CircleJerkStab
My favorite Wingnutien, Mark Steyn, had dolchstoss heavy on his mind yesterday when he joined Hugh Hewitt in once again polluting the radio spectrum with batshit insanity. Let’s see who, according to Steyn, is backstabbing who.
Above: Mark Steyn, Canada’s Leading Asshole, squirming at an imaginary stab in the back.
First are Chuck Hagel and Olympia Snowe who are supposedly stabbing the troops in the back:
I think there is a kind of Chuck Hagel-Olympia Snowe, finger in the wind, squishy kind of Republican, who just feels that the war is a loser, and that they don’t want to be stuck with it in two years time[…]I think the Chuck Hagel-Olympia Snowe moves are completely contemptible when 150,000 American fighting men and women are in Iraq, and doing very dangerous work on behalf of this nation.
Steyn thinks Snowe and Hagel are also backstabbing those ‘Jacksonians’ among the Republican base who want our boys in there genociding those goddamned wogs and so are exasperated with the Libs’ and Turncoats’ insistence on ROE and so on:
I think there’s an equally bigger problem, a disaffected segment on the right, that takes the view that if you’re going to fight a war, you fight it mean, tough, full-out, and you win it. And that’s the way, if the war’s a political problem for you, the best way to make it stop being a political problem for you is to win it decisively, and then it’s over, and then people can go back to all the squishy, Nancy-boy, pantywaist issues like prescription drugs for seniors, or whatever.
Thus Steyn describes himself.
But who he has real contempt for are the ‘fairweather hawks’ who are stabbing Dear Leader and wingnuts like Mark Steyn in the back:
I had a conversation with Victor Davis Hanson a couple of months ago. We were looking at the way, really, even people who were full-throated supporters of it have fallen silent. And as that has happened, in other words, as the President has been abandoned by a lot of his sort of fair-weather hawks, it’s fallen more and more heavily on him and the official spokesmen to make the case for the war, and it is true that they have been unable to communicate a rationale that resonates with the American people. Now I think there are particular problems with this, in that a lot of the way the war talk is framed is simply immature. I don’t think grown-up countries talk about exit strategies. Iran doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Syria doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Our enemies do not use that phrase. And so there’s something self-indulgent, even in the way the media framed the discussion. But you can’t just let it sit out there, week in, week out, month in, month out, and for it not to damage, and eventually grind down the public.
Yeah, Syria and Iran have it right: they don’t put up with backstabbers! They don’t talk about picking up and leaving and going.. uh, somewhere else! Anyway, fair-weather hawks — ptooie! — who needs them? Like that backstabbing bastard Niall Ferguson:
Niall Ferguson, God bless him, is a prime example of what I meant. Just before September 11th, 2001, he wrote a book […]he was arguing for a kind of, you know, enlightened imperialism. He was saying then, that is what the great superpower needs to do. Well, George W. Bush, I don’t know whether he’s ever read Niall Ferguson, he took him at his word. He basically implemented the Ferguson plan in the Middle East. And immediately, Ferguson suddenly decides oh, this is ridiculous, you know, George Bush never studied history, absurd to try and do this in Iraq, and basically abandoned what had been his own whole philosophy before September the 11th. So I’m afraid I regard…he’s a very nice chap, he was a colleague of mine at the Telegraph in London, awfully decent fellow, but I’m afraid on this, he’s shown some of the same tendencies as some of the other wobblers.
Niall told Dear Leader to take up the White Man’s Burden (Mark enthusiastically agreed), Dear Leader did just that, and now Niall has left him in the lurch. Dolchstoss, dolchstoss! And from this treachery comes the real backstab Steyn is concerned with, the knife he imagines in his own back, put there by a wavering Dear Leader whose will is no longer so publicly triumphant. Not that Dear Leader doesn’t personally believe, oh no. But (the new incompetence dodge) he can’t seem to properly articulate the fact that His Struggle is imperative. And since Dear Leader’s Struggle is the Wingnuts’ Struggle, the problem is that he’s left them to fend for themselves, so Steyn thinks:
I think basically, the President needs to actually reframe the debate, I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric. When Ted Kennedy bemoans the fact that the White House, as in Vietnam, has become obsessed with victory, he should simply say well, if you’re in a war, you should be obsessed with victory. And if you’re not obsessed with victory, you’re part of the problem. You’re basically arguing the best shade of white flag to hold up. That’s not an argument that the President and responsible Americans should be getting into.
