• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Sudden Ascent

Sudden Ascent

by John Cole|  October 27, 20111:07 pm| 118 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Glibertarianism, Assholes, Sociopaths, Teabagger Stupidity

FacebookTweetEmail

Has anyone become more of a blogging force in such a short time as Charles Pierce? At any rate, his latest victim, Paul Ryan, is drawn and quartered over at Esquire, and it is a wondrous read:

Sentence No. 2: an entire K-Tel collection of Golden Oldies. “A Safety net, not a hammock.” “Dependency.” “Complacency.” “The Draining of The Will.” (That last one sounds like a film on penile abscesses directed by Leni Riefenstahl.) Holy god, this stuff was old when Newt Gingrich was peddling it in his previous life. Tell us, congressman, when you were skating for a couple of years on your Social Security survivor’s benefits, and when your family stayed on the government dole for longer that that, “taking” from, among other people, my parents and me, how did you manage not to be “lulled” into a life of “complacency” and “dependency”? How were you not “drained” of your “incentive”? How was your “will to make the most of your life” not drained, as well. What’s the magic number? Two years on the dole? Three? Five? Let us know so we can stop pestering you and find our bootstraps.

I suspect it was because, after you left the family earth-moving business, you eventually went to work on a government paycheck for Senator Bob Kasten, and then you went to work on a government paycheck for Senator Sam Brownback, and then you went briefly into the private sector — as a speechwriter for the late Jack Kemp — before going back on a government paycheck when you were elected to the House, 13 years ago. At which point, you became the pet Big Thinker and point man for a bunch of rich people, including many — Was the wine to your liking, by the way? — of the same folks that crashed the economy in 2008, thereby creating the conditions that, much to your obvious pain and chagrin, are turning so many of your fellow citizens into dependent, complacent, will-lacking slobs, because they’re taking unemployment benefits. That pretty much guaranteed you wouldn’t be paying for your own dinners much any more.

If Paul Ryan had any shame, that would leave a mark. As we know, however, sociopaths don’t feel shame.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Hit the Road, Jack
Next Post: Steady And Strong, And Always Has Been »

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    October 27, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    Was the wine to your liking, by the way?

    Someone is NOT getting invited to Sally Quinn’s next soiree.

  2. 2.

    Violet

    October 27, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    Charles Pierce is a national treasure. Long may he write.

  3. 3.

    El Tiburon

    October 27, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    Has anyone become more of a blogging force in such a short time as Charles Pierce?

    Was just thinking the same thing. He is all over my internet tubes. Where the fuck did this guy come from and where has he been? He sure is pretty with the words.

    He is a cross between Taibbi and Greenwald and Hamsher.

    Okay. I threw Hamsher in there just to help some of you constipated a-holes have a productive bowel movement this week.

  4. 4.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    October 27, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. — http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html

  5. 5.

    Special Patrol Group

    October 27, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    Pierce rules.

    Also, too, tbogg (another National Treasure):

    Blue-eyed sociopath Paul “350 Buck-Chuck“ Ryan was asked about the CBO report stating that top 1% (also known to Ryan as “my base”) are eating all of the cake and leaving only crumbs for The Poors and it’s getting worse.

    “350 Buck Chuck” is a keeper.

  6. 6.

    nepat

    October 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    Has anyone become more of a blogging force in such a short time as Charles Pierce?

    Could the constant pimping of him at this blog have been a factor? Anne Laurie is practically his publicist.

  7. 7.

    Napoleon

    October 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    @El Tiburon:

    Where the fuck did this guy come from and where has he been?

    He was (is?) a columnist/feature writer for the non-right wing Boston paper and appears often on NPR’s “Wait, Wait” show and the “Only a Game” show.

  8. 8.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    October 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    sociopaths don’t feel shame.

    That’s one of the reasons they’re sociopaths.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    October 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    @El Tiburon:

    Where the fuck did this guy come from and where has he been? He sure is pretty with the words.

    I’ve been wondering the same thing. Did he just start blogging about politics?

    This take down of Ryan is a thing of absolute beauty. I can’t decide what part I like best, it’s all so damn good.

  10. 10.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    October 27, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    @El Tiburon: Fuck you very much dickhead.

  11. 11.

