Columnist Praises Obama as Magical Spiritual Being Not of This Earth
Close enough, anyway.
S.F. Gate columnist Mark Morford gives us one of the most nauseating paeans to Obama yet:
Barack Obama isn’t really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.
. . . .
Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.
The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.
Amusing theories about where this nonsense came from at Mrs. Peel and doubleplusundead, who says it all derives from video games. [UPDATE: Well, not exactly, but sort of. doubleplusundead explains below in a comment.]
lovey is already down with this one.
daleyrocks (d9ec17) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:14 amIsn’t it amazing that a magical being … a “lightbringer” would have so much anti-semitic postings appearing on his official campaign website?
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:18 amLightworker, lightweight, what’s the difference?
nk (0e7da1) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:45 amas a regular chron reader, i can tell you that mark morford is like that in all of his pieces. over-the-top is his schtick, and you took it literally, you fell for it. a minimum level of hipness and sophistication is required to appreciate san francisco journalism.
assistant devil's advocate (46360c) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:46 am“a minimum level of hipness and sophistication is required to appreciate san francisco journalism.”
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:50 amHAHAHA! Do you revel in the smell of your own flatulence too?
I’ve always wondered what it means to be “spiritually advanced.” The one part of the definition that’s easy to figure out is that the person being described has no “organized” religious affiliation. Beyond that, what? Is it that the person described looks at the sky a lot with an expression of profound contentment? Does he worship his ancestors? Does he beleive in ghosts?
Here’s my real-life definition: A person is “spritiually advanced” if (a) he has no coherent religious beliefs, (b) he still wants to be seen as more than merely venal and shallow; and (c) he is a Leftist.
Fits Obama to a tee.
Cicero (64dec4) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:55 ama minimum level of hipness and sophistication is required to appreciate san francisco journalism.
Is that two glasses of chilled Sauterne or something stronger like Pernod?
nk (0e7da1) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:56 amFrankly, I don’t think it takes a bit of sophistication to understand clowns.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/8/2008 @ 10:58 amada,
I can tell you didn’t read the whole thing. It’s full of cringing, “I know you’ll think this is weird but seriously guys it’s true!” type of disclaimers.
Patterico (cb443b) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:01 amAh but Patterico, if you only had that modicum of “hipness” and “sophistication” to truly understand the higher plane of wit and turn-of-phrase upon which San Francisco journalism relies.
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:03 amMany spiritually advanced people I know
And how many is that? Three, or four?
kishnevi (7b38bb) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:05 amIf I may clarify, I don’t think the whole idea stems from video games, the concept of a Lightworker was largely spread by a writer in 1997, however, I believe the “spiritually advanced” guru who Morford got this New Age garbage from derived much of his concept of a Lightworker on the philosophical and functional framework of his Lightworker philosophy from roleplaying games, specifically the Knights of the Old Republic series and the Jade Empire series.
doubleplusundead (e33be4) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:06 amI updated the post to link to your comment.
Patterico (cb443b) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:11 amThanks, Patterico!
doubleplusundead (e33be4) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:26 amjack (#5), no, my acolytes inhale my farts like bong hits so that they can be closer to wherever i am.
nk, sauternes is strictly for after dinner. on special occasions i break out a magnum of 20 year-old chateau d’yquem from my wine cave.
patterico, you’re right. you can tell from your admin console whether or not a commenter clicked on a link (but you can’t tell whether or not they looked at sfgate.com earlier now, can you?). i’ve read a couple dozen morford items. his heart’s usually in the right place, but i don’t particularly care for his style. he’s a clown with a bullhorn on a streetcorner. you, on the other hand, can do serious journalism without putting on giant shoes and a big red rubber nose, so when i saw you clownishly waxing wroth at morford’s much more polished, almost effortless clowning, i was like omg, patterico just swallowed a morford, better administer an emetic and see what comes up.
assistant devil's advocate (46360c) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:30 amMark Morford is an idiot. That he is a columnist for the SF speaks volumes about the journalism they offer readers (but considering its SF, I’m sure he’s considered even, insightful).