[…]
I was very struck by a comment Michelle Malkin made. She’s just back from Iraq, and she said to this…she said the Bush administration is Lucy, and those of us who support it are looking like Charlie Brown, that basically, you go out, you spend your whole time…I’ve been in discussions on radio shows and what not, where you’re defending this thing, defending it, you’re whacking down in column after column these guys who are claiming that it’s treason and a police state, and the Bush-Hitler, and you defend, defend, defend, defend, and then it turns out, you know, that they quietly cave, or as you say, give that impression, and you’re left feeling what the hell did I write those last fifteen columns for?
Bradrocket adds: Bitch, please! We all know the answer to that:
“Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M! get tha’ money, dolla-dolla bill, y’all…”
Mmmm, I love the smell of wingnut self-pity in the morning! As Mark pulls out the stiletto, he asks with a thousand-yard stare/puppy dog eyes, “Cut me, Dear Leader, and do I not bleed?” Once again Steyn is the Selfless Martyr of Wingnuttery, so ill-used by politicians who haven’t the will — or the ability to articulate and permanently popularize the will — to exterminate the brutes.
Just a heads up for your weekend alcohol shopping….
The State of the Union Drinking Game has been updated for 2007.
Don’t kill yourself playing it.
Yeah and if the US has SERIOUS long term financial problems for them to come back to well hey we won the war damnit so be happy you are here living in this country (even if it is broke and fallng apart). Someday nonsense like this will be treated with contempt. Also when are these guys going to sign up and fight. Hell they have not even left north Ameica. Cowards!
” think basically, the President needs to actually reframe the debate, I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric.”
I like the rhetoric the former Australian opposition leader used to describe Australian Prime Minister Howard and his ministers in relation to their unflinching Bush-licking: He called them “a congaline of suckholes”.
Canada’s leading asshole is Don Cherry. But everyone loves him anyway.
I keep noticing one thing in particular. They never entertain the notion that “winning”, however they (don’t) describe it just might not be possible. They seem to come from the “wish hard enough and it’ll come true”, clap hard enough and the corpse won’t rot school. If they cannot look at the situation as it stands today and recognize that there is no positive contribution we can make, that every time we kick down a door, shoot a civilian or wreck a business, we’re making it worse, not better, if they cannot see that an army cannot defeat an insurgency, then they should be technically eliminated from the debate for asking, then answering, questions that were never even asked.
Some things are impossible. Some things just cannot be achieved. Some things look real hard to do because there is no real-world way to do them. Those things, that cannot be done will not be done, so something else is what you do. We’ve already lost. It’s time to put the horse in the stable to train for the next race…
mikey
Wow. That bordered on incoherent. I better go get a cocktail and try again…
mikey
Steyn, VDH, and Malkin?
Feel teh brainpower…VV00t!11!
Mikey: Wow. That bordered on incoherent.
No worse than El Steyno himself:
We were looking at the way, really, even people who were full-throated supporters of it have fallen silent.
She’s just back from Iraq, and she said to this…she said the Bush administration is Lucy, and those of us who support it are looking like Charlie Brown, that basically, you go out, you spend your whole time…
et cetera et cetera Peter cetera.
So Syria and Iran are now the “mature” “grown-up” countries, huh, awsome.
Waht, no upside down bong hits in the the drinking game, Jillian?
