October 1, 2007

Because I know you want to talk about it, Part 3.

Hillary Clinton has taken over control of the nation's brain, as demonstrated by the fact that people seem to think it's worth talking and talking about the sound of her laughter. Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.

48 comments:

XWL said...

Hope you know plastering, cause when you move back to Madison, they'll charge you an arm and a leg to repair those holes in the walls if you don't repair them first.

(unless Brooklyn Law School is expected to pick up the tab on that stuff as well)

And if the attention she draws now is driving you crazy, wait until the primaries and caucuses actually begin . . .

Swifty Quick said...

What, you mean you don't think the laugh she has affected lately is a weird thing?

If you think about it, it's about on a par with the discussion about Howard Dean's scream in Iowa.

Mortimer Brezny said...

She is boring.

Ron said...

See that flying rats ass over there?

Yep, I don't care about that either!

Maxine Weiss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ruth Anne Adams said...

Hillary! bears a striking resemblence to Shirley Jones as Mrs. Partridge.

Professor Althouse: Why would you bang your head against a wall when they're critiquing her laugh? You thought her fashion choices and the Sopranos video were worthy of critique. I think the laugh is part of her communication skills and is not out-of-bounds for a leading presidential contender. Further, her laugh cannot be dismissed as some aide's fashion choice [cleavage] or a team of writers at HBO [the Soprano send-up]. It's really her laughing.

This is a guaranteed controversy at the Althouse blog if you do that voodoo that you do so well. I think you owe us. It's either this or another egg salad sandwich vlog.

C'mon, get happy.

Bob said...

It's Hillary's equivalent of Dean's scream, Bush's verbal gaffes, Ford's clumsiness, Carter's toothy grin. It's the stupid and lazy way the media has of drawing a caricature of our leaders for us; the cartoonists will pick up on it and perfect it.

Speaking of which, has Gary Trudeau chosen an "avatar" for Hillary yet? If he hasn't, how about a contest for suggestions/possibilities?

AlphaLiberal said...

Whaddaya know?

Perhaps we'll both be pounding our heads o the same wall!

Maxine Weiss said...

See, wasn't that mature and responsible?

Revenant said...

It's really her laughing.

Well... it's really her making noises, at least. The little clip in the Slate article sounds badly faked.

Of course, politicians do spend a lot of their time being fake.

Daryl said...

She'll spend some time with her consultants practicing genuine laughter.

titus22 said...

Althouse, if you like rufus albums poses you should buy Bright Eyes albums-they are fabulous. Granted, they both despise Bush but their music is great.

Why can the entertainers I like Love Bush-such a bummer.

Although, Kathey Jo Lopez says that McCain had dinner with James Gandofini-so at least we are kind of cool.

titus22 said...

By the way, I hate Hilary's laugh. It is so fake and contrived.

I don't care for her. I believe she is very smart but don't want her as the president but have a sneaky feeling she may be. I think her laugh is a trivial matter. She will utilize all of the Bush presidential authority to her advantage though and absolutely love it.

I am kind of horny but it is Monday night which is usually night but I am tempted to get my pussy walking the streets. Chances are I would hit pay dirt. One of the reasons I love NYC. The ability to put a baseball cap on at 1:00 on a Monday and walk the streets and get some hog. Heaven.

Chip Ahoy said...

That's cackle.

titus22 said...

I am going to Vienna on Friday for a company meeting.

I am so excited. I hope I can pick up some international hog while I am there.

I talked to my therapist about going to Vienna, he is a jew, and said it is one of the last places he would go. I love him, he is so NY liberal jew and I aboslutely love that. He fasted last weekend for the holiday. Instead of talking about him we talked about him being a NYC liberal jew liberal and I was absolutely fascinated. Think the jewish gay character in Angels in America and that is my therapist. A lot of guilt. I love guilt, I think it is a turn on.

Maxine Weiss said...

Titus 22: You said you didn't believe in Therapy! But I think it's good that you go, nonetheless.

Why don't you call the police on the person that did those bad things to you at age 7 ???

Who's to say that the person wouldn't try it again, with someone else?

Would it cause discomfort for you, and others, if you involved the authorities?

Love,Maxine

John Stodder said...

Curiously, Saturday Night Live was way ahead of the curve on Hillary's laugh. Amy Poehler did a Hardball parody in which every tough question was greeted with that phony belly-laugh, along with a cornpone phrase like "Heavens to Betsy."

But, yeah, I don't care about it. All politicians are weird nowadays. I still think I'm probably going to end up voting for her. I'll wince many times over that vote, but it is what it is.

Revenant said...

