Notes From The Class Struggle


Above: Yup, it’s McArdle again


Schadenfreude? Yes, that’s the word for what you experience at the spectacle of a free-market glibertarian tying herself into a macramé tea cozy trying to justify her support of a $700,000,000,000 government bailout of the financial industry.

What Am I So Afraid Of?

[…]

It is worth noting, in answer to the libertarians who are wary of government intervention in the economy, that if there is a serious crash, we will get even more government intervention in the economy–and intervention that is much less to our liking. That cost has to be weighed in your assessment. On the other side, to those who are averse to bailing out Wall Street rather than Main Street, it’s worth noting that Main Street will suffer worse than Wall Street. Because of the way that their compensation is structured, Wall Street bankers tend to do things like buy their houses for cash.

It is also worth asking: Contextually speaking, with McArdle being McArdle, how does this make a single freaking iota of sense? It’s not sufficient to recall that she’s a rich kid from a New York bubble world that requires no work or responsibility of its sons and daughters besides that of self-empowerment. It certainly doesn’t explain anything that she’s devoted her career as a public intellectual (i.e. as an over-rewarded blogger) to emitting the flapdoodle insights of an adolescent Ayn Rand devotee — such as the famous argument that health insurance is immoral because it rewards bad lifestyle choices and penalizes the strong and healthy.

No, the canny observer would suspect from this new massive-government adventure of McArdle’s that the market crisis threatens in some way to affect Megan McArdle.

Coming soon: Libertarians sneer at the right of habeas corpus. Oh wait…

 

Comments: 58

 
 
 

In the search for intellectual honesty on the political right, I begin to feel as if I have become a modern-day Diogenes.

But then I remember S,N! has one already.

 
 

I sorta figured it was “game over” when Madame Two-By-Four got worked up over the right of the daughters of ambassadors to Saudi Arabia to dance at national monuments.

Clearly, “let them eat cake” is considered an intelligent public policy statement by this twitette.

 
 

I’m not sure I have a good p-value on the worst case scenario

Megan’s confidence interval is so wide that her value is easily more than her own weight in pee.

Fuck I hate this woman. I wonder how many posts away from this one you’d have to check before you find her lecturing on “Intellectual Honesty”.

 
 

Can we dare hope that after the coming Obama landslide, we can see “conservative intellectuals” like the Megan Elf finally being laughed into oblivion?

I mean, we’ve always had idiotic wingers in this country, like Father Coughlin way back in the 1930s. But they were banished to the static-y realm of shortwave radio and the occasional ill-attended gathering in some backwater Knights of Columbus rental hall.

I’m not calling for the mass execution of wingnuts. I just want them banished back to their tent revivals in the outer reaches of the United States of Idiotstan where they belong, fulfilling their function of providing comedy relief for normal people.

 
 

A rational libertarian is like sound in a vacuum, a physical impossibility. Libertarians are, by definition, dumber than posts, totally clueless, and batshit crazy.

 
 

Answer: 16. You have to go all the way back to Sept. 26.

More amusing, the # of posts before “What am I so afraid of?” since she lectured on talking about stuff that you don’t know shit about? Three.

 
 

No, the canny observer would suspect from this new massive-government adventure of McArdle’s that the market crisis threatens in some way to affect Megan McArdle.

I have yet to meet a glibertarian who, faced with a choice between something beneficial to them and principle that might be detrimental to them personally, followed that cold-calculating rigorous Enlightenment logic they all love to spout.

Principles are for controlling other people, not interfering with these shmucks’ lack thereof.

 
 

Giving businesses who damaged our entire economy money from the taxpayers in order to staunch the damage is a helpful hand up.

Intervening in the economy so that it hurts people less, controls negligent operators, and maybe actually helps ordinary people who need it, is ‘intervention’ we can’t support.

God, I want all these f***ing right wing libertarians to get the f*** out of our country and just go find some 3rd world hell-hole where they don’t have to bitch about being taxed too much, because GOD KNOWS the worst thing in the f***ing universe is paying taxes. Go to Somalia, or ungoverned Waziristan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, anywhere where you can die of something casual while moaning about how happy you were that your taxes were now so low, not including the robbery & extortion.

 
 

Can we dare hope that after the coming Obama landslide, we can see “conservative intellectuals” like the Megan Elf finally being laughed into oblivion?

Sadly, I fear no. They’ll hunker down into their position as the deranged opposition.

