The Most Shameful and Indelible of Steyns
In these dark and turbulent times, when it is hard to know the dark from the light, we grasp, yes, even the most faithless of us, for the eternal. In these days, when wars rage without end, when the savings of a lifetime can be wiped out in the twinkling of an eye, when all that we thought was true and real is shown to be as changing as the tides, we beg for certainty. We long for that one unchanging thing that will serve as our rock, our shelter, when everything else is transitory.
Happily, even in these latter days, we may all rely on the fact that Mark Steyn is 100% full of shit.
Hey, Jonah, don’t let Andrew distract you from your main point: FDR put the “Great” in the “Great Depression”. Lots of other places – from Britain to Australia – took a hit in 1929 but, alas, they lacked an FDR to keep it going till the end of the Thirties. That’s why in other countries they refer to it as “the Depression”, but only in the US is it “Great”.
Well, I guess if you hang around with Jonah “Fascism Is, And Always Has Been, A Product Of Liberalism” Goldberg long enough, you can come around to thinking that black is white, up is down, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt caused the Great Depression rather than ended it. In fact, fact-checking Mark on this would be downright churlish, but we’re going to do it anyway. Say, the internet, were there any other countries other than the U.S. where the Great Depression lasted well into the 1930s?
Hmmm. Well, it looks like the Depression was over in Germany by 1936, but then again, they had a strong, dynamic leader to help them out of it, not some namby-pamby, elitist, liberal wuss like Roosevelt.
In France (where it was known as “The Great Depression“), it was still going strong in 1938, and had not fully abated the following year — 1939, known to some as “the end of the Thirties” — when the nation entered World War Two. But that’s the French for you.
In Latin America, where some called it “The World Wide Great Depression“, it lasted well into the early 1940s in some countries, particularly Brazil — but hey, you know how backward those people are.
The Netherlands were particularly hard hit by what they called “The Great Depression“; recovery didn’t begin until at least 1937, but even then, it wasn’t until after the war that things really got back to normal. But who even knows where the Netherlands are, am I right, folks?
Great Britain (which even today refers to the period as “The Great Depression“) was able to begin its economic recovery as early as 1936, which is barely even the late ’30s!
Okay, okay. So we’ve illustrated that Mark is a little fuzzy with the facts, by which we mean he has his head completely up his ass. But surely, he isn’t completely and totally ignorant of the history of his own country, right?
Wrong! In Canada, where it was known as “The Dirty Thirties” or “The Great Depression“, it took World War Two to get the country back on track; the economy recovered very slowly, and it was 1939 (the end of the Thirties) before the Canadian business cycle saw its first prosperity period since the Crash of ’29.
The seas may boil and the heavens may fall, but Mark Steyn will always be a stupid lying shitface.
I heard that Inuits nest in tiny igloos that they secretly built in his beard.
Stupid you can steer a ship by.
Stupid you can set your watch by.
Stupid you can carve your initials into.
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt married Aisha she was only nine years old.
So war IS good for the economy. Well, hey! We already HAVE a war goin’, so this should only take–what? Two–three years, tops to resolve!
Mark “Stagger” Steyn at work, ladies and gentlemen.
Talent and intelligence are for other people. He’s just here for the welfare.
You’re my hero, Leonard.
Yeah, that’s like the Republicans in 2001 BLAMING Clinton for the recession that started a few months before he left office. Sorry, but I was pretty impressed that he had kept the recovery going for as long as he did. I knew that the Republicans had done a marvelous propaganda job when my brother’s girlfriend earnestly told us that the reason the recession was dragging on into 2004 was because of 9/11. I was just like “Oh, good grief!”
“When Franklin Delano Roosevelt married Aisha she was only nine years old.”
Pure coffe-up-the-nose gold.
Steynisia ended the Lesser Depression in 1933 (with the invention of vodka). Steynakustan was out of the Not So Great Depression in 1932 when it was exterminated by Stalin. North Steynsland had no Depression at all, since it didn’t have a currency until 1958. Steyn Nam was Depressed until 1934, but then the French released the Merlot batallions and all was well. Steynambia didn’t fare so well; the Depression there wasn’t Great but the Famine was.
Smart assholes at least bring something to the table…
If they couldn’t lie every minute of the day they’d have nothing to say.
FDR put the “Great” in the “Great Depression”
So, do they have anything to base this theory on?
Hoover left office in March of 1933. There was pretty much a GREAT depression ongoing at that point. Roosevelt passed some of the New Deal legislation in ’33, and the SEC was created in ’34. WPA in ’35 and Social Security in ’37.
I’m not sure what they think he could have done better. Hell, babe, THEY’D have just let “the free market” take it’s course…
mikey
The way I understand it, if the US Congress doesn’t act this fucking week to bailout Wall Street, the world will tumble into another Great Depression late this year that may last to 2020 or beyond.
However, if Congress does agree to bailout Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion in time, the world won’t slide into a decade-long Great Depression until early 2009! Plus we, the US taxpayers, will be out another $700 billion.
That’s much better!! Gives me more time to stock up on ammo, booze and cigarettes.
In pretty much every case, it was the war that ended the depression. All that ramped up production and such. Since the US didn’t enter the war until really really late, we were also one of the last to get out of the depression.
