Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Come on, man.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Everybody saw this coming.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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136Comments

  2. 2.

    JenJen

    No topic? Cool! Can I say that The Daily Beast is, by far, the worst "big" site on all of the internets? Good Christ, is it banal. Right now, both Mark McKinnon and Meghan McCain have "columns" up about how the entire, and only, problem with the GOP is their shiny message packaging. With dozens of minions in the comments section telling them how totally right they are, and everything. In fact, McKinnon’s latest post implores Obama to "get some guts" and follow the example of President Bush, by being more optimistic. It is truly staggering to behold.

    The Daily Beast proves John Cole’s earlier point from today, only on a daily basis. Over, and over, and then over again.

  4. 4.

    iluvsummr

    The end of Swiss banking as we know it?

    UBS urged some American clients to destroy records and to stash watches, jewelry and artwork that they had bought with money hidden offshore in safe deposit boxes in Switzerland. The bank also encouraged them to use Swiss credit cards so the I.R.S. could not track purchases.

  6. 6.

    Brian J

    I don’t think anybody’s mentioned it yet, but I’m almost finished (I have a very, very weird reading style–ask if you want, but be prepared to be puzzled) with this interesting article in The Atlantic by Richard Florida. It’s about how the credit crisis and the real estate market crash will affect our economic geography. It’s kind of depressing, particularly if you live in the sort of area that was a product of the boom times but didn’t have the sort of underlying factors that continued to contribute to major economic growth, like Phoenix or if you live in an area that has seen its source of strength dwindle over the course of several decades, like Detroit. If I am interpreting him correctly, he’s not saying that the recession will be so much better for places like New York, Silicon Valley, and the like, but that it might not be as bad and that recovery could come about quicker. It’s the sort of article that raises a lot of questions, like what, if anything, can be done to help a faltering city, but that’s also sort of positive, because it seems hopeful that a dynamic atmosphere, which America seems to have in a lot of places, will get us back to good times.

  9. 9.

    Incertus

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Afraid my life is much more boring–raised a Jehovah’s Witness, been in recovery (from being a JW, not from anything else) for 14 years, daughter named Brittany Spears. I’m the poetry editor of the site, so I’m trying to, ummm, introduce it around a bit.

  10. 10.

    valdivia

    @Incertus:

    in reality you are being good. much better reading for a thurs night than say, the thousand iteration of the life of Eva Peron.

  12. 12.

    Wisdom

    One wakes up and ends every day on a new high note.

    This morning, we are notified the august Attorney General has called us all cowards. This evening, the stock market sinks to new lows. And in the most-ethical administration ever, Mr. Ramh now actually pays rent. Board member Freddie Freeloader must have quite a bit of change saved up after living rent free at a swanky address for four years while his free-lord was receiving six-figure contracts. From… wait for it… Freddie.

  16. 16.

    Jennifer

    @valdivia: You might enjoy Santa Evita, which is about the journeys of Eva Peron’s body after death. Excellent, excellent and strange novel, but based on actual events.

  17. 17.

    Stuck

    @jenniebee:

    you must be talking about the Barnackal. I scraped him off the side or my boat a while ago. Overt racism doesn’t surprise me with him.

  18. 18.

    JenJen

    @jenniebee: It truly was fascinating, watching Pat Buchanan tell Eric Dyson that he’s just blaming all of his problems on white people. They have an entire roster of people to bring on to discuss Race in America, and they choose Pat Buchanan! Adorable.

    Mike Barnicle was also interesting… joining in on the "people with foreclosed homes are looooooosers!" chorus with the likes of CNBC’s Cramer. I was particularly amused when Barnicle insisted that he and his wife (Chief Marketing Officer for Bank of America) have "struggled" to afford their home, and that they’re not about to bail out a bunch of people who can’t read the fine print on a mortgage. You go, Barnicle, rooting on Rick Santelli and those Chicago traders who were waving palms during his rant against suffering citizens. Apparently none of these people have been clued in that American hates their collective guts, which of course makes it all the more entertaining!

    I’m never a big fan of MSNBC when all the Morning Joe critters make their way into the nighttime lineup.

  19. 19.

