The New Site on the Block
I’d like to welcome The Daily Caller to the Internet. I’ve been playing around on the site, and I’m impressed by how few glitches I’ve found. I’m glad to see that Caitlin Flanagan has contributed, this is the best piece I’ve seen from Andy McCarthy in quite awhile — why has the Obama Administration given diplomatic immunity to Interpol? — and this is an interesting piece on the “Napa Valley for marijuana” that could arise in California if the plant is made legal (though it seems to miss the fact that the crop won’t be worth as much once that happens).
I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that this SE Cupp piece is the most inane, poseurish, wrongheaded bullshit published by a movement conservative writer so far in 2010 — scare quotes around environment? — but it’s well edited (thus far I’m vindicated in my belief that THE DC would be more professional than the Breitbart sites), and overall I’m persuaded that I should keep coming back to see how The DC develops in coming weeks, presuming I’ll find worthwhile pieces to engage.
UPDATE: I’ve expounded on what precisely bothers me about that SE Cupp piece here.
Conor,
Wasn’t SE trying to be funny? I guess that could still make the piece inane and poseurish, but how is it “wrongheaded”?
Also, I’m not so sure about the editing — is it really true that she is a misanthrope? I think she was really trying to say she doesn’t like liberals, not all people.
— Arminius · Jan 14, 10:41 PM · #
I’m sorry SE Cupp was so mean to you on your first date.
— Joey · Jan 14, 10:54 PM · #
Arminius,
I’d say she’s trying to have things both ways. Also, beneath all humor are assumptions. What are hers?
— Conor Friedersdorf · Jan 15, 12:10 AM · #
The Manhattan address, trendy overpriced eyeglasses and affected use of her initials aren’t the only things fishy about SE Cupp.
Back when I knew her she was Sandi “Flippy” Cupp. but she refused to play if said “cupp” was filled with Coors, claiming it was Heritage Foundation swill. She insisted on Peach Schnapps, instead. Other than that, twelve dollar apple-tinis were her favored poisons.
Small batch bourbon, indeed.
— TS Slocum · Jan 15, 12:12 AM · #
I had a frenetic but passionless love affair with SE Cupp for the better part of a year, when we were both interning at the Manhattan Institute. She had a habit of getting overly drunk at buttoned-down cocktail parties and was forever insisting I change my style to her liking— more oxfords, try top-siders, put an ascot on. I ended things after she insisted I start taking my Tom Collins with vodka instead of gin. There are some bridges a man can’t cross.
Dynamite in the sack, though.
— Freddie · Jan 15, 12:28 AM · #
I wish Matt Frost would open the comments on his post about airplanes, it’s ultra lucid in identifying who is actually at risk and what that risk actually is, both statistically and consequentially.
The sort of mischaracterization of who is at risk that Matt is critiquing is so commonplace people hardly notice it, and it’s great to see it called out.
— Tony Comstock · Jan 15, 12:29 AM · #
Who cares?
I have a prediction: this chick will stay radically insignificant for the rest of the universe. She’s last night’s Natty Ice stranded in a solo cup.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jan 15, 12:47 AM · #
And I second Comstock. I also think there is something about event size, and something about intentional murder versus accidental death.
There’s something extra awful about people trying to kill you.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jan 15, 12:55 AM · #
I object to the hijacking of this thread with retroactive commentary on terror flights. If Frost wants to ice out replies, that’s his loss.
Comboxes are the refuge of impotent cranks, so I can think of nothing more rewarding to do here than make inessential deconstructions of clueless sarcasms like Cupp’s.
Her line about the original Office series is my favorite among her batch of misfires. Not only is the BBC Office typically preferred by NPR snobs like myself who are otherwise the focus of Cupp’s resentment, but everyone who really loves the series recognizes that its short run was a virtue. Better its greatness was packed tight in two seasons than it got thinned out over nine. That, and its 3 DVD’s can be efficiently and sensibly packaged in a slender box. Gervais, capital job! Cupp, botched shtick. Read Maureen Dowd— your sexpot wit needs honing.
— TS Slocum · Jan 15, 03:21 AM · #
To help Conor out next time he’s tempted to riled up about something written in the style of S.E. Cupp’s Diary: When somebody has a “Nuke the Whales” bumper sticker on their car, they usually aren’t literally advocating using nuclear weapons on cetaceans. So, there is little point in reacting as if they were. This also applies to “diary” entries that read like a series of extended bumper stickers.