    General Stuck

    October 27, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    Ryan is a true believer, when most wingnuts aren’t. He actually believes in the trickle down nonsense, and a rising tide raises all Yachts. With the little people surfing the wake of the haves.

    The worm is turning on these fuckers, I can feel it in my bones. They are becoming pawned by the economic times we live in, and their own congenital greed and lust for power.

  12. 12.

    Napoleon

    October 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    PS, I think he use to post regularly on, I think, The American Propsect’s blog but has not done that for years. I think when they started it they were in Boston so, naturally, had him write for them on the blog.

  13. 13.

    cofax

    October 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    So is Charlie Pierce going to lose his slot as a panelist on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (an NPR program) for being such a partisan gadfly?

    Seriously: what’s the difference between the columns he’s writing and Lisa Simeone’s situation? Especially since Pierce probably has a larger bullhorn given the Esquire gig.

  14. 14.

    El Tiburon

    October 27, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    Fuck you very much dickhead.

    Don’t forget the courtesy flush. And you are welcome.

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    October 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    Is Sully still a Ryan fan?

  16. 16.

    Hawes

    October 27, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Even the liberal TBoggs says that Pierce is rendering the rest of the internet irrelevant. There are days I might turn my whole blog into his RSS Feed.

  17. 17.

    cleek

    October 27, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    @General Stuck:

    rising tide raises all Yachts

    i think that’s “a rising yacht raises all tides”.

  18. 18.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    October 27, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Update:

    An Iraq war veteran who was injured during the raucous Occupy Oakland protest Tuesday night was upgraded to fair condition this morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland, a nursing supervisor said.

    Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/27/BAD61LN3LM.DTL#ixzz1c0KDfF7s

  19. 19.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 27, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    Esquire is not exactly an unknown platform to be launched from either, but yes, he’s very good.

    OT: Best news of the day, Halperin says Obama is going to lose in 2012. (Try to contain your shock.)

  20. 20.

    fasteddie9318

    October 27, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    @General Stuck:

    Ryan is a true believer, when most wingnuts aren’t. He actually believes in the trickle down nonsense, and a rising tide raises all Yachts. With the little people surfing the wake of the haves.

    This, sadly, is symptomatic of a more serious condition known as “being a dumbass young punk who lacks either the brainpower or the years of experience to figure out that he’s completely full of his own shit.”

    However, Ryan is 41, and he’s past the GW Bush age 40 threshold for committing “youthful indiscretions,” so maybe he’s just mentally incapacitated.

  21. 21.

    General Stuck

    October 27, 2011 at 1:26 pm

    @cleek:

    LOL, could be

  22. 22.

    Special Patrol Group

    October 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Pierce’s Friday posts at Eric Alterman’s (wanker) Altercation blog were pure gold. Look ’em up.

  23. 23.

    aimai

    October 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    I read that piece out loud last night to Mr. Aimai and I thought he’d laugh himself into coughing up a lung at the “Draining of the Will” line.

    aimai

  24. 24.

    zmulls

    October 27, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    “Was the wine to your liking, sir?”

    I’m still kvelling over that line…

  25. 25.

    Culture of Truth

    October 27, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    In a “highly amped speech” Paul Ryan “let loose with his pent-up frustrations” in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, the Hill reported.

    Obama started his campaign “by preying on the emotions of fear, envy and resentment,” he said.

    In the same speech, Ryan says U.S. is threatened by “a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules and preserve their place atop society.”

  26. 26.

    brettvk

    October 27, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    @Napoleon: Pierce was, at the time I first noticed his writing, a regular Friday contributor to Eric Alterman’s Altercation blog. His was the first, classical use of the term “teabagging” I encountered (online or IRL), which was why I was so bemused when the Koch-funded groups came along.

  27. 27.

    azelie

    October 27, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    He used to guest post on Eric Alterman’s blog in the Pleistocene era of the lefty blogosphere and I always looked forward to his posts. I think that otherwise I’ve mainly seen him writing about sports, and I remember lamenting that he was not writing about politics anymore. Really happy to see him have a venue for political blogging again.

    ETA: I see a couple of people have gotten to this before me.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 27, 2011 at 1:32 pm

    Was just thinking the same thing. He is all over my internet tubes. Where the fuck did this guy come from and where has he been? He sure is pretty with the words.