In truth, part of what’s made them so much fun over the last 8 years is watching the story arc go from “We won! We are so going to kick your asses!” to “Lalalalala I can’t hear you!” to “Snortgasrglglglebla-a-a-a-a-rgh!”

They will be much happier when all they have to do is hunker down and wait for the next Gingrichian savior to come along.

 
Dragon-King Wangchuck
 

A rational libertarian is like sound in a vacuum, a physical impossibility. Libertarians are, by definition, dumber than posts, totally clueless, and batshit crazy.

Much as I despise McArdle and her glibertarian ilk, I gotta ask:
What about these guys?

 
 

Glenn Reynolds comes out of the closet and says he’s no longer a libertarian. After four years of his defending or ignoring every abuse of government power under the Bushies, this is hardly a surprise. But the caricature of many freedom-lovers offered by Stephen Green is silly. Yes, the more doctrinaire libertarians are too wedded to ideology and unable or unwilling to look at the empirical world and make adjustments. No sane freedom-lover would, in my view, believe that 9/11 changed nothing. Of course, it required sacrifices of liberty. What it did not require was the permanent suspension of habeas corpus, the transformation of the executive branch into a de facto extra-legal protectorate, the breaking of laws by the president, the authorization of torture, warrantless wiretapping, a war based on intelligence that simply wasn’t there, and a ramping up of the drug war.

Damn, is there some way we can manufacture a serum from Andrew Sullivan’s spinal fluid and put it in the water supply in Jesusland? I can work with someone like this. I can disagree with a conservative like Sully, debate furiously with them, and not go away feeling like I was mud-wrestling a venomous lizard in a shit moat.

I’m a peaceful man, but I seriously want to rabbit punch Sarah Palin in her smirking face every time I see her on the TV screen. This is fucked up. I don’t like feeling like that about anyone. But it’s the only sane response left.

 
 

Rich people’s money is of a better quality and has a different effect on the economy than the equivalent spent by middle or lower class individuals. I thought everone knew that.

Their shit doesn’t stink either.

 
 

Damn, is there some way we can manufacture a serum from Andrew Sullivan’s spinal fluid and put it in the water supply in Jesusland? I can work with someone like this.

Note that you might still not be a sane freedom-lover. Andrew Sullivan remains a piece of shit.

 
 

For Gavin and all: http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=20565

Contains a spreadsheet detailing Wikipedia vandalism in senatorial biographies.

 
 

Joe,

really? Sullivan? I mean, come on:

No sane freedom-lover would, in my view, believe that 9/11 changed nothing. Of course, it required sacrifices of liberty.

He might not be as big and as venomous as some, but he is a fucking lizard.

 
 

Because of the way that their compensation is structured, Wall Street bankers tend to do things like buy their houses for cash.

Hmm. That’s some awkward ass construction to avoid speaking the obvious truth. ‘The way their compensation is structured’? You mean like in off-shore accounts? Like they get pallets of gold bars direct-deposited by helicopter at their house every Friday?

Because of the way that their compensation is structured, Wall Street bankers the dope man tend to do things like buy their houses for cash.

 
 

I’d hate to be the guy behind her when she fires that thing.

 
 

Megan saw her stock portfolio doing its best DC-10 impersonation and suddenly decided to support the formerly evil plan. Pure and simple. Well, what I mean is, the logic is pure, Megan is simple.

 
 

While we’re on the subject of Smug Sully, can someone explain to me what he meant when he described himself as a “power bottom”? Does it have something to do with his beloved steroids?

 
 

While we’re on the subject of Smug Sully, can someone explain to me what he meant when he described himself as a “power bottom”?

I’m guessing that means he likes it up his pooter but is afraid that that makes him a sissy.

 
 

Note that you might still not be a sane freedom-lover. Andrew Sullivan remains a piece of shit.

I know, but he’s a tolerable piece of shit I can listen to, think he is terribly mistaken and wrong about an issue, be able to explain why, and not want to force him to commit seppikku with a spork, or ram an icepick through my frontal lobe to relieve the searing pain of the stupid burning through it.

 
 

SomeNYGuy

A power bottom is a bottom (receptive anal) who (tries to) take a dominant role. “Fuck me harder” is a frequent power bottom comment.

If you want to know more, – we may want to take this off-line.

 
 

Having fucked a few of those myself, I’m satisfied that PeeJ’s definition is accurate. I just never knew the nomenclature.

 
The Goddamn Batman Can Do Some Math
 

Libertarians in depressions < atheists in foxholes.

