A few quick thoughts as a follow-up to Dan’s post on the ever wrong — yet still ever presumptuous — David Brooks, who is just now beginning to realize that the halo he saw around Obama’s head during those 2 years of campaigning was the product of CGI and creative Hollywood lighting, not a function of political beatitude, manifesting itself through prisms of Iceland spar and Platonic Hope onto the psychic cave walls of those who are open to being saved.
Meanwhile, those of us who made the argument, in advance of helping to get him elected, about Obama’s rather baldly progressive nature — forcefully, at the time, and with not a little bit of thoughtful consideration — aren’t, as yet, invited to participate in “Conservatism 2.0: The Reckoning,” a space for all the movers and shakers of the conservative movement to stake out a strategy for how to find their way out of the political wilderness.
Perhaps, some are arguing, if we’d played nice and called Obama a Good Man, we’d have shown ourselves capable of the kind of “grown up” diplomacy a wannabe “media agency” is hoping to project — and so won the support of the “moderate middle.”
— Which, how’d that work out for you, Maverick?
What strikes me as unfortunate — and yes, in what has become my miserable flu-ridden state, this is what I was thinking about last evening — is that Mike Hendrix’s piece on the bankrupt nature of “pragmatic” sops to the Dems, and by extension, all of the similar pieces I’ve written over the years, will be read by about 1/100th of the people who will read Ace and Allah, et al, telling them why they shouldn’t be too insistent about sticking to their guns when it comes to questions of how to “tailor the message” to potential voters.
Now, this is not because Ace or Allah (or even Steele) don’t have the best interests of conservatism at heart (Steele was already beat up by some douche on the Cap’n Ed Show, suggesting that any attempt to make nice is merely seen by progressives as more blood in the water); rather it is because they are at heart strategists. Worse — at least from my perspective — is that they don’t recognize that there is no give and take in the linguistic wars, and that each time they allow the left to (disingenuously) frame our intentions, they are ceding control of meaning to the types of people to whom meaning is completely contingent, to be used as the will permits, for any purpose they can get away with.
This matters — and if there’s one thing this blog has tried to make clear over the years, it is precisely that apologias such as the one offered by Ace are singularly dangerous.
Unfortunately, as more time goes by, fewer and fewer conservatives either heed the argument or, in the case of the framing of the new “conservative” guard, are even introduced to such ideas.
No doubt ideological assassins like David Brooks would place me squarely in the “rabid rightwing” camp, pointing out that my failure to compromise is what makes me dangerous to a government that often runs on consensus.
— That is, were David Brooks even forced to confront the kinds of arguments I make.
Sadly, he doesn’t have to: conservativism on the web has separated into the GOP boosters and wannabe pragmatists, and the hardcore social conservatives to whom, in many cases, statism is a viable option on certain moral questions.
We OUTLAWS are, it seems to me, the real lost middle — the legal conservatives and classical liberals who have been framed, on the one hand, as rabid rightwingers by both progressives and big government GOP “pragmatists,” or else completely marginalized on the other by those on the right who have, through various market forces and (I suspect) a bit of self selection, come to be the filters for what kinds of arguments get read and considered.
Someone asked me the other day why, of late, I’ve seemed so bitter. And my answer was that I’ve known what’s coming and I’ve been unable to do anything about it. Worse, I was positioned, I thought, to have more of an intellectual influence (at least, that’s what PJM suggested my role would be when I signed on) — but when the time came to give the kinds of arguments I was making widespread consideration, I felt frozen out entirely.
Why do I feel such personal antipathy toward the PJM’s editorial strategy? Because — despite being treated fairly monetarily (which is no small consideration) — I feel like I was purposely bracketed out of the conversation leading up to the ’08 elections for fear that I might rankle the delicate sensibilities of those PJM thought was their target audience.
And perhaps they were right. But there are plenty of instances where my posts are strictly academic and rigorously argued, and I can think of very few occasions in the last 3 years where PJM linked to my site at all. Not exactly the two way street they sold me on.
For whatever reason, the bigger, traffic-driving sites on the right had little use for what I had to say. And now that the worm has turned, I get to sit by and watch the mea culpas from the “moderates” who would have been better served by paying attention BEFORE they began tepidly stumping for a full-bore progressive socialist and party hack bent on paying back those what brung him.
This is why I’m bitter. This is why I don’t bother posting much anymore. For as brilliant as Mike Hendrix’s piece is — and for as much as I’m able to reach back in my archives to provide a kind of academic gloss — how many people will read it compared to, say, the number of people who will read yet another post about the need for a nuanced pragmatic approach to dealing with progressives, or another screed about Obama’s birth certificate?
I want to be out there on the front lines, but frankly, I’ve been doing it for 8 years and making very little headway — each new “age” of the blogosphere forcing me to play nice with the latest GOP-humping clique.
I no longer have the stamina these days, and my times away are often spent stewing in a fine marinade of exasperation and futility. Returning becomes ever more difficult, knowing that you are, at last, speaking only to the choir — albeit one that is as intelligent as any commentariate on the right side of the political blogosphere.
Is that enough? Is it enough for you?
Have you considered writing a book? Not suggesting you take the Glenn Reynolds approach, but maybe a series of essays that capture “the essence” of what Protein Wisdom is/should be in your mind’s eye?
I agree with much of what you say, except … except, the last 8 years things weren’t so desperate. Conservatives were willing to go the extra mile for our national safety, but didn’t see the need to engage in this other battle. I like to believe people are waking up.
Jeff, the battle continues. You’ve not fallen, not by a long shot. There’s a turning point just ahead, for better or worse; stick around while you still can. Don’t let it be said that the last voice we heard was the left’s cackles..
“We listened for a voice crying in the wilderness.
And we heard the jubilation of wolves.”
– Durward L. Allen
For me, speaking to the choir is enough, because I’m so incredibly disheartened by the turn of events that I knew was coming that I need some kind of release. However, I also acknowledge that at times it is painful to even pay attention to what our lords and masters are doing to my little country. My temper is quite frayed these days.
I guess the question is, is it enough for you, and could it be enough for you in the future? If it isn’t, then for your own sake, you need to stop.
This is my favorite internet destination, the first and repeated stop during my day, and one of the three blogs I read with any regularity. I would hate to see it go away and the commentariate scatter to the winds, but sometimes that’s the way things work out.
How long did Churchill wander in the desert?
Seriously, write a book and consider a talk radio show (before the fairness doctrine closes you out). I do not agree with you 100%, but you are a lot more right than wrong. You certainly have enough ideas for a book and if it is funny it will definitely sell.
As for Pajamas Media and Roger Simon, the money will eventually dry up and it will fail. You watched that video clip from CPAC (the “Conservative” View) I posted yesterday. That is not going to become self sustaining. Ever.
As for the end of conservatism and classical liberalism, I vaguely remember being a kid when Nixon and Ford were doing their thing, followed by the golden age of Carter. Now that sucked. If we can come back from that, we can probably come back from anything.
Of course you’re discouraged. The majority of the intelligentsia, who should be those who inform the people of the principles of just governance through limited government, are now free riders via government. Utilitarianism, indeed. They have become another tyrannical, parasitical class the people must learn to shuffle off, as they did the medieval clergy and the hereditary aristocracy.
One hates that one’s peers are such blind tyrants.
I think Baracky, the dirty little socialist PBUH, will be good for our country, in the long run. People need to be reminded of what liberalism is, and he is going to give it to us in spades. I denounce myself. This silly “stimulus”/social engineering bill, the non-earmark earmarks, the blizzard of tax cheats, the unrestrained orgy of spending, the ban against lobbyists except for the lobbyists we like, etc … just demonstrate to the people what all of the Left is really about. Power.
Steele should be beaten to where he resigns and goes away because he is useless I think and oblivious to what a malicious and vile piece of shit we have as a president person. The rest I will think about on the way to work.
Except I’m pretty sure I’ll not be able to get much past the all that is necessary for the triumph of evil in America dealio. Maybe if I stop for coffee on the way.
I agree with previous commenters. We’re entering the darkest hour now. There’s no leadership or direction. Just more of the same.
It’d be a great time to pick up the flag and charge forward.
Also it’s just wrong to include ideological ass bandit David Brooks in the conversation at all. He is no one at all. Less substantial than the foam on the latte what I need to be on my way to getting.
