Coulter’s speech can be viewed in its entirety here.
One line that sticks with me: “If [the conservative grassroots] had a month, we could have educated primary voters” — and McCain would never have gotten the Republican nomination.
But alas.
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Recent Comments
- In The Mailbox: 02.28.23 (Afternoon Edition) : The Other McCain on Hey, longtime pw readers…
- In The Mailbox: 12.23.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll truly IS a sad, embittered psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- Danger on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
- In The Mailbox: 07.18.22 : The Other McCain on Patrick J. Carroll might be a psychopath
um, what was stopping them?
They had 5 days.
Ace could probably explain it better than me. He’s blogger of the year, you know.
Off topic, but were I Dan and Karl I would jump ship and go guest post for him.
McCain benefited from McCain/Feingold and the compressed primary season which limited the scrutiny and vetting of candidates. Not allowing outside groups to run ads near the primary and speeding up the process makes for less informed voters. I expect there to be much “buyers remorse” between now and November on both sides.
His opponents errors also helped as did the media who love him up to now.
har, instead you’re gonna make me watch Coulter. thnx.
Doesn’t Ace have enough morons already?
ducks and runs
Yeah, but if you were us we wouldn’t be posting here now.
So there’s that, Jeff.
I know where your heart really is, Dan. Go with a winner! We can just let this thing die a slow quiet dignified death.
I respectfully disagree. Forty to 50% of voters value personal qualities above the issues. Most studies have a ceiling of about 30% for people who vote ideologically. The education would have had to look like what the smarter Dems would do to Johnny Mac, and I am not sure that would have worked either. To get past Mac’s bio and image would have taken somebody. You cannot beat somebody with nobody. Somebody who was both better on the issues and a better campaigner than McCain. That combo was not present in this cycle.
See? That’s the kind of analysis I expect from Ace’s site. GO! BE FREE!
Gee whiz! I take a few minutes to compose something on topic, and some internal spat breaks out.
KUM-BAH-YAH, MY BROTHERS!!!
Jeff, take a page from Ace via Vergil and come up with a catchy nickname for posters and commentators alike.
fluffers
Dan and Karl can be your co-vice chairman of fluffery!
Anyway, I’m feeling dispirited again.
I took a bad path. This ain’t gonna happen for me.
You know, Jeff, you were back posting for a day, you got on NPR and had a pre-interview for Lehrer. It seems to me that people are eagerly awaiting for your return to full-time.
You take a different angle on this stuff, anyway, and one that I find more congenial to my own “linguistic turn.”
Wait, you mean if I emulate Ace I can attain success and fortune?
Pass. My heart just ain’t in this anymore. I don’t make a speck of difference (neither does Ace), but at least one of us is getting somewhere through sustained impotence.
I’m going to become a professional fighter.
Jeff, here’s a little present for you:
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge
30th president of US (1872 – 1933)
Be strong, we need you more than ever.
just, not with words anymore. ;P
Dispirited? Yeah, seems like it. But Dan just covered what happened upon your return, which is better than what a lot of people get on a bad day. Ace got an award at CPAC. You got your message out beyond the blog-chamber.
A professional fighter, Jeff? And how is that different from what you’ve been doing? Or should I say “Antony”?
Ant. Well said; come on.
Call forth my household servants; let’s tonight
Be bounteous at our meal.
Enter three or four Servitors. 16
Give me thy hand,
Thou hast been rightly honest; so hast thou;
Thou; and thou, and thou: you have serv’d me well,
And kings have been your fellows. 20
Cleo. What means this?
Eno. [Aside to CLEOPATRA.] ’Tis one of those odd tricks which sorrow shoots
Out of the mind.
Ant. And thou art honest too. 24
I wish I could be made so many men,
And all of you clapp’d up together in
An Antony, that I might do you service
So good as you have done. 28
Servants. The gods forbid!
Ant. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night,
Scant not my cups, and make as much of me
As when mine empire was your fellow too, 32
And suffer’d my command.
Cleo. [Aside to ENOBARBUS.] What does he mean?
Eno. [Aside to CLEOPATRA.] To make his followers weep.
Ant. Tend me to-night; 36
May be it is the period of your duty:
Haply, you shall not see me more; or if,
A mangled shadow: perchance to-morrow
You’ll serve another master. I look on you 40
As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends,
I turn you not away; but, like a master
Married to your good service, stay till death.
Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more, 44
And the gods yield you for’t!
Eno. What mean you, sir,
To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep;
And I, an ass, am onion-ey’d: for shame, 48
Transform us not to women.
Ant. Ho, ho, ho!
Now, the witch take me, if I meant it thus!
Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty friends, 52
You take me in too dolorous a sense,
For I spake to you for your comfort; did desire you
To burn this night with torches. Know, my hearts,
I hope well of to-morrow; and will lead you 56
Where rather I’ll expect victorious life
Than death and honour. Let’s to supper, come,
And drown consideration. [Exeunt.
Persistence is not a virtue. It’s just the capitalist spin on “obsession.”
The right side of the blogosphere is narrowing down to a few key sites, just as the left side has. Soon we’ll have 3 major networks for conservatives and three for liberals.
Me, I’ll be learning to spin clay pots and enjoying my retirement.
On the plus side, maybe Ace can finally become the white hot object of hatred from the left I’ve always managed to be.
I wasn’t even invited to CPAC. What does that tell you about my effectiveness?
You guys are doing just fine. Carry on. And please note that I haven’t had a drink in a week. Which I think is really having a terrible effect on my mood.
If NPR/PBS have an ounce of sense (I know — big “if”), they’ll keep you on their speed dial …
I hope you stick with it, mainly for selfish reasons, but there you have it. Your talent deserves a wider audience, and things can break at any time.
Sometimes good things actually do happen to good people.
I guess we’re doing fine, if nobody minds that threads top out at about 50 for us, and about 250 for you, Jeff.
I apologize for the fluffer joke. It’s tough to read moods through comment columns.
