NEW VOICE COLUMN UP about last week's town-hall debate and the furious spin that ensued. Yeah, it was days ago, but you know, it's for the record. And Saturday Night Live covered it yesterday.
And ugh, another debate tomorrow. Clio's a terrible boss.
UPDATE. Wrong link for a few minutes there -- fixed now. Thanks for tipping me off.
Nice link. Got one for the Voice column?
ReplyDeleteThe link to the last Runnin' Scared column is similarly screwed up. If I was a conservative, I'd suspect a liberal conspiracy.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/10/rightbloggers_s_10.php
ReplyDelete"The link to the last Runnin' Scared column is similarly screwed up"? Where? In the column?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Southern Soul Radio's a more fun link. Fixed now tho.
TWO WEEKS...TWO WEEKS...
ReplyDeleteUntil we can send the spic Romney back home to the land of Leon Trotsky.
ReplyDeleteI made it a point to not watch the debates. It seems to have paid off, since I feel much happier just reading the reactions in the comments everywhere I go.
ReplyDeleteAnd especially here: Come for the snark, stay for the overwhelming intelligence of the commentariat!
W/ an ice-pick?
ReplyDeleteTruly, Crowley's act of journalistic terror was extra-judicial violence in the service of extremist left-wing ideology that achieved maximum media publicity whose psychological repercussions have clearly silenced Republicans from speaking out, for fear that they, too, might become innocent victims of Crowley's factism-fanaticism. This event further goes to prove that Obama is not serious about the Global War on Terror, that he is weak and cowed, since he did not immediately host a news conference to denounce the Crowleyist aggression that left so many casualties on the stage that night.
ReplyDeleteAn ice-pick made of votes, of course
ReplyDeleteAs a test I had clicked the link from Alicublog to last Sunday's column and it also took me to the Southern Soul Radio site. Everything is fixed now though.
ReplyDeleteAin't nuthin wrong with Southern Soul
ReplyDeleteObviously the answer that Crowley should have given on Obama and Benghazi was, "Well, I don't know, but Rush says..."
ReplyDelete"Do as thou wilt" shall be the whole of the debating rules.
ReplyDeleteNo. The finest hardened titanium. Can't get through the Mitt-bot skin otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI never knew Trotsky had a summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee.
ReplyDeleteHmm... y'know, when viewed from the balcony in the right light and at just the right angle, Candy Crowley DOES look a bit like John Wilkes Booth. Fortunately, Bob Schieffer will be easier to handle.
ReplyDeleteCandy Crowley got to be Hitler for a whole week?
ReplyDeleteLucky her.
I suspect her time in the sun is about over and she'll be back to being the corporate journamalist that MMfA has to blow the whistle on.
~
It's awesome that a hat enables you to blend in in flyover country.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the angel Moroni has turned the wattage on Tagg's Glare of Death up another few hundred watts. You'll know if Bob's hair starts smouldering.
ReplyDeleteHere's another one for you, Roy:
ReplyDeleteFox & Friends' Carlson: Candy Crowley Was "Spewing Things That Weren't Necessarily True" At Debate
("And that's my job!", thought Petunia.)
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/10/22/fox-amp-friends-carlson-candy-crowley-was-spewi/190808
~
"Fortunately, Bob Schieffer will be easier to handle."
ReplyDeleteYeah, no one would confuse Bob Schieffer for Booth. Too many witnesses saw both of them at the Ford Theater that night.
"And ugh, another debate tomorrow."
ReplyDeleteEh, I wouldn't worry. As we've learned yet again, it only affects the polls and the Village narrative if the Democrat loses.
In the meantime, my father is graciously sending me a copy of Billy Graham's full page ad in a wide array of Sunday papers, exhorting Real True Christians(TM) to turn out and vote "Biblical values" to reverse our nation's dreadful course. Obviously, I'm reading between the lines about "Biblical values" and "reversing course", since Heaven forfend that Franklin Graham's nonprofits lose their tax-deductible status, but I'm guessing that the way to vote "Biblical values" is to choose the guy who prefers the Book of Mormon.
