Re: Best Repudiation of Buckley's Defeatism EVAR

1

That's *on point*.

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Um, could somebody proof the title? Thanks.

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i've been sickly fascinated by that comments thread for a couple days now. its like the mineshaft in bizarro world. me so unhappy over at Htrae.

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"Thurston B. Howell wannabe" == awesome

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5

Alameida, you're my hero.

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6

Reminiscent of the treatment Hitchens got after he joined the ACLU suit.

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7

Protein Wisdom: where ad hominems are too reasoned argument, and if you disagree, that just proves how irrational liberals are.

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8

That's Thurston B. Howell the third, bitches!

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9

I first read 7 as "are too reasoned argument," meaning that if you use an ad hominem you're being too reasonable and should crazy it up a little.

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10

If Buckley is Thurston B. Howell III, does that make Goldberg the magazine's little buddy?

Further on down Marianna writes:

"If things are sufficiently dire, the [presidential] election could be delayed in the best interests of the country. I think that's a long shot, of course, but I'd hardly call Bush leaving in January 2009, a fact. Something that hasn't happened yet can hardly be called a fact."

Marianna's apparently a contributor to Scrutator. "Leonidas," one of her co-contributors there, likes to troll Obsidian Wings now and then. I honestly can't tell if the Scru-taters are the nuttiest of nutty wingnuts, or if they're engaging in some kind of elaborate reverse propaganda/performance art. Or all three.

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11

You're wrong because not only are you old and ugly, but you also smell like peanuts and your bones make a distracting creaky sound when you get up and I hate your silly old clothes!

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Matt, do you take "you're being too reasonable and should crazy it up a little" to be problematic for Gibbard's norm-expressivism?

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And for the love of God, sit up straight in your chair!

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9: Well, that too.

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15

Statements of the type:

"It could change X, and that can only be good"

are a priori false.

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12: I am not qualified to hold an opinion.

(Anyway, wouldn't civil war without a bunch of U.S. troops in the middle of it change the dynamic too? That can only be good too, right?)

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17

I am not qualified to hold an opinion.

Matt, it's a blog.

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10 -- Goldberg is not fit to hold Gilligan's coconut for him while he tries to figure out how to warn the professor about the lion he has discovered on the island, without waking up Mary-Ann.

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19

Will "I have no fucking idea" work, then?

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20

O philosophers, is it not the case that the argument seems to go something like this:

Anything that happens in Iraq is a change for the better.

Is it not an essential concession of this argument that the situation in Iraq is now as bad as it could possibly be?

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21

bob denver is worth 50 goldbergs, damnit.

i think that protein wisdom is best viewed as a right-wing fafblog!

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22

slol, total pwnage.

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23

Um, could somebody proof the title? Thanks.

Yeah, you forgot the "!!!1!" at the end.

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24

Isn't it spelled "Bucklyel"?

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I would have to say, I don't think it's true that things are as bad as they could possibly get, but it's a weird point from which to begin your justification of this policy.

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"'Leonidas,' one of her co-contributors there, likes to troll Obsidian Wings now and then."

Also Balloon Juice, and I suspect elsewhere. It's conceivable that it's a put-on, but the simple repetitive, yet slightly variable, nature of the comments incline me to think it's mere ordinary extreme stupidity. Also, possibly the writer is 13-years-old. Mentally, at least.

21: "i think that protein wisdom is best viewed as a right-wing fafblog!"

Do we need a link here to my lengthy write-up of meeting Jeff Goldstein and other Denver-area bloggers? (Silence will be taken as negative; no need to wound my ever-sensitive feelings with emphatic "no"s.)

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Don't tease us, Gary.

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"Don't tease us, Gary."

Conversational eye contact. Abstract-thought face. Then, at the last moment, direct eye contact.

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29

"Need" may be a bit strong, but I'm interested in reading it.

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Okay, since apo has been gracious, I will be too. Gary, if you would be so kind as to provide the link and save me the trouble of trawling through your site, I'd be pleased to read said account.

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Hokay. I'm really pretty easy, if not downright slutty, after all. Here ya go. Do note tripartite structure, plis. First part: not so much with the literal, but with the reverse spin. Second part, inspired by the literal, but not with the completely. Third part: hand me that Bible to affirm and swear with. Note also that we set the Way-Back Machine to nearly two years ago.

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http://amygdalagf.blogspot.com/2004/05/rocky-mountain-blogger-bash-3.html

ash

['Linky, linky, make you stinky.']

