Clearly, Andrew Sullivan isn’t much of an intentionalist*:
Glenn Reynolds finds a photo in the White House Flickr basket and publishes it to, er, point out how bad the White House’s p.r. is, or how blind they are to perceptions of Obama or some such thing. I tried to puzzle this one out and can just about see how an elusive photo of a tired Obama reacting to something unknowable might make him look tired or arrogant or something.
And then I realized why this photo immediately strikes some people are damning. Obama is a black man who looks as if he is condescending to a white man. That’s political gold.
[my emphases]
Not to belabor what some people believe are trivial arguments about language, but here is another example of why it is so important both to understand and re-institutionalize certain truisms about how meaning is made, whose meaning we are privileging, and how interpretation works in the service of decoding meaning: Andrew Sullivan has essentially created his own text from a set of iconic signifiers, then attributed that text — his text — to “some people” who find the photo “damning” because “Obama is a black man who looks as if he is condescending to a white man.” And the “some people” in question just happen to be anti-Obama conservatives.
Notes Ann Althouse:
It’s political gold against Sullivan. And I don’t just mean because he played the race card with so little provocation. It’s damaging to Sullivan because the way he arrived at the racial interpretation was entirely by searching around in his own brain. He thought and he thought — he puzzled — and then he realized what looked bad to “some people.” Some people? But that was you seeing that, Andrew! What you see is what you see. How much alienation from one’s own thoughts there must be that you would expose your own racism like that!
I suspect Althouse is being glib here, but she hits the right notes nonetheless: Sullivan, in trying to transfer to actual conservatives what he himself has created and attributed to the cartoon conservatives that haunt his mental gymnasium, is guilty of assigning his meaning to others, and then using that meaning to condemn them.
What we have here, then, is the semiotic equivalent of a straw man argument; and frankly, it ain’t all that difficult to make hay out of hay — which I suspect is why so many people (on both sides of the political aisle, as it happens) have come to rely on the maneuver when they need to find a nice new outrage to write about, or when they are looking for an easy way to blacken someone’s reputation.
(h/t dicentra)
****
update: More, from LMA.
But only outrageous outrage, mind. Which is all of it. On the Internet, nothing is too trivial to not blow completely out of proportion.
As David Letterman said (back when he was funny), if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.
That sounds like rape to me.
To me.
Hmmmmm …
Would it still be racist if I interpreted it as a black man being bored to near tears by the white dude?
Or …The white dude’s force of personality caused the black dude to withdraw within himself and find his inner peaceful place separate from racial and societal mores?
Or … The black dude asked the white dude to go fetch him some pate chop, chop and the white dude is stunned into rigidity by the feckless yet calm nature of the black dude waging reverse social station tyranny thus redefining the white dude’s social center of privilege and … and … and …
Ooops, my Silly Buns Visual Signifier Mutation Device™ just crashed. One sec …
Well Jeff, that sounds like grubbing … to me … please don’t hurt me.
Rape, Jeff, or rape-rape?
Me, I just figured that Obama’s face was relaxed into his normal “snooty” expression. The one he wears by default.
Either that or his expression mirror the one that any American would have upon listening to Joe Biden for more that two seconds.
Well, I think that it IMMEDIATE STRIKES WITH A WHITE HOT POKER OF STEELY INSIGHT that you may be grubbing … just a little … to me.
Ow!
Andrew is doing what so many on the Left do: they look at things through “our” eyes and then get hysterical about how awful we are.
What’s a good name for that? A good phrase or expression? We need a tee-shirt stat!
Beej. This isn’t the grubbing thread. At ease.
Well, Darth it IMMEDIATELY STRIKES ME that some people will interpret your comment as being in favor of rape … because you wrote it three times … to me … no, no, not to me, I mean that TO ME you appear to be in support of rape having written it three times … to me … it seems …
How do you feel about arson and murder?
I should point out that Sullivan would likely say that he is making an intentionalist argument — that the “some people” whom he has created actually do exist, actually are conservative, and actually are offended by the photograph because it “shows” a black man condescending to a white man. That is, Sullivan would argue that these people mean just what he argues they mean; he has therefore interpreted their meaning correctly.
The problem is, his “evidence” for such an interpretation is his own belief that a certain set of “some people” are predisposed toward racist thought (or maybe its just something deep in their “subconscious”). And considering that his “some people” reference points to thousands of different people who have viewed the photo and found something in it off, his interpretation is, at best, terribly overgeneralized.
Well dicentra, TO ME it seemed like … you know … grubbing that was immediately striking me in such a way as some people …
OK, I’ll stop now. My head hurts.
Maybe it’s just me, but, I didn’t notice the part about President Obama being, well, you know, black.
All I noticed was a world weary 007 pose to Biden’s “Q” demeanor.
My caption of the photo would read: Pose and poseurs.
Well, Jeff, I suppose that somewhere … somewhere … there is a conservative who fits the description.
VALIDATED!!!!
I’m sorry, but the abject silliness of that statement has set me off.
The former is a good way to get rid of the evidence of the latter.
Regards,
Ric
Somewhere in a wooden bunker in the mountains of Idaho …
Arson … arson …
I like arson.
“looking for an easy way to blacken someone’s reputation”
BLACKEN? Denounce yourself sir!
I am outraged.
Wait, I think I did it in the wrong order. Let me start again.
quite simply if you play the race card, you are – at some level – a racist.
Unless you do so ironically. In which case you are accused of being a racist. But you may not be.
Ann Althouse is smart and pretty.
I almost went with “denigrate,” Chris, but the middle syllable left me open to OUTRAGE!
Next time I’ll just go with “schwartzify”.
Well, that’s not really “Playing the race card”, it’s more like “Playing the player”
Hey, ‘feets! You immediately strike me as a fan of Ms. Althouse … and a racist … like some people … to me …
Make. Me. Stop.
that’s funny what Andrew said cause this is what the little president man reminded me of
I’m a closeted Althouse fan. Nobody knows.
“Denigrate”?
Where are my smelling salts and fainting couch? I fear I might swoon. Oh, the humanity.
I believe it is bad to be niggardly with the adjectives.
One wonders what strikes Sully when he sees a plate of crackers and cheese.
OK, I wonder …
That picture looked to me like Biden was trying to manipulate and coerce Dear Leader with his high IQ; I don’t think it worked.
BJTexas,
I don’t think you want to start wondering what goes through A. Sullivan’s mind.
That way lies madness.
One of the things to note about this photo is it’s provenence. It ain’t a paparazi shot bought by Drudge or Fox News. It’s from the offical White House Flickr page. Ann Althouse (and maybe Instapundit, but I don’t know for sure) has found several oddly unflattering photos posted there. Ann linked to a photo of Obama and Hu talking in Copehagen that made Obama look totally out of his element.
My first thoughts on this photo, recognizing where it came from, was not how it made Obama look but to wonder why someone would consider this a photo of Obama worthy of a public posting on a White House PR site?
The way Sullivan wrote that you might wonder if he HAS a mind.
Might. Perhaps.
My first impression was that Obama looked tired. My second impression is that he looked bored.
I guess the Palin smear thing wasn’t working well for Miss Sullivan, so she needed to branch out into some manufactured OUTRAGE!!!
On the other hand, we should be crediting Sully for spreading awareness of the unflattering photo. The picture’s worth well more than Sully’s thousand words.
I don’t think you want to start wondering what goes through A. Sullivan’s mind.
His mind is reduced to a tangle of bare copper wires and two BBs that randomly short out the connections whenever he moves his head.
I got the metaphor from a racist uncle who was describing the thought processes (such as they are) of the average coyote. The canine kind, not the cross-the-border kind.
There is no way a photograph of the President and Vice President in a candid moment could possibly offend me as long as they both have their clothes on. Sully needs to get a life.