ReplyDeleteI held out some faint hope that this particular electoral cycle might actually create a few minor fault lines on the right, given that a far-right Catholic and a far-right evangelical Protestant were shouldered aside by a polytheistic cultist who espouses a faith that fundamentalist Christians have been denouncing as heathenism / apostasy until, um, earlier this year for some reason. But no, the scum at the top of the fundagelical cesspool have given their marching orders, and the rank-and-file have strapped on their "God is with us" belt buckles. Oh, how my own father used to condemn the demonic Latter Day Saints. But then again, he probably would have dropped it a lot earlier if a Mormon had gotten the Republican nomination in 1996.
You should return your cap to the god Hades now that you've finished using it.
ReplyDeleteWait... an unmedicated schizophrenic on a train screaming about shoving black dicks down the throats of white bitches provides insight into why undecided voters are moving away from Obama? If I may be so presumptuous, you're confusing heavy sighing and eye rolling with apoplectic rage. Oh... and I've found that a John Deere hat is a great accessory for blending in in flyover country.
ReplyDeleteIf you are the type that goes into fits of apoplectic rage at my little jests and observations, or are angered by merely the existence of undecided independents, or New York for that matter, I humbly suggest you stop right here. It's not worth it.
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you take your own advice?
I'm the type who remembers what GYOB means. You're not even trying to add to the discussion any more, and your adoption of "independent and undecided" as your mantra doesn't improve your writing one whit.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are unaware, but many on the right are using racist scare tactics to try to persuade undecided voters. For many people it has something other than the intended effect. Same as east coast liberals laughing at morons from flyover country.
ReplyDeleteThey don't talk about those kinds of things in the debate, but perhaps they should.
Yes, and a suit enables me to blend in the corporate world. And my Mets cap helps me blend when I go to a Mets game. I used to wear a beret and smoke Gitanes in a long cigarette holder. Unfortunately, I only blended with imaginary beat writers and HST.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if you don't like it, just stop reading me. Fact is, I am adding to the discussion, just not the one playing in your head.
ReplyDeleteYou're adding to the discussion as much as leaving a turd in the punch bowl improves the flavor.
ReplyDeleteNow... are you SURE that's why that middle aged woman was laughing at you? And do you often get these feelings?
ReplyDeleteHow awesome! I have the same ability. We only need to change minor things about our apparel to blend in ANYWHERE. It's so easy. We're not forced by skin color or gender or personal traits or religious garb to be unable to blend in somewhere we might otherwise want to. It's such a luxury to have this ability. One might even say a privilege. I wonder why we have it??? Why doesn't everyone do this?!
ReplyDeleteYou do realize that you're posting this stuff in someone else's story, right, Chuck? That I have to scroll past your pointless shaggy-dog story in order to get to the comments of people that I actually want to read? Getting more than a bit passive-aggressive here, I think. If there were a killfile for individual commenters, you'd have been on it a long time ago. Why don't you get your own blog?
ReplyDeleteOn a related note: Do tell us how to convince ill-informed, gullible or wilfully ignorant people that anthropogenic climate change is not a hoax, Chuck. Obviously, laughing at them is right out.
ReplyDeleteUmmm, no, I'm sure she wasn't laughing at me. That was a big part of the point. Duh.
ReplyDeleteI've often thought there should be some kind of helpful handbook for angry internet commenters who are totally lacking in reading comprehension skills. Problem is, how can they get anything from a handbook when they can't comprehend what they're reading. I guess you'd have to keep it real simple, on the level of "See Spot run." Even then it would be difficult. If you type "Spot likes milk," half the internet would explode that DOGS DON"T GO ON FACEBOOK YOU ASSHOLE IDIOT!!!!!!
Anyway, either try bringing up your reading and thinking skills or take my genuine heartfelt advice and stop reading my comments. This sounds sad, I know, but this is my third presidential election here on Alicublog and I'm probably not going anywhere. Funny how things have changed though. Independent, lefty type jokes and observations didn't used to bother people so much. Just more evidence how far rightward Obama has dragged the party, I guess.
"...stories in the vein of "my anecdote about a rude liberal proves all my closely-held beliefs about them"
ReplyDeleteSee reply to Satch about reading comprehension.