With all due respect to Michelle, Ace, Charles Johnson, Patterico and the like no one writes like you! Period!
You manage to transcend TEH OUTRAGE! and force a critical thinking mindset upon us poor plebians. Your writing has wakening my long dormant political and social concerns and the fact that partisan organizations won’t provide you with shiny trophies or faux wood framed certificates of appreciation changes none of that one whit. I have learned more in the 2.5 years of hanging around this madhouse than I had in the rest of my life. Your ability to frame complex issues in language that doesn’t assume moronity, fluffery or unseriousness in your readers is important and all too rare in this world of sound bites, bleedin’ leadin’ and outrage.
For all that Dan or Karl or Darleen or any of the rest do (and they do good work,) they aren’t you. You have a voice and it’s a voice that needs to be heard (and I don’t mean just on a baseball blog, as enetertaining as that would be.)
Wait. You’ve got to be kidding. All the people who blog for real read you except for Cap’n “Hick would make a fine president” Ed. Bless his heart. But you’re the real deal. Also, CPAC? Um, CPAC? You wants the CPAC stamp of approval? Ack. That can’t be what you mean. They’re wankers. Wankers, I say. I love fetuses as much as the next guy but not for like Christmas decorations and personalized postage stamp thingers. Ick. Also you are the vanguard. Not in the vanguard. You’re it, brother. I click and click and no one else gets it. Mama please please please don’t take my kodachrome away.
Jeff, you’ve just come up with a new tagline for PW:
Fixed that for you.
Also, what other blog exists where being an effective commenter requires:
1. An IQ higher than that of 85% of the general population,
2. A sense of the absurd sharper than 98% of the general population,
3. An education better than 110% of the general population?
When I joked with Jon about expecting PW to be “an easy A,” I was only half joking.
I was going to say about Mr. Ace’s threads but I figured let him have his moment.
I’m feeling needy today. It’s the kettlebells. They totally kicked my ass, and I don’t have Ric Caric around to soothe me by explaining that real men lift only their own self esteem.
And maybe green tea. Or an occasional varietal.
Perhaps you’d feel better by quaffing a liberal latte?
Gallo sells more in a month than the whole of Napa Valley in a year. Plus, I’ve heard that they make a superlative Three Buck Chuck.
Enough of that though. I have to reserve a phone booth for this years Rockingham Whig convention.
Jeff,
If that is your final decision, I understand it. I have been posting here primarily to repay you for the hours of intellectual stimulation and laughter I have gotten from you these past years. I thought it eminently worthwhile to volunteer time while you recover from your current malady, particulalrly in light of the fact that you had to cut back on blogging before due to some entirely unjust circumstances.
But if you are really retiring, I will not continue to post here. I have a regular job and a side web gig to maintain, not to mention the sort of personal business everyone else has.
I think your blogging accomplishes more than your current mood will admit, but I’m not going to go all Capra-esque on you about it.
I hope that your current despair lifts and that you will reconsider. If not, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors, whether that inlcudes blogging on baseball and MMA, or otherwise.
everything looks worse in black and white
I mean, jeez, Jeff, what you write makes me smarter.
I like the stuff you and Dan do, Karl. Can’t I just read that for a while?
Too much pressure. I need an energy drink.
While I was typing, Jeff just posted about just feeling needy, so I’ll add:
COME BACK SHANE!!!! CAME BACK!!!
Aw, come on, Jeff. We’re all pulling for ya, you know how much you mean to us!
So cheer up. Go write something about semiotics or intentionalism. Works wonders!
Jeff,
I would be fine with you just reading for a while. But if you’re retiring, that’s different.
Soon we have Internet regulation.
The nature of encroaching collectivism is that its rhetoric and method are so seeping, so cancerous, so recklessly preemptive, so unaccountable. As your writing nearly daily reflects, it need hew to no real reason, it is not accountable to any higher philosophy; it simply lacks containment and accountability. Like rust, it never sleeps. It is additive, inevitable, disrespectful of effort and logic, dishonest, parasitic.
The L v R dichotomy isn’t ever going to pay dividends when the up versus down — collectivism versus a philosophy of freedom — is what’s really going on and when the left is invested so heavily in intellectual and organizational authoritarianism. That virtually socialist method is additive, layering, active, dynamic, morphing. The politically minimal, such as the right should be in that classic liberal sense, must be minimalist, reductive, and reflect what had been a more static, primal, freer condition.
Given that, I don’t know how you work up the energy in the first place, Jeff. If excellence reflects effort, and if constantly tearing down the slothful, meandering, lying bullshit that passes for thought on the left takes great effort, intellectual output of your caliber and scope isn’t exactly a small task. It’s a huge undertaking, although Limbaugh-like, in bad times (and these are bad times for thought and freedom) it certainly doesn’t want for material.
Not sure where that goes, other than to acknowledge the sheer will it takes to buck where this country is headed. I wouldn’t expect excellence to mean much to the plebes on either side of our mostly constructed, pandering political divide. Either you do it because you’re as good at it as you are, which is damn good, or you may elect not to do it at all. Pearls before swine, indeed.
From a strictly selfish standpoint, it might be nice to be on the side not in power for a spell. I think I could do some real damage.
I wasn’t even invited to CPAC. What does that tell you about my effectiveness?
I think it says more about CPAC. You’re a terrific writer, possessed of a humor that they just don’t get.
I’m having to listen to Coulter. She’s not even getting a decent percentage of laughs from a crowd that loves her.
She went all Hussein on Obama, though. Guess she’s not ever above the more obvious, hackneyed, overdone jokes if that’s what the crowd wants to here.
One of my favorite books ever is Coin Locker Babies. I don’t know why but JHoward just made me think of that.
As your perspective on the past few weeks seems to be that you will be on the side not in power, I would focus on that, then.
and the do some real damage part
Ok, that’s it. I listened for nearly six minutes, which is probably a PR for me.
Miller time, now.
There yah go, Jeff!
