock this?

Tod Kelly

Tod is a writer from the Pacific Northwest. He is also serves as Executive Producer and host of both the 7 Deadly Sins Show at Portland's historic Mission Theatre and 7DS: Pants On Fire! at the White Eagle Hotel & Saloon. He is  a regular inactive for Marie Claire International and the Daily Beast, and is currently writing a book on the sudden rise of exorcisms in the United States. Follow him on Twitter.

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42 Responses

  1. Mad Rocket Scientist says:

    Mock away!Report

  2. Chris says:

    I think all this really requires is planting your palm firmly on your face, preferably with an audible slapping sound.Report

  3. Burt Likko says:

    Re: your footnote. Had Obama actually gone, he’d no doubt have said something about how Islam isn’t the enemy and Muslims aren’t the enemy, only extremists who incorrectly think that violence is some sort of religious imperative. We’d then have been treated to displays of sarcasm concerning the so-called religion of peace, and accusations that the President is a simpering, whimpering, coward unable or unwilling to even acknowledge the incontestable truth that we are at war with Islam because Islam declared war on us and maybe he isn’t really interested in fighting that war because he’s at least sympathetic to the Muslims if not secretly one of them himself.

    You’ve heard it all before. It’s sort of like the new AC/DC album. You’ve heard other AC/DC albums in the past. All the songs sound alike. Maybe you like AC/DC’s song. If so, the new album will be enjoyable to you. But it’s not going to be anything substantially different from what you’ve heard from them before.Report

  4. Stillwater says:

    You got somethin against friendship bro?

    Actually, it seems like the sorta lameness a dickish person does to demonstrate what they think other people will view as a show of Real Concern when they’re fundamentally incapable of it.Report

    • Stillwater in reply to Stillwater says:

      Course, the song does contain the lyrics “just call out my name and I’ll come runnin”, which might be a way of telling the French we’ll bomb some Muslims for em if they just give the word.Report

      • Tod Kelly in reply to Stillwater says:

        Awesome.

        I almost went with something about the song having newly added lyrics that went, “just call out my name and I’ll come runnin’ after a week or so when i look pretty bad for having stayed home…”

        Yours is funnier.Report

  5. Kazzy says:

    Did you really just put James Taylor in the same category as Barry Freakin’ Manilow?Report

  6. Troublesome Frog says:

    The weird thing about all of this is that most of these politicians are supposed to be slick “people people” whose primary talents are figuring out how to make other people feel good about them. It seems like if you were to meet John Kerry or any of his handlers in person, they’d be very good at coming across as likable people who respect you and care about your thoughts and feelings. So I don’t get why this stuff happens.

    My only guess is that they have a really hard time relating to the median citizen (especially a foreign one) in the abstract as being a person with feelings and motivations much like themselves and the flesh and blood human beings standing around them. I suppose we all empathize more with people standing in the same room as us than with the abstract notion of a person far away, but this kind of disconnect seems weirdly extreme.Report

  7. Jaybird says:

    Should have been Cat Stevens.Report

    • Kolohe in reply to Kolohe says:

      and the Administration said earlier this week that someone higher ranking in the US govt than the US Ambassador to France should have gone.Report

    • Troublesome Frog in reply to Kolohe says:

      How else will the world know the US position on terrorism?Report

      • Kolohe in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

        ftr, I think this whole kerfuffle is stupid on toast. But while (of course) conservative critics criticized Obama, so did other people. And then the Obama administration admitted that they done goofed up. The original post leaves the impression that the whole Obama not going to Paris thing is something only the derposphere is getting on his case about.

        (and even when the President says notgonnadoit and he’s right, he and his peeps can still give bs reasons on which they can be called out o)Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Kolohe says:

      You know, that really would have been one hell of a photo op for (insert Republican Candidate here).

      Not ready for prime time, the whole lot of them.Report

  8. aaron david says:

    TOP MEN ™ using Smart Diplomacy!

    Terror experts are unsure how the French will retaliate.Report

  9. Rufus F. says:

    I know- they’ll stone him no matter what he does.

    But he should have been there.Report

  10. Kolohe says:

    Talking about this last night, somebody came up with the great idea that this is exactly what the State of the Union needs – a house band and a musical guest. “Live from Capitol Hill! It’s Tuesday Night!”Report

  11. CK MacLeod says:

    Ugh. Oi. I have no “this is why it’s not what it looks like” take on this. It’s too excruciating even to think about: So I’m done except to note that James Taylor, who I’ve read resides in France, deserves part of the blame for not having told them they were crazy, and refusing.Report

  12. Michael Drew says:

    The only mistake they made here was giving this dumb controversy any time or thought at all.Report

  13. Mike Schilling says:

    At least they didn’t send Carly Simon too. That would have been awkward.Report

  14. Rufus F. says:

    I sort of give James Taylor a pass for being in the greatest car movie of all time, BUT, I do enjoy this passage from the great Lester Bangs:

    “Matter of fact, if I ever get down to Carolina I’m going to try to figure out a way to off James Taylor. Hate to come off like a Nazi, but if I hear one more Jesus-walking-the-boys-and-girls-down-a-Carolina-path-while-the-dilemma-of-existence-crashes-down-like-a-slab-of-hod-on-JT’s-shoulders song, I will drop everything and hop the first Greyhound to California for the signal satisfaction of breaking off a bottle of Ripple and twisting it into James Taylor’s guts until he expires in a spasm of adenoidal poesy.”Report