Wednesday, July 31, 2013

R.I.P. DOGHOUSE RILEY.

As Lance Mannion said today, "Weird this internet world we've built. Didn't know Doghouse but feel like we've lost a old colleague with an office just down the hall." After I got over the shock of hearing Doghouse Riley, aka Douglas Case of Indiana, was dead, I suffered an aftershock to realize that I'd not only never met him, but had only read his blog and corresponded with him a few times; his last email was an appeal to help some other blogger who was down on his luck. Yet I felt as if I knew him, because his presence as a writer was so vivid.

It helped that he wrote long. He could be quick and slashing, as he often was in the comments section here. But usually when he got into a subject, he'd stretch out comfortable and give, along with needed details and logical abutments, a sense that he was talking to you, rather than composing some polemic that would wow the wide world. And even if his talk led, as often, to some scorched earth, his was in the main a friendly voice, one you could listen to awhile.

Here's a bit of Doghouse from a few years ago, on a column by David Brooks, who in a just word would be scrawling his received wisdom onto sheets of cardboard in a subway station while Doghouse wrote for the Times. Brooks was as usual telling people how "American culture was built on the notion of bourgeois dignity" and how the lesson of Ben Franklin was that we should all tighten up our assholes and get religious about the Free Market. Doghouse wasn't having Brooks' argument, and he also wasn't having Brooks, nor the whole horrible tradition Brooks represents:
Today it's Ben Franklin: Champion of the Suburbite; we might note right off the bat that the case consists of Brooks declaring it, three-quarters of the way through the piece, and then steadfastly ignoring anything that might qualify as nuance, say, or biography, or evidence. I suppose it's possible Brooks at some point opened Franklin's autobiography, in which the great man comes across as a callow, money-grubbing young printer at a time when running a printing press was the equivalent of owning the rights to a wildly popular video game title today. That's not the Franklin we revere, or at least it's not the one we used to revere before Texas re-wrote the history books.

It's not important, because Brooks has about as much interest in Franklin--even the sort of Franklin who might be invoked the way another hack might put Don Quixote on Wall Street or Hamlet in the Republican caucus--as the Texas legislature has in History. No, we are gathered here today to hear the surprising tale of how Global Capitalism just keeps making the world better for everybody, especially the American Middle Class, which really needs to lighten up on the expectation of being paid more than Mexicans, but should stick with the Hard Work/Don't Ask Questions/Vote for your Betters program which got it this far... 
I know I may have said this before, but Th' fuck makes these guys go on about this shit interminably? And why are they so quick to chalk it up to the thoughtful generosity of 19th century English mill owners? The major improvement in the quality of life since 1810 is public health. Sewage disposal. Safe drinking water. Vaccinations. Food inspection. Y'know the entire litany of stuff the Brookses in this country oppose, obstruct, and applaud Ronald Reagan for gutting before turning the remnants over to industry groups to regulate for themselves. The sort of thing they spend half their allotted annual column inches trying to convince the lower classes to elect Republicans to prevent. The sort of thing they expect will be provided for themselves, gratis and regardless, of course.
Mine isn't a partisan argument--although the argument it opposes is--it's an epistemological one. Back in the perfect 50s we didn't teach children that All The Modern Advancements they enjoyed were due to a reasonable rate of return, free from confiscatory taxes. We taught them they were due to Louis Pasteur and Jane Addams, to Helen Keller and Joseph Lister and John Snow and Jonas Salk and Sara Josephine Baker. All of whom, nowadays, would apparently be running hedge funds or operating import/export businesses or social networking sites.
This is not only absolutely right, it's also a pleasure to read. And there never have been that many who could make the bitter truth go down so easy. At least, not so many that we can afford to lose one.

84 comments:

  1. ChrisV8210:06 PM

    I only really knew Doghouse through his comments here and around the blog-o-sphere, plus the occasional time I would read his blog. It is certainly my loss for not following him more closely. However, when I heard of his passing, I couldn't help but think about how much I still miss Jon Swift, and also how I have been negligent in keeping up with the blogs I used to read daily. Roy, stick around for a little while longer. I'm back for more.

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  2. deggjr10:20 PM

    I rarely commented on his site because the comments couldn't add to what he wrote and would more likely detract.

