Sunday, April 20, 2014

NEW VILLAGE VOICE COLUMN UP...

...about the new Obamacare numbers and the brethren's sour reaction to them.

From the outtakes (because you know this stuff is rigorously edited), a further gloss on C. Christopher Agee's rant about the new Census health care questions at Western Journalism: Agee claimed "policy experts and journalists, many of whom are notoriously unsympathetic to conservative sentiments, have expressed outrage over the partisan move." In defense of this point Agee  cited... one guy: "Noah Rothman of the left-leaning Mediaite." Here are some headlines relevant to Rothman's unsympathy to conservative sentiments:
Rothman: The Intolerant Left’s Losing Streak
Rothman: MSNBC’s Most Embarrassing Mockery of Romney’s Russia Warnings
Mediate's Noah Rothman Roasts All Of MSNBC
Noah Rothman: Mainstream Media Unfairly Blame Right for Violence
Noah Rothman: Candy Crowley’s Debate Moderation Exemplifies Why Americans Do Not Trust Their Media
Etc. (I bet Mickey Kaus is reading this right now and thinking, "Yeah, so?")

211 comments:

  1. As you would imagine, rightbloggers disagreed...So they exercised themselves a bit and found some new insults.

    This falling into the Diabolical Muslim from Kenya's trap!

    Leaving the basement and getting exercise will only make it stronger.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.4:46 PM

    Even if Obamacare is not a trainwreck yet, it certainly could become a trainwreck any minute now. Checkmate libtards, checkmate.

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  3. montag24:58 PM

    Umm, not to be a nitpicker, but, wouldn't that be "sleight of hand," rather than "slight?"

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  4. edroso5:02 PM

    You are a nitpicker, and thank you for it, typo corrected.

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  5. montag25:03 PM

    Guilty as charged.

    ReplyDelete
  6. M. Krebs5:23 PM

    The McArdle paragraph is hilarious. And no, I did not get out of the boat.

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  7. montag25:26 PM

    "'This survey didn't even ask about ObamaCare specifically,' reported
    Joondeph -- 'only whether '[y]ou support or oppose the federal law
    making changes to the healthcare system.' You'd need an interpreter to
    figure that one out."

    Maybe not--there's already polling out there that shows people are considerably more approving of the measure when it's described as the Affordable Care Act than if it's described as "Obamacare." So, the poor dear is really just complaining that the poll doesn't use the term that's least favorable and generates the most hostility, a term that was largely generated by the right wing to forever link the legislation and Obama together, which would have worked in their electoral favor had it failed completely--a fate for which they have been hoping against hope for four years.

    But, the highlight of this piece is that rant from the "cowboy." He's definitely one of the very suggestible 27%, it seems, not to mention that he's going to need some medical attention himself if he keeps on the way he's going. I was half-expecting to see his head explode on-camera.

    That's barking mad for ya.

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  8. montag25:28 PM

    It is quintessential MeMeMeMeMeMeMeMeMeMegan, isn't it? Say what you will, the woman has an immediately recognizable style.

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  9. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.5:34 PM

    Kinda like herpes.

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  10. Doc Washboard5:41 PM

    I watched the video by the angry man with the suspiciously-foreign-sounding name "Gabor Zolna." He was angry. I used to get angry like that, and I realized that it made people (rightly) question my sanity, so I worked long and hard to stop. My only question: was there a single solitary thing in that entire rant that was factually accurate? I got lost in the morass of back ends and security and kids who couldn't be added to your coverage and all the members of ACORN who got government jobs. Maybe it was all accurate; I don't know. That's why I'm asking. Does anyone have any insights into Mr. Zolna's contribution to the public discourse?

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  11. montag26:10 PM

    Umm, judge for yourself:

    https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gabor+zolna

    In aggregate, I'd say he's pretty much just as he appears.

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  12. Or a sucking chest wound.

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  13. M. Krebs6:27 PM

    She seemed to border upon Johnanism there.

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  14. LookWhosInTheFreezer6:28 PM

    You know who else had an immediately recognizable style??

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  15. TGuerrant6:30 PM

    McMeg shore party loot: I find it completely and totally impossible to believe that this problem didn’t occur to anyone at Census, or in the White House. It would be like arguing that the George W. Bush administration might have inadvertently overlooked the possibility that when the U.S. invaded Iraq, there would be shooting.

    But of course, Pat Robertson maintains that G.W. Bush told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." And R.B. Cheney didn't bother with a God-botherer. He just went on Sunday morning tv and announced the invasion would be a "cakewalk." Our Favorite Economist was probably taming the brunch hollandaise with a whisk at the time.

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  16. Reading that made me realize just how long it's been since we've discussed one of her pieces. Then I realized that I don't need to read anything she writes to guess what she'd say. She's finally taken the thesis of predictability and the antithesis of alternate universe logic to create the synthesis of perfect hackery.