"I realized that she was probably laughing at me, likely thinking I'm some ludicrous tourist from flyover country with my camouflage hat taking crappy tourist pictures of the train with my crappy little tourist camera."
ReplyDeleteC'mon, Zell.
"Just more evidence how far rightward Obama has dragged the party, I guess."
ReplyDeleteHe's further to the right than Clinton? Bullshit, Chuck. This is beginning (?) to sound personal.
Oh, hey, clicking on the minus sign in the upper-right-hand corner of someone's comment will collapse it and hide it from view. Sweet!
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew. Laughing's pretty much all I got, too. But I think a good strategy would be to appeal to their social and economic interests in other matters and then just deal with climate change (if that's even possible at this point) when elected. Telling them they're stupid certainly won't work.
ReplyDelete"All aboooard the Train of Thought to Irrelevance." Next stop: Tedium.
ReplyDeleteWe're getting into the mist of ancient memories here, but I'm pretty sure that during the Clinton years many lefty type liberals were complaining about how right wing he was without getting a lot of flack for it from lefty type liberal establishment types. I suspect it's more personal for those who bought into the hopey changey stuff and now can't admit they were flimflammed.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I'd say he's further right than Clinton, though if you think not I see it's at least arguable.
I'll try to type real slow. You see, I'm not a tourist and I wasn't taking crappy tourist pictures, so she wasn't laughing at "me." Same thing when people yell insults at undecided independents from outside the liberal bastions. They're probably not stupid and their lives probably cannot be reduced to some derogatory stereotype. It's the person hurling the insults that is the caricature.
ReplyDelete"I realized that she was probably laughing at me, likely thinking I'm some ludicrous tourist from flyover country with my camouflage hat taking crappy tourist pictures of the train with my crappy little tourist camera."
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, Chuck, my bad. How could I have misunderstood that? I'll give myself a dope slap for that, and for my inability to recognize academics or creative people by the way they look.
You do realize that you're posting this stuff in someone else's blog, right, Chuck?
ReplyDeleteYes, but, ummmm, it's not your blog. And I guess I missed the memo where you were appointed hall monitor.
So back atcha: Do you realize that you're posting this stuff in someone else's blog? Why don't you get your own blog?
Your lack of self-understanding is truly dumbfounding.
Just remember, folks... according to Butch... err, Mitt, the world doesn't want less American leadership, it wants MORE.
ReplyDeleteSee reply to hunky whatshisname below. I typed real slow.
ReplyDeleteToldja there wasn't a word limit!
ReplyDeleteNot much to say about this week's column, although it's interesting that Kevin DuJan is just now noticing that SNL occasionally does political humor. I guess that he has to watch something else now that Bristol Palin has been voted off Dancing with the Stars.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I've been seeing various YouTube videos being carpet-bombed by the latest member of The Butthurt Billionaires' Club, one Thomas Peterffy, who has put up a non-avoidable ad about how he escaped socialism in Hungary and someone is badmouthing success" and blah blah, and I was a little puzzled because ever since I was a little kid who would read the Guinness Book of World Records cover to cover (well, except for the sports section), I'd always thought of Hungary as one of the best examples of the failure of capitalism. Most peculiar, mama. whoa.
So, actually, the period of Hungary's history during and after WWII is fairly complex, including both fascism (Hungary was allied with the Axis powers) and Stalinism, and things were indeed pretty grim, particularly with the Soviet reprisal for the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Oddly, though, Kádár János had started to introduce reforms in the Hungarian political and economic system (called, I kid you not, goulash communism) by the time that Peterffy emigrated to the U.S. So, I dunno, maybe Peterffy thought that Khrushchev would send in the tanks again, or maybe he just realized that he could make more money over here. Anyway, it's ridiculous for someone to assert with a straight face that the tanks will roll into Greenwich, Connecticut the way that they did into Budapest back in the day, not to mention characterizing as "socialist" the modest tax increases that Obama is proposing (compare the top rate in 1965, when Peterffy moved here); of all people, he has no excuse for not knowing better.