Germany got out of it quite early because it started up its war production effort very early since it, you know, started the war. The countries it attacked early stepped up the war effort and they too got out of the depression.
The funny thing is, is that in every case, the basic stimulus to ending the depression was the government stepping.
Depression happens. Government creates tons of jobs and pays people with borrowed money. Depression ends. US slowly pays off debt (until Reagan and then we go to super insane debt mode).
http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif
But somehow the fact that government stepped in and paid people to make things when times were tough, thus ending those tough times proves that the government should never step in and pay people to do things when times are tough. at least, in wingnuttia.
For a linguistics project, I tried to figure out the first usage of the term “World War II” to refer to you, know, World War II, and also, the first reference to WWI as WWI. Nobody called World War I “World War I” until there was a World War I I. I also did some history research into Depression-era programs, and I’m not sure when people started calling it The Great Depression, rather than “the depression” or “The Depression,” but I think it was some time into it. It took some perspective to realize that it wasn’t just “The Panic of 1929” but was in fact the Worst Depression Ever, worse than that thing your grandpa talked about.
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it. Great Depression II? Greatest Depression? I imagine Republicans would resist using the term “depression” because that conjures up the idea of social programs, in a way that “banking crisis” does not.
That should be “stepping up and paying people to work” I somehow deleted that bit.
Hey, Steyn and his right-tards really don’t have anything left but to double down on the bullshit and noise. Keep in mind, they’re no longer trying to change anyone’s opinion – certainly not “liberals”, and they know they’ve all but lost the muddled middle of “independents”. All this utter nonsense they’re spewing now is only intended for “the base”, to try to keep their pointy little heads from exploding. “Don’t worry, loyal dittoheads, we’ve been right all along and we’re still right! We’re just the only ones who can see it! So ignore the facts, discount the evidence, and don’t believe the historical record! Just keep the faith and clap louder!”
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it. Great Depression II? Greatest Depression?
Mission Accomplished.
Oh, wait! Forgot to add – this coming Second Great Depression? All Clinton’s fault.
Carry on.
But who even knows where the Netherlands are, am I right, folks?
Um, every pothead in the world who wants to sit in a cafe and get stoned without 12 heavily armed policeman busting in and arresting you?
Bush will put the fail in the Great Failout of ’08.
Ruthie: Good point! In fact, Excellent point! Someone point that out to Stain: if War is so good for the economy, why is ours in the tank! Oh! Oh! *I* know: because the Chinese are loaning us the money to pay… for… it?
Also, Ronald Reagan put the “Cold” in “The Cold War.” Before that, it was just kinda tepid.
Many of you may be wondering “Why 800 Billion?” Well here’s a quote from Treasury Dept, via Forbes via Think Progress
“Forbes writes on part of the reason that the American public is so skeptical of the Bush administration’s bailout proposal:
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
“Germany got out of it quite early because it started up its war production effort very early since it, you know, started the war. The countries it attacked early stepped up the war effort and they too got out of the depression.”
After shooting their way into Poland, Norway, Belgium, and France, the Germans looted those countries. We know about the art and other treasures stolen from the Jews, but even that monstrous crime was small beer. The new overlords set their currency artificially high against the local monies, thus stealing from the locals with every transaction. Hitler also bullied Stalin into sending beaucoup raw materials from the Soviet Union into Occupied Europe; the last goodie-loaded trains entered Nazi-controlled territory as the Wehrmacht blew past Soviet border defenses in the other direction. Of course, since Hitler was a liberal, this is all central to Steyn’s point.
Also,
“Steynakustan was out of the Not So Great Depression in 1932 when it was exterminated by Stalin. North Steynsland had no Depression at all, since it didn’t have a currency until 1958.”
Win!
If you people are going to continue to get all “facty” on Mark Steyn you have have to know it will put the ‘What?’ into “whatever”.
Hitler put the II in World War II.
Steyn, like Doughy Loadpants and Bush, gets his best ideas when he checks the toilet bowl after taking a dump.
I’m not sure what people would call it. Great Depression II? Greatest Depression?
The Greater Depression, Brought To You By Blackwater
I support no immigration reform that doesn’t include Mark Steyn on a leaky dory with a blown-out sail and no oars off the coast of Maine in January.
It may end up being called The French Revolution II: American Style. It depends on whether there’s anything good on TV.
You LIEbrul dumbasses need to learn to read. What I actually wrote was “from Britain to Australia”, which technically can be interpreted to mean only Britain and Australia, and possibly the empty expanse of water in between. So all those other countries you mentioned are irrelevant, because I wasn’t talking about them.
And when I wrote “the end of the Thirties”, although I got “Thirties” in so I could hedge my bets by a decade and make my point seem more valid than i was, I actually meant 11.59pm on 31 December 1939. And none of the dates you cite are later than that!
Suck it, libs.
Treasury Secretary Paulson must be really desperate to help out his multi-millionaire CEO pals at Goldman Sachs, as well as at other Wall Street firms, for him to lie the way he did at the congressional hearing, playing dumb about Section 8, repeatedly claiming he’s for oversight even though Section 8 denies any oversight.
(NOTE: In bygone U.S. Army terminology, Section 8 referred to someone being discharged from service for being mentally unfit or for displaying character traits deemed undesirable. Wow, what a coincidence!!).