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33

Stephen goes down on Jeff. Jeff goes down on Stephen. Coitus is then initiated. It is noisy, passionate, and terribly, terribly, moist.

I'll take 'Mental Images I Really Didn't Want' for a thousand, Alex.

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34

"I'll take 'Mental Images I Really Didn't Want' for a thousand, Alex."

I'm all about the truthiness.

And Stephen is -- but seriously, yolks -- a very nice guy. At least, judging from that single evening, and an occasional e-mail exchange. Wrong-headed, of course, but I have lots of wrong-headed, and worse, friends.

Make of it what you will, but within a few weeks after I posted that account, Jeff Goldstein dropped me from his blogroll, where I'd been for quite some time, and Jeralyn Merritt added me to hers. Not that I notice these things.

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Oh, and a few months later, Andrew Olmstead wrote about how I'd gone bonkers with anti-Bush hatred, elaborated on this thesis (briefly recapped/touched-on in a couple of comments he left on my blog a couple of weeks ago), and dropped me from his nine Recommended Blogs. I've been all about the Mad Crazy-Talk Bush Hatred ever since, as we know.

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36

These kinds of attacks build character. You want to develop grit? -- just add hominy.

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37

Gary, that post is really funny.

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38

Special triple reverse garyfarb: I read that like, years ago!

(Thanks for the link, though, I'd forgotten.)

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39

That was interesting, Gary (and funny). I've met at least one of those people, and had a similar impression to yours.

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37: "Gary, that post is really funny."

Thanks; I thought it came out adequately. It's probably the most elaborate original post I've yet ever blogged, though definitely not the most elaborate piece of writing I've ever posted online, or had published in actual physical print. (And have I ever received a single nomination for a single blog award? No! I blame anti-Semitism.)

39: "I've met at least one of those people, and had a similar impression to yours."

Oh, plis, plis, e-mail me and say who! Also, naming the person you met would be good.

A line I forgot to add to that account is that the cute young woman with the spacey dialogue about Space and my tee-shirt (which I swear I recounted word-for-word verbatim; another blogger who read that post, who was standing right there, also vouches for this) was clearly European, and spoke in a distinct European (although I couldn't quite pin down from what language) accent; the flavor of that exchange is better captured if one reads the dialogue with her having that accent, but I didn't realize until a few days after writing it that I'd forgotten to include that detail. Oh, well. But I suppose this is evidence that I don't actually try to pick up extremely cute younger women if, at least, I think I might wind up having to constantly suppress giggles at what she's saying. And, in fact, I'll try to detach myself from conversation before I can no longer so suppress.

She was damn cute, though.

The entire Bash was, alas, about 20-1 rightwing/leftwing, and 14-1 male/female. This possibly accounts for the entire Stephen-Jeff lovefest. Or not.

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the flavor of that exchange is better captured if one reads the dialogue with her having that accent, but I didn't realize until a few days after writing it that I'd forgotten to include that detail.

The wording successfully implied the accent, at least to me.

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"The wording successfully implied the accent, at least to me."

Oh, good. Clearly you are an astute reader, and a gentleman and a scholar. Two out of three, anyway.

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I was hearing Carol Kane as Simka from Taxi, roughly. Very funny, anyway, particularly the bits about Jeralyn, the only referenced Blogger that I read.

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"I was hearing Carol Kane as Simka from Taxi, roughly."

Much less high-pitched, and a bit slower in intonation, but otherwise in the neighborhood.

I also neglected to mention that the reason people (non-bloggers journalist types, actually) kept coming up to Walter In Denver to talk about golf is that he's well-known in the Denver regional golf community as a golf pro. Also a nice guy, despite being a libertarian who periodically chides me about my wooly-headed liberalism whilst I likewise chide him in reverse from time to time.

"Very funny, anyway, particularly the bits about Jeralyn, the only referenced Blogger that I read."

Although we sporadically exchange a couple of sentences in e-mail from time to time, she never told me overtly, but apparently she decided at some point that I wasn't too libertarian, nor too anti-criminal, to blogroll. :-)

Jeff Goldstein clearly has become more of an uber-rightist than ever; why, he's even since voted for a Republican!

I can't tell you what he's like in person when sober, I'm afraid.

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45

Hey, I've been to that Cheesecake Factory! It's the one right downtown, right?

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"Hey, I've been to that Cheesecake Factory! It's the one right downtown, right?"

Yes. Walking distance from the bus station, the Tattered Cover, etc. I'm sure there's now a plaque where I sat.

Bit of a tacky chain, but, still, cheesecake.

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