I’m watching Lee Casey’s (rhetorically limpid) speech on A Tragic Legacy and he just said that the main argument in A Tragic Legacy is unoriginal because liberals have always preferred “comfortable shades of grey” to black/white & good/evil-style binaries. Do you think Casey really believes that “liberals” or “leftists” take comfort in seeing the world in “grey tones” instead of good/evil? It was a telling moment because I always see the fundamentalist good/evil mindset as a much more comfortable place to be, like a lobotomy that makes everything peaceful and easy.

Worst thing about the Bush presidency according to Casey? Bush gave enemy combatants too many rights at the start of the Iraq invasion. Wow.

It’s worth pointing out that if the Great Muslim Menace were as threatening in real life as it is in Kirchick’s ‘lil head, they would have certainly targeted Kathy Griffin with extreme prejudice back in 2004. In her performance “Allegedly” she has a bit that basically depicts Muslim men (in general) as hell bent on female genital mutilation and the suppression of women’s rights. After she makes some graphic and sweeping statements along these lines, she said that she had “crossed the line” and jokingly backtracked, referring to the previously-maligned Muslim men as just “peaceful farmers.” I wonder how she’s been able to make so many live appearances the last three years? I mean, how can someone on the D-list afford to have 24-hour bodyguards?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470131/quotes

Noonan’s article was probably in press before the assassination of Bhutto, recent world events underscores the idiocy of her article and worldview. It has that arm’s-distance above-it-all pundit tone, with all the vapidity and pseudo-cuteness of Maureen Dowd. Thank you for calling out “poofing” as a sexual slur. Like Dowd, gender and sexuality reign supreme, the lens through which we should evaluate American politics.

I saw another dig at Edwards through her praise of Romney. “Characterological cheerfulness, personal stability and a good brain would be handy to have around. He hasn’t made himself wealthy by seeing the world through a romantic mist.” I read the “romantic mist” phrase as a response to Edward’s years as a trial lawyer, championing the underdog and taking on deep pockets. Also, unless I’m voting for 8th grade student council president, why should I care about “cheerfulness” as a reasonable adult voter?

It’s impossible to take someone seriously as a writer if they routinely make grammar and usage mistakes, or if they have chronic spelling problems. If the architecture is shaky, I probably don’t want to visit the house. So, setting aside his poisonous policy “ideas” for a moment, why shouldn’t a misattributed quotation in Kristol's inaugural column seriously detract from his seriousness bona fides? It should, but it won’t.

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200801080006

It seemed to me like he was giving the quote to Michelle Malkin just because he could. He really wanted to quote Michelle Malkin to mainstream her craziness, and far fewer people have heard of Michael Medved. It wasn’t a misattributed quote amidst a 3,000 word piece of investigative journalism. It was one of the very few details he and his editors had to fact-check before sending it to production, and they blew it. Kristol is part of a milieu that’s bragged about creating an empire and, therefore, their “own reality,” so I guess matching juicy quotes with the people you wished had said them is par for the course.

The image of Dowd and her colleagues making snotty remarks about Hillary while huddled around a TV is so sickening, but it explains so much.

Did yon see Michael Scherer’s response to his Swampland critics regarding “The GOP’s High School Debate?”: “Seriously, I think most of you are right about the McCain dilemma: He is great at wooing us reporters. We must admit this. We must adjust for it in our reporting. I am trying.”

I thought it was intriguing that he said “us reporters” since there was no “reporting” in his article – just wishful thinking folded into fluffy personality analysis.

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/01/the_gops_high_school_debate_th.html#comment-383416

The line “You clearly know very little about journalism” is almost identical to Michael R. Gordon’s snipe at Amy Goodman on Democracy Now a year or two ago. The impulse of these journalists to lash out at their critics and coddle their establishment subjects are different sides of the same coin. If King was so confident and secure in his professionalism he would have ignored your post instead of acting like a 14 year-old in a Facebook flame war. Keep at it Glenn!

She works full-time and does all of the child care. And he’s the one issuing the ultimatum? Cary’s advice sucked, and commenters telling her to “just clean the house” or to “hire a housekeeper already” are equally deplorable. We have an instance of glaring sexism, double-standards, and pre-modern gender ideology. Any advice that doesn’t address the gender inequality woven into this scenario helps to perpetuate it.