I trace this entire Republican-created Wall Street scandal back to Bush’s “ownership society” scheme.
I bet that there is a study somewhere (probably compiled at one of the right-wing think tanks) indicating that “owners of property” tend to be more conservative and therefore tend to vote more often for Republicans instead of Democrats.
Some Republican strategist (Karl Rove?) hit upon the idea that increasing home ownership would swell the ranks of Republican-leaning voters.
This is why federal and Wall Street regulations were relaxed, making it possible for a whole lot of credit-overextended, collateral-challenged potential home owners to realize the American dream of owning a home…but with many of these people now foreclosed on or facing foreclosure.
At least that’s my theory.
Now, although I know it’s too late and won’t help, I’m going to paint some lipstick on my piggy bank.
And as for all those other countries that also called it “The Great Depression”, well, that’s obviously … oh excuse me, I think I left my hair dryer on.
In the 1930s, lots of Europe headed towards one or the other political extreme. The New Deal stopped that from happening.
Shit Steyn is just sad that he can’t lick Conrad Black’s balls any more.
That picture speaks for itself. The Hoover Institution? Are you fracking kidding me?
Steyn is also dead fucking wrong about Australia:
1932-1939: A slow recovery
Unlike the United States where Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal stimulated the American economy, New Zealand where Mickey Savage’s socialism and central planning almost eliminated unemployment overnight, or the United Kingdom where rearmament also reduced unemployment, there was no formal plan for economic recovery in Australia. There was no banking reform or socialisation of the economy. State governments and local councils continued with make-work unemployment relief schemes such as bridge building and other public works. However, the stimulation of the economy in the United Kingdom, as well as the devaluation of the Australian pound, the abandonment of the Gold Standard and the 10% cut to award wages over time led to a slow recovery.
Oracle,
Speaking of Army terms, I’ve been trying to think up the proper un-abbreviated version for whatever bill makes it through Congress. No matter what the details of the bill wind up being, I’m fairly sure that the most appropriate acronym is going to be the “BOHICA Act.”
If I ever meet Mark Steyn, he’ll be sorry. But Jeezus will giggle.
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it.
The Depression to end all Depressions.
Hrrm, maye the Banking Omnibus and Healthy Investments for Criminal Assholes Act.
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it.
The Thousand Points of DepressionMorning in DepressionCompassionate DepressionismFour More YearsBILL CLINTON’S FAULT!!!Results 1 – 10 of about 612,000 for “new zealand” “great depression”
Results 1 – 10 of about 1,050,000 for australia “great depression”
Steyn must be angling for a position advising the McCain campaign. I can think of no other reason why he should lie so compulsively and so transparently.
To avoid calamity, we must immediately appoint a Depression Czar who will declare War on Depressions while we all put green ribbons on our cars to support Gen. Paulson and the Patriotic Bailout America Act.
The Pretzeldent didn’t tell me so I’m not sure if we’re all supposed to go shopping or not for this war.
Well, Steyn is right at least insofar as the Great Depression isn’t called “the Great Depression” in Germany. No, the Germans call it, doubtless to highlight its purely local, small-scale and short-term nature, the “Worldwide Economic Crisis” (Weltwirtschaftskrise).
But really, is “Steyn Full of Shit” really a headline item? Is not a bit like “Sun Rises in East” or “McCain Grumbles Confusedly”?
“So war IS good for the economy. Well, hey! We already HAVE a war goin’, so this should only take–what? Two–three years, tops to resolve!”
You kid. But I’ve seen people argue that we de facto CANNOT be in a recession, BECAUSE we are in a ‘war’. QED.
One of the things that made post-war US so booming was the GI Bill. Set aside the fact that military spending is perhaps the basest form of Socialism, the GI Bill further bolstered the economy by redistributing wealth back to the newly re-minted middle class, thus ensuring a wealth and educational/skilled basis to propel the USA to the forefront of the world for the better part of the rest of the century.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/274177.php
Ha ha!! In 2003 John Snow & Bush admin. pushed hard to establish Congressional oversight of FM/FM and guess who pushed back?
Barney Frank and your Democrats.
As I said earlier, it’s all about Teh Ownership™.
Hurts, don’t it?
Predicted S,N! commenters:
“It’s Faux News as reported by Ass O’ Spades, therefore it’s not true. Neener neener, pthhhhhhbbblllllt!!”
And for the snarkers who gloated that the Palin email thing was over, think again.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/151490/palin_hacking_probe_whats_next.html
Jumpin’ Jesus – it’s damn near 80 years later, & they’re STILL trying to put horns, hooves & a forked tail on FDR. Still looking like blithering fucktards doing it, too.
I know Canada had it rougher than the US in the Dirty Thirties, in part due to good old nasty geo-economic dirty-pool, but also due in part to our having a moronic post-colonial attitude that either Mother Britannia would help (by & large it didn’t) or we’d struggle through just fine (we aced the struggling part, anyway) – & a lot of folks looked with envy on the US for having a real leader like FDR who was smart & strong enough to do what needed to be done. Both Bennett & King probably made it worse than it should’ve been due to their mortal terror of looking like Bolshies.
