Apropos Sebastian Mallaby’s stupidity and lack of empathy, Atrios sez:
I’m not going to claim to have a deep understanding of living life as a member of the working poor – and, no, years of being a relatively impoverished grad student don’t really qualify – but I do know the experience of someone in that situation is exactly like Mallaby’s… not. To eat and feed their kids – let alone keep their insurance if they have it – they’ll have to keep working as much as possible in jobs which require a bit more physical activity then flicking fingers across a keyboard, and a bit more contact with other people than a telecommute.
Clueless pundits.
Mallaby: epitome of technocratic, little-glasses ‘realism’
Now this is in the context of Mallaby’s “centrist,” sneering, sociopathic positions on health insurance. But the objections work just as well against Mallaby’s “centrist,” sneering, and sociopathic positions on trade policy. To wit:
Sebastian Mallaby lives in Dupont Circle and all his friends are writers, software engineers, economists and advertising executives! So what if South Carolina has lost 17% of its blue-collar manufacturing jobs since January 2001 and North Carolina 22% — the two states most affected by Chinese textile and furniture exports. Sebastian Mallaby saved $10 at Pier 1 this month!
But at least Mallaby recognizes that China’s low-wage manufacturing economy is putting an end to the hopes from Central America and Africa and South Asia of climbing the development ladder via textiles. After all, getting the retail price of that Wal-Mart shirt down from $8.63 to, say, $8.58, is worth shutting down plants in coddled over-wealthy Bangladesh, not to mention in Columbus, GA.
Just as insurance company- and HMO-whores will eventually end up on the right wing where they belong, so too, I think, will the Tom Friedman and Sebastian Mallaby types who have steadily advocated economic war on the working class via Free Trade. Mallaby and Friedman are to trade policy what Joe Lieberman is to foriegn policy. Wherever General Glut’s at now, he has to be happy that there are signs that a “heightening of the contradictions” is in effect: the consensus of the bullshit “center” is breaking down and purveyors of fake Third Ways are increasingly seen as the de facto wingnuts that they are. “Liberal” laissez-faire will go the way of “Liberal” Hawkery, which is just-so, for the former position is untenable on the grounds that it is actually Libertarian just as the latter is untenable because it is actually batshit-wingnut.
Check out this quote about blogging and vacation time from the Instaperfesser in the WSJ:
Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, experienced a similar blow this month when he took a weeklong break from his site, the popular political blog InstaPundit. Unique visitors fell to 115,000 from around 150,000, according to Site Meter.
Even so, Mr. Reynolds is glad he took the week off. “I need a vacation more than I care about the traffic,” he says.
I’ve got a simple solution, Glenn: it’s called the “heh”-bot. Basically, program a bot to link to any new post from Confederate Yankee/Patterico/Powerline/Malkin/Jeff Goldstain/Ace and then add a “heh,” “indeed,” “feh,” “read the whole thing,” “more crushing of dissent,” or “fake but accurate” to the end. No one would notice you’d left.
OK, Dems, it’s crunch time. The White House has thrown down the gauntlet, and you need to get out there and punch them right between the eyes:
President Bush and his surrogates are launching a new campaign intended to rebuild support for the war in Iraq by accusing the opposition of aiming to appease terrorists and cut off funding for troops on the battlefield, charges that many Democrats say distort their stated positions. [...]
Pressed to support these allegations, the White House yesterday could cite no major Democrat who has proposed cutting off funds or suggested that withdrawing from Iraq would persuade terrorists to leave Americans alone. But White House and Republican officials said those are logical interpretations of the most common Democratic position favoring a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
“Fake but accurate,” as the Ole Perfesser might scoff.
