In the history of editorials, there have been a lot of bad ones. Hell, Tom Friedman and Bill Kristol still have jobs, so you know how bad the worst of the worst have to be if those two are considered acceptable enough to keep their jobs.
Even given those low standards, this Ralph Peters piece really seems to be testing new limits. I really don’t remember a piece this completely bad, ever.
Fencedude
I was going to choose the most asinine statement and quote it with a facepalm….but I’d have to quote the entire thing.
Thats some prime quality shit right there.
rishathra
It’s in the New York Post; nothing outside its sports section can be trusted, and there, only the boxscores are guaranteed free of slant. I don’t waste my time with it, even free via the wackjob at work who actually pays for it.
MattF
I’m looking for evidence that a synapse fired at some point, even if alone, in the dark, and in vain… but no.
Reverend Dennis
Peters is a peter.
Tonal Crow
The New York Post? Are you starting a shoot-fish-in-the-barrel contest?
Xecky Gilchrist
you know how bad the worst of the worst have to be if those two are considered acceptable enough to keep their jobs.
The newspaper editors just have a different continuum of good…bad. It’s like the difference between dogs and humans regarding their opinions of smells – to a dog, I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad smell, and some of the things they find most interesting to smell (let alone eat) are on the worst end of my smell-opinion chart.
DFH no.6
Bad, yes, but not the bottom.
That will be the next thing Jonah Goldberg writes.
The Left
It is true that I am bereft of the latest World of Warcraft expansion, a decent winter jacket, and a four-finger ring that says "Tha Left." Adjust your gift-giving lists accordingly.
sean
I thought this was going to be a post about Michael D.
The Moar You Know
Peters buys his right-wing talking points right off the rack; lord, even our resident trolls, save for Paul L, put more work into their wirtten diarrhea then this guy does.
Thomas
Reminds me of the "Kelly" editorial cartoons at The Onion.
"Domestic Surrender Monkeys?" Nice. And he even manages to slam President Eisenhower. Twice. But like another commenter said, this is the New York Post. Getting irate over this is about as effective as correcting a two-year old on their table manners.
tom p
My writing career just recieved a much needed ego boost…
The Other Steve
Oh come on. That’s the New York Post. The only thing they use that for is wrapping fish.
This is too easy. Are you just trying to drive traffic here?
DannyNoonan
I actually think this is a testament to the job Obama has done to ingratiate himself with conservatives without having actually done anything. If mouth-breathing nitwits like this are taunting the left before Obama is sworn in, then much of his work is already finished, with respect to having the necessary political cover for the policies that will follow. Ralph Peters is gloating that the guy he opposed in the election is practical and not ideological – and that’s despite the policy proposals Obama’s already outlined which are as far to the left as anything we’ve seen since LBJ. And possibly FDR. I’d score that Obama 1. Wingnuts 0.
Steve V
Peters is a favorite of Roy Edroso. Basically all of his columns are like this.
The Grand Panjandrum
Shorter Peters: Wheeeeeeee … the MUP!
Shorter Peters? OK that was too easy. So what! (Isn’t, So what, the current method of hand waving to make shit go away?)
steve
i hope peters is correct…otherwise america will really suffer…perhaps irreparably
John Cole
I’m watching O on the tube right now, and he looks like he is letting his hair grow out.
The gods don’t like me enough for him to grow a ‘fro and show up in the oval office with a comb hanging out of it ala Friday. I can almost hear K-Lo scream just thinking about it.
Joe Max
Of course, the beauty of wingnuttery is never having to say you were wrong. (viz: Bill Kristol) Everything that demonstrates your incipient incorrectitude is central to your point.
Mark S.
I’m beginning to wonder about Peters’ sex life. Look at this:
Well, okay. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. But here’s Peters a couple of weeks ago:
As you can see, there is a pattern emerging. I think one of Peters’ dominatrices might have left him tied up and he was forced to drink his own urine until someone found him several days later. His subconscious has blocked this painful memory, but it keeps emerging in his writing.
libarbarian
So he went from Marxist to "Hip Hop" conservative?