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  17. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.6:35 PM

    You're just criticising her because you're a big sexist meanie. Bet you have no time for high achieving women like Sarah Palin or Phyllis Schlafly, either.

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  18. "Better, cheaper, more innovative health care won't be delivered by
    government and politicians. It will be delivered by the American people
    if politicians will get out of the way and let them do it."



    this makes me think of that part in dennis hopper's 'last movie,' when the peruvians start shooting their real-life western using cameras and equipment made out of sticks.

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  19. I was getting more of a "Chairman Mao tells the peasants to smelt their own steel" vibe.

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  20. montag26:51 PM

    Dunno about Schlafly, but, yeah, Palin and Malkin seem high to me.

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  21. montag26:53 PM

    Oh, no. The ur-farrrt is a philosophy now, too?

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  22. WHAT DOES ACORN CARE? ITS A. COMPLETE. JOKE!

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  23. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.6:57 PM

    Especially Malkin who is high on faux rage.

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  24. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.7:02 PM

    American private enterprise and can do spirit should be able to organize genocide and famine at least as good if not better as any government effort.

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  25. smut clyde7:18 PM

    I’m speechless.
    She has boiled the art of self-refutation down to a two-word sentence.

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  26. MikeJ7:20 PM

    The second hit there:
    Sadly, there is nowhere than any one of us can go for help, since the Administration has taken control of all parts of our Government and our Military.



    How dare the guy who was elected president (twice!) take control of the government and (gasp!) the military!

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  27. dmsilev7:24 PM

    A *whisk*? Heavens forbid. No, she'd be using some special-purpose widget designed specifically for extracting money from people who think that a common whisk is déclassé.

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  28. montag27:32 PM

    I do find that amusing, especially since about 80% of new drugs are created directly and indirectly by the NIH and the NSF. Or that the initial research that led to the MRI was done at state-supported universities.

    Or that better and cheaper health care is available almost anywhere in the first world other than the U.S., in countries that have single-payer or similar systems. Or that the "... if politicians will get out of the way and let them do it" is a near-perfect recitation of Reagan's most common complaint, the result of which is now an even more unequal society, with worse health care overall, and a pharmaceuticals system that has completely captured government regulatory and legislative functions.

    Sure, let's just let the free market handle this. After all, it's done so well managing the economy.

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  29. montag27:33 PM

    Oh, indeed. It's not like it's his job or anything.

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  30. M. Krebs7:37 PM

    The majority of my posted video's, are to try and highlight what is really going on with our criminal, and dysfunctional Administration.


    I wonder if he's also illiterate in his first language.

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  31. MikeJ7:41 PM

    I apologize for the fucked up blockquote. The sportsball people are on TV and getting their asses kicked and it is distracting me. The single bq'ed is him, the double bq'ed is me again.

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  32. M. Krebs7:43 PM

    Holy shit, montag. I think you found the wormhole that leads straight to planet Looney Tunes.

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  33. Rembrandt?

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  34. MBouffant7:46 PM

    One would have to assume that in his little world the "Administration" & the "Government & Military" should be separated like church & state.


    And O.K., maybe the President was elected & reelected, BUT NO ONE OF THE CZAR'S IN HIS 'ADMINISTRATION" WERE RE -ELECTED!!! Think about that, sheeple!!

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  35. MBouffant7:49 PM

    Damnit, pick those nits & don't apologize!! Nits carry disease, you know.

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  36. MBouffant7:52 PM

    There's high, & there's wasted. You decide.

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  37. MBouffant7:55 PM

    Extra "n" a Freudian typo, or deliberate?

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  38. M. Krebs7:56 PM

    Deliberate, and not original.

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  39. MBouffant8:01 PM

    Oh, they knew there'd be shooting. They just inadvertently overlooked the possibility there would be shooting back.

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  40. MBouffant8:04 PM

    Good either way.

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  41. "Gabor Zolna."

    "He was also a doctor. Performed lots of unnecessary surgery. And then in 2009 he joined a society ..."

    "Let me guess: Teabaggers."

    "Right."

    [Aside] "'No studying.'"

    "After the election of Barack Obama, Zolna decided society was too sick to survive. And he isn't alone. He has close to 27% of the electorate agreeing with him. Some of them conduct rituals out west. Bizarre rituals, intended to demonstrate that they're crazed seditious dumbfucks, and now it looks like they may actually have proven it."

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  42. montag28:07 PM

    At least we know how they're getting here now.

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  43. After all, it's done so well managing the economy.


    It hasn't ever been given the chance. The 2008 financial collapse? Pffft. There were still a few regulations in force, weren't there? Well, between them and Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act, it was all Big Government's fault. A free market would have never allowed the financial services industry to gamble so egregiously with other people's money.