    He used to do a regular Friday guest spot on Eric Alterman’s blog, which I completely lost track of when he moved to the Nation. He was posting at IIRC The American Prospect blog where he was a beautiful breath of witty air, till he made a reference to someone getting “the vapors”, and this provoked 87 posts calling him s a sexist, and he just gave up and stuck to sports for a long time.

  29. 29.

    PeakVT

    October 27, 2011 at 1:32 pm

    Didn’t Pierce fill in on Fridays for Eric Alterman on his blog? Wherever that was. I forget. Maybe I’m misremembering about Pierce, too. Also.

    ETA: Or maybe not.

    ETAA: Four posters at the same time? Is that a new record?

  30. 30.

    Hill Dweller

    October 27, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Pierce is consistently great, which takes a lot of talent. Hell, I’m lucky to average one coherent comment a day. Pierce is making 4 or 5 blog posts a day, and all are good/great.

  31. 31.

    Culture of Truth

    October 27, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    I haven’t seen rise to fame this rapid since that cat who says “no no no no no”

    Who is incidentally, polling ahead of Rick Perry.

  32. 32.

    Mino

    October 27, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    I was thinking more Wolcott/Taibbi.

  33. 33.

    The Other Chuck

    October 27, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    I first heard of him from Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. I bought his book, _Idiot America_. Unfortunately it’s not actually very good, being just a reprint of an essay with rambling tangents added as filler.

  34. 34.

    Napoleon

    October 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    @brettvk:

    That must be what I am thinking of. I did use to read that blog so it makes sense that I would have seen him there.

  35. 35.

    Zifnab

    October 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    I’ll tell you what I think it is. Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone – these are young people magazines. You put a stuffy right wing WSJ Op-Ed writer behind the cover and you’re going to start shedding your readership pretty fast.

    We had a student newspaper at UT, and it regularly tried to play “fair and balanced” between right and left. The left wing op-eds would get generally high praise. But I was actually in earshot of our editor getting chewed out for letting the right wing stuff get to copy.

    Charlie Pierce, Matt Taibbi, Tai-Neihl Coats: they’re a sign of the times.

  36. 36.

    Southern Beale

    October 27, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    From the link:

    That’s what we “make” now: complicated new financial instruments with which the “makers” can lift our wallets.

    Yes, that can’t be stated often enough.

  37. 37.

    Mino

    October 27, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Thanks, I’d been looking for an update on him. So glad he’s improving.

  38. 38.

    John D.

    October 27, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    @Zifnab: Charlie Pierce is almost 58 years old. Not exactly “young”. But one hell of a writer.

  39. 39.

    serge

    October 27, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    Charles Pierce rules. Period.

  40. 40.

    Tractarian

    October 27, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    OT: Best news of the day, Halperin says Obama is going to lose in 2012. (Try to contain your shock.)

    This is excellent news for John McCain?

  41. 41.

    flukebucket

    October 27, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    Well I must say it makes me feel so much better to know that he has not been blogging very long. He is a master. I have been led to many fine things through this blog but I have to say I do believe he is the best yet.

    From the linked post:

    “The Draining of The Will.” (That last one sounds like a film on penile abscesses directed by Leni Riefenstahl.) Holy god, this stuff was old when Newt Gingrich was peddling it in his previous life.

    That’s gold Jerry. Pure Gold!

  42. 42.

    Mino

    October 27, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    @efgoldman: He, he. The Russians call that soft torture.

  43. 43.

    geg6

    October 27, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I want to virtually marry Charlie Pierce and have his babies.

    I haven’t been so excited by a blog since I discovered BJ. And Charlie is a better writer than John Cole. Cole only beats him due to cute pets, food pron, and hilarious household accidents.

  44. 44.

    agrippa

    October 27, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    @El Tiburon:

    FYI, I do not need your advice on bowel movements.

  45. 45.

    geg6

    October 27, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    @Culture of Truth:

    And where may I deliver your internets, sir?

  46. 46.

    WeeBey

    October 27, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    Pierce has been killing it on the toobz for more than a decade, now.

    You just had to know where to look.

  47. 47.

