tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20487150354677665572024-03-06T03:59:00.149-05:00Fire Megan McArdleThey did.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.comBlogger1775125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-21500259047954522572016-07-02T13:57:00.002-04:002016-07-02T13:57:19.853-04:00Quick UpdateThe promised McMegan on Trump posts haven't fallen into the same hole as the Atlas Shrugged series, life and Binkley have just been keeping me busy and distracted. Binkley's infection reappeared, which made for a very scary weekend a couple weeks back, but he's back on the mend, thank Jebus, the FSM, and fuck. Still needs a bit of nursing, but after 17 years and change he's earned a little extra attention now and then. And the underlying signs of recovery are even better this time.
So, soon, I'll be free to suffer through them words of hers. It's been years, and I suspect it may be years again once I'm done.
I'd add another cat porn shot, but it'd be practically indistinguishable from the post just below. But the change in his eyes and expression and mood is clear, and makes all the difference.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-68222865716580703592016-05-27T14:05:00.001-04:002016-05-27T14:05:49.340-04:00Naptime<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYq78EokwwdtgRwEGItnYiwciZH0JP7qa1u_LWQpiZ4O3tFCirMaxVdKDFQlp0HMXha2Njj3nqSA0IOj7cqYl2WPnMYamubKnbyCYdE_Y1E9_i2iAguHEw4NA1RINq_-g91R_N_I7Sjw/s1600/IMG_39941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYq78EokwwdtgRwEGItnYiwciZH0JP7qa1u_LWQpiZ4O3tFCirMaxVdKDFQlp0HMXha2Njj3nqSA0IOj7cqYl2WPnMYamubKnbyCYdE_Y1E9_i2iAguHEw4NA1RINq_-g91R_N_I7Sjw/s640/IMG_39941.jpg" /></a></div>
More to come.
And thanks.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-20837724360373014482015-10-30T14:58:00.002-04:002015-10-30T14:58:40.876-04:00Because I Hate Women<a href="http://firelukerussert.blogspot.com">Fire Luke Russert</a>.
I'm far too lazy to actually do anything there, but it needs to exist.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-36644664393521274642015-07-13T13:03:00.003-04:002015-07-13T13:04:54.253-04:00Life Can Be Good<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiesq68fTeQyuflK2FDS_FVldHfBpPirlDoSxYTQkOyfDPI1XmXj7_qenm9yvD5P9br9Lb_gkIoV6Nqxt-dPXTDjaPP6Qn8MD8uAhip2bMoMYVAw4qBLFtUDVP62i2_hVawZ8BcmfLa7ps/s1600/10996073_1004028256294594_1412511863154266381_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiesq68fTeQyuflK2FDS_FVldHfBpPirlDoSxYTQkOyfDPI1XmXj7_qenm9yvD5P9br9Lb_gkIoV6Nqxt-dPXTDjaPP6Qn8MD8uAhip2bMoMYVAw4qBLFtUDVP62i2_hVawZ8BcmfLa7ps/s640/10996073_1004028256294594_1412511863154266381_n.jpg" /></a></div>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-58065866934924154672014-05-09T17:37:00.000-04:002014-05-09T17:38:44.407-04:00Worth A LaughAs anyone who'd for any reason come by to see this knows, or knew back with it was happening considering the likely time lag, Freddie's [BONERS]* has been successfully trolling Lawyers, Guns, and Money and Balloon Juice for attention recently by <strike>questioning liberal piety regarding free speech</strike> farting around about how people don't defer to (his) privilege sufficiently. You see, he should be the liberal daddy, and we're all false lefties because we don't fall in line behind his genius. The entire left, which is apparently mainly the commentariat of LGM and BJ, has failed, by failing to recognize the authoritah of Freddie's [BONERS].<br />
Anyway, obviously no one gives a shit about Freddie's [BONERS] except to laugh at him, but <a href="http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/05/07/this-needs-to-be-said/#comment-4976839">this</a> made me giggle enough to bother to post here.<br />
<blockquote>
And this getting what you want, John – whipping up your notoriously nasty group of commenters who can day [sic], under the blanket of pseudonymity, all the truly ugly stuff that you want then to say. That’s your MO, it’s how you operate around here. It’s how you get the barely disguised misogyny that people direct towards Megan McArdle, the barely disguised homophobia towards Glenn Greenwald, the ritualistic flogging of anyone who isn’t a good loyal Democrat. You get your pet min here to say the really gross, personal shit that you would like to, knowing that they are protected by internet anonymity. That’s a bullshit, cowardly, pathetic way to behave, John. I never figured you for a bully. </blockquote>
I'd link to Cole pointing out that Freddie's [BONERS] still have posting privileges at BJ, but I already did. Cole pointed out as much <i>in the post [BONERS] commented on</i>, all you have to do is scroll up to the top.<br />