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  44. MikeJ8:23 PM

    I've often wondered how similar Roy's VV column was to Tobin's Spirit Guide.

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  45. smut clyde8:26 PM

    It will be delivered by the American people if politicians will get out of the way and let them do it.


    Back to the future with snake oil and the Medicine Show.
    Most of the alt-health scammers and grifters promote some form of libertarian less-regulation philosophy... partly for obvious reasons of self-interest, and partly because the magical-thinking, crank-magnetism loons who comprise their market are suckers for that line of "Fight the Man with Colloidal Silver!" bafflegab.
    Star Parker does not seem to be personally involved in pimping any snake-oil cancer cures (I was pleasantly surprised).

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  46. montag28:48 PM

    And they haven't even unleashed the full force of corporate land grabs and the commodities markets yet. Corporate sovereignty is a goal in sight!

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  47. Halloween_Jack8:53 PM

    Paulites and fundies, living together--mass hysteria!

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  48. The whisk sits in a can on the counter and looks pretty while a $1200 programmable table mixer does all the work. She was going to make a post and a video about it, but she got a cold and couldn't quite pull it off.

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  49. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.8:56 PM

    But how can one tell them apart?

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  50. That's what the private sector does best - take public sector developments and research new and innovative ways to charge people for them.

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  51. smut clyde8:58 PM

    Concern trolling is seldom so revelatory about the troller's own philosophy. Megan is astonished, her flabber is gasted that the US Census cares more about collecting quality data than about the bad motives which people might impute to them! She would never have made that rookie mistake! She would have advised them against it, if only they had invited her to place her expertise in governance at their service!

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  52. smut clyde9:03 PM

    Obama's "conciliatory pitch... was likely
    carefully crafted [...] to goad GOP activists
    and legislators to make rash responses that can later be portrayed as
    divisive during the 2014 campaign."So Republicans only make fools of themselves because Obama makes them do so, using his Influencing Machine. That Neil Munro dude is keen on the concept of personal responsibility, isn't he?

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  53. montag29:22 PM

    The government taking McArgleBargle's advice on data would be akin to the DOE seeking out Donald Trump's advice on nuclear physics. One way or another, things would not end well.

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  54. Dr. Hunky Jimpjorps9:28 PM

    No, Megs, it would be nothing of the sort, because jiggering with Census questions won't get people killed.

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  55. "policy experts and journalists, many of whom are notoriously unsympathetic to conservative sentiments"

    Smart people and conservatism are like oil and water.

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  56. From Rothman:

    You can gauge the scope of a movement’s influence by the causes they
    adopt, and the cultural left has set their sights pretty low in recent
    months.


    Yeah, Fox's "war on Easter" coverage is so much more lofty.

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  57. Buffalo Rude9:56 PM

    I hear anvil sales have been brisk lately.

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  58. Hey, at least give him credit for not using racist terminology. I'm kinda shocked that this example was from 2014, I was looking for Tony Snow's utterance from a few years back.

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  59. Funny, watching that clip... you didn't hear conservatives and "libertarians" complaining about wire tapping back then.

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  60. M. Krebs10:22 PM

    Aahgh. I had completely forgotten about Tony Snow. Thanks a lot Big Bad Bald Bastard.

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  61. "One weird trick to fight cancer that THEY don't want you to know about. Oncologists hate him!"


    If it worked, it would just be medicine.

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  62. It sure did a bang up job in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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  63. Tehanu10:34 PM

    "I'm speechless. Shocked. Stunned. Horrified. Befuddled. Aghast,
    appalled, thunderstruck, perplexed, baffled, bewildered and
    dumbfounded," reported Megan McArdle.

    Megan owns a thesaurus! Who knew? Too bad the "speechless" part didn't include, you know, actually shutting up.

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  64. M. Krebs10:45 PM

    And shares of Acme Corporation have been plummeting.

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  65. Tiny Hermaphrodite, Esq.10:54 PM

    Um, that's a bit ambigous. Did you mean government or private genocide.

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  66. Buffalo Rude10:55 PM

    That's because Bain Capital LBO'd the place, stripped it of it's wealth, and set it sailing for the local Bankruptcy Court.

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  67. freq flag11:14 PM

    The McArdle paragraph

    "Oh, we have both kinds--Argle and Bargle!"

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  68. freq flag11:17 PM

    I'm high alright...but not on false drugs!

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  69. freq flag11:21 PM

    Say what you will about the tenets of National Flatulism, at least it's an ethos.

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  70. Chairman Pao11:24 PM

    Okay. This seems as good a post as any to ask the following question:


    What books/authors/bloggers/misc would you say represent what is constructive in conservative thought/ideology?