I’m kind of partial to “The Mother Of All Fuckups” myself.
Who had the Senate majority in 2003, assface?
BushCo also fought against House reform of FM/FM in both 2003 & 2005 – oopsy daisies. Poor guy must have some kind of split-presonality.
You really ought to avoid regurgitating the spew of fellow wingnuts who are just as clueless as you are. I bet if I check that bill I’ll find poison pills aplenty, specifically inserted to kill it – so later BushCo could feign innocence. It’s a GOP motif of sorts: float phony “reform” bills joined at the hip to suicide-amendments, then bawww like whipped bitches about the big bad Dems who just don’t care enough to “do the right thing” – everyone knows all about just what a “Compassionate Conservative” Commandante Chimpster has been for America, & that’s why his butt-boy McCain is slowly but inexorably doing a U-Boat impersonation in the polls.
Don’t cry, little troll – somewhere, there are folks even DUMBER than you are! One day NASA will find them, & you can go back to feeling superior again. Just stay away from sharp objects until AFTER November 4, & you should do just fine.
… because when your entire fucking economy is displaying a massive sucking chest-wound, NOTHING could possibly be more important than finding out who hijacked* Sarahcuda’s Yahoo account.
Never mind that the REAL scandal is that someone so close to Teh Red Button could be such a cyertard as to use Yahoo – YAHOO, for Bob’s Sake! – for government business – or that she’d try to do an end-run around FOI by keeping ALL her e-mail on a personal account.
You’d better get a cybernerd-type-person to check the kerning on that story, quick – it might be an Obama plant!
They’re lurking EVERYWHERE, you know … ESPECIALLY on the supposedly “right-wing” websites!
———
* With all due respect to pcworld.com: it’s not “hacking” when you guess someone’s password – it’s hacking when you turn their computer itself into a zombie, or nuke its hard-drive, or infect it with a Trojan or a worm or malware, or other like-minded naughtiness. Believe it or not, there’s a difference – a rather big one in fact.
That’s why in other countries they refer to it as “the Depression”, but only in the US is it “Great”.
New Zealand historians talk about the Long Depression (1878 into the 1890s) and the Great Depression (which began to taper off after the election of Michael Savage and the first Labour Government in 1935).
Mark Steyn is 100% full of shit.
That is not entirely true. He is also contaminated with melamine.
People, people. In those other countries they either didn’t use the word “great” because they’re yucky furriners, or they said it with a funny accent.
Completely different thing.
Win.
Other than proving you have no understanding of the causes of this financial debacle that Wall Street brought us, booger, what’s your point?
We already know that the reichtards are desperately trying to pull shit out of their asses to fling.
In France (where it was known as “The Great Depression“)
Non.
La Grande Dépression.
Plus de bière!!!!
Someone point that out to Stain: if War is so good for the economy, why is ours in the tank!
I think partially why “war is good for the economy” no longer applies so much – and this is only a personal opinion – is that in the past, pre-Cold War, the influx of government spending in setting the country on a war footing stimulated the economy. With the “constant war-footing economy” that came with the Cold War (and now with The War Against Terrorism) you don’t get that Keynsian surge of spending.
I’m not putting all that as well as I might (need more coffee) but I think the gist is there.
Interestingly, the US economy was recovering by 1936, but in 1937 FDR and Congress decided to cut back on spending, thinking the economy was strong enough to run on it’s own. The economy began to slip back (the so-called “Roosevelt Recession”) and FDR and Congress had to ramp up government spending again. And yes, it was WWII, which can be seen as a massive government works project, which ended the Depression. The lesson isn’t that government spending can’t end a depression, it’s that it has to be ENOUGH spending. Half-way measures don’t do it.
Mark “The Human” Steyn has got me all confused. The way I learned it, they had started to get a handle on the Most Awesome Depression around ’34-’36, but the wingers of the time raised a fuss about Teh Socialism and caused the Glorious Depression to stretch on for another 4-5 years.
I’m sure they won’t act like that for the current Doubleplusgood Depression.
argh, I hate when I mess up “it’s” vs. “its.” I should have written “its own.”
BTW, Alonzo Hamby’s “For the Survival of Democracy ” is a good comparison of the US, Germany and Britain during the Depression. I think he short-shrifts FDR on the Depression a bit, but it’s a far better balanced account that anything Steyn will ever right.
“The Glums.”
If FDR had not left this nation vulnerable to the attacks of 9/11/2001, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Nor did FDR back The SURGE ™, which was the most important foreign policy decision ever made on the Earth’s surface or even the Moon, one which cut & run surrender-crats like FDR would never understand.
I got a leaked copy of Steyn’s next column. Here’s the gist of it:
The SEC is responsible for the current mess (just ask John McCain). FDR created the SEC. Therefore, FDR is responsible for the current mess.
The “Great Depression” will be renamed “The Greatest Depression” because it belongs to “The Greatest Generation.” This generation? Not as great, so the upcoming depression will now be named “The Great Depression.”
eidos: Unfortunately, you’re not exaggerating. Right wing prat Terry Jefferies was on Thom Hartmann yesterday and said that this crisis was ‘exploding’ now because it was a ticking time bomb when FDR created a socialist housing aid program.
