My therapist told me to stop reading the Kaplan reporter Q&As. But Flounder pointed me to a real doozy:
Taxes are killing us.: The US at 26.1% pays less tax than any other industrialized country except Japan at 25.8%. Sweden is at 50.2%, the UK at 35.8%, and Spain at 35.5%, for example. BTW each of these three countries had higher growth (average per capita growth 1995 – 2005) than we did. 2.5%, 2.4% and 3.1% resp. compared to our 2.1%. Also Japan’s was 1% growth.
Frank Ahrens: But did you know our corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world? That makes a real difference if you’re a business and you’re thinking about locating in the U.S. or, say, India.
[….]But did you know our corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world?: Dead wrong. Our nominal tax rate of 35% is among the highest, but because of loopholes our real tax rate of 18% is among the lowest real corporate tax rates.
Frank Ahrens: Back atcha.
Back atcha?
And this is an economics reporter at one of the country’s three most important newspapers? You know, I feel bad saying this when I hear about all the reporters getting laid off, but I can’t think of any other profession where someone this inept could rise to near the top. So I say this with all due respect to all the good, smart, tough hard-working reporters out there: we’ll be better off when this whole clown show goes bankrupt.
Hunter Gathers
Thank FSM that I got out of that game. I may be poor, but I’d rather be poor than some soul-less media hack.
Notorious P.A.T.
It’s a micro-step up from “because shut up, that’s why”. I suppose.
Guster
I don’t even understand what that means, back atcha. Back … how? Someone talk me through this.
Nutella
Apparently “back atcha” now means “I am an ignorant and incompetent fool”.
I won’t miss these clowns either when the Post, the Atlantic, etc. are gone. The smart journalists are working on rebuilding their industry without those obsolete institutions.
Nutella
@Nutella:
Or maybe “back atcha” now means “I am lying scum”.
Butch
How did they get there? Perhaps the septic tank theory of success, that the big chunks rise to the top?
The Other Steve
I see the scientist from the CRU involved in the email kerfluffle has resigned.
As I said, this was going to ruin their careers. The lesson learned here is to use the telephone and not email to communicate… that is until they mandate all phone calls be taped.
Guster
@Nutella: That’s definitely what it _does_ mean, but what does _he_ think it means? I’m flummoxed.
Shawn in ShowMe
I think “back atcha” is supposed to mean “I know you are but what am I?” This is the same irritating Eddie Haskell clone that used to piss you off in 3rd grade and now he’s making six figures spouting the same line. There is no justice.
WereBear
“Back atcha” means “same to you, Buddy.” Friendly OR hostile.
So what he said makes no friggin’ sense.
Warren Terra
In 2008 McCain peddled this same nonsense, saying the US should slash its sky-high corporate taxes (and emulate Ireland). He could be utterly certain our media wouldn’t call him for the fraud he is.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Standard (com)Post reporter fare in their chats when they don’t want to answer a question the chat producer let thru.
Ahrens is a long term Postie hack in his previous assignments. Nothing new here.
They deserve all the red ink they get.
PeakVT
I think “back atcha” is a liberal translation of “yeah, well… YOUR MOM!”
low-tech cyclist
Jeez, that’s appalling. Anyone paying any attention knows that the nominal 35% corporate tax rate is basically a joke. It’s not like this is a well-kept secret, or even a fact known only to policy wonks.
Good thing we have newspapers like the WaPo that do real reporting, and clear up all those misconceptions that we learn from pajama-clad bloggers, huh?
That rag can’t go under soon enough to suit me.
gypsy howell
Ahhh, it’s the old “I am rubber, you are glue” argument. Wins every time.
Guster
@WereBear: Ah! So it’s like saying, ‘well, presented with that fact, we’ll just have to agree to disagree?’
A winger acquaintance of mine does that. If I raise a point of fact like, for example, that 6 is not a prime number, he’ll say ‘I disagree.’ And when I say that there’s nothing to disagree about, he’ll say, ‘I disagree.’
Maybe I’ll advise him to start saying ‘back atcha.’
Mako
You know what I hate? When people answer a “Thank You” with “No problem”. What do they mean “No Problem”? You thought my “Thank You” might be a problem? Douchebags.
Ash Can
I guess the word “important” doesn’t quite mean what it used to mean.
Shawn in ShowMe
WereBear
It only makes sense if you assume he responded to “Dead wrong” and closed his ears to the rest of the explanation. And even then it’s a juvenile response.
Brandon
This is getting much warmer as to the whole “mockworthy” category that has been truly missing today. But this Ahrens guy is so stupid (i.e. equating “fiscal conservatism” with the antithesis of “demand-side economics”) that it is just pretty darn sad. But what can you expect from a paper who employs as their chief “economics” opinion writer, someone who does not even have a degree in economics (Samuelson). Considering this, DougJ, you should really reclassify this post as “Clown shoes”.
Guster
Also, this sounds like a great opportunity for liberals to demand that we lower the corporate tax rate to 23% … without loopholes. That’d be a good sorta tax cut to include in a stimulus bill …
Senyordave
Conversation should have ended like so:
Frank Ahrens: Back atcha.
Editor: Frank, clean out your desk.
IndieTarheel
Of course, the real question here is what does Ben Nelson’s hair have to say about it?
Nutella
@Butch:
How did they get there? The Post, the Atlantic, etc. promote lying scum. They want people who will say our taxes are higher and our existing health care system is better than anywhere else in the world without choking on the words. Ahrens, Ambinder, and the rest of them are shameless enough that they’ll do it. And they are lavishly rewarded for it.
WereBear
@Mako: Yes, that attitude is why I train the young ones to say, “You’re welcome.”
Different meaning, really.
The Grand Panjandrum
Longer Frank Ahrens: OK, motherfucker you got me by the short hairs, now what?
Mako
@Guster:
Heh. Wish I’d told that anecdote, cuz i got one just like it.
DougJ
Considering this, DougJ, you should really reclassify this post as “Clown shoes”.
I added it.
Mako
@WereBear:
You know what else i hate? Shortening “You are welcome” to “You’re welcome”. Seriously, what’s wrong with the original?
Sentient Puddle
I love how Atlanta, allegedly a small business owner, says he’s not hiring new people because the federal deficit is too high.
My opinion? He’s not hiring because his balance sheet is too red, which stems from the fact that he doesn’t know the bloody difference between macroeconomics and microeconomics.
WereBear
@Guster: Jiminy Christmas! (I’m trying not to swear so much. The last 8 years were pretty rough…)
Let me guess. This is an annoying person, right?
DougJ
ou know what else i hate? Shortening “You are welcome” to “You’re welcome”. Seriously, what’s wrong with the original?
Don’t worry, that will all be changed as part of the Conservative Bible Project.
MobiusKlein
@Mako: I use ‘no problem’ as ‘it was nothing big what I did+’ (de nada) or ‘it’s all cool’
Never knew folks took it badly. If I’ve ever said it to you, I’m sorry.
Anonymous visitor from Sadly, No!
I had gained the impression that the current WP business model was to lay off reporters and replace them by firing new pundits, since actually searching for information is expensive, while voicing ill-informed opinions is apparently something that people will do for free [present company excepted].