I wonder if any of this matters to Sullivan at all-that is, would he have went off on his jeremiad regardless of Obama’a physiognomy at the time the photo was snapped just by virtue of O’s appearance? What are the rules? I can’t keep up.
What McGehee said.
My first impression was that he was listening to Joe Biden. Which, yeah, pretty much the same. I doubt Obama finds Joey Hairplugs nearly as amusing as I do.
As for condescension, if that’s what he’s doing, he sucks at that too. This is how a black man properly affects a look down his nose.
Whatever it is, we should get on this because it’s helping define a popular movement already aimed at putting us out of business, including by extending Sully-like foul wordplay to its mindless conclusion.
This we call progressive tolerance. What it is is the death of debate, liberty, and choice.
is it just me or do other people see the words “Ann Althouse” and decode them as “Anal Tithouse”
no, really. Take a look for yourselves:
Ann Althouse
Ann Althouse
Ann Althouse
Ann Althouse
Ann Althouse
… see what I mean?
It’s damn nearly pornographic – and not in the good way.
That may, or may not, do wonders for her traffic.
now I’m off for my meds and my Learning Annex Class.
Btw – Is it racist to say that that picture of Obama as making him look “supercilious”.
It’s like “haughty” but with an assload of Latinate sounds in it.
…
…
Ann Althouse
..
..
..
do you see what I mean?
… and don’t get me started on how Dicqinta Myazz’s blog just screams “Shunned Mennonite”
Why call Althouse glib?
She made the same point you did.
Is this a stab at intentionalism?
Not your place to say.
Wow, J2, panties in a bunch again?
Wow.
The picture looks to me like Obama couldn’t give a rat’s ass about whatever it is Biden’s saying or thinking about at the moment. He’s got that “I’m soooooo gonna zone out right now” look on his face.
When Reagan did it, some people called him “senile.”
It is funny, but until you pointed that out it did not even occur to me that looking at Joe Biden as if he was something that crawled out from under a rock was demeaning to white people.
My honest to goodness first reaction to that photograph was Obama was playing James Bond (which btw was what the White House said too). My second reaction was he was looking judiciously at Biden’s hair plugs and evaluating the job that was done.
I can only donate if you kick Darleen and give happyfeet her job.
sowwy, darleen kills braincells.
My new fav…..Jay Sean. Check out the sweet bollywood moves.
Cool to be brown.
sadly, you cant ever to get to cooltown on the conservative express…..it only goes to Jesusland and Yearning For Zion.
white christian coservatism is so over.
;)
Obama is the best thing to ever happen to Jimmy Carter.
the cartoon conservatives that haunt his mental gymnasium…
My guess it is also a <i<very, very gay gymnasium ta boot!
just to pour some gasoline: baracky looks uppity
Date: 1880
: putting on or marked by airs of superiority :
Domo Arigato Mr. Mulatto!
Andrew Sullivan will not tolerate that sort of derogatory talk from breeders like you, newrouter.
And it’s always all about you, eh nuggie?
Well, my trollhammer of starpooper nishi expired. Renew! Renew!
Fun lecture against AGW, in the context of other alarmism in the past 50 years.
…it only goes to Jesusland and Yearning For Zion.
Yeah, well, it stops at 7-11 like a lot and they have sixers of Natural Ice there for about 4 bucks. Jesus loves him some cheap beer.
Charles Johnson and Andrew Sullivan are racists, in the sense they look for it like a couple of bored kids playing a game of “Punch Buggy” so they can yell out RACIST!
How about the obvious, it is tedious even for Barack Obama to talk with Joe Biden?
hi! Darleen is cool beans and she does a lot of work I think. I’ll watch that when I get home cause they’re still blocking here at work. Do I have anything for you? No. No new music or anything in my life in December that I can think of. It was a busy month.
White christian conservatism really needs dirty socialist fail to shine anymore but the media won’t let that happen. They’re going to have to go back to just being Americans again I think.
A commenter, phosphorius, at Althouse, is running through the thread damning conservatives for making hay out of the photograph. It is interesting in the way of ‘if you didn’t think it was so damaging, why are you doing so much defense’?
My Take? In the photo VP Biden looks relaxed, at ease – hands in pockets, comfortable slouch. Pres. Obama looks defensive – leaning against the wall, eyes lidded, arms and leg crossed*. It isn’t a good photograph if confidence and control is what is to be portrayed.
No one in the position of President of the United States of America can prevent photographs that make the President look bad from being taken or published, but the President can prevent offical photographs that look bad from being published on an official White House website – that should go without saying.
*Of course, Pres. Obama may just be tired, but he just came off of a vacation, and he wasn’t the one driving for fourteen hours with the kids in the back seat complaining and squabbling.
Comment by dicentra on 1/4 @ 2:36 pm #
I would love to talk to Joe Biden if only to see what wondrous worlds of fantasy could be opened to me. And being VP he would be ‘mostly harmless’.
My take on the photo is that the President is completely and utterly deranged, and the VP just asked Obama if he realized that he was worse than Carter.
To be fair, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Leave Darleen alone! Misogynist!
Shorter Andrew: “Leave Britney Spears alone! Right now!”
i like this from the fedora universe:
They Stole Our Future, But They Cannot Break Our Will
I think its great that even in this tough economy, Andy still has access to the best drugs.
I made the mistake of teaching my four boys to try and say “penis” as loud as they can without getting caught when they are listening to someone prattle on or speechify mightily about something either dull, stupid or pretentious. Over the past fourteen years this has resulted in some of the most fondly remembered moments my family has had as well as some of the most horrible stare downs from my wife. To me, it looks like Obama caught Biden in the middle of a well timed “PENIS”.
Some people feel that Andrew Sullivan is an asshole.
I’m pretty sure that was homophobic, Lazarus.
no andy is the void that tea bagging goes into
Comment by Starcaller Nishi on 1/4 @ 4:43 pm #
Hey, nishit, why don’t you improve the breed and go killl yourself.
NJo, Andy it the void looking back at you.
Because I don’t think she was serious about pointing out Sullivan’s racism. Just as I was being (potentially) glib in pointing out PF’s (potential) anti-semitism. Doing so furthered the point I was making.
And since when is glib bad?
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. I’d have a better chance of decoding if “this” had a clearer referent.
Date: 1584
1 a : marked by ease and informality : nonchalant b : showing little forethought or preparation : offhand c : lacking depth and substance : superficial
2 archaic : smooth, slippery
3 : marked by ease and fluency in speaking or writing often to the point of being insincere or deceitful
And here I was being struck as damning because President Glamour got bagged in a WH Prop photo in a notched lapel, two buttoned prom rental wearing a cheap watch.
I want shiny hands like Mr. Sean but I don’t like the guy wearing the shirt what says COMMUNIST.
Communism is of the devil.
I’d have a better chance of decoding if “this” had a clearer referent.
Thou fool: unclear referents allow us to screw with our own utterances as well as yours.
Knock it off at once with this raciosemitic crap! Don’t think that “blackening one’s reputation” slight went unnoticed. It’s an insult to coloreds and Tevye.
“Blacken” is a verb now, so that’s instructive. OUTSIDE OF IRON CHEF, BASTARDS!!!
Althouse is not focused on the issue. But she is bright and recognized the potential racism. So what is so patently obvious to those of use listening to the on going series on intentionalism is not necessarily obvious to Althouse–that Sullivan and Johnson are actually serious.
Actually Johnson is probably so deranged, he thinks it is true. Sullivan is so immoral he thinks its fine to suggest it because his motives are pure.
But that is just a wild stab at it by me.
Well, I would say, calling someone glib is dismissive and I think you will agree. If not, your use of the word “nonetheless” in “but she hits the right notes nonetheless” doesn’t make sense. I suppose you covered this by saying you “suspected” she was being glib.
Your back and forth, (or back and somewhat forth) with Patterico is not really apropos to your remarks here.