PROTEIN WISDOM: THE INSURGENCY!!
here=hear.
Nerves, I’m afrayed.
Oh. I listened all the way through and the only mention of McCain’s globalwarmalism was just a throw-away line. She doesn’t get it.
Also, I highly recommend renting or Netfixing The Gathering Storm. Winston Churchill comes back from the wilderness.
Protein Wisdom, Episode IV: A New Hope
In friendship we find nothing false or insincere; everything is straightforward, and springs from the heart.
I think you have friends here, Jeff.
And you’re too young to retire.
Also, if I should be pressing the guilt button:
IF NOT FOR JEFF’S INJURY, McCAIN WOULD NOT BE THE GOP NOMINEE!!!!
Just in case.
Jeff, you just don’t strike me as the retiring type. All that mushroom-bruise-bestowing and carrying on conversations with McIntosh apples and such, that’s edgy. No wallflower or shrinking violet you.
And I think your state of mind reflects your discomfort with having been sidelined with an injury. It’s like Bill Clinton having to sit home for the last eight years without even an intern to keep him … company. No wonder he’s gone slightly bonkers.
Comment #41 from Jeff. Now, you’re talking. CPAC? CPAC? Come on we’re talking CPAC here, Jeff. As much as I like Ace’s stuff, he just isn’t you in any way, shape or form. You are the blogging Zeus.
(Ewok lookalike + CPAC award) vs. (Loving family + back horns)
I dunno, seems about even to me. Maybe you’d be happier if you started calling us morons or something.
Don’t quit us Jeff, Dan beats us when you’re not around.
I thought you guys were into that.
No, really!!!
Jeff, you’re a great writer. Don’t give up. You’re gonna write anyway, so might as well let others read it.
Ace is a decent guy I’m sure, but your writing skills far surpass his. You have singular flair and ‘a voice’ (a term by the way I hate!), whereas Ace’s strength is not so much literary skill, but simply telling it like it is in very stark terms. As far as writing success is concerned, it’s a lottery—no rhyme, no reason. You know the drill with that.
I think Ace has a great voice. And he’s a very good writer, too.
This isn’t about him specifically, but rather about his positioning. Fact is, he appeals more to conservatives than I do. I don’t know who I appeal to anymore. I just know that I get a rise out of lefty academics on the internet, who hate me with what amounts to the emotional equivalent of poison.
Oh, and Jim Henley, Mona, Greenwald, and other “real” conservative libertarians either on a secret leftwing talking points list, or else showing their conservative libertarian bona fides by marching with International ANSWER. They dig me, too.
Doesn’t Billy Jack dig you too? Because of your triceps and all?
Ace (not putting him down here) wears a skull and crossbones on his site.
You don’t need all of that.
I don’t know who I appeal to anymore.
That’s okay, man. People like us, we don’t like to packaged and categorized.
Well, yeah, he appeals to conservatives all the time. You appeal I think more to individuals. Some of them are conservatives. Which one is more harder I wonder. Gee that’s tough.
Jeff, here’s some tough love: You let other people define your success, you don’t appreciate what you have, and you give up too easily.
You’re surrounded by readers who love and admire you–enough to keep this thing in the air long after you seem to have abandoned it–and you still don’t get it. Someone earlier was right: most of the people who read this site are unusually knowledgeable, liberal, literate and humorous. They come here because it is a small oasis of rational thought and good will; it keeps the blues from getting too black for us. Some German philosopher–Goethe?–said that great writers are like stars in the sky: though they’ve been dead for centuries, their light still shines. You’ve got a lot of wonderful people coming here. But, having attracted a loyal following, you dump them because they are not enough for you. I didn’t realize you were writing for the great unwashed masses; I thought you were writing for others who vibrated at the same frequency. If you want to appeal to people who barely stand erect, try writing ad jingles or so-called reality shows or ripping off J.K Rowling or whatever it is that your average successful writing hack does.
Anyway, you seem deeply dis-satisfied with yourself and will not be able to make constructive use of your considerable gifts until you understand the value of what you have. You don’t realize that you are up to your neck in green grass.
Like you need more lame analogies, but being a (half-assed)singer, I read about this kind of thing a lot. so, as one general director put it:
you’re kind of an acquired taste, Jeff. and there’s nothing wrong with that.
as far as who you appeal to, what are we? chopped liver? ;D
I have triceps that most men would kill for.
That’s right, I said it.
They would. But they’re too weak.
Unfortunately, M.B.A. types don’t know how to market to that demographic.
Strawberry ice cream on warm rice krispie treats. That’s the stuff right there.
“I don’t know who I appeal to anymore.”
Me for one. That doesn’t mean much in this world I know, but ever since I found Protein Wisdom I was hooked. Both by the stranger and hard to fathom writings and the ones that featured your wisdom about language and it’s uses and misuses.
Do like Whittle and compile it all into a book. Books are much easier to read and handier to carry wherever you go to read. I’m sure it would sell.
Oh. No for real. You can do an adspend targeting individuals online. That’s easy, the targeting. It’s the call to action part what’s tough with the individuals. Quirky little bastards.
Sure, ‘feet — but it’s the M.B.A. types who control the huge wads of cash for the big, splashy ad campaigns that get on the television and the animated billboards in Times Square.
With the website URL prominently displayed, of course.
Oh. Right. It’s a whole lot easier with like cash and stuff.
“Strawberry ice cream on warm rice krispie treats”
That makes me hungry and reminds me that I make 3 pies today, a pumpkin, a pecan and one off the whip topping box called “turtle pie”. Got to whip up some dinner so we can eat the pie.
I wouldn’t kill, but I might…well, if you wake up all woozy and bandaged and your arms seem quite a bit skinnier, don’t blame me.
I’m a lurker of no consequence, but I turn to PW for sanity and hilarity on a regular basis. You have a unique voice which is very rare in the ‘sphere. The time and effort put into this site must be costly but, in my humble opinion, what you have created is of great worth. Thank you.