A newspaper full of opinion pieces sends odd messages to the reader. I mean, either the pundit’s opinion carries special weight because he or she has access to facts that are denied to the rest of us — in which case, I get upset and spit the dummy (why don’t you publish the facts you sodbucketting scumbags!) — or he or she knows no more than the reader — in which case, dummies are spat once again if the publisher expects me to pay to read what I can get for free from someone at the pub.
Obviously the publishers try to spin the arrival of each new pundit to the paper’s pages as a Good Thing. Good news, comrades, chocolate rations have increased from 45 grams to 40 grams. They’re not going to come out and announce that for financial reasons they are increasing the shit-to-bread ratio in your sandwich. Are the readers buying it? Just wondering.
Mako
@Mako:
Whoops, nevermind, thought i was still in the revising the bible thread. Damn senility.
Zifnab
They’ve been trying to get rid of the corporate tax since the freak’n Clinton Administration (and probably well before that).
Remember all the bullshit about “double taxation” and folks bemoaning the cruel cost of incorporation? Hell, the Bush Tax Cuts were really just one big chop to the top of the capital gains tax rate. Great if you’re a CEO getting paid in millions of dollars in stock options.
I am shocked by this not at all. It’s always entertaining to listen to wingnut wankers wax on and on about fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets in between banging the table with foam lipped demands for more tax cuts.
Mako
@MobiusKlein:
Young man, if you do not get of my lawn right this minute I am releasing the hounds.
Shit, damn hound won’t get off the sofa.
Okay, I’m turning the hose on you… damn faucet’s stuck…
oh whatever, no problem.
The Populist
Righties are so proud of being idiotic in their stances. Right back atcha? So basically he can’t admit being wrong so he says some stupid comment that rivals “well isn’t that nice” as a condescending term of endearment.
This country has one of the LOWEST FUCKING TAX RATES IN THE WORLD FOR BOTH INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS.
Try to spin that a-holes.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Other stunning retorts:
I know you are but what am I?
La la la, I can’t heaaar you!
Nanny nanny boo, boo, stick your head and doo doo!
@PeakVT: Ahem. That should be “Your momma.”
licensed to kill time
@Mako:
I think the “no problem” reply is a bastardization of the Spanish “no hay problema”, which is a common response to anyone saying “gracias”. How it entered the English lexicon is murky, though one can speculate…
Just Some Fuckhead
I think Ahrens meant, “That’s a very good point. Let me check on that and get backatcha.”
Guster
@WereBear: Oh, it drives me berserk.
Me: “You say that cutting taxes from 28% to 14% would bring in more money, because people would be so much more productive. How about cutting taxes to 7%?”
Winger: “Sure, that’s even better.”
Me: “And would one percent raise more revenue than seven percent?”
Winger: “Definitely.”
Me: “Then would zero percent raise more than one percent?”
Winger: “I disagree.”
Me: “With what?”
Winger: “What you said.”
Me: “I didn’t say anything. I asked a question. Would lowering the tax rate to zero increase revenue?”
Winger: “I disagree.”
Me: “So it wouldn’t?”
Winger: “That’s not what I said.”
Me: “Well, either a zero percent tax would provide revenue or it wouldn’t.”
Winger: “I disagree”
Sound of Me, dying inside.
4tehlulz
Is this Frank Ahrens?
Don
Meh. I think that was meant to be a poorly worded version of how other reporters in these live chats present contrasting opinion without comment. I have a lot less contempt for this kind of thing than I do some of the other writers who react with defensiveness or boilerplate denials when called on their bullshit.
toujoursdan
@Warren Terra:
So McCain:
Can we have the EU subsidies Ireland had too? It’s easy to have low tax rates when people in high taxed countries like France and Germany are paying for your development.
phantomist
But, the big question is…
did he wink?
Pangloss
I put the “highest corporate tax rate in the world” talking point right alongside the “lowering taxes actually increases revenues,” “the deficit isn’t a problem when you look at it as a percentage of GDP,” and “crime is rising out of control” talking points. All it takes is a simple check of the facts to determine that it’s a BS GOP talking point that they will repeat until the words are etched in everyone’s brains and flow off the tongue without thinking.
gex
@Warren Terra: Perfect – lets devise a strategy. Let’s propose cutting the rate from 35% to 30% but close all the loop holes. You can probably sell the rubes on this because it is Tax Cuts ™.
Put the conservatives in the unfortunate position of having to explain to the base that that actually will RAISE corporate taxes. They’ve nurtured innumeracy and inability to grasp nuance, let them pay the price this time.
Davis X. Machina
You’re dealing with a theology here, and revealed truth cannot be refuted by facts. The greater the faith the greater the merit, so the greatest merit is gained by believing what is manifestly not so.
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time:
This makes me think of something else (OT). I had a Mexican friend ask me once why Americans are always saying “correctamundo” and “exactamundo”, and all I could think of was that they heard the Spanish words “correctamente” and “exactamente” and later repeat it as “mundo”. I could be totally wrong. But it is odd.
martha
Actually, this has kind of a delicious, Franken-esq angle to it: Obama should propose to cut corporate taxes from 34% to 20% with the stipulation that there are no loopholes.
Then, let’s just sit back with a giant bag of popcorn and watch the Republicans run far, far away as fast as they can.
gex
@licensed to kill time: It was because of the Fonz.
blahblahblah
This is just too awesome:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/99487?utm_source=onion_rss_daily
lou
Actually, that discussion gets worse. He, early on it, rants about how the unemployment rate is probably closer to 17.5 percent because the figures have been jiggered for so long. Fair enough. But later, when someone points out that the unemployment problems started under Bush, he sanctimoniously informs the person that the unemployment never got above 6.something. Show your biases much, Frank?
arguingwithsignposts
@Anonymous visitor from Sadly, No!:
Reminds me of a joke.
This guy walks up to me and says, “You know, life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you got, the less sh*t you gotta eat.”
And that makes sense.
Another guy comes up to me and says, “You know, life is like a pinball game. You don’t score points, you lose your balls.”
And that makes sense.
Finally, another guy comes up to me and says, “you know, life is like a pinball sandwich on sh*tty bread.”
This made no sense to me whatsover.
I think it was emo phillips’ joke. But I could be wrong.
licensed to kill time
@gex: Well, I do have a tendency to overthink things. I should’ve known it was something stupid like that.
Mako
@phantomist:
See, whenever I use “Back atcha” to win an argument I do the two hand sixgun shooting thing, blow imaginary smoke off my right finger and tuck it in my pants. Not unlike the “We’ll have to agree to disagree” bit it leaves your opponent befuddled and lost, they are all like, “Wha? How did i just lose this argument?” while I am smugly strolling away. Suckers.
Tax Analyst
Mako said:
Aren’t we getting a little anal here?
You’re Welcome.
Jonny Scrum-half
Ahrens’s comment about the corporate tax rate didn’t make sense in the first place. The original questioner who had said that taxes were “killing” us made the point that small businesses where the owner reports the income were getting hurt by the high tax rate. Those small businesses aren’t corporations that could relocate to India because of the supposedly lower tax rate in any event.