Apparently it was a really, really sophisticated clock which kept ticking for a really, really long time, and apparently only explodes during a Republican administration by utter chance.
They’re all saying this.
And to an extent, the right wing is right — if we had left Americans living in poverty and not helped the elderly avoid starvation and had stopped unions from getting workers even in the South to earn enough to replace by food the calories expended in each day’s work and had left everyone living in whatever housing they could build on their sharecropping fields or in crumbling tenements, yeah, we might now have this particular crisis.
FDR still drives the thugtards insane because not only was he elitist, he set up lots of SOCIAL programs that actually worked and saved people’s asses and some of which still work quite well even today, but also he got to be president four times and they know they’ll never ever get to do that. So suck it Rethugs!
The right wing is already pissed because Herbert Hoover’s name is a substitute (somewhat unfairly, but still) for disastrous Republican pro-business policies which destroyed the economy.
It’s really going to piss them off forever if McCain’s further antics push Obama into a landslide restructuring election triumph, and George W. Bush and Herbert Hoover team up in the population as the 2 unquestioned examples of how Republican pro-business leadership always destroys the nation and the economy.
And if somehow, Obama exceeds my expectations, and the citizenry reclaims (maybe just out of being pissed off by Democratic inaction) the sort of hell-raising that pushed FDR into being “FDR” (I know, fat chance, but “if”), then the Turd Reich mob will have two great ‘myths’ to keep fighting angrily and unsuccessfully forever.
And ever.
I guess it might, if you weren’t (1) relying on Deuce O’ Spades for information and (2) if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had much of anything to do with the Free Market Ownership Society, Inc. buying and selling mortgage-backed securities so convoluted that nobody even knows how screwed they are.
Epic fail.
In 2003, Republicans dominated every single branch of government and most state and many local governments. Why is it again that Bush Jr and the DeRegupublicans needed Barney Frank to do exactly what they weren’t really doing?
Oh, wait! Forgot to add – this coming Second Great Depression? All Clinton’s fault.
You’ve forgotten HISTORY’S GREATEST MONSTER.
Double depression with elements of dissociative fugue (“How on earth could any of this be Republicans’ fault? Democrats are in charge of the presidency and both houses of Congress!”)… The Great Prostration?
Lots of Letterman on the morning news. What was the guy thinking?
The guy being McCain of course, although Letterman will have to take extra steps to avoid being trampled by moose.
This is the new thing everyone on the right now says about FDR and the Great Depression: FDR extended it with his socialism. The main wingnut we have to thank for this is Amity Shlaes, who wrote a book called “The Forgotten Man”, that advances this theory through the usual lying-by-omission. She has been on every wingnut radio show for the past couple weeks, usually introduced by a host saying: “As we all now know, thanks to Amity Shlaes, FDR actually extended the Depression due to his interventionist policies …”
There’s an interesting debunking of her book here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=284×383
I was scanning through the AM while driving yesterday and Bill O, Rush, and Glenn Beck all were on the talking point that this financial mess is the direct result of liberalism. Letting people think they can own houses and whatall.
I know!
Let’s call it the Ronald Reagan Memorial Depression!
Didja hear? Natty Enquirer broke out the news:
Caribou Barbie’s been unfaithful to Ken:
Linkzorz (new window)
McCain/Palin ’08=Moose/Squirrel ’08.
Or–
Watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat!
Only in the Benighted States of America could a has-been Canadian musical theater critic become an expert on The World, Its History, and All Other Things. I’m surprised NRO hasn’t made Adam Yoshida their Editor-in-Chief, or at least a blind date for K-Lo..
Speaking of experts, Jonah at the Corner:
I’m probably going to miss the debate no matter what because I’m giving a speech on “The Theoretical Roots of American Bureaucracy” at the Hillsdale Free Market Forum in Dearborn, Michigan Friday night.
MLP,
Most historians would point out that the Great Depression really lasted in England, France and most of Europe, and certainly Germany and Japan, until well into the Marshall Plan.
You know, FDR’s recovery czar…
The Squirrel-Moose Party?
“The Theoretical Roots of American Bureaucracy”
So it’s a one-line speech?
“It all started with nepotism. Oops. Gotta run!”
When I think about what passes for intellectual vigor in this country it makes me sick.
And Boris and Natasha might be a better comparison for McCain/Palin. The little thug and the tall brunette femme venal
The problem with talking about the Great Depression is that liberals have made everyone remember the “Depression” part and ignore the “Great” part. Why don’t they ever talk about the good things?
Ooh, I forgot to insult Steyn. For a high school drop-out disk jockey to pontificate to the world, and have K-Lo and others laud him as the brilliant wit of conservatism, is pretty damn funny. And an insult to honest high school drop-out disk jockeys everywhere.
I love the sordid ordinariness of the Enquirer story. My favorite line?
“Todd found out about the affair and was so mad he broke up their partnership at the snowmobile dealership,” Burdett claimed.
I can just see the romance unfold. Todd’s off at the oil fields. Sarah’s carpooling the kids, cleaning up the kitchen floor after the huskies, and there’s a regional development committee meeting for joint council members. In the mini-van, she looks into the mirror as she quickly clips her tied-up hair on top of her head. She’s flustered as she goes into the meeting room at the local Ramada Inn – her J.C. Penny suit’s on its third wearing after being dry-cleaned, and the hem of her pencil-skirt has ripped out.
