Then the ancient master Dough Tzu said, “this is central to my point.”
Friday, February 29, 2008
Good Lord.
Yes, the troglodytic wanker Putz voted for twice was quite the adult:
He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides...
A real Winston Churchill, that guy...
Oh My.
Tim Goeglein, an assistant to the President and deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, is a plagiarist!
Bye bye.
Asshole of the Week: Gerard Van Der Leun.
123.
• look up page 123 in the nearest book
• look for the fifth sentence
• then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
No joke, I'm reading Sontag & Kael by Craig Seligman. Not pretentious!
The tone of her voice was aggressive, insinuating, crackling, if not crackling, with good cheer....Noting my hesitation, Pauline asked me laughingly if my "lover" would object to her invitation, and in those days the word "lover" had an exclusively male connotation. The gall of the woman!
Indeed. I'm tagging Blue Girl, to whom we do not link enough.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Teh Funny.
QOTD.
Ann Althouse live-blogged the debate tonight and the Gallo brothers made everyone work a double shift...
So. Mean.
Blogofascists*, Rejoice! A New Word: Jonanism. (Updated)
The fact that no one came up with “Jonanism” before the above suggests that the entire snarkopotamia should hang their heads in disgrace and possibly turn in their commenting badges.
It's sad. But this wrong can righted, can it not? Let's get this puppy in the vernacular.
...Here's the exact definition:
JonanismFurther:Jo·nan·ism -noun
1. The belief that everybody you hate is exactly the same.
2. The belief that evidence that nobody takes you seriously means you are very serious.
3. Any attempt to popularize these beliefs in book and associated website form.
[Origin: c. 2008, from ‘Jonah Goldberg’ and ‘onanism’; see calling all toasters]
JonasmJo·na·sm -noun
1. Despite its vociferous triumphalism, a bit premature, and not very impressive.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The Debate Transcript Is Wrong. I Think.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Obama, one of the things in a campaign is that you have to react to unexpected developments.On Sunday, the headline in your hometown paper, Chicago Tribune: "Louis Farrakhan Backs Obama for President at Nation of Islam Convention in Chicago." Do you accept the support of Louis Farrakhan?
SEN. OBAMA: You know, I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments.
This is wrong. Even MediaMatters gets it wrong.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you accept the support of Louis Farrakhan?
SEN. OBAMA: No, I have been very clear in my denunciation of Minister Farrakhan's anti-Semitic comments.
InstaPutz readers, what's your take?
Heh.
...there was a really bad slip and fall in front of Andy's at 128 Montague Street today. A man was seen falling down stairs there and the force of his tumble ripped out one of the banisters[,] according to eyewitnesses. Cops and fireman were on the scene. It's alleged that the man suffered a broken ankle.Overheard conversation between two passersby: "Yo, that dude is set for life!"
McCainiacs for Terri!
Shrill.
No doubt.
...It's sad that Buckley's gone. To his credit, he wrote, in his famous column of two years ago, " One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed."
His acolytes -- who have made conservatism the laughing stock is it today -- continue to believe
Hmmm. This is Seems a Little Desperate...
OBAMA WOOS THE JEWS: He'd better. One of my die-hard Democrat friends says he'd vote for McCain over Obama because he thinks Obama is anti-Israel.
"He'd better"? No way, dude; this is not gonna fly. Even D.C.'s Big Mullah, Marty Peretz, digs Obama.
Which makes Putz's imaginary friend an idiot of magnificent proportions and Putz himself a slimeball for perpetuating this crap.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Baby Steps.
Still no word on whether the paper still believes that "the South and slavery were right."All:
Here are some recent updates to TWT style.
1) Clinton will be the headline word for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
2) Gay is approved for copy and preferred over homosexual, except in clinical references or references to sexual activity.
3) The quotation marks will come off gay marriage (preferred over homosexual marriage).
4) Moderate is approved, but centrist is still allowed.
5) We will use illegal immigrants, not illegal aliens.
[via J-Ro]
John Cole, Call Your Office. (Slight Update)
...Hehindeedy! "I for one wish the happy couple the best of days. May they enjoy every pre-indictment moment they have together."
Putz Makes Sure to Let Us Know People Don't Like Obama
After all, implies Reynolds, the press only ever highlights his good sides. Thankfully, he's here to show us that a lot of people don't think that highly of Obama.
"Barack Obama's negatives: Higher than you'd think from reading the press coverage."As has become tradition here at the 'Putz, I once again try to simply ask an honest question of Glenn Reynolds, hoping that maybe he'll answer directly rather than heh-indeed his way out, slip-sliding away: Are you seriously saying that the "press coverage" of Obama hasn't highlighted one, um, kerfuffle after another, with various flacks trying to create an, er, appearance of impropriety? Has week after week not seen yet another faux scandal blown up in a desperate attempt by both Hillary and Republicans to slow his momentum?
We eagerly await your answers, and hope that you will give both our and your readers an explanation that helps reverse your slow slide into unseriousness.
In the meantime, Victor Davis Hanson shows that for a professor, he has a worryingly short memory:
"a number of seemingly random and trivial tesseras about Obama, when taken in the aggregate, are starting at an early date to form a disturbing mosaic [and] all add up to a sort of stock leftist stereotype that the United States is at heart a flawed pathological society"Has Hanson already forgotten the very scholarly analysis by esteemed conservative scholar Dinesh d'Souza in which it is irrefutably proven that American society has in fact become flawed and pathological?