Since it’s again fashionable to quote the Master, I offer this oldie but goodie, still very relevant in an age of crackpot libertarians, wingnuts, Randroids:
Publicly, no American politician can admit that we have anything to learn from the experiments of another society. The ritual dialogue between office seeker and electorate is one of mutual congratulation, and to suggest that perfection has another home is treasonable. But privately our more conscientious legislators do ponder other countries’ penal reforms, medical programs, educational methods. From his book and speeches I suspected [Barry] Goldwater had done little or no homework. He was firmly against socialized medicine, but he seemed to know nothing about how it worked in Scandinavia, West Germany, England.
Goldwater was honest. No, he didn’t know much about European socialism. “But I did meet this Norwegian doctor, matter of fact her name was Goldwater, which is how she happened to get in touch with me. She said the thing seemed to work all right, but that being assured of a certain income every month from the government kept her from feeling any real urge to study harder — you know, keep up at her profession. There was no incentive.” I asked him if he thought that the desire to be good was entirely economic in origin. He said of course it was. I then asked him to explain how it was that two people as different as ourselves worked hard, though in neither case money was the spur. He was startled. Then he murmured vaguely and slipped away from the subject.
If Democrats prove that they can hold their leads against the vulnerable GOP districts in the third and fourth columns, then they will press their advantage effectively and probe for more weaknesses until they start winning in seats in the second column of the chart (leans GOP) and even the first (likely Republican Retention). If this happens, it will be like a dike bursting for the GOP. Too many holes will appear to be plugged up, and Democrats will almost certainly take the House. Then we will have concrete reasons to expect a 25 or 26 seat GOP loss.
Shorter Terence Jeffrey: If it were up to East Coast elitists, we wouldn’t even have the forward pass.
Shorter Jacob Sullum: As a libertarian, I don’t think doctors should be convicted of drug trafficking for prescribing pain medication unwittingly to drug abusers.
Shorter Kathleen Parker: If local governments handed out compact fluorescent light bulbs, we might be able to forgo further sacrifices in energy consumption.
Shorter Tony Blankley: The world is such a mess that the Apocalypse is plausibly imminent, but I remain optimistic that maintaining fidelity to conservative principles may yet remedy the situation.
Shorter Michelle Malkin: Muslims should be denied ambulances until they learn to use them for their intended purpose.
Shorter Walter Williams: For decades, Americans have been willing to allow politicians to trample over – Pardon me? Say again? Phone call database? Warrantless-wire-who? That all sounds a bit far-fetched, my friend. I was merely referring to smoking, foie gras and endangered species.
Shorter Donald Lambro: Americans will vote on many issues that concern them, but they’ll continue to vote Republican as long as they’re scared witless.
Shorter Linda Chavez: Richard Armitage is a coward for not coming forward as the original source in the Plame leak, and Democrats are hypocrites for prosecuting Scooter Libby for perjury.
Shorter Brent Bozell III: The news media could regain some credibility by presenting opposing sides in a debate in ratios that reflect public opinion polls.
Shorter Bill O’Reilly: Hollywood liberals are obligated to provide recommendations on national security, but who wants to hear their ill-informed political views?
Shorter Ben Shapiro: Curtailing freedom during wartime has historically been a sign that we’re winning.
Shorter Paul Greenberg: No, I didn’t get the memo about ignoring Katrina’s anniversary. I wasn’t at my office, see – I was in Boston. I couldn’t even get my paragraphs to break properly.
Shorter Paul Weyrich: Oliver Stone deserves credit for making a movie about the World Trade Center, but he should’ve made clear who was responsible for that tragedy: Muslims.
Shorter Austin Bay: A shady Iranian neo-conservative wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Israel has defeated Hezbollah – which is certainly nice to hear.
Shock and dismay — that’s how pro-family groups in California are reacting to news this morning that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill that gives homosexuals new and far-reaching powers.
Arnold gave the gays reach-around powers? Yikes! I can see why the pro-family nuts are so upset!
Governor Schwarzenegger: Selling out his conservative base for a bunch of girly men.
The bill, SB 1441, adds sexual orientation to already existing provisions in the state’s law that prohibit discrimination on the basis of, among other things, race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, color, or disability. The measure was promoted by a lesbian member of the California legislature and is now the law in that state, a fact that has filled many family advocates with outrage.