    Violet

    October 27, 2011 at 1:45 pm

    From Pierce’s commentary on Perry possibly skipping the debates (Pierce goes on to discuss the Frontline documentary on Perry and Cameron Todd Willingham):

    Apparently, toward the end, Willingham believed his wife had sold him out and, while in the death chamber, he told her that he fucking hoped she’d rot in hell, or something to that effect. Confronted with the fact that the best scientific evidence exonerated Willingham of the crime, and that he’d rigged an investigation into the case by firing some people and installing his cronies, Perry says to a gaggle of reporters that Willingham was a “bad man” because, at the end, he directed at his wife “an obscenity-laced triad.”
    __
    A triad.
    __
    Inches from actual English.

    So delicious.

  48. 48.

    agrippa

    October 27, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    @General Stuck:

    General Stuck: I think that you are right about Ryan being a true believer.

    And, I hope that you right about the worm turning.
    You may well be. I hope so.

  49. 49.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 27, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    If Paul Ryan had any shame, that would leave a mark.

    That may be true, but at least we can try… and then keep on trying…

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 27, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Pierce also does a regular Tuesday morning visit to Stephanie Miller’s show, that I usually miss b/c I’m not a regular listener. He’s my favorite guest on WWDTM, but I think he’s best in print.

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    October 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    @The Republic of Stupidity: Rand thought shame was a sign of weakness. So no.

  52. 52.

    Bulworth

    October 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    Yeah Pierce has been around awhile. I remember him fondly when I first discovered the intertubes and that horse guy and Michael Berube and Whiskey Bar and other awesomes. But I don’t think Pierce blogged regularly. You just had to hope you were in the right place at the right time to get some morsels from the crumbs that fell off the table.

  53. 53.

    emrventures

    October 27, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    I’m a little surprised at the surprise about Charles Pierce’s rapid ascent in the bloggin world. Pierce had a built-in audience ready when he moved to Esquire and started doing politics.

    He’s been a terrific writer (mostly on sports) for three decades. His previous blog, on sports in the sports section at the Boston Globe, was also one of my must-reads. His compilation of his sports writing, Sports Guy, is terrific, including a famous and notorious profile of Tiger Woods.

  54. 54.

    Jeff R.

    October 27, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Charles Pierce had a blog on boston.com, although it was more sports oriented than political. Until last Sunday, he was a feature writer and sort-of columnist for the Boston Globe Magazine. His column was only a sort of column as he joked in his farewell column: it was a column wide but only half a page high. He also wrote the book on Tom Brady and has several other books to his name.

  55. 55.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    October 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    Years ago, I briefly worked for a house painter who insisted all new employees read Rand… really… that job didn’t last very long, for all the obvious reasons… anyways, later on, long after I was gone from that orbit, I did try reading some of Ayn’s work… something about Kant and hippos dancing on the head of a pin, if I recall correctly… I figured I had gone far enough at that point and threw the book away, and that was that…

  56. 56.

    Petorado

    October 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    As Napolean noted, Pierce does have rather lengthy history of blogging, most specifically with American Prospect (their archives are loathe to reveal his old posts, for some reason.) Back in the Bush years, he wrote some brilliant skewerings of W’s reign. Even back then, folks were wondering who he was and where he came from. His ship finally seems to have come in. Good for him — and us.

  57. 57.

    daveNYC

    October 27, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    He was posting at IIRC The American Prospect blog where he was a beautiful breath of witty air, till he made a reference to someone getting “the vapors”, and this provoked 87 posts calling him s a sexist, and he just gave up and stuck to sports for a long time.

    Ah wha? At least the Googling to find out WTF that was about brought me to the disturbingly entertaining Wikipedia entry on Female Hysteria.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 27, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    @General Stuck:

    The worm is turning on these fuckers, I can feel it in my bones. They are becoming pawned by the economic times we live in,

    I hope you’re right. I was thinking that last night, that the economy finally sucks enough, the housing crash and the credit crunch and all the debt coming down hard I guess finally means that people are looking at those income disparity/real wage/wealth gap charts and saying “What the fuck? That’s me!”

  59. 59.

    danimal

    October 27, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    It strikes me that Pierce is filling a niche. The “hard-hitting, left-of-center-but-grounded-in-reality blogger with an acidic, sarcastic streak” niche has largely been abandoned as those filling this niche have either become firebaggers or Twitterers.