    That Anonymous Guy

    In keeping with Michael Steele’s new "hip-hop" Republicanism, John McCain officially upgraded his messaging today.

    OLD JOHN MCCAIN: Get off my lawn!

    NEW JOHN MCCAIN: Get off my lawn ‘fore I pop a cap in your ass, bitches!

  20. 20.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @iluvsummr:
    Funny, not a breath of the investigation came out during the election. Funny, because Phil Gramm, one of McCain’s economic advisers, works for UBS. When Gramm deregulates a bank he goes all the way.

  21. 21.

    iluvsummr

    @JL: UBS hasn’t released the names yet but will cooperate with the US Justice department and release a couple hundred. I didn’t realize that tax evasion is not a crime in Switzerland, though it is here.

  22. 22.

    valdivia

    @Jennifer: yes great novel by one of the stars of spanish language writing, Tomas Eloy Martinez (he has also La novela de Peron, about Peron himself fantastic). Unfortunately I am stuck reading 50 student papers and that quality of writing about Eva Peron leaves much to be desired….

  23. 23.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Thanks John! In case anyone missed it downstairs here is one of my favorite female artists of all time Petula Clark, last year, singing a medley of her hits with the songwriter Tony Hatch. She is 75, if I look and sound that good when I am 75 I will be one happy bear.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlndv6C57Eg

    (Apart from anything else you have to give the woman kudos for surviving being a pop star in the 60s and not ending up dead or something).

    PS) According to the Guinness Book of Records she has the longest chart career ever 1954-2008.

  27. 27.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @valdivia:
    "Don’t cry for me, valdivia,
    You are supposed to grade the papers,
    That’s all they wanted – not much to ask for,
    So down a whiskey, then grade the papers…"

  28. 28.

    valdivia

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    LOL. You know, I tend to hear that song in my head when grading even more papers about Evita towards the end of term. And drink is the only thing that gets me through, which means I have to grade at night. Ahem. Wouldn’t want you guys thinking I am that much of a lush.For the record I am not a scotch drinker. More like red wine.

  30. 30.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @valdivia:

    I would have you know that we are a proud bunch of lushes here at BJ, in fact we have been known to try and out lush each other.

    LBD + 5 heineken lites which really don’t count.

  32. 32.

    valdivia

    Incertus–well I have to be nationalistic so I start with Chilean Carmeneres but if not available then Malbec it is.

    Litlebritdifrnt–are you saying you guys will encourage me to, um, grade in the morning instead of the evening?

  33. 33.

    Martin

    LBD + 5 heineken lites which really don’t count.

    Yeah, that’s almost like drinking one real beer!

  34. 34.

    iluvsummr

    @JL:

    Hiding money for the wealthy is a big business in Switzerland.

    There was a time when younger people in Switzerland started to grow really uncomfortable with the banking industry’s legacy. Around the time that Credit Suisse, UBS and Swiss Bank Corp established a Holocaust humanitarian fund in the face of potential lawsuits from survivors’ families. Bank secrecy laws were lifted for a time to allow investigations and I stupidly thought that this brought about some change with respect to aiding tax evasion and other crimes.

  36. 36.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @mikefromtexas:

    Links have consequences damnnit and that link to GOS lead me to the Taking Chance trailer which now means I am crying like a baby. THANKS! I HAVE to watch that movie.

    Yeah Heineken lite is pretty much colored water, but I am trying to be good and lay off the red wine, waaaahhhhhh.

    Valdivia – no cause you know you won’t be able to grade in the morning cause your head will hurt from the night before :)

  39. 39.

    Warren Terra

    There’s a fun story at the New York Times* about Apaches suing Skull And Bones for what are reported to be the remains of Geronimo, allegedly looted from his grave in 1918 by Prescott Bush and two pals and placed in a trophy case. There is of course little solid evidence as yet, but (1) if the judge lets it happen, the Discovery process could be a real hoot, and (2) even if the bones turn out not to really be Geronimo’s, the idea that generations of spoiled youngsters (and visiting alums!) have gloated over their trophy that they reportedly claimed was the stolen mortal remains of a man who died a hero to his people and in opposition to theirs just sickens me.