But you say you were “(potentially) glib” re PF because it furthered your point. Consider the difference between glib and say, I don’t know, “snarky” or sarcastic. I think there is a distinction with a difference.
The referent was your imputation of “glibness” to Althouse.
Anyway, I’m not a semiotician (sp?) just a random commenter.
It is not necessary to put me in my place or be really, really mean to me, because Cranky-D has already proclaimed my panties are in a bunch. (And I cry easily).
Cynn and sin are homophones.
You have been JUDGED!
Guess what, I don’t read Ann Althouse. I think she’s a slippy toad.
Jeff: we may be homophobes, but I am the original cynn.
The referent was your imputation of “glibness” to Althouse.
Ann Althouse is smart and pretty.
No, I don’t agree.
It makes perfect sense: she had a specific aim; I had another aim. For her purposes, being glib makes sense. For my purposes — which redound to explaining intentionalism — I wanted explanatory rather than performative this time around.
Even with her glib performative (as I saw it), Althouse hit the right notes. I just pointed them out specifically.
I disagree.
Then yes, I believe Althouse was being glib, because I don’t believe she wants to point out Sullivan’s “racism.” Having noted that Sullivan is quick to play the race card, I doubt very much she was turning the race card on Sullivan unironically. So I used those clues to draw my conclusions about her intent.
I then characterized what I believe she did as “glib.”
Not trying to put you in your place. Just answering.
J2: Jeff has answered you already, but since I’m at the keyboard, what the hey. Let’s look at the actual language:
[J2] Well, I would say, calling someone glib is dismissive and I think you will agree. If not, your use of the word “nonetheless” in “but she hits the right notes nonetheless” doesn’t make sense. I suppose you covered this by saying you “suspected” she was being glib.
No, Jeff’s use of “glib” is not dismissive of Ann. Jeff suspects her to be glib because of her playful tone as she mocks Andrew for his inanity, then uses the phrase “expose your own racism like that,” not to indicate that she thinks Andrew is actually racist but to goad him. It’s a slightly more sophisticated version of “who smelt it dealt it,” which is also not a serious accusation but a means to tease.
The “nonetheless” means that although Ann wasn’t being terribly earnest or serious with her accusations of racism, she “hit the right notes” from Jeff’s perspective because her lighthearted remarks address the degree to which Andrew’s accusations of racism are based on his perception of conservatives instead of what conservatives actually mean when they criticize the photo.
In other words, she’s alluding to intentionalism or at least the absence thereof.
Consider the difference between glib and say, I don’t know, “snarky” or sarcastic. I think there is a distinction with a difference.
Very well, let’s consider the difference. Newsrouter helpfully provided these definitions for “glib”:
And here is “sarcasm”:
I think it’s safe to say that Ann was not being terriby hard on Andrew but was speaking more in the spirit of playful teasing.
Anyway, I’m not a semiotician (sp?) just a random commenter.
Spelling is correct. And you don’t need to be one to comment here. Or to make an intelligent contribution. In fact, it helps if you’re not.
What’s wrong with being glib, Jeff? What’s the do or die here? I’m not going to parse this because frankly I have a great respect for an off-handed remark. What is your issue here?
But she is bright and recognized the potential racism.
I don’t think that Andrew Sullivan is racist, but the racism he perceives in conservative criticism of the photo is definitely all in his head.
What’s the difference? Discuss.
What is your issue here?
Jeff doesn’t have the issue with glibness, J2 does.
dicentra said what I was thinking of saying, and did it better than I would have, so I’ll just say “seconded” to it.
dicentra said what I was thinking of saying, and did it better than I would have, so I’ll just say “seconded” to it.
Maybe I’ll just change my name to the above and save us all time. :D
Andrew Sullivan has become something special in the blogosphere. When I was at Time, I rode in an elevator with him when he was on about the Trig Palin stuff and I was sweating trying not to shit on the guy. Only person as a reporter I ever wanted to rock with.
I regret that in my life, I will not come up with something better to say than what Dan Collins, late of these environs, came up with to say about Glenn–Gleen–Greenwalds: “What a transparently pompous and imbecilic dick.”
Who’s J2? And I would reword glib the mean dissmissive.
President Glamour got bagged in a WH Prop photo in a notched lapel, two buttoned prom rental wearing a cheap watch
Oh! Oh! I know this one! The Scarlet Pimpernel!
It would save Jeff’s bandwidth if I just let you do all the commenting for the both of us.
Who’s J2?
46 and 83
I would reword glib to mean dismissive.
Doesn’t clarify your point. Are you asking if Jeff thinks that Ann is dismissive or if Jeff is dismissive of Ann. Because the answer to both is no.
OK, forget it. Jeff is another slippery toad and be done with it.
It would save Jeff’s bandwidth if I just let you do all the commenting for the both of us.
High thread counts bring Honor upon the thread, though, so go ahead and make with the Me Toos.
Jeff is another slippery toad and be done with it.
You need to grab onto something to stop the room spinning, cynn. Jeff’s been crystal clear on this point for years and years; if you perceive him to be slippery, you’re the one who’s slipping.
The questions of place as in “not your place” and “put me in my place” relating to qualifications underpinning such judgments of hierarchical location might themselves be interesting to pursue with J2, though. I don’t think it my place to tell J2, for instance, that it isn’t J2’s place to tell JeffG what is or is not his place vis a vis judgments of Althouse’s statement, but anyone may wonder, what exactly does qualify J2’s decision that he possesses such a power? Is the merest claim sufficient to warrant attribution of the power? Or is something else in the way of a demonstration wanted?
I have yet to see anything in any writing here that’s serious that I would term slippery. Quite the contrary. Even the surreal stuff isn’t slippery, just different. So I have no idea where the accusation that Jeff is a slippery toad comes from, nor do I see it ever getting any traction as even a fuzzy notion.
Descriptive=dismissive (?)
“I don’t think that Andrew Sullivan is racist, but the racism he perceives in conservative criticism of the photo is definitely all in his head.
What’s the difference? Discuss.”
He obviously has me confused with someone who gives a shit. I’m not taking any more of that bait.
dicentra Since I’m still up. Let me pick nits.
When I said “Consider the difference between glib and say, I don’t know, “snarky” or sarcastic, I was referring to Jeff’s interactions with Paterico, which I would characterize as sarcastic, but which he calls “(potentially) glib”. I said: think there is a distinction with a difference. That’s what I meant. I didn’t mean a distinction without a difference. So yes, I know the different definitions.
PS If you want to go by the Newsrouter definition of glib, I think it supports my argument that calling someone glib is deprecatory or dismissive.
cynn is just angry that I won’t let her turn me into a prince.
Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight. I love movie cliches.
i take it back. baracky is glib not uppity.
Let me pick nits.
Please do. :D
I was referring to Jeff’s interactions with Patterico, which I would characterize as sarcastic, but which he calls “(potentially) glib”.
The (potentially)s shouldn’t be taken at face value, because Jeff is continuing the conceit that there’s the slightest amount of doubt whether the accusations of anti-semitism were in any way sincere instead of a means to elicit a particular response.
Yeah, I didn’t call out the specific context of your comment, so I stand corrected.
If you want to go by the Newsrouter definition of glib, I think it supports my argument that calling someone glib is deprecatory or dismissive.
Those definitions leave a lot of room for Jeff to indicate that Ann was just tossing off a few lines rather than making a serious argument in earnest — and to indicate that without insulting Ann in the process.
Why don’t we ask Jeff what he meant instead of substituting our own perceptions for his intent, then condemning him for being a jerk?
So who is this J2?
I’m the commenter who’s been reduced to tears, that’s who.
Jesus, Do I need references. Jesus, forget I was here. (except for you, Cranky-D)
J2 —
I’ve had many interactions with PF. Some were glib, some were sarcastic. It’s all about tone.
