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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / Guilty As Charged

Guilty As Charged

by John Cole|  November 2, 20114:08 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Assholes

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I can’t sleep, and if you are up, you are either in a different time zone or in the same boat as me. At any rate, I recommend you read this Charles Pierce indictment of Bobo.

I have nothing to add other than that I hope Pierce discovers Ross Douthat and then the douchebags at Reason magazine.

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46Comments

  1. 1.

    Phylllis

    November 2, 2011 at 4:21 am

    The comments are a thing of beauty as well.

  2. 2.

    Phylllis

    November 2, 2011 at 4:21 am

    Frackin’ iPad double post grumble grumble.

  3. 3.

    Citizen_X

    November 2, 2011 at 4:26 am

    if you are up, you are either in a different time zone or in the same boat as me

    Some of us are up now because we’re WORKING*, hippie. Git outta mah damned boat!

    *”Working” = “Screwing around on the internet at the moment but still getting paid.”

  4. 4.

    Jenny

    November 2, 2011 at 4:28 am

    I think Bobo has a point. Studies show Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns collapsed because of fat people, country music, and Bristol Palin having too much unprotected sex.

  5. 5.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 2, 2011 at 4:58 am

    Hiya, Cole. I’m up. But, then again, I always am at this time. I’m NaNoWriMoing and taking a break. Whatcha doing? Pictures of Tunchie?

    ETA: Charles P. Pierce fucking rocks.

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Hey, Raven. How you be?

  6. 6.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 2, 2011 at 4:58 am

    Normal wake-up time here on the edge of the eastern time zone.

  7. 7.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 2, 2011 at 5:02 am

    @asiangrrlMN: Hey there!

  8. 8.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 2, 2011 at 5:05 am

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Hiya. All good with you?

    @Joseph Nobles: Woooot! Way to go! And….oh, I get it! Niiiiice. Since I don’t have to worry about words, I always set my own goal. This year, it’s to edit last year’s novel so it’s ready for submission and write a new novel. YAY!

  9. 9.

    Joseph Nobles

    November 2, 2011 at 5:05 am

    Working the graveyard shift as always here, one time zone over.

    @asiangrrlMN: Hey, I got 1691 words yesterday morning, and I’m aiming for 3334 at the write-in later this evening.

  10. 10.

    paramedicx

    November 2, 2011 at 5:06 am

    I enjoy finding ur tweets late into the night. Set an alarm once and a while for us nightshifters. We’re the ones u scowl at going away from the morning rush hour :)

  11. 11.

    amk

    November 2, 2011 at 5:11 am

    Does the beltway crowd ever care about what Pierce says ? Ferfucksake, george will and other cretins have been a DC fixture for over quarter century fucking up everyone else’s life.

  12. 12.

    Warren Terra

    November 2, 2011 at 5:15 am

    Since there’s no late-night Open Thread, and I’m a gonna finally turn in, I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone an excellent Palindrome Day today, 2011 11 02.

  13. 13.

    amk

    November 2, 2011 at 5:17 am

    Glenn Beck’s Favorite Gold Company Charged With Fraud.

    “Goldline International, the California precious metals retailer promoted by Glenn Beck and other right-wing radio hosts, was formally charged with 19 criminal counts—including grand theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy—on Tuesday by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office. The criminal complaint also implicates Goldline CEO Mark Albarian, along with two other company executives and two salespeople.

    The charges detailed in the complaint support what MoJo’s Stephanie Mencimer first reported in 2010: Using aggressive telemarketing tactics, Goldline employees routinely pressured customers to purchase expensive coins with mark-ups so steep that it was very unlikely the consumer would ever make his money back. The company racked up a long list of complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, and at one point was sanctioned by the state of Missouri. But Beck and other endorsers (including liberal talker Ed Schultz) lent an air of legitimacy to the whole operation, sowing fears of a total economic collapse to help make the pitch for Swiss Francs. Beck’s pitch went a step further, arguing that in the event of a total financial meltdown, the government would confiscate gold bullion—meaning you should invest your money in coins instead.”

    http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/11/glenn-becks-favorite-gold-company-charged-fraud

  14. 14.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 2, 2011 at 5:19 am

    @Warren Terra: Am I a nerd ‘coz I think that’s so cool?

  15. 15.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 2, 2011 at 5:21 am

    @asiangrrlMN: Yea, not bad. Trying to get more info on these morons and their ricin plot. We were up in their neck of the woods Sunday.

  16. 16.

    Warren Terra

    November 2, 2011 at 5:23 am

    @asiangrrlMN:
    That’s probably not why you’re a nerd. In any case, there’s nothing wrong with being a nerd (sure beats a bunch of choices that contradict with “nerd”), and I believe the term of art nowadays is “geek” – “geek pride” beats “nerd pride” by a decent multiple, and the top hit for the latter goes to a page titled for the former.