You’re right in that we seriously need to knock off the “being nice” crap. The most fun I’ve had as a Republican in the last decade is watching Dems/Libs go nuts over Karl Rove, “Bush’s Brain.” Everything that ever went right for The Right was attributed to Evil Machinations on his part. He was a Legend to those idiots. We need another Karl Rove, or Newt Gingrich, or someone who isn’t…well…basically a pussy.
/Karl Rove is done. He can stay done.
Fwiw, Cassandra got flung off the cliff by the townspeople for being right – kill the messenger, that sort of thing.
Over the past five years or so, you’ve been screwed by a Lemony-Snicketish series of unfortunate events which came at the precise moments the stars aligned for your success. Batshit Crazy Person’s events, the almost-but-not-quite RightTalkRadio gig, the DoS attacks, PJM’s veneer of seriousness.
All that.
If you’re looking for advice – and I’m not saying you are – I’ve noticed you’ve a tendency towards self-inflicting wounds when dealing with blog-commenters. To me, it seems that it’s the heckler that gets your juices flowing. Which can be a bad thing. Think about what a comedy gig would be like to the audience if the comic responded only to hecklers after the opening bit.
For his part, ace tends to just roll on to the next topic and put his energies, as such, into new content rather than trying to convert the infidel at comments 39,47, 55, 57, 60, 89, and 113. Different strokes for different folks, but I think you can trust the PW moron-commentor brigade to defend your comment-space.
I get the sense you were … happier … when blogging about things you liked or were interested in, film reviews, grills, general life stuff and the Classical Liberal stuff was done on an as-needed basis.
What I imagine must drive you, and other bloggers, crazy is the popularity and, in some cases, monetary success of extremely middling talents on the left side of the blogosphere. It’s a damn shame that PJM managed to screw up a right-side equivalent.
–
Maybe if you shaved your head and played catch with the neighborhood kids when a Presidential candidate rolled by and ask some questions.
“Jeff the Scrivener” now THAT’s something PJM can market.
I’ve read ProteinWisdom for some time, and I’ve been saddened to see Jeff’s postings become increasingly rare. I really like the site, and I think it is important to have a forum that articulates, from a classically liberal point of view, the left’s steady hijacking of meaning. Many of your posts are highly intellectual and, frankly, probably go over the heads of the vast majority of blog readers. Unfortunately, teh Intrawebs has not elevated discourse, but served to devolve it into childish screaming matches. The fact that you weren’t listened to more during the past Presidential campaign is unfortunate – it’s equally unfortunate that scores of others warning against Obama weren’t listened to. It’s even more disappointing that your overarching themes have been largely ignored. But having said all that, what do you want? Did you really expect highly philosophical posts to attract mass attention? I’m just curious, because I miss your posting, but what treatment, either in ’08 or now, would have prevented you from this semi-retirement?
I don’t think the vast majority of either the US voting public, or the Conservative blogosphere, can appreciate the depth of your arguments. I’m also afraid they just don’t have much understanding of, or interest in, epistimological debates. Many of us are broken hearted and depressed, now that the train wreck we saw coming is happening, but, I don’t think that gives us the right to just give up, say fuck ’em, and retire in a petulant snit. I don’t see any alternative but to press on.
Know that you are not alone in these thoughts and feelings. The perception of the futility of all discourse examining those who are throwing freedom down the drain is a desired effect of our enemies. They wish us to quiet ourselves. Easier and cheaper than using force to do so. It also has less chance of blowback.
They believe themselves to be but they are not. They are tacticians. They are focused on the short term, the next quarters profits. As such they are being skillfully played by those on the Left who are strategists.
The biggest weakness of the Left is that they must cloak all that they wish to do in the skin of what their enemies would do. They know that exposure of their actual intentions will cause them to fail unless they already have complete control.
Right now their own hubris is the best weapon against them. Overreach is within their grasp. They will do/are doing it now. If they can stop it from being exposed they win. The long slog is here, but victory can be seen. The collapse of Leftists is always a swift and unexpected fall.
“Is it enough for you?”
Yes.
It’s good to be avant guarde.
[…] progressivists to shape the debate in ever more dishonest terms — is revisited today in another good post. Go ye and read of it, for It Is Good. Category: Where Do We Go from Here? ♦ […]
You can die on your feet or live on your knees, but you won’t be left alone. I’d rather be dead than play with these clowns. Do you suppose there are any “not in my name” bumper stickers left?
Actually, I’m pretty optimistic. It’s tough to conceal that the miracle worker has done more damage to our economy in six weeks than OBL did by crashing planes into the WTC. The markets are down again. Evidetly 300 points yesterday wasn’t enough. How much longer do you suppose the excuses and $13 a week are going to satisfy the electorate? I predict a run on Jimmy Carter memorabilia before this term ends, to remind us of the 20% misery index. We’re halfway there, and it has only been six weeks.
Incumbents are going to be poison in the next election.
What Larry said.
Plus, outlaws!
There is absolutely nothing that can be done now to prevent the grand progressive experiment, the new “New Deal” – it is in motion, and it will carry on, regardless, even unto abject failure. The time to prevent it, November 2008, is gone. The US will find itself in a similar position to Britain, prior to Thatcher’s revolution before this beast is slain. And it will take massive failure before public sentiment is sufficiently aroused. There must be a collective sense of national outrage at what is being perpetrated before these knobends are removed from power, so keep your powder dry, don’t lose hope, and keep the pressure on. Please Jeff, as N. O’Brain reminds us, Churchill had his years in the wilderness, and the ideological battle is only just beginning. We must bring the majority round to us.
It’s always more fun to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Cuz, y’know, fire, and matches ‘n all. There’s always the possibility of conflagration.
Shouting into the void does indeed seem to be what we’re mostly doing these days, Jeff. For my own part, I’ve always known I’m way too raw for the more prim and proper types, without naming any of the obvious names, to bother with much. But that’s okay; if shouting into the void is all I get to do, a-shouting I will go.
Besides, given my aggressive and loudmouthed personality, I couldn’t sit back and shut up if I wanted to — although with the liberal-fascists running things, the time may soon be upon us where we’ll all have to consider it, for our own good.
But that’s okay too. CAS and Wild Weasel pilots know that you can do a lot of damage flying below the radar.
This will cheer you up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM
Comment by Carin on 3/3 @ 10:08 am #
I agree with much of what you say, except … except, the last 8 years things weren’t so desperate. Conservatives were willing to go the extra mile for our national safety, but didn’t see the need to engage in this other battle. I like to believe people are waking up.
Not quite.
We had GWB, who IMHO was deeply flawed. Recall, if you will, illeagal aliens, Medicare, McCain Feingold, drunken spending, trusting Putin, cluster fucking Iraq… on and on.
Yeah, the last eight years were a path to where we are today.
I haven’t voted for anyone since St RWR’s first term, just as I was forced to vote against the O! last time around. There ain’t nobody out there for me.
2012, who we gonna have to choose from?
I’ll tell you:
Mitt
Bobby
Sarah.
Another Epic Fail.
I’m super bitter myself.
There’s only one thing to do, and that’s laugh with the deep satisfaction of Cassandra. Which, come to remember, she never did much of that.
What’s left? snark. I think revival of ideals is a ways off.
But anyway I have to go tone my arms. Sleeveless is in.
I’d rather fight and lose than concede our little country to its Brave New Fate. At the very least, I’ll still be able to look at myself in the mirror, assuming we’re still allowed such things.
Your complaint, Jeff, is much like Rush Limbaugh’s although he’s certainly more populist than academic. He’s been the victim of the same same caricaturization. And I noticed a funny thing on Saturday. Limbaugh, the great right-wing boogeyman gave a speech over an hour long, and CNN carried in in its entirety, as did CSPN and Fox. Of course, CNN then dumped a pile of nasty shit on him, including a list of universally negative twitter comments, the first of which was basically “HITLER!” But he’s being propagated now outside of his base.
Why? Because Baracky, Rahm, Carville, Begala and Co decided to hate on him. Now, he’s delivered his message to millions who might never have heard his ideas, all thanks to people who hate him.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you’ll achieve his level of success in either wealth or spreading the message, but if you’re in the fetal position in a self-imposed intellectual corner, the outcome is guaranteed.
