Kinda busy this morning, so go check out Jon Henke’s review of right wing blogs. His review of left-wing blogs can be found here.
You could also click here to learn a new word: girlcott.
by John Cole| 71 Comments
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
Kinda busy this morning, so go check out Jon Henke’s review of right wing blogs. His review of left-wing blogs can be found here.
You could also click here to learn a new word: girlcott.
Comments are closed.
Otto Man
Heh. Indeed.
Krista
Do you have anxiety, John? You should try some of the brews mentioned two threads ago…
Question: Do you think that there will ever come a day when government is not a bloated, corrupt, wasteful behemoth? Or is it the unavoidable nature of the beast?
Mike S
Now that is funny, and pretty damn true. The only thing he left out is the way a lot of people there attack Dems as much as they attack Reps.
nyrev
Good reviews. Don’t take the commenters too personally, you Sullivanesque murderer of the clinically dead, you.
John Cole
NYREV-
I commented:
nyrev
And that’s why I have this page bookmarked.
And seriously, don’t take the commenters too personally. That way madness lies.
Paddy O'Shea
I wouldn’t be too hard on the Daily Kos boys if I were you. After all, they’re now pretty much in touch with majority opinion in this country.
Of course, it will take an election or 2 for the Limbaugh/Dobson/GOP types to realize just how badly they’ve lost it, and residual bravado from the now beached right can be expected for a little while. But I am a most patient man, and I have brought in a lot of popcorn.
Seriously, did you ever think you’d be seeing stories like these a year ago?
Zogby Poll: Majority of likely voters support considering impeachment if Bush lied on Iraq, 51-45 percent.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Zogby_Americans_support_consideration_of_impeachment_1104.html
Cheney now seven points behind the public beating of children.
Cheney Approval: 19%
Corporal punishment in schools: 26% support
http://www.bobharris.com/content/view/721/1
Paddy O'Shea
John: I am not sure that I would classify being “against the war on drugs” as Liberal. After all, the organized crime elements that traffic in the stuff do tend to be politically conservative.
Kimmitt
Oh, no. They’ve got their “stab in the back” theories and they’re gonna stick to ’em.
Kimmitt
Ya know, reading Henke’s description of Daily Kos and watching him softpedal Malkin and LGF’s vile hatred really reminds me of how utterly skewed the average conservative’s worldview is.
Also, Scrappleface and Lileks are only funny for extremely expansive definitions of funny, in which Carrot Top is the sort of individual who reduces one to tears on every outing.
Steve S
Umm. QandO has an article right at the top of their front page quoting WorldNetDaily as proof that Joe Wilson is a liar. Apparetly WorldNetDialy is the standard for truth on right-leaning blogs… which might explain their skewed world view.
At least on dKos we demand more substantial evidence than that shit. There’s been interesting debate ever since Capitol Blue posted a story that Bush was drinking again, and even when this was followed up a year later with articles out of the Enquirer, it was still greeted with skepticism. Albeit a great deal of humor. :-)
nyrev
Paddy: I wouldn’t have classified “being against the War on Drugs” as liberal, but that’s because the War on Drugs runs completely counter to the small government/laissez-faire ideas that used to be one of the most attractive aspects of Conservatism.
ppGaz
Well … I did. Inspired by Friday Beer Blogging, and in direct contradiction to my doctor’s orders, I went out and bought some brew and came home and downed a big pile of chips and salsa and washed it all down with beer.
Burp. What the doctor doesn’t know will not hurt him.
Pan Pan (anon)
Apparently the comments section of this blog is too moonbatty.
Paddy O'Shea
Nyrev: You mean to say that the war against the international criminal cartels that run the drug trade should be fought by small privately owned companies? Is this based on your theories regarding the best possible way to end the scourge that is the drug trade, or is it merely some silliness based on your assumed ideological viewpoint?
Pan Pan: I suspect you are using the current con-dumb definition of “moonbatty” which is: “Anything that Rush Limbaugh wouldn’t say and Rick Moran wouldn’t swallow.” Spontaneous free thought being the worst possible enemy of the slavish and mentally deficient.