    * I’d hyperlink, but I’m commenting by phone, no cut-and-paste function.

  40. 40.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I, on a regular interval, visit the local package store. This is where the cheap beer consumed at the plastic table in the basement that acts as a shelter from children’s television is purchased.

    At this package store, we behold the girl with the hairy arms.

  41. 41.

    valdivia

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    anything is better than Andrew Lloyd Weber on anything Latin America and/or Argentina related. And Borges is the master. I would highly recommend Roberto Bolaño who used to be the unsung hero of Latin letters but is now very well known is the States thanks to great translations. Much buzz about him, all true.

    Litlebritdifrnt–that sounds like a recipe for never grading at all. ;-)

  45. 45.

    Martin

    Bill? She’s a guy.

    And suddenly Bill understands the statistical puzzle of how 50% of the population were ugly women, 25% ugly men, and 25% hot women that were oddly lacking boobs and too often named ‘Steve’.

  47. 47.

    Brick Oven Bill

    The girl with the hairy arms is fairly attractive, despite a body mass index of probably 30. She is definately a female as I have a keen eye for fake boobs.

    She appears to be of French descent and is in her early 20s. She wears tee-shirts, and smokes generic cigarettes. I wonder about her armpits and feel kind of guilty about this.

    She would be a hot item in Bremerton, Washington.

  53. 53.

    valdivia

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    on Bolaño I would begin with By Night in Chile. His best, to my mind, is Detectives Salvajes, and his latest 2666. But for a taste of him By Night is a great beginning.

  54. 54.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    God damn it, Fuckhead. I’d successfully forgotten about that song up until now.

  56. 56.

    Dennis-SGMM

    Missing only those occasional flashes of perfect lightning that made Brautigan’s stuff worth reading – at least for me.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    By request. Carry on.

    Carry on? Ooh nurse!!!!

    Sorry, that’s a joke lost on all but perhaps littlebrit.

  61. 61.

    Nicole

    My husband and I honeymooned in Argentina (not an expensive trip)- Buenos Aires was really fun and Patagonia is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

    Does anyone have a link to the Take on Me Literal Version that is not the one that cuts off the ending?

  62. 62.

    Warren Terra

    Mike J, my only exposure to the Carry On films has been from hearing references to them in BBC radio programs streamed across the Atlantic … but … surely the classic line is Ooh, Matron!, not "ooh, nurse"?

  64. 64.

    valdivia

    @Nicole:

    Yes wonderful place to visit and probably even cheaper now. Chile is great too, a little different but some wonderful wine country too.

  66. 66.

    Martin

    Yeah, BofA is horrible about fees, and count me in as well, but can I ask that we please spare my credit union – no fees for anything and they’ll refund any ATM fees that the ATM operator charges to withdraw money from my credit union account.

  67. 67.

    Stuck

    @TenguPhule:

    Charging fees on unemployment benefits, then fees on CUSTOMER SERVICES CALLS about those fees.

    Jesus Christ, they’re like motherfucking parasites, a tape worm that sucks the life and cash out of everything. Next thing they’ll charge us for our outrage and send the bill C.O.D.. They’re all frackin Zombie Banks — Pitchforks, Garlic and Stakes are in order.

    I forgot what you use on Zombies. Silver Bullets? nah that’s Werewolves, I think. Whatever.

  68. 68.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @TenguPhule:
    Now, now, we don’t want to frighten off all of those bank executives do we? The ones who have done such a bangup job that they’re giving themselves bonuses with our money. Next thing you know you’ll be saying that insolvent banks shouldn’t be paying dividends – also with our money.
    Buncha’ Commies.

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    Where do we start?

    Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp.’

    Burn em all.

  71. 71.

    burnspbesq

    @Stuck:

    Barnicle spent too much time in Southie and started channeling racist working-class Irish-Americans. He reminds me of my uncles on my mom’s side. I’m surprised he wasn’t arrested for throwing rocks at school buses in 1975.

  73. 73.

    Nicole

    @Martin: Credit unions are not the same thing (as the banks’ continual assaults on them in Congress make clear). Don’t worry; no one hates them (other than banks). I belong to one also, and I love it.

    valdivia- I very much would like to see Chile next!

