Blogs – Page 21 – Prog Gold

Brevity, Brevity, All Is Brevity

Published on March 4, 2007

Sauce for the goose

In blogging brevity counts; there’s only so many turgid blocks of text you can read on-screen before your gaze starts sliding off the page and really, why bother? Lifes’ too damned short and many other good writers are only a click away.

I’m one of the worst offenders – a bit of a windbag, prone to go off into mangled subclauses and get lost in the forest of metaphor, overfond of the unnecessary adverb and a little too enamoured of big words and the hyphenated-compound-phrase. But I do admire the ability to be both witty and concise, so well done Norbizness’ for this virtuoso display of miniaturisation :

As we have all seen, a correlation between decreased food inspections and shitloads of people barfing all over the place cannot be conclusively and faith-basedly proven. If your kid asks what ever happened to habeus corpus, tell them it’s in writ heaven playing with all the other dead writs. // Everyone as crazy as Ayn Rand Henry Ford knows that unions are far bigger terrorists than radicalized Muslims. They’re terrorizing CEOs, the heart and soul of our country! // Remember, for the 54000th time: the only way to fix problems is to muzzle the complainers. // States that want money for children’s health insurance or contraceptive information for vulnerable, poor women should realize that they just can’t compete with Lockheed executives. Give it up! (links courtesy of Bitch Ph.D.) Enjoy your severe poverty, chumps! // Speaking of massive federal indifference, it appears that regional factions are attempting to tackle global warming; none too soon, either, because of the re-appearance of La Nina. // More on persecuting the competent prosecutors in favor of political hacks. // Finally, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the government is lying to you about its effective in combating terrorism, as well as the negative effects of medical marijuana.

All this and furry puppies too!

Unpacking and reading that little lot will go very nicely with tea, toast, the sunday papers and The Archers and will just about satisfy my quota of smug middle class liberal outrage for the rest of the day.

[The eyecandyat the top’s just by way of adding to the gaiety of nations.]

Comment of The Day, Celtic Twilight Edition

Published on February 28, 2007

[Panic over – no hospital was required this time. I feel like shit, but luckily blogging doesn’t require perfect health, just persistence, irritability and the insatiable urge to snark.]

Speaking of which, Sadly No and Ampersand have had a bit of a falling out over the former’s mockery of the latter’s blogrolling of the extremely-sad-on-so-many-levels Daffyd Ap Hugh:

I don’t know who’s wrong, I don’t know who’s right, and who cares just so long as it gives rise to comments like this:

Jillian said,

April 24, 2006 at 20:41

This is the sort of bold warrior you’d find in the pages of the Mabinogion!

Can’t you see him, standing in his breeches and tunic, covered in woad tattoos, inovking the names of his ancestors, like Math ab Mathonwy, before riding in his chariot off to battle, the fierce battle cry of his clan rolling off his lips…

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETOS!

The whole ‘fat is political, don’t be mean because he’s fat’ argument some of the other commenters are having in that thread is typical of why the left never gets anywhere against these winger inadequates. Debating the morality of mocking somebody for their appearance, especially when it is so obviously loathsome, seems somewhat irrelevant given the years of online evidence of Ap Hugh’s own patented ad-feminam wankery. Plus he’s just been given a gig subbing for known genocidal torture-advocate Michelle Malkin, where it’s always open season, so mock away.

Sound Familiar?

Published on February 23, 2007

BBC:

The UK and US have held high level talks on the possibility of putting a “Son of Star Wars” anti-ballistic missile defence system on British soil.

An article in The Economist claims Prime Minister Tony Blair has lobbied President George Bush for the system.

If only...

Full as he is of himself and full as his rhetoric is of high-minded platitudes, what he really wants to do is to is, well, what he wants to do. He sees a public statement of principles as a definition of a kind of a boundary: “aha, this tells me how far I can go, and hence anything I do up until that point is fair play!” Now, me, I see a statement of principles as an aspiration and a guide for behavior, and not as grounds for endless, twisty, knotty ethical negotiation and compromise. The weasel’s twist, the weasel’s tooth — sign a pact with Tac, that’s what you get.

Thers, actually referring to wingnut and arch civility hypocrite Josh Trevino. But it fits.

The Sins Of The Father

Published on February 23, 2007

I meant to mention this post of Martin’s from Wisse Words in the week but it slipped my mind, sorry.

But he points out one of the big unspokens about wingnuts, and wingnut pundits in particular, though it’s not a phenomenon that’s exclusive to the US right:that it’s all about Daddy.