Monday, February 25, 2008
So true.
But it pissed off conservatives because while they want conservative judges to be appointed, what they want even more is to extend a middle finger to Democrats as often as possible. In other words, they wanted the Republicans to cheat so they could laugh at the impotent Democrats.
Their politics is mostly driven by a desire to say "fuck you!!!!!!!!" to their perceived political enemies. There isn't much more there.
Nope.
QTOD.
Though America was denied the sight of an exasperated Renée Zellweger being forced to read whatever the Coens' made-up excuse for his absence was — we like to imagine her intoning, "Mr. Jaynes could not be here tonight, as he is recovering from male-enhancement surgery" — we did get a brief glance of Jaynes's official publicity photo, apparently taken by the same nineteenth-century photographer who shot T. Herman Zweibel.
I won my Oscar pool, btw.
Last Crazo Standing.
Dude, even TalkLeft isn't buying it.
Taylor Marsh
Bad Move, Roy.
How Would You Know?
The only surprising line is the last:
Paul Krugman is off today.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wait a Minute...
Whether it was the ad nauseam spate of daily stories that made national news out of the absence of women at the Augusta Golf Club and the Masters controversy, or the daily running commentary on Abu Ghraib, the signature trademark of the Times now is to take a particular ideological position, and then advance its advocacy by creating "news" on the front page—each subsequent day nuancing and tweaking the theme until the reader is exhausted, sighs "OK, we agree, enough already" and the desired result is achieved.
Forgive me, but has Professor Hanson not only a) seriously compared a golf scandal to Abu Ghraib, but also b)suggested that the story of prison abuse was "created"?
Really?
Wonk Sighting.
Be still my beating heart.
Also, thank you Blue Girl, for the greatest blurb ever. We love you too, even if we don't link to you.
Until the hangover disappears and I can string a few sentences together, content yourselves with noted liberalblogofascist John Cole:
Jesus. We need some better wingnuts. I don’t want to get all syrupy about the soft bigotry of low expectations, but if they simply drool on themselves it is a step in the right direction ....
Related. Why tiptoe, guys? If you think Hillary is a bloodless, animatronic, soul-killing lesbian, just say so.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Pass the popcorn.
This will no doubt be painful -- like a lubeless colonoscopy -- but it's gotta happen. Is it any wonder McCain is so pissy? He knows the honeymoon is over.
Oy.
RAMOS: Senator Clinton, yesterday you said, and I'm quoting, "One of us is ready to be commander in chief."Are you saying that Senator Obama is not ready and not qualified to be commander in chief?
Zowee.
Let it be so.
But it’s hard to see this as benefiting McCain in the long run. Here’s why.
Whatever the story’s flaws, it broke the ice in what is bound to be a yearlong examination of McCain’s complicated (that’s generous) relationship with lobbyists—romantic or otherwise—despite being an anti-lobbyist crusader. Even if he didn’t give Vicki Iseman the sexytime, the lobbyists who work on his staff, the private jets, the letters written to regulators—they all represent conflicts of interest that will dog him. Plus, the piece may not have introduced evidence of new wrongdoing, but it certainly reminded people of the old.
And if it ever comes out that McCain and Iseman did have an affair, McCain is unequivocally sunk. His denials have been so swift and so strong that no apology would repair the damage.
So yes, McCain came out on top. But now the flood gates are open, and November is a long way off.
Not for All Weed in Williamsburg...
Bless you.
...btw, only in
Ms. "the pictures got small" needs a distraction. Here.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Hugh Hewitt Explained.
HH: And so the left goes into abeyance for a while during the Eisenhower years, and Truman would have nothing to do with this. But they nest in the universities, and what’s very interesting to me is when they break out in the SDS rise in the Weatherman and the Cornell incident. By the way, do you know what Alan Keyes was at Cornell at the time of the takeover?JG: I know. His life was threatened.
HH: Yes.
JG: He had to leave the campus, yeah.
HH: Alan was my tutor at Harvard, and I heard the stories of that, and you recapture it here, that it was really a visceral hatred of all things traditional.
Obama is Hitler.
Neiwert saw this coming.
...TS ADDS: I had no idea this is what Chris Muir looked like. He looks familiar, no?
"Your mommy's not happy... your daddy's not happy, and you know what? You're not happy."
"Heh, Beavis. You Said Ass."
HH: That’s true. Mark, we’ve got about a minute as well, I’ve got to make sure I get your reaction. Is the Hillary Clinton Humpty Dumpty incapable of being put back together again? And if so, why?MS: Well, you hear all these theories now. I linked at National Review earlier today to some story in a gay Washington newspaper that says Hillary still leads among super gay delegates…not super gay delegates, gay superdelegates.
HH: (laughing)
MS: I don’t know, maybe they are super gay delegates. Maybe they’re super gay gay superdelegates.
HH: Are they gay supermen delegates?
MS: Only in the Democratic Party. I don’t think the super gay delegates can pull it out of the fire for Hillary at this stage.
HH: (laughing) Do they have a Caucus?
MS: (laughing)
HH: They’re going to have great parties.
That's Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn, folks. They'll be here all week.
The American Spectator was Prescient.
Here's the deal, folks: The New York Times has some damaging goods on John McCain, reportedly involving a female lobbyist. McCain threatened legal action if the Times printed the story. The Times backed off... for now. But you can be sure the Times will unload on McCain if he nails down the GOP nomination.