  74. 74.

    burnspbesq

    @iluvsummr:

    There are two separate proceedings involving UBS account-holder information. The stuff they voluntarily coughed up, they did as part of getting a deferred prosecution agreement from DOJ (which also cost them a $780 million fine).

    The IRS has gone to court to get permission to issue what is known as a "john doe summons," requiring UBS to identify every American that has or had an account with the bank during a specified period. If UBS can’t wriggle out of complying, IRS agents all over the country will have upwards of 50K audits to do.

    I halfway expect that the Swiss government will try to intervene in the john doe summons case.

  75. 75.

    Brick Oven Bill

    As man is a flawed ethical creature, and man’s flaws are most dangerous when enabled by a powerful government, I support a limited government. So, when the state wanted to place a $0.05/can tax on beer, I was opposed to it. Both for ideological reasons, and because I enjoy beer, and this one would cost me.

    When the date of the local vote came, duty had called me out of state, to a place where nobody cared about the five cent tax that I cared about. Upon return, I wanted to find out whether the tax had passed. So the next time at the package store, I ask the girl with the hairy arms if the tax passed.

    The girl with the hairy arms stands before me. Our eyes meet. And the girl with the hairy arms tells me:

    “The only time I pay attention to politics is when politicians talk about giving things to the people.”

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    UBS = full employment for white-collar criminal defense lawyers for the next 3-5 years. If you are in law school now, this is the way to go. White-collar defense is the most recession-proof specialty there is. Just be sure to take tax and securities courses so that you understand the substantive law.

  77. 77.

    Fulcanelli

    @TenguPhule: This is looking more and more like the only way they’ll understand the gravitas of the situation out here in Americaland. It seems TZ is in. As am I with bells on. It should only take a few of them going up in greasy smoke on the evening news and Youtube before the rest get religion and knock this shit off. The crowd’s enthusiastic reaction will be the thing that makes it sink in.

    Anybody want to put money against the Fed’s finding at least one bailed out bank exec stashing un-taxed loot in the Swiss bank investigation?

    Or better yet, I’d bet the super double-secret ulterior motive is to see if any US military personnel, Blackwater, KBR or Halliburton swine have accounts containing some of our 125 Billion missing tax dollars. That’s like what, a 10 yard dump truck filled with shrink-wrapped, neatly stacked benjamins?

    Guilty? 1) Military tribunal 2) Firing squad 3) Open grave in the Iraqi desert. Next?

    And why aren’t we hearing the House Repiggies squealing about that missing money? That’s about 20% of the stimulus money. Just gone.

    @Stuck: Wolverines!

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    On a recent open thread here someone mentioned Danny O’Keefe’s Breezy Stories as a great "lost" album (i.e., forgotten or unappreciated). I second that opinion, and today I found myself listening to another album I would put in the same category: If I Could Only Remember My Name . . ., by David Crosby. It’s from the same period (early ’70s) and holds up surprisingly well.

    That is all.

  80. 80.

    burnspbesq

    @Fulcanelli:

    Anybody want to put money against the Fed’s finding at least one bailed out bank exec stashing un-taxed loot in the Swiss bank investigation?

    I’ll take that bet. No one could possibly be stupid enough to put money into UBS now. It’s been known for several months that the shit was going to hit the fan re UBS. I sat at a table full of criminal tax specialists at lunch at the ABA Tax Section meeting in SF last September; every one of them, without exception, had multiple voluntary-disclosure cases going at the time, in which their clients would ultimately pay in full, plus interest and civil penalties, in order to avoid prosecution.

    Some other Swiss bank, maybe. More likely Caymans, Turks & Caicos, or Labuan.

  82. 82.

    ThymeZoneThePlumber

    The only time I pay attention to politics is when politicians talk about giving things to the people.

    Really? Like services and infrastructure that require revenue from taxes in order to implement?

    Things that might be paid for by a crummy nickel tax on a beer, you cheapass motherf*cker?

    See Bill, there are different ways of looking at things.

    Amirite?

    All the civilized countries are providing healthcare for their citizens, but not here, because people too cheap and too petty to pay a friggin nickel tax on a beer don’t want to be responsible citizens.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    @valdivia:

    I just started Bolaño’s By Night in Chile a week or so ago and am liking it a lot, despite having to read it in between other things.