Last month he excoriated Laura Bush in a smug, self-righteous bit.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/04/30/notes043008.DTL
I just hope there are enough sound, rational minds who won’t buy into the proselytizing of the new religion that is Obama.
Dana (616272) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:35 amIt would also help Morford’s cause if he were the least bit self-deprecating or even remotely humorous. I really don’t see what’s so sophisticated about what he writes. As an unfortunate rube who doesn’t have the privelege of living in SF and thus lacks the necessary hipness to appreciate him, I guess I’m stuck rolling my eyes and seeing Morford as the equivalent of the kid who gives the juvenile campaign speech for student council.
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:45 amIt’s only a matter of time before we see Obamiacs waving their little green books, “Quotations From Chairman Barack”.
Zoltan (b4ed9e) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:51 amHipness, sophistication, intelligence, compassion, intellect, etc. ad nauseam, funny how those traits are always contingent on being a Leftist. As someone who lives in the Bay Area, I can tell you that Morford is hardly over-the-top even though his column appears in the datebook (entertainment) rather than editorial section. People really think like this up here (to be fair though, it’s not so much geographical as ideological. You’ll find these people where ever the self-defined enlightened intelligentsia are). There is not a hint of self-deprecation because these people do nothing if not take themselves seriously. A more self-righteous group you will not find. They really do believe in their own superiority. Are all “progressives” like this? No, just enough of them to be really annoying.
Grant (56f05f) — 6/8/2008 @ 1:17 pmThere is actually a background for this. Elizabeth Joyce – a Web ‘psychic’ – has been ‘predicting’ for at least ten years that the next (or the next, or the next –) U.S. president would be a ‘drop-in,’ a less-elegant term for a higher being assigned to bring enlightenment and a New Age to the Earth, while also taking care of more mundane tasks like meeting-and-greeting the winning Superbowl team and signing off on markups.
Liz moved her predictions behind a pay-per-view firewall after certain hard-hearted skeptical persons pointed out that not only was her predictive accuracy rate very low (mostly Oscar-winners), but that her list of predictions tended to – ah, ‘mutate’ over time. I don’t even know if she’s still making call-aheads for the mundane world, and I doubt she’s the originator of the POTUS-as-demigod meme, but the meme is nothing new.
RNB (7e0f32) — 6/8/2008 @ 1:27 pmMorford just seems like another in the list of opportunists who’ve caculated correctly that the louder or more profanely you package your Bush-hatred the more you appear to have “biting wit” or something akin to that. But there is never a single hint of irony, humor, etc. Who honestly finds some fat pig like Margaret Cho funny when her schtick consists of “I’M FAT I’M ASIAN I MAKE OUT WITH WOMEN FUCK BUSH FUCK BUSH WOOOO!!!!!!!!”
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 1:38 pmLook at political cartooning. How do sniveling cretins with literally not a lick of artistic talent like Ted Rall or Lloyd Dangle get hailed as modern day Thomas Nasts? Because they say “fuck” a lot when talking about how much they hate Republicans with the sophistication of a petulant adolescent. But yet somehow this school of wit requires some degree of hipness or sophistication to “get”?
“Hipness, sophistication, intelligence, compassion, intellect, etc. ad nauseam, funny how those traits are always contingent on being a Leftist”
And then do you notice how little of any of these traits so many of them actually possess?
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 1:39 pmGrant – I went to college with the guy who would later become MoveOn.org’s first executive director and who now lives in SF. We were in a frat together, a frat that he would cause massive damage to because he left a candle on top of his door and started a huge fire in the middle of a party. At another party he had to be coaxed off the roof because he was tripping on LSD and walking along the ledge. You couldn’t meet a more self-absorbed, comically narcissistic, buffoon on the planet. Everyone hated this guy with a passion, primarily for how completely full of shit his image of himself was. Every fashionable progressive cause he would get his name on the front page as “leading Penn’s fight against…” whatever. When the Persian Gulf War was launched he practically orgasmed at the opportunity to lead campus antiwar marches. Completely, utterly, and thoroughly in love with himself to the core. San Francisco sounds like the perfect place for him.