And I said that Althouse was being glib. Toward Sullivan.
Anyway, I’m done explaining.
Speaking of The Scarlet Pimpernel (my 97), I feel like posting the lyrics to the hilarious song from the musical, “The Creation of Man,” where he’s trying to persuade his band to pose as fops who go to Paris frequently to purchase frippery.
Peacocks!
Sink me!
Think ye, sir,
How those feathered boys love to flaunt their tails!
Stallions!
Zounds, sir!
Hounds sir! Stags!
Of the goosie and the gander, sir
Which gender is the grander, sir
To render total candor, sir, the splendor is the male’s!
Be an example to your sex
Give your boot a dapper strap
And it’s smarter if your garter has some snap!
Cravats should be flounced about our necks
Wear a nightcap when you nap
Be bewitching with some stitching on your cap!
Now, drape your cape
And puff your cuff
Embroider those lapels!
Be the king of the beasts in pastels!
La, but someone has to strike a pose
And bear the weight of well-tailored clothes
And that is why the Lord created men
Strut, sir!
What, sir?
Roosters do!
Give a cock his comb and the hens will pale!
Bucks! Bulls!
More, sir!
Boars, sir! Rams!
Of the nanny goat and billy, sir
Whose beard is fully wooly, sir?
It’s bully for the billy for he’s willy-nilly male!
Sir, be a lion-hearted prig
Fill those pantaloons with light!
I could dangle down a spangle out of sight!
Oh, yes! Be bold, sir!
When it’s cold, slap on that wig
Draw your britches in quite tight
Even more so, and your torso will ignite
Now, smock your frock
Perfume your plume
I’ll let my waistcoat swing!
And the jungle will bow to its king!
La, but someone has to strike a pose
And bear the weight of well-tailored clothes
And that is why the Lord created men
Yes, that is why the Lord created men
Remember what we’re here for
Why we must be dressed to kill
If we have to look like Cleopatra
Then we will!
If you’re out to make a splash, cheri,
Do know your haberdashery!
Buttons, buckles, ruffles and lace
Represent the human race!
La, but someone has to strike a pose
And bear the weight of well-tailored clothes
Each species needs a sex that’s fated
To be highly decorated
That is why the Lord created men
Sdferr: I’ve tried to play along in this little game of linguistic Clue. And no, nobody has a right to tell anyone what he just meant. You can quote what he/she said, but that’s it. You guys are getting so hifalutin with your soaring analyses that I can’t keep up anymore. It rather reminds me of the highly manufactured financial system that just blew up. Maybe words are the next bubble, because they do have value — at least on paper.
I’m the commenter who’s been reduced to tears, that’s who.
Srsly?
I’m trying to shock the system into a bubble burst, cynn. With my brain.
The photo is, after all, just a photo.
What many commenters have said they think it means is something else.
And as Ann Althouse pointed out, what you (Andy Sullivan) think it means says more about you than the photo says about the two men in it.
You don’t need references, J2. You should actually be happy that you’re being taken seriously (except by me, and I’m not sure if anyone takes me seriously here, including me). I was ready to give up on you after your pronouncement that it’s “not [Jeff’s] place” to judge what Ann meant, and I figured you were a drive-by commenter in any case. Others here have more patience.
This place is about intent. If you comment here, and are taken seriously, and are not known, you might have people responding to your comments, and they will attack your arguments. I guess it can be brutal to the new people. I read here for a long time before I jumped in.
Trouble with cynn is we’re onto your schtick, sweetie. You’re like the kid who drives her mom nuts with the perpetual “Why?”
J2: Are you any relation to K2?
Because that’s tall.
There is no soaring analysis going on here. Quite the contrary. The analysis is fairly simple and direct. The hardest part for me was learning the terms, but I figured them out from context after enough time reading the various essays.
To me intentionalism is completely logical and practical, and other methods to determine intent seem quite false.
I’m not sure if anyone takes me seriously here, including me.
It would help if your photo stopped showing up on this blog every other day.
What do you mean by that, Dicentra? Seriously, more of the dismissive shit. It’s a convenience, not an argument.
Yeah, I know. I’m way too slovenly in public. You know that really weird-looking guy? Yup, that’s me.
What do you mean by that, Dicentra? Seriously, more of the dismissive shit. It’s a convenience, not an argument.
If you’ve been here commenting as long as I think you have (which is several years) and you don’t get what Jeff is up to, I don’t know what to do with you except be dismissive.
Dicentra – No, not seriously.
Cranky-D Thanks for the pep talk, but you had me at “Wow, J2, panties in a bunch again?”
Now that’s an argument!
Now that’s an argument!
Here at Protein Wisdom, you can expect to get plenty of good argumentation cut in with heaping helpings of snark and “glibness.”
But we can’t promise in what order they’ll be served up. And if Jeff isn’t in the mood to comment (or his fingers are all sore and hurty), you’ll get more of the latter than the former.
I’d advise you to take a note of the better zingers to use on other blogs at later dates.
I bevieve Jeff wants to hold people accountable for the language they use. I may be mistaken.
“So I have no idea where the accusation that Jeff is a slippery toad comes from…”
from the box of wine on the top shelf in the fridge.
yawn….well….is this racist, JeffieG?
I’m honestly curious about your opinion.
I don’t get why conservatives are so defensive about being called racists…..of course you are racists!
Otherwise there would be some people of color in the GOP besides Malkin, Keyes and Steele.
Bless your lil racist hearts.
Im diggin Jay Sean, feets.
You might like Abby and Raphael too…..MGMT
And Dominoes…. dance trax.
We shud go dancing sometime, feets.
Have you seen Avatar yet? oooooo i luffed it….its district 9 rendered in gamer and PG-13.
its a daisy-cutter packed with liberal memetics aimed at the heart of the 13 yr old demographic….2016 presidential voters ;)
Avatar is already the 4th highest grossing movie of all time.
I think it will be bigger than Star Wars.
Hifalutin rhetorical gloss like “hifalutin with your soaring analysis” in place of my pedestrian question is dismissive too, in its way, equally a convenience (to the extent it overcooks the terms) as opposed to argument cynn. But then, why do I suspect you know that and don’t actually need the information?
The stereotyping of Obama was all done by people like Sully on the left. None of them actually come into relationship-type contact with black people, so their exposure to them is limited to Hollywood movies, rappers, and smiling at the occasional brother that shops at Trader Joes.
This caused them to mistake Obama’s dull wit and anger for some sort of smoldering cool. We all see what we want to most of the time, and they wanted Obama to be what Joe Biden claimed he was, a ‘clean and articulate’ man, who just so happened to be black.
Now their darkest fears are coming true; the smoldering is manifesting itself as petulance, the cool has given way to a serious case of dorkiness, and the man himself turns out to have the decision making ability of a thirteen year old girl trying to pick her favorite Jonas Brother.
The Democrats bought the image totally and they are stung hard, but like a girl that won’t admit that her dream guy is Rock Hudson level gay, they are determined to stick out the loveless marriage.
Amongst all the hurts, I think it is the dorkiness that hurts the most. When you thought you elected a cross between Denzel and Booker T. Washington, and you wake up to find Urkel with his feet up on the furniture in the Oval Office, there are bound to be some tears.
J2, I saw no immediate reason to argue with you, as I explained. You had set yourself up as judge (“not your place”), and I assumed you were a drive-by commenter. Others have responded to your arguments, and as I also stated subsequently, I have nothing to add to them. It’s not as if this place doesn’t get a lot of comments like the one you left at first from people who never return.
But you get on with your bad self!
#106 Comment by J2 on 1/4 @ 8:04 pm
“PS If you want to go by the Newsrouter definition of glib,”
merriam-webster def of “glib”
here
The crazy train is stopping at cooltown, I see.
And the trolls know that every word is true.
