Hate is Such a Strong Word

From the Glenn Beck piece comments:Megan takes offense when the rubes thinks she hates Limbaugh and Beck now. That's odd, coming from a person who claims not to be able to like Limbaugh less. (That is, she did, until she realized that rhetorical flourishes weren't literally true. A shock to us all, that discovery.)

What's the matter, Megs? Tired of hate mail from your hateful fans when you hate on the haters? Must get icky when the despicable people start to despise you, too, eh dear? Well, if you can't beat 'em... at least don't say anything bad about them so their idiots followers don't give you flak.

PS I went into the thread to see if someone explained what the fuck she meant by the title of that piece, "When Glenn Beck Says Frog, You . . . Die?" Any ideas, or is she free-associating again?

Biting the Hand that Pats You

Short Megan McArdle:

Holy shit, my commentors are such knee jerk conservative sycophants that even I can't take it anymore. Fucking morons with the temerity to disagree with me.

I'm not sure which is more hilarious; that Megan took this long to realize that The Big Fat Idiot is openly racist, or that her following thinks that Limbaugh would actually go after a conservative trope, let alone be sophisticated enough to do so with satire.

Update: New words, all hers:

And yes, I think that the people who are claiming that Rush is inciting a race war or a revolution are also humorless twits.

Huh-Ha! The imaginary liberal response is just as bad as the actual Limbaugh thing that happened! It's a tie!

Update II: I don't know how I missed the genius that is Megan saying "I could not possibly like Rush Limbaugh less" one second and then claiming that accusing him of "inciting a race war" is beyond the pale the next, but there you have it. Once again she is stupid on so many levels that no mere mortal can keep track of them all.

The Fool or the Fool Who Follows Her?

Megan pulls off a joke (I'll generously call it intentional) that actually makes me smile by titling her most recent post "Department of Education." A rare feat indeed, though not as rare as the commentors. (If only)

The post itself is short and stupid, but the real fun is in seeing Megan's fans go wild. When "aMouseforallseasons" is the voice of sanity in your comment thread, you know you're preaching to the choir. The Arkham Choir.

Update:
This is awesome. Alsadius informs us of the various faults of some of our most recent presidents:

Yes, Obama has been a pretty awful President so far. But let's compare him to some of the others elected in the last 50 years:

- Kennedy: Drug-addled fool
- Johnson: Unmitigated asshole
- Nixon: Flagrant criminal
- Carter: Bigger socialist than Obama, with none of the backbone
- GW Bush: Abysmal public speaker

Funnily enough, cross out the "drug" and Reagan had the same faults as Kennedy!

Deptartment of Deptarments

Of the many departments to which we've traveled under the astute guidance of our fearless leader, I must say this Department of Invidious Comparisons is a real looker {wolf whistle}.

Felix Salmon notes who California feels is important enough to pay in cash. Legislators yes, blind and disabled people, no. Natch.

So, it would seem, Megan is calling herself and Felix "invidious." Natch.

in⋅vid⋅i⋅ous

–adjective
1. calculated to create ill will or resentment or give offense; hateful: invidious remarks.
2. offensively or unfairly discriminating; injurious: invidious comparisons.
3. causing or tending to cause animosity, resentment, or envy: an invidious honor.

Psst, Megs, just cause a word is big, doesn't mean it's good. Though, "hateful" is not only a great word to describe Miggles, it's also a fucking rocking Clash song.


I love how easy it is to sing along to this particular video.

Now that I think about it, that song is just a good a take down of libertarianism as it is of hard illicit drugs.

Favorite words from the comments:

RobM1981:

How can the socialists at the various communes... errr... I mean "universities," allow for this? I thought that this was all about "to everyone according to their needs," no? Clearly the blind and the developmentally delayed aren't able bodied, and need social assistance more than able-bodied Ph.D.'s

Unlike the disabled, the professors, with their 90 caliber degrees and 2 inch thick CV's, should be able to find work in days. There are crops to pick, roads to clean, burgers to flip, etc.

Why aren't they walking the walk? What are they, Commissars?

'Cause you know how us UC types sit in on legislative meetings, picking and choosing who gets what. That's why we all "drive,", porches and eat, kaviare off the-asses of orphans et al.

Shit, the guild is gonna kill me for letting that slip.

Update:
Another commenter (or commentor? which is it god damn it?!) points out even more fun!

Byrk:

So it's not like the Governor just up and decided on his own that employees won't/can't be paid in IOUs.

According to the State Controller, the following people must be paid in cash by the state constitution, court mandate or federal law. Everyone else is getting an IOU.

http://www.sco.ca.gov/5917.html

How invidiousulous of him to follow the law!

We Have a Winner!

The best comment ever has been made:

Warren Buffet sacrifices a lot less when he gives up 10% of his income than does his secretary when she gives up 10% of hers

But we as a society lose out on a lot more by taking Warren Buffet's income than his secretary. He has shown that he can use that wealth to create vast amounts of wealth. His ROI is much better than what the federal government is going to get on it.
His secretary has never created jobs and wealth for others, like Warren has. Wouldn't we be better off as a society if Warren was able to keep his wealth to generate a bigger pie for us all, rather than trying to just take a slice of his and divvy it up among us?

Posted by the Gooch | August 22, 2008 2:44 PM

Yes, the rich are just better people and we should give them all of our money so that they can make us all as rich as they are!

I'm going to pass out.