I don’t know about Mr. Pink’s link, but I’m sure THIS one will cheer you up! Dale Bozzio – almost turns me over to the other team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIcWxFR4uh0
Jeff, I love you, man. You’re over the heads of almost all of us. I’m pretty smart and I have to read your posts like three times usually. But I like that – however most people reading on a computer won’t make that effort.
I want you happy. Damn it, get happy! If getting away from here makes you happy, so be it. Life is too short.
Am I the only Cassandra here who feels a great weight has been lifted? The train is off the rails, and yet it’s somehow uplifting. Time to get to work. And it’s always best to whistle while you work!
Apparently there have been some Twitter comments directed my way. Not everyone, it seems, passes a certain fellow’s “Good Man” test. And he’s insistent on getting that message out.
Sleeveless is in.
Until the cap-and-trade makes it impossible to afford heat. Witness fall/winter fashion during the 1970s energy crunch: shawls, ponchos…
Sorry, I’m depressed, too.
That’s a back and forth, Jeff. You know that, and you know how these things go. It’s really quite futile. Better you should argue the ideas than bother with internecine sniping.
Oh, and Twitter is one of the Four Horsemen. I’m just saying.
The front of the charge is AKA the Forlorn Hope. A place of high honor and the subject of fond remembrance, but certain death.
Not to be depressing or anything, b/c the charge must still be made.
Plato’s friend and teacher spent his life and all his energy seeking that elusive thing, wisdom. Whether he found it or no, (I think he never did articulate it, precisely, knowing speech would fail) he lived it out, acting within it everyday in the manner of his life and behavior, asking questions and professing ignorance for his own part. That was his lesson, that his teaching. In the end though, despite all his care, his caution in his pursuits and associations, he was killed by his fellow citizens for his troubles.
His refusal to write was, I think, an explicit acknowledgment of the dangers he was finally subjected to. Of course, he hadn’t the protections we enjoy, written directly into our Constitution. Evenso, we ought not to mistake those protections, our protections, for a cure to the human faults still poised to strike harm to the biting questioner who causes even only slight embarrassment to the powerful or striving self-servers.
Two great teachers of the western world, both of whom refused to write, save to scratch in the sand what could be easily obliterated, both killed by their fellow citizens. Both remembered today, even if only obscurely and confusedly so.
Something is going on there.
So far I have managed to avoid MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. I think I’m better off for that.
I’m not depressed I’m pissed.
That is what the ever-melodramatic Mr. Brooks says. Asinine fuck. But even a lispy moderate queen like Mr. Brooks who has thoroughly humiliated himself is going to get back on his Shetland pony and charge at teh forces of immoderateness.
I piss on you head, David Brookth. I think you should piss on his head too, Mr. Goldstein.
At the very least there is wisdom when I say to you that click here are not clicks there. In the big picture being such a talented part of the development of alternate media, which you a lot are, that right there is hugely of merit. PJM will dry up and blow away but not you Mr. Goldstein cause you are indomitable and brave and wicked smart.
Maybe a joke.
Q: What is the difference between a hooker and a lawyer?
A: The hooker will stop fucking you once you’re dead.
For the Anbar awaking to happen, the terrorist contingent had to have time, time and the power to show everyone exactly who and what they were. The mask used to gain the power had to be thrown aside to reveal the ugliness it covered. Only then would the ground be ready for the strategy of Gen. Petraeus to work. Before then many would still see the beautiful mask and not realize that it covered such madness and murder.
The mask of the Left must first come off so that all can see the terror and murder it hides beneath it’s beautiful mask of platitudes. The ground will then shift and be prepared for a real change. We must keep the pressure on and be available and ready to help guide things to a better course. Letting the pragmatic moderate-conservatives guide would be like letting Saddam take back power after Al Queda had burnt out. The mask would go back on and the whole cycle begin anew.
Will this be Gulf War I or II?
Jesus and Socrates were Outlaws.
Perhaps you would be happy if you ended up like a cool Glenn Beck. At least you would have the financial benefit of selling ads for gold futures.
oh. *clicks* here I meant.
…oh, I should clarify, I suppose. The one breach in the defenses of the One is his obvious lack of class and the uncertainty of his own mind. He achieves because he is fundamentally afraid of being lesser than. And this accounts for his favorite weapon in service to that: His faux-intellectual veneer.
There will be, eventually, a mano y mano class war enacted in the persons of President and Challenger, but that Challenger will be a sacrifice of sorts to obtain a foothold, showing the Nude Emperor for all to see.
At least that’s the only way I see it going.
oh my god look at the jabbering deluded fuck. You are diseased in your poncey head, Mr. Brookth. We are not all in this together. No no no. We are not not not in the same boat. You, Mr. Brookth, are in the boat what is filled with the gangrenous Change and the putrefying Hope what you and your pussy friends voted for. My boat is a very happy boat that laughs at your faggy little boat. Also, you write for a loser company with a shit brand what is dying and you’re part of the poison what is killing it and also you work for the dirty socialist propaganda combine what is called NPR to whom at best you are a moderately useful idiot. I am so not in your boat. Your boat is the bad choices boat. Deal with it.
Have you toobed?
Yes. I have been toobin.
I think many conservatives are fast approaching Jeff and Mike’s level of dissatisfaction.
We are being forced to watch our country rot with cancer from within and the GOP wants us to BE NICE? Cross the aisle? Are they frikking kidding? For 2 days after the innauguaration I said ok, I won’t be snarky – I’ll give this asshat the benefit of the doubt.
Fuck that. 52 million dipshits huffed unicorns and rainbows and allowed the most invasive and destructive cancer to blindingly slither into our government. Aided and abetted by pandering morons like Will and Steele and McCain.
Well, there just happen to be a large contingency of people that fight cancer with everything they got. Count me in.
For those that want to hospice care and meditate the shit out of this cancer – good fucking luck.
Glenn Beck is claiming armed revolt is next. I am not so sure about that, but that does not mean it is a bad idea to be prepared for it, just in case.
Wait, wait.
People actually look at the PJM site(s)?
I’ve even stopped looking at Reynolds since he got in all the way.
You rock. Keep writing.
Mr. Goldstein, you use your mouth prettier than a twenty-dollar whore. I mean that with true admiration, quoting a movie forbidden by current cultural taboos. I had to read your first paragraph three times to extract all of its sarcastic, well-aimed, relevant savor. One feels that David Brooks could be mugged with a brickbat and he would just stand in the street, dazed, pondering the forthcoming repentance of his assailant.
Lots of us at Ace’s place, commenting, think poor Ace from time to time resembles Eeyore. You couldn’t be more correct about the hijacking of language. If we surrender that weapon, we’re finished. It’s like holding the gun but letting the enemy put his finger on the trigger.
Well, I guess it’s all okay, because nuanced intellectuals like Fuckweed Zakaria are now telling us that sharia ain’t so bad, ’cause the Other, the Muslims, just want to be local about it.
Freedom and liberty have been the exception in human history, and they are vanishing again before our eyes. Wait a hundred years and perhaps somewhere, in some land, enough people will relearn what the words meant.
Jeff, I don’t comment much but come here several times daily for intelligent (and humorously, irreverent) perspective. I’m glad to be a member of your choir. I agree with Larry at #15—he captures my sentiments perfectly, and yes, what you do is enough.
The way to reveal Obama is to mock and anger him. Trust me. And Jeff, you mock and anger like no one else, because you are a bigger outlaw than even Billy Jack.
David Catamite Brooks: “We moderates are going to have to assert ourselves.”
I can’t stop laughing. I can’t. This guy may be the most brilliant self-satirist since Chico Marx.
For what it’s worth, Jeff, don’t post for other people. Post for yourself. Don’t judge this based on whether anyone’s listening to you or not. Judge this based on whether you’re telling the truth. If you are, people will realize that eventually. And you’re too wonderfully gifted a writer for any of us to ignore for very long.
Jeff G.- Where does it say this would be easy, or fair? The country formerly known as “America, Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave” is worth fighting for. The Assholes-in-Charge that are in the process of looting our national treasury and raping our beautiful Constitution can only win if we surrender. The blood of my son lies mixed in the sands of Al Anbar, and his grandfather was wounded while liberating the death camps at Dachau. They represent the best of America, and I owe it to them to stand up for what is right and good about our country.
Continue to resist the liars on the left, and they will flee.
I think the future is in bunnies.
