Lipstick Jungle Fever, by Michael Davis

Michael Davis

Master Of The Universe, Lord Of All Media, Most Interesting Black Man In the World, Sexiest Man on Earth, Mentor, Writer, Artist, Producer & Uppity.

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23 Responses

  1. Chris Gumprich says:

    Heaven forbid an election is ever about the issues…The only positive thing about our recently-called election is the possibility that my lame-duck MP might actually show up on my doorstep. I've been complaining about him for two years, let's see if I have the balls to say it to his face.(translation for the Canadian-impaired: "our" = "Canada's", "MP" = "Member of Parliament")

  2. Vinnie Bartilucci says:

    I've said it over and over (and eventually it will get a laugh), if they cold invent an engine that ran on offense, we could tell the entire middle east to go screw.It's a standard tactic nowadays – hope and pray that your opponent says something offensive (or at least something you can twist into being offensive) so you can get people to obsess on that instead of the original discussion. The part that's so amazing is not that the Republicans did it, but that the media is acting so surprised. Obama and Clinton had been doing it to each other for almost a year. Every comment was reacted to with some iteration of "what do you mean by THAT?" and the comment would be quickly recanted. It's a classic feint, and it saddens (I was gonna say "surprises" but I realized that was just silly) me that there's still so many people still falling for it. Maybe next, one of them will throw salt in Brian Williams' eyes at the debate and take out a steel chair and waffle the opponent while Williams is out for three minutes.So why was it okay to lambaste Clinton and not Palin? Simple – people LIKE Palin. The gut-reaction first impression is "She seems nice". Whether she's got the experience to be the number two person in the country (second only to Brtiney Spe… I mean the President) is open to debate. But people seem to like her, and it's easier to come to the defense of someone you like. Any time you saw Hillary try and pull that "I'm only a woman" gag, it was usually met with laughing and pointing.The Republicans stand a 50-50 shot of beating the Democrats to the punch of putting a woman in the White House. And it's driving them CRAZY.

  3. Marc Alan Fishman says:

    Have a good business trip Mr. Davis, well… as good as it can be. Couldn't agree more about the BS trough from which our politicians stuff their faces from. Simply put, we're a nation divided by sound bytes and marketing blurbs. We're a country that's only been united in the last half a century through fear. Our national minimum wage is such that those living off of it, aren't living. Our economy has been on the decline for years now, and on top of it all, we spend BILLIONS of dollars we don't have to fuel a war with a country that never attacked us. In a nation founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and should be able to live in peace and harmony… and worship how ever it serves him best. Instead, we're a nation that lives on greed, and the principle that only white christian men may prosper, and only they should live to be prosperous. It's enough to make me want to move. But 'chuck' that. This is my country as much as it's any body elses. There's no need to wonder why we look to foolish to the rest of the world. All I've ever said to those who listen to me, when it comes to politics… I just wish we could have 1 president and congress that cared more about the state of our country then themselves, or how we look to the rest of the world. We have the means to live entirely on clean energy NOW. We have the means to raise minimum wage, and redistribute taxes as such to help those who make the least STILL be able to afford to live. But instead, we'll fight about who said what when and how was it said. What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? The put bull is lucky it can sniff it's own @ss when it stinks.

    • Vinnie Bartilucci says:

      "Instead, we're a nation that lives on greed, and the principle that only white christian men may prosper, and only they should live to be prosperous."PLEASE tell me you were only speaking in hyperbole to make a point. Please tell me you don't see the irony in that statement while commenting to a column by a successful and prosperous black man who is writing about a black man who might become President of the United States. Lie, if necessary.Say there's lots needing to be done, but don't fall back on that "until it's ALL fixed, nothing's fixed" mindset that drives me mad every time I hear it.

      • Marc Alan Fishman says:

        Yes Vinnie. Hyperbole to make a point. I know Mr. Davis and MANY other non-white, non-christian people to be very very successful. I figured if the right wingers get to fly off the handle and use hyperbole, by not us pinko-commie-lefties. :)

  4. Jeremiah Avery says:

    The arguing over asinine remarks rather than debating the issues just further cements the "style over substance" culture we have today. We're supposed to elect people to best represent us and it looks like we're doing a really good job at that.Come election day, I'll do a write-in vote for the M.O.T.U.