Not sure why the third para is in italics, since I didn't put that tag there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the fact that I grew up in red states and / or flyover country, and have a great deal of hair-tearingly personal experience with just how willfully obtuse and vicious a particular subsegment of our electorate is, is a substantial part of my mildly negative reactions to that smugly self-righteous little shitstain chuckling presuming to lecture us East Coast liberals about our out-of-touch stereotypes of such voters.
ReplyDeleteSo, your counter-argument, to me and everyone else who criticizes you, is "U R 2 dum 2 unnerstand me" and "I know you are, but what am I?" Yeah, those are perennial winners.
ReplyDeleteWait... wait... I think I'm starting to get it. What you called "anecdotes", i.e. short accounts of particular incidents or events, aren't really anecdotes, they're, umm... fiction? Am I getting warmer?
ReplyDelete"The choice was between a hunter's camouflage and I heart Jesus. I chose
ReplyDeletethe camouflage, not feeling uber ironic enough for Jesus."
In the portions of the Midwest which I'm familiar with, Jesus stuff usually goes on T-shirts, buttons, and cars. Hats are for farm equipment, seed companies, the NRA, local car dealerships, and professional sports teams. Camouflage is a minority preference for those who don't know to leave it for hunting season. There used to be a larger place for Skoal and some of its competitors, but moist snuff and chewing tobacco are somewhat out of favor in much of the Heartland, though they linger in New York's Southern Tier and similar regions.
I'm sure chuckling already knew all this, being so much more in touch with ordinary flyover-country Americans than the rest of us, and was alluding to it in his deft satire. But I just thought I'd help clarify for all the clueless East Coast liberals who would otherwise miss this part of his point.
So, she was laughing at you, because you embodied that caricature.
ReplyDeleteWe have always been at war with Disqus!
ReplyDeleteShe'll always be on the outs with the righties now- they may forget, but they never forgive.
ReplyDeleteI think I can help with this one... we can hire Hollywood's finest directors to hoax a wide-ranging heatwave/drought which kills livestock and scorches crops throughout the fields of the Heartland, and broadcast the heartbreaking footage on the liberal television networks. A mere glimpse of such horror should convince them, no?
ReplyDeleteEx-Soviet satellite expats are an odd bunch. Having close blood ties to some, I've seen it up close. This is pretty standard stuff, and not readily amenable to reason.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you are unaware, but many on the right are using racist scare tactics to try to persuade undecided voters. For many people it has something other than the intended effect.
ReplyDeleteUm, I'm from, and live in, flyover country, and the reason "many on the right are using racist scare tactics" is because they think it works.
Yes, you're right. I shouldn't have done the type real slow thing. But seriously, not all messages are delivered in short, declarative sentences. It doesn't seem that you're angry about anything I say, the great majority of which resonates comfortably in the lefty blog echo chamber, but with how I say it, which is very indirect. So I don't mean this as an insult, but maybe you should try reading real slow and trying to think beyond the literal? Or if you're not into that, why not simply ignore my little parables instead of getting angry and cursing? Fake civility is what civilization is all about. It's a good thing. Honest incivility, well, that's the problem. Mostly with rightbloggers, but sometimes it spills over.
ReplyDelete"Telling them they're stupid certainly won't work."
ReplyDeleteBut a certain subset of this group react that way even when you're respectful to them, Chuckling. Many of these people have chips on their shoulders the size of Buicks. They want to be offended, and if there's nothing reality-based to get pissed off about, they'll gleefully make shit up. Are you seriously claiming not to know this? Throwing all the blame at our end is more than unfair, it's positively unjust.
I'll grant you there are plenty of assholes on our aside of the fence, but at least we're willing to acknowledge that.
Well, duh. chuckling is a fictional character and everything written under that name is inherently fiction.
ReplyDeleteThere are many kinds of fiction, however, and the three little anecdotes above are for the most part true in a this happened/that happened kinda way. It's chucklings pov that tends to drift. On a fictional level, consider them parables more than traditional short stories.
Thanks. You make some good points. The Jesus hat was just a joke purchase. And the camouflage hat is far from a good blending tool in most situations. Works in some though, and I actually own guns and hunt on rare occasions, so it's not entirely phony.