Even McMegan moved on from claiming her detractors all hate girls. I have to think that if FMM actually did accomplish anything, it was to cause her to question that crutch. She does face misogyny online, all women do, but bad ideas, shitty writing, and putting corporations way, way above people are unrelated to chromosomes. (/mansplaining) To focus on the trolls and assholes is to try to dismiss the criticisms without in any way engaging them. It's almost as if [BONERS] makes a habit of it. I'm surprised [BONERS] didn't include something about the modern left being anti-Semitic because Likud=Israel, it'd be about as blatant a tell as bringing up McMegan facing misogyny. However, it does immunize him, in his own mind at least, from the criticisms of people like Sady Doyle and for focusing on dudebro issues like DRONES over women's reproductive freedom. White knights can't into misogyny, derp.<br />
<br />
Also, if I ever remember to go by the library and get things in motion, I'm gonna make a half-assed and probably failed attempt at reading our muse's book in free ebook form and doing something in response here. I need to get the juices flowing, as it were.<br />
<br />
*- <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/04/09/why-tiger-beatdown-has-jokes-on-it-turns-out-some-motherfucker-had-to-ask-me/">Explained</a> & <a href="http://tigerbeatdown.com/2010/04/11/boners-for-fun-and-profit-the-extent-to-which-you-dont-care-about-boners-revealed/">Part 2</a>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-17036691694687130732014-01-17T02:41:00.000-05:002014-01-17T03:29:06.288-05:00For The Record<a href="http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/16/utter-and-complete-mcardle-pwnage/" target="_blank">Via sources</a>, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/death-of-the-death-of-obamacare.html" target="_blank">Jonathan Chait</a> handed Ms. McArdle her lunch (whatever that means). Let's see.<iframe frameborder="0" height="507" scrolling="no" src="http://videos.nymag.com/video/Jonathan-Chait-Makes-Great-Deba/player?layout=&title_height=24" width="720"></iframe><center>All of it:</center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="http://fora.tv/embed?id=19620&type=c" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="720"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://fora.tv/v/c19620" target="_blank">Obamacare Is Now Beyond Rescue</a> from <a href="http://fora.tv/partner/Intelligence_Squared_U_S_Debates" target="_blank">Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates</a> on <a href="http://fora.tv/" target="_blank">FORA.tv</a>M. Bouffanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04519088858760760560noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-50893832658615537442013-09-17T19:33:00.001-04:002013-09-17T19:33:24.495-04:00Fucking Fuck on a Fuckstick of Fucked Fucks<a href="http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670026142,00.html?The_Up_Side_of_Down_Megan_McArdle">Godfuckingdamnit</a>.<br />
<br />
I'm seeing about an advance copy, because fuck me with a bunch of fucks.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-1483367680578066172012-10-15T17:20:00.000-04:002013-03-06T03:53:10.253-05:00Random Memorythe day Reagan died, I saw the Violent Femmes play.<br />
To my eternal delight, they played this;<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pkmckYTJgEQ?rel=0" width="480">hbvj</iframe>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-40096822217761080062012-10-09T19:56:00.002-04:002012-10-09T20:01:58.222-04:00HypocrisyMcMegan wrote a piece about <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/09/searching-for-fraud.html">journalistic fraud</a>.
<br />
<blockquote>
It's essentially impossible to prevent journalistic fraud--if I tell you that I saw someone doing something, there's rarely a videotape of the event. If I'm doing an interview on the cell phone, there isn't a recording, either. And so our readers have to trust us. </blockquote>
We don't. <br />
<br />
I'll leave it to Susan to find examples of the countless times McMegan relied on unnamed sources and vague "my liberal friends say..." attributions. There was a "local" (meaning black) woman on a bus who happened to love McMegan's gentrifying presence and echoed all her views of the neighborhood in an extremely Friedmanesque column which I'm too lazy to find, as well. She only really names sources if she's actually interviewing them, or maybe if it's a name she can drop.