 
 

Sarah Palin really IS the malfunctioning robot:

Here she is on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act:

“equal pay for equal work…boon for trial lawyers…taken advantage of women…discrimination. Thankfully, there are laws on the books…woman…discriminated…thankfully we have the laws on the books…enforced…woman…laws that are on the books…enforced…will not stand for…woman…a boon for trial lawyers…thankfully…laws we have on the books…enforced…won’t stand for…won’t stand for…discrimination…discrimination in America.”

 
 

She is for government intervention now because without it, there will be even more government intervention to clean up a bigger mess. But isn’t that the whole argument for regulation in the first place that would have prevented this mess? If she turns her logic around any faster she’s liable to shoot herself in the face. Oh wait…

 
 

Well, perhaps the logic is that the market is supposed to behave, and when it doesn’t, you make it.

 
 

For the many people furious about the BailOut, I suggest reading the NY Times columnist-economist Krugman. Not just his column today in which he talks about canned mackerel being a medium of exchange in prisons, but the past couple of weeks. You may feel a bit less angry at the bailout. He isn’t gung-ho for it, but does explain things well (he is one of the economists who predicted these troubles and WAS NOT consulted on the Bailout) He feels the money should have gone to BANKS rather than buying junk. Anyhow-

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

 
 

I see that McArdle speaks fluent Palinese.

 
 

Schadenfreude?
Megan does not think that word means what you think it means.

 
 

Shade and Froyd? Aren’t they a country duo?

 
 

Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?

 
 

What Am I So Afraid Of?

A little fairy Ralph Kramden saying “One of these days, Megan, one of these days – POW! Right in the trust fund!”

Maybe that, huh huh?

 
 

The bailout is a classic example of libertarianism. The super-intelligent supermen (and women, I suppose) are telling us plebes what needs to be done and they’re going to do it despite our protestations. The problem with libertarians is they all believe they are one of the intelligent and wise Solomons and not one of the stupid serfs that needs to sit down, shut up and thank our overlords for taking care of them. Libertarians are all tops, there are no libertarian bottoms.

 
 

He isn’t gung-ho for it, but does explain things well (he is one of the economists who predicted these troubles and WAS NOT consulted on the Bailout)

In a blog posting earlier this week, he mentions a Powerline rant that said he was just being negative for the sake of being negative. They claimed he just wanted something to complain about during the Bush boom.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/bubble-memories/

 
 

I waste half of my blog recording Megan’s misdeeds in (sometimes) excruciating detail. Fire Megan McArdle does a lot more. There is nothing that will pierce her protective carapace of bone-deep selfishness and smug callousness. She’s upset enough to ban me but otherwise utterly ignores criticism, unless she feels her status is threatened in some way and that she must respond.

Of course, it does not occur to her to examine her behavior and seek to change it. If it’s good for Megan it’s good for the world, and you’d better not stand in the way.

 
A Different Jake H.
 

I don’t think this has been mentioned here yet: My Holiday with John McCain

There’s a Facebook thread regarding the story’s authenticity. I think it passes the “smell test” so I’m not too interested in wasting time checking the kerning, when it’s consistent with everything else we know about John McCain being a big dumb poop-head.

 
 

WASHINGTON — Asked why he has been falling in polls since the financial crisis, Republican presidential candidate John McCain sums it up this way: “Cause life isn’t fair.”…“Look, we’re doing fine,” Mr. McCain told Fox News. “We were up in the polls, and then we were down in the polls, and we were up in the polls, and down in the polls … you know, we can’t worry about the day-to-day tick-tock.”

 
 

The fact is, I’m absolutely for equal pay for equal work. The Ledbetter pay act – it was gonna turn into a boon for trial lawyers who, I believe, could have taken advantage of women who were many, many years ago who would allege some kind of discrimination. Thankfully, there are laws on the books, there have been since 1963, that no woman could be discriminated against in the workplace in terms of anything, but especially in terms of pay. So, thankfully we have the laws on the books and they better be enforced.

 
 

Wall Street bankers tend to do things like buy their houses for cash.

FAIL.

Why on earth would somebody that understands the concept of leverage, and can get a better rate of return on their cash than the rate the bank charges for a mortgage, ever buy a fucking house in cash?

She’s not even a middling-smart gliberarian.

 
 

A diary at the GOS had a fit over that “life isn’t fair” quip, further proving to me that silly people occupy all ends of the spectrum.

 
 

What I wonder is why we’re worried about her making sense for once.