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 1:45 pmHerr Klompus,
madmax333 (64624c) — 6/8/2008 @ 3:57 pmYou really should write a screenplay about your wild ass frat days and immortalize the antics of that buffoon. I missed out on any time for fraternitys while being taught by the Jesuits at Villanova in the 70s but I recall a really weird cast of characters while running a nuthouse ward at night in the Philly area. The state shrinks and assorted bureaucratic drones would amaze people with their own cluelessness and liberal foibles.
In later years at Villanova Law I recall one blind black dude who didn’t survive the first year despite loads of volunteer tutoring by fellow students. I suppose perhaps he just didn’t have the intellect, but it sure looked like a feel-good potential and certainly at that time they did seek diversity. I have no doubt that some people with various handicaps are up to the challenge and exhibit incandescent smarts, such as physicist S. Hawkings. But my favorite genius level all-around Renaissance Man was Richard Feynman. Now THERE’S an example of a magical mind. Most Americans only know him when he was near the end and heading the Challenger disaster commission, outraged by NASA’s cold O ring rationalizations.
I may make fun of Obama and I think humor helps to bring him down from his heavenly perch. I mean no disrespect to the actor who played Urkel. It’s quite possible that HE’D make a better Potus if you have to elect a real black man; although lots of others who are considered Oreos or Uncle toms would be better.
This magical, spiritual being that is BHO makes me think of Chocolate Thunder from Lovetron. As a Philly guy you may know what became of Darryl Dawkins, Andrew Toney and that utterly relentless to the boards Moses Malone? But that was the realy 80s. The creme de la creme for me were the 66-67 Sixers, even better than those Laker Dynasties man-to-man.
Ace pointed out, “Lightworker” is basically a rip-off of WB’s “Charmed” which ran from 1998 to 2005.
Sigh. I wish Shannon Doherty would rip on this clown. This kind of thinking is what the Democratic Party is all about. Taking WB shows as serious stuff.
Jim Rockford (e09923) — 6/8/2008 @ 4:06 pmComment by Zoltan:
That’d be “Quotations from Chairman O.”
Jim C. (33af9d) — 6/8/2008 @ 7:41 pmMorford isn’t just a dazzling, brilliant, conscience-elevating columnist, he can get our yogic energies into balance!
Bradley J Fikes (0ea407) — 6/8/2008 @ 8:55 pmSurely you’re joking Dr. Feyneman! I remember my Dr. Dunk Darryl Dawkins t-shirt that I got at a Sixers game and oh that magical 83 season! Last Philly championship although the Phillies are competing for the World Series this year! Interleague series against the foul, wretched, stench that is the Red Sox coming up soon. Destroy the Red Sox nation and show no quarter! All hail President Urkel Patron Saint of Hope and Change!
Jack Klompus (b796b4) — 6/8/2008 @ 9:30 pm[sound of reed flute playing] Oh-heh-tehay. Greetings fellow earth-mother travelers. It is I, Californio. I interupted my star-gazing from the patio of my adobe to talk with you. Many moons ago my people came to this land. [Ok, they intermarried with those who lived here first, and the other natives who gave us trouble we killed…but on with the story..] It was good. But then , while making crappy southwestern kitsch for tourists – we noticed a dearth of “spirit-walkers” – those real cool dudes who everyone sucked up to… er, I mean “spiritual” persons who channeled the greater consciousness. NOT religious persons! Religion is all hung up on commitment and objective standards of behavior you are “supposed” to live up to. [major square’s -ville!!!] [ NOT cool!]
Obama cares and will not LET you lead stupid independent lives! ONWARD Companeros!
Californio (eb950a) — 6/8/2008 @ 9:54 pmThat sentiment is pretty retarded, but it’s hardly as silly and voluminously expressed as similar sentiments were by Bush adoring pundits and authors back in the 2000 election and the early years of that idiot’s first term.