El Cruzado
I dunno. If corporations are people (according to their biggest boosters, at least) they should be taxed like people. Any guesses what income spread they’ll be mostly falling into?
jibeaux
Good grief. I don’t have the slightest economic credentials whatsoever and I know that businesses locating themselves in India instead of the U.S. has fuckall to do with the corporate tax rate (not just loopholes, but the “Free water, free electricity, no taxes for 10 years and our daughter’s virginity” given away by localities) and a lot more to do with paying people a few bucks a day to work in a place with no benefits, no insurance, no workers’ comp, no A/C… I mean, ten year old children know this. What a tool.
Napoleon
@Anonymous visitor from Sadly, No!:
Funny thing is if they had any brains they would fire all the opinion people, quit endorsing candidates and focus on factual reporting. I can get better pundits on the web then in the paper but not factual reporting, but when I pick up a paper and see some pundit spewing nonsense it just makes me promise myself I will never buy a paper.
Zifnab
@martha:
Except the President doesn’t write legislation. That’s up to the Congress. Specifically the House, which has domain over all revenue legislation.
Obama can’t do much more than suggest it, and then we go into a game of legislative chicken, assuming the GOoPers even bother to take the bait. And even then, you’re really aiming the gun at your own foot when you even start to walk down that road.
You only need to look at the health care bill, a piece of legislation that’s been working a long and painful way through Congress and being mutilated in every fashion imaginable.
The Franken amendment was a cute little rider on the defense bill that he was able to cajole through by the blessing of his Dem peers. It was an easy vote to pass. And it could still get gutted out before final passage, if the senior Senator from Hawaii decides to be a prick about it.
Certainly fun to make the Republicans squirm, but I don’t even know if it’ll see final passage.
gex
@jibeaux: One of my favorite ironies from the Beijing games were all the Americans bitching about the air quality.
Um, we shipped our manufacturing there precisely so we didn’t have to worry about pollution control.
shoutingattherain
@Nutella:
You mean like politico.com? They’ve done a bang-up job.
Rick Taylor
I think the fuckhead is right.
Napoleon
@Jonny Scrum-half:
Those small business could change to S corp status so that the owners are taxed like they are partners or simply bonus out most of the profits to its CEO (who is bound to be the owner) at the end of the year which is an expense to the corportation. Anyone who has a small closely held corp that complains about corporate tax rates to you is lying, because the corpse of even a really bad accountant can tell you how to get around it.
martha
@Zifnab: Oh I know all that, but I’d love to see it proposed by him and then supported by some key budget office and congressional dems just for giggles…
Noonan
I think the Back atcha was a reference to “dead wrong.”
bago
@Mako: And what with all of these acronyms? I mean seriously! You kids today and yer wtf and bbq…
Midnight Marauder
I believe Mike Pence would like a word with you.
PeakVT
@kommrade reproductive vigor: I can’t form a mental picture of Ahrens saying “yo momma” or “your momma”.
licensed to kill time
I thought the back atcha was him thinking he had refuted the point and was lobbing the ball back into the other guy’s court.
tamied
@Mako: I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave it there.
Hippie Killer
Isn’t Ahrens a fellow WVU grad?
Noonan
C’mon. In every profession outside of astronaut there’s a stunningly high ratio of idiots, incompetents and buffoons who somehow find themselves at the head of the class. Does anyone not have someone working over them who is either a functioning moron grossly past their Peter Principle? It’s just that with journalism we’re paying more attention.
NutellaonToast
WTF? Who is this Nutella character? AHEM. I was here first, only sporadically. WAit, how long has Nutella been around?
This is BS.
Anyway, on topic but concern trolling, doesn’t that first paragraph not account for the large difference in state and local taxes? I thought that if you add all taxes we were comparable to Europe (if not as progressive) but if you only look at federal taxes it looks very lopsided.
gex
@Noonan: I think the issue is that the good journalists do not get the prominence the hacks are getting. No one disputes that there is a range of ability in any given set of professionals.
The issue in journalism today is that a specific kind of journalist has an advantage in making it to the big time. And it seems not to have much to do with merit.
gex
@gex: Sorry. That response to Noonan made no sense. I gots to go. Not having good day.
Pigs & Spiders
A-fucking-men.
Journalism should never have become an -ism. It should have just remained Journalists. I don’t trust Journalism, I trust Journalists.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Details are for pussies.
montag
Lessee, didn’t the GAO do a study recently, the results of which were that, in the boom years of the late `90s, 61% of U.S. corporations paid no taxes at all, and 94% paid 5% or less on profits?
If one looks at the percentage of total federal revenues coming from corporations, there have been steep declines from the `50s to now (estimates for the `50s and early `60s vary, but only from ~ 28-34%, while in 2006, that figure drops to about 8%, with predictions of 6% or less in future years), despite the fact that there have soaring increases in both productivity and profits.
Our effective corporate tax rate is among the lowest in the world, and until the explosion there, only Iceland’s rate was lower.
Fuckers won’t be happy until there’s a net outflow from Treasury to them, and then they’ll bitch and whine that it’s not enough.
SiubhanDuinne
Well, I guess I’m not going to be able to use “backatcha” any more. I’ve always found it a useful shorthand for “whatever it was you just said to me, I wish to convey the same message to you without using your identical words.” I don’t think I’ve ever used it in outright hostility, although occasionally in jest — normally it’s a way of returning a compliment, which I think is (mostly) how I’ve used it on Balloon Juice.
Examples:
See how that all works? But now I haz the biggest sad because I can never use “backatcha” again for fear of being thought an ignorant and incompetent fool, and lying scum. So thanks a lot.
Mako
@Tax Analyst:
Aren’t we getting a little anal here?
Why yes, we are. And thanks for your interest. Would you rather hear about my latest bowel movement or are you amenable to tax questions? Have any experience with overseas taxes?
Noonan
@gex: No, I think you make a fair point. And I don’t want to do too much defending of hacks. That wasn’t my intention.
There’s a litany of meta and micro reasons people get to where they are in a profession and meritocracy is generally only one aspect of the equation. Especially when the media is involved.
valdivia
want to die of laughter?
read this.
Tiny Debate Failure moves up in the world?
Mako
@bago:
lol KMBBA HAND
anon
Dear DougJ,
Please stop being a lazy asshole and learn what a progressive Stanley Kaplan was. Learn WHY he formed Kaplan testing, and what he accomplished with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kaplan
“Kaplan was born in New York City, to Jewish immigrant parents from the present-day countries of Latvia and Belarus. An aspiring doctor, Kaplan hoped to enter medicine, but was rejected from all five New York City area medical schools because ethnic quotas for Jewish students had already been filled.[1] The rejections by the medical schools because of his religious and ethnic heritage left an impression on Kaplan which would last a lifetime.[1]
He conceived the idea to issue each prospective student applicant a fair test, so students could be admitted to schools based on ability and merit, rather than heritage or privilege.”
He did far more for the people than you ever will.
So go fuck yourself. Seriously, take John’s massive head and shove it up your ass.