I think this column was basically her trolling for links from her critics and a backlash traffic spike, and she knows how full of shit she is to even glance in the direction of this topic. Or maybe I'm giving her too much credit. But I'm not worried that she'll see a big spike in traffic from us.<br />
Her work is so truly awful she really shouldn't be paid for it by anyone, anywhere, and thus this blog still has some purpose. Joy.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-2684269932849065202012-09-20T01:59:00.000-04:002012-09-20T02:20:28.192-04:00Axes GroundSo. If you still give a hoot about Megan McArdle, who seems to be <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/voxbox/asymmetrical-information.html" target="_blank">increasing her output</a> at what is an excellent fit for her, the <a href="http://prospect.org/article/newsweek-asking-inane-questions-future-journalism" target="_blank">Daily Beast-Newsweek publishing powerhouse</a>, here is <i>The eXiled</i> w/ a <a href="http://exiledonline.com/the-daily-beasts-megan-mcardle-a-covert-republican-party-activist-trained-by-the-billionaire-koch-brothers/" target="_blank">recap of her resume</a> & her other offenses against decency.
<blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify;">McArdle should be very familiar to <i>eXiled</i> readers. Many of you probably first learned of McArdle’s existence more than three years ago, when she led a smear campaign from her perch at the Atlantic to discredit the first media investigative piece exposing the Tea Party as an Astroturf campaign funded by the Kochs and FreedomWorks, written by <em>eXiled</em> editors Mark Ames and Yasha Levine and published in Playboy in February, 2009. That’s when we first got to know the McArdle name too, and we were wondering then why someone who called herself a “journalist” would work so hard to discredit other journalists’ investigative work while defending powerful rightwing oligarchs, rather than the other way around. The S.H.A.M.E. profile on Megan McArdle clears up the air on McArdle’s long, deep undisclosed ties to the Koch brothers’ libertarian influence-peddling machine, and to the GOP activist community. Read the profile on the <a href="http://shameproject.com/profile/megan-mcardle/" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">S.H.A.M.E. site</a> or check it out below — we’re sure Ms. McArdle will appreciate it if you do.</span></blockquote>M. Bouffanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04519088858760760560noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-18704016700487112592012-09-13T15:06:00.002-04:002012-09-13T16:17:50.284-04:00Le bain on pour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Edit: And another thing:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQLjafwwDLb3kHo-YgE_7lBWOjc4xA8VeFajX8EM23y2SdpbntzX4KXqx287T7AJufe95FQhvJe9XU0Q2V29Khj2E1e_ow1eYV06hBDUxGO5Q_AGfmNmQvWTmZGSns0-dZof-LJxRV_s/s1600/romnesia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQLjafwwDLb3kHo-YgE_7lBWOjc4xA8VeFajX8EM23y2SdpbntzX4KXqx287T7AJufe95FQhvJe9XU0Q2V29Khj2E1e_ow1eYV06hBDUxGO5Q_AGfmNmQvWTmZGSns0-dZof-LJxRV_s/s640/romnesia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Clem</div>
Adam Eli Clemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08779416210584562444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-51662988673497724032012-09-13T03:51:00.001-04:002012-09-13T03:52:09.217-04:00She's Back!And <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/12/who-is-sam-bacile.html" target="_blank">true to form</a>.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7TfAqirOuGE/UFGNn5kxEBI/AAAAAAAASEw/c9baAV4rKTA/s1600/Back.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7TfAqirOuGE/UFGNn5kxEBI/AAAAAAAASEw/c9baAV4rKTA/s1600/Back.png" width="400" /></a></div>Lebanon, Libya, Liberia, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg. Embassy, consulate. What. Ever.<br />
<br />
Perhaps her atlas (or Google Maps) has gastritis.M. Bouffanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04519088858760760560noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-79387908340823400302012-07-30T20:41:00.000-04:002012-08-01T06:28:38.868-04:00Napalm in the Morning....it's far too late to gloat, if indeed she was fired, as seems the case. <i>The Atlantic</i> is long dead, and while Fallows and TNC remain, what happens to its corpse is really only worth noting with morbid curiosity.<br />
But Megan McArdle no longer works for <i>The Atlantic</i>, and her star seems to have been slowed some in its rising. <br />
This is a good thing.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-5148849224967392642012-04-20T11:14:00.006-04:002012-04-21T07:17:27.864-04:00And Also<a href="http://thebaffler.com/notebook/2012/04/omniscient_gentlemen_of_the_atlantic">this</a> wide ranging piece in <i>The Baffler</i> on what's become of <i>The Atlantic</i> and David Bradley's background is highly worth a read if you haven't already been pointed to it.<blockquote>Military intelligence professionals, the mind-cure faith, and a changeling, domineering father—it was the sort of upbringing that suffused [David] Bradley’s young life with a sort of spooky dullness. After watching Richard Nixon’s resignation catch so many family friends financially unawares—and experiencing no small amount of personal disillusionment as a gung-ho intern in the Nixon White House—he decided to work on his war chest before going into politics, his first love. (Bradley’s latter-day interest in politics, by the way, should not be taken to mean he harbors any definite political convictions; on the contrary, one of the professed sources of his admiration for writerly “talent” is his own inability to form an opinion on most political issues: “I define the middle,” he has said.)