  5. mike weber says:

    I just wish we could have 1 president and congress that cared more about the state of our country then themselvesHad one of those.His name was James Earl Carter.

  6. mike weber says:

    Minor point – the "ugly American" is the Good Guy in that book.It's the handsome, plausible guy from the State Department who's the Bad Guy.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Very true — and something I was thinking about before I posted Michael's column. But the fact is, the phrase "The Ugly America" has come to take on its own meaning.Don't get me started on "The Thin Man."

  7. Rick Oliver says:

    Sarah Palin is a briliant distraction. Every news cycle spent on her is one not spent on McCain. And criticizing Palin is like punching the tar baby.

    • Vinnie Bartilucci says:

      "punching the tar baby"Have we learned NOTHING from this column???

      • Rick Oliver says:

        "Tar baby" references are almost but not quite as racist as "lipstick on a pig" references are sexist. That is to say, not at all. From the wikipedia:Tar-Baby was a doll made of tar and turpentine, used to entrap Br'er Rabbit in the second of the Uncle Remus stories. The more that Br'er Rabbit fought the Tar-Baby, the more entangled he became. In contemporary usage, "tar baby" refers to any "sticky situation" that is only aggravated by additional contact.

        • Vinnie Bartilucci says:

          As literate as the reference is (I'm well aware of where it came from – My Japanese Laserdisc copy of Song of the South is still in heavy rotation at my house), it's just another one of those terms that you can't possibly expect to get away with using in today's looking-forward to-be-offended society, no matter how clearly you make the point that you don't mean "that".I recall a senator being chastised for using the word "niggardly" to describe behavior he didn't care for. And there was a councilman who referred to his local DMV (which tended to absorb paperwork and resources, never to be seen again) as a "black hole". I believe he's in the food service industry now.As wrong and stupid (and calculated) as such reactions are, they will undoubtedly happen. And for the time it takes to come up with a less "colorful" metaphor, it's not worth using the risky one. Yes, it's a restriction of speech, and limits one's ability to discuss a topic (to a small degree) but sometimes it's easier to walk around the land mine than to pull out the body armor and walk over it.I remember when politicians actually cracked jokes. Nowadays everything they say has to be so carefully vetted and foucs-grouped there's no opportunity for spontaneity. And in the few times such a chance appears, we get boners like this. Sad.

          • Russ Rogers says:

            Tee hee! He said, "boner."

          • Mike Gold says:

            As for "boner" — check out "The Joker's Comedy of Errors," Batman #66, August-September 1951. If somebody could explain to me how this story ever got published… and to think of all the fuss about the All-Star Batman nonsense.

          • Alan Coil says:

            Different time, different meaning to the slang.

          • Mike Gold says:

            I don't think so. I think the word "boner" maintained both popular meanings in 1951. Check out the so-called party records of folks like Redd Foxx and Belle Barth from just a few years later.

          • Mike Gold says:

            Yep. That attack on the word "niggardly" was wrong. Completely. Same thing with "tar baby." Oh, and some people should check out the history of Nicolas Chauvin before they take a propriatorey interest in the term "Chauvinism."

          • Rick Oliver says:

            Like I said, criticizing Sarah Palin is like punching the tar baby — and even when Obama is NOT referring to Palin, the Republican spin machine turns it around to make it sound like he is. Countdown (MSNBC) had a great segment the other night in which they played at least five clips of John McCain using the exact same pig/lipstick line, twice in reference to Hillary Clinton's proposed policies. No one on the Democratic side every accused the noble war hero of being sexist. While I agree that Obama has to be careful in what he says, I disagree that he made a boner (run the South Park laugh track). If he's too careful, he'll end up saying nothing at all.

          • Vinnie Bartilucci says:

            "If he's too careful, he'll end up saying nothing at all."And at last the sublime perfection of the Republican master plan is drawn screaming into the light…

          • mike weber says:

            And there was a councilman who referred to his local DMV (which tended to absorb paperwork and resources, never to be seen again) as a "black hole". You know, the Russian term for a black hole is "dark hole", because, in Russian, "black hole" has a colloquial anatomical meaning…

  8. Russ Rogers says:

    The person who is getting ignored by the media is Joe Biden. Joe Biden takes the morning train. He works from nine to five and then, he takes another home again to find me voting for him.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Well, then, say hi to him for me.You can't shut Joe Biden up. There's a difference between getting entrenched and getting exposed.