Re: Brrr

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Seconded. I read it and it seemed to amount to 'conservative bloggers frequently have professional political connections'.

Well. No shit.

Conservative bloggers (or, liberal bloggers or anybody else) who are actually one thing and pretending to be another for purposes of deceit, ala, the not-a-girl-libertarian (or someone Jeff Gannon-esque) are another matter, but I saw very little about that.

Might as well have discussed what the fuck that Deacon icon is supposed to be! What IS it? Is it an owl with the runs or something? Was the Hindrocket involved? Can I turn this into a cock joke thread? Can I get Garance something something to write a story about the malevolent spread of cock jokes throughout the liberal blogosphere (ya know, I detest that word - it should be blogonet) which threatens to strangle off something something and we must something something or something something will happen?

ash

['It's um, 11:28 CST!']


Posted by: ash | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 10:28 AM
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I actually think that liberals should start deploying hate-filled slander on every available opportunity. The righties are going to be in a tiff if they include even one fact that's somewhat disputable, so why not go all in, rather than being nit-picked to death and having your main point completely ignored?

The Powerline bloggers routinely have massive orgies involving schoolchildren! How do they defend themselves against these charges? Mr. Hindrocket, how do you respond to allegations that you stalk your neighborhood, killing and eating people's cats and dogs? And is it true, Secretary Rumsfeld, that you have been photographed shaking hands with genocidal dictator Saddam Hussein?

Oh, wait -- that last one is actually true.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 11:11 AM
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There's some aphorism I should bring up about not becoming that which you hate, but Kotsko's proposal sounds like too much fun to worry about it. Did you hear Michelle Malkin actually started a test internment camp...for liberals?


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 11:36 AM
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Speaking of hysterical/hilariousl slander, has everyone seen John Holbo's Discover the Nutwork over at Crooked? It's brilliant.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 11:46 AM
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Leo Strauss and Ben Stein: separated at birth?


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 11:51 AM
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So I probably should have read the comments there, which include Ogged, before pointing out the thread.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 11:51 AM
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Given that outlandish guilt-by-association tactics are Powerline's stock in trade, color me completely and totally unsympathetic. Oh, did somebunny mischactewize your affiwiations, poor wittle bwoggermen?

"WAAAAAH! That woman hit me back!"

Suck it up, you pussies.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:09 PM
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wd--no, you did good work. I hadn't discovered it yet myself.

But where the hell is MODOK?


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:20 PM
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On the bottom of the first page. Washerdreyer's link goes to the second. Hit the back link at the end.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:24 PM
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Ah. Holbo files 'O' before 'a'.


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:29 PM
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'a': ASCII 97

'O': ASCII 79.

Whatta coincidence! But 79 is still less than 97.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:32 PM
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Adam, you think the political left should *start* delpoying hate-filled slander on every available opportunity?

Ho ho ho.


Posted by: baa | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:45 PM
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Who you calling a ho, baa?


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:46 PM
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The tagline of Discover the Nutwork is hilarious. I'm going to start using it in daily conversation.

I do have one small nitpick, though: shouldn't the Cylon Centurion be a more modern modern version?


Posted by: Walter Sobchak | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 12:59 PM
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Cripes. Just one "modern" there.


Posted by: Walter Sobchak | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 1:16 PM
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Baa -- Shut the hell up, or I'm going to tell everyone what you and the gerbil were doing this weekend.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 1:36 PM
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I had transcribed "Democracies and Double-Standards" on the inside of the tube, thank you very much!


Posted by: baa | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:10 PM
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See, I think we're really getting somewhere.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:17 PM
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Jesus, you people are so boring today I think I fell asleep at work.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:17 PM
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Would that be the Kagan, Kirkpatrick, Buchanan, Stephens, or Gingrich version of that title, baa? Because if it's Kagan, well, that might be a little queer, y'know.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:22 PM
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I note that if you step each letter in baa's nom-de-web back one place, you get "azz"; I take this (along with his knowledge of PE and the shots he took at Sista Soulja) as conclusive proof that he is the unacknowledged and rebellious love child of Barbara "Babs" Streisand and one Anthony "Sir Mix-a-lot" Ray.