    Watch out, Cole, your market-share is being threatened.

  60. 60.

    Ailuridae

    October 27, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    @Special Patrol Group:

    This. Alterman was the first thing I ever read politically on the intertubes (and only because of Springsteen) but I realized within a month that Pierce was the star of the show.

    It is crazy to think about but you all could have had him here if the timing were right.

  61. 61.

    Davis X. Machina

    October 27, 2011 at 2:01 pm

    @Petorado: “C-plus Augustus” was one of Pierce’s. That takes us back to 2002, anyways, and perhaps back as far as 1999, and the primaries.

  62. 62.

    Chris T.

    October 27, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    @Culture of Truth: Projection

    Ryan says U.S. is threatened by “a class of bureaucrats and connected crony capitalists trying to rise above the rest of us, call the shots, rig the rules and preserve their place atop society.”

    … by which Ryan is saying “I’m trying to rise above the rest of you, call the shots, rig the rules and preserve my place atop society.”

  63. 63.

    Bob

    October 27, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    I read it, it’s great, as advertised. But it made me wonder, not for the first time, just what kind of fucking hell hole do conservatives of the Ryan type want to create?

  64. 64.

    gnomedad

    October 27, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    Holy god, this stuff was old when Newt Gingrich was peddling it in his previous life.

    Feature, not a bug. St. Ronnie Himself was just reminding us of ancient truths.

  65. 65.

    Cat Lady

    October 27, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I actually won one of the Real Paper’s weekly puzzles and got a free t-shirt and my name in the paper which I saved for years. It was the first thing I ever won until many years later when I won another t-shirt at my daughter’s college orientation – $120,000 and all I got was a “free” t-shirt.

    BTW, Charlie has read BJ and occasionally commented here for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if his style and choice of snark didn’t come from some commenters here at this very moment.

  66. 66.

    Chris T.

    October 27, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    @Bob:

    it made me wonder, not for the first time, just what kind of fucking hell hole do conservatives of the Ryan type want to create?

    Conservatives of the Ryan type believe that economics is a zero-sum game, so that every penny ever delivered to an “undeserving person” is forever denied to the “deserving” person. (And of course, “deserving” means “of my tribe”, or sometimes even just “of my family” or “me”.)

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    October 27, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    @Napoleon:

    He was (is?) a columnist/feature writer for the non-right wing Boston paper and appears often on NPR’s “Wait, Wait” show and the “Only a Game” show.

    He’s that “Charlie Pierce” from Wait, Wait…? I’d have never made the connection. Dude can certainly turn a phrase, and a knife.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    October 27, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    @Bob:

    just what kind of fucking hell hole do conservatives of the Ryan type want to create?

    Same hell, bigger hole.

  69. 69.

    Violet

    October 27, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    @Bob:

    But it made me wonder, not for the first time, just what kind of fucking hell hole do conservatives of the Ryan type want to create?

    The kind where they’re safely outside and everyone else is inside. And there are walls and cages and a militarized police force to keep things that way.

  70. 70.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    October 27, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    @Chris T.:

    Conservatives of the Ryan type believe that economics is a zero-sum game, so that every penny ever delivered to an “undeserving person” is forever denied to the “deserving” person.

    While simultaneously believing that a “rising tide will lift all boats.” Magical thinking indeed.

  71. 71.

    mike

    October 27, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    I had been aware of his existence from Wait Wait and Idiot America, but had no idea he was this good. Holy cow, the man is on fire.

  72. 72.

    quannlace

    October 27, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    and appears often on NPR’s “Wait, Wait” show and the “Only a Game” show.

    He’s got a great laugh.

  73. 73.

    tulip

    October 27, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    More gold:

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rick-perry-bill-o-reilly-interview-6530966

    The money quote is the last line.

  74. 74.

    Hungry Joe

    October 27, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Ryan comes across as sincere, but it’s hard to tell the sociopaths from the true (Randian) believers since they bleat the same crap — and sociopaths are, almost by definition, good actors.

  75. 75.

    Cat Lady

    October 27, 2011 at 2:28 pm

    @geg6:

    Sorry, but I claimed him first.