And with Obama, at least there’s some basis to heap this sort of goofy praise, Bush was just stuttering and stammering and wearing cowboy hats and making shitty jokes. And oh, how you conservatives would swoon. Now that his popularity has fallen through the floor, you guys like to pretend that that wasn’t the case, but you all know it was, deep down. And more importantly, I know it. You guys can repress it and rewrite history all you like, fortunately me and the internet and books like Rebel in Chief are here to remember all of that embarrassing fawning for you.
Levi (76ef55) — 6/8/2008 @ 11:43 pmLevi – It should be quite easy for you to document the times that we were suggesting that President Bush was an other-worldly god, as opposed to being a better choice than algore and Kerry.
JD (5f0e11) — 6/9/2008 @ 4:51 amOr, did you just wake up on Monday morning and look around for something to lie about?
JD (5f0e11) — 6/9/2008 @ 4:53 am…and like a bad case of acne, it returns.
books like Rebel in Chief
which you read of course.
me and the internet
Jack Klompus (cf3660) — 6/9/2008 @ 7:06 amand you call people idiots.
And with Obama, at least there’s some basis to heap this sort of goofy praise,
Really? Name one accomplishment of his that makes him god-like.
JD (75f5c3) — 6/9/2008 @ 7:52 amIt’s not an accomplishment but it is an attribute: Like (maybe more than) Priapus, he has the ability to sexually arouse most members of the media regardless of gender.
nk (0e7da1) — 6/9/2008 @ 7:59 am“me and the internet and books like Rebel in Chief are here to remember all of that embarrassing fawning for you.”
Jack Klompus (cf3660) — 6/9/2008 @ 8:00 am“Me and the internet” . Okay since you and the internet have decided to take on this monumental task start listing now. Concrete examples. And how about a detailed analysis of Rebel in Chief since you chose to throw that title to somehow back up your juvenile rant.
As the fawning over Obama’s brilliant rhetorical skills and eloquence continues be sure to check out this bit of stunning, amazing oratory from the Messiah. It’s truly inspired.
Jack Klompus (cf3660) — 6/9/2008 @ 8:05 amLevi – It should be quite easy for you to document the times that we were suggesting that President Bush was an other-worldly god, as opposed to being a better choice than algore and Kerry.
With your teammate, the internets, this should be easy to source.
JD (75f5c3) — 6/9/2008 @ 8:17 amI’d think Morford would be more careful. Lightworker is pretty close to light bringer, and we all know how that one came out.
Ken Hahn (7742d5) — 6/9/2008 @ 11:17 amLevi – Should we interpret your abject failure to substantiate your lies as a tacit acknowledgement that you were, in fact, pulling it out of your ass?
JD (75f5c3) — 6/9/2008 @ 12:12 pmLevi is busy doctoring something up.
davod (5bdbd3) — 6/9/2008 @ 1:00 pmProbably the gaping hole in his ass, before what he has left for brains fall out.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 6/9/2008 @ 1:24 pmYet another example of Levi just making up his delusions as fact.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/9/2008 @ 2:23 pmassistant devil’s advocate wrote: as a regular chron reader, i can tell you that mark morford is like that in all of his pieces. over-the-top is his schtick, and you took it literally, you fell for it. a minimum level of hipness and sophistication is required to appreciate san francisco journalism.
“Hipness” to understand Morford? More like “below-the-hip”-ness. And “sophisticated,” you say? Hmmmm…
—
2. To make impure; adulterate.
Yep, that sounds about right.
BTW, I am a SF native and resident, and I read the Chronic but NEVER purchase it. I see no reason to believe Moronford isn’t as serious as he can manage to be about falling for Obama’s Jell-O pudding that really isn’t Jell-O pudding. Why do you?
L.N. Smithee (d1de1b) — 6/9/2008 @ 2:36 pmLevi wrote: And with Obama, at least there’s some basis to heap this sort of goofy praise
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….I’m waiting…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
L.N. Smithee (d1de1b) — 6/9/2008 @ 2:39 pmJack Klompus wrote: And how about a detailed analysis of Rebel in Chief since you chose to throw that title to somehow back up your juvenile rant.
