The war against my car, Kool-Aid, and Calormen

[vovat]

On Wednesday evening, I was stopped at a stoplight, and someone crashed into the back of my car. It looks like the bumper sustained most of the damage, and the car can still be driven. I'm probably going to take it to a garage and get the damage assessed tomorrow.

Bill O'Reilly had an entire segment on his Wednesday night show about the David Letterman interview the night before. As might be expected, when back on his own turf, he was totally defensive and (whether purposely or just because he's an idiot) missing the point. On the same show, he discussed the War on Christmas, the War on Marriage, and (for a little while, anyway) the ACTUAL war.

Last night, he showed some e-mail messages he'd gotten about the interview, and, as usual, did his stupid "Kool-Aid Alert!" bit. I'm not particularly fond of that expression anyway. I don't think what they drank in Jonestown really WAS Kool-Aid, and even if it was, it was hardly Kool-Aid's fault that their product was utilized in this manner. So people who use this expression publically are essentially slandering a tasty beverage. It's a good thing for O'Reilly that the manufacturers apparently aren't litigious. But fair or not, the expression has entered the vernacular, so that's not the main issue. The bigger concern is that O'Reilly uses it to describe anyone who disagrees with him, whether or not they're going along with someone else's ideas, and never in regards to people who mindlessly agree with him. I guess it's beneficial for someone like O'Reilly to present those who agree with him as intelligent thinkers and the opposition as brainwashed, but whatever happened to "no spin" and "fair and balanced"? I mean, does anyone still BUY that crap?

Finally, I finished re-reading The Horse and His Boy yesterday. This is the only book in the Narnia series where C.S. Lewis uses the cliché of a poor boy turning out to be royalty (as well as the cliché that people in Arabesque cultures speak in flowery, overbearing poetry). It works quite well, though, and it's a good adventure/quest story overall. I also like how Aslan is portrayed as someone who primarily puts things in motion, and interferes at necessary times during the story.

As far as contradictions go, there seem to be quite a few humans at the Narnian court, even though Mr. Beaver says in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that there are no humans in the country. Perhaps some people from other countries migrated there after the defeat of the White Witch. Still, the fact that the only named Narnian human (Lord Peridan) has a name that sounds like the ones that the Telmarines (who hadn't come to Narnia yet at this point) have suggests that there might have been a lapse of memory on Lewis' part.

Comments

That sucks.

[l8erngr8er.livejournal.com]

Hi, Nathan. This is Lynn and I got a new live journal, which I'd say is an event comparable to leap year. Anyway, the same thing happened to my car over the summer, except for 4 cars were involved. I was actually first at the light, just sitting there, and it was a chain reaction from behind. The car behind me seemed to get nothing, but my bumper was a mess. Fortunately, I was still able to drive the car and got a new bumper pretty quickly.

My parents love Bill O'Reilly and I used to like his points from time to time, but now I dislike Fox News (including him) a lot. The only way you can say "Fair and Balanced" in referrence to Fox News is if you're making a joke.

Re: That sucks.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

There was a car right in front of me, so I'm glad there wasn't enough impact for me to hit it. That always complicates matters.

The thing with O'Reilly is, even if you agree with him (which I rarely do, except when he says something really obvious that pretty much no one would disagree with), he's still a jerk.

[loz]

I hope it is just your bumper. Sorry to hear about that!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hope it's just the bumper as well, which isn't to say that even that won't take a considerable amount of time to repair.

[arfies.livejournal.com]

When we got rear-ended last winter, a mechanic said that it's sometimes not just the bumper that gets damaged- sometimes there's internal things, like the styrofoam underneath it that gets compressed, when it needs to be "springy" to withhold impact from any future impacts. I'm not a car person, so I don't know.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know either. I guess they'll tell me at the repair shop. I did notice that, even though the car still runs just as well as it did, it seems a little wobbly on the side that sustained most of the impact.

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you weren't hurt in the accident. My car got rear-ended a few years ago. It sucked -- and still does, since it very slightly squished the frame and also cracked a motor mount. :\ Hopefully, you'll have better luck than I did. I'll cross my fingers for you! :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm also glad no one was hurt. It's more annoying than anything else, really.

[colleenanne.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're ok, too.

It was Flavor Aid that the Jonestown massacre used. My freshman journalism professor (David Dick) was the first reporter on the scene, so we got to see a good deal of footage. He wouldn't show it all in class, though, he made you go to his office for the good stuff. Dammit. I never went. hehe.