ReplyDeleteI noticed your shit stain comment above. I'm confused. Are you opposed to east coast ivy league types calling people outside the liberal bastions derogatory names? Or are you opposed to people from those types of places calling out the prominent liberals and arguing that it's really poor political strategy to hurl insults at the people you need to vote for you in a tight election?
I mean, sure, there are willfully obtuse and vicious subsections, but labeling all the undecided independents between the coasts as stupid morons is, I think, a large factor in why the polls are swinging so decisively away from Obama.
And btw, someone who goes around calling people with whom they have minor disagreements on political issues "little shitstains" is really in no position to be criticizing less educated folk for being willfully obtuse and vicious.
Of course I am aware of the certain subsets. It's just that I am also aware of very good, decent, intelligent non-college grad people who don't pay any attention to the presidential race until right before the election. The subsets about which you speak are not undecided. The undecided subsets about which I speak do not appreciate being called idiots. And given the close nature of the race, really could turn the election for Romney simply because they don't like being told they are stupid by people they consider to be a bunch of snobs.
ReplyDeleteOne might think that an unremarkable observation, yet making it often results in vicious personal attacks. Someone in one of these other subthreads brought up the question of why some conservatives use race baiting as a strategy even though it turns off many voters. Well, it doesn't turn off all of them and is unfortunately effective with all too many. But why do some liberals constantly attack the intelligence of undecided voters? I doubt that's going to convince anyone to vote for them and it's likely to cause a helluva lot of them to vote for the other guy.
So seriously, what is the upside to telling undecided voters they are stupid?
Is the real chuckling as condescending and self-satisfied as the fictional one?
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm suggesting you either make intelligent criticisms (bonus points for witty), or simply ignore me. These rightblogger type personal attacks you all keep making are tiresome for everybody.
ReplyDeleteThe way you're going, you'll need to turn your name into Hall Monitor_Jack. And just so you know, I've never been one to do what the hall monitors tell me, particularly not the self-appointed ones.
I would like to offer mds' anthropology a pocket Good News gospel, a non-ironic hayride, and a date to the cornmeal fish-fry.
ReplyDeleteShorter chuckling: We yustabee undecideds, but since the recession, we're outraged by liberal snoots and the fact that Obama is a nigger.
ReplyDeleteThe Gideons would usually hand out pocket New Testaments + Psalms and Proverbs, as chuckling could no doubt tell you based on his deep awareness of decent, intelligent non college grad flyover state residents who are simultaneously doughty yeomen and fragile flowers whose fee-fees and better judgement can be irrevocably crushed by Roy Edroso's commentariat. But your appreciation is nevertheless itself appreciated.
ReplyDeletePrediction about tonight's debate: They'll be pissed again. And both candidates will brag about how many people they don't mind blowing up.
ReplyDeleteI wish someone would tell me what the 'liberal' media wins with Obama's reelection, it's Willard who wants to cut their taxes after all.
ReplyDelete"Of course I am aware of the certain subsets."
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm Betsy Ross. Need any flags?
"I am also aware of very good, decent, intelligent non-college grad people who don't pay any attention to the presidential race until" early October, when they suddenly notice that East Coast elitists are calling some of them stupid on some liberal blogs.
'Cause seriously, your whole current shtick boils down to the assertion that there are plenty of intelligent salt-of-the-earth types who tune out actual economic and foreign policy develoments; everything said and done by the presidential candidates themselves and their official campaign surrogates; repeated substantive fact-checking from multiple sources; and television ad blitzes galore; but who will vote for Romney out of spite after Googling "liberals swing voters stupid" and observing the number of hits. Presumably, they will also have mysteriously missed anyone at liberal blogs pointing out that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the candidates, so there's no point in voting for Obamney anyway.
I mean, my memory stretches way back to 2004, where plenty of decent, intelligent non college grad people got off work and went and stood in line in Cleveland for hours in order to vote. Weirdly, most of them didn't seem to equate figuring out whom to vote for to nonrenormalizable quantum field theory calculations. Why all this deference to people who never notice that they're being treated as stupid by an actual political campaign, but supposedly get a case of the vapors because someone who knows someone who knows Rachel Maddow is frustrated with them?