She bumps into him at the door, making him drop his papers. They both bend to pick them up, apologizing.
They introduce themselves. He’s attractive in a rough, brooding way. They have so much in common. During the meeting, their eyes meet several times across the formica conference table….
she finds herself taking the mini-van on several daytime errands in Palmer, driving past the snowmobile dealership. Is that his silhouette in the window?
too much!
too much!
I can just see the romance unfold.
That’s really good.
Be nice to me. The welfare is drying up and my Sugar Daddy, Conrad, is in the big house!
Steyn speaks Douchebag. That’s not one of our official languages.
He is a Brit originally and lives in Canada now because we are way too fucking tolerant.
Could you spare us the shame, and refer to him as a transplanted Brit from now on? Pretty please?
Could you spare us the shame, and refer to him as a transplanted Brit from now on? Pretty please?
It’s an old trick: these bastards come to the new world and assume intellectual superiority over the locals by virtue of a British accent.
Does that shit work in the US?
He is a Brit originally
No he is not. Back to your igloo!
My favorite part of the Enquirer story about Palin:
However, Hanson family insider, Jim Burdett, has gone on the record and passed a rigorous polygraph test, revealing details of the affair to The NATIONAL ENQUIRER in a world exclusive interview.
Burdett is a former brother-in-law of Hanson’s estranged wife Carolyn’s brother, Craig Batton, and still speaks with many family members.
Goober:
If you think Congressional Democrats could have stopped ANYTHING in 2003, you’re just lying to yourself.
BTW Goober (really, Goober? You know a Goober is usually someone who’s an idiot, yes?) how did having complete control of the judicial, legislative, executive and Dick Cheney branches of the government work out for ya?
GOP: the Gullible Old Party.
Booger, You’re talking about the bill that those noted class warriors and dirty-ass hippies at AEI called “another effort at welfare for the upper middle class rather than a genuine attempt to increase funds for low income housing” and “seriously flawed compared to current law…weaker than the regulatory authority available to the federal bank regulators, and…a lost opportunity for regulatory reform that will reduce the risk to taxpayers and the economy.”
Frank advocated for fannie/freddie because of a strong belief in their role in making affordable housing available to middle class people. He may have been dead wrong about the health of fannie/freddie but at least his heart was in the right place.
The reform bill would’ve allowed Fannie and Freddie give loans of $500,000+ a year (McMansion loans), at the expense of smaller loans for poor/middle class people. It also would’ve gotten rid of rules preventing them from expanding into new and riskier areas of finance. Finally, it would’ve allowed politicians to arbitrarily decide what areas of the country fannie and freddie should offer loans. But republicans would never politicize something like that, would they?
So the bill was basically welfare for rich people in red states and was a move towards less restriction on fannie/freddie’s activities. It was an awful bill that deserved the death it got. If it had passed, fannie and freddie could’ve gotten themselves into more trouble more quickly than they already did.
Sorry booger, it’s a nice story but reality is not on your side on this one.
see: http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.22705/pub_detail.aspd
A goober is also a peanut. Sorry about your penis.
Goober, you’re talking about a bill that the hippies/noted class warriors at the AEI described as
and
Sorry dumbass, the facts are not on your side this time.
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.22705/pub_detail.asp
What flavortext said. If you aren’t going to trash FDR, you can’t use the Hoover Institute’s podium. It’s a rule.
Intriguingly enough, Amity Shlaes herself doesn’t entirely subscribe to the view attributed to her:
I may be missing something, but I don’t think the “Roosevelt did good” thing is sarcastic.
MzNicky,
I think this one should be the Kinda Lame Depression.
Gives me more time to stock up on ammo, booze and cigarettes.
Don’t forget the toilet paper. If you have booze and toilet paper, you can trade for anything else you need.
The Tinkerbelle Memorial Depression.
Actually, by that logic, it should be more like 2-3 WEEKS, becuse the US actually has 2 wars going on at once.
Sorry, Ruthie – unlike WW2, which was largely fought with War Bonds, America’s wars are now fought with MasterCard & Visa, so the longer they last, the nastier the bill gets. In addition, ending them offers no post-war boom via a “Peace Dividend” – just an end to the war-related economic hemhorraging.
As were the murders of BOTH the Archduke Ferdinand & JFK, 9/11, the Versailles Treaty, New Coke, hemorrhoids & the Pre-Cambrian Extinction.
In strict semantic terms, I have to agree: if the GOP weren’t quite so fucking LIBERAL with other people’s money & the law, this whole Economic Clusterfuck could easily have been avoided. Republicans should just change their name to the Our Free-Lunch On Your Dime Party.
“Vote OFLOYD, & we’ll give you each a Magic Pony!
No, we really REALLY mean it this time!
We’re New-&-Improved Lemony-Fresh Mavericky now, & stuff.”
It will be known as the Obama Depression, as any free thinker will see it was caused by Obama’s shameful refusal to cancel the debates.
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it.
“America’s Next Top Depression: So, Big Brother, You Think You Can Surviv[or] a Depression in The Real World? You’re Fired! Brought to you by Coca-Cola and Doritos, America’s Wingnut-sustenance of choice!”