  76. 76.

    kd bart

    October 27, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    As soon as I was alerted that Pierce was writing a blog for Esquire, I added that blog to my favorites. I’ve enjoyed his stuff for years.

  77. 77.

    Chris T.

    October 27, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil: Yes, they don’t apply logic and consistency to their own positions. (Which is normal: most people don’t. Humans are not really rational. We all have our own weak points; the main trick is figuring out where they are, and then not believing your own BS. :-) )

    It can be worth calling them on it every time though, because sometimes, for some of them, the light eventually dawns.

  78. 78.

    Steve

    October 27, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    I liked Pierce’s writing at TAPPED a lot. I can’t recall exactly what he wrote to get himself into a big pie fight over sexism, but while I think it was purely unintentional on his part I seem to remember it was a little more serious than some people in this thread are letting on.

  79. 79.

    kc

    October 27, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    Oh, God, that was good.

  80. 80.

    SST

    October 27, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    Way late to the party, but the reason that Pierce is only now writing about politics is b/c his blog for the Globe was about sports. Moving to Esquire, he’s on to politics full-time now. He’s probably always had these opinions, but the subject of his blog was different.

  81. 81.

    Roy G.

    October 27, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    Of course Ryan looks sincere – this is because Republicans value image above all else (other than money and power). ‘wingers like the way Ryan looks (manly and white), the cut of his jib (walks upright), and his furrowed brow (evidence of seriousness).

    This is helpful for those Republicans voting against their own economic interest, since it helps to submerge the cognitive dissonance of such a good looking serious young man telling them their benefits have to be shredded.

  82. 82.

    Turgidson

    October 27, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    @Comrade Javamanphil:

    So we’re talking about a Nixon/McGovern or Reagan/Mondale type of Obama win, rather than a bitterly fought 275EV nailbiter. That’s a relief.

    Only Kristol surpasses Halperin in “the opposite of what that guy just said is now certain to happen” oblivious dickishness.

  83. 83.

    timb

    October 27, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    @nepat: good for her. Someone should be. He is the awesome

  84. 84.

    timb

    October 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    @Violet: Read his book.

  85. 85.

    timb

    October 27, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    @Bob: look out the window….divide everybody’s stuff by half, the proceeds of which go to the Lords of the manor.

    they largely HAVE what they want

  86. 86.

    DFH no.6

    October 27, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    @Bulworth:

    I remember him fondly when I first discovered the intertubes and that horse guy and Michael Berube and Whiskey Bar and other awesomes.

    Same here. Media Whores Online and Smirking Chimp were the first I found.

    Berube’s still around some — mostly I see him in comments at places like LG&M.

    And yes, Pierce is great. Loved his stuff online going back to Alterman’s Altercation.

    But damn I miss Billmon. Best of them all, I thought.

  87. 87.

    Bulworth

    October 27, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    @DFH no.6: ah, yes, Media Whores Online. Thank you very much for the reference. Thems were the good old blogging days. Sigh. I was so innocent then.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 27, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    @Bulworth: we never did find out who the Horse was, did we?
    @Comrade Javamanphil: OT: Best news of the day, Halperin says Obama is going to lose in 2012. (Try to contain your shock.)

    Is Halperin’s “The Page” supposed to be a ‘conservative’ alternative to all those ‘liberals’ at Swampland, like Calabresi and Crowley? I believe on MSNBC he plays a straight reporter, no?

  89. 89.

    geg6

    October 27, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    OT, but hey Cole!

    Seems Senator Mitch “Turtleface” McConnell is the one fucking up your teams move into the Big 12:

    http://www.salon.com/2011/10/27/why_all_of_west_virginia_now_hates_mitch_mcconnell/

    Maybe those hillbillies down there will think twice the next time they go red in an election.

  90. 90.

    geg6

    October 27, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    No, The Page is supposed to be serious both sides do it journamalism. Really.

  91. 91.

    Paul in KY

    October 27, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    @nepat: Charles Pierce doesn’t need anyone pimping him. You read him once & you’re hooked.

    Unless you are a humorless douche who makes pissy comments on blogs.

  92. 92.

    Paul in KY

    October 27, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    @geg6: John’s about due for another hilarious household accident.

  93. 93.

