Random Thoughts March 15, 2011

Rep. Michele Bachmann's gaffe hear 'round the world

There's been a lot of chortling regarding Minnesota Congresswoman (Tea-Liban 6th District) Michele Bachmann's recent gaffe about Revolutionary War geography while in New Hampshire. Representative Bachmann told an adoring crowd,

"Before headlining a GOP fundraiser, the possible presidential hopeful told a group of students and conservative activists in Manchester, 'You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord.'" according to the Huffington Post. Which was an unfortunate mistake to make if she has presidential delusions.

I wanted to say something biting like the deranged Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula once appointed a racehorse to the Roman Senate and the people of Minnesota's 6th Congressional District have elected Michele Bachmann to Congress. (notice how I snuck it in here).

But before I did that I read Rep. Bachmann's biography in Wikipedia. She has a law degrees from Oral Roberts University and William and Mary. She was a tax lawyer for the IRS. She's intelligent.

Which means I have a hard time explaining many of her bizarre policy positions and statements. The Economist once called George W. Bush, "intellectually incurious." I wonder if Rep. Bachmann has this defect as well. She has found an ideological niche and is now comfortably ensconced in it. Many of her political beliefs and positions all no room for compromise. It seems that her political success depends in part on not compromising.

When my back was to the wall, comedically speaking

Saturday night, I did my first comedy monologue. It was for a pledge drive dinner for the Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship of Kern County. The last time I tried to do stand up comedy was over 30 years ago.

It was not an auspicious debut. It was an open mic night a bar called The Levee at 43rd and Main. I got up on stage and tried to do something crazy, like kicking a chair and acting strange. I didn't last long. As my friend Stepbuddy Anderson later wrote, "I had a chance and blew it."

This time was better and different. I actually wrote out my jokes beforehand. What was surprising was how easy I thought that was. After I finished creating my monologue, I was suspicious about how easy it was. But in way it was easy. I am a storyteller, I tell stories. I also know that if I make jokes about myself, I have an endless supply of funny stories and my jokes won't hurt anybody.

It went okay. But I was nervous and rushed my delivery. Which means I need to practice and I need to start creating an archive of funny stuff.

Phrases I liked today

One of the things that has just been archived, is the phrase"counterfactual deficits." Sorta know what it means,

Found a definition for counterfactuals, "Counterfactuals are mental representations of alternatives to past events. Recent research has shown them to be important for other cognitive processes, such as planning, causal reasoning, problem solving, and decision making—all processes independently linked to the frontal lobes. "


Sounds like something I should suffer from. Also came accross the phrase, "sarcasm perception." Psychologist are doing research on counterfactual deficits and sarcasm perception. I don't intend to read any of that research but I do like the phrases.


Capitano Tedeschi

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Random Thoughts March 15, 2011 copyright March 15, 2011 by Jamie Jacks.
Michele Bachmann official photo, (government document in the public domain) source:

http://bachmann.house.gov/Biography/OfficialPhoto.htm