12 INT. THE MAGIC BOX- DAY 12 The shop is bustling with customers now. Anya is working the register and Buffy and Willow are at the counter, busily researching. A CUSTOMER approaches Willow with an antique hourglass. CUSTOMER Do you gift wrap? WILLOW Do we! (to Anya) Do we? (Anya nods) Oh! We do. Little help... Giles is desperately trying to manage the customers and answer a flurry of questions. GILES No, no. Ground cloven hooves are 30% off. The whole ones are full price. (turns around) That's not... candy! He looks up with relief as XANDER enters the store. GILES Xander! There's too many of them... people! And they all seem to want things. XANDER I hear ya. Stay British. You'll be okay. He pats Giles on the shoulder then heads over to Anya. XANDER The thousand-yard stare. Damn! You hate to see it on any man but especially in retail. Anya wraps up a woman's purchase and hands it to her. ANYA (to woman) Please go. The woman walks away, shaking her head. XANDER Anya, the Shopkeeper's Union of America called. They wanted me to tell you that "please go" just got replaced with "have a nice day". ANYA But I have their money. Who cares what kind of day they have? XANDER No one. It's just a long cultural tradition of raging insincerity. Embrace it. Anya calls out to her customer. ANYA Hey, you! Have a nice day. XANDER There's my girl!
From the No Place Like Home transcript at Psyche, which just added Lessons in PDF, if you like that sort of thing. And even if it's technically redundant, "PDF format" looks better.
Feel like I should say something about this:
USS Clueless - USC HiresWould our nation not benefit if fewer blacks in colleges spent their time in black studies and more went into electrical engineering?
[. . .] I'd like to see more blacks follow in the footsteps of Thurgood Marshall [complimentary, thus for my sinister purposes useless, bits deleted] I'd like to see fewer following Cornel West, about whom the less said the better. But I want more: I don't just want more Marshall's. I want to see a black Feynman, brilliant and irreverent, looking at everything sideways. I know he or she is out there somewhere. I want to see an American black win a Nobel Prize in Physics. Chinese Americans have done it, Indians have done it; Japanese Americans have done it; Hispanics have done it; Jews have done it; why not an American black?
But what is there to say, really? Other than advising any American black (sweet Lord. . .) in college right now to make the paternalistic, self-righteous Great White Fucker proud, by following his dreams (which should be the same as yours, and if they're not, there's something wrong with you), and becoming what he knows, in his heart of hearts, that you can become: a statistic he can quote at your less-accomplished fellow American blacks when they whine about mistreatment.
Stirring, ennit?
Update 10/2: From the "Great Minds Think Alike" department -
And finally, it seems that the specter of retirement may have short-circuited a few neural pathways in Dick Armey's brain. The outgoing House Majority Leader, speaking at an event in Florida last week, announced that "I always see two Jewish communities in America: one of deep intellect and one of shallow, superficial intellect. Conservatives have a deeper intellect and tend to have occupations of the brain in fields like engineering, science and economics... Liberals are generally not very bright, and conservatives are deep thinkers." Oh really? So let's get this straight: Jews that disagree with Armey must be liberals, and are therefore stupid, since it's well known that conservatives are smarter than liberals. Yup, it sounds like something that might come out of the mouths of right-wing hate radio broadcasters like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but this is the House Majority Leader for goodness sake. Way to throw in some religious slurs with your partisanship there too, Dick.
From Democratic Underground's Top Ten Conservative Idiots (No. 85)
You could combine these notions and end up with Confirmed Bachelorette Condi Rice. . . or with Alan Keyes, if you're in a spiteful frame of mind.
He was making sense, you know. Until they cancelled that shit like AfterM*A*S*H.
Update: And if I know my right-wingers, and God knows I'd prefer not to, one of them will choose to quibble over use of the term "American black" rather than anything substantial. They may make sneering reference to the term "Afro-American" as well.
Bitch. Please.
Spare me.
Incredible, how these people will write volumes on things they know absolutely nothing about.
Don't they know that makes them look like idiots?
Laura, they don't look like idiots to each other, since none of 'em know any better. As long as they never leave the Vanilla Suburbs, mentally or physically, they're safe as houses in their ignorance.
I find it fascinating from an anthropological point of view, until I remember I'm sharing a planet with them.
Mr. Clueless also had a long post recently on how it was America's duty to destroy the Muslim culture because it was a failure and holding mankind back. He tried to reshape his argument later to say that destroying the Middle East was a matter of self-defense, because "they" hate "us" and want to destroy "our" society. It still sounded like a cross between Nazi propaganda about Jews and slave owners' rationalization about Africans being so much better off as slaves, because they couldn't possibly care for themselves. There seems to be a major push by conservative white men to go back to the days of the empire. I'm a middle-aged white male, and the idea still scares me. I can't even begin to imagine how frightening the world must be looking to those not within the "elite class", or whatever you want to call a bunch of egotistical, hypocritical racists.
His post (and his earlier 'let's declare war on the whole Middle East' post) is worth reading in full, for a look into this sort of mind. Especially as that earlier post was popular among the warbloggers.
This latest posting in notable for several things (cluelessness, right-wing PC thinking about education), but his comment about wanting more of Thurgood Marshalls has got to be a lie. Nothing in his blog suggests that he approves of Evul Librul Lawyers or Evul Librul Judicial Activist Judges. Quite the opposite, IMHO.
It's very much like the Wall Street Journal editors mentioning MLK favorably, or a mafia boss sending a gorgeous wreath of flowers to the funeral of a guy whom he had whacked.
Could probably easily find a link to that entry, but anybody got one handy?
Fairly certain I can guess what it says, but who knows? Perhaps he'll surprise me.
wKen, The Empire Never Died, you know.
Or The Empire Never Got Started. Always get my slogans mixed up. . .
it is funny [okay, it isn't really all that funny] how "THOSE PEOPLE" [because i am pretty goddamned well hesitant to say "my people"] [okay, what i really meant was: WHITEY] are always trying to give various "other" groups of people advice. so paternal, like saying "you should be more like your big brother! look at him, doing so well in medical school, while all you do is commit crimes and collect welfare!" it makes me sick. why don't they clean their own damn house before they go complaining about somebody else's? what about the fact that when you say "meth lab" you think of ignorant, scabby euro-americans before you think of anyone else? euro-american intellectuals need to start doing something supportive for their own communities, perhaps teaching them to read for instance. or, teaching them to form communties.
sorry, churlish again...
Aaron, it's at:
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/09/USCHires.shtml
Er, that's the one I pulled the quote from. I'd meant the other one wKen mentioned.
Hang on, Firesign Theater coming up on All Things Considered. Pointless political discussion can wait.
Here is the link:
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/09/Whoisourenemy.shtml
Perhaps I thought the Empire ended because I haven't gotten mine yet. Sucks to be one of the 'privilaged' and still living an underprivilaged life.
Well, that's settled then. The Empire Never Got Started!
But still offers free polyfoam padding, free installation, and no installment payments until 2003!
Thanks for the link. Could make it clickable, but then I'd be even more tempted to edit that comment in the other thread where I was obviously not quite awake yet. . .
Eh. I'll use the Wisdom of Solomon.
http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/09/Whoisourenemy.shtml
Solomon Grundy, that is.