[via a very nasty, anti-McCain wingnut comments section that, for the sake of the children, I will not link to...]
...Now's as good a time as any to float a theory: a goodly chunk of the media is sick of being told its 'in the tank for McCain'. My guess is that this -- a sort of declaration of independence -- is a first shot across the bow and that there's more coming.
Another prediction: the same people who gave us Troopergate, Vince Foster, etc., will be up in arms about the McCain story and will, once again, deem the Gray Lady treasonous. Well, folks, as Tommy Friedman once said...
Suck. On. This.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Totten Silently Revises Instapundit Post
As many know, Totten has previously delighted millions of his readers with carefully-crafted prose such as "I went to the bathroom even though I didn’t have to." Today, Totten's attempts at hurting America took a turn for the worse as he deliberately, and some might even say angrily, expelled the following sentence: "Thanks, Glenn, for giving Megan, Ann, and I the keys to the blog for a few days."
Yet only a few short hours later, in a move reminiscent of Rathergate and the Lebanese fauxtography scandals that have been so well-documented by Reynolds, Malkin, Hinderaker, et al., the horrific mistake has been silently corrected. No strike-through remains as evidence of Totten's incompetence (or malice?)
One must wonder if this is indeed the same Michael Totten we have come to admire for his fearless reporting from bathrooms around the world. Could this in fact be another sock-puppet scandal, taking us back to the days when Glenn Reynolds' Brazilian boyfriend posted anonymous comments in order to smear the brave and gorgeous Kathryn Jean Lopez?
Unfortunately, this only confirms the thesis that very serious observers of the war and America's struggle with islamofascism have long held: Michael Totten simply does not have the right temperament to be allowed near a blog ever again. Perhaps, one day, when the singularity is near...
Smearing Obama.
Over the last week, we learned that: (a) Obama is a closet socialist as evidenced by the Che Guevara picture a volunteer posted on a campaign office wall; (b) Obama's wife, Michelle, is both self-absorbed and subversive, as she secretly hates the U.S. and will only believe it's a good country if her husband becomes President; (c) Obama is a thief and a plagiarist; and,
(d) in one of the most repulsive screeds in memory, courtesy of National Review's Lisa Schiffren, former Dan Quayle aide, the fact that Obama's parents are a mixed-race couple strongly suggests they were probably Communists, because who else, besides Communists, would marry outside of their own race? She cited an equally repellent article by AIM's Cliff Kinkaid, entitled Obama's Communist Mentor, which "reveals" that "through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA."
It's going to be a long year.
Absence Makes the Fart Grow Fonder.
Hey, Look Over There!
But I think it would be more productive for Howard Wolfson to, for the first time in his worthless life, be honest and admit that his campaign is in trouble. The truth doesn't always hurt.
In the meantime, what's the verdict: has Michelle Obama proven that she is, without question, not a Communist? (My taylormarsh.com RSS feed is busted. Did you know she had a radio show?)
...btw, this is amazing. Mark Penn all but admits that the only thing left to do is play dirty, to -- as Mason the Chimp put it in Madagascar -- "fling poo."
Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.'
Enter Michael Totten:
"Thanks, Glenn, for giving Megan, Ann, and I the keys to the blog for a few days."At least we know that Totten hasn't been plagiarizing his blog posts.
Inept Putz Stand-In Count: 1
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
One Step Closer to a Harold Ickes-Free Administration. Smell It.
Obama edged Hillary in the female vote, 51%-49%.He won by a sizable margin among middle-aged voters, 53%-46%.
He won by decent margins among voters with an income less than $50,000.
He won by big margins among self described moderates and conservatives.
He won overwhelmingly among people who decided in the last week or the last three days, though Hillary won narrowly among those who decided in the last day.
He won narrowly among members of union households.
TalkLeft, understandably pissy, has the line of the night:
For the first time in a primary outside of Illinois and African-American dominated states, Hillary Clinton lost Democrats to Barack Obama by 51-48.
Yeah, it must hurt like a motherfucker that whitey won't vote for Senator Clinton. Not so easy to write this one off, is it?
Eh, Why?
"Contrasting John McCain and Michelle Obama"
I had totally forgotten that Mrs. Obama was on the ballot. Silly fucking me.
You Must Be So Proud.
MORE TALK OF an Obama bubble, at TalkLeft, where the fear is that he's another McGovern -- thrilling to the party faithful, but too far left for the general election.
Indeed.
TALKLEFT: Obama as the next McGovern? Hey, everybody I know voted for him!
How long before Jeralyn Merritt takes an unhealthy interest in robot procreation and nanotechnology?
Althouse Out at UW? (No. No, She is Not.)
As of now, this is in the category of "rumor," but it's a damn-near confirmed one.
Ann Althouse doesn't have a job at the UW law school anymore. One of the reasons why is that she's made such an ass out of herself with her blog. Brought shame and disrepute to the institution and all.
Mr. Reporter Man TS chatted up a UW spokesperson, who very sweetly denied the allegation. Please note that AA's profile is still up. So who knows?
Anyway, our source notes, "the coffee shops have been mercifully less crazy this year."
No doubt.
UPDATE: Althouse also says she was not fired. Good enough for me.
Lovely.
...While I'm at it, a review of Lee "Starboy" Feldman's latest. Lee is a prince and the rave is deserved.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Funny Shit.
I wouldn’t say that we want to rehabilitate Mr. Nixon’s reputation as much as to suggest that history still has things to learn about him. Felon? He resigned before being impeached and was pardoned, so who exactly knows? Liar? Again, open to interpretation.