That's cackle.

Don't be silly. Everyone knows it doesn't count as a cackle unless she finishes up with "and your little dog, too".

Maxine Weiss said...

Titus 22, oh Titus 22: You know, you could make an anonymous call to the Police. Maybe they'd think it was a crank, but so what...

If I knew who you were, where you were... I'd call the Police on your behalf...EVEN IF YOU SAID FOR ME NOT TO !

Because that's just exactly the type of person I am. I do what I feel is best, even over the objections of others.

And, if you say someone did things they shouldn't have, when you were age 7....then I say that should be reported, no matter how long ago it occurred.

Yes I am a busybody. Yes I do inject myself, and intrude on other people's lives, and frankly, I LOVE doing it, because I'm usually RIGHT, whether others choose to admit that or not !!!!

Love, Maxine

former law student said...

Because her laugh is fakey fake fake fake, faker than Nixon's 4 more years double handed gesture, and just as motivated by her handlers as his gestures were by his. (I think Mailer captured it in Miami and the Siege of Chicago, but that was 40 years ago.)

She first displayed her cold calculating nature when she and Bill appeared on 60 minutes to discuss his bimbo eruptions, back in 92.

michael farris said...

"people seem to think it's worth talking and talking about the sound of her laughter"

Which only detracts from the serious issues the country needs to face, number one of which is, of course, her cleavage.

Hoosier Daddy said...

After hearing that cackle, I'm more convinced than ever she'll rename the plane to Broomstick One.

EnigmatiCore said...

Talking about her laughter is vapid, but not any more so than voting for her just because she's a woman, and not any more so than voting against her just because she's a woman.

rhhardin said...

What would half the nation obsess on, if not Hillary?

Unscrupulousnes is just part of female empowerment and fits the story line just fine.

Ann Althouse said...

I think it was her strategy to make us talk about that instead of substantive problems she has. It's a distraction. She's deliberately laughing in a way designed to derail us from going in a direction that would hurt her. (So was the cleavage.)

Anonymous said...

The laugh that Hillary! used on Meet the Press was the highest polling laugh of the 27 sample laughs the Hillary! marketing and campaign staff tested on a sample of 1,308 likely voters during August '08.

The laugh that polled second highest included a snort at the end, but it appeared to skew to a disproportionatly southern white male demographic.

The laugh polling is part of a larger campaign iniative dubbed "Make HRC Seem More Natural" by inside staffers.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

The Hildebeest's cackle. Britney's kids, Jen's new boyfriend. Whatever.

It all reminds me way too much of the great interest in shark attacks, August 2001.

KCFleming said...

The laugh was less alarming than Hillary's response to Russert when he exposed how Bill contradicted SheWhoMustBeObeyed on torture with an ice-cold "Well, I'll talk to him later."

Notwithsatnding the fact she was contradicting herself on the subject, the dynamic was funny only in a very weird way.

MadisonMan said...

The next debate should feature Jerry Seinfeld, Amy Silverman, Chris Rock and a slew of other celebrities cracking jokes.

The one that laughs the most normally and sincerely gets my vote!

Paddy O said...

Like the sound of a garbage disposal. It turns on. Everyone gets sucked into the vortex whether they want to or not.

No one has a vortex like Hillary. It's almost cosmic in dimensions and strength.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

It isn't so much the grating sound of that cackle that makes me wonder where she is leaving the eggs, as it is the inappropriate timing.

In several recent interviews, the cackling just seemed weird and out of place. In real life if I were in conversation with someone who bizarrely and lengthly began laughing I would...baaaack away sloooowly. Alrighty then.... see you later.

This inability to be human and natural is just plain scary. I wonder what we would see if the mask every came off. I don't want to find out.

MadisonMan said...

That should've been Sarah Silverman. I think I was conflating Sarah Silverman and Amy Sedaris.

Trooper York said...

Inside the Barack Obama campaign
headquarters:

Dorothy campaign strategist: I'm frightened, Auntie Em! I'm frightened!
[Auntie Em's image appears in the computer screen]
Auntie Em: Dorothy? Dorothy? Where are you? It's me, Auntie Em! We're trying to find you! Where are you?
Dorothy: I'm here in Oz, Auntie Em! I'm locked in the witch's castle, and I'm trying to get home to you, Auntie Em!
[Auntie Em's image fades out]
Dorothy: Oh, Auntie Em, don't go away! I'm frightened! Come back! Come back!
[the Wicked Witch's image appears on the screen]
Wicked Witch of the West: Auntie Em! Auntie Em! Come back! I'll give you Auntie Em, my pretty! Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh!
[to the camera]
Wicked Witch of the West: Heh heh heh heh heh heh!
(Posted on You Tube 9/27/07)

mtrobertsattorney said...