Again, what dicentra said.
When all somebody knows about black people is what the somebody sees on TV or through the windshield, perspectives get skewed. Badly.
“the man himself turns out to have the decision making ability of a thirteen year old girl trying to pick her favorite Jonas Brother.”
HA!
Effin’ perfect.
Some of my best friends are drive-by commenters.
I believe Jeff wants to hold people accountable for the language they use. I may be mistaken.
You are 180° out of phase. Jeff wants people to stop using their own interpretations of what people say as a means to condemn the people, regardless of what they actually meant.
In this case, Andrew Sullivan notices that conservatives are criticizing that one Obama photo. The complaints are about Obama’s expression not being very flattering to him because he looks bad — bored, condescending, snooty, tired, whatever — to the commenters.
Sully figures that the criticisms aren’t about Obama looking bad but about Obama being blackity black black because all conservative criticisms of Obama are by definition racist, in Sully’s eyes.
Jeff points out that Sully is projecting his own handy-dandy stereotype on the conservatives to come up with the “raaaaacist” angle rather than going from any actual evidence of racism.
This is not people being held accountable for the language they use; this is people being called out for grabbing hold of other people’s language — “he looks condescending” — and wringing “racism” out of that language simply because you CAN, not because there’s any reason to believe there’s racism involved.
Sully is engaging in a form of bullying wherein you’re guilty of “saying racist things” no matter what you actually say or what you actually mean. It’s no different from when you grab your little brother’s arm, smack him in the face with it, and say “stop hitting yourself, ya idjit.”
Lol, I still dig Obama.
Im not disappointed…first month in office he kicked the Kassian bioluddites off the bioethics council and legalized eSCR.
He just lifted the ban on HIV positive immigrants.
HCR is going to pass, and then we will be on to amnesty reform in an election year.
;)
mebbe it wont pass, but it will be wildly entertaining to watch the conservative leadership try to hispander the electorate while the teabaggers chew them extra assholes.
life is good.
I cant wait for Jeff’s analysis of the semiotics.
lol
Dicentra-explaining patiently, so you don’t have to! Bless her heart.
I don’t get why conservatives are so defensive about being called racists…of course you are racists!
Saith the eugenicist. Much more irony, Nishi, and you’ll drag the whole blog over to the nearest MRI machine.
How’s O doin’ on the gay marriage thingie, there, nishi?
D’oh! CHRISTIANIST!
Dicentra-explaining patiently, so you don’t have to! Bless her heart.
If I told you this was all the joy my life held, would you duly pity me?
Please say yes. :D
WHY DOES NISHI HATE TEH GAY?
Again, I started a response to cynn, and stopped, and again dicentra handled it better.
From now on I’ll attempt to provide some comic relief.
BTW, how pretentious does one have to be to call oneself “starcaller?” Pretty fucking pretentious, I should think. I mean, I’m pretentious, but compared to that it’s as if I had no pretentiousness at all.
I think Avatar is set to fall in right behind titanic. Have not seen. Will see District 9 this week.
MGMT is the second best thing I discovered this year. Dominos is a keeper.
I read Cameron’s Avatar treatment when it was leaked on the web forever ago. I thought it was harmless Cap’n Planet treacle politically but maybe the games can bring it home.
My boss. He’s become something of a dick. Other Guy is writing a letter. This morning in the meeting he said that Avatar had wonderful themes. I’m thinking how to quantify just how far outside the realm of possibility it is that I’m going to react to your insipid pseudopolitics with anything at all beyond my usual halfhearted attempt to nod at the right places when you drone on you poor lonely passive aggressive sad sad man. Then the phone rang and he answered it and I went and made a mocha.
Dance maybe but for sure we should meet some day I think. That would be a highlight.
Nobody’s said anything about Avatar’s score. I might ask sad sad if I’m bored what he thought.
Whenever I catch myself getting angry at the liberal drivel leaking from the keyboards of Jeff’s pet trolls, I just remember that every day those trolls have to get up and realize that they have elected America’s First Black Doofus President.
And every day they see that the doofus part is becoming more and more obvious.
That is an agony that none of us on this side will ever be stupid enough to know.
Obvy, Nishi hates Teh Gay because she’s so deeply closeted, the self-loathing has inverted itself into malignant self-love, sufficient to warp the mind and canker the soul.
Look on her and weep, PWers. This is what happens when you take postmodernism to its logical conclusion.
“If I told you this was all the joy my life held, would you duly pity me?”
Only if I thought it true.
Sorry, you are making it much too complex. Sully is totally harmless to me; he has a hardon about Obama’s twee gay policies. So do whatever you want with Sully. He’s gay.
I’m happy about the black, the doofus, not so much.
Only if I thought it true.
My mail-order seeds came today, so that strikes the “only.”
For today, at least.
If we had a “whose life sucks the worst” contest, I’d win. My sister used to beat me, but now I beat her.
I love that Avatar came out just as the Climategate scandal was breaking.
In my mind, I pictured James Cameron being bent over a desk and ass fucked by Harlan Ellison with a steel alloy, combat-chassised Terminator cock.
But I’m off that way. Semiotically speaking.
Sorry, you are making it much too complex.
That’s why I called you the kid with the eternal “why”: no matter what we say, you act like we haven’t explained anything at all. Or anything of import.
Is it OK if our priorities differ from yours?
I hate immigration as an issue. Hate it. It has nothing to do with freedom but the way the little president man is playing his cards we have an economy where health care becomes a bribe to get illegals to come here. Not an incentive. A bribe.
The economies south of us are going to be the growing dynamic ones. I know cause of my friend in Chicago on messenger was talking about etfs before Christmas.
He knows from etfs. Near as I can tell.
I liked District 9, but like most movies I see these days, I went in with low expectations. I would say it makes a statement, of a sort, and the characters are refreshingly self-centered and not apologetic about it.
When I see Avatar, once it arrives at the local cheap theater down the street ($3 every day, $2 on Tuesdays and before 5pm), I will approach it with the same low expectations. Eye candy, weak script, and stupid “message.”
“bioluddites off the bioethics council and legalized eSCR.”
nothing says “PROGRESSIVE” then backing loser research. axs mike mann
#144 dicentra:
And when it comes down to it, all eugeniicists are racists.
So nishi/kate mengele is a racist. And as such – detestable.
He knows from etfs.
I’ve always wondered where this locution came from (and I don’t know what ETFs are): “he knows from X.” I’m thinking it came from Italian, which would require the preposition “de” after the “knows” verb, and then they translate it out as “from” even though it’s not required in English.
But I don’t actually know because I don’t know about Italian prepositions. Maybe I’ll ask my brother.
I don’t really see the contempt others see in the picture.
But then I can’t get past the slack face and chinese eyes.
I’m thinking the guy ain’t hearing a word Biden is saying…he’s busy planning a Doritos run.
Oops. I didn’t mean to imply District 9 has a stupid message. I’m not sure if it has a message at all.
“James Cameron being bent over a desk and ass fucked by Harlan Ellison with a steel alloy, combat-chassised Terminator cock.
But I’m off that way. Semiotically speaking.”
The movie behind the movie-Harlan Ellison is portrayed by R. Lee Ermey.
legalizing escr neutralized it as politics I think… I honestly wouldn’t fall over in shock if the Rs put banning it in their platform but when they don’t do so I will smile because in my heart I will know that yes they can be taught.
Hey, Jeff, check THIS piece of shit from NPR out:
‘Learn To Speak Tea Bag’
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120344047&ps=cprs
The comments are just tearing NPR into itty-bitty little pieces of reactionary leftist.
A thing of beauty.
“he knows from X.”
I have always thought it originated with partial Yiddish speakers. Though I don’t know why that’s what I thought.
banning federal funding blah blah blah…
LBascom: yup. He’s bored with Joe, and wondering where to send Joe next. “Somewhere not here,” he’s thinking.