Upon completing Swarthmore, Harvard Business School, and a Fulbright scholarship in the Philippines (devoted to researching the mindset of the colonial Marxist guerillas), David returned to Washington to enroll in law school and to help Gene found a think tank called the International Management and Development Institute. When it came time for David to found his own business in 1979, he visualized a firm with all the affectations of a Washington think tank—down to the drab name, Research Council of Washington— but structured to turn a profit. He later renamed it the Advisory Board Company, which spun off the Corporate Executive Board, and those two generated a multitude of generic-sounding subsidiary Councils, Boards, and Forums. One of Research Council’s first hires assumed from the classified ad that Bradley was operating a “front for a right-wing organization.” It’s still hard to say, at this late date, whether the joke was on that fledgling knowledge worker.</blockquote>His father, btw, was, among other things, a CIA agent who worked in anti-Marxist counter-propaganda techniques. There's also an inside account of one of <i>The Atlantic's</i> Ideas Forums. Read it.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-53053213579847163802012-04-19T01:15:00.001-04:002013-10-01T13:48:06.725-04:00In the meantimethere's this; <br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0UkJl8FmiMk" width="853"></iframe>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-50852095026360326912012-03-23T20:10:00.002-04:002012-03-23T20:55:35.227-04:00Cleaning Upsince it seems there's a few of you still watching this corpse, now and then, and I'm getting tempted to do the occasional post, I'm going to clean this place up a bit over the next few weeks. Mostly via basic organizing with tags, so feel free to suggest some to be added. The obvious tags are by author and to mark our unrelated posts, something to do with McMegan's lack of math skills (I was thinking "girls aren't bad at math, but McMegan is"), gift guides, bad opinions, fake journalism, memorable McMeganisms, nutpicking. Just enough to make the archives here more navigable. <br /><br />And plz forgive the following navel-gazing; I'm going to refer to her as McMegan from now on instead of Megan. As anyone reading this would probably know, that's the handle she's chosen to comment with in the threads at her place. I called her Megan because I read so goddamn many words by her and because to call her McArdle would have been too formal and borderline academic for the dismissive way we viewed her work here. But calling her by her first name when I've never met her or, aside from one very brief spurt of emails, interacted directly with her could be read as overly familiar and dismissive in gendered ways which I have no interest in including with the ways in which I'm dismissive of her work. So, McMegan. Way more than 'nuff said.<br /><br />And now, a little bit of Radiohead from last month for the fuck of it;<br /><br /><iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VfY_nTReYq4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-65082521973744548772011-08-02T04:05:00.002-04:002011-08-02T04:12:14.160-04:00Megan Explainedwe're still dead here, but this had to be shared. Presenting <a href="http://www.red5.co.uk/new-gadgets/wrongulator.aspx">The Wrongulator</a>;<blockquote>No one really likes to be told how much the bill is, how far under target, or by how much you have overspent! So if your job has a lot to do with maths, then we hate to be the ones that break it to you, but you’re probably not the favourite person in the office. Unfortunately for you it gets much worse! Now you need to ask yourself who gave you your calculator and does it look like the one in the picture above!?<br /><br />The Wrongulator is no ordinary calculator, its actually the world’s worst calculator as it never gives the right answer, ever! If your calculator has been exchanged for this one then every single calculation you’ve entered in it has been wrong. It is perhaps the cruelest practical joke you could inflict on your office colleague and the chances are, without being told, they’ll probably never guess….well not before it’s too late anyway! Mwhahahaha!</blockquote>Note that it's a British company whut makes it, which probably helps to explain how some cruel soul managed to slip it by Megan's ever-so-discerning eye. Now she has an excuse, and a potential endorsement opportunity.<br /><br /><i>(via <a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/07/28/wrongulator-a-gag-calculator-that-gives-the-wrong-outcome.html">Boing Boing</a>)</i>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-2778710987252200392011-03-26T01:06:00.000-04:002011-03-26T01:06:51.299-04:00Last Gasp, MaybeThis thing still on? We thought we should share, just in case.<br />
<br />