    This isn't a trick question or an attempted troll. Roy has given some props in the past to Daniel Larison (Or did I fever dream that?), even if he does share real estate with Rod "The Bod" Dreher. Think Progress tries to highlight conservatives musings, though I find those posts a mixed bag. And TPM occasionally discusses how conservative moderates are being systematically hunted into political extinction.


    So, I put it to the alicurati. What current or canon conservative thinking is worth a read because it is thinking that you can respectfully disagree with or make common cause with?


    Many thanks for your input and indulgence.

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  71. freq flag11:27 PM

    Triple the production quota for "Dip" immediately!

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  72. M. Krebs11:30 PM

    She should've gone with perturbed, discombobulated, and discommoded, etc.

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  73. Well, if my research involved delving into the wingnutosphere, I'd rely on spirits a whole bunch.

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  74. "Fight the Man with Colloidal Silver!"


    I tried that, and now I'm feeling blue.

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  75. You know, it finally occurred to me that the formulation you so ably ape is an accurate: if I were a [insert medical specialist here], I probably wouldn't want my potential patients learning about quack cures**, and I would hate the grifters who were offering them.


    **Unless we're talking about something like a blocked bile duck.

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  76. BigHank5311:38 PM

    I look forward to a return to the unfettered free market's efficiency in providing defenestration opportunities for the motivated market participant!

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  77. DocAmazing11:41 PM

    Kia once wrote a good piece on Edmund Burke. She might be prevailed upon to link to it.

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  78. BigHank5311:49 PM

    I hear the Mengele Chair of Bioethics is open over at the University of Phoenix. I realize McArdle hasn't expressed an interest in academia, but what the heck? How hard can it be?

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  79. Chairman Pao11:54 PM

    I'd be down widdit.


    My faulty memory being what it is, I recall reading a book review that referenced an 18th or 19th Century book called "Leviathan Bound" that the review said was a valuable but otherwise forgotten treatise on what conservatism should be about. But, having tossed that review in the recycling bin long ago my Intertron searches have only returned a song by a band called Shearwater. (I do not recommend the video.)

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  80. AGoodQuestion11:54 PM

    So as usual Megan McArdle has no point, although it's not clear whether she realizes this.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Betwixed, betwattled, and befloored.

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  82. AGoodQuestion12:06 AM

    Among other things.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq_bjaI0NTo

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  83. Damn, I bet she gets paid by the word. I'm surprised she didn't insert a Snagglepussian "even" in there. Exit stage right!

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  84. AGoodQuestion12:14 AM

    Dave Barry - not exactly a lefty bombthrower - once described Schlafly's smile as "the last thing you would ever want to see on the face of someone about to perform surgery on you. So "high" is not out of the question.

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  85. She's walking Jonah Goldberg's dog.

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  86. Hmmm... I bet there's a market for a Snagglepundit, a Snaggleprognosticator, even.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Lancelot Link12:27 AM

    Now would be a good time to point out that the owners of fake-medicine pyramid scheme Amway are among the top donors to the Republican party.

    ReplyDelete
  88. AGoodQuestion12:28 AM

    Ooh, thank you for that link. Did you see "Why I sincerely believe all Democrats are mentally ill"? If lack of self-knowledge is an art form, meet your Vincent van Gogh.


    Strangely enough his accent sounds somewhat Canadian. If we're importing wingnuts from North of the border, well, that'll be different.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Mooser12:43 AM

    "What current or canon conservative thinking is worth a read because it
    is thinking that you can respectfully disagree with or make common cause
    with?"



    IMDB. the movie and TV plot synopsis and quote section. If, of course, you can handle the truth.

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  90. Mooser12:48 AM

    Don't worry, Scientology stands ready to render mental therapy with e-meters, and "touch assists" for whatever ails you. That must be what she means.

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  91. Mooser12:51 AM

    "Sadly, there is nowhere than any one of us can go for help, since the
    Administration has taken control of all parts of our Government and our
    Military."



    I wish.

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  92. Mooser12:54 AM

    "It would be like arguing that the George W. Bush administration might
    have inadvertently overlooked the possibility that when the U.S. invaded
    Iraq, there would be shooting."



    Yeah, those Iraqis have a funny way of greeting their liberators! Watch out for candy and flowers, men.

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  93. Mooser12:56 AM

    Oh, I thought you were referring to somebody with slender wrists.

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  94. PorlockJunior1:09 AM

    Definitely stealing that.

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  95. BadExampleMan1:27 AM

    I read on the internet that Mickey Kaus is thinking, "mmm, yummy yummy goat semen"

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  96. BadExampleMan1:30 AM

    Rhinitis broke her camera?

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  97. Buffalo Rude1:36 AM

    You can almost see the rake handle smack Tony in the face as that phrase leaves his pie hole.