Honestly, if we let the market limp forward, banks like WaMu will close, some bigger bank will get a windfall, the feds have to foot the bill. and it’ll all cost more than the Paulson plan.

Which is really, really annoying me. Trust conservo winger one, or conservo winger two?

 
 

McCain’s Holiday doesn’t quite pass the smell test for me. There’s only one problem but for me it’s the difference beetween pass and fail. At one point the woman says McCain complained about [paraphrasing] pushing the black bastard around Arizona in a shop[ping cart. Doesn’t sound like Jism to me. What the fuck would he be doing pushing a shopping cart?

The kerning is off just a bit.

 
 

…further proving to me that silly people occupy all ends of the spectrum.

Whenever I find myself doubting that, a quick trip to Democratic Underground straightens me out again.

 
 

At one point the woman says McCain complained about [paraphrasing] pushing the black bastard around Arizona in a shop[ping cart. Doesn’t sound like Jism to me.

Maybe he didn’t mean Bridget. Isn’t it more probable the “ugly black thing” he was referring to is his own soul?

 
 

a free-market glibertarian tying herself into a macramé tea cozy

If memory serves me well, it was Stephen Smale who demonstrated in 1958 that a free-market glibertarian could turn her policy prescriptions inside-out completely, without revising her ideology or diminishing her sense of self-righteousness. Later topologists like Morin and Thurston came along and described the actual sequence of operations required.

 
 

Geez, SC.

How come we never get to hear from the run of the mill ologists, you elitist you.

 
 

PeeJ –
You mean the phrase “power bottom” doesn’t mean that Sully will take it up the ass from anyone in power? I thought it had a specific political meaning when I first heard about it, and nothing he’s written had disabused me of that misreading. Live and learn.

 
 

P.S. Speaking of short…

Thursday, October 02, 2008
Simple Answers To Simple Questions
Thers askes:

Has there ever, ever been a sorrier, more discredited asshole than Glenn Reynolds? Ever? In the entire history of discredited sub-moron-level pompous assholes?

No.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

-Atrios 17:45

Ha ha.

 
 

Megan reminds me of a character in a movie I saw, where an older industrialist is taking a medicine-and-rest cure at a country club and a trust fund twit who’s making a play for his daughter tries to engage the old guy in conversation. It goes nowhere fast, and after a short conversation with his wife, the industrialist asks her if the twit (who has a number of useless “jobs”) takes any medicine. After she replies,”How one earth should I know”, the industrialist says, “Because he’s never done a darn thing and he’s still more or less alive”.

 
 

How come we never get to hear from the run of the mill ologists
In the course of this thread I have learned more about bottomology than I really wanted to know.

 
 

I think it passes the “smell test” so I’m not too interested in wasting time checking the kerning, when it’s consistent with everything else we know about John McCain being a big dumb poop-head.

That fish stinks a wee bit too much for me, even being about McMumm-Ra. That doesn’t prove that it never happened, but doesn’t really bode well for its truthiness. Besides, there’s more than enough completely verified examples of his being a vile, loathsome old prick.

 
 

a free-market glibertarian could turn her policy prescriptions inside-out completely, without revising her ideology or diminishing her sense of self-righteousness…

Multiple diagrams here.
I really should be working.

 
 

Btw, will the VEEP debate have a live audience or a laugh track?

 
 

http://www.cbc.ca/world/usvotes/story/2008/10/01/usvp-debate.html

…new polls indicate growing doubt over whether [Palin] is ready for what the job might hold.

Palin, 44, faces increasing skepticism over whether she is ready to serve as president should there be cause for her accession, particularly in the aftermath of a series of exclusive television interviews.

Just 25 per cent of likely voters think Palin has the right experience to be president, according to an Associated Press-Gfk poll released Wednesday. That number is down from 41 per cent who expressed confidence in the first-term Alaska governor following her appearance at the GOP convention last month.

The poll indicated even Republican-leaning voters were increasingly suspicious of her abilities, with 47 per cent saying she has the right experience to be president, down from 75 per cent in the earlier survey.

 
 

Jeez, almost 50% of Republicans STILL think she’s qualified? At the same time they think Obama isn’t? The Red Queen has NOTHING on these folks when it comes to believing impossible things.

 
Porlock Hussein Junior
 

Actually it was the White Queen who practiced believing impossible things before breakfast. The Red Queen was the one who could run fast enough to stay in the same place, and even faster.

Hey, I never realized they symbolized Republican and Democrat.

 
 

Oops, that’s right, that’s what I get for not double checking.

 
 

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