    Jon Swift and now J.B.S Riley; I hope you're feeling OK Mr. Edroso.

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  3. LookWhosInTheFreezer10:47 PM

    Yeah. His rants would often leave me googling old names from the Reagan administration just to try and keep up, but when I did get the references man was he funny. Especially his obliterations of McMegan. Perhaps a best-of thread would be a good tribute. I remember telling a friend about Doghouse and I think i said something like "He's like Charlie Pierce but goes even MORE 'out there.'" I will definitely miss his snark.


    I didn't really start reading Jon Swift until after he passed and boy do I regret it. I spent a weekend laughing hilariously at his work even though much of it was a couple years old by then. I sure could have used those laughs during the W administration.

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  4. I'm still in shock.

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  5. DocAmazing10:50 PM

    The crime is that Mr. Riley was more erudite and more eloquent than anyone on the NYT's opinion page. A prophet is not without honor etc.

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  6. Spaghetti Lee11:23 PM

    It sucks hard. He was way too young to go.

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  7. mgmonklewis11:27 PM

    A toast to Doghouse Riley. In the Great Beyond, may he finally (metaphorically) find out who iced Shawn Regan.

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  8. mgmonklewis11:28 PM

    My apologies for the tagging snafu. The comment was intended to be a tribute, not an HTML comedy of errors on my part.

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  9. AGoodQuestion11:38 PM

    That's not the Franklin we revere, or at least it's not the one we used to revere before Texas re-wrote the history books.


    Said as well as anyone could possibly say it. This one hurts. I looked forward to reading Doghouse's words of wisdom - equally warm and acerbic - just about every day.

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  10. timb11711:49 PM

    Do any of ou recognize how rare smart voices are HERE in Indiana. He paid attention and wrote well. This Hoosier feels a little more adrift without him

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  11. synykyl12:46 AM

    I enjoy reading everyone here at Alicublog, but Doghouse was very special to me. May he rest in peace, and may we all stay healthy and take up the slack as best we can.

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  12. Damn, that news is so depressing that I'm using it as an excuse for a rare firing-up of the ol' corncob pipe tonight in tribute.

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  13. Gern Blanston12:54 AM

    Ye gods. Fellow Hoosier seconding this. This is the first I've heard of it. Have to say, when the Bennett story broke (short version: former GOP superintendent, big supporter of charter schools and "reform," discovered last week to have tried to change the grade of an underperforming charter school created by huge GOP donor), I went to Bats Left/Throws Right and found it odd that he of all people hadn't commented. RIP.

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  14. What a fucking thing to come home to. What a loss. God damn it.

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  15. Gabriel Ratchet1:05 AM

    A real tragedy. I read him regularly and was always impressed with his humor, insight, and ongoing refusal to suffer fools gladly. That imbeciles like Brooks, MacArdle, or Douthat got major media platforms for their blather, while he didn't is one of the major injustices of our fallen age.

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  16. John E Williams1:24 AM

    I was giddy as a schoolgirl when Doghouse 'liked' one of my comments here. I feel a personal loss in the sense that his blog was one of my main stops, day in and day out, which sounds stupid to me but is nonetheless true, and I will miss terribly his view on, well, pretty much every goddamn thing. His post about the Zimmerman verdict was the best thing I ever read about that travesty: " George Zimmerman is the fucking walking embodiment of America: we've got the gun, and the guy we don't like the looks of is supposed to jump when we say jump. And then, we it all goes wrong, we change the rules, congratulate ourselves on a job well done, and pretend it never happened."

    R.I. fuckin' P.

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  17. mortimer1:53 AM

    I'm going to miss Doghouse for all the reasons given here and then some: the breadth of his knowledge about history, his lawyerly skill at building perfect arguments, and because, like our genial host, he could also be screamingly funny. Whether tossing off a perfect one-liner to caption a picture of Michael Douglas: "The good news is that we know ass-kissing doesn’t cause cancer, else there’d be fewer Americans now than in the 15th century," or a tour de force of pure stand-up on the Bush Museum, his generous wit generated LOLs like it was a public service. Hell, the only way I could get through a David Brooks column was knowing that I might get to read Doghouse shredding it to pieces later -- there's no way I can do it solo now.