Also, it is impossible to use the phrase, “best piece I’ve seen from Andy McCarthy in quite awhile” without many readers wondering if you are being ironic in some manner.
Less sarcastically: Given that the op-ed in question is authored by Andy McCarthy and Newt, one possibility is that the Obama Administration has not actually given “full diplomatic immunity” to Interpol. See, for example:
http://www.nraila.org/legislation/read.aspx?id=5284
— Ratufa · Jan 15, 04:44 AM · #
Conor praises McCarthy today because he’s made a point to criticize him in the past. Same thing with Breitbart, and the Fox Crazies, and Goldberg, and Glenn Reynolds. But his praise comes only when it’s safe on a safe subject (read: only when his betters won’t spank him for it).
Conor is the world’s blandest butt boy. He’s a bloggiverse Waylon Smithers. But he’s moving on up, dontcha know?
And yes, I’m mean. Who gives a fuck? I’m self-employed.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jan 15, 05:26 AM · #
I object to the phrase “retroactive commentary” on grounds of cacophony and vodka.
— Kristoffer V. Sargent · Jan 15, 05:38 AM · #
Freddie,
Tacky to kiss and tell…the comment says more about you than about SE.
— Arminius · Jan 15, 04:22 PM · #
I was skeptical when I heard about Carlson’s new venture. After all, it’s not as if the intertubes are lacking in right wing opinion pages. Quantity conservative punditry does not make up for lack of quality. Well, if those articles are The Daily Caller’s cream of the crop, I’d say it’s more evidence that conservative politics really are about as stale as they appear. Here’s what I learned: teenage binge drinking is bad, and Obama is surrendering American sovereignty, for some reason. Oh, and legalizing pot will make pot legal.
It’s like they aren’t even trying anymore.
— shecky · Jan 15, 05:20 PM · #
You’ll have to forgive Arminius. He and I shared a bungalow off the coast of Papua New Guinea for a year and a half, as we were both researching epigenesis in a certain population of sea urchins. We were rivals at first, then (as tends to happen in these things) bosom bodies by the end. Indeed there was a time when I would have died for the man, and almost did, having put myself in between him and a 8-foot white tipped shark, who was charging at him for the kill as he unknowingly took scrapings below. We shared secrets and adventures— and women, on more than a few occasions. These were headed days, lost in the pursuit of scientific progress, drunk on the delights of Polynesia.
Sad to say, we had a falling out. He stole my research, jealous both of a grant I had received and the love of Lei Fong, a Chinese-Australian research assistant who had joined us on our lonely sojourn among the reefs. After I confronted him about his dastardly act, and having defeated him in a spirited cutlass battle, he slinked away, only to return at night and insert plagiarized copy into my research article that was to be sent to the journal Nature the following day. My scientific career was ruined. Chastened and humiliated, I fled to a Buddhist temple high in the mountains of Bhutan, where after many months of meditation and reflection, I found it within me to forgive Arminius. And yet despite my forgiveness, he continues to hate me with a passion, thanks to his unconquerable love for Lei Fong.
And what of Lei Fong? Well, that’s a tale for another day….
— Freddie · Jan 15, 05:43 PM · #
Freddie,
After all these years you still insist that the research was your own. Typical. And at least I burn with unconquerable love — as you demonstrated with SE, you tend to reject women when they begin making demands on your swollen ego.
I look forward to our second cutlass battle is all I can say.
— Arminius · Jan 15, 06:03 PM · #
“And yes, I’m mean. Who gives a fuck? I’m self-employed.”
Really, I come here for the visitors more than the hosts. That was so full of awesome, Sargent.
Freddie — I was suspicious at “Manhattan Institute” and totally on-board by “ascot.” Win.
— Erik Vanderhoff · Jan 15, 09:47 PM · #
Freddie, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson: “Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.”
Nice work times two
— Timb · Jan 18, 08:52 PM · #
I watched Brian Lamb interview SE Cupp on C-span. She did seem like she was playing a role—but critiquing her here is like shooting fish in a barrel.
— Julana · Jan 18, 11:07 PM · #
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— blythe · Jan 19, 05:58 AM · #