Above: OMG, her again
Why, sir, you’re turning my poor head
21 Aug 2007 01:32 pmI know that the sweet, sweet, bloggy love which has greeted my arrival at The Atlantic cannot go on much longer. But it sure is fun while it lasts. I never knew so many people cared.
How long until this creature emits a book proposal? …Oh God, it’ll be a novel, won’t it? A semi-autobiographical novel.
Update: Clif once again rules the planet.
Yep. It’s true:
Longtime readers are familiar with the brilliant work of Diana West. She has been a guest-blogger here and I frequently link her trenchant Washington Times columns. Today, her first book debuts: “The Death of the Grown-up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.” I was delighted to read the manuscript and provide an endorsement. The book is a brilliant diagnosis of our backward baseball cap culture and its intellectual and moral deficiencies, which have profound consequences for a nation at war.
Above: “Oleander, coriander, sis-boom-WHOOPS!”
Though I’m not quite yet willing to abandon my Wii, West makes a convincing case that America’s abdication of adulthood (from pop culture to attire to perpetually adolescent gamers) weakens our ability to identify and defend against jihad.
Above: “Mah name is M-Slice, and I be’s here ta say…”
Holy Christ, this is rich.
Let’s do a quick review of some of our brave and mighty warbloggers, shall we?
…Well, ’nuff said about that.
The incredible blindness of the wingnutosphere never ceases to amaze me.
Above: Class status, good looks,
and so much more!
Markets in everything
20 Aug 2007 06:16 pmSweatshop copies of great art. Weren’t many of the originals produced in similar factory-like conditions? Professor? Mr Teachout? Mr Capps? Anyone?
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What she’s really saying:
The actual answer:
See Roy for yesterday’s incredible and skull-exploding McArdle moment.
The incomparable Mr. Marcus S. Noonan, PhD:
Above: +3 Eyebrows of Wisdom
We are not engaged in Iraq in a battle sought by the majority of the Iraqi people – they did not ask us to come; it stands to reason that a lot of them (and, who knows?, maybe a majority) would prefer we had never come; they sure as heck don’t like the risk of their children being blown up because some Islamist fanatics want to fight Americans at all costs. What we are engaged in is an attempt to bring change to the Moslem world – a change necessary if the War on Terrorism is not to degenerate into an Islam vs West war to the death. We will prevail in Iraq and thus win the War on Terrorism (though finishing in Iraq will not end the war right away – that will still take some years of effort, some of it military), or we will fail in Iraq and set the stage for a grand confrontation between an eventual Islamist super-State (perhaps backed by China) and the remnants of the west, led by the United States.
This, in Mark’s mind, is the choice before us: stay in Iraq forever or find ourselves battling a pan-Islamic Chinese mega-power.
You know, there are quite a few, shall we say, gigantic gaping flaws with this particular theory. Among them:
1.) Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis really don’t like each other. Like, not at all. So I doubt that once we leave Iraq that they’re going to shake hands and say, “Now we can unite with our Chinese brothers to destroy the true infidels!”
2.) If the Chinese were to wipe us out, who would buy all their lead-painted toys?
Above: Sentiment not shared by most Chinese businesses.
3.) The idea that we have to save the Muslim world from itself in order to prevent ourselves from later destroying it (I know it’s confusing to wrap your head around, but that’s what he’s really advocating!) seems rather, erm, twisted.
But other than that, I’m sure Mark’s ideas will work out just dandy.
Ah, how I adore the mad transhumanist ravings of Perfesser Glenn Harlan Reynolds:
JAMES LILEKS ON GETTING OLD: “I don’t know if I’d want to be 114 years old, frankly. People say they’re interested in what you have to relate, but they’re not. They lack context. You’d say things like ‘Why, I remember when Netscape had a total lock on the browser market,’ and they’d smile and roll their eyes – oh, he’s off on the browser wars again, whatever that was – and offer you a little more cake. But not too much.” I want to be 114 someday — but 114 as it will be, not 114 as it is now.
And we all know what that means, yes?
As I’ve said before, peeps, there are fates far worse than death. Spending an eternity living with robotic Glenn Reynolds clones “heh-indeeding” their way through space is just such a fate.
UPDATE: From the blog of the World Transhumanist Association:
Well this is certainly lovely.
Above: “Mommy, how can we stop the terrists fum bwowing ev’ryfing up?”
The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life.
[…]
President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
The fun only starts here, though. Family Security Matters (and the Family Security Foundation) is a front group for The Center for Security Policy. Dig that crazy membership roster!
Digby says that Family Security Matters has been busy scrubbing articles from their site. This is, of course, not as easy to do as it might seem, but we haven’t found anything else super-excellent from them yet — at least not outside the normal realm of manipulative con-artistry, batshit insanity, warping of the minds of innocent children, and Ben-Shapiro-grade opinion journalism.
…Although the site’s ‘resources’ section gets sweet bonus points for linking to the mind-blowingly sneaky, lie-in-your-face, arrogantly-screaming-at-people Move America Forward Foundation. That’s like looking in the crisper drawer in someone’s fridge, and finding a pile of crusty meth syringes.