If it’s any consolation, my visits to protein wisdom became less frequent when yours did, Jeff. Not to fault the current posters, who’ve done a great job creating meaningful content.
I don’t suppose you’ve kept in touch with the armadillo, the Kleagle hood, Billy Jack, The ‘Stache, Anna Nicole (RIP), Leif Garret, or any of the others? Driveway convos with the neighbor even?
Well, in any event; drop me a line next time you come into another stash of those red pills. Because that was some GOOD SHIT!
Some great men and women spend their whole lives writing, commenting, etc., and only posthumously receive their rightful spot at the table. It won’t take nearly that long for you Jeff. It’s as true that you are too good to quit as it is false that certain companies are too big to fail. Don’t leave us now when we need you most.
Sure, and this is a war that’s been on a long time. Every warrior has to go on leave once in a while, but we all keep fighting until we win or die. The thing to keep in mind, always, is the reason you keep fighting, not the goal. You aren’t fighting in order to win, but in order that truth, justice, and righteousness prevail. It is the cause behind the fight that keeps you going, not the prospect of winning or losing.
To put it another way: we fight because it is the right thing to do, not because we think we may win. Win or lose, we must do what is right. And that’s where guys like Ace have gotten a little confused. They have lost sight of the rightness of the cause and focused on the goal of victory; that’s what the Republican Party did in congress and look where we’ve gotten since then.
Being an Outlaw is tough. Being a Prophet Outlaw is even tougher. Somehow I believe you will have success Jeff in what you are trying to achieve, and will not be John Kennedy Toole success.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve, remember? What did Santa do? He came to say about needing someone to guide him and I think you will have your day as well Mr. Goldstein cause the principles what you articulate are importanter the more bleared and smeared with the oppressive socialism our benighted little country becomes. Also I’m very fond of you.
You might not be in the right frame of mind to create a Michelle Chronicles or a Barry’s Diary, in the manner that you once createded a jailhouse diary for Martha Stuart. I’d imagine that you have to have just the right balance of bullshit and carelessness in order to create such masterpieces. But if you ever do…..I’ll bind the shit up and make a book for myself. Those were classic. Hooked me square in the mouth.
Wait.
Jeff’s nose lights up????
Who knew?
This’ll cheer you up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ3Ibp9LQPM&feature=related
It did me. Turn the sound off if you have to, it’s, um, not important anyway.
Sticky B —
And they were linked by absolutely no one. Back then, it was all Scrappleface. Who was hanging out at CPAC with Steve Green this year.
BEHOLD THE FUTURE!
You won’t be famous
’til you’re pushing up the daisies
many times these wise words have been said
They don’t care about you
when you’re alive and kicking
but they’ll write a song about you when you’re dead
We just need to pimp people out with the sunglasses from the movie They Live so they can see what a dirty socialist Obama is.
Well, perhaps if you could dumb-yourself down a tad you could appeal to a wider audience.
I mean, I like the morons over at Ace’s ok, but one of yesterday’s posts was on pooter-hair dye.
I don’t get the Steve Green thing. I love Vodkapundit and all, but he’s just not you. He’s not one of my go to blogs, either. Actually, I only have two of those, Insty and protein wisdom.
Steve is a great guy. Couldn’t meet a nicer person, in fact.
Maybe that’s his secret. Me, I’m the world’s worst diplomat. But I try to make up for that with an edge.
“Steve is a great guy. Couldn’t meet a nicer person, in fact.
Maybe that’s his secret. Me, I’m the world’s worst diplomat. But I try to make up for that with an edge.”
And I just checked his front page at PJM, and not one of his posts has a comment thread in the double-digits. Is he really getting all that much traffic? Stimulating any discussion?
I like the Vodka one okay but my favorite one is Mr. Goldstein and my second favorite one is Howard Veit even if I think it would probably not be difficult to meet a nicer person. He had a story the other day about this murderous monkey what he knew personally that I thought would have gotten more attention. People seem almost as fascinated with murderous monkeys as they are with Barack Obama.
But the edge is the thing. I for one think that’s just what’s needed. Always have, though, since I’ve been hanging around here since the beginning. A sharp and incisive talent like yours is the perfect tool to fight the bastards that be. I know it’s hard to know what influence you may have, but the target isn’t the mamby-pamby Brooks types, but younger smart folks who are just trying to figure things out. Too many of them went for Jimmah! Part Deux this time. They will have to be disillusioned by that, if they have half a mind at all. That edge will be just what skewers their old received beliefs and carves the way for new, sharper and truly liberal ones.
I am sure Stephen Green has read this.
Your style Jeff is more of this.
And this is the most popular show, evah, in the Middle East.
Without alienation, there can be no politics. Arthur Miller.
Wait, you’re on Twitter?
hf, careful there. Didn’t you know it’s racist to mention murderous apes and the name of The One in the same comment?
I don’t “get” twitter. I gave it a half-hearted try, but I’m giving it a thumbs down.
You can’t fight the zeitgeist, Patrick. Signs and portents are everywhere.
I have a twitter thingie but I don’t like it much. Lileks is fun to follow.
Stop whining, Goldstein, and maybe go get your thyroid checked. So you didn’t get your just desserts. Boo frickin’ hoo. Unless you’re under 30 years old, or have led a very sheltered life, this should come as exactly no surprise at all. Life is like that. The Marxists are partially right, in that there are tides in the affairs of men, and the laurel leaves are contingent not only on the actions of the individual striver — in your case, being right at the time — but also on the ebb and flow of those tides. History is jammed full of wise men whose wisdom died anonymously with them. Most of them managed to lead satisfying lives nevertheless, and avoid kicking the cat in their bitter anger that the Senate appointed some crass dimbulb necrophile flash lucky general from the provinces to be Thinker in Chief instead of you, the solon, or one of your credible competitors.
Or else, you know, reassess. If your Number One goal is recognition, then start whoring seriously. Start sucking the metaphorical cock of the Zeitgeist with rising porn starlet faked sincere enthusiasm.
For the record, PJM in my opinion is rapidly joining the whoring class, and will share is fate. And, you’re quite right about ceding the terms of debate. But it won’t help. If, as a species, we ever took that argument seriously, we would have killed off the social parasites — those who pervert the magic invention of language for their own sordid purposes — 5000 years ago, and they would no longer trouble us, as they do, and always will.
I think twitter is very blackberry and iphoney and otherwise it’s hard to really get it. I like it but I have enough stuff bejabbering at me I think just right now.
Twitter is basically facebook and MySpace for those with an incredibly short attention span I guess. Can we call them “twits?” No? Oh well.
I was wondering when the person like Carl Pham would finally come gallumping by and be a tool. Well done, sir!
“Children don’t read to find their identity, to free themselves from guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology…. They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff…. When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don’t expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.â€
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Ain’t that the truth. I hear that Harry Potter is the most popular book series in the Gitmo prisoner library.
I think I resent having so many people talking at me.
“You don’t know whether chimps are going to kill you or kiss you. They’re very open on some levels and much more evil in a certain way.â€
Tim Burton or was it Jane Goodall?
One of them said it.
Jeff, you’re incredibly needed. I’m not even thinking for the “party”. Fuck that, but as others have mentioned, for the truth. This country has been bastardized by both parties, and yes, if we have to be aligned with one, the republicans make more sense, I guess. Anyhow, your voice is one of clarity and truth with a huge pinch of “egde” thrown in. You mean more to more people than you will ever know.
Hmmm. I guess that explains why no one follows me.
Well then.
I will admit that Lilek’s twitters are fun, but he is a pretty creative guy.
* Calories: 130
* Calories from fat: 40
* Total Fat: 4.5g
* Sodium: 160mg
* Potassium: 95mg
* Fiber: 2g
* Sugars: 8g
* Calcium: 10%
vs.
* Calories: 150
* Calories from fat: 50
* Total fat: 6g
* Sodium: 260mg
* Potassium: 0g
* Fiber: 1g
* Sugars: 4g
* Calcium: 2%
The first nutritional profile is Teddy Grahams and the second one is Wheat Thins. So duh it’s more better to eat Teddy Grahams. This is what Roger Simon couldn’t figure out if it stole his hat and whacked him on the nose with it and said bad dog… bad, bad dog in a quiet but firm voice.
This is a metaphor.