Steve S: The problem with Bush and drinking is that it really doesn’t matter whether he does indulge or not. The end product is/would be basically the same.
Otto Man
I won’t repeat a post in the other thread, but tomorrow’s NY Times has a story that is going to throw fuel on this particular fire. E&P has a preview here.
nyrev
Do you just have a poor grasp of the idea of small government, Paddy, or have you been raiding Stormy’s fridge? I’m saying that Prohibition works about as well now as it did in the ’20s and that the War on Drugs is a stunning failure at just about all of its stated goals except, perhaps, throwing potheads in jail. And it’s responsible for Cartoon All-stars to the Rescue, which was a definite waste of tape and smurfs. Frankly, the best way to end the scourge that is the drug trade would be to decriminalize drugs. Plus, it would give those kids in the The Truth ads something new to focus on.
Paddy O'Shea
Nyrev: You don’t have children, do you.
ppGaz
The thing is, they’re theories. Waging a war based on a theory is immoral. Putting people in jail based on a theory is immoral.
Regardless of the badness of the “scourge”, immorality on a grand scale does not abate it, it just multiplies the misery.
The “War on drugs” is a scam perpetuated by people who make money and derive power from that war.
Paddy O'Shea
ppGaz: As opposed to the people who would make money and derive power from selling them legally?
Cool. Phillip Morris, Phizer and Merck need the cash I’m sure. And I’ll bet Dick Cheney and the boys have plenty of business associates who would love to import that bumper crop of heroin they’re raising over in Afghanistan.
ppGaz
The next year is going to be a steady, relentless succession of such stories. Combined with the day to day incompetencies (a la Drownie and the Miers nomination), and the day to legal quagmires (Libby will not be the last target of the OSP), the “popularity” (I use the term loosely) of this administration is going to fall to about the level at which members of Congress will be talking to each other behind closed doors and asking if they should go on down to the White House and … oh wait, if they did that, Cheney would become president. Never mind.
Otto Man
Actually, they do. Do you really think Xanax, Valium, Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac and the rest would be the same incredible cash cow for those companies if people could instead grow pot in their own backyard?
ppGaz
Most of them lose their power when the drugs are decriminalized.
In any case, the insane “war” that puts users in prison for long terms and creates an industry of “warriors” is immoral. They taught us that Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right, in early grade school. Apparently the lessons didn’t take for a lot of people, eh?
Here, let me refresh your memory:
Two Wrongs Do Not Make a Right.
Get it?
Paddy O'Shea
Otto Man: Right. And the govt doesn’t discourage the building of stills either, I suppose…
Pot and all the other wonderful things the people on this blog are so fond of (explains a lot, actually) would be regulated and taxed just like booze or prescription narcotics. And should you attempt to grow a wee crop of your own, well, God bless you if the ATF boys find out.
The big money boys’d sew that sucker up tighter than Ralph Reed’s asshole.
I’d have thought you’d of known that by now.
Paddy O'Shea
ppGaz: Far out, man.
Sorry, didn’t mean to harsh your mellow.
Otto Man
Actually, I think they should legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana just like they do tobacco through the production and sale of cigarettes.
But your claim that Pfizer and Merck somehow don’t benefit from the asinine war on drugs was just ridiculous.
Paddy O'Shea
Otto Man: Really? I’d have thought both Phizer and Merck would regard the illegal drug trade as both unregulated competition and lost opportunity.
So you’re saying they’re in on it, eh?
Do go on!
Otto Man
They regard it as unregulated competition, yes, but the fairly effective deterrants of lengthy jail sentences and social stigma sure help keep things down.
The unregulated drug trade is largely confined to college kids, stoners on the fringe, and the poor. The middle class and upper class — in other words, the part of the market with the most disposable income — aren’t going to some dope dealer on the corner, they’re going to their doctor to get a Xanax prescription. If there were a cheaper and legal alternative outside of the pharmaceutical companies’ hands, these people might consider that alternative.