Jeff and Dan are right. My triceps are crap. Then again, the volunteer blogging has been cutting into my exercise regimen.
/Jewish maternal guilt
More seriously, I think PW would resume its former place in the ‘sphere if its creator resumed his former place — or was closer to doing so. I completely understand the various reasons for his various sabbaticals, but that does not change the underlying dynamic.
I note that the first of his most recent set of posts drew attacks, not from lefty academics, but Excitable Andy and David Brooks. That was before the NPR piece and the pre-interview invite from PBS. All of which sort of suggests to me that the man has a way of writing that gets attention, and ultimately an audience.
Conversely, Jeff cannot discover his audience by not blogging.
David Brooks I think would be wholly stupefied by a kettlebell. He wouldn’t even know to duck.
He does have an extraordinary gift for pissing off all the right people, Karl. That cannot be denied.
his isn’t about him specifically, but rather about his positioning. Fact is, he appeals more to conservatives than I do. I don’t know who I appeal to anymore. I just know that I get a rise out of lefty academics on the internet, who hate me with what amounts to the emotional equivalent of poison.
I really like Ace. But, I can be found here more often. I think Ace has a wider appeal because more people can understand him. Fewer big words. Less intellectualism. I can’t always following everything discussed here, but I try. Many people don’t want to be challenged. They want to read a blog for fun and escapism. The flame wars at Ace’s are his biggest hits. What does that say? People dig the goofy stuff.
If (when?) we lose this next election, after the mourning period I think people are going to want to get serious.
Obviously, he pisses them off because he is a threat. It actually is a sign of success.
He pisses them off not merely because he’s a threat, but because he threatens — and defeats — them on their own academic turf. He drinks their milkshake.
I don’t know if I endorse that last analogy, Karl, but he does eat their lunch.
Ace is an excellent writer and thinker in his own right. He has some excellent guest writers, including Jack M & LauraW. He makes himself pleasant to the being powers in the dextrosphere, by and large. He has a well-developed sense of self-irony.
He’s not as epistemically threatening as Jeff, not as “universally solventy,” to coin a stupid but, I hope, apt phrase. Ace is ecstasy. Jeff is mescaline. Each has its place, de gustibus &ct.
Dan,
That’s from There Will Be Blood, but I don’t want to spoil it for people with an explanation.
Oh. I don’t really see anything till it comes out on DVD. All right, then.
“I won’t be here in another year if I don’t stay on the charts”
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you who wrote that, Jeff. If you’re looking for the JD Salinger Lifetime Achievement Award, you could be a lock, FWIW. Don’t know if anyone gives that fucker away though.
I’ve never really been able to buy into the Ace vibe, though I completely get why and how it works. Part of it is that the sumbitch blogs.
“Universally solventy” is not a stupid phrase. I quite like it really.
Thanks, hf. But don’t spill any! It could eat a hole through the entire blogosphere.
Plus Ace also has the phrase “slitting throats” right there on his page day after day, which I think people really like in a Thunderdome sort of way. IMO, Jeff and Ace are both good writers who keep me coming back for entirely different reasons.
I hardly ever go to Ace’s. He should trackback here more. Then I would. I click on almost all of those thingers.
It’s funny: when I was doing the Lehrer pre-interview, the woman doing it told me that what I was saying was “the kind of stuff they normally like” but not really what they were looking for for that particular segment.
I took that to mean I was using too much academic speak and not enough “Praise Jesuses!” for a guy who was too representing Those Too Conservative To Vote For Maverick Man, I mean.
That’s what I meant by “I don’t know who I appeal to anymore.” I don’t take the people I DO appeal to for granted. I appreciate all of you, I really do. It’s just that I don’t have an idea how to categorize the appeal in order to broaden it (without aiming for the big broad middle).
Tough love aside, the facts are these: Pajamas doesn’t care about me. They care about page views, and they pay based on that metric. I tried to tell them that having a different, slightly off voice improves the brand — and that therefore I might be worth more to them than just page views (a lot of which, on bigger traffic sites, come from lingering Google hits for “Beyonce Nekkid!” or some such). But, with a minor concession, they really weren’t buying.
None of which is meant to criticize them. After all, they are running a business, and in their minds, advertising trumps all. And when it comes to the exclusive stuff (the podcasts and specialty blogs they produce), they wanted people with bigger names — names outside the blogosphere.
And this has been my dilemma. I want the page views because it helps keep me solvent. But I can’t bring myself to alter my style to appeal to a broader set of readers.
Which is frustrating. I’m happy when bloggers make good and take off and become successful. I just wish I could figure out a way to make it happen on my end.
This ain’t easy to do day in and day out — at least, not in the style that I try to do it. So I get burned out. Then I come back, finally get my traffic up, and burn out yet again. It’s a vicious cycle.
That’s not me abandoning anyone, or not appreciating anyone. It’s me not foisting crap on you by simply going through the motions when my head isn’t in it.
On a practical level, I think more of Shannon Elizabeth’s nipples help.
Come for the nipples, stay for the intentionalism.
Honestly, I think it’s more about spitting on your hands than slitting throats.
And I mean that in a positive way.
That’s true, Karl. When I finally do come back full time (and I’m working my way back into it), I’ll probably start off with only that kind of stuff.
That’s the enjoyable stuff for me, and it makes me happy when I’m doing it without pressure.
What I’m not yet ready for are the constant personal attacks from the likes of steve or Vergil, who inevitably go that route once I’m done responding to them. Yesterday reminded me how exhausted I was.
You don’t have to engage them personally, Jeff. When I post, unless they say something that really pisses me off or compels me, I just leave it to the crew to beat the living tar out of them.
I pare my nails, aloof, detached, removed.
Can’t help myself, Dan. I really started this thing hoping for that mythical “conversation” or “dialogue” with the “other side.”
Still hasn’t happened, but what can I say? I’m a windmill tilter atter.
Allah warned me this wouldn’t turn out well.
Nip nip nip n-n-n nip nip nip
Nippleodious!!!
