Quote of the Day
The upper echelons of American journalism have become the exclusive monopoly of former teacher’s pets, who as children were never sent to the principal’s office, who as teenagers were never suspended for showing up drunk for chemistry class, who as college students never woke up at 6:30 a.m. on the porch of the ATO house, who never played in a rock band or sold a pound of weed or dove from a 50-foot cliff into an abandoned rock quarry.
Washington journalism is like some kind of perverse alternative reality where the Beta males are dominant.
It is therefore not surprising that the effete elite of American journalism sneers at Mark Levin. What Levin possesses — and what the typical 21st-century journalist never has possessed nor ever will — is the double-dog-dare-ya boyish audacity that the Ordinary American naturally admires.
That’s Robert Stacy McCain, who seems to think that yelling your head off on the radio is a lot more daring than I do.
I’ll say this though: if RSM ever writes an autobiography I’ll definitely read it.
I don’t know many journalists, but based on the journalism students I know, I can say that RSM is definitively wrong.
— JS Bangs · May 25, 01:32 AM · #
You did not ask for a piece of advice, but I see that six of your last thirty-odd posts concerned the antics of various commentators of a certain bent and four others were in response to commentary by two other such journalists. Messrs. Beck, Hannity, McCarthy, McCain et al are not so interesting that you have to spend a third of your time cogitating about them.
— Art Deco · May 25, 02:48 AM · #
If Rod Dreher is, per RSM, “the geek at the prom” complaining about the popular kids, RSM must be the guy who does the quarterback’s homework for him and tells everyone how intelligent the prom queen actually is.
— Matt Frost · May 25, 04:03 AM · #
Art Deco
didn’t you used to comment at Mathew Yglesias?
— cw · May 25, 04:52 AM · #
Art Deco
Didn’t you used to comment a lot a Mathew Yglesias?
— cw · May 25, 04:56 AM · #
I hate this pinche comments scheme.
— cw · May 25, 04:57 AM · #
Can you imagine being stuck in an elevator with Mark Levin, listening to him complain the entire time?
— Joules · May 25, 05:16 AM · #
ATTACK OF THE SANDWICHBOARD GUYS!
Starring Glenn Back as Nazi/Fascism Guy, Mark Levin as Yer-Husband-Should-Commit-Suicide Guy, and El Rushbo as Obama-Fail Guy!
Coming soon to an electorate near you!
— matoko_chan · May 25, 06:11 AM · #
It’s neither here nor there, but this comment thread seems pretty frivolous, anyway, and the whole “If I were your husband, I’d kill myself” theme reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
Lady Nancy Astor: “Winston, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.”
Churchill: “Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.”
— Kate Marie · May 25, 07:06 AM · #
The charming rogue test is simple. It goes, “would Han Solo do this?” And the answer, here, is no.
— Senescent · May 25, 07:39 AM · #
“Didn’t you used to comment a lot at Matthew Yglesias”
I visited his personal site a few times about five years ago. I do not recall he had any facility for comments.
— Art Deco · May 25, 11:43 AM · #
“if Rod Dreher is, per RSM, “the geek at the prom” complaining about the popular kids, “
Dreher has had occasion to offer bits of personal memoir about his life in Louisiana between 1981 and 1985 and there was an may still be floating around a reminiscence of a journalist in Georgia who new him at Louisiana State University while he was there (1985-89). “Geek at the prom” is close to a self-description.
— Art Deco · May 25, 12:17 PM · #
“That’s Robert Stacy McCain, who seems to think that yelling your head off on the radio is a lot more daring than I do.”
I guess Conor thinks it’s daring to spend a LOT of time and bandwidth excoriating those who are already hated by a majority of the population (that’s what he keeps telling us the polls say). And of course it’s daring to express the same opinion of Rush, Beck, Hannity and Levin as the NYTimesNBCABCCBSColinPowellBarackObamaJohnMcCain..etc.,etc.,etc….
Thanks for breaking that new ground of speaking truth to power, Conor. I’m sure you can expect your name to be astroturfed throughout the blogosphere and media and thereby relegated to that netherworld of Beck and Hannity “haters.” Levin will see to it that you are treated just as Joe the Plumber was, forever branded as a tool of the left, with some question as to whether you’re really a journalist. Oh yeah, your life is about to get very difficult.
— jd · May 25, 02:22 PM · #
Kate marie:
I had thought of that quote, too. I really don’t understand Conor, and his various “outrages.” The things he writes about as being so terribly upsetting that he needs to spend so much bandwidth on them in view of the real outrages of an Obama “march to socialism” (ooh, that riles the Friedersdorfs) are truly maddening.
In an earlier post he or someone wrote about conservatives being angry while liberals are satirical or something like that. Well, yes, I am angry and there is much to be angry about. But I am not angry because Wanda Sykes wants Limbaugh dead and President Obama sides with her. No, it’s the harm being done by a media that is outraged by Rush, accepting of Sykes, and so dishonest and one-sided that we have a community organizer as a President.