“We’re already barred from discriminating against the blacks, the Meskins and the crippled… and now we have to respect the gays too?!!!”
It’s probably helpful to think of the Corner as the webpage version of a glossy and plain-colored institutional wall, like the kind in lunatic asylums made so that noxious stains and inane crayon scribblings may be easily wiped-off when everyone is put to sleep, only to be soiled with drivel and excrement the next day: a grim cycle indeed.
Put another way, it’s like a palimpsest for the reactionary Id, whereby all the spittled hate and fear and mania and ..well, shit may be quickly wiped away and rewritten with often contradictory hates and fears and manias and shits: what matters is not coherence and consistency of thought but rather of tone.
So let’s see take a look with a janitor’s-eye-view at what was smeared on the walls yesterday:
Doughy Pantload weasels around Ezra’s point on Wal-Mart, accuses Ezra of weaselling, then solemnly declares that his friends Nick “Lysenkoist” Schulz and Tim “Crooked Timber’s reactionary troll not named Sebastian Holsclaw” Worstall will fix Ezra’s wagon.
Stanley Kurtz, apparently tired of framing arguments for anti-Gay marriage amendments metaphorically as political fallout shelters good Christian families must use against the filthy radiation of homofagfag culture, gets literal. Kurtz argues that since liberals have stabbed America in the back, there’s just very little chance that Jesus Bush will bomb Iran. So, now, with considerable relish masked in the tone of mourning he advocates the next best wingnutty option: Missile defense and a return to the halcyon days of CD drills and duck and cover routines. Sweetly and neatly, he argues that those who are against bombing Iran into the stone age should be most responsible for getting behind the new old CD plan.
Derbyshire responds to all this hysteria with sarcasm — I think. It’s hard to tell. At any rate Kurtz appears to take it that way, demurs in a poor-little-ol-me tone that if Derb doesn’t like it, he’s free to do better.
As I was eating my breakfast this morning — usually an uneventful engagement with a bowl of corn flakes, I pulled my face up out of the bowl long enough to glance at the television.
I’m picturing Marie sitting with her head flat down on the table, with her face completely soaked with milk and chunks of corn flakes. Suddenly, the television does something interesting! Marie jumps up and says “BLUGH MUGH MEEFOOO!” as milk and cereal spew out of her mouth and nose.
Alongside the 189 channels of “nothing good on,” the commercials tend to be over-done, or just plain insipid. However, this one got my attention.
Really? I kinda like the commercials myself. I have a huge man-crush on that Dr. Z asshole you see in those Daimler-Chrysler ads:
Oooh Dr. Z, with your freaky mustache and hottt German accent, u can get with Bradrocket anytime.
So I’m watching Brownie on Hardball right now, and it is not pretty.
I almost- ALMOST- feel sorry for the guy. He should be held up as an example to all other prospective Bush hacks. Because while it may feel good to accept a job you’re completely unqualified for, it could ruin the rest of your life- and the lives of many others- should disaster strike.
Gavin adds: Hey man, they’ve been telling me that since that disastrous Christmas Eve at Toys ‘R’ Us all those years ago. And yet, I feel I’m finding my level.
Above: some of the bilge which is everywhere this week
It’s almost as though these conservative fake-nonpartisan foundations and Astroturf “citizens’ groups” are all networked together, and receive mass action-alerts of some kind.
Okay. So what does the California State Senate bill in question actually say?
Section 60044 of the Education Code is amended to read: 60044. No instructional materials shall be adopted by any governing board for use in the schools that, in its determination, contains: (a) Any matter reflecting adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion, as those terms are defined in Section 422.56 of the Penal Code, or occupation. (b) Any sectarian or denominational doctrine or propaganda contrary to law.