Make up with your mom, baa. What's in the past is in the past. Family's what really matters in this world.


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:23 PM
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I note that if you step each letter in baa's nom-de-web back one place, you get "azz"

Speaking of which, I was watching 2001 last night, and someone pointed out to me that if you take each letter of HAL and move it back one place in the alphabet, you get IBM.

Am I the last one to learn this?


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:31 PM
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Joe: Yes. CIA headquarters are in Langley, you know.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:32 PM
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ben --

How would I create an ASCII middle finger?


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:34 PM
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Good god, you don't know that either?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:35 PM
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Ok, I didn't know the HAL/IBM thing, and I haven't seen 2001.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:36 PM
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Kirkpatrick, of course! Seriously, that's a great essay, and one I commend to all of you here who hate America and want the terrorists to win.

SCMT,

baa's nom-de-web back one place, you get "azz"

While this is appropriately Straussian method, you really need to focus on the middle letter. The Z stands for "Harry Jaffa"


Posted by: baa | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:40 PM
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Didn't you title a post "Open The Pod Bay Doors, HAL" not too long ago? Or did I dream that?

Man, Tylenol 4 is some fucked-up shit, by the way.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:40 PM
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Ogged, you should watch 2001, because it's great. If you have a chance to see it in a theater you should take it.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:41 PM
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Geez. Geezedy Geez. Somebody didn't know this?

HAL - IBM, seriously?

Dial (the soap) spelled backwards is laiD.

Please say you knew THAT.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:50 PM
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Ben -

If I remember my pseudo-history correctly, ogged is now too old to have easy access to the pharmacological goodies necessary to truly experience 2001. Or so I've heard.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:53 PM
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Hey, I was born ten years after the damn film came out. I missed the original hubbub. Some of us have had to self-educate here.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:53 PM
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Me. Fuck.


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:53 PM
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If I remember my pseudo-history correctly, ogged is now too old to have easy access to the pharmacological goodies necessary to truly experience 2001.

I can get him some Tylenol 4.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:55 PM
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The only times I've seen 2001, I've seen it straight, and it was still pretty fucking good.

I was born 14 years after it came out. Beat that, Drymala!


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:55 PM
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I'd be a fool to try, O Lord Of Geek.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:58 PM
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2001--not all that. I have been informed that the dream sequence at the end goes on for ~15 minutes instead of 3 hours, but I do not believe it. And I saw it in a theater.


Posted by: Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:59 PM
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"Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer" is going to pay for my retirement on "Who wants to be a Millionaire" someday.

You guys are way too smart to be so young.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 2:59 PM
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I thought it had something to do with Hardware Abstraction Layer. Oh well.

But you've got that age thing backwards, Tripp. I'm quite sure I get dumber, and even know less, with each passing year.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:01 PM
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You guys are way too smart to be so young.

I just piggyback off w-lfs-n.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:02 PM
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Matt,

That was no dream. What's his name was getting reborn as a starbaby by the monolith to protect Earth from the nasty orbiting nukes.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:02 PM
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ogged,

Sorry, the "young" and "smart" thing was directed at Joe and Ben, not at you.


Ooooh. BURN!


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:04 PM
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What's his name was getting reborn as a starbaby by the monolith to protect Earth from the nasty orbiting nukes.

Is that what's going on? I assume this is explained in the book or in 2010 or some such.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:07 PM
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I always just figured it was him being transformed by the monolith into a higher being.

Like it does with the apes in the beginning.

Thus, Zarathustra.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:11 PM
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I just bareback w-lfs-n.


Posted by: FL | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:13 PM
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You know, I thought it would be apostropher who would make that joke.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:14 PM
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I don't think w-lfs-n's knowledge-youth combination would be all that remarkable, except that he's also got a girlfirend. It's a very different world these kids live in.