I guess that makes us Sancho, then.
I’m certainly glad to see the phrase “when I come back full time!” I thought you were working your way back, so today’s comments were a bit of a shock.
Were I you, I would ignore the steves and Vergils, though having done this a bit now with no real vitriol directed at me, it’s far easier written than done. But I think you have enough regulars here to deal with the trolls. And more cynically, trolls drive up page views.
Plus, I think doing the more enjoyable stuff tends to lead to some sort of success in most of life’s endeavors.
Dan,
Sanchos, perhaps… but Dirty Sanchos?
Let’s just leave it at unkempt.
I’m thinking your coming ideas on Goldberg’s tome of many footnotes could maybe attract one Scott Eric. Nothing mythical about that. Nope. If I’m really quiet that day it’s not that I’m not here, I just know when I’m outgunned and outclassed is all. I’ll be the one googling.
I just know when I’m outgunned and outclassed is all
Me too. I volunteer as bait, Jeff, should the need arise.
Jeff, you’ve hit on the page views theme, and the ‘broad’ appeal that’s required for those sorts of google hits. You have excellent guest posters here. Why not keep ’em busy interleaving some of those types of posts, between your hypermescaline solventy stuff?
@ #98
I agree with No-Nails.
serr8d is right a lot I think, and we’ve talked about dayparting before. It’s like it’s your channel and you’re the wanker in charge of programming that everyone pretends to like but really wants to see fail utterly and completely cause then they can move up or at least feel vindicated for some dark thing that mostly just lives in their head cause their self-esteem has been on the wrong trajectory ever since they started at this damn place and they don’t understand really at all why when they cry at night they see your face. Oh wait. That’s Disney.
I don’t think it was a lack of education that led to the McCain election although there were clueless people voting for him. It was a rejection of conservatism because the media and the left have been so successful at painting GOP as conservative and because we didn’t even try to say otherwise.
I think Mr. Taylor is reading way too much ideology into the election, for the reasons stated at #9 above.
We can be the Hanson Brothers and you’re Michael Ontkean, just like at the end of Slapshot.
Old Time Hockey, coach!
I think he’s saying that “conservative” is the new “liberal.” I listen to way too much NPR to really have a take on that.
And come to think of it, no one has asked Frozen Walt his opinion of current events.
Just don’t please don’t say his name three times, K. For the love of God.
Protein Wives.
Stepford Wisdom.
I’m spitballing here, sure. But still.
Stepstein Wifedom?
Which is the nature of their beast, JG. Having no spine, no basis, they’re left with being personal and preemptive; call it Clintonesque. It’s predictable territory and as has been noted, shows you’re hitting nerves.
Don’t go all Rod Stewart on us, man. Seriously, since your stuff gets ten-fold more comments, aren’t you the best thing for your page counts?
Step Five
Don’t you know that the time has arrived?
PWOTB yo feel it?
And yeah I meant “yo” cause I’m street like that.
Shit you is the thing he does not do, dawg.
trudat, D money
Exactly, Dan.
And dialogue with the other side is dialog. Which is like sunlight. Hate to say it, but they run from it.
They, most times, are not worthy of even minimal response. Spurn ’em.
(except for the ones who coexist at your level. Few, those…)
And don’t you know that it’s just you, hey, Jeff, you’ll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder I think.
This is me over here doing the na na na na na part.
wow…way to harsh my boadergrrl mellow jeffie.
look…i know who ur audience is….greenwald an the leftist troglidytes that read ur every world with envy and hatred flamin in their molten hearts. hehe…they read u!
u can have ace an malkins audience….just dumb down ur post to an eighth grade readin lvl. i bet m’schelle wud take u on right now…u can read her dim-witted sound bites on hotair viddy with ur shirt off and oiled pecs.
i shudnt need to tell U this, bein as how ur one of the few bloggers left capable of guerilla thot…but…
u dont write for others, u write for urself.
so ill just wait for the nam-shub of goldstein. i have perfect faith that it will come clawin an tearin its way out of u eventually. but writing frequently will surely ease its passage.
;)
If they had a mouth? Fer gawds sake…look, Ann, you could have rented space in yours, I think its big enough.
I think you have to work from the assumption that you are NEVER going to get honest, interesting dialogue with the dark side. Then, when it happens it’s a pleasant surprise.
What’s that thing called, Kismet?
I don’t wanna bash Michelle. She’s smart, and writes (at a level) for a broad audience. Political (and other) writing shouldn’t only be aimed at the top level.
I mean, I don’t understand economics that well (I don’t want to mention what grade I got in college Econ but it wasn’t an ABC or F – but in my defense, I did drink a lot those undergrad years) … but when Walter Williams writes about it, I get it. I’m sure someone with a doctorate in Econ would be bored by it – or think it’s facile. But, they shouldn’t make fun of it. WW wants to make the masses understand stuff. He gets kudos for that.
Oh, quit calling us the dark side. That’s unbecoming on either side of the aisle. I am neither academic nor intellectual, but as a lapsed critical theory student, I appreciate his take on things. And I would also like to give props to JHoward’s #40 comment, although I thoroughly reject the leftist aspersions. Brilliant observations, and I agree that the contrarian voice should always be heard, even to irritation.
Stepford & Sons. We would already have cool theme music from Quincy Jones. And Jeff can periodically feign a heart attack.
the contrarian voice should always be heard, even to irritation
(…)
(…)
No it shouldn’t.
Plus, does anyone consider the Coultergeist anything but a spoof? I think it’s hilarious.
so, guinspen, what is your problem with free expression? Who would you audit?
Oh, quit calling us the dark side. That’s unbecoming on either side of the aisle.
Oops, forgot another rule. Always assume the dark side has absolutely no sense of humor.
I thought Coulter was perfectly amiable. She’s very fetal-minded though, and I really don’t see how that’s really what this election is about by any rational analysis.
No, Coulter had enough sponges jammed up that she could have taken care of Katrina and sopped up the Mideastern meltoff.