In answer to your question Jeff. It’s enough for me. It shouldn’t be, but I’m tired of listening to supposedly intelligent people who should know better who are, even still, defending their vote for this guy.
At least, for all of the issues I had with Bush, there was the war issue that we agreed on. I could justify my vote for him based on that. The idea that a person who identifies as a political conservative could ever hold his nose and vote for Obama was simply insane. There is simply nothing to this guy other than a few Aaron Sorkin inspired canned speeches.
Conservative pundits need to understand that the left has changed the language. The tools the left can use to keep their guys in power will not work for (I guess I have to say it) “us”. You’ve been saying so for years, but all the opinion makers have heard is “I’m against Gay Marriage and for the war on terror.” That made you one of them, for a bit, anyway. You were the hip guy they could say they knew to impress their friends. Once they got enough friends, they didn’t need you.
From the Commodores to Lionel Ritchie, so are the days of our lives.
Oh, stuff the tough talk, Carl Pham. I don’t care about just desserts. I care that the message isn’t getting out, that the lessons aren’t being learned — and that in fact the right is pushing the wrong lessons and establishing the wrong image, all because it has self-selected the wrong messengers who are making all the wrong arguments.
Or — and here’s the other way I’d write this comment — who the fuck are you, and why don’t you blow me?
I wish I could figure out a way to get people to listen, is the bottom line. But I can’t seem to establish the right kind of networking skills.
Maybe it has something to do with telling people to blow me. You think?
It’s just how often do you get the chance to rail against a for real president what is a George Soros-sponsored dirty socialist America-hating piece of shit like Barack Obama?
Maybe it has something to do with telling people to blow me.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear Michael Steele say that?
Yeah, Carl was following along with rapt attention, furiously taking notes, right up until that “Blow Me” thing.
Then he was probably distracted by uporn, or something.
“I wish I could figure out a way to get people to listen, is the bottom line”
Duh! Just ask Warren Bonesteel.
Jeff G,
While most of us folks that read PW, as well as a large number of everday people, appreciate the candor and brevity in a good, “blow me!”, kind of retort, it is unfortunately off-putting to many of the academic and wanna-be intellectual types that dominate the media, both MSM and new, and control access to the wider public…
And while some of those people may secretly wish they had the stones to say the same thing sometimes, they are terrified that they’ll lose even one audience member who immediately turns off their brain and bans any site or outlet that comes across taht way…
In short; they’re sellouts!
I, on the other hand, come from a blue collar houshold and widely ranging and diverse personal history, and appreciate the straightforwardness as well as the edge contained in harsh reply like that…
More people read the site than you think…
Best Wishes
Maybe. But I think the most important thing is that you’ve got to be relentless if you want to grow your audience. Remember when you used to get links from here, there and everywhere? What were you doing them that you’re not doing now?
Could be. However, rarely do the targets of your enmity not have it coming. IMO, of course.
You’re a good guy Jeff. My only advice would be to take the good and leave the rest. The comments most guaranteed to get a personal response from you are the ones that are not from the people you probably should be networking with.
Oh and Jeff G,
Pablo is on to something in #28. You simply need to get MAObama to hate what you write about him sooooooo much that he releases the brownshirts on you, like Santelli and Rush…
I suggest you organizing a Denver tax tea party; but there’s no large body of water nearby!
Just use your outlaw skills and get O! hating on you…
Or, here’s an idea. Write some really good stuff, and send it to Limbaugh. Whatever your opinion of him may be, he’s down with ripping Glibama. And I so know that he cites websites on his show as well as reads good content that he likes…
And he’s definately no moderate go-along-get-along kind of guy; so I presume he wouldn’t flinch at really flaming Obama…
Just a suggestion!
Best Wishes
Wait…
You mean I’m NOT in that padded room, wearing a long-sleeved jacket I can’t seem to get off and talking (quietly, oh so quietly) to the voices in my head?
Well, THAT’S a relief…
There’s a quote from General Sherman to the effect that he was looking forward to the “futtering” he was going to give South Carolina.
Wouldn’t it be nice to hear Michael Steele say that?
Well yeah. geeeeroooowl
Maybe the message and the messangers sucked and the people have had enough of us for a bit.
I like Jeff’s message, and I think I like him–and most people around here–a whole lot, but the plain fact of the matter is that the Right does not deserve to be anywhere near power for a while.
I think JD’s advice is right on. Obama’s inherent leftwardness, and its debilitating effects, are our only source of hope for being returned to power.
Jeff G,
I forgot to mention another hard line guy who wouldn’t flinch at flaming the one!…
Glenn Beck…I know, not a lot of heft there, but he is passionate and dedicated. And while he couldn’t read any good “blow me!” kind of stuff on the air he’s another one that references sites…
And he’s really down with some of the same things you seem to be passionate about; strict Constitutionalism, no PC speak hijacking of language, and minimal, more libertarian, government…
Just a thought; you should contact him, or send him some of your stuff…
Or else, you know, reassess.
I think it has more to do with finding enough people who can fucking read, Jeff.
Seriously.
What Bob said in #96.
I think the illiteracy and education level of the population is a problem with your kind of writing Jeff. Finding an audience based on your wit and skill at writing is always going to be very limited compared to finding one based on naked boobs and knock knock jokes. Idiocracy is with us, we’re just watching as it slides downhill to the point in the movie. I give us one generation.
I take it mcgruder that you mean this in the sense that were they miraculously returned to power they would then only do more of the bad things that got them sacked in the first place? And that those same bad things would be somehow worse (?) than the horror show we see occuring now?
Via Bill Whittle, this passage from an essay by Albert Jay Nock in 1936. Emphases mine:
I don’t get that either, Sdferr. At least when the Rs are in power the press tries to hold them to account.
The economist Amartya Sen has demonstrated to my satisfaction that modern day famine (since the onset of the industrial revolution anyhow) has always and everywhere been caused by bad government, either directly or indirectly. Now famine is mostly a question of starving people and their animals to death for lack of food and drink. And in our times it is always unnecessary, but chosen for the purpose of doing harm.
I believe by analogy that we are facing the starvation of the advanced economies across the world. For as food and drink stand to human beings, so does energy production stand to every economy. And the madmen now at the helm of many nations around the globe (though not all, India and China come to mind) appear to want desperately to curtail that essential meat of growth, plentiful energy. It’s sickening to watch. These men and women are evil.
Please, Jeff, this is the smartest, wittiest and plain old best blog I’ve ever found. I want to know what you think on these subjects. I’ve never commented before because its intimidating to be in the same room with an intellect so far above mine. I really think that’s why you haven’t been promoted by the conservatives; they dont like being in the room with someone smarter than than any of them, either. You make them look like insipid nincompoops and they have their vanity to protect. I wonder how many readers like me you have. We come for the brillance and you never disappoint. Thank you!
Glenn Beck is claiming armed revolt is next.
Glenn Beck is most definitely not claiming that armed revolt is next. An angry crowd at the steps of the capitol with torches and pitchforks, sure, but armed revolt? Any time a caller proposes that on his show he very emphatically declares that we’d end up not with the American Revolution but with the French Revolution and the subsequent Terror.
Me, I’d prefer to have the states assert their sovereignty and 10th Amendment rights, and when that doesn’t work, secede. I’d like to see Washington stop the Central and Mountain time zones from doing it. We gots all the guns, after all, and all the soldiers.
It’s going to be a long four years.
It’s impossible to not be discouraged, knowing that despite the huge roadsigns we have been reading, clearly showing us a fast approaching cliff, we find ourselves on the way over.
For myself, I am very depressed. I’m just standing on the sidelines slowly shaking my head back and forth at the idiocy of electing someone that doesn’t like America as her leader, and a Congress that is an enemy of capitalism. There is no longer an opposition party I can get on board with, as the GOP has become Democrat lite, and Democrats have become international socialists.
This site is by far my favorite, and is a sane island in a sea of chaos. One of the last refuges of common sense and integrity. That common sense and integrity are depressingly undervalued these days isn’t because they aren’t known, it’s because they are too uncompromising. They resist pragmatism. Facts mock consensus. Doing what’s right is usually unpopular, if it is even acknowledged at all.
I hope you decide it is worth it Jeff, I can’t see myself clinging to pragmatism in a sea of chaos.
OUTLAW!