Take it away, Jules:
Above: Boston Herald editor Jules
“Rasse und Blut” Crittenden
[…]
Hey, [David] Neiwert, you want to be a real man … try having more kids. […]
Look, staying home with the kids is fine, if that’s what you want to do. Nothing wrong with it. If your wife can take six months off every two years to squeeze another one out and breastfeed it, then fine. But for God’s sake stop whining about your manliness and use it. I have bad news for you. The people doing all the breeding around the world aren’t interested in consciousness-expanding gender neutrality and growing as New Age androgenoids or reducing their carbon footprints or trying to understand you in order to respect your differences or any of that. They are interested in your stuff, however, and sooner or later, they will swamp your kind out of existence. And a lot of them might not even bothering sticking around to be fathers at all while they’re at it.
In other words, there are lots of people out there in the world — be they Mexicans, Muslims or Negroes — who are out-breeding the honky race, and who want to steal all of our precious belongings and/or bodily fluids. The only way to save civilization, then, is by having as many babies as possible, lest we find ourselves awash in a sea of taco and falafel stands.
Speaking as a paranoid white guy myself, I simply do not understand the minds of white paranoids. They are convinced that dark-skinned people are involved in a broad conspiracy to have thousands of children who will be used soldiers in the coming Global War to Steal Whitey’s Flatscreens and iPods.
We’ve seen this way of thinking elsewhere as well:
The table nods solemnly before marching onward to Topic A: the billion-strong swarm of Muslims who are poised to take over the world. The idea that Europe is being “taken over” is the unifying theme of this cruise. Some people go on singles’ cruises, some on ballroom-dancing cruises. This is the Muslims Are Coming cruise. Everyone thinks it. Everyone knows it. And the man most responsible for this insight is sitting only a few tables down: Mark Steyn. He is wearing sunglasses on top of his head and a bright shirt. Steyn’s thesis in his new book, America Alone, is simple: The “European races”–i.e., white people–”are too self-absorbed to breed,” but the Muslims are multiplying quickly. The inevitable result will be “large-scale evacuation operations circa 2015? as Europe is ceded to Al Qaeda and “Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia.” He offers a light smearing of dubious demographic figures–he needs to turn 20 million European Muslims into more than 150 million in nine years, which is a lot of humping–to “prove” his case.
What’s behind this sort of insanity? As I’ve said before, I live in a largely Latino neighborhood and have never felt that any of my neighbors are plotting to knock down my door and pour hot salsa down my throat until I submit to the reconquista. Maybe that’s just because they’re being extra-extra sneaky about it and are waiting for the exact perfect moment to strike, but they’ve had five years to act and so far have done nothing.
So I ask again: Why are so many white people so goddamn paranoid?
Gavin adds: Perhaps they’re so worried about being outbred because of all the problems they have in the other direction.
Above: White supremacist Curtis Allgier
…The opposite of ‘outbred,’ I mean.
Here’s Matt Yglesias:
The Atlantic blog team gets a new member today, Megan McArdle, formerly of The Economist and the Jane Galt blog. With her on board, Atlantic Voices now encompasses two different genders and graduates of two different Ivy League schools. Today she offers the view that the current problems in the market won’t be as bad as the Great Depression, which we should all find very reassuring.
Oh brilliant, it’s her again.
Above: Failing upward, elite-glibertarian style
Let’s see what the former Ms. Jane Galt has gotten up to at her new attractive-Ivy-League-woman bailiwick at The Atlantic:
We live in a world of scarce resources. In such a world, unfortunately, not everyone can have the pleasure of knowing Tyler Cowen personally. That is pity, for talking to Tyler is a rare treat. […]
Probably you should also know that I seem to have been mentioned in Tyler’s book, although not by name. […]
Moving is always strange, especially for me, since I have no sense of direction. In generally takes me a couple of weeks in a new office before I can reliably make it to the bathroom without getting lost.
The move to this blog has been particularly disorienting, however, because along with the office, I have a shiny new Macintosh. […]
Upcoming:
Sheez. Perhaps it’s time we stopped picking on Yglesias for that old supporting-the-war thing which suddenly seems so bygone and water-under-the-bridge.
‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard.
Because Two-Minute Townhall is now shunned by society.
Mike S. Adams: Good news, everyone: Sex is really bad for you.
Star Parker: Good news, everyone: I’m in love with Fred Thompson.
Robert Novak: Good news, everyone: Pakistan may be on the verge of joining us in our war on terror.
Suzanne Fields: Good news, everyone: Marriage makes free.
Paul Greenberg: Good news, mom: I just got paid for turning in an 8-year old column.
Michael Barone: Good news, everyone: Karl Rove was our country’s greatest president.
Burt Prelutsky: Good news, anyone: The Left is Brain-dead.
Rich Galen: Great news, everyone: I can help you lower your mortgage payments.
John McCaslin: Good news, everyone: Merv Griffin and Mike Deaver are dead.
Harry R. Jackson, Jr.: Good news, everyone: government-run housing programs work.
Phyllis Schlafly: Bad news, nobody: The NEA loves the gays.
Sadly, No!: Good News keeps on coming: We sent trackbacks to every column listed here.