Ugh.
Tattoosydney
@sean:
I was thinking it was going to be about Ted Haggard. That man is a bottom if ever I have seen one.
random asshole
I don’t know what’s weirder: the fact that that piece was the most badly written thing I’ve read this week, or the fact that–to a certain extent–he’s absolutely right.
Brachiator
@DFH no.6:
Post of the Day!!
ram111
Could John please tag the Post post "assholes"?
TheHatOnMyCat
Okay, well now we know who is writing Atanarjurat.
jake 4 that 1
If you went to the NYP for anything that approached sanity and coherence you’ve been smoking Tunch’s catnip.
What next? Taunting the editorial in high school papers.
Garrigus Carraig
It reads like a piece that got rejected from Townhall.com.
bootlegger
Too high a target, I’d recommend taunting the writing on the bathroom stall at the bus station. Though to be fair I think some of them write better than the Post.
blogenfreude
But W will have the last
smilesmirk …Fixed.
TheFountainHead
All this snow is making me sleepy.
Keith
I quit reading once the name-calling started, so I didn’t get very far. It was basically a very long blog entry, and I read enough (and more intelligently-written) blogs to add another to my reading list.
28 Percent
I do not know what you are talking about John Cole (if that is your real name) what Mr. Peters says makes a lot of sense to me. Obama is a conservative conservatives won we won and you lost you are losers and you do not know how to win. We win because Obama is a conservative. McCain would have been better he is a real conservative but not as real as Sarah Palin she is the real deal and Obama really scares me because he is a socialist but it is still a victory of conservatism that is true. We are a center-right country. This is a lot of cognitive disonence too pack in two one head maybe it is to much for you weak liberals but REAL AMERICANS CAN DO IT because we are WINNERS!
Just Some Fuckhead
Sweet Mother of Flying Spaghetti Monster, John. You swore.
28 Percent
"socialist" requires moderation heh how true that is
J.
Listen to rishathra, John. He knows of what he speaks.
The Post is just a Murdock/Right-wing tool, and not a very effective one at that. And as Peters himself says, "As a McCain supporter from start to finish…" You can pretty much stop reading at that point (if you even make it that far).
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
No, I think he’s trying to drive traffic THERE (and I can take everyone’s word for it that the piece is really bad, I’m not going to grace them with a page hit).
Geoff Wittig
Ralph Peters has forged a dubious literary "career" writing bloodthirsty potboilers about virtuous manly warfare against the evil Soviet Empire. I suspect he felt worse about the collapse of the Soviet Union than Putin did, because it deprived him of his favorite punching bag. His current gig writing for—I kid you not—Armchair General magazine speaks for itself.
Ralph Peters and Victor Davis Hanson should be permanently sentenced to reading only to each others’ work. Not only will that punish each of them for their literary crimes, but it will prevent needless suffering by others.
KevinD
Wow. He complains that we’re still "stuck" in Korea, even though he supported John "Hundred Years, Bitches" McCain.
And don’t we already have Vietnam redux, times two?
Jennifer
I really don’t remember a piece this completely bad, ever.
Mr. Cole, allow me to introduce Mr. Goldberg.
Mrs. Peel
Oh please dear lord. Not two (sic) dwell on the obvious, but this must be a joke post. No one could be this booger-munching ignorant and still remember to breath in and out all day long.
Jennifer
Mrs. Peel – that was a specimen of trollus parodeses.
Though sadly, yes, there are people this pig-ignorant…and worse.
Blue Raven
The only writing more puerile and devoid of intelligence on that page than the column were the comments from the people kissing his ass for it.
ppcli
Let me get this straight: Obama isn’t delivering the "surrender and socialism" to his supporters that (according to Peters) he promised in the campaign, because "Surrender and socialism wouldn’t play well at the ballot box."
.
Obama, it seems, is a "mainstream pragmatist" because he promises the losing, unpopular things during the election, but doesn’t deliver them after the election. Don’t most pragmatists do it the other way around?
.
Ahhh, the stupid, it burns!