Dep't. of Paranoia

McA claims there is trouble w/ the spam filter, but I've been prevented from posting a comment twice today.

Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please
try again in a short while.

Bullshit!!

Humor Section

rickm brought to our attention, in the item below, that Ms. McArdle is just a bit humor-deficient.

Now I'll note that she is very humor-deficient. Whining about the budget deficit (What does any of this crap mean? Many of the commenters take it as a reason to cut "entitlements," which they of course follow w/: "But I couldn't get elected if I ran on that platform, har har." Oh, what a pain it is living in a democracy, when people are just crying out to be forced to live correctly.) she comes up w/ this attempt at humor:

Either way, we're in for a bumpy ride. Can America get a second job?

In case you haven't noticed, Ms. Megan, much of America is unable to find even a first job. But that's good, as it keeps wages down & the proles scared. (See, I'm learning something about econ from constant reading of Our Muse's web log.)

Elements of Style©:

Nonetheless, this sends a rather clear message: danger, Will Robinson!

Not really funny, because the robot has the voice of a buffoon, & was almost never believed when he used the phrase. And, when following a colon w/ a phrase or sentence, one capitalizes the first word. Especially when the sentence/phrase is a quotation. (We're not sure if it should be in quotation marks in this case, so we'll let that slide.)

P. S.: Megan, getting a second job does not mean flying to a conference somewhere, blathering for 30 mins., taking a few questions, & then retiring to the bar for appletinis before passing out in your free hotel room.

Elsewhere on the Atlantic...

We here at FMM didn't let mocking Jonah Goldberg distract us from our labor of love of mocking Megan McArdle. However, I happened to overhear other "voices" at the Atlantic, and came across this post by Sully. It contains a subtle, yet powerful smackdown.

I made a good faith effort to read Jonah [Goldberg's] book [, Liberal Fascism]. Couldn't make it through.

Jonah, not only was your book historically inaccurate and poorly argued, but your friend just announced that it was basically unreadable. Ha ha ha ha ha.

I look forward to the time when a foolhardy publisher grant's a contract to destroy good prose with McArdle's "Liberatarian Morality", and the voices devolved into cacaphony when Andrew Sullivan calls it "retarded."

"you'll just sit around...with the other trust-fund babies, and talk about how you went slumming, too"

Good Will Hunting! Check out these comments I found on Megan's post that excerpted Timothy Burke's sensible views on Zimbabwe.

Poor Nelson.

Specifically the thing that struck me most about Mugabe was his disregard for property rights and his love of power for its own sake. From this all other bad things followed

Methinks that when this ol' chap was a youn' buck, he attributed the monsters under his bed to the sharing of toys.

Meanwhile, Michael blames the rise of Mugabe on... "hidden cultural norms." Which I can only interpret as gangsta rap, watermelons, and hand lotion.

Sace some thanks for Moqui this fall. He's candid enough to just come flat out and praise Rhodesia for...get this... its racial equality.

It's not a choice between racism and riots: Its a choice between racism on one hand, and racism plus riots on the other. You seem to be completely discounting the high levels of anti-white racism within the Mugabe regime

Joe Doakes pe pe in my coke wishes for "Jason Bourne and James Bond...to kill annoying people in far-away places." Is Doakes saving his third wish to have Jack Bauer torture a pan-handler in Myanmar Burma? Sam is more succinct: "Look. It's real simple. Kill the bastard, now." You first.

The award for most contradictory comment goes to DirtyJobsGuy for this gem:

The best statement on Africa I ever heard was from a West African intellectual who said the west should stop treating them like children. His point was to hold africans to high standards and not to excuse the Mugabes.

From my personal experience there is a strong sentiment in much of africa for a neo-colonialism however improbable that might seem.

Stop treating us like children, but come be our daddy!

As much as I love excerpts, I have to quote this comment by RAH in full. Apologies:

African regimes devolve to dictatorships the most current example is Zimbabwe.
Rhodesia was the economic breadbasket of Africa. The civil servant system was the best. They was a high literacy rate, civilization flourished. Yet Jimmy Cater and Great Britain forced white minority rule to be subsumed in the “ enlightened” black thug Marxist regime of Robert Mugabe. Now inflation is over a million and starvation is rampant because the government stole the farms and burned the homes of the farm workers. Break up the white run farms and let the land die. That is better than prosperity right?
When will Jimmy Carter apologize for that and hang his head in shame? Surely that is a crime, right?

Colonial rule was a well run state and vast mobility and education for the black Rhodesians. The bureaucracy was run by black Rhodesians. The entire civil service was well established and very little corruption. The path for educated and trained black Rhodesians was there. This changed when a marxist power hungry Mugabe came to power over Muzorewa after Mugabe slaughtered some of the peace ministers sent to Mugabe to came to a power sharing agreement.

By any parameter Rhodesia was better than Zimbabwe.

Mmmmm....Take a little nibble of that and roll it around your palate. I suggest this: "They was a high literacy rate, civilization flourished." Mmmm... goodness.

At this point, like all African states have to do, the conversation devolves. Al Fin: "Mugabe was welcomed with open arms by Zimbabwean, much like David Dinkins was welcomed by New Yorkers, and Barak Obama will be welcomed by most Americans." Oi! Then, parody, by paul a'barge:

We're talking about Africa, folks. The place is absolutely hopeless and not able to be redeemed.

Let's just stop all foreign aid and involvement and let these poor folks make themselves extinct, shall we?

I mean, really. What's the point?

Megan, these are your fans.