Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 47 Comments
This post is in: Technically True but Collectively Nonsense
Sullivan passes on the information that the Atlantic fact-checks… poems.
When I think of what needs to be fact-checked at the Atlantic, poems are not at the top of my list. I’m betting you can guess where those fact-checking assets might be better used…
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[…] sometimes happens, a poetry thread springs up somewhere and I write something and I want to preserve it. […]
Howlin Wolfe
I’ll make a guess — McBlargle?
nestor
Poems, how do they work?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Rough winds do shake those darling buds, don’t they?
JPL
Well..that just takes the cake. I know it’s five somewhere and after all the attacks on the middle class this week, I’m going to have a few german beers.
cathyx
Do poems need to be accurate?
Sentient Puddle
Think you might want to include the link at least.
What he describes sounds more like basic editing. I suppose in a really strained way you could describe editing as fact-checking (in that editors try to preserve the author’s intentions), but I think he’s just calling it the wrong thing.
Just Some Fuckhead
Maybe they should have McArgleBargle start writing poetry.
justawriter
You never know when some poet will try to sneak in a dactyl into an iambic pentameter. Damn libruls messing with our sonnets.
Just Some Fuckhead
Nevermind, we’d start getting haikus with 170 syllables and limericks with 500 lines.
sukabi
you know, McArdle may not even be a real person… she may be one of these “fake personas“… you know damn well if the Air Force has been seeking a contract to do this that the GOP has been using it’s own army of “virtual personas” to push their odious policies… think McArdle should have her forehead tattooed “Virtual Zombie Lies”
jl
What has Cole done with Tunch?
I want to know, a bunch.
Even though I have a hunch
the tale will spoil my lunch.
Tom Levenson
“So,” the fact checker queried in red in the margins, “are you sure that rough beast was slouching? Wouldn’t you call it more of a lope, perhaps?”
Just Some Fuckhead
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Tentatively, until
Atlantic’s fact check is through
nestor
I think I met Alice Quinn once.
It was a dark and stormy night…
grillo
I multiply seven by ten,
one thousand more, multiply then.
That makes seven hundered.
Oh! I have blundered.
My calc has gastritis again!
cleek
and it’s not even “fact-checking”. the examples Sullivan gives are 1. basic proof-reading for grammar and punctuation and 2. a simple copy editing process failure.
someone should fact-check his posts
RalfW
I’ve given up on Andrew. In 2007-8 he kept me from thinking the country had gone insane. But now that the country has gone crazy, he’s useless. Utterly, foolishly pointless. He linked to McArrrgle, Mc-freakin-Arrrgle for commentary about the situation in Wisconsin.
Sure he has some obligation to link to his house-mates. But on Scott Walker, McArrrgle can’t offer a damn thing except maybe confirmation of Andrew’s misunderstanding of Wisconsin’s budget situation.
Violet
Fact checking poems? That’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.
“A rose by any other name…would never be Megan McArdle and she still can’t do mathematics to an acceptable standard.”
There. Fact check that.
geg6
Why in the fuck would you need to fact check poems? Seriously? This, from the publication that made Megan McArdle their business and economics major? That Atlantic? For reals?
jl
I dunno, a google search reveals no record of any babes striding the blast.
Them poets been getting away with stuff for years.
Brooks or Will should write something about the scandal, poets being mostly liberal and all.
jl
@cleek: OK, now it makes more sense. Sullivan is confused.
cleek
Accountants! To your ledgers!
Mr Laffer has a curve.
And this grand curve does measure
How large a pile you deserve.
While Uncle Sam would increase
What he takes and what he spends,
You can see ’tis less he needs
And yet thereby more he gets!
Just Some Fuckhead
There once was a lass from the ‘Lantic
That claimed to be quite pedantic
But lo and behold
There were errors untold
When working with numbers gigantic
MattR
@Just Some Fuckhead: Bravo!
Encore. Encore!!
cleek
(fuck you, ajax edit bullshit.)
here’s my contribution, with it’s final stanza:
Accountants! To your ledgers!
Mr Laffer has a curve.
And this grand curve does measure
How large a pile you deserve.