…
Still, this no dumber than many of Kristol’s columns.
Rick Taylor
I’m delighted by it. As I recall, during the election, it was the right not the left who warned how liberal Obama was, how little we knew of his agenda, how his preacher was an extremist etc. Obama is positioning himself to push the country in a progressive direction in health care and infrastructure and foreign policy. If wingnuts want to give him cover but cackling how moderate he is, be my guest! Heck, I may just help them out by bitching and moaning how Obama has sold out us hardcore liberals!
Brian J
Apparently, it’s fairly easy to write a fire-breathing column like that when you do little more than distort reality. To take just one example, nobody is upset that Rev. Warren was picked because of his faith. They’re upset because he made a bunch of senseless comments and was still picked when there were other choices available.
Mrs. Peel
Well, that was a good one. I’ve seen the exact same non-grasp of basic English skills in the wingnut snakepits. And they were being totally serious.
Their job applications must keep personnel staff in stitches. I’ll bet the best ones get read out loud at the office Christmas party.
Comrade Kevin
@Thomas:
It’s been a source of amusement to me to see clowns like him use that phrase as a serious insult.
Argive
I just wasted five minutes of my life by reading that piece of dreck. That editorial was so bad I can’t even make fun of it. Just . . . damn.
Laura W
The title sure has a snappy ring to it though. Whoever channeled that one probably gets a little engorged every time they look at it.
kay
I think conservatives have to cover their ass because they told The Faithful that Obama was a socialist surrender monkey, and, of course, they simply made that up.
This is the big walk-back. Obama’s center-Left not because he was always center-Left, and conservatives were dead wrong about him, but because he TRICKED PEOPLE.
Comrade Stuck
I nominate this sentence for a Nobel Prize in Wingnut Ass-Hattery.
Comrade Kevin
A Pajamas TV subscription, the perfect gift! Available from the Grot Shop.
kay
And he’s wrong about Rahm Emanuel. He may well be a hard-boiled Chicago politico, but he’s also an environmentalist, and he votes like one.
Emanual has an issue, besides winning elections, and that’s it.
He did BOTH THINGS, at the same time. He won elections and he has a bona fide interest in an issue. That’s why they missed it.
Atanarjuat
So, Ralph Peters’ Op-Ed piece struck a nerve, eh, lefties?
Who’da thunk that the Great Redistributionist was aspiring to be the next reincarnation of the Great Communicator?
It’s obvious that President-elect Barack Hussein Obama is doing the RIGHT thing, since the unrepentant LEFT, composed of DailyKos, Move On, AmericaBlog, Think Progress, Balloon-Juice, etc, are absolutely howling and raging against the dying of the liberal light.
Your tears. How sweet they are to behold.
kay
@Atanarjuat:
Conservatives were wrong about Obama, and now it’s time for the Great Walk Back.
Slow down! You’re going to trip over all that ridiculous inflammatory rhetoric you left in your wake.
bootlegger
Peace. Happy Monkey!
libarbarian
Into our heads? Real Americans pack that shit in their massive swinging cocks!
bootlegger
@Atanarjuat: A nerve Attanut? If by that you mean howling with laughter. You betcha.
JoePo
It seems like a bunch of these right wing pundits taunting Teh Left over Obama’s non-policy moves expect cultish deference to the president from his supporters. I wonder why.
Tonal Crow
The wingnuts can’t decide whether Obama is the next Satan because of his New New Deal economic plans, or the next Jesus because he invited Warren to speak at his inauguration. So they’re saying that he’s both simultaneously.
Could it be any clearer that wingnuts are all about rhetoric?
Atanarjuat
bootlegger said:
More like nervous leftist laughter, the kind that percolates out while you look for the exit sign, wondering all the while just how you wound up backing the wrong horse in the Presidential election.
The joke’s on you, lefty, and President-elect Barack Hussein Obama has left you hopeful and naive brides standing at the altar.
TenguPhule
If you wanted your mandatory gay abortion, you could have just asked nicely.