I don’t know what that means exactly. I hope she’s ok.
@ #137
Cynn,
Comment #135 is stolen from Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ Argument Clinic sketch. Yes, it is. No, it isn’t. Etc. Etc. Etc.
It’s a bit. No offense intended. Please feel free to spout away.
Who would you audit?
Everybody. Especially me.
Sorry, Guins, not getting you. My point is that I vehemently and viscerally disagree with you on many points, I still want to know what you’re thinking.
I feel the same way about rabid squirrels.
cynn, what is the fundamental, philosophical truth of progressivism? I asked steve the other day as he was running away.
I happen to believe that a philosophy of freedom runs (or ran) parallel to the minimalist, originalist American spirit. I believe the guys in the powdered wigs more or less got the nature of the human soul, as it lives here in social, organizational constructs. With nearly everything falling under government purview 200+ years later, what is the rational, reasoned, philosophical justification?
How do you dialog with those who advocate what amounts to legalized envy and theft, and wish to modify thought and behavior by authority?
It’s the left doing those things. How would you refute that aspersion?
But, Cynn dear, once you become irritating, I (and I’m sure others) stop listening.
hf,
#145 was a gem.
Back athcha, carin. Cutsies notwithstanding, it cuts both ways worth is to you?
it cuts both ways worth is to you?
I’m sorry, I don’t speak gibberish.
At least not until I’ve completely consumed this bottle of Beaujolais. Which I’m not on target to do tonight.
mischelle is not “smart”.
she is a definite twodigit.
that is also her base. twodigits with 8th grade reading skillz.
think of the bell curve jeffie..there are many, many more of them than us tail ppl.
Sorry, Guins, not getting you.
A bit, a spoof. A humourous vignette. John Cleese and whoozits were in the sketch.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
The purloined #135 was aimed specifically at comments 129 thru 131. I was trying to highlight the “even to irritation” part. And except for the absence of vitriol in the sketch, more often than not, that is all we get back.
To where we once belonged.
I still want to know what you’re thinking
Me, too. I’m taking a poll as we speak.
and…….the left hates u because they see u as a defector.
a three digit conservative.
all academics an ppl above the IQ an g gradient are supposed to endorse the left.
it drives them mad.
JHoward, I still think you have it wrong Bit rooting around in a bathtub full of talc with a wig on sure sounds fun.
I think Mr. Taylor is reading way too much ideology into the election, for the reasons stated at #9 above.
Nothing ever happens for one reason, but it’s clear the momentum is in favor of the Democrats, and since we as conservatives didn’t do enough to distance ourselves from the GOP (or at least distinguish) then voters saw only one choice: craptastic GOP or Democrats. They can’t see there’s another choice: GOP candidates who’ll do what they want, if given a chance.
I mean you can make up whatever excuses you want for the Republican party and voters, but what’s clear is that everyone but die hard pull the lever for GOP are leaning Democratic now and we have to lay some of that blame at our feet for not letting them know their options.
I’m sure you do, cynn. But why?
Having an opinion does not equal reasoning it, that being the point.
IRRITATINGOPHOBE!
The following comment is intended for humorous purposes only. No malice aforethought or premeditated ire, towards the author of the set-up, is intended, implied, or was involved in its preparation. I did rough-up some horses, though.
unbecoming on either side of the aisle
SCREW YOU !!!
Any rebroadcast or retransmission of this blog, without the express written consent of the Chicago National League Ballclub, is prohibited.
PLAY BALL !!!
You know, Jeff, if you want to go mainstream, you’re going to have to follow Mark Steyn’s lead: provide red meat with a pinch of humor. Creative humor is is your primary interest and it doesn’t sell–except to the two or three people who get it. That’s the sad fact of the matter. You can’t have it on your own terms. The law of supply and demand is at work, and there’s not enough demand.
Writing humor is harder than hell and a skill almost universally unappreciated. I guess readers believe that because laughing is easy, writing humor is easy, too. It ain’t.
However—if you were to re-cast some of your material on intentionalism into smaller, more easily-digestible portions that most people could understand–and add a touch of humor–you could be a star, and rightfully so. Most Americans have no idea they’ve been brainwashed for the last 50 years by an all-pervasive Leftism. (Sorry, cynn, I once voted Left myself. I woke up. With any luck, you will too.)
For example, they don’t realize that most of what passes for art in the 20th century is the equivalent of the Soviet Tractor. They have no idea that trite, collectivist ideas shape the narrative. Shit–they don’t even realize that there is such a thing as ‘the narrative’.
You have the power to lift the scales from their eyes if you choose to. And it would be a much-needed public service. As one who has gone through the academic meat-grinder of the Left and survived with intellect intact, you are in a unique position to educate the American public about the current Leftist abuse of the language and the effect it is having on our democracy. Fighting this indoctrination may be a rearguard action against an invincible foe, but what the fuck. If we’re going down, let’s go down fighting. Truth is a beautiful thing. Some day, people who aren’t even born yet will thank god an American in the 20th century had the ability to express these ideas. If you want, you are capable of having a profound effect on the American public. Do it.
A bit, a spoof. A humourous vignette. John Cleese and whoozits were in the sketch.
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM
Well Jeff, you don’t owe any reader of this blog anything – the $50 way back when was a gift. I like what you write and hope you’ll continue. It is, however, amazing the way the “intellectual” left goes completely unhinged about you — Iowahawk’s 1984 take on this was both over the top hilarious and searing in its documentary verisimilitude. As far as politics goes, is there really that much of a difference to most Americans whether the President is McCain, Obama, Hillary! or some other guy? Although the thought of another 4 or 8 years of the Clintons in the White House is a sobering prospect.
Jeff, I won’t rest easy if I don’t raise this particular possiblility concerning what you seem to be experiencing, even though my suggestion is informed solely by what I’ve observed from following your blog and so could easily be wrong: possibly, you are experiencing “primary” – otherwise unexplained – Depression. This could explain your lack of energy and interest, and fatalism, regarding your blogging, despite the other more commonsensical explanations, which could themselves be correct but could also be instead occasioned by a primary Depression.