— jd · May 25, 03:05 PM · #
and so dishonest and one-sided that we have a community organizer as a President.
Well pardon my machaivellian pragmatism but IMHO that is hella better than the Doofus in Chief that let bible quotes inform his presidential policy, and initiated a war of choice that has cost us 4,228 AMERICAN MILITARY LIVES and a trillion AMERICAN TAXPAYER DOLLARS to date.
Not to mention presiding over the econopalypse.
Perhaps….a lot of us hate Bush because he deserves it?
— matoko_chan · May 25, 04:01 PM · #
jd
Rush, Levin, Beck are verifiably assholes and liars. They talk and their words are recorded. You can look their words up and make objective judgements. The fact that the conservative movement is at present being led by tactically medacious,rabble rousing, talkshow assholes seems like it ought to be a matter of concern to conservatives. It doesn’t seem like a good sign for the movement. Seems to me to presage disaster.
— cw · May 25, 05:18 PM · #
“Not to mention presiding over the econopalypse.”
The legislation which allowed depository banks to enter the capital markets was enacted in 1999, co-sponsored by Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.) and signed into law by W.J. Clinton (D-Ark.). The principal in resistance to more rigorous standards of accounting and capitalization (a programme promoted by the Bush Administration and John McCain) was Barney Frank (D-Mass.) as a courtesy to his boy toy Herb Moses (Pooftar-Washington Insider Nexus).
— Art Deco · May 25, 05:45 PM · #
“Rush, Levin, Beck are verifiably assholes and liars.”
‘Asshole’ is a subjective judgment. It is not something that can be verified unless we are speaking in reference to a standard that has been agreed upon antecedently.
People who spew a great deal of verbiage are bound to utter false statements now and again out of impetuosity or simply an insufficiency of effort devoted to proper research and verification. It can be quite difficult to demonstrate that their false statements were self-conscious.
— Art Deco · May 25, 05:51 PM · #
Conservative talk radio is the gangster rap of the American Right. Trying to contend with its intellectual content or its decency is completely missing the point. Talk radio is meant to be a fantasy; it’s selling the experience of feeling powerful to people that normally feel powerless. It relies on bombast, blind aggression and screaming because these are exactly the kinds of things that powerless people vastly overestimate the effectiveness of; that’s why they’re powerless duh. Mark Levin’s job isn’t to figure out if Obama is outsmarting the conservatives and work to reverse that; it’s to let his listeners pretend they’re showing Obama who’s boss.
That’s also why the Republican politicians, the people whose jobs are actually to acquire and hold power, are going to start Sister Souljah’ing these talk radio hosts mercilessly once they’re enough out of the public doghouse that it’ll do some good. In the meantime, you should insist the talk radio listener in your life read a copy of Dale Carnegie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ so that they’re properly prepared for that moment.
— Bo · May 25, 06:23 PM · #
Bo, that’s brilliant.
— Peter Suderman · May 25, 07:26 PM · #
Nice comment Bo.
Art Deco. Asshole is subjective but not completely subjective. Most of us agree on a certain range of behavior that defines an asshole. It’s a community standard, something conservatives are supposed to appreciate. Levin’s gun to the head comment was one most people would agree was that of an asshole. And we all know there are plenty of similar instances we can find regarding Rush and hannity, etc..
As to your second point, that was a little disappointing. In fact I’m disappointed that you bother defending these guys at all. I know I have read a bunch of your posts somewhere—I think now it was cruchycon—and I know you pride yourself on you logic and intellectual honesty. You know who these guys are, their tactics, and what motivates them. They are not mysterious amorphous conundrums that can only be perceived subjectively….
This following section represents a period of intense internal cognition utilizing me internal cognition engines:
[[[[[[[[[On the other hand, now that I think about it, if the wacko right wants to follow these guys into irrelevancy, then I fine with that. Get them out of the way so that the grownups can talk. Maybe I should say that I was wrong, that these guys are geniuses.
Or beter yet, if I want the wackos to follow the wackos then maybe my best tactic would be to usereverse psychology, like I would with a five year old. I could castigate their pundit-leaders. That will rile the wackos up. They will defend anything “right” they think is being attacked. They are like bees that way. So I so should taunt them, point out over and over again that they are fools becasue their leaders are verifiable idiots. And I could play up the country bumpkin thing. Just mentioning that trigers all kinds of insecurities and when you feel insecure you reach for that blanket, or in this case, Rush. Plus I could hint at my status as a member of the urban elite (I do almost have a postgraduate degree, only 6 credits shy).
They’ll be like, no way, Rush is a genius. You’re the idiot. We love Levin. He is revelation made flesh. We will follow him to the death. ANd I’ll be all like, “he he he he he”]]]]]]]]
OK, now I’m back. You guys are dorks for believeng in Rush and his crusty ilk. It’s just evidence how retarded the conservative movement has become. All the smart people left in 2006. Nothing left but a remnent of rubes and bumpkins and bible thumpers. You guys are just the rats to dumb or too afraid or too conservative to jump ship. Neeener neeener neeener! Rush Limbaugh is your leader! HAHAHAHAHH!