What will we see when the mask comes off?

We will see a European socialist who cannot relate to individuals, but has a deep concern for groups. We will see a person who is convinced that only she has the true solution to all the problems facing this country and has nothing but contempt for those who disagree with her. And we will see a person who believes that all those who disagree with her are part of a vast conspiracy.

If such a person were to gain political power, the prognosis for justice and freedom is not good.

former law student said...

My biggest fear with HRC is that to avoid looking like a girl, she will feel compelled to act the tough guy with Iran, the way Olmert impetuously invaded Lebanon to get the soldier back, because he didn't want to look like a wuss.

Swifty Quick said...

I think it was her strategy to make us talk about that instead of substantive problems she has. It's a distraction. She's deliberately laughing in a way designed to derail us from going in a direction that would hurt her. (So was the cleavage.)

It's a good theory, but if correct then the problem she's got with that strategy is that the laugh is a negative drag on her, and she runs the risk of people then when you combining it with the substantive problems into one package.

Ken said...

I can't see why this irritates you. Noise pollution has been a subject of debate for years

Cedarford said...

Inability to be human and natural is something that many high-IQ people are afflicted with.

Look at Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Nixon, Mitt Romney, Newt, Hillary.

Gates and Nixon tried and failed.
Bill Clinton had the benefit of his little head neutralizing his big head and his Irish temper and extroverted personality to help him out.
Newt doesn't give a rat's ass what people think.
Hillary and Mitt struggle. Maybe one or both will seem human by the end of the primaries.

crypticguise said...

Hillary's laugh is generated by the reptilian inside her human skin. I hope we never have to see her peel away her face. AAAAArrrggh!

Joan of Argghh! said...

All the more reason for the serious contenders to hold off announcing their candidacy.

We haven't gotten around to Fred Thompson's laugh yet, so I think he actually could've waited a bit longer to announce. That would've been totally sweet timing.

-Joan

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Inability to be human and natural is something that many high-IQ people are afflicted with.

Also many sociopaths. Some are just more able to conceal it than others.

Asperger's is a tendency in my family. My brother has it and is brilliant. I'm just mildly affected to the extent that people merely think I'm standoffish, smart@$$ and have a weird sense of humor, so I know what are getting at.

However, for Hillary....I'm betting on the sociopath or the reptilian theory.

Trooper York said...

Jason Foster: [dying] ... It's the moment you've all been waiting for, I believe. Now you can dig deep in the treasury.
Emily: Are you feeling weaker, Father?
Jason Foster: At last... a note of hope in your voice, Emily?
Emily: Why must you always say such cruel and miserable things to me?
Wilfred: I quite agree, Father!
Jason Foster: Why indeed, my loved ones! Because you're cruel and miserable people! Because none of you RESPOND to love! Emily responds only to what her petty hungers dictate, a prime example of this being her marriage to Wilfred... a marriage which broke her dear late mother's heart, in every sense! Wilfred responds only to things that have weight and mass and gaugeable value! He MEASURES novels, he doesn't experience them! He JUDGES artwork, he doesn't seek out its beauty or its meaning! And Paula lives in a mirror; the world is nothing more to her than a reflection of herself. And her brother... Humanity to him is a small animal, caught in a trap, waiting to be tormented! His pleasure is the giving of pain, and from this he receives the same sense of fulfillment most people get from a kiss or an embrace! You're CARICATURES, ALL of you! Even without your masks, you're CARICATURES!
(The Twilight Zone 1959)

Frieda said...

it's a laugh of a robot...

she acts like a robot, laughs like a robot and looks like a robot. She will loose the election because she can not like a normal woman. she needs to take a lesson from Angela Merkel of Germany to learn to act and be an inspiring leader...

she also has a strange way of "eye contact"...she opens her eyes too wide and becomes so scary. just notice her eyes when shaking peoples hands.

Jim C. said...

The fact that her laughter is a bit forced doesn't concern me. I already thought she couldn't be trusted.

The Dean scream didn't really change my opinion of him, either. I already though he was a bit over the top. But in his case, the fact that the scream was natural and sincere is what scared me.

I just read "Saint Hillary" by Michael Kelly. It originally appeared in the 5/23/93 NY Times Sunday magazine, but oddly it's not in their archives or Proquest's. It's only in a collection of his articles called "Things Worth Fighting For." One blooger has posted it. You'll find it by googling the quote.