    Paul in KY

    October 27, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    @Cat Lady: I don’t think he needed any of us or those of you who have been commenting here for years to help raise his snark game.

  94. 94.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    October 27, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    Seconded.

  95. 95.

    Paul in KY

    October 27, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    @geg6: Alot of us in KY hate him too. Glad to have some company. There are many, many facets of Mitch the Bitch to hate.

  96. 96.

    geg6

    October 27, 2011 at 3:52 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    Heh.

    Just wait for winter. Tunch and Rosie have been planning for a year now.

  97. 97.

    Paul in KY

    October 27, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    @geg6: Good point. Winter is when they seem to happen. Tunch won’t let us down, I know it.

  98. 98.

    celtidragonchick

    October 27, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    Here is some comedy:

    Rod Dreher at the American conservative thinks that Paul Ryan and Elisabeth warren would make a great couple in congress…
    Really.

    One responsefrom “Tyro”:

    Charles Pierce seems to have the definitive take on this odious, odious man:
    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/paul-ryan-heritage-foundation-speech-6530510
    That you’re taking him seriously, Rod, really tells me that you haven’t moved on from standard-issue conservative identity politics and right wing movement conservatism. Ryan isn’t a “thinker”. He wants the government to serve the interests of the rich and has no interest in creating or maintaining a broad based middle class, because he thinks they are morally unworthy leaches on society. He is an acolyte of that most anti-Christian right wing “thinker” Ayn Rand. He is hostile to the very notion of government and particularly hostile to using it to improve the living standards of anyone other than his favored “tribe” of conservative elites. His belief system is simply incompatible and in fact hostile to any kind of Christian-inspired “crunchy conservatism” you claim to espouse, but I suspect you’d get the third degree from your right wing friends if you called him out as the odious fraud he is.

    Rod banned him for it.

    You know, I’m sick of your constant personal attacks on me. I found one part of Ryan’s talk at Heritage that I approved of, and think could form some common ground between reformers of the left and the right, and now I have my personal integrity challenged by you, a militant and dogmatic liberal, simply because I posted it on a blog on The American Conservative?
    Go away. You’re done here. You make smart comments often here, even though I don’t agree with them, but you don’t come to somebody’s party and crap in the punch bowl.

  99. 99.

    Cat Lady

    October 27, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    Let me have my fantasies. I like to think this group of commenters are some of the wittiest on the intertrons and without all of us weighing in here every day the world would cease to turn on its axis and there would be a big black hole where all of the rest of the snark in the universe would disappear into and never be seen again.

  100. 100.

    Cat Lady

    October 27, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    @celtidragonchick:

    Shorter Tyro: im in ur bas3 killin’ ur d00dz.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    October 27, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    @Cat Lady: Shorter Dreher: Waaaaaah!

  102. 102.

    HyperIon

    October 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    I first hears Pierce on a very old broadcast of This American Life. It was before Only a Game was carried out here in Seattle so must of been in the mid 90s. It was a very funny piece about his kid eating IIFC and done in a biblical tone. “Thou shalt not…”

    Blogger? Uh, no. Writer.

  103. 103.

    ohplease

    October 27, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Oh, God, I’m going to be so embarrassed when someone answers my question with the information that everyone who isn’t me already knows. About the article: the photo, is that not Anthony Weiner? If so, why?

  104. 104.

    celtidragonchick

    October 27, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    LMAO!

  105. 105.

    Stirling

    October 27, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    @Special Patrol Group:

    That’s where I found him. I’d regularly check Altercation every Friday hoping he posted something. I’ve also read several of his books, most recently “Idiot America” – priceless.

    But Tbogg is still relevant (and hilarious as is Pierce) – he has the best commenters on the intertubes.

  106. 106.

    Thistle

    October 27, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    @Special Patrol Group: Pierce’s gigs at Alterman’s joint were not to be missed. It was there he began to refer to W. as “C-plus Augustus” and to W’s presidency as “the Avignon Presidency.” (Although his current penchant for referring to that time period as “the Cheney Regency” is not too shabby either.)

  107. 107.

    Emperor of Ice Cream

    October 27, 2011 at 5:22 pm

    Ahhhh … Billmon. He helped keep me sane during those awful years 2001-03 when for some reason, people seemed to think Jr Bush was competent (even heroic). I thought the world had gone crazy and Billmon (along with Digby) proved that there was still some sanity left.