Dr.BDH
With opining of this quality, I predict Colonel Peters will have a gig at the NY Times in about 6 months.
bootlegger
@Atanarjuat: Well I hope everyone in your hive is as naive as you Attanut because my man has your nuts in his fist if you do.
Balconesfault
@Atanarjuat:
Yeah. We’re all soooooo bummed that Hillary is going to be Sec of State, rather than Prez.
Or maybe we’re all just looking forlornly at the horizon, wishing for the prospect of Sarah Palin being one heartbeat from the Presidency. Maybe Washington could go from being a crack capitol to a meth capitol!
OK – the political satirists among us may have a regret there. But the rest not so much…
kay
@Atanarjuat:
The most liberal member of the Senate
A Marxist
A socialist
A terrorist
kills babies
That was the mainstream Right on Obama.
Were you wrong about Obama?
bootlegger
"backing the wrong horse" "rogering dingos", hmmm, methinks Attanut has a slight animal fetish.
The Moar You Know
I can assure you that this is the case.
AND IN OUR MASSIVE THROBBING BALLS OF FREEDOM.
TenguPhule
I recommend a vasectomy.
Tonal Crow
@The Moar You Know:
Didn’t The Byrds write a song about that?
anonymous
@Atanarjuat:
Why do you keep referring to SecTreas Paulson in your comments?
bootlegger
@TenguPhule:
That doesn’t reduce the volume, or so my wife says.
TenguPhule
But at least it’s harmless. Or so I’ve heard. :P
Frank
The part that irritated me was this:
Nothing whatsoever Mr. Obama has done since the election is inconsistent with his campaign promises.
He campaigned as a uniter. Now he’s acting like one.
He’s is responsible for neither that certain segments of the left projected their politically farfetched hopes on him nor that fruitier segments of the right projected their most ridiculous phobias on him.
I think persons are having trouble dealing with the man’s actually doing the sorts of things he said he was going to do.
We have become so numb and cynical that the concept of a politician–and Mr. Obama is a very smart, wily politician, Q. E. D.–who actually tries to tell the truth and do what he said we was going to do is now inconceivable.
Am I a big fan of Rick Warren? No.
Do I think trying to reach out to fundamentalists is a worthy idea. Yes.
I am so tired of watching liberals and lefties get lost in side issues.
It’s the same syndrome that segments of the right have displayed over, say, stem cell research.
It’s time to stop with the one issue litmus tests already. On all sides.
Furrfu.
JL
Gee, I just turned on MSNBC and a repub spokesperson was talking about Obama’s spending plans and not just giving him a blank check? Do we now have to put up with born again fiscal repubs? Do deficits matter? It’s so confusing to keep up with repubs these days.
demimondian
Um, everyone? Yeah, listen — 28 percent is one of our regulars, although they *still* refuse to join the troll list.
List, 28pct? We coordinate sometimes — going indy is breaking the monopoly. You. Do. Not. Want. To. Mess. With. The. Monopoly.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: NOW HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SPREAD MY WHITE-HOT LOADS OF GOD’S BLESSINGS OF AMERICAN FREEDOM into the uteri of brown women throughout the world with a vasectomy?
Think before you post, man!
smiley
I’m late to this party but @John Cole:
You have to do that before you can do a comb over, the favored hair style of the elite male.
Atanarjuat
It’s perversely curious how the aftermath of Ralph Peters’ Op-Ed piece leads some of the lefties here to swap anecdotes filled with ejaculatory ecstasy.
Well, if desperately spanking your monkeys help you to forget the ongoing Great Leftist Betrayal, as perpetrated by the President-elect, then please — be my guest.
Just be sure to keep the Kleenex at hand (also useful for soaking up your bitter tears) and show some courtesy to the next person to use the keyboard by wiping after yourselves.
smiley
Jeebus, as someone said a couple of days ago, this place really is getting like Eschaton or Kos, or FDL. Before you know it the first 15 comments will be "frist!", "first", or "John!". Congrats, John, you’ve made the big time. And I mean that. I hope you get some income for your efforts.
TheHatOnMyCat
Oh, come, come.