Anyway, here's one quote that struck me. She said, "Let us be willing to remold society by redefining what it means to be a human being in the twentieth century; moving into a new millennium."

"Remold society?" Redefining what "human" means? This is beyond messianic and sounds positively Orwellian. Until I read this article, I was just wary of her. I am now officially scared.

Anonymous said...

Hllary utterly disgusts me.

jewsyonkersislam # 419: Hezi Arris radio show, 10-2-07 & Westchester Times Tribune -10-4-07 and excerpts from the most recent edition ( Joe Klock's article, Bob Weirs article and Hezi's editorials) with comments by me as well as relevant additions from other sources (e.g. Dr. Thomas Sowell's book " The Economics and Politics of Race ", The Journal News (JN)... ) .

1) On Tuesday,10-2-07, I called Hezi Arris's call-in radio show on WVOX 1460 AM in New Rochelle with a question for black activist Katrina Philips -who apparently walked out (after being unable to do more than rant and rave about the Yonkers Police Dep'ts. alleged "brutality"...) before I could ask her the question below...so I had to modify it and ask Hezi, instead) . As I recall,it went something like this:
Hezi said " Good Morning,caller", I said "Hi,Hezi", he said "It better be on topic,Tom" (for he cuts me off quite frequently when he doesn't like my questions), I said "of course,Hezi" and I began:
" According to recent census reports, white people are becoming a minority in the U.S.A. and black people are just one of many other minorities demanding special treatment. And the other minorities are getting fed up and will not support such largess " -at this point Hezi said " Sorry Tom, but we dont have time for you to make your point...What minorities ? " and cut me off. (as for the minorities,how about West Indians,Africans,Hispanics... or Chinese,Cambodians,Laotians,Vietnamese...). But had he not, I would have continued- " for an admittedly disadvantaged -but largely in the past- minority such as black people today. This is not the 1960's and I submit that Katrina Phillips,Al Sharpton,Jesse Jackson and their crew are living in a fantasy world. Have they nothing better to do than be professional agita- tors ? ".


2) PREDATORS PROWLING OUR POLITICAL PASTURE
By Joe Klock, Sr.
They prefer to be called lobbyists, an innocent-sounding soubriquet which is about as accurate a description of them as "undocumented visitors" is of illegal aliens.....................Their defenders resolutely characterize them as guardian angels of a constitutional prohibition against infringing upon citizens' right to "petition the government for a redress of grievances."
( like the aforementioned trio: Phillips,Sharpton and Jackson)
....................To be sure, many legitimate representatives of social, economic and charitable segments of our population register as lobbyists to protect and advance the interests of people and enterprises that are downtrodden, needy, under-represented and/or overlooked (does that include the Trial Lawyers of America, a most reprehensible bunch of people who pretty much run the Democratic Party -along with the feminists)...........................In today's Washington and elsewhere worldwide, they overpopulate K Street ,.............. .............More than merely a political variant of the salespeople ( used cars....) in business, today's well-heeled lobbyists actually draft legislation and persuade those in power to sponsor it as nearly verbatim as possible ..... .............These persuaders will argue that their motive - and that of those who pay them to persuade - never sinks below the level of a selfless desire to provide good government, fair laws and a better shake for the governed....Fueling this process are.................. exchanges of cold cash. ( A literal example of this last technique turned up in one Reprehensible's home frig, but he hasn't yet, remarkably, gotten the cold shoulder from his colleagues.)...Recipients of such varietal forms of largesse hotly deny that there is any quid pro quo involved in these relationships, suggesting that their patrons and providers dump gazillions of dollars into the pot with absolutely no hope for, or desire of, any greedy goodies in return. .........................However, I'm just enough of a cynic to suggest that the modern practice of lobbying in America doesn't get high marks in an objective smell test.............

3) Bob Weir writes -about immigrants- that they " ...toil for recognition in a society that has forgotten the importance of recognition...(that) we have forgotten the desire to belong, to do the right thing, to live in honor of one's God, to earn the respect of society as a man or woman.." And I agree. And then, satiricly, he calls for free medical care (as so many dopey Democrats and others do), mentions Iraq and notes the NRA, NEA,NAACP,AARP. As far as I'm concerned, all of these last four are living in the past... and have no viable plans for the present or the future.