Jeff isn’t talking about being popular and getting on radio shows, nor even about books and links, though the lack of these are symptoms of what he means. And he’s not talking about being ‘appreciated’, whatever the fuck that means. And that last question was a challenge, not a deal he was offering to make with the blog commenters.
Jeff, its not you, but the language itself is fucked. Not sure how to go about clarifying what should be simple, straightforward, common sense interpretation of language.
So maybe ‘blow me’ really is the only response.
Republic of Texas. 1836 theoretical borders (which would control I-10 through I-70). Special case: the City of Austin, which would become an enclave of the United States surrounded by Texas.
Others admitted by request.
Regards,
Ric
I don’t think the vast majority of either the US voting public, or the Conservative blogosphere, can appreciate the depth of your arguments. I’m also afraid they just don’t have much understanding of, or interest in, epistimological debates.
I think Larry has the sense of it. The best kind of government is one you don’t have to think about much, because it doesn’t do very much. The trend in my lifetime has been a government that’s always expected to do more, and one that takes the resources necessary for the task. But normal people are still pretending they can cling to the old ways of not paying attention.
I don’t think the academically rigorous approach is the correct one if you want to make a difference. Academia is almost completely decoupled from political life in the US now, having become an insular egghead circle jerk where participants write papers nobody outside academia will ever read. David Brooks, or, for that matter Ace and Allah would never reach as many people if what they wrote on heartfelt subjects was something you could defend to a thesis committee. Jeff, you have a good feel for satire, which will take you much farther.
There’s a lot of bright people on this forum on a regular basis.
By bright, I mean not just the high-voltage college professor view that Dan C. and Jeff G. bring to things, but well, there is just a lot of thoughtyness here.
Carin, JD, HF, BMoe, Darleen, Lost My Cookies and a dozen others. I learn a lot and laugh some too.
I have a tough job and I see only the bad and the fallen side of human endeavor. PW is a really nice break in my day.
thanks to all.
#112 is very compelling I think. Famine. Except with the twist that Baracky wants to raise $650+ billion over ten years by precipitating one. Boy ain’t right.
hf – famine is used routinely as a political weapon in Africa, FWIW
In Africa they have flies what have larvae what will crawl into your skin and grow there. Maggots, is what they are, really. There is a blog about it. There is a pdf there what you should never ever ever ever click on.
If you promise you won’t click on the pdf the link is here.
Oh, I seen all those things at lunch. No, really. Used to work for a medical bookstore.
You quit. They win.
oh. I’ve never clicked on the pdf. There are things what you can never unsee.
I’d think the cock-slapping is much more off-putting than the occasional “blow me.”
Honestly, though, if they can’t handle the big-boy discussions, they should prolly just stick with Captain Ed or something.
Don’t I know it, Happyfeet. Ever see Tub girl? That never goes away.
I don’t think Jeffs problem is his advanced writing skills.
People know what he is saying.
Jeffs problem is he didn’t shift with the pack in the name of pragmatism. He isn’t of the dishonorable that changed their principals to achieve popularity.
I think the real question isn’t why has Jeff not gained significance, but why has truth in general lost significance?
Rush has 25 million listeners, a $200,000,000 contract, and his ideas have been completely ignored too. The freaking head of the RNC treats Rush the same as PJM treats Jeff.
The fascists are here, and the opposition have become Vichy France.
I bet David Frum never told anyone to Blow him. Just saying.
The parasite manuals were pretty bad, along with the surgical indications guides and …there was this one vaginal surgery textbook that was like the illustrated guide to HP Lovecraft’s Elder Gods or something…
I just want to note that Jeff’s ideas have NOT been ignored by most everyone who reads here.
david frumpy was just on hughhewitt w/geraughty i don’t know what he said cause i turned it off
Rush has 25 million listeners, a $200,000,000 contract, and his ideas have been completely ignored too. The freaking head of the RNC treats Rush the same as PJM treats Jeff.
I can’t imagine a more cogent comment for this thread. There you have it right there.
>>Jeffs problem is he didn’t shift with the pack in the name of pragmatism
OK look. That sounds all good, but its like that guy in 30 Days of Night who just burnt up in the end reel.
I think the 200 million kinda softens the blow of no one in the party listening to your ideas. But, I see the point.
Agreed, ‘feets. And therefore I can’t imagine a more depressing commentary on this fucking land of ours, where if it isn’t packaged with a free lollipop it doesn’t sell. There you have it right there, actually.
It’s actually a depression, folks, and we’ve installed a partying drapery-hanging restaurant reviewer in the Oval Office.
It’s like those screenwriters what cash the 6-figure check and then get all upset when their script is rewritten past all recognition. Either that or it’s not like that at all. Life is easier for some people than for others is all I know.
Jeff, you’ve done good deeds here. Please keep it up as the mood strikes
At least from my vantage point after your posts for the past 4 years, Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism was old news…
For the rest of us – – –
The Visigoths are sacking Rome as we speak…
The DJIA closed at 14,000 on July 19, 2007… Since then San Fran Nan and the Democrat’s actions have cut America’s wealth by 50%…
Mr. Brooks and all the “rational DC Conservatives” have finally realized that Obama’s “Global New Deal” looks a lot like Maxist-Leninism: “Capitalism can only be overthrown by revolutionary means”
Dow 4,000 by Memorial Day is feasible…
To achieve the stated goal of rolling back Reaganism requires Obama to drive the market to 937.20, (the close on Nov 3, 1980, the day before election day 1980) before the mid-term 2010 elections…
we’d end up not with the American Revolution but with the French Revolution and the subsequent Terror.
Yes, that’s the way to bet. It’s almost 100% sure that’s how it’d play out, because that’s how every revolution plays out. The American Revolution is an extreme outlier.
It would be a capital idea to identify who would play the roles of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay before heading down that road.
Ask yourself which member of our current political class you’d trust to not seize the opportunity to become King/Emperor/President for Life.
That’s what I thought.
I’d rather own stocks than dollars I think. But I’m not old and stuff.
make sure they’re gold or silver mining stocks
Short Treasuries.
“Is that enough? Is it enough for you?”
I have gotten awfully weary the past few years – but I keep packing my ruck and heading out. I rather hope you, too, will continue. The truths you illuminate are hard to find sight of out in the web, much less in the print media/TV/radio.
I do find them here, from you.
Stocks and also Lean Pockets. And mustard.
I am not suggesting Glenn Beck is promoting that, what I have heard him say he is worried that massive unrest could happen and we have to be prepared for it. Not a completely irrational approach given everything going on right now.
But you are calling for succession dicentra, which seems rather…well beyond Outlaw. I am not for that, just rolling back taxes and spending myself and defending the Constitution.
hf, do you know that when you microwave Hot Pockets they get hot?
But you are calling for succession dicentra, which seems rather…well beyond Outlaw. I am not for that, just rolling back taxes and spending myself and defending the Constitution.
I would do it as a last resort. Or at least a bunch of us hole up in Galt’s Gulch somewhere and call it a DC-government-free zone. And then we can actually govern by the constitution or summat.
“I am not suggesting Glenn Beck is promoting that, what I have heard him say he is worried that massive unrest could happen and we have to be prepared for it”
My question is how long the middle class and the upper middle class are going to stand being Obama’s ATM machine?
How long? Until we’re drained dry, I’m afraid. Too many of us are such good law-abiding citizens that we’ll permit our own violation if it’s by the proper authority.
@137
That is an interesting graph at the link JHoward. I noticed that for the 1929 crash it appeared to start recovering, but then it headed south again. I wonder what happened?
Maybe Obama really is the new FDR?
P.J., FDR was way smarter than this numbskull.
I don’t wanna have a plug in car!
There. I said it.
Yup. Two minutes. I have the whole recipe memorized.
je sais lire. think. the high plains drifter> one reaps what is sown, and they will reap. the day will come, and i love the site.
If Bronx raised Michael Wiener, former pal of Allan Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, could reinvent himself as Michael Savage, a conservative syndicated talk radio, out of San Francisco…well then anything is possible. Then again, it might all be a secret plot by Pacifica to discredit conservatism and implement the workers’ paradise.
The Audacity of Nope. Only “nope” is too soft.