Laura W
@smiley: You wanna see a late party, go look at John’s "Final Post" on the Warren Issue. I’m about ready to take up my cocktail waitress tray and offer to serve drinks and pupu platters over there. I honestly don’t think some of those folks have slept since 7:05pm EST yesterday.
Yeow.
(I honestly think some of those folks have not slept? Now I’m all neuro about that stalker chick from last week correcting my every typo and poorly structured sentence. Poorly-structured?)
smiley
@smiley: Let me add what I should have included in my last post lest I get slammed for not doing so: Ahem, that being said, I stopped reading the comment sections of those other sites about a day after discovering them. The content here is better. I was only commenting on the frequency and amount of comments.
demimondian
@Laura W: Hyphenated, definitely.
Then again, I think it should be "stalker-chick" (to avoid a parallel with "stalker chic"…pictures in Vogue of sweating men in basements obsessively writing love letters to their ex-es…).
tomjones
@Atanarjuat: It’s perversely curious that, though we may be obsessed with blowing our wads, you’re obsessed with crying like a WATB.
If I must associate with a fluid, I choose the former. And here I thought conservatives were supposed to be the man’s men.
r€nato
New Rule:
if you habitually refer to anyone who is not a Republican as, ‘the far left’ or ‘radical left’… your opinions may be ignored for the rest of your life.
demimondian
@smiley: It was better back in the old days…
— demi "and STAY off!" mondian
r€nato
like I said earlier, the king of projection.
smiley
@Laura W:
Pictures! We want pictures!
demimondian
@r€nato: Clarification, counsel: by "referring to anyone" do you mean "referring to a single one" or "referring to everyone"?
— demi "pedantic? me?" mondian
Atanarjuat
tomjones said:
I think you’ve got me confused with all the genuine WATB patrols in the leftist blogosphere who are gnashing their teeth and wailing to the skies about Reverend Rick Warren.
Hence, Ralph Peters’ Op-Ed piece, and the veritable nerve he struck among you lefties.
C’mon, you’re making this too easy.
smiley
@demimondian:
I know. Um, that’s how I know. I’ve been around for a while.
Rick Taylor
@Atanarjuat
I guess this means you’ve gotten over some of your dismay at Obama’s election, when you signed your notes "A country under seige"? Perhaps you’ve decided Obama is not the disaster you thought? I’m glad to hear it.
demimondian
@smiley: Yes, I know. I *think* you may actually antedate me, and I’ve been here a LOONG time.
Atanarjuat
Rick Taylor said:
A fair point, Mr. Taylor.
I will concede that President-elect Obama’s puzzling drift to the right had surprised me at first, but having witnessed the ever-increasing wails of despair from the liberal camp, I must admit that it’s a welcome shift.
Balconesfault
@JL:
Remember – part of the mantra was "the deficit isn’t that big as a percentage of the GDP".
That’s why it was essential for Bush to kill off economic growth – so Dems couldn’t actually use deficit spending to build stuff over here (aside from big fences).
Comrade Kevin
Shorter Atanarjuat: Oh yeah? Well, Sez you!
robertdsc
Colonel Peters has produced some good novels over the years, so it puzzles me that columns like this are so disjointed and awkward in their phrasing.
Tonal Crow
Is it my imagination, or have the trolls around here put the self-parody pedal to the metal?
Atanarjuat
Comrade Kevin quoted, then said:
Really, that’s what you got out of my clear statement vis-a-vis Rick Warren and the Liberal Circular Firing Squad? Sorry, CK, your strawman just blew away in a sudden gust of embarrassment.
Comrade Kevin
@Atanarjuat:
Someone said this:
To which you replied this:
I’d say that pretty much amounts to "oh yeah? sez you!" or "I know you are, but what am I?"
You’re starting to sound more and more like that other spooftroll "USA Patriot".
Blue Raven
@demimondian:
Actually, you don’t hyphenate an adjectival phrase if you’re starting it with an word that ends in -ly. So "poorly structured sentences" is correct.
The Moar You Know.