If the lack of interest, etc., extends into the rest of your life and/or you have certain other symptoms, primary Depression becomes more likely as a diagnosis. Generalized decreased mental interest is gigantic as a symptom, probably especially in a high-performance brain such as yours, which I’d also expect to be very good at masking/combatting the decrease.
I’m still flying nearly blind, but here’s another consideration from which I’m operating: one way to treat certain cases is simply to find something to treat which might explain the symptoms/signs when the treatment is fairly simple and there is little risk to it, and when the diagnosis might otherwise be missed because it is sooo right in front of you. Such is the often case with primary Depression, for which, btw, drugs are the sine qua non of treatment, although simultaneously eliminating other drugs – such as tranquilizers, sleep aids/hypnotics, pain meds, otc cold meds, and especially alcohol – can be equally necessary.
So if you haven’t done so already, you might want to consider this possibility. I could well be totally off-base, but given what I know, etc., I just couldn’t restrain myself from presenting this idea.
“This isn’t about him specifically, but rather about his positioning. Fact is, he appeals more to conservatives than I do. I don’t know who I appeal to anymore. I just know that I get a rise out of lefty academics on the internet, who hate me with what amounts to the emotional equivalent of poison.”
You show them they are full of shit in their own language.
There’s noone else in the blogosphere who does it so well.
And frankly, I don’t think our side (individualists) is going to win this election, no matter which part provails. So the stage for insurgency’s set.
What can we do to help, Jeff?
he’ll be back…he cant stop writing.
i like the idea of jeffie as insurgent….think of how unsufferable greenwald an mona, et al will be if the dems recapture the white house!
i can see him now, stirring the kettle of soup with a rifle stock.
wat if Mccain gets Colin Powell as a veep?
wud that make him more palatable?
i like powell quite a lot.
he defended the Fulda Gap.
his perception IS reality.
jeffie u shud take a day off an come boardin.
we hav over 130 inches of base this year, its PHENOMINAL!
the snow is just silky an forgiving.
dont listen to stupid datadave an his dumb telemark turns.
mogul fields rawk.
crush crush shred shred
he defended the Fulda Gap
Yet neglected to Cross the T in Iraq.
There was no crush crush shred shred.
Consequently.
Of Saddam’s Republican Guard.
I’m glad the Fulda Gap held. That was a close call I guess maybe. Still, that sort of thing where what you’re doing is babysitting euro-weenies I think distorts your worldview.
Besides, the man likes old Volvos. What is up with that?
I’m less into snowboarding than snowmobiling. It’s not that snowboarding doesn’t have a rush of speed, it sure does, but when you hit something on a snowmobile there’s a (small) chance of a fireball. And frankly, when I die, I want it to be caught on satellite surveillance.
Last time I checked, every man is entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Do you even know what you are chasing anymore Jeff ?
Good Luck!
Right now I’m chasing the dragon . But that is but a temporary fix, I fear.
guinspen, duuuuuude
we p3wnd the guard! we dominated! they ran from us like scalded cats.
the thing u dont get, is that warfighting is evolutionary.
do u kno why we are havin success in iraq? cuz we learned.
heres a crash course.
i dumbed it down quite a bit.
burnin down the jihaadi factory never works.
the jihaadis are in their tribe, an that is hardwired.
so wat we do…is bricolage.
that is wat Petraus and Kilcullen and armed social work and trusted networks an social network theory and sociobiology is all about.
we take the machinery of tribalism and make it work for us.
we exploit the machinery.
warfighting is evolutionary
Or the catapults of our aircraft carriers, as the case may be.
For their own good.
we exploit the machinery
Of course, nishi-san, but none of it works without a healthy dose of “guts.” Hell, the hard-liners wanted to cap Hirohito after he decided to surrender. I believe The Emperor was still viewed as Divine at that point, was he not? At any rate, there’s no dialogue with those sorts of folks. The bastards need to be shot, etc. etc. etc.
they ran from us
And therein lies the rub.
social work and trusted networks an social network theory and sociobiology.
Jeff’s been harping about words and stuff.
Fair definition of “warfighting?”
Jeff:
Right now I’m chasing the dragon . But that is but a temporary fix, I fear.
Because I’ve become locked-onto my schema, I’m going to call that rather blatant suicidal ideation.
burnin down the jihaadi factory never works
Whether it does or it doesn’t, our enemy has to understand, in no uncertain terms, our ready-willing-and-abledness to accomplish the task.
pfft
the israelis have been tryin to burn down the jihaadifactory for how many years?
does no good.
wat worked in anbar, was bricolage, where we re-used the machinery in the factory for a different purpose.
that is all warfighting.
look…WWII was a 1-dimensional war… nam was 2D, mil + politics
gulfII is 3D, mil + politics + media/memetics.
the next instantiation will be 4D….. with a nuclear dimension makin up the fourth axis.
the adversary evolves strategies, we evolve counterstrategies.
Touches nerves everywhere, that. Falling under the car of Jagannath isn’t even an option. Life’s much too short to cut it any shorter.
ha!
Exactly what type of fighter are you training to become, JG? From my understanding, ‘tapping out’ as soon as the opponent shoots past your guard is as fruitless as it is expedient.
Anyways. Never mind where your head is at right now, if your heart is telling you to do an elaborate write-up on MMA that’s packed full of 134 word sentences and the very thoughtful accompanying punctuation (including the occasional hyperlink to illustrations or some such thing), I would read it in a second.
the israelis have been tryin to burn down the jihaadifactory for how many years?
Beats me. It took us about four years to burn down the kamikaze factories. And sink the entire IJN to boot.
A wizened executive at a creative services firm told me that in his estimation, creative people go through three phases in their careers. His conjecture was that most get stuck or give up before ever making it to the third phase. Very few make it all the way through.
The phases are:
Fight and lose.