  84. 84.

    burnspbesq

    I have no idea how anyone will ever top this.

    The cover story in the current issue of
    The American Conservative    :

    "How Radio Wrecked the Right."

    By John Derbyshire

  85. 85.

    Fulcanelli

    @burnspbesq: I’d be interested in hearing how that shakes out if the info is made public. But we are talking about the masters of wall street here, guys who unabashedly pay themselves tens of millions of dollars while they lay people off.

  86. 86.

    valdivia

    @Steeplejack:

    glad to hear it. Regarding what I said above–I actually recommend everything he has written (his poetry is fantastic too) I don’t mean to discourage those who might want to start with the bigger books, they are very worth it.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    @John Cole:

    "In watermelon sugar the deed was done and done again as my life was done in watermelon sugar."

    Somewhat appalled that I can reel that off the top of my head.

  91. 91.

    burnspbesq

    @valdivia:

    You’re about right. Out in Wingnuttia, it is the War of All Against All. True patriots can only hope that they all immolate each other, and take the Republican Party down with them. We could do with a sane conservative opposition party in this country.

    Country first, last, and always. My country, right or wrong – when right, keep it right, when wrong, set it right. Suck on that, Atanawhoosis.

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack

    @valdivia:

    I read most of the stories in Last Evenings on Earth and some of his poetry (The Romantic Dogs?). Now circling around to the novels.

  97. 97.

    Fulcanelli

    @burnspbesq: It’s only a matter of time before Hannity, Limbaugh, Savage or one of those numbskulls gets caught with little boy porn or something devious which costs them their advertisers and goes under for the third time. Beware exploding ditto heads. It’s not who they are, it’s what they are. You can’t be that much of an asshole egomaniac everyday, in public no less, and then just go home and be Mr. friggin’ Normal neighbor. I’m thinking like John Wayne Gacy creepy shit.

  98. 98.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Democracies get to the point where the electorate learns to vote itself access to the Treasury. This is the nature of the system, and always had been. And then, it is the people like the girl with the hairy arms, who I like, who get burnt when things fall apart.

    People talk of the French Revolution, and class warfare, and revenge. People think that the French Revolution was about some topless chick leading revolutionaries with a bottle of wine in her hands.

    But the universal suffrage of 1793 was replaced with limited suffrage based on land ownership in 1795. Napoleon then took over in 1799 as a dictator. This was a very dark decade for France.

    This is why I believe that the system set up by the Founding Fathers, while unfair to some, is the best that man can hope to achieve. Everybody, or at least every adult male, should have the opportunity to aspire to vote.

    But there needs to be some performance threshold for voter eligibility. I propose this being $3k/yr in income taxes, so that voters have some skin in the game.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    @burnspbesq:

    Hey, I’m just responding to the stimuli bombarding me.

    Sorry if this is a repeat, but I think my previous response to your post about Eric Andersen got hosed, or extremely rendered to moderation.

    Blue River: Great album, and it reminded me of Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left, because that has the song "River Man" on it. Always thought that would be a good theme song for a serial killer movie.

    Jeez, We’re spiraling down into some retro ’70s time warp. I’m starting to hear that wakka-wakka guitar and have a burning desire to watch something like Across 110th Street or Hell Up in Harlem on the Original Gangstas Channel.

  100. 100.

    ThymeZoneThePlumber

    People think that the French Revolution was about some topless chick leading revolutionaries with a bottle of wine in her hands.

    Oh yes, that’s exactly what I have always thought the French Revolution was about, Bill.

    ( rolls eyes )

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    @burnspbesq:

    My apologies. I have replied twice to your comment, and both replies have vanished. I can only assume they offended the moderation gods somehow. I’ll wait to see if they come through. Short version: I like the Andersen album, and I said it reminded me of Nick Drake’s Five Leaves Left because that has "River Man" on it.

  104. 104.

    Martin

    People talk of the French Revolution, and class warfare, and revenge. People think that the French Revolution was about some topless chick leading revolutionaries with a bottle of wine in her hands.

