As much as I love this blog, there are a couple of writers whom I think you should check before finding out what Tunch or Max did this morning. Alex Pareene is one. Charles Pierce is another. Let me illustrate why.
Pareene’s hack list of media luminaries (maybe another descriptive noun is order? a word appealing to a different sense, smell perhaps) provides the most comprehensive and fair profile of these guys that you can find on the net. The profiled would naturally disagree, but if they make the list then you know how to value what they think. Take Pareene’s profile of Tucker Carlson, a child prodigy of the conservative print media who got left behind when stupid and crazy finished off thoughtful conservatism and f*cked its corpse. Since then he has played an increasingly desperate game of catch-up, but Carlson lacks Hannity’s oily comfort with innuendo and race-baiting and keeps stepping on his own feet.
This morning Charles Pierce noted that Neil Munro’s Joe Wilson moment in the Rose Garden only counts as the second most embarrassing thing that Tucker’s online fishwrap did last week. Top honors goes to a lengthy piece lavishing praise on a baseball phenom named Bryce Harper because he is white. Yeesh. The least they could do is subscribe to the Frank Luntz memos that explain how to code word this kind of thing.
Villago Delenda Est
Tim, with all due respect, Tunch and Max are much more agreeable subjects for the first thing in the morning than the offal that Pareene and Pierce write about.
schrodinger's cat
Dissing Tunch on this blog. Blasphemy. Obey don’t question. All hail the Mighty Tunch.
P.S. Max is cute too but he is no Tunch.
JGabriel
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Tim F. @ Top:
Only RINO’s use code!
Seriously, I think the the use of dog whistles and codewords has become unfashionable in Conservative circles because the audience they are trying to reach is too dumb and unsophisticated to get them. The base is too base for any but the bluntest crudities anymore.
Like jaded sadists who have had their whims catered to for too long, only the most extreme displays can get them off anymore.
.
ruemara
I must second the good Villago Delenda Est’s comment. No one needs good writing on morons first thing in the morning.
NancyDarling
I read Pierce’s take down of Mark Judge. Still laughing and marveling at his word smithing. I looked up Judge’s book “A Tremor of Bliss” and read in the book description “He also sees support for the Christian theology on love in a seemingly unlikely place: rock music.” This left me scratching my head and saying “Whut???”
jwb
@Villago Delenda Est: I second this. Except John only rarely blogs about Tunch in the morning (much more likely to get a Tunch post late at night) and it seems like forever since Tim has posted a picture of Max.
Metrosexual Black AbeJ
Meh, I like mistermix’s morning stuff better than reading those two.
rlrr
@NancyDarling:
Not many positive reviews for Mark Judge’s book on Amazon…
BGinCHI
I appreciate the nod to Pareene’s takedowns of these dumbfucks, but I don’t really need him to tell me that Tucker Carlson or Mark Halperin are shady, self-serving, money-grubbing, narcissistic, onanistic, self-congratulatory, overweening, privileged, cowardly hacks.
The proof is in the pudding.
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: True. Morons are moronic. End of story. I think Krugthulu is essential reading, more so than the two mentioned above.
Rosalita
er, well, it would be easier to start the day with some Tunch or Max, but I agree with you, Charlie Pearce is a must read, his eviscerations are epic. haven’t read the other guy, but I’ll go investigate.
NancyDarling
@BGinCHI: Well said!
jwb
@Metrosexual Black AbeJ: Mistermix usually has an excellent set of morning posts—I get a much better sense of what the day’s political agenda is likely to be than the morning paper, and Pierce doesn’t usually get going until later in the morning anyway.
BGinCHI
Pierce is a much more focused writer for me. Gets right at the nugget of understanding in whatever he’s writing on. Plus he’s just a damn fine, and funny, prose stylist.
David in NY
@BGinCHI:
Actually it’s not. It’s in the “eating.” That is, the old saying, now lost apparently, is that the “proof of the pudding is in the eating,” which actually makes sense.
But your string of adjectives is admirable, and sufficient, all by itself.
AHH onna coffee shop 'puter
Pierce caught the M. Judge Charmlackeon column? Too bad, Our Wonketts did it!
MattF
I like it when Pierce gets genuinely outraged by something. The image of wingers attempting to “wedge sports into the ongoing shouting match between the voices in their heads” is a bit of poetry.