You seem like a DougJ clone just looking for trouble — no on can be this dense — so I’ll stop here and head out for the night.
Also, it’s spelled “Pfizer,” genius.
ppGaz
Hey, fuck you, asshole. I don’t agree with you, so I’m a druggie?
Get lost.
Joey
Agreed. Any new source of revenue is a good idea in my books, especially when you consider the money saved from not bothering to arrest, jail, and put drug users to trial. And what the hell is up with “Paddy” person? You’re against the war on drugs, so that automatically makes you a user? That’s bullshit on a stick.
Pb
Ugh–“girlcott”? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all day. I bet poor Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott is rolling in his grave.
p.lukasiak
Apparently the comments section of this blog is too moonbatty.
actually, this is one of the few blogs where the moonbats and wingnuts do battle on fairly even ground….
*************
the “glenn reynolds can make or break a blog” comment should be amended to “glenn reynolds can break a blog”. Basically, decent blogs become overrun by wingnuts the minute Reynolds links to them….
…the good news is that these blogs don’t stay broken; the good blogs where there is an intelligent host who expresses himself in words of more than two syllables are quickly abandoned by the Istapundoids….
dirk
You’re recommending someone who deals with Digby, Billmon, The Editors and tbogg with the words ‘generally low signal to noise’?
Why? The latter two favour one-liners above all else, granted, but what one-liners. The only possible criticism is the out-of-the-park hits are dollied up for them. How is that their fault?
Oh. Just read ‘That is right- the country that has given 2000+ lives and hundreds of billions of dollars to get Iraq to the point we are now, according to the UN, ‘owes’ Iraq money.’ Your powers of discrimination are lacking – national shared sacrifice somehow is equivalent to no-bid contractual fraud by private corporations. The Abramoff Equation.
Carry on.
Krista
That’s the best thing I’ve read all day.
Then again, I am stoned out of my gourd right now…
ppGaz
Oh yeah? Well I have one thing to say:
Arizona 45 UCLA 7
3rd quarter.
nyrev
Joey: Some people want the government to babysit their kids so they doesn’t have to. Maybe if they’re really lucky and vote for the right people, we can have a War on Staying Out Past Curfew and a War on Dating Boys Who Drive Too Fast, too.
Paddy O'Shea
ppGaz: Harsh toke, dude.
Paddy O'Shea
Otto Man: Phizer, Pfizer. I’m sure you’re the expert.
ppGaz
The beat(ing) goes on:
Arizona 52 UCLA 7
Paddy O'Shea
Nyrev: No govt watches my kids, actually. The public schools here are so bad that I’ve been forced to scrape together some hard earned cash and put them into private school.
I am assuming that the answer to my question is that you have no children, which is fine.
Believe me, the world gene pool is very grateful.
Joey
Then perhaps the money saved by ending this “war on drugs” nonsense could go to public schools? If I were you, I would be all the more angry that we are wasting money by jailing pot smokers rather than putting it to good use in our school systems. And nyrev, I think they’ve already started those. I know my hometown has had a curfew law for several years now. It’s right up there with the War on What Video Games We’re Allowed to Play and the War on What TV Shows We’re Allowed to Watch.
Paddy O'Shea
Sorry Joey, but the public schools here are filled with doped up assholes. The rot is endemic, drugs are a part of it, and the budget cuts from the likes of Steroid Arnie have only exacerbated the problem. Locally they’re known as gladiator schools.
Honestly, I couldn’t care less if dopers who have been sent to prison stay there for the rest of their lives. I’m not kidding. Fuck ’em.
If you don’t have kids you don’t understand just how horrible the problem is.
I do find it funny that I, the liberal Democrat, have become the one to question the pro-drug lunacy of you so-called law and order conservatives, though. Law and order unless it infringes upon your personal habits, that is. Very Bushian. Kind of confirms my long held belief that a lot of middle-aged connies are just ex-hippies having a bad reaction to all the drugs they consumed.
