Fuck its silent in here.......

[Oleg]

Beck is a genius panderer who, let's face it, probably believes about 25% of what he says.  And he's rich because of it. 

Keep that in mind -- if you can figure out a way to say things that fill people like MikeC with unbridled joy and affirmation, and if you can say it to a large enough audience, you'll be rich. 

But then you run the risk of getting sued, right?

[Slaky]

Beck is a genius panderer who, let's face it, probably believes about 25% of what he says.

That's more Bill O'Reilly's game: pure cynicism.

I'm fairly confident that Beck is a genuinely crazy person who gets high on his own supply of bullshit.

I think Hannity is the most genuine out of all of them. He seems like he really believes what he's saying.

Beck is milking the cash cow for all it's worth. I think he's playing a game to see how far he can take it. Like, he comes up with stuff and wonders aloud if his audience will swallow it - and when they do he just laughs incredulously and thinks of something to one-up himself.

[Gilgamesh]

Beck is a genius panderer who, let's face it, probably believes about 25% of what he says.

That's more Bill O'Reilly's game: pure cynicism.

I'm fairly confident that Beck is a genuinely crazy person who gets high on his own supply of bullshit.

I think Hannity is the most genuine out of all of them. He seems like he really believes what he's saying.

Beck is milking the cash cow for all it's worth. I think he's playing a game to see how far he can take it. Like, he comes up with stuff and wonders aloud if his audience will swallow it - and when they do he just laughs incredulously and thinks of something to one-up himself.

I can listen/watch Bill and Hannity.  Beck and the rest are beyond the pale.

[Canadouche]

Glenn Beck says he doesn't "give a flying crap about the political process."

[R-V]

This really isn't a political article, but it's an outstanding read.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?printable=true

[smg]

This really isn't a political article, but it's an outstanding read.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?printable=true

I just read that earlier this evening.  I second the recommendation, except for expectant parents, who should avoid at all costs.  Oops.

[Tonker]

This really isn't a political article, but it's an outstanding read.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?printable=true

I just read that earlier this evening.  I second the recommendation, except for expectant parents, who should avoid at all costs.  Oops.

I was sharing a flat in Munich with an old friend when I split up with my last pre-STonk girlfriend.  I was reasonably upset about it, and a couple of days after it happened I came home to find a book on my bed.  It was Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity", and attached to it was a post-it which said "anybody who's ever split up with a girlfriend should read this book".  It was a very kind thought, and I read it from cover to cover - and then had to explain to my mate why anybody who has ever split up with a girlfriend should really, really not read this book.

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

[Bort]

I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

So, no more fun at all?

[Quality Start Machine]

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

Camera shots of kids at Cub games...

[Yeti]

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

Camera shots of kids at Cub games...

Lil Casey's gonna be a season ticket holder, thus showing that mom secretly wants him to be punished for life like she is.

[Chuck to Chuck]

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

Exactly.  You never forget the first time after you've had a child and you see a story about another child who is suffering.  It hits you a completely different way.

[SKO]

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

Exactly.  You never forget the first time after you've had a child and you see a story about another child who is suffering.  It hits you a completely different way.

Yeah. Now whenever someone talks about child labor, Morph just sees a bunch of dollar signs walking around his house.

[Bort]

On the subject of expectant mothers, by the way - I hope you're prepared for the fact that you are probably going to become acutely unable to deal with any kind of juvenile suffering once your child arrives.  Programmes about childrens' hospitals?  No chance.  Tragic stories in the newspaper about young kids getting sick, or injured, or killed?  Fuhgeddaboudit...

Exactly.  You never forget the first time after you've had a child and you see a story about another child who is suffering.  It hits you a completely different way.

Yeah. Now whenever someone talks about child labor, Morph just sees a bunch of dollar signs walking around his house.

I almost did a spit take.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

For what it's worth:

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/26/sherrod-story-true

What on Earth is Jeffrey Lord talking about on the mainpage? He says that the sentence "Claude Screws lynched a black man" is untrue. Lynching is defined as an extrajudicial killing by a mob (which can be as few as two people). The fatal beating of Bobby Hall most certainly qualifies.  Radley Balko expounds on the specifics, but honestly, even if you mistakenly believe that only hanging qualifies as lynching (which, again, is simply not true), zeroing in on this particular hair as one worth splitting strikes me as utterly bizarre.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/26/taking-issue-with-jeff-lord

A regular part of writing for a political magazine or website is that you sometimes disagree with what is written, or even with decisions to publish certain articles. Such is my sentiment today with Jeff Lord's  piece on Shirley Sherrod. I am rendered speechless by a 4,000-word article that is based around the suggestion that somebody is a liar for saying that a black man was lynched, when he was merely beaten to death by a white sheriff who evidence suggests had previously threatened to "get him."

Jeffrey Lord doubles down on stupid...

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/27/jeff-lord-defends-jeffrey-lord

First, for the definition issue.

Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines lynching as: "to put to death, esp. hanging by mob action and without legal authority."

I have read the Court's decision. Three people are not a "mob." A mob is defined as a "large crowd." So there was no "mob action" because there was no mob. Second, the Supreme Court specifically said the Sheriff and his deputy and a local policeman acted "under color of law." Which means they had legal authority.

So to say that Bobby Hall was lynched is, factually, according to the Supreme Court and, if you prefer, Webster's, not true. No mob. Therefore no "mob action." And the three had "legal authority." So my new friend Radley "Boo" Balko over at Reason pounced...and got it wrong instantly.

Sorry.

Second. The larger point. My colleagues seem not to understand the connection between what they are seeing in the headlines everyday -- and history.  There is, I'm sorry to say, a direct connection between Southern racists of yore and, say, the Obama Administration policy in Arizona..  The Black Panther case. And what Ms. Sherrod was doing in her speech when she ever so casually linked criticism of health care  to racism, which is to say not supporting a (her words) "black President."

This is all of a piece. Intimately connected by philosophy, party, time, heritage and party culture.

So when Ms. Sherrod uses the highly inflammatory word "lynching" -- when it is quite specifically not so because of the above reasons -- what is she doing? Why is she doing it?  She was factually wrong. She was legally wrong. She did it anyway.

There's more. Later.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/sherrod-critic-she-used-lynching-to-gin-up-democratic-voters.php

"What is the difference, really, between Jimmy Byrnes trying to pursue a "white" agenda, and Sonia Sotomayor's wise Latina comment?" Lord asked rhetorically.

For Lord, the key inconsistency is that Democratic southerners were to blame both for Hall's murder, and for ultimately overturning the conviction of his killers, and yet, decades later, Sherrod sympathizes with the Democratic party.

"I understand that people on the other side are going to go poopoopoo and the Nixon Southern Strategy and all that kind of thing," Lord said. "To think that this was just, all these people just switched their party and made the Republican party segregationist is just nuts. I was there."

...

Lord says he doesn't want Sherrod to lose her job, and urges his fellow conservatives to work toward winning over black voters. "Get out there and engage on race," Lord said. "There's no reason in the world that we can't be getting the black vote. But it's our job to separate black from left and talk about left and right."

With a playbook like this, how could he expect them to possibly fail?


Lone wacko disclaimer:

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/26/re-jeff-lord-john-tabin-and-ph
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/27/defining-lynching-down

[R-V]

Basil Marceaux > George Hutchins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hvaeHllwtw