#149 happyfeet:
From the descriptions, Avatar is just a high-tech Little Big Horn or Islandhwana.
Of course, history says what happened aftter Little Big Horn and Islandhwana. And ‘Aliens’ says what would hapeen after ‘Avatar’:
“Pull back to orbit and nuke the place – it is the only way to be sure.”
I was wrong. I looked it up at WordReference, and it doesn’t appear that Italian uses a preposition between sapere or conoscere and the direct object.
Back to the drawing board.
True that, Mikey NTH: In my vision, Ridley Scott is cheering Ellison on with rodeo gyrations.
Seriously, Starcaller Nishi? Those are the accomplishments you laud Obama for?
Perhaps you should throw in something just as monumental like, ‘After running it by Rahm, Obama picked out the tile in the downstairs half-bath with only one committee, and a single focus group for guidance’.
Admit it: Obama is so bad you miss Bush.
I have always thought it originated with partial Yiddish speakers.
That might be it. It’s got to be something from NYC. But I can’t evaluate Yiddish well enough to know how it’s structured. Italian is close enough to Spanish that I can.
escr was not illegal under Bush. It simply wasn’t given Federal funding. I don’t think the Federal government funding something or not funding it makes it either legal or illegal. In fact, I would just as soon the Feds got out of science funding entirely, as well as a lot of other funding they do. There was a good argument (a lecture) against government-funded science on the web somewhere, but I cannot recall where it was.
what was interesting in reading the treatment was the imagination and effort he brought to creating an ecology… plants and critters and the interplay… but it was more comic booky than cinematic I thought… apparently it was also very cinematic.
escr was not illegal under Bush
that’s what my #169 was meant to catch… I knew better than that and it still came out just how NPR would have wanted it to…
lol, Starcaller is a Wow title……..means my guild downed Algalon the Observer in 10man…and I was there.
Well….no spoilers, but Avatar is District 9 rendered in PG-13.
Its the same message, right down to the alien/human DNA hybridization.
the other is you.
sort of an anti-conservative message what with y’all being racists.
;)
Im content to wait for the judiciary to take down DOMA and DADT, just like the judiciary took down anti-miscegenation laws and segregation academies.
its their JOB lol.
c’mon Jeff…..is the shoeshine picture racist?
Not that kind. Sheesh.
It’s Germanishy, I’m thinking: “er weiß, aus Äpfeln” = “he knows from apples”
“In my mind, I pictured James Cameron being bent over a desk and ass fucked by Harlan Ellison with a steel alloy, combat-chassised Terminator cock.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!
“…you use your tongue prettier than a 20-dollar whore.”
I just don’t see the Win in opposing science funding when these R losers vote for so much splendiferous spendy gayness.
Comment by Starcaller Nishi on 1/4 @ 9:07 pm #
Do you have late stage syphilis?
Is Nishi capable of expressing an original thought?
Sorry, hf. That was lazy of me.
Is Nishi capable of expressing an original thought?
She expresses thoughts that few lefties would admit out loud — eugenics, etc. — so there’s that.
It’s Germanishy, I’m thinking: “er weiß, aus Äpfeln” = “he knows from apples”
Then maybe Yiddish has it too. OK, case closed.
LL —
JHo pointed to that NPR bit earlier. Tomorrow I’ll post about it how I think it should be dealt with.
District 9 was a great movie.
Avatar bored me. Maybe on acid it would have been better, but I would have appreciated a coherent story. Comments by me and others about Avatar.
Given its Newton’s birthday today, I was bothered by the floating mountains of Avatar. Don’t the laws of physics work on moons around Alpha Centauri too? Turns out they float because they are made of unobtainium. Okay. So why didn’t the evil minors just take a floating mountain and call it a day? Better yet, since this stuff sells for billions of dollars a kilo, why not just selectively mine under the surface with boring machines, with the blue folks above not being wiser for it? Why strip mine the pristine jungleland and knock down the bitchin tree house?
Come to think of it, the only answer to this karmic quandry is Harlan Ellison taking care of business with Cameron. With Linda Hamilton looking on, smoking a cigarette, and smiling.
That isn’t so much an R thing. The Republican Congress passed it in 2006. In fact, it was Mike Castle’s (R-DE)* bill. It’s a Bush thing and as a political football, well, he’s Baracky’s favorite.
* Looky what UPI did with that bit.
nishi is a good person and a smart person and she thinks and she’s right a painful amount of the time…
I wish she’d speak more to the economics of what’s been done on our little country of late. The economics are not freedom ones.
Good point, Pablo.
You don’t get it….the 13 year olds that are watching Avatar in theaters and playin the console game and goin to buy the dvd and pant over the sequel are going to be 19 in 2016.
Avatar is going to be a trilogy….like Star Wars.
You might have a homerotic rape fantasy starring Cameron and Ellison….but are you going to deny satch a trip to IMAX to see Avatar when all his friends are seein it?
hehe, all your base are belong to us.
;)
Comment by Jeff G. on 1/4 @ 9:15 pm #
Missed it, Jeff.
She expresses thoughts that few lefties would admit out loud — eugenics, etc. — so there’s that.
Indeed, she’s living proof that Jonah Goldberg is right about liberal fascism.
Comment by Starcaller Nishi on 1/4 @ 9:22 pm #
So who is YOUR favorite Jonas Brother?
On acid it would have been funny, sidesplitting, but hell on acid bathroom tile is funny and don’t get me started about PB&J, that’s too personal.
“Tomorrow I’ll post about it how I think it should be dealt with.”
does that include federally funded demorat gov’t like acorn, npr, nea, seiu, and other fed gov’t demorat creations?
nishi is a good person
Bullshit.
…grow up. Perhaps one day you’ll join them.
Re Avatar:
They spent $400mm and couldnt come up with…. a fucking plot?
Nishi, I’m sorry. Of course they did. An American Indian creation fable/ up-tempo new-age yoga narative/how 30-foot tall ocelots fuck movie.
Yup. I bet Peter Jackson is shitting his pants when The Hobbit starts shooting next year.
I think it’s desensitizing politically, not sensitizing… it’s same as what they get in school… it’s not the politics what sparkles I don’t think. I have to see the movie now I guess.
In a different context, Pablo mentioned the old Voltaire quote recently. It applies again.
That dreck “Avatar” is going to have a sequel? If “Avatar” was “Dances With Wolves” in space, will the sequel be “The Postman” in space?
I think the plot criticism misses the point. This is more like a ride than a story.
fromwhatiunderstandwithoutseeingthestupidmovie
HF: I agree. But even a video game attempts a plot, before they get down to blasting dudes.
mr jeff g.
i’m just saying these demorat backstabbers have been at work for awhile.
The “Avatar” sequal will be called “Smurfahontas”.
And then “Dances With Wolf Blitzer”.
And yeah I used that joke before.
Sue me.
My money’s on Waterworld.
Here’s a plot: A young man boards an airplane with explosives in his underwear. As the plane is landing he attempts to set his explosives off, but fails and is captured alive. In the next few hours he says he knows more young men like himself are on their way to blow up other planes or create other mayhem. The capturing authorities now tell him he has the right to remain silent and here is your lawyer young man, listen to him. Other young men like the first do follow on to blow up other planes and create more mayhem. And the authorities who suggested the first young man be silent keep their jobs running the nation. Brilliant!
lol….you guyz don’t get Avatar, because……you arent 13….you are “grups” like that ancient Star Trek ep.
its partly rendered in gamer…the floating sky islands are right out of Nagrand and the Outlands.
the CGI and 3D technology is awesome.
you guyz are sitting around yellin get off my lawn while culture is passing you by.
for me its magic….for you its borin’
;)
Pure fantasy, sdferr. No one would buy that story in a million years.