You do know that THC lowers testosterone levels and can turn you into a, well, a numbnuts, right?
Joey
Actually, I’m a pretty ardent liberal, but whatever. And, again, you’re implying that I am a dope user with your little THC comment at the end. I’m not. I drink every now and then, but that’s it. And I don’t have kids, but I did graduate from the public school system recently, so I think I know the situation. And as for the public schools being filled with doped up assholes, you’re right. But you know what? They only interfere with your education if you let them. And I, and my mother, wouldn’t let them. But you’re right about the budget cuts. Indiana’s wonderful Bush croney governor Mitch Daniels cut our education budget as well. And while I agree with the “fuck ’em” sentiment, I don’t feel like the money being used to imprison drug users is being spent wisely. If they want to piss away their lives, let them. Why should we pay to try to punish them for doing so?
ppGaz
What an asshole. I hope you end up in prison for the rest of your life.
Tractarian
Are you sure the private school you send your kid to isn’t similarly overrun with “doped up assholes”?
When I was in high school (less than 10 years ago), it was common knowledge that the private schools were the ones where drugs – including hard drugs – were always widely available and rampantly used. OTOH, in the public schools (like the one I went to) regular drug use was confined to fringe cliques and fuck-ups.
I always thought there were two reasons for this: 1) the private school kids had more money to spend on drugs they could share with others, and 2) many of the private school kids used to be members of the “fringe cliques and fuck-ups” but were kicked out of the public schools.
I hope for you and your kid’s sake that the situation has changed.
By the way, I’ve yet to hear a coherent normative argument as to why cannabis should be illegal but alcohol should be legal. Both are intoxicants, both are capable of being abused, both are potentially available to kids. And, really, no one is arguing that it should be as omnipresent as booze, just that mere possession be decriminalized.
nyrev
You’re right, Paddy. I don’t have kids. But my parents were able to raise me with enough brains and self-respect not to use drugs. Too bad you can’t do that with your own kids and save that tuition money for your taxes.
nyrev
Oh, and for the record, I’m a left-of-center moderate. You’re not doing so well with the internet-diagnosis of people’s political leanings and drug habits, are you? No wonder you can’t keep your kids off the drugs without government intervention.
Matt
What amuses me is that so many bloggers on one side of the political spectrum resembles someone on the other. Take Lileks and Wolcott, for example. They’re two sides of the same coin.
I personally can’t handle a lot of the big-time blogs out there. Malkin, Atrios, and LGF are just hate-bloggers. Steve Clemons and Josh Marshall are oh-so self-important, especially the former. What’s the point of reading a Hugh Hewitt, Kos, or even Instapundit? You know their opinions will be on a particular subject without even clicking over to their sites.
I’ve restricted myself mainly to the floating center- Balloon Juice, Sullivan, Yglesias,Ezra Klein, Drum, and excellent foreign policy sites like Drezner, Belgravia Dispatch, Democracy Arsenal, and LAT. Most of the others are a waste of bandwidth.
scs
I believe there was recent research showing that pot was a risk factor in developing schizophrenia. It is also more likely to be a gateway drug to harder drugs than alcohol. Perhaps that is due to social reasons, but also perhaps, they theorize, due to changes in brain makeup in a chronic pot user.
scs
I just spoke with a contractor who told me about spending two years in prison because he tried to run over his wife with a car. He said he was violent because he was hooked on meth. But he said prison helped him get clean, mostly because he didn’t have access to it, and he’s been clean ever since. So prison can work as a rehab place, which may be better than no drug rehab place at all.
Paddy O'Shea
nyrev:
You really are a class act. My kids are 7, 5, and 4 and have no idea what drugs are. And despite the efforts of losers such as yourself, I intend to keep it that way. But thanks for taking the time to slander children.
Have your parents found a way to give you enough brains and respect to move out of their house yet?
ppGaz
This, from a guy who wants to condemn drug users to life imprisonment.