Midnight Marauder
@valdivia:
See, I’m actually all right with this. First of all, because GMA is definitely not a serious news program, and that’s exactly where someone like George “You’re Only Wearing 7 Flag Pins? Why Don’t You Just Go Ahead And Piss On George Washington’s Grave” Stephanopoulos belongs. Because if he takes that gig with GMA, then this happens:
I know, I know. If he’s not the inane asshole on the inane Sunday talk show for ABC, then it’s going to be another inane asshole. But at least it’s it won’t be this inane asshole.
Midnight Marauder
@anon:
And what the fuck does that have to do with how terrible the Washington Post is?
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@SiubhanDuinne:
Okay, that’s a conversation I have twenty times a day. So far, so good.
That’s a conversation I have imagined having, but it’s a reasonable imagining, I think. So far, so good.
Now, this …. this is music to my tagged ears. This makes my tail swish at the flies at double speed! This is what BJ is all about!
Screw civility, amirite? Amirite?
valdivia
@Midnight Marauder:
the thing that got to me is that as you note the move would actually suit him better than the job he has now. But then Kurtz states he wants to keep both jobs. Huh? Those two jobs are not compatible with each other and the fact he thinks they are says it all. Maybe they will give the sunday job to Tapper? Or is it Chip?
Mike in NC
I was channel surfing this morning and came upon Megan McMegan’s smug face on MSNBC, pushing her usual glibertarian bromides about Big Bad Government. Maybe she figures it might be time to jump from the Atlantic and find a gig over at FOX Noise.
Cain
@Guster:
You should have just said “Good day!” and kept saying that.
cain
Mako
@anon:
WWJD?
anon
“And what the fuck does that have to do with how terrible the Washington Post is?”
That’s right, it has NOTHING to do with how terrible the Washington Post is.
But that doesn’t stop DougJ from trying to associate the two: “My therapist told me to stop reading the Kaplan reporter Q&A”.
If DougJ want’s to call it Hiatt’s reporter, or the Villagers, or whatever, that’s fine, but he’s a really fuckhead for using Kaplan’s name who had absolutely nothing to do with the WAPO and mainly did much great work, any of which DougJ should be proud to do, and will never do.
I think this meme started with Atrios, and it’s a rotten meme.
Adam Collyer
@Zifnab:
What’s really amazing about their whole discussion of “double taxation” is that it’s totally avoidable from a business perspective. You just can’t incorporate. Partnerships have flow-through taxation, skipping the entity entirely and taxing the partners themselves. Of course, then they’d have to take on joint and several liability for all of their screw ups.
Bottom line is that there are tradeoffs. You want to CYA from liability by incorporating? Well, a corporation is an “artificial person,” and people are taxed by income. So everyone gets taxed. It wasn’t supposed to be a gift. It’s supposed to convey one benefit in exchange for another.
You know the same people who always scream about “sacrifice?” Many of them are also the ones that scream about “double taxation.” The inherent contradiction is mindboggling. “Freedom ain’t free” after all…or whatever sloganeering they’ve developed today.
valdivia
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
FTW! or backatcha.
Pigs & Spiders
@anon: Back Atcha!
Noonan
Doesn’t Kaplan have something to do with WaPo?
Oh, yeah, that’s right, it does:
In a single quarter of 2009, the Kaplan Co. accounted for approximately 58% of The Washington Post Company’s total revenue
bemused
@blahblahblah:
The Onion must have been reading “Bright-Sided”, Barbara Ehrenreich.
watou
I wrote to Frank’s e-mail and this was his response:
From Frank Ahrens
To John
Back atcha.
Frank Ahrens
Business editor/reporter
The Washington Post
1150 15th St. N.W.
Washington D.C. 20071
Phone: 202.334.XXXX
Fax: 202.496.XXXX
“Xxxx X. Xxxx”
12/03/2009 04:41 PM
To [email protected]
Subject Message via washingtonpost.com: “Back atcha?”
Xxxx X. Xxxxx sent the following message:
Instead of facing simple facts, you respond with “back atcha?” Why does anyone pay you? You are an embarrassment to the profession.
Midnight Marauder
@valdivia:
I will yield my time to the distinguished gentleman, Michael Scott, to convey my reaction at the thought of Jake Tapper hosting any kind of television “news” program.
DougJ
A few points, Anon.
(1) Calling WaPo “Kaplan” isn’t a way of denigrating Kaplan. It’s more a way of wondering why a profitable respectable (to the extent that test-prepping can be considered respectable) would want to be associated with such shoddy journalism.
(2) Why does the fact that Stanley Kaplan found it mean that it has to be good today? I just don’t see the logic there.
anon
@Noonan:
Does Kaplan testing have ANYTHING to do with editorial policy? Anything to do with reporting? Anything to do with the newspaper/website/slate/doublex/root/bigmoney/….
No. Kaplan is a testing company that is owned by the WAPO and yes, does help keep them afloat.
As an example of metaphor, metonymy, or synecdoche it is just way way off.
As a way to smear the name Stanley Kaplan, it is right on target.
There’s no need for it, and DougJ and Atrios are wrong to use it. They instead should be emulating or honoring Stanley Kaplan’s actions during his life.
DougJ
Does anyone not have someone working over them who is either a functioning moron grossly past their Peter Principle? It’s just that with journalism we’re paying more attention.
Could be. I don’t know what it’s like in every profession. But it seems unusual to me how bad it is in journalism.
Kevin
first backatya means..
Well! if I could think of a good factual rebuttal for your argument, such as you just made, I would. BUT, I can’t be bothered so I am going to pretend that I did and you will have to just sit there and take it like the little pussy baby that you are.. because I WIN!
second, no prolema is OK if you do something and the person says thanks and you say no prob, like meaning de nada, or “I was happy to help”
its when you go.. “Hey! where is the ketchup for these french fries that I asked for ten minutes ago!” and the guys says “No Problem!!” all happy and stuff and I’m like..
“well yeah there is a big f’n problem you retard because my fries are gett’n cold and I ain’t got no G’dam ketchup!!!””
ha ha lol not that I would ever…so anyway the first is ok and the second is a way of dodging responsibility. and if you do say thanks when he brings it the proper respond is “so sorry you waited” and NOT “No prob”
Coastsider
I had to look up this guy’s background to see how someone could be in that job and have such a weak-ass response, and I came upon this -> WVU Alumni/Frank Ahrens
His career went from sports reporter in the Fairfax journal, sports layout guy at wapo, Style writer for 5 years and then Business section for the past 6 years. That explains a lot.
Ironically, at the end of this bio he’s quoted as suggesting that “a person get a degree in the thing that he or she is interested in, and then do journalism.” Wish he had taken his own advice.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@DougJ:
Incompetance is present in every field, but it seems to be totally ubiquitous in journalism. What the hell are they teaching in those institutions of higher learning? In J school, I mean. I assume the math programs are solid :)
anon
@DougJ:
Your first point is stupid and I think you understand that. Yes, Kaplan Testing is owned by the Washington Post. Do you have any proof they have any control over the Post’s editorial or other journalistic functions? Do you have any indication they have any ability to “split off” from the Post in disgust?