Let’s remember that when Steyn talks about writing column after column after column, for him that’s the equivalent of going over the top into no man’s land with fixed bayonets. Damnit, he’s fighting this war! It’s stouthearted bravery in the Clash of Civilizationsâ„¢, and this is what he said about the extent of his tremendous sacrifice:
…it’s very dispiriting trying to keep going in this phase of what is a very long conflict. And the reason I do it is because I want us to win. I don’t particularly like journalism. I don’t particularly like writing newspaper columns. I’m sick of having to make what I think should be an obvious case again and again and again. And I’d much rather pack it in and sit on my porch in New Hampshire and enjoy the view of the mountains. But I do it because I want us to win.
But I do it because I want us to win.
And we want you to keep trying to win, Mark. Because you are now so far out in Fruitloopistanâ„¢, you 1) keep us doubled over with laughter, and 2) help further discredit deer leader and Sith Lord Cheney.
This is truly amazing and very sad. Swank, I can laugh at. He’s loopy. This hobbit fellow…it’s very very sad.
I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric.
This only makes sense if Steyn meant Austrian-style rhetoric. Which I think we all assume he did.
And if you’re not obsessed with victory, you’re part of the problem.
Thanks coach! Now tell me again, what the fuck are we trying to win?
I think the really horrendous thing is the way he so blithely discards other concerns, like affordable drugs for seniors, as somehow not worthy of consideration by the type of ‘Real Statesman’ he obviously considers to be his peer.
People , war criminals, like Kissinger and Dick Cheney. who could give two shits about sick and dying American elderly as long as their compatriots in the pharma and military industries are raking in profits.
And as a bonus, they get to act like world conquering, larger than life dickweeds.
Sick, twisted, small humans, each one.
Syria and Iran, the “grown-up countries.” How is it possible to be so much of an asshole, and not spontaneously combust in sheer assoholicitude?
Is it worth finding quotes from Steyn in which he deplores Iran and calls it “the real problem”? Etc.?
And, of course, “immature”–the uber-nudnik’s criticism of choice, the pipe-smoking amateur historian’s judgment (rendered more in amazement and regret than disapprobation, of course) made possible by his penchant–more a “habit of mind,” really, than a conscious intellectual strategy–to apply to countries, and civilizations, the *very same strict standards he applies to his own life*–as a man, as a citizen, and as an heir to all that is noble and true in the history of the West.
Ladies, gentlemen. I give you: The Compleat Asshole.
Jesus H…hey Steyn – why is your fat Furry freak ass not in Iraq right now?!?
BTW, I also had a talk with VDH a few months ago, and promptly headed straight towards the pub for a nice palate cleanser. You cowards are insane.
I don’t think Steyn read Ferguson’s book either. I assume he calls him a “fine fellow” because patronizing someone is easier than understanding what they’re saying. Or reading. Or thinking.
This might be completely fucking obvious, but is an armchair a requirement of the modern dolchstosslegende? I mean, the German story arises from a population with a high proportion of military vets, while the current incarnation gains its strength from people who won’t even try to aid the effort themselves.
In other words, just saying dolchstosslegende doesn’t really cover the mania of those who pretend to sacrifice when Germans, you know, actually went through some horror to get to their neurosis.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24018_Dispatches-_Undercover_Mosque&only
O/T, speaking of drawingclose, teh General is having an email conversation with Dinesh D’Souzaphone.
Seems the latest is Dinesh asked if the General was on drugs.
“I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric.”
WTF is this nit-wit talking about?
Iran doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Syria doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Our enemies do not use that phrase.
Pssst! Mr. Steyn! Iran, Syria, and “our enemies” don’t talk about “exit strategies” because they fucking live there! Where do you expect them to “exit” to, pray tell?
See, Mr. Steyn, it’s comments like this that make the Iraqis think we’re there as occupiers and not liberators. Just saying.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=24018_Dispatches-_Undercover_Mosque&only
So when do we call in the air-strikes on Britain?
Australian-style rhetoric
No wucking furries, mate?