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  98. Buffalo Rude1:39 AM

    The only "point" she probably realizes is that the checks clear.

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  99. Buffalo Rude1:44 AM

    Larison is always a good read, as is Daniel McCarthy, at TAC. If you want other conservatives who are worth reading, I can only think of Doug Mataconis and James Joyner over at outsidethebeltway.com. Anyone else have other suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  100. smut clyde3:56 AM

    Althouse also informed us that, "by the way, the Kübler-Ross model isn't too scientific."
    No, it is not. Kübler-Ross was a morbid piece of work, and her pop-psych piffle deserves nothing but ridicule. Which is why people have been making fun of the Stages of Grief for the last 30 years.

    http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/properties/bloom/art_images/cg4fef4d5a48f90.jpg
    I'm a Scandiwegian-descended academic and even I can recognise a joke faster than Althouse.

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  101. Pope Zebbidie XIII4:27 AM

    You've just been over-exposed.

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  102. smut clyde4:31 AM

    Freedom Works gains much of its funding from the guy behind Cancer Treatment Centers of America, -- notorious for selling their patients naturopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic and any other form of quackery they can fit onto an insurance-claim form.

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  103. Pope Zebbidie XIII4:37 AM

    I thought we were going to have dogs and cats living together first. Rick Santorum fails again!

    ReplyDelete
  104. Pope Zebbidie XIII4:37 AM

    See who's trying to pay for antibiotics with bitcoin.

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  105. Pope Zebbidie XIII4:39 AM

    Czar Czar Gabor.

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  106. Pope Zebbidie XIII4:42 AM

    Remote diagnosis of mental illness to try and suppress political opposition. Wasn't that a Leonid Brezhnev speciality?

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  107. MBouffant5:08 AM

    Figures. I'd heard the founder funded fascists.


    I didn't know the exact nature of the CTC scam, but figured it was such from the never-ending CTC adverts ("NOT TYPICAL RESULTS!!") that pollute the downscale telebision channels I prefer.

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  108. MBouffant5:28 AM

    It would be awful to type anything about the point on her head, wouldn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  109. MBouffant5:28 AM

    Who's this Mickey Kaus?

    ReplyDelete
  110. smut clyde7:13 AM

    Shirley you meant "like acid and oil on a madman's face".

    ReplyDelete
  111. Susan of Texas7:48 AM

    Yes. She is perfecting a David Brooks-esque balance between saying what her audience wants to hear and saying what will get her more media gigs.

    The result is some amusing abuse from her devoted fans when they feel she is too liberal, which is often. It's hard to be a concern troll when your audience wants you to be a troll.

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  112. Derelict8:06 AM

    This comment is fabulous, dahlink!

    ReplyDelete
  113. redoubtagain8:28 AM

    FTD =/= IED

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  114. satch8:43 AM

    Thomas Kinkade.

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  115. satch8:55 AM

    Well, the upside is that vampires won't lay a fang on you.

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  116. redoubtagain8:56 AM

    Following an 85-year-old tradition. . .

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  117. satch9:02 AM

    "...Jeremy Lott called departing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "Obama's Rumsfeld."


    Jeezus... you know the wingers are desperate when they throw Rumsfeld under the bus.

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  118. mortimer20009:26 AM

    The stages Obama failed to enumerate are: 3. bargaining, 4. depression, and 5. acceptance. Maybe he didn't want to say bargaining, because he doesn't want his party to have to bargain with the other side. He just wants the GOP to get over it. The analogy to dying is, once again, terrible. Because in the stages of death scenario, the dying person seeks to avert death by somehow finding a way to make a deal, perhaps with God. Obama doesn't want to talk about deal-making. He wants the Republicans to give up and die already.

    All that stuff in bold is her extended complaint about something Obama didn't say. You can sense the always present Althouse awe at her own brilliance, like when she compares her photographs of Madison detritus to Cartier-Bresson and Ansel Adams.

    BTW, here's what Obama actually said that excited all those prions resident in the Althouse head:
    "And I recognize that their party is going through the stages of grief -- anger and denial and all that stuff -- and we're not at acceptance yet. But at some point, my assumption is, is that there will be an interest to figure out how do we make this work in the best way possible."

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  119. Clifford Beall9:43 AM

    I just spent a little time googling them. They got in trouble for cherry picking survival stats in ads a while back, too. They underwrite the local NPR station, though I guess that's no surprise - NPR seems to take anyone as an advertiser.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Clifford Beall9:46 AM

    They inadvertently overlooked that there were no WMD's

    ReplyDelete
  121. redoubtagain9:49 AM

    In which "gastritis" leads inevitably to "rhetorical diarrhea"

    ReplyDelete
  122. But even more awful not to...