He got an “A” on his book report for Rebel in Chief, but he didn’t read it.
L.N. Smithee (d1de1b) — 6/9/2008 @ 2:50 pmKen Hahn wrote: I’d think Morford would be more careful. Lightworker is pretty close to light bringer, and we all know how that one came out.
Every so often in SF, posters will go up advertising the appearances of some old sweater-wearing British dude named Benjamin Creme who claims that he channels Lucifer. He says is the L-man is invisible and suspended over a Middle Eastern desert waiting to make his grand entrance — and that we all have nothing to fear.
Yeah, I know.
L.N. Smithee (d1de1b) — 6/9/2008 @ 2:54 pmWe have finally found something that eclipses Morfords BDS, his Baracky man-love. NTTAWWT
JD (5f0e11) — 6/9/2008 @ 4:16 pmI am in San Francisco & this new age kook is an epitome of what’s wrong with the city (which pays for city employee’s sex change with taxpayer dollars) which currently faces $380M deficit.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the city. There’s no where like SF, it’s a beautiful city. I read the entire column by this “Mark Morford” and it’s scary how Obamanation attracts the likes of such kooks.
“Obama has,,,a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.” Man, this shit had me cracking up, though with some trepidations of the implications of this column.
This Morford fucker probably has a high-vibration dildo up his ass while he worships the highly publicized picture of Barry Obama in speedos.
Disclaimer: I am not anti-gays or homophobe, but this guy sounds like he got his head up his ass. Pelosi is from SF, that’s why she worships Dalai Lama.
Third Party (4e0da3) — 6/9/2008 @ 6:10 pmOh by the way, I’m a newbie to this site as I followed the bread crumbs left by those who are like-minded and skeptical of the Obamaphenomenon.
Not sure this is a conservative, right tilted site, but even an inchoate layman such as I, can see that a good number of you are high-falluting pseudo-intellectuals who love to use unnecessarily long and ostentatious verbage;
#15 “my acolytes inhale my farts,,,administer an emetic and see what comes up”.
Say, are you one of those “latte slurping, highly educated” member of the progressive liberal base that perpetuates excuses for Obama?
#16 “excoriated Laura Bush”,,,”proselytizing of the new religion that is Obama.”
Well, I, a simpleton of profound magnitude, am most impressed!
Third Party (4e0da3) — 6/9/2008 @ 6:49 pm” a good number of you are high-falluting pseudo-intellectuals who love to use unnecessarily long and ostentatious verbage;”
Funny. I’m #16 and I’m sorry you had to type such a long judgemental sentence. It is a reality, Third Party, that some people simply adore language and the limitless possibility of expression and clarity. Its a great freebie in life.
Dana (616272) — 6/9/2008 @ 7:00 pm“Funny. I’m #16 and I’m sorry you had to type such a long judgemental sentence.”
I’m sorry, Dana. Was I didactical in pointing out your abuse of linguistic liberties? If I was, please don’t excoriate me for it. I hate being an excoriatee.
Speaking of language and your adoration of it, what do you think of this fool’s use of the word “Lightworker”? Is that like a “Lightsabre”?
I tend to think the word is a product of Morford’s “SF sophistication & hipness” to surreptitiously allude to Obama’s records as the IL senator (not too much work involved in all those present votes I gather), as well as his 1yr tenure as junior US Senator (which must have entailed very light work) before running for the POTUS.
Is Obama a Light Worker? Yes he can and yes he is.
Third Party (4e0da3) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:20 amI, can see that a good number of you are high-falluting pseudo-intellectuals who love to use unnecessarily long and ostentatious verbage;
Say what? What do all them long words mean, bro? You messing with us, homeboy?
nk (4bb2be) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:33 amSi! se puede, beeyotch.
JD (75f5c3) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:44 amWell #53, I plead no contest?
Third Party (4e0da3) — 6/10/2008 @ 11:45 am