    I thought it was about tractors and unwarranted access to people’s thermostats.

  106. 106.

    Chuck Butcher

    Jamie Dimon CEO of Chase had this to say to CNBC about underwater mortgages:

    "I don’t think just because someone’s underwater they say I don’t have to stay there. But they’re supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you’re supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them. Because you have a mortgage doesn’t mean you should run away as it goes down."

    This was said while sitting on $25B in taxpayer bailout. If you read my post I am a bit aggravated. I mentioned a .30 lesson might get throught to them.

    As someone with skin in what happen in residential property I’ll still say this, if you are very far underwater the only sensible course is to load your shit on a trailer and get the hell out. It is going to screw with your credit rating, but that is inevitible if you’re far under.

  107. 107.

    valdivia

    @Steeplejack:
    Ha! Same here: very long list and Murakami presently next to my bed at the very top of the pile. I have heard great things about him. I am just done reading James Salter a little known fantastic American writer who I also recommend.

  109. 109.

    SGEW

    Everybody, or at least every adult male, should have the opportunity to aspire to vote.

    But there needs to be some performance threshold for voter eligibility. I propose this being $3k/yr in income taxes, so that voters have some skin in the game.

    I might not agree with what you have to say, but I will die litigate for your right to say it, etc. etc. and all that, but really, Bill. Let’s try and at least be pragmatic here.

    Merits aside, this is such a . . . hopeless? quixotic? unreasonable? . . . policy idea. It is, frankly speaking, a political impossibility. I mean, seriously. How could you implement this as law? Repeal universal suffrage (!), reinstate the poll tax, etc. etc. etc. . . . it’s dead in the water. Unthinkable, and untouchable. You’d have better luck trying to return to the gold standard or something*.

    You must admit that you will have a very, very hard time getting such a policy change implemented through even semi-democratic means, seeing as how you’d be disenfranchising a super-majority of voters. And getting such a change implemented through overtly non-democratic means is treason. Dig?

    Anyway, since I have previously proved my racial and genetic superiority to you, O lowly white man, I hereby request that you lay off the 18th Century crypto-aristocrat stuff, k? Thxbai.

    -SGEW +something something mumble

    *Or electrify the trains with your mind, or turn them into anti-tractors(?) or whatever your other policy ideas are. To tell the truth, they’re a little confusing.

  111. 111.

    SGEW

    Also: Murakami’s early novel Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a masterpiece as well. In fact, almost all of his books are (I wasn’t crazy about Norwegian Wood, but others love it). Kafka on the Shore is magnificent too.

  112. 112.

    burnspbesq

    Megan McArdle is about 85 percent dumbass, but I think we could all get behind this suggestion.

    Assuming that we are indeed facing, in large part, a crisis of confidence, would this crisis be solved more quickly if we stopped nattering about the banking system and simply burned us some witches?

  113. 113.

    Brick Oven Bill

    France has been through five republics since Napoleon. The people who believe that the United States of America is permanent are more optimistic than me.

    In any case, here is the picture which I referenced. It is rated R. The girl in front does look eerily similar to the girl with the hairy arms. The men behind her were most likely conscripted by Dictator Napoleon and froze to death in Russia.

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    @valdivia:

    I was thinking after I responded earlier how I tend to seesaw between Spanish (language) and Japanese writers. Love everything by Borges. My Japanese analogue to him would be Yasunari Kawabata. His novels are tight. I like Thousand Cranes the most. I was late to get around to Murakami, so now I’m catching up.

    @SGEW:

    Thanks for the recommendations. I was thinking about Norwegian Wood next, but maybe I’ll go with Kafka on the Shore.

  115. 115.

    valdivia

    @Steeplejack:

    That is interesting, and like the juxtaposition of cultures and language you have going there. I think a lot of people associate spanish language prose with magic realism which is too bad since we have tons of other types of writers who are great and not magic realists. Borges, your man, being one of them (or the very best of them). I will check the Japanese Borges out, thanks for the tip. And I too was very late to murakami and just now getting to him.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @valdivia:

    Kawabata is not "magic realism" by any stretch. What he shares with Borges is an incredible economy of expression that somehow has a geometrically disproportionate impact. Borges’s stories seem at first like simple little three- or five-page literary confections, but they stick in your mind and get bigger and bigger as they reverberate. Kawabata’s novels are like that, but in a completely different way. HIs economy applies to the depths in relationships–the 90 percent of the iceberg that is under water. Rarely have I seen a novelist say so much while telling so little.

