Unusual Kausfiles Posts: a) He sets out to make a clear argument; b) He actually makes a coherent argument well-supported by the evidence; c) He uses paragraph structure, rather than just listing items 1), 2), 3), etc. or a), b), c). [But if he keeps this up, how are we going to parody him?--ed. Like that's going to happen any time soon.]
It has become a ridiculous trope of our current discourse in politics to find people who are identified as a certain type but they really have a strong view against that type on issue y or z. And it is this iconoclasm or contrariness that gives the view legitimacy. Thus my colleagues interested in healthcare spending like the Governor Kempthorne (R) of Idaho because he raised taxes rather than cut Medicaid. (See, even Republicans can think you shouldn't throw people out of wheelchairs! You can do it too if you try Ken Mehlman!). Republicans do the same thing as well.
So sophistry rules in Athens, yet again. And the worst are all the twits who call C-Span on the other party's line because they think they are putting something over on us all. It's even in Athens GA.
Then there are the people who make a living by occupying that role all the time. Zell Miller, David Brock etc. Although Brock at least is doing something more with Media Matters. But "Even the liberal new republic" is a sort of truism on warblogs that some of my overly liberal colleagues (thank God Benton isn't my real name) like to make fun of. I think that specific one is overblown but there is enough truth to it that it is identifiable as taking part in this pose.
But Kaus. My god. Kaus is the living embodiment of that pose. He is the personification of that sophistic trope. And what's worse, as a result of the extent to which he's beaten this horse, he has nowhere else to go but left in order to redeem the trope and thus make a real point with people.
On the issue of Rush Limbaugh, I'm now forced to say, "Even the vituperatively non liberal so-called Democrat/professional ideological sell out Mickey Kaus understands that Limbaugh is wrong." And lo, it gives the Limbaugh revelation real meaning. For the next two weeks, he has made the trope whole.
I'm sorry, but the games that pass for discourse in this nation really do piss me off. More so than I realized.
It is my (heretofore) secret shame that once upon a time, through a chink in my sophistication, I entertained the possibility that some bloggers actually possessed editors licensed to squirt skeptical commentary into the blogger's text. Sign me up for remedial not-being-a-moron.
I always feel uncomfortable talking about things that, in the final analysis, I understand about as well as my dog does. So I generally throw in eighty or so disclaimers about how if you really want to understand what I'm talking about, you need to read someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.
But I don't see other people doing that so much. Perhaps everyone else is far more intelligent and perceptive than I am, which is pretty darn depressing.
Sorry Michael, I'm too sharpwitted and discerning to take the bait.
Your mum told me a few things!
The way I heard it, Austro's mum told you, with a sincerity that was almost convincing, that it's common, it happens to every man sometimes, and it's not that big a deal.
Whoa, my HTML skillz are not even remotely mad. That should read, "before you were hating on dick jokes, but here you are hating on joke dicks." (I see Michael inferred as much.) The only thing I got right was the link target.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
I decided to do something different with the placenta, something to remember. What to do? I do not want my child to grow up and keep coming back home, so I do not want to bury it near my house. I also do not want my son to wander the world without any direction, so drift it on the river is not a choice. After thinking about it, I decided to bring the placenta to Bali and bury it underwater.
One of the articles he links to is an Ann Coulter column in the Jewish World Review. Key quote:
One of the Sunnis picked for a cabinet post turned it down on the grounds that he thought he was chosen simply to fill a Sunni quota. "I don't believe in sectarianism," he said, "I believe in democracy." So I'll be moving to Iraq soon to live in a country that forcefully rejects quotas.
Wouldn't it be fun to start a blogger collection campaign to "Send Ann Coulter to Iraq"?
I decided to do something different with the placenta, something to remember.
I used to have a t-shirt with an image of a placenta on the front. On the back, a prostate, on which one of my dad's co-workers (for it was he who made the shirt, Varied Reader) had drawn a smiley face. Or rather: an image of such a prostate.
"He's an honest, straight-ahead guy," says Newsweek contributing editor Mickey Kaus. "And he's undissembling, even at the risk of saying, 'I made a fool of myself.'"
even a blind squirrel finds a few nuts
Posted by mikez | Link to this comment | 05-13-05 7:36 PM
Unusual Kausfiles Posts: a) He sets out to make a clear argument; b) He actually makes a coherent argument well-supported by the evidence; c) He uses paragraph structure, rather than just listing items 1), 2), 3), etc. or a), b), c). [But if he keeps this up, how are we going to parody him?--ed. Like that's going to happen any time soon.]
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 05-13-05 8:08 PM
It has become a ridiculous trope of our current discourse in politics to find people who are identified as a certain type but they really have a strong view against that type on issue y or z. And it is this iconoclasm or contrariness that gives the view legitimacy. Thus my colleagues interested in healthcare spending like the Governor Kempthorne (R) of Idaho because he raised taxes rather than cut Medicaid. (See, even Republicans can think you shouldn't throw people out of wheelchairs! You can do it too if you try Ken Mehlman!). Republicans do the same thing as well.
So sophistry rules in Athens, yet again. And the worst are all the twits who call C-Span on the other party's line because they think they are putting something over on us all. It's even in Athens GA.
Then there are the people who make a living by occupying that role all the time. Zell Miller, David Brock etc. Although Brock at least is doing something more with Media Matters. But "Even the liberal new republic" is a sort of truism on warblogs that some of my overly liberal colleagues (thank God Benton isn't my real name) like to make fun of. I think that specific one is overblown but there is enough truth to it that it is identifiable as taking part in this pose.
But Kaus. My god. Kaus is the living embodiment of that pose. He is the personification of that sophistic trope. And what's worse, as a result of the extent to which he's beaten this horse, he has nowhere else to go but left in order to redeem the trope and thus make a real point with people.