But maybe ol’ Kevin McCullough, of WorldNet Daily and various AM radio markets (see first link above), can best answer the question. After giving a fake quote from California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (the phrase, “the real purpose of SB 1437 is to outlaw traditional perspectives on marriage and family in the state school system,” in fact comes verbatim from a Christian Newswire press release, and was never said by Nunez), McCullough takes the actual bill that passed, SB 1437, and claims it’s really four bills by sneakily counting three draft versions, each with language crossed out that was removed before the vote. [Note: I was wrong about that. See update below.] And then he really starts making stuff up. If you feel like marveling at something this afternoon, take a look at the drafts bills and try to imagine how much lying it takes to get from what’s actually on the page to the following:
What do they say?
These four bills would require that in every classroom from kindergarten through high school perverse sexual activity be praised and highlighted in a positive light. They would require textbooks, many of which would then also be produced for other states beyond the borders of California, make positive references to the ideas of men putting on women’s under things. They would restrict school districts from being able to bar females from displaying dildos on the outerwear of their prom dress. And in functional sexuality courses from K-12, they would require positive explanation of the merits and instruction of anal intercourse.
These four bills are also dangerous in what they outlaw. No single teacher – not even in science classes – would be allowed to talk about the negative health impact of homosexual behavior. No school counselor would be allowed to confirm to a molested student that they felt wrong about continuing in a homosexual relationship that they were primarily drawn into because of earlier molestation to begin with. No mention of moral aspects of sexual behavior would be permitted unless immoral activity were praised and in fact referred to as moral.
In other words, the pushing of the sexual envelope would be unleashed with a nitro-fueled explosion the likes of which has never been seen in America’s history.
One of the bills goes a step further. Its actual purpose is to cripple any state resources such as fire or police protection for any religious institution – i.e., a Bible-based church – that would in any way demonstrate negative “doctrine” or “propaganda.” So if an arsonist (who also just happened to be a radical activist) decided to burn down a church that was in their view teaching the faithful interpretation of Scripture as it relates to sexual practice, then the local fire company could be barred from assisting in the recovery and protection of said facility.
Wow. It’s actually starting to sound pretty interesting, with the unleashing of a nitro-fueled explosion of sexual envelope-pushing, and dildos waving from prom dresses, and radical-activist arsonists burning down Fundie churches with impunity, and all that. Also, a ‘positive explanation of the merits and instruction of anal intercourse’ might help with whatever’s ailing this guy:
Above: Kevin McCullough
Just sayin’.
Update: While Kevin is making up so much wild-ass stuff, it’s difficult to tell where any of it comes from, there are in fact four bills that the fundies are freaking over. (Kevin specifies SB 1471, but SB 1441, AB 606, and AB 1056 are similar.)
Double-update: None of the stuff he claims is in any of the other bills, either: SB 1441AB 606AB 1056
So Bob Dylan has a new album out. The critics say it’s pretty good, but for my money, he hasn’t recorded anything truly compelling since John Wesley Harding in 1968 (and yes, I’ll hear arguments for Blood on the Tracks, which is very good but not in the same jaw-dropping way his early work was).
At any rate, I’ve decided that today would be a good day to honor the great Bobby D. by listing my all-time top 10 favoritest Dylan lyrics. Here they are:
The peddler now speaks to the countess who’s pretending to care for him,
Sayin’, “Name me someone that’s not a parasite and I’ll go out and say a prayer for him”
So This Week featured a Hurricane Katrina roundtable of Donna Brazile (the one “liberal” who wasn’t appalled by the president’s inept response to the hurriance), George Will (who spent the whole time arguing that government failures in the region were a clear indication that everything should be privatized) and a former White House shill (who took up huge amounts of the segment by praising the president’s “firm commitment” to rebuilding and comparing it to his “firm resolve” in Iraq).