Chuckling, have you read any of Joe Bageant's essays or books? He had a lot of interesting things to say about liberal attitudes towards the working poor.
ReplyDelete"nonrenormalizable quantum field theory calculations"
ReplyDeletePhft. Probably done by computer these days. When I were a lad, we did two-loop calculations with multiple gamma matrix commutations, by hand, before breakfast. Try and tell the young people of today that. They won't believe you.
"So seriously, what is the upside to telling undecided voters they are stupid?"
ReplyDeleteThere's no upside, but since this is pretty much a non-existent phenomenon, I don't see any problem. Yeah, maybe Jon Stewart and the other late night talk show boys make a few jokes about undecided voters, and Tom Tomorrow pokes some gentle fun at their expense in a cartoon or two. Big deal. Big fuckin' deal. It's still nothing. This is like discussing the entirely mythical "War On Christmas," which doesn't exist apart from the fever dreams of the far right and their propagandists in the so-called liberal media. There's no there there.
Looks like he turned up his Troll Amp to 11.
ReplyDeleteSame thing those filthy rich scientists want with their fancy private jets and their limousines and their wine cellars and ski trips to Gstaad. All that sweet sweet grant money.
ReplyDelete"The undecided subsets about which I speak do not appreciate being called idiots. And given the close nature of the race, really could turn the election for Romney simply because they don't like being told they are stupid by people they consider to be a bunch of snobs."
ReplyDeleteSomeone who cuts off his nose to spite his face can I think be safely classified an idiot, at least by the lights of the Alicublog community (where fun is the byword!). These people are going to vote for someone whose interests are inimical to their own just because some so-called snobby liberals called them idiots? Well, then they really are idiots, because they're letting their hurt feelings get in the way of their good sense--sorta like a three year old throwing a tantrum. They're idiots, and given sufficient numbers they are dangerous idiots.
I add this because I find it funny.
ReplyDeleteFormer media magnate Conrad Black has labelled Rupert Murdoch a "psychopath" and compared the News Corp boss to Joseph Stalin.
http://www.theage.com.au/world/black-calls-murdoch-a-psychopath-20121022-281u5.html
WTF? You're starting to make me miss Conservative Guy ;-)
ReplyDeleteHey chuckling, did you notice how the little score thingies below all your comments are in negative territory? It's because, overall, people on this blog do not find your comments meaningful or interesting. Notice how the little score thingies below Halloween_Jack's comments are positive? It's because, overall, people on this blog find his comments meaningful and interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe more you know!
To be fair, there are a number of billionaires who claim they voted for Obama in '08, but are outraged that he demonized them by calling them "Fat Cats" once or twice.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there should be a writer's manual as well. Page one could suggest that if a majority of people misunderstand your writing, the problem may not lie with them.
ReplyDeleteLookshury. When I were a lad, we had to calculate exact quantum electrodynamics results by hand ... and photons hadn't even been invented yet.
ReplyDeleteSignificant differences though.
ReplyDeleteConservative Guy disparaged Roy and was, you know, conservative. chuckling is very progressive, much more so than those attacking him.
We attacked CG from the left and typically did it with élan. Poor chuckling is attacked from the right and the quality of the attack is usually something akin to what you would find in an extreme rightbloggers comment section. CG was actually a better writer than that.
No need to miss him, though. In many ways he has multiplied.
No, what was the gist?
ReplyDeleteNot a bad shorter, though you got the third parable mostly wrong. Don't feel bad though, it doesn't lend itself to the shorter format as there is no single discernible point to it. Personally, I found the crowd reaction interesting, but as I mentioned, quickly gave up trying to wrap any one particular meaning around it.
ReplyDeleteScroll down here. Bunch of essays listed on the right side.
ReplyDeleteGarn, when I were a wee little sprat, Peter Higgs was merely a bosun in Her Majesty's Navy.
ReplyDeleteIn conclusion, New York is a city of contrasts.
ReplyDeleteThey win the wholesale destruction of Western civilisation, for which they so eagerly hunger! Of COURSE.
ReplyDelete