As lifted from <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/the-exiled-finally-given-props-for-uncovering-koch-brothertea-party-connection_b25295?c=rss">mediabistro.com's FISHBOWLLA</a>.<object width="640" height="374" id="msnbc7518cb" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=42256716&width=640&height=374" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc7518cb" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="640" height="374" FlashVars="launch=42256716&width=640&height=374" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;">Ames also wrote <a href="http://exiledonline.com/the-koch-whore-archipelago-how-the-billionaire-kochs-screwed-my-scoop-while-screwing-america/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">this blistering piece</a> calling out <em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Atlantic</em>‘s <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/Megan-McArdle-profile.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Megan McArdle</a></strong>, among other journalists, who trashed Ames and Levine’s reporting while failing to disclose the full extent of their personal and financial connections to the Koch brothers. Worth the read.</span></blockquote>Heh indeed.M. Bouffanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04519088858760760560noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-42619872007542004462011-01-18T00:19:00.002-05:002011-01-18T01:16:09.258-05:00Retirementwith nutella deciding to move on and M. having been called up to triple A by Thers, this place is gonna be quiet. Megan sucks, and smarter, more capable people like Susan, TBogg, and half of Balloon Juice are on it. If I played any role in her getting recognized as a hack by the liberal blogosphere, awesome, but it was known before I started, and it's time to move on. I'm not going to delete anything here, but there probably won't be too many new posts to come, if any. <br />I'd been thinking of starting a more serious blog, but then I'd have to be more serious, and I don't want to be. However I have made a new place to rant and be random, not that I've made much use of it yet. It's <a href="http://somethoughtsasweburn.blogspot.com/">here</a>, maybe it'll turn into something, maybe not. In any case, thanks for reading. That anyone did was a surprise in the beginning, and our commenters were the best part of all this along the way. Come on by the new place if you for some reason like where I'm coming from, I'd be glad for the encouragement.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-83976676632514212782011-01-15T00:48:00.001-05:002011-01-15T00:49:38.760-05:00Random Twitter Factif you take out the vowels in Reince Priebus, you get RNC PR BS. Uncanny, innit.<br /><br />N yeah, I noticed too. Oh well.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-40170309418283635762011-01-12T21:19:00.001-05:002011-01-12T21:22:38.006-05:00Let's Get Back To Being Human<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2105672/">this</a> is always a good start at that.<blockquote>Since the world began, we have gone about our work quietly, resisting the urge to generalize, valuing the individual over the group, the actual over the conceptual, the inherent sweetness of the present moment over the theoretically peaceful future to be obtained via murder. Many of us have trouble sleeping and lie awake at night, worrying about something catastrophic befalling someone we love. We rise in the morning with no plans to convert anyone via beating, humiliation, or invasion. To tell the truth, we are tired. We work. We would just like some peace and quiet. When wrong, we think about it awhile, then apologize. We stand under awnings during urban thunderstorms, moved to thoughtfulness by the troubled, umbrella-tinged faces rushing by. In moments of crisis, we pat one another awkwardly on the back, mumbling shy truisms. Rushing to an appointment, remembering a friend who has passed away, our eyes well with tears and we think: Well, my God, he could be a pain, but still I'm lucky to have known him.<br /><br />This is PRKA. To those who would oppose us, I would simply say: We are many. We are worldwide. We, in fact, outnumber you. Though you are louder, though you create a momentary ripple on the water of life, we will endure, and prevail.<br /><br />Join us. </blockquote>bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-72520501448557773352011-01-12T00:50:00.004-05:002011-01-12T16:32:19.027-05:00Just For The Recordsince Nutella seems pissed I thought I'd dot some i's and cross some t's.<br />Insofar as extreme right wing politics and the accompanying rhetoric were, at most, a secondary factor in Loughner's motives, well behind being fucking crazy, sure, I overreacted a little. The idea that I had partisan gain in mind behind pointing to Palin's use of violent rhetoric against the future victim of violence is itself an overreaction, but to whatever degree I was blaming Palin in an attempt to make sense of a difficult event to process I was wrong. This probably wasn't eliminationist violence, at least not in any coherent sense. <br />That doesn't mean the ability of Palin, along with Beck and Limbaugh and many other lesser lights, to shape the tone and topics of national discourse isn't toxic and worth combating or that gun violence such as we saw can't be made less likely with some attempt to rationally approach how to decide who to entrust with the ability to murder others simply by squeezing a finger. And it doesn't mean the sheer coincidence of the nature of the poster naming Giffords and the events that occurred shouldn't give Sarah Palin reason to pause and consider the consequences of how she's playing the game. But maybe it does mean I don't have to jump in on it right away.