I anticipate people using the acronym ANTD:SBBYTYCSDTRW?YF!BTYBCCDAWSC! more often than the full name, for simplicity’s sake. (It’s easy to pronounce; just make the sound of a moose being shot in the face from an airplane.)
The Secretive Bushy Depression.
Now with man-sized safe!
The Pre-Cambrian Extinction *must be* the fault of the liberals, because only they know it even happened! That’s pretty darn incriminating, doncha think?
Depression 2.0.1b: The Depressening
In a world gone mad, only one man can save us from a world gone mad. George W. Bush is…. The Brush Cutter!
“Oh! Sumpin’s goin’ on! I’d better get down to Crawford and… see what I can do. heh!”
Palin should join Bernanke in his helicopter and shoot homewoners. That’ll solve the problem.
Barney Frank makes fun of McCain:
“McCain is Andy Kaufman in his Mighty Mouse costume- ‘Here I Come to Save the Day’,” Frank said as he left a Thursday morning caucus meeting with House Democrats
Do you know what the U.S economy needs right now? A good surge, just like Afghanistan. Never retreat, never surrender, and we can been this Obama Democrats Depression over there before it comes here.
Do you know what the U.S economy needs right now?
An enema?
No. Wait. That’s what I need.
If we had one now, I’m not sure what people would call it.
American Idle.
Who coached Palin for her Couric interview, Miss South Carolina?
Don’t forget the toilet paper. If you have booze and toilet paper, you can trade for anything else you need.
Also, cigarettes will come in handy in debtors’ prison.
>(NOTE: In bygone U.S. Army terminology, Section 8 referred to someone being discharged from service for being mentally unfit or for displaying character traits deemed undesirable. Wow, what a coincidence!!).
In current NY real estate terminology, “Section 8 housing” refers to government subsidized apartment leases for destitute and/or homeless people.
Funny, huh?
beenbeatGood one by Frank. Also (from the same Think Progress post), you know you’re a laughingstock when fucking Adam “Elder Statesman” Putnam the Howdy-Doody-looking Nimrod laughs at you before reporters.
you know…
this whole thing is full of win. for osama bin laden. the guy (most likely) attacks us on 9/11, helping our economy further into a tailspin. we spend our way out of it by attacking not-osama in iraq, thus losing us infinity-plus, and by creating an “ownership society” of people who can’t afford their mortgages and the assholes who gave them that money, skimming 20% off the top.
and somewhere osama is saying “fuck, that REALLY worked better than i could ever have hoped.”
fuck these republican shitstains who lost an entire economy and two wars to a bunch of cave dwelling religious freaks. fuck. fuck.
Kudos to the great Barney Frank.
Apologies, completely off-topic…
I have a question about Day by Day. There’s the redhead and the touch-of-gray guy who have twins and whose only source of income is a job at Home Depot. How come much of the time (except the 80% of the time she is wearing only a thong and breastfeeding, of course) they are dressed to the nines and eating at a fancy restaurant or attending the opera? I mean, I have a pretty good job and can’t afford that lifestyle. What does Muir know that I don’t?
What does Muir know that I don’t?
That pandering to people who think of themselves as upwardly mobile and so vote Republican, is an easy sell. I think that’s about the only thing he knows so if you didn’t know that, then there’s your answer. If you already knew that (which I suspect you did) then the answer not a goddam thing.
I’m guessing the dude tosses a mean salad.
I love Mark Steyn. He’s one of the very best polemicists writing today. He’s smart, prolific, funny and often devastating.
I’m sure that the Left would love to have a columnist of his talent on their side, but thankfully you don’t.
>Wrong! In Canada, where it was known as “The Dirty Thirties” or “The Great Depression“
It was also know as “Ten Lost Years”.
The journalist Barry Broadfoot wrote a book by the same name, one of the first oral history books.
Ten Lost Years sold 300,000 copies in Canada in the 1970s.
When I grew up in Saskatchewan, it was almost required reading for high school.
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
TEH STUPID!!!!! IT BUUUUURRRRRRRNNNNNNSSSSS!!!!!!!!
From PartII,
I think I just lost 10 IQ points by reading that.
Holy shit-moat, Batman. This one’s loopier than Toucan Sam.
Hey. Steyn was showing restraint. He left out the part about how FDR solved the Depression by inviting the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor. (Unless he’s saving that for his next column.)
I love Mark Steyn. He’s one of the very best polemicists writing today. He’s smart, prolific, funny and often devastating.
Examples, please? Or can’t you find any?
Oh, yeah. A linky.
And another winner.
Do tell me that today is going to be as much fun as yesterday.
Holy shit-moat, Batman[!]
That is a world of win.
I’m sure that the Left would love to have a columnist of his talent on their side, but thankfully you don’t.
We’re more than thankful, we’re downright proud of it.
Seriously, if you’re you’re going to be trolling, learn how to put out some bait. That was a particularly lame attempt.
I love Mark Steyn.
That’s the kind of thing I like to see right after Mark Steyn being dismantled.
For a linguistics project, I tried to figure out the first usage of the term “World War II” to refer to you, know, World War II, and also, the first reference to WWI as WWI.