Dude missed his calling. He would've been a rockin' replacement for Tony Snow.
"I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours," I said that. (Updated.)
As Joan Didion famously observed, when Americans say “No man is an island,” they think they’re quoting Bob Dylan.
O rly? For such a famous observation, young Michael manages somehow to fuck it up.
Greenberg, iceberg, it's all the same to me.
I eagerly await the mass firing of the Pajamas Media factchecking desk and a prominently placed correction.
...Well played, Michael.
* The original version of this piece mistakenly identified the Didion reference as one to Bob Dylan. Special thanks to “old” Instaputz for spotting the error.
I continue to be troubled by the fervency of anti-ID commentary.Well now, Steve. There's your first mistake. You kept typing after "troubled."
I don't have a dog in this fightNow here you stopped typing too early, Steve, since your sentence silently continues with "but I will use any opportunity to compare liberals to Nazis." You think I'm joking? Read on!
I can understand, in the abstract, why global warming alarmists decry us so-called "skeptics"—we are, after all, a roadblock to SAVING THE PLANET, fergodsakes!Wait? I thought you were talking about people who're fervently opposed to Intelligent Design? How did you.... OH! I GET IT! Steve, you old dog, you. By simply slipping Global Warming into the argument, you can just rant about that, rather than try to actually defend ID. Good job!
(Despair not, gentle reader: if you did not already know, Global Warming is Hayward's pet subject, and virtually the only thing of note he's been able to write on for NRO. He brings it up because it's all he knows.)
But what exactly is the real world threat from ID people in the academy?Religion belongs in a bible college or theology/divinity classes. ID thinly dresses up obscurantism as science in the same way that Muslims sometimes dresses up male violence against women as the natural order of things. Does this really need to be spelled out or are you just trolling for attention? Wait, don't answer...
Is there a technical issue, like stem cell research, where the ID argument is relevant?Not yet, but a lot of inroads have been made by ID proponents to make the ID argument relevant in the teaching of science. That is the whole point of the argument -- to keep it from becoming relevant.
Is ID really the scientific equivalent of Naziism or Communism1. Wait, did just just misspell Nazism? Have you ever read Jonah's book? Goodness!
2. Is isn't the scientific equivalent of anything. It's not scientific.
I have to agree with Ben Stein in the trailer that people who are confident in their views should not feel threatened by heterodox views.In that case I expect you are fully in support of teaching Communism as an acceptable mainstream alternative to capitalism and democracy in American Colleges and Universities, and Euthanasia as a reasonable alternative to caring for the elderly and mentally challenged.
It's a sad day indeed when John Derbyshire is shrilly attacked for saying what every sane and serious observer has been suggesting for years:
The constant strain of keeping a straight face while insisting that theirs is not — no way! absolutely not!! — a religious campaign, and talking about the mysterious-but-definitely-not-supernatural "Designer," has corrupted them irredeemably.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
"Why is life worth living? It's a very good question. Um..."
2. The first sentence, Scaramouche
3. The last sentence, Catcher in the Rye
4. Onions
5. Robert Downey Jr., Home for the Holidays
6. Scrabble
7. Harry Angstrom
8. Chatty redheads
9. Boston in the rain
10. "What wonders is/she sitting on, over there?"
Your turn, Mr. K. and Ms. Cracker.
Friday, February 15, 2008
This, from a Fred Thompson supporter.
Intramural Booyah!
I swear, Bill's comments -- basically blog 'signing statements', in which he undercuts the crazification of Owens, Ledeen and Miniter with a cool dose of rationality -- are the best, and only, reason to read PJs.
Yuck.
Could Kathryn Jean Lopez be more happy/proud that gays are unwelcome in the Republican party? I think not.
Bigoted asshole.
Reason #43324789 To Avoid UT.
HH: ...Let me start with you, Glenn, your reaction to today’s shooting, and to the proposition, which my callers are urging on me, that college students ought to be carrying concealed weapons.
GR: I certainly think so. I actually have quite a few students who have permits to carry concealed weapons. One of them, in fact, was on the Springfield Armory National Pistol Team. And if they were armed in my classroom, I would feel enormously safe.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Question for Chef K.
If I die, BT has dibs on my copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail; K. can take my cooking utensils, all of which are probably worthless, except for the chicken-shaped egg-timer; and Actor, who needs to fucking take Pantload's book off my hands because it's stinking up the apartment, you can have the porn, which is tucked between Exodus and Leviticus.
...btw, methinks PJs should have a bio somewhere in here, explaining that Sheryl Longin isn't exactly your run o' the mill wingnut welfare queen. I suggest 'She fucks the CEO', but maybe they wanna be less explicit?
Reynolds and Depression
Take this recent anti-Obama article from the Wall Street Journal, which supposedly shows that "Obama's speeches are downers."
The fascinating aspect of that articleis watching it contradict itself several times in quick succession. First, it asks:
"Yes, we can! Yes, we can!" Can what?Then it says:
"What one hears is a message that is largely negative, illustrated with anecdotes of unremitting bleakness [...] It ends: "We can cast off our doubts and fears and cynicism because our dream will not be deferred; our future will not be denied; and our time for change has come."The author concludes:
I am not saying all of this is false. But it is a depressing message to ride all the way to the White House.If the contradictions above are immediately apparent to you, dear reader, then I apologize for walking through them step-by-step. Apparently they weren't quite so obvious to Reynolds, who linked it without commenting.