Jeff:
I’m not going to read through all the comments before I add this: I think it is precisely because of the wishy-washy tone of their message that PJM, Brooks, et al are allowed access to the pulpit. Let’s not forget who owns the mechanism of publicity. The MSM grants ardent social cons access to the pulpit because they fit an ignorant public’s stereotype of conservative. PJM and their fellow pragmatists are granted access because they are, in the end, harmless. The left is not afraid of rabid abortion clinic bombers or of David Brooks–one is too fringe and creepy, the other is almost indistinguishable from your middle of the road Democrat.
Yours and other OUTLAW! positions are scary as shit, because classical liberalism is at once reasonable and immediately distinguishable from progressive policy.
Hey, that article by Albert Jay Nock that I linked is pretty good. Check it out. Especially you, Jeff:
More from here:
So, I guess the answer to Jeff’s cri de coeur is only this: Thus has it ever been.
Everything’s amazing and nobody is happy
Truth is, between my loss of income and my wife’s, we might not be able to keep the house, much less keep up the fight for conservatism.
Guess that, among other things, differentiates me from Isaiah. Not sure how good I’ll be at farming.
Don’t stop Jeff! You’re analytical approach combined with wicked sense of humor make this one of my favorite sites. I don’t comment often, because others have said what I have to say before I get a chance (I’m not big on adding to the echo). But damn it man – you hit the nail on the head.
I hope you can keep up the fight. I learn a lot on this site and that’s not something I get much elsewhere.
On the plus side, if I marry Glenn Reynolds, I think I’ll be okay.
Just turn off the lights and pretend he’s Shannon Elizabeth. With a dick.
jeff goldstein-reynolds
i don’t think that works would you exchange fedoras?
I bet David Frum never told anyone to Blow him. Just saying.
Probably begged and pleaded quite a bit.
[…] Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom. […]
I’m thinking Glen would rather keep you as a harem eunuch.
He can afford it. What I hear, he’s getting all that crazy blog money what used to keep others in business.
That’s the way the market goes, I guess.
so reynolds is “park place” on the pj board
?
He’s the entire final two rows.
why don’t you do something with jonah g of lib fasc fame?
Poor Mr. Brooks. He doesn’t seem to grasp that centrists are, by definition, politically feckless and intellectually vapid. Yellow stripes, dead skunks, and all that.
Wanting to make nice and find something good to say about the self-loathing, America-hating, drooling libruls? Wanting to say that Obama is a “good man” who simply has a different vision, but still wants what’s best for America? That’s feckless and vapid. PJM is among those who want desperately to be centrist, to be “balanced”, to be “respected”. And the skunk smell is becoming pretty obvious, eh?
How to get people to listen? I’d say give ’em six months. There are plenty who still want to give our Dear Leader the benefit of the doubt, but the doubts are growing. Buyer’s remorse is setting in Big Time. Even the MSM are beginning to hedge on their adulation. Hell hath no fury like a pundit proven an idiot and when the press turns on Teh One it will be a sight to behold. There are few things sweeter than being in the position to say “told ya so!” and you’re there.
Mean time, remember that the best revenge is living well. Life is going to start really sucking for those who don’t see the disaster that’s coming. Look to you and yours and make sure you have the wherewithal to weather the storm.
I’ve been laying in equal parts ammo, canned goods, heating fuel, and wine. I intend to be sipping a nice vintage while the Obamaphiles across the street are burning their furniture to keep warm..
My wife works in retail. I’ll be burning furniture along with them.
That’s the idea, though, isn’t it? — to turn us all into beggars who need a handout from O! He’ll save us!
You can’t smoke in Chicago and global warming demands that we live light on the land and watch our carbon footprint. Unless you’re truly special, in which case it’s okay to smoke and to grow orchids in your big White House.
I diagnosis a case of creeping whatsthepointitis, and I prescribe…well, frankly I dunno. Hope you start feeling the hunger again soon, is all.
I’d say give ‘em six months.
The man got 52% of the vote. 52%. Even with all the fraud. Even against a goober like McCain.
His “mandate” can evaporate overnight – in fact it may already have done.
Remember that it’s only 1 year, 8 months until the entire House comes up for reelection. Remember, too, that despair is a sin.
Maybe so, SBP. But it’s hard to publish blog posts from the street.
Parsnip managed it somehow, so there’s gotta be a way.
NEW FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY “HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE”: internet cafe and apple cart. blog from your business.
Find a “Recovery” office with open wifi and go through an anon proxy.
I’ve decided to go back to school and get a degree in community organizing. I hear those programs are flush with cash!
Despair is for democrats… Renewal is for Republicans.
Only thing that that keeps me sane… Repeat it often.
What Republicans have you been hanging out with, Stephanie?
NEW FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY “OBAMA REEDUCATION CAMPS” jeff g shows you the linguistic techniques needed to successfully run an obama camp
Good plan, Jeff. Take out tons of student loans. Barky will pay them back for you. Meya said so!
me i hang with the wide stance guy
Yeah, but I’m gonna miss air conditioning. Can’t burn shit and keep cool. Doesn’t come in a can.
And this summer? It’s going to be hot, hot, hot. When Obama’s support starts to evaporate, along with the rest of the stock market. Tempers flare when the heat settles in..
And the thermometer …. registered 98.1 degrees beautifully Fahrenheit.
Nice reference. Are you calling Jeff an insane robot?
I dunno, but you and Mark Levin seem to be channeling (sp?) each other today. Meh, I love listening to Mark as much as I love reading Jeff.
“you” = Jeff.
meaning that I think Jeff and Mark Levin are on a convergence tract of thought that needs speaking truth to power.
libtard control freaks don’t care about “truth”
But they are all about the power, router.
SBP..no, not at all.
But I wish some melted gold would come my way. Even a couple three nice cool Krugerrands would be helpful.
You give too much credence to the titwhistles at PJM. The long game is but a financial lure to them; the short game has dazzled them away from the fight by offering a few shiny ducats to their few TV-friendly faces.
This fight we are in is going to get worse. Do what you have to do, Jeff. Just get ready for it. The fight will be too much for the titwhistles. (oh how i luv that word)
Gold is actually down a bit right now. I don’t expect that to last, either.
FWIW, Jeff, I’ve been educated and influenced a lot by reading your blog. What you do does matter.
Is the dirty little socialist done fucking up our country yet?
Well, it’s up to you but I visit here every day. Several times.
I don’t really want a part in “The Last of the Bohicans”.
I don’t think so. We’re in the socialist loop now:
[1]give cash/services to low income people
{a}low income people become dependant on the state in response to [1]
[2]take cash from high income people to pay for social programs in [1]
{b}high income people reduce income as extra effort is no longer rewarding
[3]redefine high income downwards in response to {b}
[4]repeat steps [1] to [3] until there is no more high income people
This is also known as a “death spiral”. Margaret Thatcher had it right.
Heh. Rush refers to the White House pressers as ‘Butt-Boys‘.
He’s gonna start a fight. Olbermann, twitchy leg dude, they’ve got first dibs on the presidential cullions.
Please. He is just barely getting warmed up. You think it’s bad now, just wait. It gets worse.
Bohicans? I think I heard that on Jim Rome one day … bend over here it comes again?
RUSH LIMBAUGH IS RUNNING THE RIGHT WING! EVERYBODY TALK ABOUT IT!
You know, if energy is gone, we’ll have to become nomads: winters in Arizona, summers in points north.
I better buy some good shoes, yo.
Rush Limbaugh is laughing all the way to the bank. Obama doesn’t realize that Rush cannot be cowed, intimidated, threatened, or otherwise silenced short of throwing him in jail.
Remember what he did to Reid? Rush can handle himself. Until he keels over from an aneurysm.
Not the point. This is what we’re talking about as the country spirals into a depression.
Or maybe it’s just me who is spiraling into depression. I sometimes project.
dicentra – I recommend Frye boots.
Unfortunately, Jeff, he’s the best voice for Conservatives out there.
And he’s been at it for almost 20 years.
But..does this sound familiar?
I have the feeling that if they would be using Rush as a distraction even if he hadn’t made the speech. They started in on him a few weeks ago. Yanking soundbites out of his speech at CPAC is just icing on the cake for them.
Obama knows he needs to distract people from what he’s doing. Of course, if we really had a media that wasn’t in the Dem’s pocket they would be all over this spending like white on rice.