Culture of Truth
Oh that’s good.
Hunter Gathers
Only in Conservatard Land could a number one overall pick given a major league contract worth 19 million dollars as a 17 year old be considered the posterboy for the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ crowd.
BTW, there are about 50 other guys I’d rather have playing for me than Harper.
Keith
I think it’s less that Harper is white and more that he’s Mormon (aka VERY white). Otherwise we’d be hearing poems to Stephen Strasburg on the Caller.
Hunter Gathers
There are plenty of those to be found on ESPN. Which is surprising, since the guy has never pitched a full season and has already had Tommy John surgery. But he’s white, throws hard and gives Sabermatricians a stiffy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Keith:
Naturally, Harper’s aura is expected to somehow, through a manner probably hinted at, but not explained, on golden tablets, transmigrate to Rmoney’s Presidential campaign of all lies, all the time.
Ash Can
Holy shit, that article on Bryce Harper is dreadful. Judge thoroughly humiliates himself with his lack of baseball knowledge, and that’s only one way in which his article is complete crap. It’s not difficult to see why he’s with that Daily Caller train wreck; he and Carlson were made for each other.
SatanicPanic
@Hunter Gathers: Let’s not go crazy here. The Nationals are getting a great player for cheap. He seems like kind of a tool, but it wouldn’t stop me from hiring him. At any rate, whatever Harper is about has nothing to do with the was he’s being used by Mark “Black people stole my Bicycle” Judge.
Rob in CT
@Ash Can:
It’s really pathetic. The race-baiting is utterly blatant. Lazy Jason Heyward, who lollygags it in the OF, allowing Harper to turn a single into a double, stands in for “the Left.” Harper “refuses welfare” when he talks his manager into not giving him a day off.
Rob in CT
@SatanicPanic:
This. Harper’s really good, really young, and fairly cheap. And if he’s a bit of a tool, well, so are many MLB players and hey, he’s a 19-year old who has dominated every level of play so far.
Hunter Gathers
@SatanicPanic:
You and I have very different notions of ‘great’ and ‘cheap’. Nobody can be considered a ‘great’ player when they have yet to play a full season. And there are quite a few players who are better than Harper who don’t have 19 million dollar contracts.
He hasn’t done a damn thing yet. He could be a great player. Check again in a few years, after the league has figured out how to pitch to him.
The Thin Black Duke
Although the Jockstrap Culture of sports can drive me crazy sometimes, what I appreciate is that hardcore racist idiots like Mark Judge aren’t tolerated. Remember what happened on “Monday Night Football” when Rush Limbaugh slandered Donovan McNabb?
Keith
Please don’t let the Daily Caller know that Bryce Harper is a union member.
SatanicPanic
@Hunter Gathers: I wasn’t able to find the exact # for his salary this year, but it’s under $10 million a year. Unless you’re adding his signing bonus to what they’re paying him this year, but that still doesn’t add up to $19M. At any rate, he’s doing very well for what they’re paying him, and he’s locked in for 7 years. If he turns into the next A-Rod that’s a tremendous deal.
ChrisNYC
I still object to this idea that poor Tucker lost his way because of the big bad meanies. Also, he’s not comfortable with race baiting? Have you seen The Daily Caller? It’s like 24/7 race. The guy who wrote the Harper column also wrote the “my bike got stolen and I don’t know who did it but you know what, I’m betting it was a black guy because black people …. stealing …. umm duh” column. Oh and their Rodney King story “Rodney King dead at 47 after life of crime, drug abuse.” Blech. Total slimeball.
dj spellchecka
the majority of major leaguers are whites… as are the vast majority of american mlb prospects, especially pitchers..does the caller not know this?
Rob in CT
@Keith:
IOKIYAR (modified here to “it’s ok if some conservative wants to shoe-horn you into his narrative”). See also: Shilling, Curt.
Rob in CT
I wonder how many there actually are. Harper got his deal because he was widely considered to be a can’t-miss guy. He’s 19, and more than holding his own at the MLB level, which is rather rare.