On the issue of Rush Limbaugh, I'm now forced to say, "Even the vituperatively non liberal so-called Democrat/professional ideological sell out Mickey Kaus understands that Limbaugh is wrong." And lo, it gives the Limbaugh revelation real meaning. For the next two weeks, he has made the trope whole.
I'm sorry, but the games that pass for discourse in this nation really do piss me off. More so than I realized.
Posted by benton | Link to this comment | 05-13-05 9:31 PM
It is my (heretofore) secret shame that once upon a time, through a chink in my sophistication, I entertained the possibility that some bloggers actually possessed editors licensed to squirt skeptical commentary into the blogger's text. Sign me up for remedial not-being-a-moron.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 4:13 AM
We might call the practice of foisting literary conceits upon un- or mildly-suspecting readers, "trope-a-dope".
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 4:16 AM
We might call it that, but then we'd sound pretty gay. (No, not gay and pretty, i.e. prettily gay, just pretty gay.)
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 8:12 AM
If cuteness be the fruit of prose, flame on.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 11:00 AM
I always feel uncomfortable talking about things that, in the final analysis, I understand about as well as my dog does. So I generally throw in eighty or so disclaimers about how if you really want to understand what I'm talking about, you need to read someone who actually knows what theyre talking about.
But I don't see other people doing that so much. Perhaps everyone else is far more intelligent and perceptive than I am, which is pretty darn depressing.
Posted by winna | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 11:50 AM
Oh gods, I missed an apostrophe. I think that gets me hate both from ben AND from the apostropher.
Mea culpa.
Posted by winna | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 11:52 AM
Perhaps everyone else is far more intelligent and perceptive than I am, which is pretty darn depressing.
Don't fret, winna, you're not missing much: being incredibly intelligent and perceptive is depressing too.
*sigh*
Posted by Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 1:38 PM
Mitch, who told you that?
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 1:43 PM
Michael, did your Mum NOT tell you that?
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 1:45 PM
Your mum told me a few things!
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 2:12 PM
Mitch, who told you that?
Sorry Michael, I'm too sharpwitted and discerning to take the bait.
Your mum told me a few things!
The way I heard it, Austro's mum told you, with a sincerity that was almost convincing, that it's common, it happens to every man sometimes, and it's not that big a deal.
Posted by Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 3:03 PM
That's very close, Mitch. Certainly the message is right. But what she *actually* said was, "Damnit! Just like Mitch!"
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 4:20 PM
Michael, before you , but here you are hating on joke dicks. Which is it? I demand a foolish consistency.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 4:47 PM
Oops. It looks like I got chiasmus all over my comment.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 4:48 PM
My hating on snark and dick jokes was itself snark. I am deep.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 5:19 PM
Whoa, my HTML skillz are not even remotely mad. That should read, "before you were hating on dick jokes, but here you are hating on joke dicks." (I see Michael inferred as much.) The only thing I got right was the link target.
(Crickets)
Where is everyone today?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 8:40 PM
I demand a foolish consistency.
Posted by R. Waldo Emerson | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 8:48 PM
Hey, Ralph. How's the transparent eyeball thing working out? Was that your first choice, or did someone else have dibs on the neon epiglottis?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 9:20 PM
Well, most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, so I decided to do something different.
Posted by R. (Where's) Waldo Emerson | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 9:30 PM
I decided to do something different.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 05-14-05 9:45 PM
Wow, the rate of approach from 10 to 14 was impressive, even for this place.
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 1:24 AM
That's very close, Mitch. Certainly the message is right. But what she *actually* said was, "Damnit! Just like Mitch!"
I may have lived in China for an extended period, but that doesn't mean I adopted all of their cultural practices.
So . . . want to start a support group together?
Posted by Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 5:45 AM
Wow, the rate of approach from 10 to 14 was impressive, even for this place.
It's amazing what can happen on a Saturday afternoon, what with all that pent up anticipation of date night...
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 8:36 AM
One of the articles he links to is an Ann Coulter column in the Jewish World Review. Key quote:
One of the Sunnis picked for a cabinet post turned it down on the grounds that he thought he was chosen simply to fill a Sunni quota. "I don't believe in sectarianism," he said, "I believe in democracy." So I'll be moving to Iraq soon to live in a country that forcefully rejects quotas.
Wouldn't it be fun to start a blogger collection campaign to "Send Ann Coulter to Iraq"?
Posted by Walter Sobchak | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 8:42 AM
So . . . want to start a support group together? Yeah, the unfogged commenters really need another one of those.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 10:15 AM
DE, your 26.
It would seem that it is not so much anticipation as angst.
Posted by Austro | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 1:25 PM
Austro - Fear and Longing in Las Unfogged? What a frightening concept...
Posted by DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 05-15-05 7:06 PM
Rebuttal: see this, primarily (I admit) for the title.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 05-16-05 9:21 AM
I think he took it down already, SCMT.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 05-16-05 9:36 AM
I decided to do something different with the placenta, something to remember.
I used to have a t-shirt with an image of a placenta on the front. On the back, a prostate, on which one of my dad's co-workers (for it was he who made the shirt, Varied Reader) had drawn a smiley face. Or rather: an image of such a prostate.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 05-17-05 10:44 AM
Uh, questionable taste on Kaus's part:
Ana Marie [Cox](after a pause to think, and a comment that Bush is actually quite personable): I just can't stand Jonah Goldberg...
Mickey [Kaus]: Really? I think he's incredibly talented.
See also this:
"He's an honest, straight-ahead guy," says Newsweek contributing editor Mickey Kaus. "And he's undissembling, even at the risk of saying, 'I made a fool of myself.'"
Next, Ogged defends Jonah Goldberg!
Posted by MMGood | Link to this comment | 07-24-05 10:49 PM