    But for all that, and his blistering rants on Indiana politics, he came across to me as a guy with a big heart in the right place. I can't find it at the moment, but a few years back he wrote a post (or two) about a student in his wife's school who died for lack of a working heater (IIRC) that was righteous, angry, and terribly moving. Despite having never met Douglas Case or corresponded with him, I feel like I just lost someone who was great to know, which is a sad but marvelous thing on these Internets. I'm glad I got to "know" him.

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  18. Thanks, Roy. A fine tribute, and an excellent piece of his to showcase. I linked his stuff a number of times during my C&L stints, and Anne Laurie at Balloon Juice linked him often, but I wish more people had read him. His pieces on Indiana politics and the layers of Mitch Daniels's hackery were especially incisive as well.

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  19. MBouffant4:48 AM

    I'm still mad about this.

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  20. montag26:07 AM

    Y'know, I'm betting that Mitch Daniels breathed a sigh of relief when someone read Doghouse's obituary to him.

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  21. The guy was an extraordinary beast. He made local politics universal. He made people like me, from half a world away, informed and engaged, and did it better than any journalist ever could. And what I loved, and still love most, was his lack of pettiness. The man was a mensch.

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  22. Barent Wagar6:56 AM

    Sometimes I wonder if the Mayans were right, and the world did end last year, we just didn't notice the transition. What a frickin year...

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  23. Halloween_Jack7:40 AM

    Goddamnit. All the fuckwits that are still sucking air, and Doghouse dies. Damnit.

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  24. I'd be surprised if a smug prick like Daniels even knew who Doghouse Riley was, such is the state of our political journalism these days.

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  25. redoubt8:13 AM

    Believe you me, the "Bantam Menace" (sobriquet courtesy of Doghouse) is breathing a sigh of relief. Because it's because of him that I know about the logrolling and backscratching that got the "Bantam Menace" a sinecure at Purdue at the end of his term, instead of a jail sentence (where he belongs).

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  26. cleter8:20 AM

    Well, now I'm sad. Doghouse was the best.

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  27. We got your point and share it, drinking among the orchids.

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  28. Pablo8:33 AM

    Nice remembrance. Did you ever do one for Steve Gilliard in 2007?

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  29. glennisw8:48 AM

    Yes. RIP. We lose the good ones too young.

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  30. ice weasel9:03 AM

    Steve Gilliard, Jon Swift and now Doghouse.


    It's fucking really hard to take sometimes.

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  31. Leeds man9:07 AM

    Godfuckingdammit. One of the best commenters here for years, and that's
    saying something. You'd see his name and know there was good stuff
    ahead; funny, outraged, always so human, and so spot on. Nevermore.

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  32. BigHank539:24 AM

    Doghouse was a gentleman. I tossed off a one-liner here back in January; he borrowed it and credited me. I'm glad I took the time to thank him.

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  33. BigHank539:26 AM

    Don't forget Joe Bageant. More uneven than Doghouse, but the man could summon some righteous fury.

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  34. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard9:30 AM

    Doghouse RIley, dead at 59, while Dick Cheney continues on after countless heart attacks and a second heart. "Karma" is just wishful thinking.

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  35. Kurzleg9:33 AM

    Heard this yesterday. I was surprised by Doghouse's age in a couple ways. 59's way too young to die, IMO, and yet it seemed much too old for someone with such a distinct and youthful writing voice. What was evident about Doghouse's blogging - and what I admired most about it - was that for all the time, effort and talent that went into it, he clearly blogged for the joy of doing it. Would that we likewise find something we enjoy doing that also edifies others. RIP, Doghouse.

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  36. M. Krebs9:33 AM

    Jesus. What happened? Does anyone know?

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  37. edroso9:35 AM

    And Jim Capozzola.

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  38. edroso9:38 AM

    No. I missed writing on him and Capozzola. Sloth can never be ruled out but I think it was also in part denial. How could they be dead? Alas, it's becoming plain that good-guy bloggers die too.

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  39. Uncle Kvetch9:40 AM

    Indeed. "One of Roy's best commenters" is a high bar indeed, and he cleared it every time. Hail and farewell.

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  40. DavidInChicago9:45 AM

    I will miss him a lot. He and Roy are the two writers who could consistently make me laugh out loud even as they ignited my righteous fury. RIP, Doghouse.