From a recent Simpsons (I may have some of the lines slightly wrong):
Lenny: I don’t see why they call this the Great Depression. What’s so great about it?
Grandpa: This is the worst I’ve seen since World War I.
Lenny? World War One? Why do you keep calling it that?
Grandpa: Oh, yooooou’ll see.
To be serious, Cleter, I remember seeing a reprint of at Time Magazine article published the first week of the war (when Hitler invaded Poland and England and France declared war) that began: “World War II started…” I don’t know if Time was the first, but they couldn’t have been far behind.
By the way, since Mark Steyn has his flying monkey well trained, we might get quite a few dim trolls. His Steyned Shirts are very dedicated to praising the man. Why, according to these types, Steyn’s almost as brilliant as Rush Limbaugh! You have to go to K-Lo in the Corner to find that kind of devotion.
I love Mark Steyn. He’s one of the very best polemicists writing today.
That’s also Ann Coulter’s go-to word when she gets called on one of her vile and/or ridiculous statements. “Don’t you know I’m not a regular journalist, I’m a polemicist.” When did the definition of polemics become “rancid, imbecilic ass-hattery”?
When they shoved the polemics up their ass.
Susan of Texas said,
.
Examples, please? Or can’t you find any?
——————————————————————————
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760
I LOVE YOU RINGO111!!!!11\
My god, you’re perfect. Usually I go to Megan McArdle for your blend of artless hackery and self-induced mindlessness.
LOL
Most of the REAL famous journalists, the ones still being studied & enjoyed many years after their passing – men like Bierce, Twain or Mencken – would be called flaming liberals in the geek-show /septic-tank hybrid that passes for “journalism” in the US today … if not outright Commies.
None of them would deign to waste the energy to spit on this ignorant hack.
Only a “Dead-Wrong Sweepstakes” Champ like Kristol – or a total lunatic like Der Pantload – can make him look so much as semi-coherent.
Who knew that dyslexia could include esthetics?
But hey, you got the “prolific” part right, anyway.
Prolific like kudzu.
Steyn: Full of shit.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080920.DOUG20/TPStory/Focus/
Palin should join Bernanke in his helicopter and shoot homewoners. That’ll solve the problem.
Don’t forget to sever their right forearms for the bounty.
Oh goody! Let’s pick some corn out of the steaming turd Mr. The Gringo just squeezed at us, shall we?
That’s right, ladies & germs … it’s FISKIN’ TIME.
Because nothing says “lack of confidence” like waging two wars at once – one of them in a nation infamous for never having lost to ANY colonial invader.
Okay, I’m going to pretend this actually MEANS anything – Radical Islam is about the least damn multicultural outlook you can have outside of the KKK. Failboat, meet iceburg.
Terror groups exist because there’s no sovereign body to fight their battles for them, but thanks for playing. The IRA & the Jihadists ARE effectively defeated at this point, or in the IRA’s case co-opted into the state they once fought tooth-&-nail … which makes his point into pure horse-puckey.
AEI wankers may buy this shite but anyone with a mind of their own just guffaws at its patent absurdity – elites’ default mode is that bad stuff happens because the rest of us aren’t making them rich & powerful enough fast enough.
Yeah, he’s fuckin’ “brilliant” alright – like a dump-truck. Don’t worry about your air, energy or building-materials: worry because DE WHITE WIMMINZ AIN’T POPPING SPROGZ FAST ENOUGH!!!11!!
Population growing beyond the maximums of any & all prior scientific estimates? A mere peccadillo, according to Teh Steynmeister.
Nor is the Judeo-Christian one – until progressives FORCE it to comply with the dictates of decency & common sense. Steyn’s paranoid ride on the waaahmbulance notwithstanding, a lot of Muslims – just like a lot of Christians – despise the extremism they see in their religious leadership & bravely defy it … a reality he conveniently ignores since it torpedoes his “Demographic Apocalypse 2030” scenario.
God, it’s like deworming an iguana.
Without the fun, I mean.
How about “The Dubyapression”?
I’m sure that the Left would love to have a columnist of his talent on their side, but thankfully you don’t.
Amen, son. A-fucking-men no one is that stupid from south of the border.
He is a Brit originally
No he is not. Back to your igloo!
Bubba’s right, Stain was born in Canada, went to school in Britain and now lives mostly in New Hampshire according to Wikipedia.
Shit.
OK, let me revise my request.
Can you refer to Steyn as “an expat Canuck who lived in Britain then unfortunately returned to Canada with a fake Brit accent in order to give himself some street cred among the colonials”?
Or can you call him an expat Canuck-Brit-Canuck who is now a Novo Englander?
People, people. In those other countries they either didn’t use the word “great” because they’re yucky furriners, or they said it with a funny accent.
They have the metric system in France, so they called it Depression Royale.
Why don’t we just drop the veils and call him a piece of shit? Or maybe, excess human baggage.
ah yes, Mark Steyn. We breed our neocons a special kind of stupid up here… *hangs his head in shame at one of our citizens’ utter stupidity*
Nobody called World War I “World War I” until there was a World War I I.
Ernst Haeckel was calling it “the First World War” in September 1914. Then apparently the term went into abeyance until 1931.
That’s what the war’s about: our lack of civilizational confidence.
Ah.
So what America really needs is a Viagra prescription.