  17. 17.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 2, 2011 at 5:28 am

    @Warren Terra: Well, I’m not a geek at all, so I’ll settle for being a nerd. But, yeah, happy palindrome day to you, too!

    P.S. I love the word palindrome.

  18. 18.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 2, 2011 at 5:34 am

    @Joseph Nobles:
    If you see old Annie won’t you give her a lift
    Annie’s been a workin on the midnight shift. . . “

  19. 19.

    asiangrrlMN

    November 2, 2011 at 5:37 am

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Crap! Stay safe, you hear?

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): It wouldn’t have been a joke if they managed to pull it off, knowwhatImean? Stoopid people R stoooopid.

    ETA: OK. Back to the grind for me. Later, bitchez.

  20. 20.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    November 2, 2011 at 5:39 am

    @asiangrrlMN: Fuck em if they can’t take a joke. You should read the idiots in the local rag comment abut how the gubbinment made em do it!

  21. 21.

    arguingwithsignposts

    November 2, 2011 at 7:06 am

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): gubbinment has a long history of making people do stupid shit, apparently.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    November 2, 2011 at 7:13 am

    I am rapidly becoming “hooked on Pierce” because of his incisive language and quick cuts to the heart of the issues.

    Bobo is an apologist for what, after all, has worked out quite well for him. But admitting that nepotism is at work more than merit would leave him facing uncomfortable facts.

    If there’s anything conservatism has become good for, it’s NOT facing uncomfortable facts. That is now its only purpose.

  23. 23.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    November 2, 2011 at 7:55 am

    This is why Charlie Pierce is well on his way to becoming a worthy successor to Molly Ivins: he called Bobo an

    insufferable twat

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    November 2, 2011 at 7:57 am

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    insufferable twat

    Come on, Bobo has that on his business cards.

  25. 25.

    Thomas

    November 2, 2011 at 8:10 am

    Charlie Pierce is a regular on NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”. If you’ve never sat down and listened to it you’re missing out. One of the consistently funniest shows on radio or television.

    http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/

  26. 26.

    MattF

    November 2, 2011 at 8:14 am

    Brooks’s little problem is that he’s not actually an expert in anything, except maybe dinner table conversation. It’s a nice way to live, but it’s not actually related to what we peons call the ‘real world’.

  27. 27.

    The Raven

    November 2, 2011 at 8:16 am

    Dead commies pwn Brooks:

    The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers. —The Communist Manifesto, 1848

  28. 28.

    JCT

    November 2, 2011 at 8:35 am

    And don’t miss Pierce’s “Fun with Mitt” right after the Bobo evisceration. The mexican circus monkey comment was a hoot.

  29. 29.

    DFS

    November 2, 2011 at 8:41 am

    Pierce’s shit has been 100% on-point lately, save for one thing — like many Yankees, he mistakes the most prevalent Southern chicken chain for the best one. Never, ever eat Chik-Fil-A when you can hit up a Bojangle’s instead.

  30. 30.

    WereBear

    November 2, 2011 at 8:44 am

    @DFS: Never, ever eat Chik-Fil-A when you can hit up a Bojangle’s instead.

    Ramen, brother/sister. Bojangle’s is good eatin’.

  31. 31.

    MonkeyBoy

    November 2, 2011 at 8:44 am

    If one wants to vent against Bobo one can go to the Amazon tags page on his latest book.

    However Amazon seems to have a policy where the main book page tags only mention tags that are popular and thus gives a picture like

    keeping america stupid(44)
    pseudo-science(36)
    david brooks(6)
    social science(6)

    I guess that the reason the higher voted tags on the tags page

    bourgeois wish fulfillment(64)
    condescending narcissism(63)
    drive-by applebys philosopher(55)
    keeping america stupid(44)
    pseudo-science(36)
    how the privileged live(35)
    yuppie scum(31)
    inanely pretentious(28)
    deadly dull(25)
    making insanity npr-friendly(20)
    barbie and ken phantasy(19)
    excessively banal(18)
    fatuous(15)
    intellectual autoeroticism(13)
    no genitals(13)
    concierge to oligarchs(10)
    incoherent blathering(10)
    soulless cheerful social-climber(9)
    soporific(8)
    david brooks(6)
    social science(6)

    don’t appear on the book page is that they are not common tags.

    A quick check for the tag deadly dull shows that it appears on only 4 books – so I guess such a tag needs to be applied to more products before it will raise from the tags page to the book page.