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  41. whetstone11:05 AM

    "Bantam Menace" never ceases to kill me.

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  42. Bethany Spencer11:09 AM

    Oh geez, that's fucking tragic. I always enjoyed his comments. How sad.

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  43. whetstone11:24 AM

    I'm broken-hearted. I haven't been this sad about a blogger since Steve Gilliard's death, or since Billmon went into retirement. I'm in the journalism industry, where there's a fair amount of hostility towards nom-de-plume pajama-wearing bloggers, and Doghouse was one of the examples I'd use as what's good about blogging: an anonymous guy, whose real name and background I didn't know, who could out-write most of the people who get paid to write.

    usually when he got into a subject, he'd stretch out comfortable and
    give, along with needed details and logical abutments, a sense that he
    was talking to you



    This. What a gift for timing and texture. Getting a like in the alicublog comments section from DR was an honor.

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  44. chuckling11:37 AM

    Yes, that expresses what I want to say. That, and both the state of Indiana and the internets just got significantly dumber.

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  45. catclub11:50 AM

    On a finance note: Tanta. Doris Dungey.

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  46. parsec11:51 AM

    They're playing Schumann's 1st symphony on XM right now. I was always amazed how Schumann could achieve his effects, too. I will miss Doghouse.

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  47. hellslittlestangel11:54 AM

    Long one of my favorite commenters and bloggers, not least for namechecking Philip Marlowe. RIP.

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  48. hellslittlestangel12:00 PM

    Me, I hope he finds out who killed Owen Taylor.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038355/faq#.2.1.3

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  49. Fearguth12:13 PM

    I first entered the online world in 1986 and, since then, I have discovered only a handful of truly great writers who (mainly) publish therein. Al Weisel (Jon Swift) was one of them, Douglas Case (Doghouse Riley) was another. Still alive and kicking are Lance Mannion, James Wolcott, Tom Boggioni (TBogg), Charles Pierce, Jon Talton (Rogue Columnist), Driftglass, Scott Clevenger (World O'Crap), and Roy Edroso (Alicublog and Village Voice). If I were forced to rank them, Doghouse Riley would be near---if not at---the top.

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  50. skippy12:56 PM

    i'm not familiar with joe or doris's work, but at skippy we have a sidebar category for our fallen compatriots, also including aaron hawkins and melanie mattson

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  51. marindenver1:18 PM

    Damn this is sad. I still haven't gotten over Jon Swift. You're taking good care of yourself, Roy, right?

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  52. whetstone1:52 PM

    A real tribute to a blogger is when you find yourself missing what they'd have to say about current news. DR on IN politics has been mentioned, and seconded by me. Being perplexed about the NYC mayoral race, I'd love to have Gilliard around to explain it.


    And Jon Swift, to see how satire can keep pace with the trajectory of the GOP—it was a constant battle for him, and what impressed was how he managed to stay one step ahead of reality.

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  53. Harry Cheddar1:54 PM

    Man, that's depressing. He was brilliant, funny, and an irreplaceable voice on Hoosier politics.

    He probably lived less than 10 miles from me. I never met the guy, and would never presume to impose, but somehow felt like I knew him. Funny how the internet can create the illusion of personal contact where there is none. Requiescant in pace Mr. Case.

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  54. ice weasel1:54 PM

    A huge loss. Yes, her work was amazing and influential.

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  55. montag21:58 PM

    Ah, well, let's put it this way. If the Great Equalizer ever catches up to Lord Cheney, shit, I hope there's video.

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  56. me63101:59 PM

    It'll be at an undisclosed location, that's how the Dark Lord rolls

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  57. Al Swearengen2:01 PM

    Someone needs to start a memorial website where we can immortalize our lost friends and make sure that their writing doesn't disappear.

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  58. Al Swearengen2:05 PM

    I'd give anything to hear what Gilliard has to say about the rightwing racist freakout over Obama.

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  59. Al Swearengen2:08 PM

    Thanks Skippy.

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  60. will_f2:22 PM

    Well damn.

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  61. Gentlewoman2:27 PM

    Doghouse Riley was one of the best. I will miss reading his blog and his comments here and elsewhere. "Bantam Menace" still makes me laugh.