While Uncle Sam would increase
What he takes and what he spends,
You can see ‘tis less he needs
And yet thereby more he gets!
So let us withhold the gross
And keep all our bright gold tight
Uncle Sam’s coffers will thus grow
With a bounty infinite!
HRA
I’ll bet they won’t even go near some of the poems that cross my desk daily. Maybe I should send them some samples.
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Bravo from me, too!
lllphd
yeah. on the WI stuff, all he’s posted so far is a shot of a poster with crosshairs on walker, “don’t retreat, reload.” have we learned nothing?
would be a valid point if it weren’t for the fact that this does NOT in any way represent what’s going on there.
the other post is very cursory, but refers to, of all people, joke line, with whom he agrees that we have to tighten belts.
i swear, i worry that, in order to get through this recent illness, they upped his steroid dose to eye-popping levels. he even posted a link to some gory video game stuff.
what is up with this guy?
piratedan
There once was a blog called Atlantic
that selectively caused folks to panic
when logic applied
to their unresearched lies
made them seem no more than moranic
jl
Reading the BJ blog
Been ever a hideous slog.
The owner’s manic depressed,
ever over stressed,
the others mad, stern, licentious, repressed.
And now the ultimate curse,
the thing is infested with verse.
Warren Terra
It still is Winter
But the comments might make this
The thread of the year.
jl
So, I haven’t mentioned this because I am so polite.
Look, so ‘blog rebuild’ Big deal, oh boy goody!
As I remember we were promised dioramas, free booze, and strippers.
But Nada. And now, the money bags owner, who admits that he makes a fortune off this blog, and I qoute: “I AM MADE OF MONEY”, and was the brass ball swank to brag about to our poor “lesser person” faces, does not even provide regular RosieReports, LilyHeadlines, or high level Executive TunchBriefs.
I DEMAND A BJ POETRY CORNER!
POETRY CORNER, or we all go to BJ square and protest until we get what we want.
Edit: No BJ Holodeck either. Where did that promise go to?
schrodinger's cat
There was once a kitteh called Tunch
He had fans by the bunch
He liked his kibble to have a crunch
and his minion to provide him with lunch
freelancer
Atlantic, I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
Atlantic two dollars and twentyseven cents February 18 2011.
I can’t stand my own mind.
Atlantic when will we end the human tax?
Go fuck yourself with your fifth column.
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my manifesto till I’m in my right mind.
Atlantic when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes? (Please don’t!)
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Mental Health Breaks?
Atlantic why are your calculators full of GI issues?
Atlantic when will you send your Pink Himalayan Salt to the Middle East?
I’m sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I
need with my centrism?
Atlantic after all it is you and I who are perfect not
the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be smart.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Change your blog color!
…
schrodinger's cat
@jl:
I thought Tunch needs neither boxer nor briefs.
Just Some Fuckhead
There once was a bunch of haters
That picked on a fierce cogitator
But Megan’s not lame
If anything’s the blame
It’s her stomach troubled calculator
Badger by Proxy
The Daily Dish shows
how much thought goes into the prose
factless it flows
jl
As it now stands,
Tunch’s anal glands
Are in unknown hands.
sukabi
There once was a gaggle of bloggers
That pounced on a delicate flower
But Megan’s got game
Never accepting the blame
For her colonitis toilet cloggers.
nestor
There was once a Hamsher
Who was not a Hamsher.
And she was followed on twitter ever since.
schrodinger's cat
@jl:
Keep your paws where I can see them
–Tunch
Jack Bauer
There once was a man from the Atlantic
Gay and from the UK was the story
His liberal ideas were only a tic
As he’s just another fucking Tory.
arguingwithsignposts
when Sully starts allowing comments, you can wake me the fuck up. until then, neck punch!
arguingwithsignposts
hmmm. needs more m_c to make it realz, cudlips!
cleek
a two by four
to the head of these facts
to make them dance
to the tune i call
i am mick ardil
i have a belly full of pain
and a husband of lies
my calculator
is
broken
eat
the pink
salt
Josh
I take it they have determined that everything does not depend on a red wheelbarrow and are still researching whether the bird said “Go, go, go.”
mclaren
The solution seems obvious: require Megan McArdle to write all her blogs in verse.