— cw · May 25, 07:36 PM · #
I have not listened to talk radio on my own initiative since about 1975. The program in question had two hosts in succession, one of whom (IIRC) was a polite fellow who provided a venue for discussion but was not notably opinionated; the other was frequently rude. I recall him as a generic populist, perhaps right-of-center. The one position I can recall him taking on public policy was opposition to an amnesty for people who had moved to Canada or Sweden and flipped the bird at their local draft board.
I had an office mate ca. 1992 who was an aficionado of talk radio (Larry King). I did not listen carefully, but it seems to me that King also provided a discussion venue and it is atypical for him to offer his own views in an explicit way.
I have only ever heard brief snippets of the programs of the three chaps in question, and have no opinion on them. I assume people are prideful and undertake various stratagems to avoid admitting error. (The former ombudsman of The New York TImes has said it was like pulling teeth to get a correction out of Paul Krugman). I have a suspicion that self-conscious mendacity is fairly unusual, and would not assume it unless satisfactorily demonstrated. There are people I would pay little attention to unless corroborated. If you think that the proper attitude to take to these three characters, fine.
— Art Deco · May 25, 08:34 PM · #
Very habinar, Bo.
That is perceptive.
— matoko_chan · May 26, 02:19 AM · #
But there is one crucial difference between Anger Radio and gangsta rap…..Conservatives will never be cool.
— matoko_chan · May 26, 02:24 AM · #
“The legislation which allowed depository banks to enter,,,,blah blah blah.”
I am referring to GW colluding with Greenspan to bugger the prime down to ONE HALF OF ONE FREAKIN’ PERCENT you clueless twodigit.
THAT is the proximate cause, moron.
— matoko_chan · May 26, 02:29 AM · #
motoko chan:
In 1990, about a third of the savings banks in the United States were insolvent, delinquency rates on commercial bank loans were about as bad as they are now, and one of the largest and most consequential investment banks in the United States (Drexel Burnham Lambert) went into receivership and was liquidated. Japan was in the process of enduring a stupendous crash in their asset markets (p/e ratios in the Japanese stock market had reached 50:1 by the end of 1989). All of this failed to blow up the financial world. What has changed? Among other things…
Conventional means of addressing insolvency in banks (receivership by the FDIC) are at this time confounded by the large cache of foreign deposits had by Citibank in particular and by the securities underwriting and brokerage operations of these banks, which are outside the FDIC’s skill set. The four megabanks between them have about half the assets of the depository institutions in this country and about a quarter of the assets of all financial sector institutions.
You will recall, the crisis last fall commenced with the imposition of a conservatorship on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The board and senior management of both institutions have been collecting pools of Democratic Party insiders and it was B. Frank who acted to thwart efforts of John McCain and Gregory Mankiw and others to improve their accounting practices.
The practice of securitization of receivables (so many of which instruments are now illiquid) antedated the Bush Administration. Ditto the trade in credit default swaps, though it is true that only very recently has the notional value of outstanding swaps been so massive. Please note that suggestions (during the Clinton administration) by the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that swaps and derivatives be regulated were shot down by (among others) Lawrence Summers, once the Treasury Secretary, now one of Mr. Obama’s counsellors.
Dr. Greenspan has been empolyed by five of the last seven administrations, including that of W. J. Clinton.
One can properly fault Christopher Cox et al for approving rules changes which allowed the five investment banks cum brokerages to be leveraged 40 to 1.
— Art Deco · May 26, 02:54 AM · #
Re: Bo and talk radio being gangster rap.
http://www.illdoctrine.com/2007/09/if_bill_oreilly_was_a_rapper.html
Genius!
— LeighH · May 26, 03:38 AM · #
Yeah, seriously, Bo, that was a very succinct, clever, and correct way of putting it.
— Senescent · May 26, 04:10 AM · #
Art Deco, the econopalypse derived from cheap money. Loan deregulation wouldn’t have amounted to a hill of beans without artificially depressed interest rates that made refinancing and re-refinacing possible.
So we could all “go shopping.”
/spit
— matoko_chan · May 26, 04:28 AM · #
The “last act“http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2008/12/federal_reserve_slashes_key_sh.html of the Bush administration’s collusion with the Fed was to slash the fed rate to “between 0 and .25.”
— matoko_chan · May 26, 04:37 AM · #
jd wrote: “ and so dishonest and one-sided that we have a community organizer as a President.”
And Bush can’t even organize a sentence. Your point?
— Jon H · May 26, 11:52 AM · #
“Oh yeah, your life is about to get very difficult.”
Tee hee! That would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic. Not to mention self-contradictory… “It’s stupid to suggest Conor runs some kind of risk by siding with the damn librul media. Now he’s gonna get it from Mark Levin!”
Why do you feel so threatened by the idea of displaying basic decency to another human being, jd?
— Erik Siegrist · May 26, 10:03 PM · #