Shut up.
nyrev
And yet if it weren’t for the government’s War on Drugs, Paddy’s darlings would have no choice but to succumb to the evils of marijuana. Yeah, you’re up for parent of the year, PO’S. You haven’t utter a word of sense since you entered this discussion. I’ve lived on my own and been gainfully employed for year, although I am a bit young for motherhood. Don’t worry about it though. Without a War on Sex Under The Bleachers, I’m sure your Paddy O’Spawn will have provided you with dozens of grandchildren by the time they’re my age.
By the way, your interest in the personal lives of the people you encounter online is slightly creepy. There’s no War On Creepy Adults on the Internet yet, so you might want to discuss how to avoid people like you with your children. That is, if you’re capable of so much overt parenting all by yourself. If you’re not, write a letter of complaint to your private school and demand they hold an assembly.
nyrev
Oh, and Paddy? If you don’t want your children to be involved in these little debates, perhaps you should leave them out of your arguments. Because you are the one who has stated that anyone who disagrees with your own repugnant views must, by default, be a childless Republican addict. This reflects more on your lack of parenting skills than on the political views of anyone on this website, and unfortunately, it is your children who will suffer the results of your poor parenting.
ppGaz
I did a spit take.
Thanks.
Mike
“Paddy O’Shea Says:
I wouldn’t be too hard on the Daily Kos boys if I were you. After all, they’re now pretty much in touch with majority opinion in this country.”
Well…if you believe that the majority opinion in the country is Left-Wing Moonbattery on every single issue sure. Luckily, that’s not true. Plus I think it’s safe to say that thinking Democrats, as opposed to Kos Klowns don’t share that point of view either. Here’s a few examples from a Democrat that actually isn’t a moron:
“I am still concerned that less nuclear material, as I understand it, has been secured from the former Soviet Union in the two years after September 11 than the two years prior to September 11. Now, it may just be that there was low-hanging fruit initially and it starts getting harder as time goes by. But I’m also concerned of the fact that we’ve never fully funded, it appears to me, the Nunn-Lugar program.”
“[I don’t] want us to spend money willy-nilly . . . on social programs if programs aren’t well thought through and you throw money at them, it may be a waste of money, and we don’t have money to waste, the same is certainly true on the international stage.”
“But you know, effective public diplomacy, at least from my perspective, isn’t just spin; it’s substantive.”
“The demand for [WMDs] has never been greater. Right now rogue states and despotic regimes are looking to begin or accelerate their own nuclear programs. As we speak, members of al Qaida and other terrorist organizations are aggressively pursuing weapons of mass destruction, which I think all of us believe they would use without hesitation. Some experts believe terrorists are likely to find enough fissile material to build a bomb in the next ten years and we can imagine with horror what the world would be like if they succeeded. [The WMDs within the borders of the former Soviet Union] are the greatest threat to the security of the United States.”
Those are all attributed to Barack Obama, who unlike the Bushitler crowd over at Kos, actually has a brain in his head. Joe Biden also has at least tried to think about things, so has Joe Lieberman and maybe even Hillary (though that one I find hard to believe).
And there is very little “free thought” over at Kos, just the same old doctrinaire “well known and agreed upon facts”. Try going over there and arguing a different point of view. See how well they accept your “free thoughts”.
Paddy O'Shea
nyrev: Here’s a rag. Wipe the snot and spittle off your computer screen.
ppGaz
Horseshit.
Opposition to the war, belief that the war was not a good idea, that the war is not making America safer, that the Bush administration misled the country to get the war, that the Bush administration is not ethical, that staying in Iraq is no longer warranted even if it means a worse outcome for Iraq itself …. these are majority positions in this country.
Call it “moonbattery” all you like. It’s a loser’s bleat. Either it’s right thinking, or else this fucked up administration is so bad that it has driven the majority of Americans to it steadily, relentlessly, for years now. Either way, it supports the DKos position, and makes you look like a Kool-Aid salesman.
nyrev
Those quotes are all from Condi’s confirmation hearing. The full text can be found here.
Barack Obama rocked at that hearing. He’s also got a blog.