The most glaring error is that the first statement makes a claim about Obama's speeches, which is then meant to be reiterated in the conclusion. Anyone who has taken the LSAT, which presumably Glenn Reynolds as a law professor would know about, is familiar with basic forms of textual analysis. You make a claim, you present the evidence, you re-iterate that claim by referring to the evidence, and that's it.
Yet, somehow, "Yes, we can" by the end of the quoted text, has become "bleak" and "depressing. This is somehow shown, using the authors own evidence, by Obama's claim that "we can cast off our doubts and fears and cynicism."
No, seriously. By presenting anecdotes of people who have been left behind economically and urging them and everybody else to not give up... Barack Obama is riding "a depressing message [...] all the way to the White House."
Depression, by the way, is defined as "a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity." Bleak means "offering little or no hope."
Glenn, I ask you this question directly because you are apparently refusing to make any case for the links you so helpfully provide in your formerly acclaimed blog: How is a message of "Yes, we can" in any way definable as "bleak," as that article so brazenly claims?
Sweet Jesus.
As Charleen Swansea may have said, these are truly the latter days. Pray for
Just in Case Any InstaPutz Readers Were Thinking of Voting for McCain...
On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
Now, a belief in this bullshit isn't enough to disqualify him from the preznitcy. But look at it this way: a couple of years ago when I was dating a vegan, a friend observed, 'That she's a vegan is the least of your problems.' He was, alas, correct.
No offense to our vegan readers.
Putz Obsession WatchTM
Glenn Reynolds is not most people. As Brad observed,
Every week, the Ole Perfesser will find some black guy somewhere who said something crazy and remark darkly about how “disturbing” he finds it that Obama hasn’t come out and denounced him yet. As in, “If Obama really wanted to be a racial healer, he’d let people know that he doesn’t support sexually harassing female employees like Isiah Thomas does. Heh!”
Lucky for Obama, the current black guy continues to pique Putz's interest, so as yet he won't have to condemn Mssrs. Thomas, Sharpton or that really big guy from The Green Mile, who, I'm told, killed two little white girls.
WHERE'S Barack?
It's safe to assume that Putz, and the lovely gal to whom he links, are not looking for 'Wisconsin'.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
QOTD.
Am I the only one who believes that, in a time when pandemic cheating has led to even innocent Americans being forced to return Olympic medals, when a mundane match leads to all of professional tennis residing under a cloud that will not blow away, when America's Cycling Hero can't get away from accusations of doping, when professional baseball, football, and basketball are under suspicion, if not actually convicted, when the only sport left untainted, golf, is not actually a sport, that this whole "Why doesn't the Congress worry about important stuff" bit is a little past its shelf date?
Help Me Out, Dear Readers...
The ink these towering intellects spill on trivial crap is indicative of how much they totally do not want Senator Obama to be the nominee.
I mean, really, what's next? He doesn't wear red ties! Clear sign that Obama is a self-loathing Communist!
I swear on my second-edition Herzog: this jackassery, plus the Wieseltier business, is reason enough to vote for him.
The Left Supports Creationism
"Ben Stein's piece illustrates quite exceptionally well the close intellectual kinship between creationism and leftist postmodernism"It is a pity that Glenn Reynolds has become such an unserious commentator on scientific and cultural issues as of late. As has been amply demonstrated in the past -
- Creationism is almost solely the domain of Republicans and other right-wingers in America. There are very few, if any, leftist postmodernists who would dream of peddling Creationism. Reynolds fails to elaborate how the close kinship between Republicans and right wingers and Creationism squares with what Derbyshire is espousing.
- Ben Stein has strong conservative credentials, and is a former speechwriter for Nixon and Ford who accused Woodward of inventing Deep Throat. He is also an award-winning pro-life activist.
- Stein co-wrote a book titled "Can America Survive? The Rage of the Left, the Truth, and What to Do About It" in which he suggests that America may be waging war against "certain deranged souls in the Moslem world," but the real enemy—lurking alarmingly within—is a Fifth Column of angry, "Anti-American" leftists fomented by Al Gore and John Kerry [saying that] enraged liberals [...] have essentially joined Islamist fanatics’ assault on the United States" [and blames] "liberal news machinery," Marxist academics, befuddled environmentalists and Hollywood radicals [while] trying to uncover the psychological clues to liberals’ "perceptual disorder" and "irrational" anger with the Bush administration. The Left’s rant is a manifestation of an infantile personality [Stein says] while environmentalists "have projected their inner sense of guilt on to the world at large, and are seeking their personal redemption by redeeming the planet instead of redeeming themselves."
Is there no length to which Republican supporters such as Reynolds and Derbyshire will go to associate the most worrying trends in America today - such as Creationism and religious fanaticism - with the left?
Is this just another example of trying desperately to dissociate oneself from those compatriots who have become an embarrassing liability, such as the Republican desperation at McCain's nomination and impending electoral defeat?
Will Glenn Reynolds or John Derbyshire actually bother to answer any of these points?
Obama's the front runner now.
Small Blessings.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Wit and Wisdom of William Quick.
(Presumably, this refers to the Iraq clusterfuck, the gay marriage ban and the stem cell wankery. Bill doesn't say.)
Despite the President's apparent openness, Bill says that "George Bush turned into a stealth liberal in “compassionate conservative” clothing."