Your second point is pretty stupid too. Kaplan today maybe evil or not. I didn’t need their services (20 years ago) and I am a bit appalled by what I hear are the current rates. But do YOU have any proof they are somehow evil today? Perhaps favoring rich whites and not helping people of all race, creeds, colors. And even given, assuming they are evil in that domain, JUST WHAT THE FUCK does that have to do with Fred Hiatt’s idiocy?
So all you do is link the name, Kaplan, to douchebag Hiatt. All you do is MASK Hiatt’s actual responsibility for the Post and displace it to some guy who had nothing to do with it, and on top of that, a guy who did a great deal for progressive causes.
It’s not good metaphor, metonymy, or synecdouche. It’s just being a douchebag.
You and Atrios should quit it.
valdivia
@Midnight Marauder:
LOL. and seconded.
and to make clear, I was being snarky at the thought of either of those two doing that kind of show.
Warren Terra
Anon, your vehemence absolutely is not working as a compensating mechanism for your incredible ability to miss the point. If anything, the reverse.
A postscript: there was an Edit Button! And I used it to edit this comment!
… I may cry …
valdivia
one more OT.
Reagan worship goes Apple. shoot me now.
Midnight Marauder
@valdivia:
Oh, I figured as much. But still, just reading that as a possible idea–even thought it’s entirely hypothetical–caused me to react as though Toby Flanderson had just walked in the door from Costa Rica with his stupid HR face.
DougJ
As a way to smear the name Stanley Kaplan, it is right on target.
I guess you’ve caught me: I’m a leading member of the world-wide conspiracy to smear Stanley Kaplan.
truculent and unreliable
@DougJ: Also? A “synecdouche.”
David Hunt
To all the people suggesting that corporate taxes be lowered and loopholes closed: This is an incredibly bad idea. With our current Congress, what would happen is that the rate would be lowered but the system would still have loopholes. The loophole might be different than the old ones, but there would still the loopholes in the system.
Net result: Corporations pay even lower taxes than now.
Brandon
As long as the Kaplan, Inc. continues to subsidize such a dreadful newspaper, I am just going to assume that Stanley Kaplan is smearing himself because he sold his own company to the WaPo. Hey anon, is that an example of karma or schadenfreude? I always get the two confused.
Noonan
But it seems unusual to me how bad it is in journalism.
Yeah, I don’t want to be in the position of defending the industry. It’s a mess. Which is what happens when you pay dirt and demand long hours. Many of the smart people are working elsewhere.
anon
@DougJ:
I’m not saying there is some conspiracy, and if you were at all capable of being honest you wouldn’t make the bogus claim I was saying there was some conspiracy.
I am saying that what you are doing is very inaccurate, pointless, needless, and serves only to smear a good guy.
So you tell me, what value does calling the Wapo by Kaplan Testing actually give you?
I gave you the negatives, what are the benefits? Why do you do this?
General Winfield Stuck
Looks like Balloon Juice is submerging into the giant vacuous shoutfest netrootosphere,,like most all the others. Sad to see. But prolly inevitable.
Zifnab
@Adam Collyer:
I know that. You know that. But for the Masters of the Universe, the process of incorporation is just another tax loop hole they need to bust open to fully exploit.
:-p
It’s sad, because we’ve got a number of people and politicos genuinely working to make a fair and effective system of commerce, and a number of greedy types really just looking to legalize theft, fraud, and organized crime.
area man
@valdivia:
Yeah, and this somehow merited front page treatment by my local joke of a paper, the SF Chronicle (aka, the “Comical”). Sickening but at least they haven’t managed to put old Ronnie on Mt. Rushmore or the dime. Yet.
Brandon
This has been such a slow news day that I cannot believe that I am willing to engage an idiotic Stanley Kaplan sycophant.
cyntax
So if the Ford Motor Co were providing the financial support to WaPo that Kaplan does, and if DougJ were referencing the Ford reporter, then that would be a slanderous attack on Henry Ford?
‘Kay.
SiubhanDuinne
@truculent and unreliable:
Very very win.
SiubhanDuinne
@AngusTheGodOfMeat:
Urrite! Urrite! Screwit, says I.
Brandon
@cyntax
Well at least we are all in agreement with the underlying premise: the WaPo is a scandalously bad newspaper. That’s gotta be worth something, no?
valdivia
@area man:
that made an actual paper? shoot me again.
Maude
@Pigs & Spiders: Full of win.
Perhaps the problem is journalism school. Reporters used to learn at a newspaper and not sitting in a classroom hearing about how they used to learn at a newspaper. Or it could be the ism which use to be pinko communism or today, muslimism.
They get away with ignorance and get paid a lot and so think that they are very smart.
cyntax
@Brandon:
I’m with you there: they’re so bad that without an outside revenue stream, the omnipotent hand of the free market would have crushed them long ago.
Which seems to be an indictment of how they run their business, and the whole point of highlighting this, but what do I know?
BTW–Did anybody know who founded Kaplan testing before reading this read?
JasonF
I didn’t even make it that far before this idiot pissed me off:
Hey, moron! The stimulus package was roughly 50% tax cuts. President Obama didn’t “embrace” government spending in his stimulus plan. He divided his stimulus plan roughly evenly between the government spending you describe at the begining of your response and the tax cuts you describe at the end.
JasonF
Well, I fail at Balloon Juice commenting HTML. Everything but the first and last paragraph of my previous post should have been inside the block quote.
Hobelhouse
It’s even worse than what the responder says. The US doesn’t have a VAT unlike most European countries. The VAT taxes every stage of the production process such that it ends up being a sort of combined sales and corporate tax. So the real European tax rate is even higher.
anon
@cyntax:
Yes, the WAPO is surely the only newspaper in financial trouble. How unique and why it makes sense to identify them with one of their profitable subsidiaries.
licensed to kill time
@JasonF:
__
h/t monkeyboy, steeplejack et al
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@anon: I believe we have also recently trashed the Washington Times for being Moonies. And I’m still waiting for Fox News to badmouth Family Guy for being anti-family.
cyntax
@anon:
For exactly the reasons stated.
You might want to check up on something called Occam’s Razor…
kay
@Hobelhouse:
We have a local manufacturer here who travels a lot in Europe in the course of his work and he always, always makes this point on VAT and relative tax rates.
He’s been an acquaintance for ten years, we chat exclusively about politics, infrequently, and he gets slightly more politically liberal with each passing year. I’m not even sure he’s aware of the shift.
arguingwithsignposts
@Maude:
There’s a tiny minority of journalists who get paid “a lot.” Beginning reporters avg. salary is in the teens starting out.
And @anon, Fred Hiatt doesn’t run all of WaPo, just the op-ed section. Brauchli is the managing editor for news, IIRC.
TooManyJens (was Jen R)
I think reading that gave me an aneurysm.
BACK ATCHA?
Maxwel
Why didn’t he just say “Yo mama!”
arguingwithsignposts
@cyntax:
A lot of the newspaper industry problems are caused by the high profit margins expected by stockholders (20-30 percent), which isn’t realistic in a shrinking ad environment. Factor in all the idiotic media consolidation brought about with lots of debt, and that’s why two Chicago newspapers are in bankruptcy, for instance.
Newspapers themselves mostly remain profitable (especially smaller ones), but bean counting cuts newsroom jobs instead of accepting smaller returns to the free market folks on Wall Street.