  108. 108.

    Djur

    October 27, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    @Stirling: Tbogg has good commenters, but nobody comes close to alicublog’s commenters.

  109. 109.

    ohplease

    October 27, 2011 at 7:11 pm

    @ohplease: Okay, I finally unraveled my thinking. While I am just as dumb as I seem, I am not quite that ignorant. See, I have major trouble with the names. Ron Paul, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul. It all sounds the same to me. I have to stop and translate the words and assign them a picture. I was looking at Paul Ryan’s photo, but I thinking Rand Paul. I’m all “That is so not Rand Paul!” And I was distracted and didn’t take time to parse them out.

    Complicating matters is that when I do sort them out, there’s this other guy named Paul Rand who always wanders in. I am sure Paul Rand is a lovely person*, but he is photobombing my recollection. If I were setting up for a Republican debate and a Paul Rand walked in, I’m sure I’d have him at a podium, ready to go, only to discover that he’s the caterer or something.

    I have a similar problem with the names Kevin, Keith, Kenneth, and Brian. I have to stop and think, “Okay, it’s not Kevin Olbermann, it’s Keith.

    There should be penance of some sort. I’ve cluttered up the comment thread, but that pales in comparison to making any of you think of Anthony Weiner when you really didn’t have to.

    So never mind, move along, k.

    *Paul Rand, it turns out, was a famous graphic designer who is now dead.

  110. 110.

    jake the snake

    October 27, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    The thing I hate most is paying that lying sack of shit’s salary.

  111. 111.

    sb

    October 27, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    I’ve been reading Pierce anytime I could find him, mostly at Altercation. Glad to see he’s making a splash.

  112. 112.

    handsmile

    October 27, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    @Emperor of Ice Cream: (#111)

    A Wallace Stevens reference at Balloon Juice!? Well boy howdy, that was a delight to see. Please comment here more often.

  113. 113.

    ruemara

    October 27, 2011 at 7:45 pm

    I used to like Charlie Pierce, since I’m a huge Wait, Wait fan. You know, he’s pretty good on a lot of things, but a steady stream of “Obama’s a wimp, a caver, pre-capitulation, blablah didn’t close Gitmo”. I’m just an oversensitive black woman. He and a number of other big names I adored have kinda slipped off my radar. Glad he’s pretty much taking things by storm, because he is a great writer.

  114. 114.

    dollared

    October 27, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    BTW, Pierce wrote the Pre-Takedown of Senator wishy-washy Obama, before he was President Wishy-Washy Obama.

    http://www.esquire.com/features/barack-obama-0608?click=main_sr

    I like the Freedom part, because that’s where you go to get re-drunk after home Packer games. You have to read it to understand.

  115. 115.

    dollared

    October 27, 2011 at 8:47 pm

    BTW, Pierce wrote the Pre-Takedown of Senator wishy-washy Obama, before he was President Wishy-Washy Obama.

    http://www.esquire.com/features/barack-obama-0608?click=main_sr

    I like the Freedom part, because that’s where you go to get re-drunk after home Packer games. You have to read it to understand.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 27, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    @Cat Lady:

    Okay, that was weird :-)

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    October 28, 2011 at 8:30 am

    @Cat Lady: I never thought of it that way. I’ll keep on snarking till I do get buckled (to save the world, etc. etc.)

  118. 118.

    Paul in KY

    October 28, 2011 at 8:33 am

    @jake the snake: Me too. Very depressing, when you think about it.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • Mousebumples on Late Night ‘Should Be Always’ Open Thread: Librarians, Doing Civilization’s Work (Apr 18, 2024 @ 6:58am)
  • eclare on On The Road – ema – 2024 AKC Meet the Breeds (Apr 18, 2024 @ 6:52am)
  • Rusty on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 6:49am)
  • Baud on Thursday Morning Open Thread — Nancy Pelosi: Every Day Is A Matter of Life and Death (Apr 18, 2024 @ 6:48am)
  • eclare on Late Night ‘Should Be Always’ Open Thread: Librarians, Doing Civilization’s Work (Apr 18, 2024 @ 6:48am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!