Fight and win.
Win without fighting.
I thought it was a rather beautiful formulation. Plus I’m a sucker for developmental models. As I read this thread, a little voice kept telling me I needed to share this. Turns out, the little voice was an armadillo that I promptly brained with a wireless keyboard.
What? It freaked my shit out! Standing there on hind legs and speaking English fluentlyâ€â€if in a sickening falsettoâ€â€like something H. R. Giger was forced to render while being held at knifepoint by John Lasseter.
yah but WWII was only a single dimensional war.
thass why.
and kamikaze!=homicide bomber, dude, they werent embedded.
!= means not equal in mathspk.
sry for the OT, i just hoped the mention of Colin Powell might cheer Jeffie up.
except Colin Powell prolly isnt a conservative by his definition.
i think…another giant problem with the definition of conservative is that it is convolved with xian fundamentalists, the whole antigay marriage, lifewarriors, the Founders put an xian god in the constitution, etc.
i mean, rove needed them to get the win for gw, but it seems like they have kinda morphed the party into something it wasnt intended to be.
the Founders were freemasons.
incomin presidents are still sworn in on a masonic bible.
freemasonry was the first anti-religion, kinda let those guys think out of the box.
are there still armadillos here?
i thot they went extinct….
/she sez wistfully.
i think jeffie cud be The Last True Conservative…hmmm…..sounds like a book title…or a screenplay..
episode 1: Guerrilleros
pan to shot of sunrise over the eastern plains
zoom to shot of GOLDSTEIN pensively stirring a pot of soup over an open fire with the stock of his M60 machine gun
he is shirtless, just having finished an extreme kettleball workout
other attractive young people dressed in sports clothes are executing various tasks around the compound
GOLDSTEIN’s muscles glisten in the alpenglow
a motorcycle roars into the camp
everyone gathers around
GOLDSTEIN: hey, Allah, hows my favorite mobile pirate radiostation?
ALLAHPUNDIT slaps the side of the motorcyle which looks like the chopper in ghost rider except it is festooned with a variety of antennas an coms devices.
ALLAHPUNDIT: good, dawg, i burned some pirate radio transmission discs of readings of the constitution and i been subvertin the airwaves all night. i gotta get back to my dayjob tho.
GOLDSTEIN: thanx dawg, ur the best! let me send a comms off to Johnson in his secret underground complex beneath DIA.
GOLDSTEIN opens a kennel and pulls out an armadillo, proceeding to attach a capsule to its collar. there is something strange about about the armadillos legs.
ALLAHPUNDIT: wouldn’t it be faster to send a text message?
GOLDSTEIN: no! these are genetically engineered armadillos. we crossbred them with millipedes from the Butterfly Pavalion. they have thousands of legs. kinda like the rat-things in Snowcrash. pry up that convenient sewer grate for me and ill send him on his way.
besides armadillos are almost lizards. almost.
ALLAHPUNDIT prys up the sewer grate and GOLDSTEIN drops the animal in…it immediately blasts in a shower of sparks.
to be continued…..
welcome to free agency america, Jeff.
I feel ur pain. I also was a stayed-at-home dad…it’s really tough, not sure if we men are up to that? Also, my latest “boss”, he decided to not pay social security taxes…I’ve got to pay ’em all myself….despite his promises last spring but jobs of a middle class scale are hard to find so I can’t just quit yet. I am back self-employed like you w/o the fun and notority. (spellchks seems to be minus on this old honker..)
“professional fighter”? wow..that’s teh crazy! again that’s free agency america: winner take all (top 1 percent) the rest get little or nuttn’. I’d rather enlist and get benefits…ha, are you young enough?
the bloggosphere pretty much follows the Google, Ebay, and MS models: again top one percent get everything, the rest nuttn’…so?
you’re close to that one percent getting in Wikipedia and on NPR. Close, so close! good luck.
keep up the reading and keep an open mind (hopefully).
Right now I’m chasing the dragon . But that is but a temporary fix, I fear.
damn, if you perfected a decent dragonsweep, I am impressed. Not that I’d ever use it in a fight. Pretty hard to get out of. But the leg strength developed practicing it would be awesome. Kind of like telemarking down the Grand Teton or Mt. Superior in Little Cottonwood canyon. (not me, JD, some other wacko)
hey, where’s the trust-a-farian? u gotta find one.
Hesus, Marimba, and Goatshit.
Jeff, man, don’t do it. You think I come a-trollin’ here to read Collins? I mean, no offense, Dan and Karl both do yeoman’s work, but they are not the main course (and THAT’S called mixing your metaphors).
Consider your leftie academics, the assholes who call you a “hausfrau”. Are you really so blase that you want to let those dickless wonders continue to sing “Carnophallomoloramologocentrism, My Lord, Carnophallomoloramologocentrism” while Western Civ burns?
Yeah, so Maverick McAmnesty has, Sejanus-like, moved all his intellectual superiors out of the race, leaving only Schmuckabee to beg for Veepship. So we find ourselves once again at the Great Electoral Fast Food Sign offering the Super-Size Turd Sandwich and the Fat-Free Giant Douche.
So. Fucking. What?
Are you a scholar or a ward heel? Is this Protein Wisdom or Tammany Fucking Hall? Take a page from the book of Lenin, or Washington, or Senator John W. Blutarsky and re-group and re-attack. Eat your wormwood like a good boy, slap the green fairy with your business, and give the eUNuchs what they deserve.
Shit. You think someone who writes like you can’t influence the public opinion? You seen Goldberg? A Chapter from Hayek plus Simpsons references? Nationwide Bestseller!
I don’t know you’re personal business, and frankly, I’d rather not. You seem a decent chap and I wish you well in your future endavours, but I know what I’d pay to see in print. I know what I keep coming back here for. For whatever that’s worth.
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I made enquiries about which new, different, possibly promising new candidates for parliamentary office are popping out of the woodwork. ,
I put to much thought in and over-wrote the whole thing. ,