    Bobo haters might try to apply the top Bobo tags to other appropriate books and see if such usage elevates them into the Bobo book page.

    Sure, one could start tagging lots of young children’s books such as “Goodnight Moon” as “deadly dull” but I hope you people are above this.

    One can obviously start spreading Bobo tags on his other books. It would help if other applicable book were reported to help spread the tagging of his worldview.

  32. 32.

    Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937

    November 2, 2011 at 9:36 am

    @Phylllis: My favorite:
    “He’s such a douche his favorite cocktail is vinegar and water, preferably Evian.”

  33. 33.

    Walker

    November 2, 2011 at 9:39 am

    @DFS:

    Church’s is way better than Bojangles.

  34. 34.

    JCT

    November 2, 2011 at 9:51 am

    @Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937: That one was particularly slick. Well-played.

  35. 35.

    divF

    November 2, 2011 at 10:04 am

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):
    Thanks for the link. I’m of an age to have seen Cody and the boys live and in person playing that in any number of seedy Berkeley beer bars (Mandrake’s, the Longbranch, the Keystone, …).

  36. 36.

    kindness

    November 2, 2011 at 10:22 am

    So maybe in addition to the BJ lexicon of terms, we need a BJ Hall of Major Douchebags. Kinda modeled after Steven Colbert’s list. Maybe even an interactive list that changes with votes. Oh….yea. Then it get’s complicated. Not horribly complicated but more coding than I wanna do.

    Have at it you caffinated code monkeys out there.

    @divF: You’re dating yourself. The Keystone closed down in what, the late 80’s?

  37. 37.

    kindness

    November 2, 2011 at 10:39 am

    So the Occupy Oakland folks have called a general strike here today. They say they are going to march on the Govt & corporate buildings today. I’m one of those. I’m on the edge of downtown & the Facility Management folks sent out an e-mail saying we should plan on leaving early today so as to avoid any ‘issues’. I wonder how fired I would get for hanging a banner from our 20 story building in support of the Occupy people? Doesn’t much matter. I can’t get up to the top floor anyhow.

    So I guess I’ll just have to support them from inside one of the buildings they may be ‘occupying’. We’ll see.

  38. 38.

    Origuy

    November 2, 2011 at 11:04 am

    Until Pierce gets around to Douthat, check out Doghouse Riley’s takedown of him. Bats Left/Throws Right deserves a place on the blogroll.

    Compared to graceless Ross, Brooks’ simpering “reasonableness” seems almost genuine in its abject marketability, and Mitch Daniels’ calculating venality sounds like intellect. Douthat’s “moderation” amounts to nothing beyond the fact that by the time he got to Hahvahd it was no longer possible to pretend to be Bill Buckley, Defender of the Faith at the Liberal Ivies, because that ship had sailed, and the American right could no longer read. Scratch him and you get Jerry Falwell with social pretensions.

  39. 39.

    divF

    November 2, 2011 at 11:06 am

    @kindness: Yeah, I know. The Keystone lasted the longest of the three I mentioned. The Longbranch (San Pablo, below Dwight) is now the Berkeley “Good Vibrations” store, and Mandrake’s (University at 10th) houses an emergency veterinary office.

    Good luck with the occupation today.

  40. 40.

    mattski

    November 2, 2011 at 11:24 am

    can’t read esquire from work…. fuck

  41. 41.

    Quaker in a Basement

    November 2, 2011 at 11:36 am

    Pierce gave George Will an atomic wedgie as well recently.

  42. 42.

    kindness

    November 2, 2011 at 11:45 am

    @divF: I went to the Keystone many times. Usually to see the Jerry Band, although many others too. I miss the Berkeley Community Theater. I know the reworked Fox & the Paramount Theater in Oakland are better but the vibe of the High School auditorium was cool…even if you couldn’t smoke (the evil weed) there cause the nice velvet covered seats.

    Hey, we still have the Greek Theater.

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    November 2, 2011 at 11:46 am

    Pierce will never stumble across Reason because he’s from Boston, a totebagging PBS watcher, and a newspaper guy. The only reason he knows about Brooks is because he sees Brooks on PBS all the time.

    Or, at least, those are the conclusions I would draw if I went about the world the way David Brooks does.

  44. 44.

    Samara Morgan

    November 2, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    I hope Pierce discovers Ross Douthat and then the douchebags at Reason magazine.

    and then I hope he discovers the League of Incredibly Boring Glibertarians, aka your homeboi Kain’s blog.

  45. 45.

    Paul in KY

    November 2, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    @mattski: Neither can I, ditto fuck.

  46. 46.

    Deb T

    November 2, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    Hey John,

    Thanks for the Charles Pierce links. I’ve become a real fan.

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