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  123. JennOfArk10:13 AM

    Tony Snow, he dead.

    ReplyDelete
  124. mgmonklewis11:02 AM

    Off-topic: The grammar nerd in me has never understood why chiropractic medicine is called "chiropractic." If that's grammatically acceptable, why don't we also have doctors of "orthopedic" and "cardiac"? [/end rant]

    ReplyDelete
  125. RogerAiles11:03 AM

    The five stages of Althouse:


    1. Ignorance
    2. Denial of ignorance
    3. Inebriation
    4. Self-loathing
    5. Realization that her commenters are even bigger morons


    (Repeat)

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  126. mgmonklewis11:03 AM

    Logorrhea!

    ReplyDelete
  127. RogerAiles11:05 AM

    I used to read David Brooks, but he's too much of a pussy.

    ReplyDelete
  128. RogerAiles11:07 AM

    Bereft, bamboozled and batshit.

    ReplyDelete
  129. mgmonklewis11:07 AM

    Mark Rothko? No — Albert Speer?

    ReplyDelete
  130. Chairman Pao11:23 AM

    Are you saying that Brooks has a "manhood problem"?

    ReplyDelete
  131. ... Okay, someone needs to write that story.

    ReplyDelete
  132. M. Krebs11:30 AM

    Helen Thomas, too. There's got to be a conspiracy.

    ReplyDelete
  133. "And I recognize that their party is going through the stages of grief -- anger and denial and all that stuff -- and we're not at acceptance yet. But at some point, my assumption is, is that there will be an interest to figure out how do we make this work in the best way possible."

    I know that there's a tendency in CentristWorld to overplay "eleven-dimensional chess" and all that, but he's just trolling the GOP at this point, right?

    ReplyDelete
  134. PulletSurprise11:36 AM

    "Exit -- right wing!"

    ReplyDelete
  135. M. Krebs11:37 AM

    "Maybe he didn't want to say bargaining, because he doesn't want his party to have to bargain with the other side."



    Did she sleep though 2009?

    ReplyDelete
  136. Susan of Texas11:42 AM

    I can't figure out why she made only one cooking video. Surely a little Thermomix demonstration would be right up her alley. She could make a pumpkin pie since she has a perfect recipe for it. Or her famous macaroni and cheese.

    A reality show! I would contribute my pin money to a Kickstart campaign so we could follow McArdle as she goes about her wonderful life. That would be beyond awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  137. Susan of Texas11:54 AM

    6. Marriage to one of those commenters.

    ReplyDelete
  138. sharculese11:59 AM

    Academia is old hat for her. Remember, she comes from a family of academics who are actually intellectually intimidating.

    ReplyDelete
  139. He's the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time)

    When it comes to molesting goats.
    ~

    ReplyDelete
  140. BigHank5312:25 PM

    Talk about an ionic plot twist...

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  141. chuckling12:37 PM

    I seem to recall Obama happily taking ownership of the term "Obamacare" because he thought when people saw how good it was, it would further boost his popularity. Obama's pathetic hubris aside, the fact that the Democrats have continued using the term instead of Affordable care should really make one wonder if just trying to fail. I mean, what normal person is against affordable care? Whereas the term "Obamacare" is more likely to make one envision some kind of abject surrender to right wingers. Kind of like the ACA.

    ReplyDelete
  142. You and your precious B.O.C.

    ReplyDelete
  143. Ellis_Weiner1:02 PM

    It's the obverse of their "now we're not allowed to...." It's dawning on me that by "rugged individualism" they mean "certain guys who wear toupees."

    ReplyDelete
  144. satch1:09 PM

    Well, sure... the side which can pay the most for food, guns, and machetes is by definition the side which deserves to win. Just ask Tony Robbins...

    ReplyDelete
  145. MikeJ1:37 PM

    John Cole was one of the more honest Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  146. LittlePig1:56 PM

    I disagree. Medicare was the arrival of Satan on earth at the time of its inception, a very, very dirty word. Now, since old coots like it, "get your government hands off my Medicare!". Obama is playing for the long game.

    ReplyDelete
  147. LittlePig1:57 PM

    Just move that damn cat!

    ReplyDelete
  148. LittlePig1:58 PM

    Hey now. Neither Warren Foster nor Tedd Pierce would write anything that crazy.

    OK, maybe Bob Clampett...

    ReplyDelete
  149. LittlePig1:59 PM

    Frist!

    ReplyDelete
  150. LittlePig2:00 PM

    That's some shit that will turn you white!

    ReplyDelete
  151. LittlePig2:02 PM

    I for one welcome our Coca-Cola overlords.

    (Sorry. I love Heinlein. Nobody's perfect)

    ReplyDelete
  152. LittlePig2:04 PM

    You have a surprisingly good grasp of the doctor mentality (for someone who hasn't worked tech support for doctors, like meself). Ego, thy name is Physician.