    Non-"magic realism" Spanish writers: I also have been (gradually!) making my way through Edith Grossman’s (comparatively) new translation of Don Quixote.

  117. 117.

    Martin

    Kawabata is not "magic realism" by any stretch. What he shares with Borges is an incredible economy of expression that somehow has a geometrically disproportionate impact.

    You guys do realize you’re posting in the same thread as Bill? Moving from your discussions of literature to Bills proof that global warming is a hoax because the milk in his fridge is still cold is gonna give someone whiplash.

  118. 118.

    TenguPhule

    No one could possibly be stupid enough to put money into UBS now.

    Three months later, we find Sarah Palin opened an account there.

  121. 121.

    Thoughtcrime

    SideShow BOB was true performance art tonight. I applaud his transformation of the hairy-armed French-looking package store femme into "La Liberté". Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!

  125. 125.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @gbear:
    From your link:

    Williamson’s views created an uproar last month when Pope Benedict XVI lifted his excommunication and that of three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as part of a process meant to heal a rift with ultra-conservatives.

    Aren’t there some people with whom a religion might want to have rifts? Williamson’s unauthorized consecration was performed by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X. The SSPX was founded with the sole mission of opposing the Vatican II reforms. Seems like Pope Benedict XVI is sending a signal here.

  129. 129.

    canuckistani

    Nice try BOB. No one in that picture was even born when Napoleon seized power, it was painted in reference to the July revolution of 1830.
    See here.

    The top hat should have tipped you off. Not a French Revolution fashion accessory.

  130. 130.

    KDP

    @jenniebee, @jenjen

    Re: Hardball racist rants by Barnicle and Buchanan.

    What pissed me off was the several sudden ‘technical difficulties’ with the feed for Dyson as he was making valid, reasonable points about the nature of institutional racism.

    I tried to find a phone number in order to call and register a complaint on this.

    I suspect that I will just have to stop watching Hardball entirely.

  131. 131.

    valdivia

    @Steeplejack:

    Just in case–I should make clear that I definitely do not think Borges is even close to magic realism. You describe his writing so well, and magic realism is the opposite sometimes (especially the latest derivative stuff) they write a lot without saying anything. I would say Borges is a writer’s writer but that sounds like a cliche.

    Grossman is the best translator out there. With Natasha Wimmer getting up there (she translates Bolano and Vargas Llosa)

  132. 132.

    SGEW

    @valdivia:

    With Natasha Wimmer getting up there (she translates Bolano and Vargas Llosa)

    I think I prefered Helen R. Lane, actually (she translated Llosa’s earlier work), but I have no idea if that’s due to my love for The War of the End of the World and fondness for Godard films (she translated some of his subtitles) rather than a preference for her translation abilities. Is there something in particular about Wimmer’s work that you find exceptional?

    Actually, seeing as how I can only read english (ashamed!), I really have no way to measure the difference between translators . . . I suppose I could read different versions of the same novel, but I’ve never done that.

  133. 133.

    valdivia

    @SGEW:

    Wimmer has a very idiomatic translation style. She is able to give the reader in english a very clear sense of how the book sounds in spanish, the richness of the prose. You don’t always get that with translations. Also–especially with Bolano–you need to know how to translate the vibrant slang, and she does this very very well, without sounding affected or affecting the work.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @valdivia:

    Just in case—I should make clear that I definitely do not think Borges is even close to magic realism.

    No, no, I was just trying to reassure you that Kawabata is not some weird Japanese magic-realism wannabe. And I definitely don’t consider Borges magic realism.

    (My current project has me working afternoon and evenings, so I’m always commenting on these threads long after they have died.)

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    Is it translated from the original French? Readers of Borges know that the Quixote was written by Pierre Menard.

    No, in true Borgesian fashion, it’s a translation of a fake review of the book (possibly mythical) which nonetheless encapsulates the whole book.

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