Well, which is it? Is Quick -- who cops to voting for Bush twice -- gullible or just hilariously stupid?
1Booga booga!
Bad Conservatives! Bad! Bad! Bad!
Note to the McCain team:You're not supposed to steal votes in primaries in Washington.
You're supposed to steal votes in the general election in Florida.
"Maybe," notes Kleinman, "you guys aren't representative of real conservative values after all."
QOTD.
Our Power Line book event tonight was great fun. We'll have much more to say over the next couple of days, but for now a few quick impressions. It was extraordinary to have Henry Kissinger, Norman Podhoretz and Mark Steyn as speakers and panelists. I can't think when a more impressive or diverse group has been assembled.Let me try.
(dedicated to horatius)
wtf, Slate?
Dead Women I Love, #1: Kael
In other news, John Cole is still shrill: "The party apparatchiks like Ed will have a busy schedule creating fake controversies like this, and we have not even had the “Hussein” Obama, fifth columnist, onslaught yet. But don’t you dare call them party flacks! Then you become unreadable!"
John, your rank incivility makes it difficult for me to take you seriously.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Please make it stop.
"These are caucus states by and large, or in the case of Louisiana, you know, a very strong and very proud African-American electorate, which I totally respect and understand."And those other wins?
It is highly unlikely we will win Alaska or North Dakota or Idaho or Nebraska," she said, naming several of Obama's red state wins. "But we have to win Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Michigan … And we've got to be competitive in places like Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma."Excuse me, but no Democrat is going to lose Mass., New York, New Jersey, California or Michigan. Al Gore and John Kerry won all of those states. The key is winning states like Arizona, New Mexico, and Missouri.
This is the best spin the Clintons have?
The Corner's Cross to Bear.
Funny how that works out.
Roy Scheider.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Obama gets the sweep.
This week, it came out that she'd loaned her campaign $5M, Hillary has fired her campaign manager, and lost 4 more states.
Ouch.
Powell Endorsement.
Kool-Aid Coming Out of Her Ears.
Short version: great move for Clinton.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Still Carrying the Torch for Bush, Eh Pantload?
One thing I would like to know is what it says about Matthew Dowd (a perfectly likable fellow) that he eagerly signed up to work for Bush but now thinks the man's a moron.
Let me take a stab at it: It says that Dowd, unlike the contributors to
It's not Jonah fault. When one's livelihood depends on blind faith -- whether it be in god, the President or the strength of the American dollar -- it's hard to recognize moments of lucidity in others.
Free David Shuster!
Has everyone gone nuts? Shuster should've quit before MSNBC suspended him, because goddamn it, the man did nothing wrong.
It looks to me like he was reprimanded because otherwise smart people have collectively pretended that they don't know the difference between a noun and a transitive verb. WTF?
transitive verb :
- Main Entry:2pimp
- Function: verb
- Date: 1636
to make use of often dishonorably for one's own gain or benefit
Now, you can argue the merits of Shuster's claim, but you've also got to acknowledge that he backed it up.
On Thursday, when Clinton spokesman Phillippe Reines contacted Shuster and told him the comment was offensive, the reporter e-mailed back that he was referring to the fact that Chelsea is making calls to convention superdelegates but refusing to talk to the press.
Here's what I think happened: Just as the Clinton campaign got GQ to spike a story -- for which the mag deserves everlasting scorn -- they similarly got MSNBC to shitcan Shuster.
I like Hillary and will happily vote for her come November, and I still think this is bullshit.
...Given the sensitive nature of the event, I should note that BT may not agree with what I wrote. My opinions, for better and worse, are my own.
...Holy shit. Taylor Marsh is nuts.
That the self-important men on MSNBC, to include Chris Matthews, and now David Shuster, don't understand that by attacking Chelsea Clinton in this way they are attacking all women, shows you the lengths that our media will go to destroy Hillary Clinton, doing everything they can to bring her down to a pimp level politician, even at the cost of using her daughter to do it.
Friday, February 08, 2008
I'm Tapped Out.
And what about superdelegates? Do they matter: yes or no?
If the Cardinal is going to write stuff like this, in which he 'impartially' advises Huckabee to drop out, why not finally come clean?
And last, this -- "The Republican party today reminds me of the British Labour party in the early 1980s - rewarding its most unhinged activists, punishing its most appealing leaders, and circling the electoral drain, without even fully realizing it." -- is a good line. I just hope it's true.
...‘See this?’ he says. ‘This is John McCreedy, aged forty-six today. See it? Chewed and left. Stranded. And this is all your stuff, underneath. Cold and hard and messed up. And I’m telling anyone who wants to listen that I want to get down from here, but I don’t for the life of me know how.’
QTOD.
I like liberal because it works better in language. To wit: “I’ve ingested a liberal amount of cocaine.” v. “I’ve ingested a progressive amount of cocaine.” WTF does that mean? Nothing, I say.
And while things can get “progressively worse”, it’s a stretch to think things can get “liberally worse”.
Um, What?
Deep down journalists think she's a political Rasputin who will not be dispatched. Prince Yusupov served him cupcakes laced with cyanide, emptied a revolver, clubbed him, tied him up and threw him in a frozen river. When he floated to the surface they found he'd tried to claw his way from under the ice. That is how reporters see Hillary.
If there's a single reporter out there who see Sen. Clinton this way, please do drop me a line.
instaputzen at gmail dot com
Thanks!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Dear Liberal Bloggers,
I really really miss Mittens.