My little country is going to get forced into a depression that could easily be avoided, I’m getting depressed along with it, and my home state of MN is looking at a bill that will start keeping permanent records of every gun transaction made in the state. If that passes, I will think seriously about moving to Texas.
Baracky started in on Rush some time ago. Rahmbo throws his name out there as the bogeyman ever chance he gets. Bashing Rush is a coordinated strategy on the Left. It is top-down meme propogation that can only happen with the cum-guzzling media that laps up their every word as some kind of received wisdom.
Cranky – I still think that Minnesota would be better served in the possession of the French Canadians.
This puts Fedora Boy in a different perspective..
Put Drudge in there, and none of ’em get off the floor.
I’m not bashing Limbaugh. Hell, he’s great for free speech.
But I do think he’s being used as a distraction — even if those doing the using really do love the founding principles of the US, and are at heart Good People.
Jeff, “a prophet is without honor in his own country.” However, those of us who are trying to make sense of what is happening value what you do and say. I have and will continue to support what you have built here.
OTOH, just as George Washington was careful to have plenty of good whiskey for his campaign rallies, a few dancing ‘dillo shots never hurts. ;-)
Lots of very good people outside the liberal twin cities, and frankly many of the liberals I know can be reasoned with. Too bad I can’t get them to vote differently. Even msny of the liberals are really more blue-dog, but damn if they don’t have to stick by their “principles” and vote DFL.
If I were a betting man:
1. JD would have lost his shirt on the golf course
and
2. I’d bet that Rush will soon do a 180 on air. Something to the tune of:
“My friends, I’ve reconsidered and now I totally agree with Obama’s agenda. I look around and all I see are pansy-assed nut-nuzzlers, and the only thing that’s going to get this country moving again is for all to share in the misery. Obama wants to toughen you up. Look at you – in your houses. How tough is it to live in a house? Try wandering the countryside eating garbage or horse poop. That’s tough. That will make you tough. And green. I, like Obama and Al Gore, will continue to live like a king. You can’t preside over a revolution with dirty fingernails. But remember, while you’re fighting that democrat for the last scraps of an old-lady-carcass in the streets of the heartland: You’re fighting on a level playing field. And if you really think about it, you and that Democrat will finally be in unison. Won’t that be beautiful?”
“And now if you’ll excuse me, I just heard the little beeper on my oven go off and it’s time for my broiled fetus pate schmeared on toast points (made with flour that was ground from the bones rich people – very rare.)”
……oh, and I’m on the Prednezone.
Jeff,
I am at Camp Liberty, Baghdad, doing my utmost to support the troops in the fight against Islamofascism.
I have to wait between one to three minutes for PW to load due to the crappy internet connections here (MIT is da debil).
It is worth waiting every second for. Thanks for giving voice to the things I can’t articulate well….
… and allowing me to bring the term “twatwaffle” to the masses. :)
Not the man, the message. His and theirs. His is first principles and the trouble with socialism, theirs is socialism and LOOK AT THE WINGNUT BOOGEYMAN! And of course, it isn’t true. Yes, let’s talk about that. Or, we could cede the ground to them.
Jeff, you express my frustrations well, but I think it is inaccurate to call it bitterness. It is a growing antipathy to try and engage the non-political or unaware colleagues/friends/family. As you once said so aptly, they get the news they want to hear, the way they want the story told. Trying to persuade these folks is tantamount to pounding my head against a wall. Questioning Al Gore’s global warming doomsaying necessarily castigates me as a “denier” even though I not only preface my comments with the disclaimer “there may be anthropogenic components,” I have lived a low ‘carbon-footprint’ lifestyle for years before it became popular. I am castigated as a Bush sycophant because I don’t toe the BDS line. I am castigated as racist/sexist because I question liberal orthodoxy.
I don’t feel bitter, but rather depressed that so many smart friends and family choose to be so ignorant, and frustrated that I can not get through their fragile as egg shell.
Dewclaw – aye, Magic Island Technologies has a warm seat in Hell all reserved for them… I can’t say that I miss transiting through Liberty.
[…] The arrogant chuckleheadedness of this formulation is nicely dispatched (in anticipation) by Jeff, when he says, We OUTLAWS are, it seems to me, the real lost middle — the legal conservatives and classical […]
Don’t suppose you considered you were just dead wrong?
You know, with all the deregulation talk and all the “socialism’s a-coming, because 1998 tax rates on 2% of the population is returning”?
Certainly, PJM ain’t the only rejecting you. The new Wall Street Journal poll finds a massive 26% of Americans report a favorable opinion of the GOP. Personally, I’m sure polls don’t tell the whole story, but having the lowest approval rating in the poll’s history seems a strange way to win midterms.
But, then again, I think all of you OUTLAWS are crazy reactionaries, so why listen to me or the rest of us?
why listen to me or the rest of us?
Good point.
Trollhammered.
Latest Gallup polling says 36% approval for Republicans and 47% for Democrats in Congress, Ted. Dunno what it is you’re looking at.
#223
I feel butt raped everytime I pay the $65 a month for MITs epic fail attempt at Wi-Fi.
Hey LTC John… you work Force Protection stuff while you were here? I’m training RAID systems to the warfighters. Very fulfilling work traveling around and traning a system that helps protect the Joes.
You know, with all the deregulation talk and all the “socialism’s a-coming, because 1998 tax rates on 2% of the population is returningâ€
That’s not what’s coming, and you’re a fool.
Cap and Trade is going to, in Baracky’s own words, cause energy prices to skyrocket. That won’t affect only 2% of the population.
Ted 360, like the guy at WaPo Dan quotes earlier today, are going to try to bully us out of taking a stand, because they know the fail is coming, and they don’t want to be on the receiving end of my furious and pointed “I told you so”s. Oh, and furiously pointed they will be.
Yes, to answer your question, Ted, I’ve considered I may be wrong. Writing here (mostly) daily over 8 years means I have put a lot of my opinions on public records.
So far, I’ve proven to be right in very many instances — particularly about how this so-called “pragmatism” in the GOP would end up costing them dearly (as someone noted up thread, why chose the GOP for your freebies when the Dems have brand loyalty?), and how the way we have come to believe interpretation works effects us in every phase of our fight for the founding principles of this country, with a decentered and relativistic view or interpretation (the saw called “democratization” of meaning) leading INEXORABLY and INEVITABLY toward the ascension of “progressivism,” which is just a nicer word for smiley-faced fascism.
Yes, Ted, I’ve considered that I may be wrong, and that my “rejection” by the GOP, with whom I have no official ties, is a product of that. Instead, I’ve concluded that my rejection by a GOP that is heading in the wrong direction is a sign that I’ve been (frustratingly, for me) dead on.
Being rejected to such a degree by those who are obviously not only wrong — GOP pragmatists and progressive leftists — but who are demonstrably responsible for the implosion of entire economic system, is a point of honor, in fact.
But you keep trying to use rhetoric to cow those of us who don’t much care any longer even to engage people like you in “debate” — which no longer even exists in this country, thanks to your progressive rejection of enlightenment epistemology — if that’s what you think will help you hold on to power, even as the country burns.
If you do manage, it’ll be by force — not the brute force of other leftist totalitarians, but rather by building up a client state that cannot afford to live off of government largesse.
Congrats on that. But when the people of this country wake up and decide they don’t like living in the world of Gilliam’s Brazil, I wouldn’t want to be one of those on record as having tried to shame them into remaining slaves to the state.
— But then, I guess that’s why people like you don’t put your real name and reputation on the things you write, preferring instead to snipe at others from the bowels of message boards.
How proud you must be.
[…] response to my post yesterday about the marginalization of conservatives who are both outside the GOP party’s cheering […]
[…] On Brooks and Done A few quick thoughts as a follow-up to Dan’s post on the ever wrong – yet still ever presumptuous – David Brooks, who is just now beginning to realize that the halo he saw around Obama’s head during those 2 years of campaigning was the product of CGI and creative Hollywood lighting, not a function of political beatitude, manifesting itself through prisms of Iceland spar and Platonic Hope onto the psychic cave walls of those who are open to being saved. […]
I found your blog and read a few of the posts. Keep up the good work. I am looking forward to checking out more from you in the future.
[…] number of the biggest voices among Conservative bloggers are more concerned with party strategy (as pointed out by Jeff Goldstein) than they do principle (see: Mike Hendrix). There is no strategy without guiding principle; that […]