Laura W
@Blue Raven: Hey, thanks! I’m glad to know my first instinct was correct. That second guessing of self always screws us up, huh?
kay
@Atanarjuat:
Obama didn’t drift to the right. You were wrong about him.
I think it’s amazing that that easy and obvious answer to your "puzzlement" still eludes conservatives. It’s…you! Wrong! Imagine that.
You still can’t define him. It’s been 2 years. When do you think you might get it?
maxbaer (not the original)
I’ve been seeing a lot of this "Obama’s really a conservative and the libs are crying about it."
Is this some sort of wingnut defense mechanism to get over losing the whole govt to the Dems?
And, if they really do believe Obama is a conservative can’t they just STFU and be happy about it?
Atanarjuat
Comrade Kevin, you can continue erecting the same false equivalency strawman and it will only continue to tumble down just as embarrassingly.
To mix metaphors, I suggest that instead of shooting more irrelevant blanks, your arguments might have more impact if you tried a little less ad hominem and a lot more appeal to reason.
For example, how exactly have I been "crying like a WATB" in this thread? Provide a clear example and use it to buttress your claim. Otherwise, you’ll be left in the same corner tomjones painted himself in, a victim of his own desperate projection.
Cataphract
Ralph Peters has been a total WATB since 04 NOV. He’s so fucking sore that McThusela & Bible Spice lost that it clouds his already over-simplified opinion pieces.
I have always loved his fiction. "The War in 2020" was an excellent book, and "Flames of Heaven" is one of the best stories I’ve ever read. But I’ve gotten tired of his NY Post musings as of late due to his blind obedience to McCain and the Republicans and his automatic dismissal of Obama just because he has a (D) next to his name. It totally kills any credibility he might have had.
He should go back to writing his fiction. He cannot get past his ideological blinders since Obama won. He will be bitching constantly for the next four years. It’s really fucking annoying, and I was one of his biggest fans.
Maybe Atanassshatinmyhat is Peters? He sounds like a total douche, too.
Atanarjuat
kay, I’m not sure why you keep insisting that I’ve been wrong about President-elect Obama.
He has yet to begin his term as President of the United States of America, and, without question, has not been able to sign any legislation into law nor has he attempted to coerce the current administration in any way.
Therefore, what precisely have I failed to apprehend that you were already so knowledgeable of? A detailed clarification would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Comrade Kevin
@Atanarjuat:
I’m not the one who said you were whining like a WATB, you dolt.
You also don’t know what "ad hominem" is about.
Calling you a dolt isn’t ad hominem, either.
Will
I think Ralph Peters was coking up himself out of a bad drunk when he wrote this. Or maybe he was drinking himself down from a serious coke cliffhanger. Either way, this section from the Peters piece takes the cake:
Think Emanuel will advise Obama to rape children? Nah, because he’s a ruthless pragmatist! That’s why they pay me to write this stuff! Because I have brilliant insights like that!
Atanarjuat
Comrade Kevin said:
Indeed, that’s why I specifically referenced tomjones, but you obviously failed to comprehend the contrast, and, knowing that you had no real argument once I requested you to appeal to reason, you fell back on name-calling as you just did above.
Sorry, CK, your whole line of attack has been a complete exercise in fail; weak sauce at its lamest.
Try not to be so knee-jerk next time.
28 Percent
@demimondian:
That is not a monopoly that is a union and I am all about FREEDOM maeby you do not know what that is but it is what AMERICA is all about besides nobody ever invited me that i know of but that is the government run post office for you. If it was privatized we would not be in this mess i am sure.
mclaren
"Every time you think you’ve seen the absolute psychos, the human scum, the street opens up and you discover a whole new level." — Sonny Crockett, Miami Vice episode "Viking Bikers From Hell," 1985
Das
I suppose it was a bit boilerplate but was there anything Peters wrote that wasn’t true?
(I don’t think John C, is really an Ex-Righty – he just steered hundreds of eyes over to Ralph’s article and then just called him – like most of the commenters here – an a$$hole; why should I be impressed with that? Snoorr,,,zzz….