#192 – happyfeet: No, nishi is not a good person. That is what the ‘kate mengele’ thing is all about. She is 180 degrees from a good person.
Sing some Guys and Dolls for us, hipster.
Andi said he wanted hot milky loads in his mouth and ass from HIV-positive men. What could he have meant by that? What was his intent?
…the floating sky islands are right out of Nagrand and the Outlands.
Starcaller Nishi, you are taking that Instapundit stuff way too seriously. Now go outside and play for a couple of hours. In the sun.
“O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.
What good is ridiculous if they’re not also powerless?
Comment by Starcaller Nishi on 1/4 @ 9:39 pm #
Do you ever wonder what life would be like if you’d had enough oxygen at birth?
Heh, my comment was directed towards Nishi, not someone with actual, you know, power.
Oh baby Obama, I weep for the future…
I apologize to Glenn Reynolds.
does that include federally funded demorat gov’t like acorn, npr, nea, seiu, and other fed gov’t demorat creations?
Put your money on a rhetorical response, duud. Railing against those other orgs is Beck and Breitbart’s bailiwick.
Ok, cranky-d, how about we add another element, like once they silence the failed bomber guy, they immediately turn to harassing hundreds of thousands of innocent airpassengers who merely want to board airliners in order to travel to business or vacation destinations, wasting time and vast sums of money in the process? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I know from bad person.
Ohhh, the classic heartbreak. TCU shoots a Hail Mary pass in the last :30 seconds, it pops up, and BSU intercepts.
Game over, man. Game. Over.
That’s about it.
Nishi thinks when today’s kids grow up they’ll look to people like her and Obama as hip.
Not gonna happen. Paraphrasing Mr W, no self-respecting teenage rebel is going to take his cool cues from a jug-eared Harvard man in mommy jeans.
Oh hey. Iowahawk dropped a line.
But the best retort so far is this one: I guess next time I see some gay guys, I’ll say “what up, tea-baggers!”. ‘Cause it’s not insulting or anything, right? I heard from the the classy, and refined, and well educated NPR folks, and they’re my betters.
Well, at least racist bigot terrorist-excusing Nishidiot us up to her usual tricks, accusing others of what she believes.
Go on, fucktard, give up your self-hatred and own your ideology. Constantly espousing racism and fascism while accusing others of being the “real” racists and fascists must hurt even your brain.
Vaca foeda
Actually, Burge pops off several good quips in that NPR thread. But read ’em fast; the moderator is swift indeed with the delete button.
#228 Jeff G.: You said:
Nishi thinks when today’s kids grow up they’ll look to people like her as hip.
What is even sadder is that she thinks she is hip right now.
Whereas, back in 1978, when I was playing Star Fleet Battles and AD&D I knew I was anything but hip.
I was a nerd and a geek, but at least I was self-aware enough to know that I was a nerd and geek. Nishi, on the other hand, is so obtuse that she actually thinks her sci-fi references proves that she is cool.
“Well….no spoilers, but Avatar is District 9 rendered in PG-13.
Its the same message, right down to the alien/human DNA hybridization.
the other is you.
sort of an anti-conservative message what with y’all being racists.” – Nishi
““District 9” is fucking terrible.” – Brett Easton Ellis
As they disagree, I suppose we’ll just have to see which one of them more strongly affects the culture over the next few years.
Nishi, here’s a spoiler for you: idiotic affectations are the reason why everything smelled vaguely of shit in Glamorama.
well…no….Jeff taught me that perception is reality, when I started here.
if there are no people of color in your party….then you are obviously perceived as racists.
therefore….you are racists. ;)
quod erat demonstrandum.
One of em’s already removed, dicentra. Because if you say in the thread what they said in the video, your comment is deleted.
I wrote a note to the Ombudsman a bit back letting them know what colossal hypocrites they were. Doubt anything will get through their thick skulls, especially with those huge turbans made of tightly-wrapped ideology.
They think they “won” and now they get to do whatever they want. They never did understand consequences, which will come back to visit them mercilessly. And they will be shocked and dismayed, and whine about how unfair it is.
It lives in its own little world.
#236 Merovign: yes, it does – a rather frightening world, at that. At least the ones that Gary Gygax and Steven Cole described allowed for some fun.
Nishi thinks when today’s kids grow up they’ll look to people like her and Obama as hip.
?
Obama is cool now.
Hes icecold….and he’s goin to be icecold in the history books too.
Me? I’ve always been a nerd….mebbe someday there will be a theorem or an algorithm named after me….or a superparticle. ;)
But that won’t make me cool.
Will your book make you cool, JeffieG?
When its published?
“then you are obviously perceived as racists.”
i like painting things with whatever colors i want
“mebbe someday there will be a theorem or an algorithm named ”
stupid fascist idiot progg or 2 year old mentality
Denigrate? Meh, so-so.
Kinda off topic, kinda not:
I started following Chuck Klosterman because I get a kick out of him when he goes on Bill Simmons’ podcast. Recently, via twitter, he recommended The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema. So I downloaded it. While watching it, I immediately thought that Jeff might have fun critiquing it (even as he probably would enjoy the wacky theories being offered).
So, with this in mind, I was going to link the IMDB page along with the recommendation in a comment for Jeff.
Where I found this rather remarkable reader review:
Weird little synchronicity.
This may look like #238. Hes icecold….and he’s goin to be icecold in the history books too. But I do mean it, with all my heart and soul, I do mean that. But it is not a quote. Not at all.
I stopped reading The Atlantic about the time Sullivan came on board. What is he doing writing for what used to be a liberal magazine? He’s not a liberal so don’t try to throw him over to us. Why would anyone read him when he has been wrong on almost every issue, not only wrong but he has jumped back and forth so many times it’s difficult to tell if you are looking at his face or his ass. He doesn’t belong in the same magazine as James Fallows.
Nice little melting pot idea. Multiculturalist Balkanization and identity politics? Not so much.
Guess which side I’m on.
bh —
Remarkable review. One would hope that person would look back one day and be embarrassed. But my guess is, he probably keeps a copy of it framed above his computer, and likes to bring it up at parties.
What’s funny is the reviewer thinks that because Wimsatt and Beardsley said it, it must be true. IRONY BLIZZARD!
Here’s the deal: W and B were New Critics, with New Criticism being a formalist movement that grew out of the thinking of the Southern Agragrians, themselves tied politically to the populists.
On the one hand, the New Critics had it right: close reading of the text is important. But they are wrong that a text’s meaning “belongs” to the reading public. The text gives clues to the author’s intent — to the meaning of the communication. Looking at the text as merely a sequence of empty signifiers is certainly possible (and maybe even enjoyable), but it isn’t interpretation. Again, by switching contexts, you aren’t adding to the text’s meaning; what you are doing is finding ever new sets of readers to come along and signify.
They aren’t adding to the meaning of a public text. They are using someone else’s signifiers to create a new text.
In the best of cases, the New Critics were arriving at the author’s meaning by way of close reading, even as they expressly declared themselves uninterested in the author’s intent. And that because as I’ve said, the intent can not be separated from the text; therefore, to talk about the intention of the text is to talk about the intention of the agency responsible for signifying.
See also, Scalia, Fish, and the Dim Sum Dumpling.
Well, Jeff, that’s informative, well reasoned and everything but I suspect that reviewer would already have his retort in hand.
“In reality, anyone who studies theory would immediately discredit this guys opinion (I suggest you should too) as it is completely off point.”
Besides, you typed in all caps. This means you’re yelling and clearly losing the argument. And, frankly, as I’ve now read a short wikipedia article, this means I get to ignore the fact that you mean no such thing by it.
INTENTIONAL FALLACY PROMOTER!
so last week, I told my dad how he’s really racist and he was all, “nuh uh, do you know how many black people I’ve hired?” exactly dad… exactly.
How many black people must one hire before one is not a racist? How many black people does one need to vote for president before one is not a racist?