    ReplyDelete
  153. tigrismus2:05 PM

    She's slept continuously since 1992.

    ReplyDelete
  154. LittlePig2:10 PM

    I have to share.

    Durable Medical Equipment was billed regionally (and may still be). Those docs had to submit their claims to Palmetto BCBS (aka South Carolina BCBS). Palmetto's modems (look it up, kids) were notoriously fickle, although it was NEVER their fault (although every time we called them the doc's claims would mysteriously submit 10 minutes later). We advised docs to get a US Robotics modem, about $100.

    "There's no way in hell I'm spending that kind of money on something like that!"

    "Oh....well, let's see, it looks like you bill $10,000 worth of claims. You are telling me you won't spend 1% of 1 day's billing to insure your claims will submit properly?"

    (long silence)

    "What's the number for ProVantage again?"

    Worked every time. You just have to know where to hit them.

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  155. JennOfArk2:17 PM

    I would change #3 to "box wine".

    ReplyDelete
  156. LittlePig2:19 PM

    How could such a huge dick have a manhood problem?

    ReplyDelete
  157. JennOfArk2:21 PM

    Which is why he's no longer a Republican.

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  158. M. Krebs2:24 PM

    Yes, but it is Medicare, not LBJcare. I'm sympathetic with chuckling's narrow point. I would have better to let the wingers have the epithet and appear increasingly pathetic for using it.

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  159. JennOfArk2:26 PM

    Yes, and also too: the term "Obamacare" was going to continue to be flogged 24/7 in rightwing media anyway and the crazy coots who follow it were calling it that already, and it had caught on with the media types and other vacuous souls who use terms like "baby bump" because they think they're cute or something. Why fight it? Now when the benefits become clear, as they are already, it will be forever associated with Obama.

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  160. Susan of Texas2:51 PM

    If they were business expenses she could write off her dinner parties. Heaven knows everyone else does.

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  161. Susan of Texas3:01 PM

    Unless Obama decides to "give" us national Heath care and call it after himself we still have time to do it up right.

    The right would not tolerate calling anything Obama did affordable. Anything and everything would be twisted. Their rejection of his spending and deportation numbers shows that.

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  162. Susan of Texas3:04 PM

    He's saying that Brooks climbs the curtains, shreds the upholstery and always looks like he has a canary in his mouth.

    ReplyDelete
  163. KatWillow3:34 PM

    Did Bush fire Rumsfeld for his crappy performance?

    ReplyDelete
  164. mgmonklewis3:43 PM

    I always thought it was just sloppy jargon. However, I find some of your points persuasive, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

    ReplyDelete
  165. smut clyde4:01 PM

    Brezhnev and Krauthammer.

    ReplyDelete
  166. KatWillow4:17 PM

    I don't agree about #4. I don't thing there's any self-loathing, in fact she has a very inflated notion of herself. Nothing can puncture that balloon.

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  167. ADHDJ4:41 PM

    That e in "sleight" must know someone in the vowel union. Talk about a make-work job.

    ReplyDelete
  168. TGuerrant5:02 PM

    Blocked bile ducks quack all damn night.

    ReplyDelete
  169. glennisw5:08 PM

    Plus, it doesn't hurt to mention that in Kubler-Ross's theory, the bargaining only comes from one side, the dying person. Death doesn't bargain back.

    ReplyDelete
  170. smut clyde5:10 PM

    a blocked bile duck..
    RX a 200C homeopathic dilution of duck liver pate.

    ReplyDelete
  171. glennisw5:16 PM

    The stages Obama failed to enumerate are: 3. bargaining...Maybe he didn't want to say bargaining, because he doesn't want his party to have to bargain with the other side. He just wants the GOP to get over it. The analogy to dying is, once again, terrible. Because in the stages of death scenario, the dying person seeks to avert death by somehow finding a way to make a deal, perhaps with God. Obama doesn't want to talk about deal-making. He wants the Republicans to give up and die already."
    God isn't obligated to bargain back, dumbass.

    ReplyDelete
  172. montag25:29 PM

    Dunno about that. The "e" is transforming something that's insubstantial, next to nothing, into something underhanded and deceitful.

    Kind of like the election of George W. Bush.

    ReplyDelete
  173. coozledad5:38 PM

    Feculent, fistulated, and fried gently over a medium heat with Szechuan peppers grown by the same family for three hundred years!

    ReplyDelete
  174. Halloween_Jack5:41 PM

    Listen for the tell-tale sign, "Well, Nick Gillespie said..."

    ReplyDelete
  175. coozledad5:42 PM

    And now they're overlooking the whole goddamned thing.