Shorter Mark Steyn: “No one appreciates my choice of lipstick for this pig. Do you know how I slaved to get just the right shade? I practically broke a nail. And this is the reward I get. I’m going home to Mother. Wait, Mother revoked my passport. Those sneaky Manitobans were behind this, I’ll bet.”
I don’t think grown-up countries talk about exit strategies… Our enemies do not use that phrase.
Existence of a Plan B = defeatism = treachery. Perhaps Steyn watched ‘Downfall’ or ‘Stalingrad’ and took the wrong message from it. This is almost as sad as using analogies from Peanuts to explain Bush’s unpopularity.
Here’s video of a typical Mark Steyn brain cell in action. Same brain cells that are in GW’s head.
squishy, Nancy-boy, pantywaist issues like prescription drugs for seniors…
Mark, are you having a laugh? Is he having a laugh?
If he gets ten different kinds of cancer when he’s a senior citizen — or a senior in high school, whichever comes first — then we’ll see just how much he hates squishy, Nancy-boy, pantywaist issues.
P.S. I thought Adam Yoshida was Canada’s leading asshole.
Lesley, that’s America under Cheney-puppet.
Good grief!
[…] (The transcripts here are from Sadly, No!) […]
Americans have many myths about Canada. Anyone with even a cursory acquaintance with the Canadian scene knows that the biggest asshole in Canada is, in fact, the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, who is perhaps best described as a slightly politer version of Newt Gingrich.
Also, don’t forget David Frum is Canadian.
(However, I don’t think it is proper to mention Don Cherry in front of Americans. We don’t want to totally disillusion them.)
However, I think Mr. Steyn will go down in blog history for using the word “Australian” in the stupidest possible way in the stupidest possible sentence ever.
Wow, lots of Canadians posting tonight. We must really feel badly about giving the US the gift of Mark Steyn, David Frum and Celine Dion.
Perhaps a traditional passive aggressive apology is in order?
“Now that is completely unfair! The Canadian government has apologized for Brian Adams on numerous occasions!” (South Park movie, quoting from memory…)
Yeah, the Cpl. mentioned it, but it bears repeating:
I don’t think grown-up countries talk about exit strategies. Iran doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Syria doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Our enemies do not use that phrase.
Note that: In the meth cookery-cum-hobbit hole that passes for Steyn’s mind, Iran and Syria, our putative enemies, should be considered, because of their perceived ruthlessness and iron-fistedness, grown-up and mature.
Way to go, Mark, you just won the Dinesh D’Souza award for Ann Coulter Syphilis Vector.
Did they not have Andy Griffith in Canada, Mark?
Listen and learn.
I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric.
Fucken drongo.
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought, and I think Jay B is right, he must have meant “Austrian,” not Australian.
His definition of “grown up countries” like syria and iran, that they never talk about an exit strategy, is extremely Austiran “Don’t give up one inch of ground” was one Austrian’s brilliant and grown-up approach to dealing with a couple of minor military setbacks known as Stalingrad and the defense of Normandy.
Of course in both cases entire armies were destroyed. But in a grown up kind of way.
It’s possible to over-analyze sheer stupidity, but it somehow takes the edge off the chill that comes with being exposed to the inner world of another one of these disinhibited psychopaths.
Also, Michelle’s already back? When did she go? That sure as shit was one quickass trip.
the President has been abandoned by a lot of his sort of fair-weather hawks
I don’t know why he doesn’t just go all the way 1930s Germanic and call them ‘March violets’.
RobW (not that RobW, or whatever): we don’t use the word ‘drongo’ any more. We’ve moved on to bigger and better terms of abuse. One of my particular faves is ‘wankstain’. So completely derogatory.
But what is this ‘Australian rhetoric’ of which he speaks? Was he thinking of the ‘no wuckers’ (from ‘no wucken forries’) or the justly famed Mark Latham’s classic ‘conga line of suckholes’ to describe the weasel Howard?
Because if we’re talking about the war, then the only appropriate word is FUBAR, and we nicked that from the Americans.