I need these figures, people!
I just don’t see how this isn’t heading toward, “So you’re calling me a racist? Well, I’ll show you racist!”
The only way to not be a racist is to not be white and Sullivan knows it. So he becomes the Jew who works for the Nazis in Mila 18.
It ain’t socialism or communism that gives the NFL its ratings. It’s capitalism. But if this “You only criticize Obama because you’re a racist gets any more out of hand, it’s gonna be real organized racism that brings down the NFL, the NBA (not a far fall) and anything else that depends on white money. The fear of being called a racist is waning. Or at least it’s turning into “That’s your argument? I’m a racist?”
I’m not afraid of being called a racist. Skin color became very important in ’08. Historic even.
Well…the thing he (or it) shows knowing is that the only way to not be a RACIST! is to be at the top of whiteness-as-hierarchy, to be one of the white people who decides who’s
not whiteRACIST!. Being (called) RACIST! is–real-world how-it-works style–being (called) not white (enough (to decide who’s white)).A black guy who hates you doesn’t call you RACIST! (or even racist), I mean. He calls you “cracker” (or whatever). Unless he’s whiter than you are. Hierarchically speaking. Like, he works for The Atlantic, say. Then he calls you RACIST! (or racist). To prove he’s white (enough). To white people.
Black people don’t gather amongst themselves and lament your RACISM! (or even racism), I mean. They only do that to ingratiate themselves to real white people. Who decide. Amongst themselves. At, like, The Atlantic.
You don’t get to say. You only get to take it or not. Not taking it is a rejection of whiteness-as-hierarchy, and so of access to that high vantage from which you, too, could decide who’s
not whiteRACIST!. If you were white enough.Like, so white you could work for The Atlantic. Maybe even so white no one would notice if the “you” working for The Atlantic was an unindividuable it of white people. That white. The whitest-est.
I can dunk with 2 hands, yet my belly actually glows in the dark. Quandary?
Comment by Starcaller Nishi on 1/4 @ 9:39 pm
Poor thing; all that Sweetie is saying is her life would nothing without self-loathing Hollywood crapping all over her pimply face.
The other is you if you are a white guy. If you are a blue guy the other is still the other.
#213
LOLZ!
I don’t care how delicious it is, it’s way too cold for a DQ frozen treat.
Just because somebody’s 13, nishi, doesn’t mean they can’t see through the bullshit in a movie…
The 3d was pretty cool, though.
Kate Mengele
There used to be this ice cream store called Farrell’s. It was a glizted out vision of trying to be an 1800’s Ice Cream Parlor. It was really a popular place to take kids and teens liked it for the “theater” of ordering this huge, monster bowl of ice cream topped with all manner of whipped cream, nuts, fruit and sprinkles. They even put little flags all over it and two guys would carry around the store while a siren played to alert everyone to the table that had ordered it.
But you know, their ice cream was average and, underneath it all, it was still just dessert. One can’t make a real meal on just dessert.
But 13 year olds LUVD it.
MASSACHUSETTS SENATE RACE HEATS UP: Rasmussen Shows Brown Within 9 Percent.
Pablo ees koink to owes me sum monny, mang.
I prefer the term ‘White Supremacist’ when denouncing myself. I always thought the term racist was more suitable for all the liberals who weren’t deep enough thinkers to realize that it was them carrying water for the Volksfry movement.
“I prefer the term ‘White Supremacist’ when denouncing myself.”
Sorry, RS McCain has that copyrighted.
I’m trying to think of a photo caption with a Special Olympics reference, but it’s not coming to me..
well…no….Jeff taught me that perception is reality, when I started here.
If what you say is true, then it is not possible for Jeff to teach you anything. You percieved the lesson as being this, regardless of Jeff’s intent, and therefore it became that.
if there are no people of color in your party….then you are obviously perceived as racists.
therefore….you are racists. ;)
And if you persist in aping the writing skills of a six-year-old, then you are obviously perceived as an unlettered imbecile.
Therefore: You are retarded.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
Geez, Brown is down 9 percent with 14 days until the election? And nowhere near the cash Coakley has?
You wanna double down, Mr. W?
These people have Romneycare and still want Obamacare. They’re fucking hopeless, I tell ya.
nishi is a really boring obnoxious cunt.
The main reason I’m not seeing Avatar is the 3-D thing. A left eye that renders the world in Watered-Down-Miso-Soup-Vision doesn’t do much for the whole 3-D illusion.
Plus, the last few movies I’ve been able to see in the theater are of the “Alvin and the Chipmunks”, “Princess and the Frog”, and “Caillou Makes Non-Canadian Really Uncomfortable” genre.
Newton’s Oranges
I never taught that perception is reality. I suggested that many people believe that perception is reality. Which is good to know, when you are trying to persuade them.
I also happen to believe many people are idiots.
Star Wars was released in 1977. Jimmy Carter was president. In the next presidential election we elected Ronald Reagan.
poor nishi.
Makewi,
I find your lack of faith, disturbing.
My hopes are pinned on the democrat machine being a bit rusty, Pablo. When your reputation hasn’t required you to take the old Liberal Hot Rod out of the garage for forty years, you can’t be sure it still runs.
When was the last time Teddy had an opponent? Coakley has an opponent, and some very high unfavorables.
IF Democrats can vote for someone other than the Dem candidate, and
IF, as I believe, The socialist bent of Mass. is as thin as Obama’s qualificatios, and IF God cares about the fate of the Republic…
Brown wins.
Deval was tooling around in it just 3 short years ago. While the GOP machine remains in the garage, on blocks and drained of all fluids. And nobody’s quite sure where the keys are. And it’s a Gremlin. Good luck with that. Really.
Gregg Easterbrook, yes, a liberal, has a pretty negative review of Avatar in his latest TMQ column. Of course, he’s an adult, not a 13 year old or Nishi.
(He also worries the Packers might have angered the football gods. Uh-oh!)
ATTENTION:
The previous post is not in any way meant to construe an offer by Mr. W, or any parties purporting to be, or to represent Mr. W in any licensing, gaming, or contractual sense, an offer to multiply the earnings, or losses resulting from a wager based on the outcome of the Massachusetts Special Election (hereafter referred to as MSE) with any parties known now, in the past, or in the future as “Pablo”.
Mr. W has graciously offered to send his winnings to Mr. Goldstein’s burgeoning media empire should Coakley the (D) socialist hack lose.
Kate Mengele believes that perception is reality? That explains why she keeps coming back here – she perceives that she receives respect for her views.
Such a rich fantasy life – it is almost Bidenesque!
Sorry, how embarrassing, not meant to convey any lust for Homer. Whoever that square was, anyway. I mean, who reads, anymore?
Or learns to write, even? I mean, there’s phonetext. What else could possibly be needed? After all, we’re all going to be telepaths in a few years.
Squares!
That’s so progressive, nuggie. Reminds me that the Ringworld’s coming!
Publish a newsletter, please.
I mean, who reads, anymore?
The battle-cry of the super-SMRTest tribe ever. The Scientists!
I hope nobody mistook the Starfucker for Starcaller, really. Starfucker doesn’t quite have the ineptitude with spelling, grammar, syntax and logical point-making that Starcaller does.
And, really, neither does anyone else. What’s the opposite of “excel”, again?
Nishi’s main point doesn’t even rise to a decent level of interest. Appeal to popularity is such a well-known and (therefore) ineffective logical fallacy; amazing that she still attempts to wield it. I’m guessing: nodrop/noremove, repop on death.
And I’m sure that there are positively dozens of people who could be impressed by whatever online escapades Nishi is referring to, and that care. To the extent that they might be impressive, though, her accomplishments in multi-player gaming still leave her woefully deficient in scoring points in other venues.
Nishit is still rubbing one out while gazing longingly at Teh One’s hope poster.