There are some guys who are making the minimum (union-negotiated!) or thereabouts who are good too. But I don’t think you’re likely to find too many guys who fit the combo of THIS young, THIS good, plus cheaper. Mike Trout and ???
butler
@Hunter Gathers:
That’s spread over 7 years, so they’re getting him for less than 3 million a year. Which is a bargain for a player of even above average production.
Or put another way, its roughly what they’re paying every year to be disappointed by Jason Werth.
Yutsano
@dj spellchecka: MLB tried to make a move to diversify their player mix beyond poaching from South America and Asia. I think the results ended mixed, mostly because baseball infrastructure can get expensive and inner cities make money from football and basketball. There are good black players out there, but they tend to come from middle and upper class high schools.
Ash Can
@Rob in CT: The playing-hurt angle is part of what gasses me. “Accepting welfare, ” my ass. If you’re sufficiently ailing, you’re going to worsen your condition and hurt your team by playing hurt. Now, I’m not saying that this is what Harper did — and his manager evidently doesn’t think so either, and his is the final word. But I sure wish I had a nickel for every run, goal etc. given up due to a player staying in a game when he shouldn’t. I’m not blaming the players, either — true professionals will want to tough it out no matter what. But Judge just embarrasses himself with the “welfare” bit. Harper showed himself to be a standard major leaguer by wanting to play hurt. It was up to his manager to decide whether by doing so, he’d be doing more harm than good. Judge reads a bunch of socio-political bullshit into it and shows that he’s an ignorant hack. Long and short of it.
ed
@Ash Can:
Lack of knowledge indeed. Judge writes, “Like Harper, Judge was left-handed..” Irrelevance aside, it’s not true. Harper bats left and throws right. You could look it up!
Water balloon
I just want to note that the Yankees made Harper look like the rookie he is during their sweep of the Nationals over the weekend. Mike Trout gave them a much harder time a few weeks ago.
asiangrrlMN
TUNCHIE! I think both men are fine writers, but, yeah, no. I don’t really need to be reading about rightwing jackholes when I first wake up, especially as I’m cutting down on my political consumption overall.
bemused
Pareene’s article on Republicans’ guide for immigration: Make everything in America suck more. It’s not just their plan on immigration, it’s their entire platform.
Rob in CT
@Water balloon:
The Yanks are really rolling right now (though they should have lost the middle game of the series. Bang-bang at the plate, but the ump got it wrong) and are generally making their opponents look bad. The starting pitchers have really stepped up (of course, facing NL lineups helps some) of late. It’s hidden some crazy RISP failure by the offense (when that particular stat starts to correct, oh boy is that gonna be fun).
wrb
“Media luminary” if fine once you realize that it is polite for “glowing asshole.”
Heliopause
Let’s see, their favorite baseball player is Bryce Harper, their favorite basketball player is Jeremy Lin, their favorite football player is Tim Tebow. I’m sensing a pattern here.
Water balloon
@Rob in CT: they’ve had that problem all season, and it gets worse when they load the bases. That’s why I think they’re headed to another early exit this post season. They’ve been feasting on the NL east recently, but I don’t think they can get past either the Angels or the Rangers come October.
Darkrose
Hmm…Harper gets pissed off and slams his bat into the wall. It bounces off the wall and hits him in the head, because when it’s you vs. inanimate solid object, you lose.
In other words, getting pissed off and lashing out and ending up hurting yourself…sounds like a perfect conservative icon to me.
Darkrose
@Yutsano: Someone found recently that the percentage of African-American players in MLB is currently around 8%, lower than it’s been since #42 first started with the
BumsDodgers.The Giants have exactly one African-American player on the roster. When he gets sent down to Fresno any minute now, there won’t be any black players on the team of Willie Mays. That makes me sad.
Darkrose
@Rob in CT: Don’t talk to me about RISP problems. Not after watching the Giants repeatedly fail to score with the bases loaded against the fucking Mariners. It was embarrassing.
Arundel
Huge fan of both. Alex wrote for years as just “Pareene” at Gawker, but he’s definitely found an extra-incisive bite at Salon . Which could use it.
Charles Pierce is this year’s revelation for an awful lot of us, I think. Damn that man’s a pro, serious journalist with the work ethic to knock it out of the park at least 7 times a day. He’s a treasure, and seemed to have come out of nowhere. So glad he did.
Montarvillois
Read Charlie Pierce every day AFTER visiting John Cole’s living room.