I think he should use more Australian-style rhetoric.
Maybe he’s thinking of Australian-rules football? Because watching big, sweaty men in shorts shove each other around a muddy field makes Mark Rhymes-with-Whine-Not-with-Stain feel all warm and tingly and masculine?
As far as the worst Canadains’ go, my vote is for Ralph Klein, the ex premier of Alberta, a true asshole.
What you mean “we”, kemosabe? I use drongo all the time. Well, not as often as “tosser”, but then for an Australian my slang leans a tad English.
I also liked “You’re basically arguing the best shade of white flag to hold up.” That’s deep, that is. That’s a bloody zen koan.
I went to high school with a Zen Cohen. Haven’t thought of her in years.
I mean, the German story arises from a population with a high proportion of military vets, while the current incarnation gains its strength from people who won’t even try to aid the effort themselves.
While true to an extent, the proponents of the dolchstosslegende by and large weren’t the guys in the trenches, they were the guys sipping wine in the headquarters mansion fifty miles behind the front, wondering why the soldiers and civilians back home seemed to be losing their enthusiasm for the fight.
Mirrors must be the most absolutely frightening thing in that walking pile of dogshit’s life.
While true to an extent, the proponents of the dolchstosslegende by and large weren’t the guys in the trenches, they were the guys sipping wine in the headquarters mansion fifty miles behind the front, wondering why the soldiers and civilians back home seemed to be losing their enthusiasm for the fight.
One of the first bits in Retardo’s link is Der Dolchstoss is cited as an important factor in Adolf Hitler’s later rise to power, as the Nazi Party grew its original political base largely from embittered WWI veterans, and those who were sympathetic to the Dolchstoss interpretation of Germany’s then-recent history.
The tenor of the rest of the article leads me down the same path. Obviously there were people spreading the legend who weren’t in the WWI trenches, but German society prior to then had a much more militaristic bent than is currently the case in America. The Nazi party was rank and file in any case, and they had popular support.
Oh my God. Yoshi! I’d forgotten all about him. Ever since he stopped accepting comments, he’s been no fun. But look, here he is on Sen. Tim Johnson: “Of course, he could linger indefinitely. Hopefully, if he’s in such a state, his family will do the right thing for the country and the world and let him die and be replaced in the Senate by a better person…The biggest sign that he’s probably not going to recover – and that he’s quite sick – is the lack of mainstream media coverage of his condition. My suspicion is that the intention of Democratic leaders is to hopefully keep him alive via artificial means as long as possible.”
Jesus Fucking Christ. The man’s batshit insane. And possibly pure evil. But not as pure evil as Steyn.
“Iran doesn’t talk about exit strategies. Syria doesn’t talk about exit strategies.”
Of course they don’t, you fucking moron! They aren’t stupid enough to launch an illegal, immoral war against a country half way around the world who didn’t threaten them, and then do it in such a completely ham-handed and incompetent manner.
They aren’t talking about exit strategies. They’re too busy laughing their asses off.
as the President has been abandoned by a lot of his sort of fair-weather hawks
Actually the Fairweather Hawk has been badly maligned. OK, the suspension was shonky, but they had great acceleration, and handled well on corners.
Two “squishy” in one column.
All those 80’s undergraduate deconstruction lectures makes it very hard to finish wingnut articles.
[…] Mark Steyn, Canada’s Leading Asshole, is at it again. Last week he took joy in thoroughly regurgitating the dolchstosslegende; this week, a little more of the same, with bonus chunks of batshit insanity retched into the airwaves and internets. […]
[…] Yoshida to say in the plainest way what Glenn Reynolds, Rush Limbaugh, Redstate.com White Trash, Mark Steyn, Jim Pinkerton, Patrick Bateman Stephen Green, Marie Jon’, Michael Barone, and, especially, […]
[…] more on this theme the next time they chat — as there often is on their Kreig Kafe of the airwaves, rife with so much stilted chatter of two bedwetting […]