I would read it, but at the moment I’m busy supervising the unemployed PhD.s who are landscaping my back yard (on minimum wages). They seem determined to turn it into a Garden of Forking Paths.

I call sloppy seconds for you with that cinnamon roll once he’s done with it. You’re welcome. After all it’s the least I can do what with you bravely standing up for the rights of thin people everywhere to make fun of fat people. But my admiration for your principled stand is lessened by the fact that commenters I’ve enjoyed reading here have said they’re done with the place because of all the fat jokes. I’ve made fat jokes too but hearing that made me feel guilty and if they really aren’t coming back I’ll miss them a lot more than I would fat jokes.

Hard to tell, isn’t it? I think of it as a parallel to the “from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” principle. The first generation had to work – i.e., interact with the real world – for their position, the second had at least known the people who had to work, and the third is a bunch of decadent dumbshits who’ve had everything handed to them so they have no idea how to maintain what they’ve got.

But the idea of not running free until Dumbya took over is a good point. Conservatives tend to assume that there is some point where “We win forever!” and after that point they can act like dicks with impunity. In this case, 9/11 changed everything.

http://crookedtimber.org/2008/06/06/the-great-library-of-tlon/

SamFromUtah said,

June 5, 2008 at 18:20

I wonder if this kind of thing is going to happen more often as the older, smarter generation of righties like Bill Buckley dies off. The youngsters aren’t smart enough not to point at the elephants in the room e.g. “we’re all a bunch of hypocritical liars” sort of thing, without the firm controlling spanks of the elders.

I’ve had that same thought. The drastic decline in intelligence between the Jurassic-era Conservatives and the ones we have today points to some kind of de-evolutionary process. It may be literally that being force-fed stupid ideas as a child stunts your intellectual growth for life.

Or it could be that they were this fucking stupid all along and just weren’t allowed to run free with all of their catastrophically stupid ideas until Bush 43.

How is this hard to understand? Sheesh.

Jesus, it’s not like anyone’s threatening to tie you down and stuff Taco Bell ® Cheesy Beefy Melts © down your throat. Just get over it.

There’s a whole fucking world out there which expects us all to be perfect according to some arbitrary definition and seeks to punish us if we’re not.

Sing it Sister! Oh, wait no fat jokes or we get banned? What if we use humor as a defense mechanism, what if it’s a mental disability that causes us call fatties fat?
Fucking “Christian Supremacists” are Fair Game, so if you’ve been brought up as a devoutly evangelical tool of the Lord, Shakes don’t give two shits about you, but if you’re overweight…

It’s all about intrinsic nature and choice

But denigrating vegetarianism is Off Limits (wev – totally non-arbitrary). Maybe I should post this over at Shakesville, after all the Fair Game list includes people who are hypocrites.

Hey fatties, if you’ve got a physical condition like hereditary diabetes or something that means you can’t keep your weight in the optimum range, well then I honestly apologize to you. If you’ve chosen to be overweight for some other reason, then I don’t apologize since you probably consider “fatty” to be a compliment – although I do hope you live in a country without socialized health care. If you’re one of the millions who just don’t have enough discipline to get to a realistic weight, then I still don’t apologize. Think of it as my helping hand of motivation, you fat fattie. If, however, you’re Jonah fucking DoughBob LoadPants, then fuck you with a fucking buttered cinnamon roll stuffed with deep fried bacon, but only after it’s been digested by some fattie.

Gary, tell your Cheetoist buddies that the pin goes through their shirt, not their heart. You clowns could fuck up a baked potato.

Speaking of Megan, here she is presenting an uncontroversial opinion, and yet

I think we’re still, though perhaps asymptotically, moving towards a time when worrying about someone’s race will seem almost charmingly quaint, like debating how many petticoats a decent woman wears to church.

WTF?! (I apologize for my recent overuse of the interrobang.)
First, asymptotically? If you want to fadge it up, you have to increase the density of the fadge-ing or crap like this stands out like Doughy Pantload does at the gym. The only people who argue about petticoats are fehtishists (link while technically worksafe, not sanity safe), and while I have no idea what floats Megan’s boat (other than thought of the old and poor all being shipped off to work camps), this type of discussion is not charmingly quaint but rather disturbingly creepy. And in that sense, the asymptote metaphor breaks down, because race is already fehtishized. It is already equally improper to ponder about mid 19th century women’s underwear as it is to talk about jungle fever.

D.N., I didn’t see any more posts from you after Melissa threatened to ban you. Any comment?

Eh, I left. Someone threatening to ban me for something I thought (you’ll note that I didn’t even say anything offensive) is beyond help.

It may take a few weeks, but they’ll soon join us getting our jollies dissing McCain. They’ll never admit to the racism and bigotry coming from their side of the fence, but alas, it is what it is.

I know, I know – pie. But I’m a teacher, and plagiarism hacks me off. Fail.