FlipYrWhig
@ anon: Is it also unfair or rude to point out that General Electric owns NBC?
cyntax
Well, I’d add that the poor quality of the reporting, particularly in what were supposed to be industry leaders like the WaPo, has exacerbated the revenue problems you mention.
Napoleon
Well I have always called it the Washington Post or WaPo but after reading Anon from now I will call it the Kaplan Rag.
anon
@FlipYrWhig: and to Belafon:
It is very reasonable, much more so, to mention how the Moonies OWN the WashingtonTimes and presumably set editorial policy, as well as how GE OWNS (or did up till today?) NBC and claims NOT to set editorial policy while also being very much in the defense business.
But Kaplan does not OWN the Washington Post, and no one has given any evidence that Kaplan has any control over editorial or reporting.
In the meantime DougJ, what ARE the benefits of referring to Washington Post as Kaplan Testing? Where did you get that meme? Why did it strike you as meaningful? What is its value?
gwangung
@anon: You’re being boring. Cardinal sin on a snark-board like Balloon Juice.
You’re laying out a nice, clean invite for more rotten tomato target practice.
flounder
This question actually got answered twice in today’s chats, and both this turd and Paul Kane have no fucking clue about what a “war bond” is.
It. Is. A. Bond.
Would there be a rule prohibiting the Chinese from buying them up? Fuck no.
Would the war have to be put on hiatus if not enough “war bonds” are sold? Fuck no.
The reason Nelson suggests them is because he is not a serious person; he is a moron and more importantly a coward who wouldn’t suggest a real war funding solution like paying taxes for it because his whole method of legislating is to try and do as little of it as possible so he can continue to thread his particular little America-killing needle.
kay
@anon:
Is test prep even “progressive”?
I see the value of a merit-based, level playing field standardized test, so Kaplan’s original idea, but an expensive test prep course sort of undercuts that whole theme, doesn’t it?
Midnight Marauder
@anon:
Because that’s not the point people are trying to make when they refer to the “newspaper” as something like “The Daily Kaplan”:
Noonan:
cyntax:
This is what people are talking about.
And more to the point, if Kaplan is such a wondrous and noble institution, then why the fuck did they let themselves get gobbled up by such a terrible, abysmal organization like the Washington Post? And why are the continuing to allow themselves to be one of the main–if not THE main–revenue stream to keep that dreadful “newspaper” afloat?
Mako
@General Winfield Stuck:
Oh blow me.
General Winfield Stuck
@Mako:
then there’s this whackjob. easily trolled aren’t we.
anon
@kay:
I don’t know how they handle fees: sliding scale, scholarships, … I don’t know what the demographics of their students are. I know when I use to walk in front of their Berkeley Office, it seemed their customers were a very diverse group.
What I don’t like about Kaplan is how over the years the perception has switched from optional to mandatory. However, that’s in part due to the fact Kaplan CAN raise your test level.
But yes, I think test prep is progressive. Did you read about Kaplan’s history? He was a well qualified student kept out due to racial/religious discrimination. Up until Atrios and DougJ decided otherwise, creating level playing fields was definitely considered a progressive act.
anon
@Midnight Marauder:
“if Kaplan is such a wondrous and noble institution, then why the fuck did they let themselves get gobbled up by such a terrible, abysmal organization like the Washington Post? And why are the continuing to allow themselves to be one of the main—if not THE main—revenue stream to keep that dreadful “newspaper” afloat?”
They sold in 1984. I don’t think subsidiaries and cash cow often get the chance to leave the mothership, even for grounds of disgust. If you have evidence otherwise, please present it, along with evidence of Kaplan’s control over WAPO editorial and reportorial stances.
And DougJ, …. what are the benefits to you and your readers of masking Fred Hiatt actions by blaming Stanley H. Kaplan? (Seems vaguely anti-semitic to me.)
Nutella
@NutellaonToast:
I’ve been here a while, really. My screen name has nothing to do with the food product of the same name but I have to say that yours strikes me as wrong. I favor peanut butter on toast, not Nutella.
kay
@anon:
Well, we’ve now created a system where a well-qualified student could be denied admission because they can’t compete on purchasing a test prep course.
You’re right that test prep is all but mandatory, which is a great quality for a product to have, admittedly.
All it did was replace one arbitrary and unfair exclusion with another.
Midnight Marauder
@anon:
Right. Again, because that’s definitely not what I was talking about. I find it completely unsurprising that you failed to addressed the main point of my previous post, which is that you’re entire line of attack this afternoon is based on a gross misinterpretation of the “meme” that DougJ and Atrios continue to propagate. But that would have meant confronting the fact that your argument totally mischaracterizes the intent behind slapping the Kaplan label on WaPo activities. Again, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDITORIAL CONTROL OR REPORTORIAL STANCES.
Also:
Seriously? Now it’s patently obvious that you are definitely full of shit on this point.
Gwangung
I’m cornering the rotten tomato franchise around here.
anon
which is that you’re entire line of attack this afternoon is based on a gross misinterpretation of the “meme” that DougJ and Atrios continue to propagate. But that would have meant confronting the fact that your argument totally mischaracterizes the intent behind slapping the Kaplan label on WaPo activities. Again, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH EDITORIAL CONTROL OR REPORTORIAL STANCES.
Are you kidding me? I’ve kept on asking DougJ just what the point is? I don’t get it. The only thing I see is a smear of a progressive Jewish guy to mask Fred Hiatt.
Are you saying that DougJ or Atrios can’t be anti-semitic/sexist/engage in racial tropes because they are too enlightened as liberals?
As I pointed out earlier the WAPO is by far NOT the only newspaper with financial woes, nor the only shitty newspaper, nor the only newspaper that floats by based on other outside revenue sources.
DougJ seems plenty capable of answering for himself, yet for some reason, he seems unable to answer why he uses Kaplan Testing for WaPo, where he got that from, of what value it is.
Something Fabulous
@anon: Aha. Now we’re there. Clearly not “vaguely” to you, or you wouldn’t be hammering the issue so hard. But you chose to put up– how many posts?– of some kind of taunting to come to the point rather than just saying so. Why not just say, “Kaplan himself was a pretty good guy. Are you aware, DougJ, that by using this ‘meme,’ because of the clear ethnic label attached to the name, you are striking a potentially anti-semetic chord in your readers? Could you possibly use something else to reference WaPos declining standards? I know it bothers me.” And we’d be done. This roundabout way ends up irksome and odd instead of thought-provoking.
Regards,
a Jewish former Test-prep teacher
Something Fabulous
(…and thread-killer, apparently.)
Chris
@anon
Damn man…next thing I know you are gonna be telling me the helicopters arent laughing. F*uck!! How many damn spoofs can one board have???
Midnight Marauder
@anon:
Well, let’s break it down for you…again.
This is what DougJ was getting at:
Now I will agree that the afore-cited statement is not the most eloquent or succinct in nature. Which is why I highlighted two other statements that, in tandem, illustrate the point pretty exceptionally:
The “they” in that last statement is the WaPo. And for the record, Something Fabulous nailed it when they said:
General Winfield Stuck
@Chris:
anon is on a quest to make all us dems into his image being the first coming of Libtard Jesus and we better mend our ways of being wrong about everything. He has his work cut out for Him. I personally suspect he is Karl Rove in spoof threads, ratfucking his way to a wingnut rebound. But who knows anymore, really.