4) Hezi discusses the Yonkers Republican Party being weak (it is), as having manipulated leadership (it does), poor candidates (it does)... And I should know, for I was once a District Leader. But I did not support the party's candidate so the party threw me out and put a whale of a woman in my place.
In fact I supported Liam McLaughlin -who won and continues as a Leader on the Yonkers City Council. But Liam will have nothing to do with me now be- cause he thinks he knows women and I dont. Yet the truth is that I know both
men AND women more throughly than he'll ever know.
Len Maniace ( JN, p. A1, 10-2-07) writes about the Yonkers Republican Party. And in his article,two problems for the Republicans in Yonkers are noted: the war in Iraq and health care. As for health care -as for so much of our bloated entitlement-expectant society -as I see it- we'll ALL have to get used to less unless we want to bankrupt the country. As for the Iraq war, and problems with the Muslim world as a whole -in accordance with what I said in my jewsyonkersislam # 418- we should do an end run around that whole part of the world, showing them our blood ties AS WELL AS the fact that,if we dont work together in the ways I specified, we will all surely die in the very near future. As for John Spencer, he is a friend and we get along well.
Len Maniace also writes about John Murtagh's opponent in the 5th Dist.
City Council race, Jodi Mosiello. And this brings to mind the time I called Hezi Arris's radio show [see #1] to ask her a question about the dirty and sneaky tricks she was using against John. As soon as I mentioned sneaky (women)
and dirty tricks, Hezi cut me off. Yet women,by nature -to us men- are "sneaky and devious". But add in feminism and it gets far worse, for all men,women and children. Just look at Jodi, a woman whose mind has been befuddled by feminism (as are the minds of most women in the West today), as she tries to have a private law practice and have and raise 2 children. Also read an article in AsiaTimes on line ( National Extinction: suicide of a nation by Spengler, www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/1125Aa01.html) and realize that feminiam is the cause of the suicide of Western nations. In addition -also
because of feminism- the populations of Western countries are aging and there are no young people around to support us aging selfish geezers who supported such nonsense as feminism in the first place.

5 ) Gideon Rachman,Financial Times,1-29-07,War on Error...."Big Ideas"

In discussing a book,Mr. Rachman writes,about certain people: " (they)
illustrate their argument convincingly with a wealth of detail that is sometimes amusing – and frequently depressing. They offer an unusually irreverent tour of the Washington think-tank and media scene...............This becomes clear when the authors turn to the specific foreign policy challenges that will sit in a new president’s in-box – Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and China. Inevitably, they come up with a range of recommendations that are complex and sometimes appear contradictory. The world is like that. But try telling that to the voters or to the hosts on Fox television " . As for foriegn relations, I've already noted some of my solutions (above}. As to these advisors with "Big Ideas", they already are being shown how wrong they are. Just like with the feminists- whose original good intentions have resulted in the worst possible outcomes- the law of unintended consequences has produced devastating results for all their "Big Ideas". As for people in general and Fox News in particular, simplicity is the operative word. Just like Hezi cuts me off -and he is an intellectual..giant- on news media...the "sound-bite" is all that counts.

6) Dr. Thomas Sowell's book " The Economics and Politics of Race " notes that 75% of black people in the U.S.A. have at least one white ancestor -and that behavioral patterns (i.e. willingness to work) determine people's social and economic status. And I wonder about Katrina Phillips,Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If being a black activist is a career
-and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are doing quite well in it- then we should look at this career and see what it takes to do so well in it (indeed,I wonder how well Katrina Phillips is doing in it and whether Al Sharpton's group is funding her as it does so many other "worthy" causes)
Dr. Sowell also notes that, in 1600, in Virginia, 1/4 to 1/3 of children born to unwed white mothers were mulattos (their fathers were black men)... and you can be pretty certain that most of these relationships were consual between the mothers and fathers.


(My email has been acting up quite a bit.Perhaps its because I am anti-feminist,
anti-gay,anti-lesbian,anti-ultra-liberal [without being too conservative,of course]
...as well as anti-stupidity and anti-stupid people ? In any case,I've had to create new email addresses many times recently. So far my blog is still working (jewsyonkersislamiii-tc.blogspot.com] so all I put out is there ([#s 400
and up I haven't been able to send out as I lost my old email address list BUT they are there for anyone to read).
For anyone who is interested,I will post all my stuff there in case I have more problems)

Revenant said...

Also many sociopaths. Some are just more able to conceal it than others.

Actually, sociopaths are generally very good at acting like normal people, just because they have to practice it constantly.

Hillary isn't (so far as I know) a sociopath. She's just a completely uncharismatic person trying to act charismatic.

Hamilton Lovecraft said...

She's deliberately laughing in a way designed to derail us from going in a direction that would hurt her. (So was the cleavage.)

Ann, get help. Really.

Unknown said...

She's deliberately laughing in a way designed to derail us from going in a direction that would hurt her. (So was the cleavage.)

It's the Hillary Clinton Breast Controversy!