So, fascist brethren, how about we christen Senator McCain?
I suggest President Huggy Bear. Or just plain Huggy.
Pass it on, if you like.
With love and squalor,
TS
Oh No He Didn't...
think of Chelsea. She was deprived of what should be one of the rights of a child, that her parents not embarrass her in public.
Maybe so. But trying telling that to Jesse and Evgenia Peretz.
Noted Without Comment.
I asked McCain about Romney, who had once expressed support for the comprehensive legislation backed by the Bush Administration—it sounded “reasonable,” he’d said—but now rails against it as “amnesty.” McCain said, “Both he and Rudy had the same position I did. In fact, Rudy was even more liberal. But, look, if that—” He paused and shrugged. “I don’t want to be President that bad.”
Indeed.
Following John McCain’s victory in Florida last week the chorus of McCain-hatred grew louder on talk radio shows and on many conservative blogs.Rush Limbaugh declared that McCain was not conservative and unacceptable as a candidate. Formerly respectable conservative figures took delight in criticizing McCain’s war record—yes, his war record—by tallying up the number of planes he had lost in combat. Ann Coulter and James Dobson, a social conservative leader and head of the Focus on the Family organization, declared McCain so indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton, the featured villainess in any conservative drama, that they would vote for her or stay home.
In short the McCain villifiers doubled down on their bet that they could derail McCain and lift their favored alternative, Mitt Romney, to victory.
Then the voters had their say.
Yes, I loathe Hugh Hewitt just that much.
For the GOP the two man race is back. Against the backdrop of assassination and tumult in a nuclear state, will voters really care that Rudy had the police driving his future wife around town or that Romney used a lawn company that hired illegal aliens? Both men have extraordinary capacity for absorbing information and making good decisions, seeking out talent, and running vast enterprizes while doing so with calm, good humor, and intensity.
Tasteless.
I hadn't realized it would be so easy! For extra kicks, observe that, in comments, Roger explains that Pajamas Media comments are censored -- you can't say fuck! -- because "we are a business and our advertisers might get alarmed, as I'm sure you realize."
I do, Roger. I do.
John Cleese on Christianists.
AVC: Speaking of wickedness, when you were shooting Life Of Brian, were you concerned with the fate of your immortal soul?
JC: No. No, because it's not in any way against Christ or Christ's teachings. It's all about criticizing people who make something of Christ's teachings, which I think he himself would not recognize. There's a lovely line that an idea is not responsible for the people who hold it. A lot of people in America who describe themselves without any hesitation at all as Christians are, in my opinion, completely missing the point of most of his teachings. It was like Tom DeLay, who said, with reference to turning the other cheek, that he never understood that bit of theology, which is absolutely the key to everything that Christ says. Here you've got a guy who's made a political career out of being supported by evangelical Christians, and he's totally missed the point of the teaching. So is he a Christian?
FYI. (Updated, With Mild Irritation)
Bow down accordingly.
...It's been, like, 10 minutes. Why have none of you bowed down?
Concern-Trolling At Its Finest.
Ethnic, racial and demographic fissures are starting to appear that could make for some truly ugly conflict - and generate potentially long-lasting resentments - before the process is resolved.
Across the country, Obama is getting support from men; Clinton, from women. Newly energized young people are voting for him; senior citizens are flocking to her in unusual numbers.
So far, so good.
Not so good for long-term Democratic harmony, however, is this development: African-Americans are overwhelmingly with Sen. Obama, while Latinos and Asians (if California is a bellwether) are almost as strong for Sen. Clinton.
Whether the trend maintains in the coming weeks will say a lot about the party's ability to present a united front in November.
In a party consumed by gender, race, ethnicity and the like, vision and principles will certainly take second place.
Proportional delegate allocation could transform the always-fractious Democratic Party into something akin to the Italian parliament.
This all may well add up to a "fair" process - but it's also a blueprint for rancor, bitterness and gridlock.
It would be a pity if all the excitement - and promise - Obama has brought to the process ultimately is defeated by ugly faction-fighting.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
QTOD.
It should be obvious by now that the American public wants politicians who can talk across party lines. (The Democrats got their heads handed to them when they booted out Joe Lieberman. Obama seems to have learned that lesson and is paying a lot of lip service to cross line politics.)
Oh, is that what the kids are calling 'winning the House and the Senate'?
It's Obama.
Obama won more states, won more delegates, improved his numbers with key groups, widened his lead among minority voters, and over-all, outperformed Hillary. Period. The fact that the Clinton established machine has not been able to pull ahead should be a real clear sign of how much trouble they are in right now. This race was Hillary’s to lose, and last night she may have started doing just that. You will hear the Clinton camp talking repeatedly about winning the big prize- California. Winning California is irrelevant, as a Democrat is going to win Cali in the general regardless who it is.
Obama now has a clear financial lead, momentum, and the delegate lead, and we are heading in to a number of states where he can compete. I am not drinking the kool-aid, folks, I think I have a pretty clear grasp of where we are right now. Obama is surging and the Hillary camp is worried. You will be able to see it in their faces over the next few days.
Huckabee wins Tennessee!
No one could've predicted...
...TS ADDS: Dude, could Putz be less excited? I don't think so. It's like he's talking about a margarine shortage.
Please Shut Up.
HMM: "Exit polling for Super Tuesday contests show a growing trend towards division by ethnicity among Democrats."Further thoughts here: "According to Dick Morris, Bill and Hillary Clinton wanted to make the primary contest a question of race and it worked."