Serenity affinity — love of his life, fire of his groin:
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Absolutely Last Serenity Post [John Derbyshire]
Nothing, really, only… sigh
Posted at 4:10 PM
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Re: Confession [John Derbyshire]
I, of course, am still interested in the debates about biology (to say “evolution” is wrong—practically nobody doubts that evolution goes on at SOME level), and all other matters of public interest……
The World Ceres [John Derbyshire]
In all the hullabaloo about the re-classification of Pluto, it has been quite forgotten that humble little Ceres also has a new designation. No longer an asteroid, Ceres is now a “dwarf planet.” I’ve been racking my Benadryl-fuddled brains to think of a connection with Firefly/Serenity, but so far not come up with anything.
Posted at 2:18 PM
Thursday, August 24, 2006
The Serenity Connection [John Derbyshire]
A reader: “Derb—-It’s obvious that Ceres is short for Cerenitys.”
[Derb] That’s it! And Mars has obviously been truncated from the original Morena.
Posted at 4:14 PM
But, you know, for all his leering, dirty-old-man perversity, as well as his otherwise porcine chauvinism, he’s stillsmarter than idiots like Pantload and religious cornertards like K-Lo, Ponnuru, Dreher, et al.
Gavin adds: Plus, he can take a beating, as can be seen in this clip from the 1972 Bruce Lee film, ‘Return of the Dragon,’ in which a young Derb…
Huh. ‘No longer available.’ Well, never mind then. I also have this stored up for some now-forgotten purpose, so let me at least sneak out of here gracefully:
When Glenn Reynolds gets riled and writes more than one or two distracted sentences at a time, which is seldom, the effect is like dozens of clowns piling out of a Mini. Were they all crammed up in there the whole time, or is there, like, a trap door that opens from a backstage reservoir?
Exempli gratia: Whilst taking apart Mark Steyn for his hubristic gassings-off during the early days of the Iraq War, Glenn Greenwald notes in passing:
The only thing I have seen that competes with this Steyn column for its mix of pure wrongness and gloating self-celebration over being so wrong is this humiliating April, 2003 screed from Glenn Reynolds.
…Which really popped the cowlick on Reynolds’s Alfalfa-do. (The screed is worth reading in its entirety: It’s a single dense-packed paragraph of arch bwaa-ha-haaing and smug charges of disloyalty.) Reynolds sticks an update into the old post directing readers to a recent rebuttal:
Glenn Greenwald links this post in the — as usual — deluded notion that it proves his point. I’ve responded here.
Then the clowns start piling out, ransacking quotes and statistics from such liberal solons as cartoonist Ted Rall and such unbiased analysts as Gateway Pundit.
Let’s just grab one single clown out of the whooping multitude:
I should also note that despite predictions of 50,000 casualties in the initial invasion, three years later we’re at less than 5% of that.
That would be a Sadly, No! unless one is using a special, contingent definition of ‘casualties’ that’s identical with the subcategory, ‘fatalities’ — i.e., one that excludes wounded and only counts troops killed. And characteristically, the ‘50,000 casualties’ prediction comes from a reader email in which somebody says they remember hearing Gary Hart say that three years ago. A further link leads to a March ‘06 Mickey Kaus column, and another there leads to a March ‘06 Huffington Post piece by Hart, neither of which mentions any such prediction.
Galloping goalposts, thy name is Reynolds. (It is perhaps unfair, but nonetheless accurate, also to note that these reader emails have long drawn suspicion as to their authorship — much like Tom Friedman’s infamous chattering cab drivers and Andrew Sullivan’s frequent anonymous boosters, whom we have come to refer to, respectively, as ‘Thomasz Friedmab’ and ‘Andrev Sullivam.’)
Many Iraq war advocates were honest enough to admit that they were wrong, that Iraq was and is falling apart, but the most dishonest of them — the Steyns, Krauthammers and Reynolds — prefer to embrace transparent falsehoods than change their thinking about anything or admit that they were wrong about anything. Preventing individuals of this type from leading this country into more disasters is genuinely urgent.
Um, Glenn G., as Brad keeps saying, what’s genuinely urgent is finishing Reynolds’s robot body so we can blast him off into space….