Wed 21 Feb 2007
More Reynolds

Scruggs over at UFO Breakfast Recipients has read my post on Glenn Reynolds and points out something I missed: that Reynolds’ dad was a moderately famous antiwar protestor himself and much of his behaviour may just be because of unresolved daddy issues:

Now let’s be clear that many young, rebellious kids say awful things. I made my parents wince more times than I care to contemplate when I was in the throes of puberty. And some parents really are pretty dreadful. Growing up and individuating is not always easy, especially in an authoritarian state. So one can understand why some apsects of the angry, frustrated, spiteful child persist into physical adulthood.

They certainly do: witness the angry frustrated, spitefuilly childish rightwing bloggers and commenters in full flow this week post- Reynolds’ call for the assassination of nuclear scientists and clerics who have had the misfortune not to be born white and American. The uber-angry, frustrated, spitefuilly childish Instapundit is right in the vanguard of the Daddy-issues wingers.

There’s certainly past evidence for Scruggs’ thesis that Reynolds (and by extension, his fellow wingnut pundits) has unresolved paternal issues and it comes from a unexpected, hawkish source:

Listen to Yourself, Instaman
by Gene Healy | Jan 9, 2003 | 4 comments

So here’s Glenn Reynolds on the US (the Daddy Country) and its relationship with other countries (sniveling, spoiled teenage brats with no respect for authority):

LAST NIGHT there was a Cosby show rerun on Nickelodeon. Theo defies his parents, and they leave him with nowhere to live in order to teach him that actions have consequences, and forgiveness isn’t to be taken for granted.

This morning Howard Kurtz is writing about the surprising degree of support, even among conservatives, for the idea of hanging South Korea out to dry. I wonder if there’s a parallel to be drawn here?

… long-term, there’s a lot to be gained by reminding our triangulating allies that American love, and American forgiveness, are not to be taken for granted either. That’s a lesson we keep ramming home to the Germans. And the Koreans need to learn it too.

We live in a world where most of our allies are Theo Huxtables: self-centered, unrealistic, and overconfident in their assorted schemes because they know Heathcliff will always bail them out in the end. But this isn’t a situation comedy.

[…]

Reynolds is like one of those spoiled, crying, snot-nosed children you see shrieking and grabbing their parents’ sleeve in the supermarket. “Daddy! Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!, DADDY!! Notice meeeeee!”

The Rapier is Mightier Than The Spiked Club

Published on February 23, 2007

Speaking of deadly courtesy……the US blogosphere has it’s own seasoned practitioner in General JC Christian, who with deceptively gentle acidity points out the evidence for wingnut Michael Medved’s (see Martin’s post) undoubted, red-blooded heterosexuality:

Friday, February 23, 2007

Remember, Michael Medved is 110% heterosexual

I’ve learned a couple of things about Mr. Medved since yesterday when I asked you to remind yourselves that he’s as heterosexual as Lindsey Graham. I think it’s important that I address them quickly before people get the wrong idea.

First, Seattle Dan tells us he saw Mr. Medved on a mandate with former WA gubernatorial candidate John Carlson at a Seattle movie theater. According to Dan, the manly couple seemed to enjoy the film, Shrek, very much. He also reports that he did not see them holding hands, but he can’t rule it out either.

I don’t see anything wrong with a man bonding with another man by attending a children’s movie about a love affair between an ogre and a princess. It sounds like good, clean, manly, heterosexual fun to me, like watching NASCAR or punching each other in the shoulder. And inasmuch as Dan doesn’t mention any tongue action, I think we have to conclude, notwithstanding any popcorn tricks, that it wasn’t anything more than a harmless little mandate between two very special friends.

Second, on his Thursday show, Sam Seder told a story about an interview he had with Medved when Sam was promoting his book, F.U.B.A.R.. During a break, Medved asked him if his coauthor, Stephen Sherrill, was his “partner.” Seder replied that while he and Sherrill sometimes collaborated, “partner” might not be the right term. Medved responded that he meant “partner” in the sense of being lovers. Seder said, “No, I’m married,” and Medved replied with something like “but, so am I.”

Hmmmm…

Please notice that at no time did Mr. Medved invite Seder’s little soldier to go spelunking in his cave of ecstasy. I think that’s all the evidence we need. Obviously, Mr. Medved is 110% heterosexual.

Labels: Our Man Flanders

It’s tempting to go in with boots and fists flailing and I’m hardly the one to be needlessly civil when dealing with fuckwits. But sometimes the rapier is more effective, and funnier, than the club with nails in it.