Reality:
White Democratic men did not appear unified on how they voted Tuesday. In Connecticut, they favored Obama over Clinton by 54 to 40 percent. Those numbers were nearly reversed in Tennessee, where Clinton was ahead of Obama among white men by 59 percent to 29 percent.Overall, white men were favoring Obama 49 percent, to 44 percent for Clinton.
Make an argument for a gender split -- fine. But the attempt to turn Obama into 'the black candidate' is a non-starter.
Stop the Charade.
But you knew that.
What Hath Pantload Wrought.
Idiot.
..."May be" is a nice touch.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Poor Hughie.
Given the Rush blast, the Dobson declaration, and Huck's strength in the south, McCain can't be considered a frontrunner by any conventional standard.
Exit Polls.
Fundies furious with McCain.
St. McCain's cannot beat the Dem with one hand tied behind his back.
I may never stop laughing:
"I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem-cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.
"I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has sounded at times more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP caucus in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry's running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does NOT make the medicine go down. I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.
"But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can't vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country."
But He Would Not Preclude a Rimming. (Adventures in Bowdlerization.)
This morning, James Dobson released a statement to Laura Ingraham's radio show, declaring that under no circumstances would he ... blow ... the Arizona senator, since it could discourage turnout among some evangelical voters.
Unlike the kneepad-ready national media... who will do it, regardless of what evangelicals think!
Heh. Indeed.
How Dare Oprah Act Black?
Here's his latest masterpiece, courtesy of the Corner:
"Oprah Winfrey's talk [...] seemed to be mimicking, through a sort of mock-wimpy intonation, those (mostly white elite?) feminists who were shocked about her endorsement of Obama."Did I miss the memo? I thought Republicans everywhere had already expressed their concern at the 'identity politics' through which Democrats were trying to get women to vote for those who looked like them, i.e. women for Hilary? Haven't we heard so much about how craven the Democrat identity politics machine really is, and how much it's hurting the country?
"The problem with all that is that she created her $1 billion empire precisely by appealing to a mostly staid white suburban therapeutic audience, to whom she is used to talking in precisely the same flat-toned neutral manner that she was this weekend apparently mocking."If mocking feminists is a "problem," then how do we explain the constant attacks on feminists from Republicans regarding their electoral stance? Isn't it reasonable to expose the hypocrisy of trying to tell another woman to vote female for no actual reason aside from her sex?
VDH seems to take issue that she's created a commercial empire by selling things using a certain tone, whereas she is now mocking that tone. This is an odd sort of envy by a man whose greatest commercial accomplishment is being a failed raisin farmer who inherited that property from his parents. His criticism carries with it an implicit disapproval of self-made African-American success catering to whites but daring to raise its voice against their masters' wishes.
In short: that poor black woman made money being all nice to rich white women, and now she's telling white women not to tell her who to vote for. How dare she? Doesn't she know where all that money came from?
It is, to be blunt, a a candid revelation of Hanson's inner monologue. It's a white world, and those black people who have actually succeeded had better know their role and shut their mouth.
Glenn Reynolds Is Slipping.
CHINA SUFFERS ITS COLDEST WINTER IN 100 YEARS? Meanwhile, it's sunny and in the 70s in Knoxville.
Hmmmm. For some reason, Putz omitted any reference to Al Gore.
I hope he's okay.
A Reminder.
Jesusmotherfuckingchrist... If I get another one of these emails I'm going to shit a cub scout.
Monday, February 04, 2008
See: "Reynolds, Glenn".
As a guide to cynical electoral politics "do what the libertarians are telling you not to do" seems like a pretty sound rule of thumb.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Baby Steps.
I'm beginning to question his sincerity.
It's only a matter of time before he admits that Iraq has been a disaster.
Found in a TNR Comment Thread.
My daughter is 28, about the age of many of the people in this video. I don't know for whom she's planning to vote. We haven't discussed it; it's her business.I do know, however, that at age 57 I wish I had done a better job caring for our country and our planet, for her sake and those of her peers. I have been wrong more often than I have been right, it seems. I have been lazy and selfish when I should have been industrious and giving. I think it's obvious to anyone making a rational assessment that humanity in general and enough folks like me in particular have failed in a thousand little ways that have led inexorably to failure in several big, big ways. Babies still starve to death. Gorgeous creatures that once roamed free are now pushed to extinction. Men still take up arms against one another, and now, more often than not, women do, too.
I don't know for sure if Barack Obama is the candidate to lead us out of this mess; I don't know for sure if he can even lead us to a solution to any of our tempests du jour like health care or immigration. But I do know that I would find it completely understandable if the young people asked to participate in the video had simply shrugged their shoulders and said, "Fuck it. I'm looking out for Number One, and that's it."
That they did not, that they chose instead to try to motivate others to feel a little mist of hope in a desert of cynicism, brought tears to my eyes as I watched them, whoever they are.
Scary.
There’s nothing vague about the public’s desire for national renewal in 2008, with a reviled incumbent in the White House and only 19 percent of the population finding the country on the right track, according to the last Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll.
I know one's instinct is to view that figure as low, but the actual number this represents should make us all pessimists. If we take the most recent population estimates -- 301,139,947 (as of July 2007) -- we're looking at 57,216,589 people.
57,216,589 is a lot of people.
I'll remember that the next time I, if just for a moment, start to imagine Barack Obama in the White House.