AhabTRuler
Then you don’t see very well.
That you would refer to this as “seeming vaguely antisemitic” (you don’t need to hyphenate, the word has been accepted in its own right; OTOH philosemitic is not considered a “dictionaty word,” per se) dilutes the accusation dreadfully.
Even if I did dislike the individual because of what his testing company has become, that wouldn’t be antisemitic. If I hated Kaplan Testing because Whatshisface P. Kaplan was Jewish, that would be antisemitic.
Really, I don’t give a fuck about Mr. Kaplan, but I think that testing companies are exploitative and that standardized tests are crap.
Chris
@GWS
Because of you…the phrase “ratfu*kery” has entered my daily conversations…none of my friends are amused.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: I always understood it to be coming from a place of love SD.
General Winfield Stuck
@Chris:
I try to be helpful. The Queens English has limitations.
Corner Stone
@anon:
Damn. The Hancock strikes again.
chopper
kaplan was a communist. there, i said it.
flounder
If Kaplan is such an awesome guy and his educational materials are so great, why don’t his economic reporters know that the corporate tax rate in the U.S. isn’t the same as the “effective” tax rate that U.S. corporations actually fucking pay? And if Kaplan’s reporters do know this rather important piece of economic information, why are they allowed to pretend they don’t know any better?
Origuy
Why does a certain scene from “Annie Hall” come to mind?
Beauzeaux
Is it just me, or are there some non-laughing helicopters lurking about?
d0n camillo
@anon:
Back atcha, anon.
Steeplejack
@d0n camillo:
Touché, sir.
anon
@Midnight Marauder:
“Calling WaPo “Kaplan” isn’t a way of denigrating Kaplan. It’s more a way of wondering why a profitable respectable (to the extent that test-prepping can be considered respectable) would want to be associated with such shoddy journalism.”
But that’s a completely illogical nonsensical point. Cash cow subsidiaries don’t get to choose their destination.
“In a single quarter of 2009, the Kaplan Co. accounted for approximately 58% of The Washington Post Company’s total revenue.”
So you’re saying that when readers come to Balloon Juice, read something about the Kaplan Testing, they informingly chuckle to themselves, and say, “ha ha, those guys are responsible for the WaPo’s being alive!”
I know you have great readers, but I think that’s bullshit.
I think most people come and say, “Kaplan Testing, those are those assholes who do test prep, they are assholes and the washington post must be assholes too.”
I think DougJ and you are full of it to make the claim everyone, or most people, or many people, know about the WaPo’s financials. I think Kaplan Testing is clear as people say above as code words for those assholes to sell expensive test prep.
Regarding Something Fabulous, that’s pretty much what I did say, isn’t it. Instead of accusing DougJ of anti-semitism, I pointed the asshole to who Stanley H Kaplan was and what he did and why he did it (racial/religious bigotry) and showed him and asked why are you smearing a good progressive guy.
I relied mistakenly, on your ability to put two and two together and be honest with yourself and figure it out.
But see you fuckheads can’t be anything if not perfect, so no, you have to give me your cock and bull story that everyone is so smart they read the WAPO annual report and understand what Kaplan Testing is referring to.
In fact, DougJ got so scared off he didn’t come back because he couldn’t answer my simple questions: why Kaplan Testing, what value is that to your readers. No Answer from DougJ.
Now as to their testing business, they don’t make the tests, they don’t use the tests, they help students pass the tests.
Only in a very elite snobbish non-progressive world could helping students pass tests that someone else makes and other people demand be considered evil.
As I said, DougJ will never help as many people from as many backgrounds as Stanley H. Kaplan.
As to you folks thinking this is out of Annie Hall, thanks for proving my point that enlightened liberals can never be wittingly or unwittingly guilty of passing anti-semitic/sexist/racist tropes.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone: Indeed it was coming from a place of love, CS. And not just love, but respect.
Srsly, I laughed for about three days.
XXOO
SD
General Winfield Stuck
May I touch your Halo?
General Winfield Stuck
Thou doth protest too much.
Gwangung
Bwahahahahahahahajah!
Got an opening in my comedy group…that was a GOOD one
Kiril
Anon: Explanation here.
Midnight Marauder
@anon:
That sounds about right. Since it’s the entire point of the fucking comment. That’s why I quoted cyntax earlier (a quote that you still did not address):
I’m pretty sure that’s just a more eloquent way of saying “ha ha, those guys are responsible for the WaPo’s being alive!” But I could be
wrongright. It’s a pretty smart crowd around these parts; people are very well-read and very savvy in particular about issues relating to media criticism. Just because YOU walk away from a reference like that thinking it’s some kind of anti-semitic jab does not make it so.Which is why we aren’t talking about “everyone,” “most people,” or “many people.” We’re talking about why people like DougJ use the Kaplan reference in relation to the Washington Post on sites like Balloon Juice. So, of course, that’s not everybody. And what’s the audience like for a site like Balloon Juice? Why, I think it’s full of people who comment on threads about the future of newspapers, particularly in regards to their unsustainable financial models and how many of them are supported by wingnut welfare or some other kind of “outside revenue stream.” Like the Kaplan Co. And “Kaplan Testing” isn’t a code word for anything, and more importantly, scan through this thread again and you’ll come across the following fun fact:
So what was your point again about the phrase that only you have been using this entire time being some kind of anti-Semitic slander?
No, that’s not what you said. You came in here calling people lazy assholes for not knowing why Kaplan Testing was founded. You did not even come close to your later bullshit statement of “Seems vaguely anti-semitic to me” until 60+ posts after you first showed up. And more importantly…
WHO STANLEY H. KAPLAN WAS AND WHAT HE DID AS A “GOOD PROGRESSIVE GUY” HAS SHIT TO DO WITH THE WAY KAPLAN IS BEING USED IN THIS INSTANCE.
Something Fabulous
@anon: Apologies, my reply to you took long enough to draft that yours came in before I could read it. Slow typist.
__
__
Not evil, but $499/course for the SAT. Underprivileged students need to have the $–and the structure in place to know this even exists–for it to be able to help. You know this.
__
Furthermore:
__
When combined with
__
(Seems vaguely anti-semitic to me.)
mandarama
@anon:
I beg your pardon. I know your defense of Mr. Kaplan is very sincere and earnest, but you must be new here. All BJ chuckling is fully informed.
Oh, dear. You are new, aren’t you?
Wile E. Quixote
@anon
Ah yes, the nobility of the Kaplan company, laboring in the vineyards to provide $499 test prep classes to the underprivileged so that they too can afford to go to Ivy-League schools and prove that America truly is a meritocracy. They’re like Lloyd Blankenfein, just doing God’s work.
Fuck you, anon. You’re just being a pathetic, pissy, contrarian little shit because otherwise you have noting interesting, witty, funny or original to say. And accusing DougJ of anti-semitism. What a fucking asshole you are. Indeed I imagine you with two assholes, one at each end of your alimentary canal, both of them spewing forth massive quantities of noisome and revolting shit.