    ReplyDelete
  176. smut clyde5:53 PM

    That's because real doctors want to make sure everyone understands that chiropractic medicine isn't real medicine and chiropractors are witch doctors.

    Sadly, the word 'chiropractic' was invented along with the form of magic itself. Palmer was insistent on using his coinage as a noun, e.g. the Palmer School of Chiropractic. He must have thought it sounded more Greek-y.

    ReplyDelete
  177. smut clyde5:54 PM

    But how can one tell them apart?
    The evil goatees? No, that doesn't help.

    ReplyDelete
  178. LittlePig6:27 PM

    Yummy, yummy, yummy
    Got goat semen in my tummy
    And I'm telling you that it's real great.

    Yummy, yummy, yummy,
    Delish goat-cum is my honey
    I can't believe it's something I ate

    Kinda like goat-hair
    Kinda like urine
    Kinda like Clorox ble-e-e-each

    When I see a goat cock
    I don't stand and gawk
    I swallow that cock so swe-e-e-eet

    Dah da, dah da da da,
    da, da, da, da,
    da, da, da daaaaaaa

    ReplyDelete
  179. M. Krebs6:52 PM

    Point taken. I neglected to factor in the "news" media's part in the puke funnel.


    Having the ACA forever associated with Obama might be good for Obama and Dems in general, but sadly I can't see how it helps the ACA. Maybe that's a good thing and we'll do better down the road, but in the long run we're all dead.

    ReplyDelete
  180. M. Krebs6:59 PM

    Mmmm, duck liver.

    ReplyDelete
  181. JennOfArk7:14 PM

    One imagines God saying, "ok, so what's in it for Me?"

    ReplyDelete
  182. Mooser7:15 PM

    Well, there it is, the central Scriptures, the revealed word, the ur text, take it or leave it.

    ReplyDelete
  183. M. Krebs8:02 PM

    The entire universe is trolling the GOP at this point.

    ReplyDelete
  184. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:02 PM

    saying what will get her more media gigs.


    And $1500 chrome-plated cheese straighteners...

    ReplyDelete
  185. smut clyde8:42 PM

    Not to mention the designer turnip twaddler.

    ReplyDelete
  186. RogerAiles9:10 PM

    Have you ever heard BoBo say "sufferin' succotash"?


    It's uncanny.

    ReplyDelete
  187. freq flag11:32 PM

    Wor-r-k!
    Calling M. Krebs!

    Calling M. Krebs!
    Your straight line has arrived.

    ReplyDelete
  188. AGoodQuestion11:58 PM

    All That Jazz was a pioneer in making fun of it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbLSGYd-Ohc



    There are many jokes she doesn't get, including her license to practice law.

    ReplyDelete
  189. Daniel Björkman12:06 AM

    Now, now, you must grant those ladies one thing - they prove a fact that is (at least in theory) fundamental to feminism:


    Women are equal to men in every way, including being equally capable of being stupid, malicious, selfish douchebags.

    ReplyDelete
  190. Daniel Björkman12:12 AM

    Er, am I the only one who thinks he started using the term "Obamacare" because that was what everyone was calling it anyway and it rolls off the tongue better? Not everything a politician says is some kind of memetic strategy or a display of his underlying character ya know...

    ReplyDelete
  191. Daniel Björkman12:24 AM

    If you're so easily goaded, Republicans, you can't blame us for taking advantage of it. Do we blame you for taking advantage of us being so easily bullied? :P

    ReplyDelete
  192. J Neo Marvin12:29 AM

    When I was a little kid, I just thought Snagglepuss was incredibly cool. I had no idea he was such a heavily-veiled gay stereotype.

    ReplyDelete
  193. Someone did, sorta - a guy in a mental hospital realizes some of the doctors are vampires and spikes his blood with some form of silver to poison them. I believe he dies in the process (he needs to use a level toxic to himself for it to be effective on the vampires), but dies happy knowing he got 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  194. Aimai6:22 AM

    Also it applies to family members as well when they face the death of a loved one--not just the person who is dying.

    ReplyDelete
  195. M. Krebs8:08 AM

    You rang?

    ReplyDelete
  196. Daniel Björkman9:28 AM

    That seems to be the way of it. No matter how furiously the neocons tie up and gag the government, when things go to hell - as it does, because things going to hell is the natural course in this world, and only avoided when someone works like hell to prevent it - one of them always says, "I think I saw the government wriggling its nose! That must have been what caused it!"

    They want anarchy - they'll settle for nothing less, because they honestly don't think anything else can or should work. Of course, if they ever got it, they would not like it, because the polite fiction that is the value of money would disappear along with the other polite fictions that make society function (well... I say "function"...). Hence, I suppose, the right-wing fascination with the gold standard, which they for some idiotic reason believe puts an objective value to money.

    /rant

    ReplyDelete