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  62. Mr. Wonderful3:27 PM

    I know. Come on, God, at least give us one for one. Somewhere Jonah Goldberg literally does think that the fact that he's still alive, and Doghouse is dead, proves that conservatism is correct.

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  63. Zencomix3:34 PM

    May he be in heaven a half hour before Dick Cheney knows he's dead.

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  64. skippy3:47 PM

    welcome, al. i just today added doug/doghouse to the list. it saddens me that so many great voices, whose logic and wit far exceeded the paid punditry of the chattering classes, have left us.

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  65. D. Sidhe4:02 PM

    This one just *hurts*.


    Doghouse was a doll. And while he might haunt me for saying that, I kind of hope he does.

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  66. redoubt4:13 PM

    Charlie comes back from vacation to say what needs to be said.

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  67. Derelict4:21 PM

    And, as was pointed out up-thread in these comments, all the rightwing morons flourish and grow.
    So sad. So unfair.
    A voice stilled forever while we, the living, grope for meaning.

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  68. LookWhosInTheFreezer4:35 PM

    I could live with a thousand Golbergs if the trade was for the "loss" of just one Roberts and Scalia.

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  69. LookWhosInTheFreezer5:50 PM

    Swift was so good at eluding wingnuts' sarcasm-detectors that I wouldn't be surprised if he were cashing paychecks from the National Review by now. Or at least some sort of columnist post at Twitchy.

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  70. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq7:01 PM

    *coughs* With the possible exception of Krugthulu.

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  71. MikeJ9:09 PM

    The Big Sleep is on TV right now and every five minutes I hear "Doghouse Riley" and have a start.

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  72. Haystack9:24 PM

    Yup. Amen to all of this.


    Both here and at his blog, the man was formidable. Just heard the news, feeling a little lost now. Damn.

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  73. JennOfArk12:05 AM

    Don't be so glum, chum. I heard on NPR the other morning that it's possible to hack pacemakers, insulin pumps, and the like these days. All we need to do is get Cheney in the same room with a 12 year old computer geek with a social conscience...

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  74. JennOfArk12:07 AM

    Really glad to see this tribute here after hearing about Doghouse elsewhere. He was one of the best.

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  75. I've never read any other news commentator who had at the same time such righteous fury and such obvious kindness. Maybe the kindness fueled the fury. That he made so much goddamn sense all the time, about decades of politics and all kinds of people, was just kind of a bonus.


    The George Saunders of blogging. I've never thought that before but the above combined with the wordplay, it's perfect. I can't even describe how happy and jealous and just in awe I was the first time I read the word "punditaster".


    My God. May he be in a better place and his family find peace.

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  76. pippinpippin9:33 AM

    I'd been stopping by the Doghouse to see how he would respond to the latest Indiana scandal (the former superintendent fixing the "grades" of a charter school owned by his biggest donor), and couldn't figure out why the Dog wasn't commenting. I'm sorry to learn the reasons. Condolences to his wife and family. His blog, among other things, was one way he showed love for them. I always felt like I knew his "long-suffering wife" from his comments.

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  77. D. Potter10:11 AM

    It would be measured, scathing, pungent, and accurate, with deep historical parallels and at least one FTFY.

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  78. Hatte2:52 PM

    I was kind of with Brooks until I read this:

    American culture was built on the notion of bourgeois dignity.
    Yes, my raggedy ass forebears were ever so dignified.

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  79. satch5:18 PM

    Been absent a while, and I come back to this. It's a goddam tragedy, compounded by the fact that, in a just world, the entire roster of NRO hacks should develop ebola... and they don't. I hope Mr. Doghouse's stuff stays up for a while. I'd like to go back and re-read it. Pace, sir.

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  80. Damon Poeter8:50 AM

    What an unwaste of a life spent being mostly always funny and and always mostly right, mostly always more of the time than us eyeballs in the ether ever deserved ... God bless and safe travels, Doghouse

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  81. TheSailor8:50 PM

    "I rarely commented on his site because the comments couldn't add to what he wrote and would more likely detract."


    I always wondered why he had so few comments, and then I realized I never commented because, like you, what was there to add?

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  82. kiptw1:40 PM

    I didn't know. Damn.

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