Midnight Marauder
@mandarama:
If ever there was a phrase to replace “Consistently wrong since 2002,” that would be it.
Jrod
anon, you fucking idiot, when people here talk about “Kaplan” they’re talking about Kaplan Inc., a company that today has fuck-all to do with Stanley Kaplan.
Nobody is talking about Stanley Kaplan but you. If you don’t like the fact that the company we’re talking about, Kaplan Inc., shares a name with Stanley Kaplan, that’s just too damn bad.
Oh, and then come the arch insinuations of anti-semitism. I suppose you’re one of those fuckwits who thinks all criticism of Goldman-Sachs is based on hatred of jews, since after all the bank has a jewish name, so, like, Q.E.D. and stuff.
Scurry back to your bridge, troll. It’s safe to pull your pud over an SAT prep book there, and you don’t have to deal with all us haters of poor ol’ saintly Stan.
charles johnson
My son doesn’t work for Kaplan, but he works for one of their competitors, and wouldn’t be allowed to work for Kaplan for a period of time if he left. Another test prep center, lets just say.
You would be astounded if you walked into the place during the learning sessions. 80% minority. Thanks to some federal grants related to NCLB, there’s a program called SAS or SES or something like that, whereby the feds pay test-prep companies to give kids after-school help. When I pick him up from work the waiting room is I’d say about 75% black.
Those companies are doing a world of good, helping tons of minority kids with their reading skills etc, at such an early time in their lives that the downstream positive effects will be huge.
Brian J
Hey, Republicans! From what I remember, Obama during the campaign was open to the idea of corporate tax reform. Unless the sole conception of tax reform for you guys is cutting taxes until they are zero, there’s probably a lot of room for a deal–no, not the one where you get everything you want, and we’re left wondering if you really love us, i.e. we get fucked hard. But a real deal. Something tells me that the businesses have better things to do than pay people to help them skirt tax laws.
Oh, who the hell am I kidding? You assholes already took your ball and went home.
Lancelot Link
“Another test prep center, lets just say.”
You aren’t referring to Neil Bush’s “Ignite! Learning”, are you?
clussman
I’m exceptionally late to this game but maybe this will be seen anyway:
If you want them to go bankrupt faster, as I do, then for the love of the FSM stop linking to them. You can excerpt them without giving them the links and the extra ad impressions.
LD50
@chopper:
But was he a Rootless Cosmopolite?
LD50
@anon:
This makes precisely as much sense as the kneejerk accusation that one is antisemitic if one criticizes Israel. Bravo.
Nutella
anon = Stanley H. Kaplan, Jr.
Got to be.
DougJ
anon = Stanley H. Kaplan, Jr.
Or Gabe Kaplan.
Midnight Marauder
@DougJ:
You mean, you weren’t scared away by the big, bad anon?
+10
clussman
Wow, by the time I commented on the original post the thread had been hijacked and had traveled about 8,000 miles in another direction, putting my comment ridiculously out of place.
I guess all that’s left to do now is thank brave @anon (nice handle!) for teaching me that Gabe Kaplan was a wingnut asshole. I never would’ve known…
clussman
Oh, and @anon, a few comments if I may:
People shouldn’t type the phrase “cock and bull”. I get to the word “cock” and I mentally pause for a moment, which gives completely unintended meaning to sentence fragments such as “no, you have to give me your cock…” I can’t be the only one.
It’s because most people don’t have any clue that Kaplan is keeping WaPo afloat that it has any value as a meme. Memes, by their nature, are memorable and in this case can serve to inform people that the newspaper is so shoddy it can’t stay afloat on its own. And honestly, I didn’t even catch it in the original post. It was your beating of the proverbial dead horse that brought it to my attention.
You jumped the shark when you took the first step on the road to Godwin’s law. That just makes you a douchebag. (Too many references?)
When someone doesn’t respond to you instantly on the intertubes, it does not automatically mean that they’re afraid of you. It often means they have a life. If you instantly assume the former, it’s quite possibly because you lack the latter.
And again, while we’re on the topic of scared, nice handle.
Yutsano
@DougJ: I almost read that as Gabe Kapler. I was this close to being heartbroken.
Midnight Marauder
By the way, DougJ. Who knew the title of this thread would grow to be so fitting? You outdid yourself with this one.
+200 (12)
kay
@charles johnson:
I’m fine with testing. I actually like a number. I think the test prep is over-priced, but I concede to reality, and recognize that if the standard becomes prepped test-takers, you have to prep or you’re at a disadvantage.
But the feds paying test prep companies to tutor students isn’t the same as the test prep companies offering anything but a product. Again, I don’t object to test prep companies selling a product, whether it’s to the feds or to a private customer. But let’s not pretend test prep is grounded in humanitarian ideals, or something.
slippy
@Guster:
How I would fix this for you:
Somebody pulling that shit on me in a conversation would regret it, because I’d reduce them to tears.
slippy
@arguingwithsignposts:
This is what I don’t get: people on Wall Street make obscene sums of money analyzing business. However, the last decade has shown us that their analysis is bullshit, and wrong so much that we’ve spent the last 10 years in a very shaky, uncertain environment.
Why would the newspaper industry not mention to their Wall Street chums that their expectations are idiotic? Or is it because the chum on Wall Street is so dumb it doesn’t listen to anything?
I often have trouble deciding whether the fucktards on Wall Street or the morons in DC are more dangerously incompetent and clueless.
redoubt
Shorter anon: Address my point, libs!
Silly me, I read the chat. Two things (other than “backatcha”): One, Ahrens calls for one year of compulsory national service. This in a country with an all-volunteer military. Two, he says about the slow recovery from the Great Depression “The chief villain appears to have been the NIRA — the National Industrial Recovery Act — which (shockingly) actually allowed businesses to create cartels and monopolies to fix prices. (An example, by the way, of demand-side economics.)” He skipped the rest of the Wikipedia entry he got it from, which would have blown his case apart.
Mike G
A truism which which stands the test of time in my observation is, “Big Money attracts Big Assholes” — be it Wall Street, K Street, the subprime mortgage industry or any other fast-buck field full of sleazoids. I think it also attracts the deliberately stupid, people untroubled by any sense of integrity or dissonance who will believe and spout complete garbage, and the next day spout the complete opposite on command without missing a beat, all in the name of career ambition and greed.
Bill Johnson
The “dumbing down” or “handcuffing” of reporters has been going on for quite a long time. I worked at a Local newspaper in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s. Upon accepting the job, I met with the Editor and Publisher who told me in effect:’You can write what you want but don’t upset our advertisers.’ When I asked about Free Speech, I was told basically you only have Free Speech when it is your newspaper–ie–the owners have it, you don’t.
Much of our “reporting” was rewriting press releases from corporations and politicians (usually Republicans, not many Democrats).
So, you either become a stenographer to the powers that be and believe all the BS they have you rewrite or you get out. It reminds me of a Chomsky quote that goes something like: ‘Intellectuals believe their own propaganda”.
Andrew
@The Other Steve: I’m pretty sure you mean kerfuffle, not kerfluffle (which sounds like an adorable furry animal having a bad hair day).