<br /><br />*Update*<br /><br />Oh, wait. Blood libel, and her critics "purport" to condemn this violence. Geh. I take it back. She wants people who disagree with her to die. Regardless of whether Loughner was directly influenced by her, this blood is on her hands.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-35573577640637827182011-01-11T12:30:00.000-05:002011-01-11T12:31:46.164-05:00Yup<a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction">For the most part.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-34269871296258842652011-01-10T23:01:00.002-05:002011-01-10T23:04:50.116-05:00How Zombie Lies Are Born<a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/201101100010">Loughner was an Obama supporter</a>, or not.<br />My boy Hawkins repeated this lie this afternoon on Twitter, after Hoft had pulled the post and admitted his error. Didn't respond to my tweet to him about it either, the pansy.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2048715035467766557.post-53440480282182812302011-01-10T17:29:00.002-05:002011-01-10T17:56:23.441-05:00Concern Troll Is Confused<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/tragedy-in-arizona/69264/">Tragedy in Arizona</a>:<blockquote>I'm not sure why it is so necessary that we identify a culprit in all of this. What good does it do us to know that he is, say, a paranoid schizophrenic? It may matter in his sentencing, of course. But it's far from clear that this knowledge would let us do what we want, which is to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. We are not going to prophylactically [!] lock people up, and there is no "seems a little, well, off" list to which we can add people we don't want to have guns. Even extended magazine bans wouldn't have done much good, as he was carrying lots of spares. As I understand it, he was essentially stopped because one of his spare magazines malfunctioned, something which may be more likely to happen on larger capacity magazines. Anyone who practices a little can swap magazines faster than others can notice and decide to tackle them. </blockquote>Nothing to see here, nothing to be done, no way to have prevented it. Move along folks. Officer McArdle needs you to clear the area.<br />In a way, it's like it didn't actually happen, he was too crazy to have been stopped, but not crazy enough to violate his sacred second amendment right to possess the capacity to murder 6 people and seriously injure another 12. In no way does this suggest Arizona's gun laws are too lax, it's not even worth considering. Why are we even talking about it? <blockquote>Blame is a way of simulating control: if we can just identify who was at fault, we can stop it. The problem is, when we can't identify any very plausible target, we too readily go after implausible ones: Freemasons poisoning the wells, or Federal Reserve bankers plotting to monetize the national debt. At worst, this tendency is dangerous, corrosive; at best, it leads us to make unproductive policy choices.</blockquote>Yes, we might end up falling for crazy conspiracy theories like allowing the mentally ill to possess the means to murder others is a bad thing that should be addressed, or that using violent rhetoric against political adversaries can create a climate in which crazy people act out violently against their political adversaries. <br /><blockquote>A terrible thing happened. We live in a universe in which terrible things happen. That's no one's fault--or maybe, everyone's fault. Either way, I don't see much in the way of solutions coming out of this--only terrible, terrible sadness.</blockquote>There's no human agency involved here, no context, nothing to be learned, no reason to examine. Might as well have been a meteor that fell into the crowd, for all we can learn or do about it, and I don't see any of you lefties blaming NASA, despite the fact that her husband and brother in law are <i>both</i> astronauts.<blockquote> Many of the people who rushed to blame this on their political opponents made themselves look like first class jerks, an impression that was not improved when we got more information, and they doubled down rather than simply admit that they had perhaps jumped to conclusions. </blockquote>Noting the context and asking whether it is proper for national figures to use violent rhetoric and imagery is the real mistake here, especially because it lowers Megan's opinion of you. Palin didn't pull the trigger, and Loughner probably wasn't directly influenced by her. That makes everything ok, the end, lalalalalalaMegancan'theaaaaaaryooooouuuuuu, you jerk.bradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907349163323395529noreply@blogger.com1