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:22 PM
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ben,

Kubrik, the film maker, worked with Clarke on the screenplay based on a Clarke short story ("The Sentinal?").

Kubrik got all artsy fartsy with the end and Clarke didn't like it so he wrote the full book after the movie came out. The book explained the ending - which Joe essentially got right. I said he was smart!

My last trivia from the movie is that I found the most haunting music to be the Adagio from the Gayane Ballet Suite by Khachaturian. It was a real ear opener for this twelve year old.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 3:34 PM
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The girlfriend is a recent addition, and I detect him losing his edge.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 4:04 PM
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Adagio from the Gayane Ballet Suite by Khachaturian

Aha! I was wondering what that was last night. The piece played during the jogging-and-punching-in-a-circle scene, right? It was clearly 20th century; I was thinking early Bartok or something. I'm so glad you told me this.


Posted by: Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 4:04 PM
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The girlfriend is a recent addition, and I detect him losing his edge.

You're right on, Adam. Weiner is even taking pity on him now.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 4:07 PM
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Oh yeah? Well I was born the year of 2001's release. So I'll have nothing else about Jeanne Kirkpatrick from you, young man. Some of us actually remember her dripping goo.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 4:34 PM
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You're right on, Adam. Weiner is even taking pity on him now.

Odd since she would certainly have corrected me. (Actual thing said to me: "your joke was well-written, but you need to think about your comma placement [in some particular context]".)


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 5:16 PM
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If you have a chance to see it in a theater you should take it.

I've seen it in a theater, and I would recommend seeing it on some device that has a fast-forward function to deal with that three hour sequence Matt was talking about. I'm sure it's much better that way.


Posted by: Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 6:23 PM
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some device that has a fast-forward function

Almost certainly false, but I read something stating that Tarkovsky stipulated in his will that Solaris never be released in a format that allowed it to be fast-forwarded.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 9-05 7:04 PM
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I actually think that liberals should start deploying hate-filled slander on every available opportunity.

I don't. Democrats (liberals?) have no TV network, no high government office, etc. etc. However, they DO have the advantage that everything that goes wrong is the R's fault.

That means there is plenty of material available for use in hate-filled, but not slanderous attacks.

To wit: Michelle Malkin is a scheming, dishonest, plagarizing, quasi-fascist loon. She's also, notably, not real bright.

One could also point out that it is evident that the powerline guys (why powerline? it cooks your brain?) clearly have tiny little dicks and are trying to make up for it by staying far in the rear of where the real men are and cheerleading like they had a pair.

None of that is slanderous.


ash

['Doesn't want to get carried away. I tend to be rather rude.']


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-10-05 5:11 AM
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Mitch,

I recommend seeing it on some device that has a fast-forward function

I agree. The last bit reminds me of someone playing with Photoshop or Acid Music the first time:

"Wow. I can do this, do that, do this. Then I can put them together. It is getting kinda long, but everything is soooo kewl."

Being 12 I had to see the movie without the aid of any pharmaceuticals that may have helped the "fly back and forth across Iceland and re-color" scenes.


Posted by: Tripp | Link to this comment | 03-10-05 7:33 AM
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Yeah, I saw it as a kid on an open-air hillside theater in Austin and everyone else around our not-too-square-but-not-particularly-hip family's blanket appeared to be heavily into the pharmaceuticals.


Posted by: Mitch Mills | Link to this comment | 03-10-05 9:42 AM
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Boy, you stop reading comments for a while and you miss all kinds of interesting stuff.

2001 may seem extremely long, but it's actually no longer than Eyes Wide Shut. And, depending on the version, not much longer than The Shining.

Almost certainly false, but I read something stating that Tarkovsky stipulated in his will that Solaris never be released in a format that allowed it to be fast-forwarded.

Andrei Rublyov is probably the one that really tempts people to fast-forward.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 03-10-05 6:24 PM
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