Paddy O'Shea
Mike: The context of the remark was the new Zogby Poll that showed the willingness of a majority of likely voters in this country to consider impeachment for Der Shrubbins should it be shown that he lied about the need to go to war in Iraq. Impeachment being something many on Kos considered years ago. Thus the observation that Kos is “in touch with majority opinion in this country.”
By the way, the percentage of overall respondents who would consider impeachment of the Kennebunkport Cowboy is 53%.
Here is the cite again. I’m reposting it so that you will find it more difficult to avoid proper context in your future posts on this matter.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Zogby_Americans_support_consideration_of_impeachment_1104.html
nyrev
ppGaz: P.O’S. is making less sense than ever, but seems to be trying to articulate some concern for your spit take. Either that, or having bored of prying into my reproductive and financial status, he’s suddenly become interested in my bodily fluids, elevating his cyber-perv status to lofty new heights.
Paddy O'Shea
Ewww!
Steve S
Interesting. You don’t know dKos at all.
That depends. Are you going to repeat rightwing doctrinaire, or are you actually offering an intelligent alternative?
If you ain’t got the guts to stand up for your position, because it isn’t intelligently well thought out… you’re going to get reamed at dKos. You start calling people names like you are doing here, then good luck to ya.
Otherwise it’s a wonderful place to develop ideas.
And I say this as a moderate former Republican, now Democrat.
Steve S
BTW. I would never have heard of Barack Obama in 2004 if not for dKos, and he’s broadly loved over there and held up as an example of the new face of the Democratic party.
You have no understanding of what is going on in this world, if that’s the perception you have.
nyrev
Paddy: Exactly.
Steve S: You really should check out Obama’s blog if you haven’t already. He’s got good ideas and he crossposts to dKos frequently.
ppGaz
Okay, bye.
SeesThroughIt
Sort of. There was a study that found that pot use could exacerbate a latent tendency toward schizophrenia and/or psychosis that was already present pre-pot, and that for people without the tendecy toward psychosis, pot can be, but isn’t necessarily, a small contributor to future psychotic symptoms. Of course, people who hate pot immediately discarded all context and caveats and trumpeted, “Pot causes schizophrenia!” Which isn’t really a correct statement.
As for the “gateway drug” line of thinking…that has never really been proven. Nor, it’s worth pointing out, has it been explicitly disproven.
scs
Considering schizophrenia hits over 1% of the population, that’s a lot of people. And isn’t it supposed to be latent in about 10%? (Not sure about that figure) Out of a group of kids I knew, the one who used pot and drugs was the only one to get schizophrenia, so it’s just not worth the risk in my opinion.
Pug
Honestly, I couldn’t care less if dopers who have been sent to prison stay there for the rest of their lives. I’m not kidding. Fuck ‘em.
Hope your kids never get caught with drugs, Paddy. If you think it can’t happen to you, you are a fool.
circlethewagons
Wouldn’t alcohol really be THE gateway drug, assuming that there is such a thing as a gateway drug (ie, just as not everyone who drinks/drank took drugs, not everyone who smokes/smoked pot did harder drugs). However, for most people I know, the first time they ever did drugs (whatever that drug happened to be) they were under the influence of alcohol at the time.
Just a thought.
nyrev
Technically, THE gateway drug among adolescents is tobacco. Or at least, it’s the one with the most research corroborating it as a gateway drug. But the problem with the whole concept of gateway drugs is that it’s nearly impossible to prove a causal relationship between use of tobacco and later use of other drugs, unless you’re willing to cross some pretty serious bioethical lines. Basically, does using tobacco make you more likely to use other drugs, or do a larger percentage of tobacco users have addictive personalities which predispose them to drug abuse? It’s a coin-toss. Similarly, there’s some question as to whether cannabis use increases one’s risk for developing mental disorders or if the users already have these disorders and are (possibly subconsciously) self-medicating. Either way, I’d be interested to see whether there’s a difference in the percentage of people diagnosed with schizophrenia in the USA vs. the Netherlands.