I fucking hate the Atlantic. I hate all the Aspen bullshit, I hate the pay-to-play salons, I hate that the neocon publisher gave Jeff Goldberg’s kids a pony, I hate the fictitious faux-sociological Bobo shit they published, I hate anyone who has ever paid or worked alongside Megan McArdle without resigning or worse in disgust. Oh, I know James Fallows and TNC are nice people. Well, fuck them too.
But this latest bullshit from Jeff Goldberg about why Bruce Springsteen needs to blow Chris Christie, it takes the cake. I’ll let Jim Newell do the honors:
Goldberg, who is an unlikable person, seems to sympathize with Christie, in one of those “Maybe Springsteen doesn’t like the way Christie takes a wrecking ball to organized labor, social spending, tax revenue, and other pillars that can make or break a society, but he said a nice thing about a Muslims once” centrist appeals to give conservatives standing ovations on each brief occasion when they stop going out of their way to be assholes:
He doesn’t seem to care that Christie is the sort of Republican many Democrats find appealing, or that Christie breaks left on such issues as Islamophobia (he stood up for a Muslim judicial appointee under specious attack for attempting, his critics said, to turn New Jersey into a Sharia state—if you can imagine such a thing) and drug-law enforcement (he is campaigning for a new law that would divert nonviolent drug offenders away from prison and toward treatment). But Springsteen seems actively uninterested in engaging with Christie. When I asked to interview Springsteen about Christie, his people gave me the brush-off.
C’mon Springsteen, just pinch one of his tits and get it over with.
Yutsano
This is a keeper.
S. cerevisiae
Oh waaaahhh! What a whiny bunch of shit. Good for you, Boss.
Violet
Chris Christie must be a desperate teenager on the inside to need Springsteen’s attention and approval that much.
PeakVT
C’mon Springsteen, just pinch one of his tits and get it over with.
Ewww and LoL, at the same time.
Goldberg should stick to hasbara because his writing about anything else is embarrassing.
Spaghetti Lee
Why doesn’t Bruce like Christie? Could it be that Christie’s the sort of mendacious, money-grubbing fascsist asshole that Bruce has spent his entire career taunting or attacking? Irresponsible not to speculate, etc.
CW in LA
I’ve voted Democratic in every election since casting my first ballot for Walter Mondale.
For the record, I don’t find Governor Blowhard remotely appealing, and I don’t know anyone who does.
I don’t know who Jeff Goldberg is. But I’m confident he sucks.
Hill Dweller
Also, too, fuck Jon Stewart. He has turned his shitty show into the TV version of The Atlantic.
His bits on Fast and Furious the last two nights have been blindingly ignorant. I can’t decide if he has become stupid or it is just Broderism.
Chris
For fuck’s sake, standing up for the rights of government appointees to be Muslim if they so choose isn’t “breaking left.” Even George W. Bush mostly didn’t climb on the Islamophobic horse and went against it several times. Now it’s considered “breaking left.” God help us.
Ash Can
News flash to Jeff Goldberg: The Boss, like the overwhelming majority of people on this earth, can’t be bothered with overhyped mendacious trailer-trash assholes.
Violet
So what’s the scoop on Christie having Daddy issues? Because this much desperation for approval from a male childhood hero kind of suggests he might have a few Daddy issues. Which means he’s got to be a lock for 2016. Republicans love their candidates with daddy issues.
Hill Dweller
@Violet:
He doesn’t self-medicate with food just for giggles.
Mr Stagger Lee
Mr Goldberg listen to the song and maybe you’ll understand.
Oh and one more thing Born in The USA wasn’t a rousing rocking version Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA either
Chris
@Violet:
It’s that weird relationship conservatives have with pop culture, where they simultaneously turn up their nose at it as being too crude, sexualized, vulgar and liberal, while at the same time jumping for joy every time they’re given some vague hope that maybe they could sit at the cool kids’ table too.
The Dangerman
Maybe the Boss gives him the cold shoulder because the damn song is titled “Born To Run”, not “Born to Waddle”.
Culture of Truth
I blame the Internet for creating such a sentence.
Damn you Tim Berners-Lee!!
forked tongue
Honestly? The Buffet Wrecker (props to Tom Scharpling) should be grateful for every concert he goes to where Bruce doesn’t say something like “There is at least one guy here who’s in a position to do something about it but doesn’t care about a word I’m saying—I’m not saying y’all should moon him or anything, but he’s sitting in section etc., etc.”
Hill Dweller
@Chris:
It reminds me of Chris Rock’s bit about fathers bragging for taking care of their kids. That is the minimum a father should be doing.
Culture of Truth
itz a deth trap itz a sooehsite trap
S. cerevisiae
@Hill Dweller: Colbert has really left him in the dust. He is consistently awesome.
Little Boots
I mock, but the truth is, I LOVE Doug’s passion. it’s awesome.
MikeJ
@Culture of Truth: The internet is not the web. Blame Vint Cerf.
Joel
I think Springsteen’s music is pretty great. But otherwise agree with the article.
DH
off topic but since I live in Miami:
NBA CHAMPIONSHIP,NBA CHAMPIONSHIP,NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!
And I will also point out that in the matter of Trayvon Martin, the Heat took a team picture of support for his family and the demand that justice be served. I pray that will happen too.
Hill Dweller
@S. cerevisiae: It doesn’t bother me if the show sucks/isn’t funny, but the level of ignorance displayed during his two bits on Fast and Furious was infuriating.
Culture of Truth
Worth noting that even when he defends muslims CC is a dick about it.
gloryb
Why would anyone whi’s listened to more than anynthree random Springsteen songs think he’d have anything to do with Christie?
DougJ
@DH:
Glad to see LeBron get one after all the shit he’s taken. Even though I wish he’d stayed in Cleveland.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@forked tongue: Wasn’t it Scharpling who tweeted about being in a Starbucks next to Christie, all snarling into a cell phone and spitting scone crumbs into the air?
God bless Springsteen and his people My fanboyism if justified, even if I don’t much like what I’ve heard of the new album. Poor Christus Maximus will have to content himself with reclining on a couch while Goldberg rubs his feet and David Gregory drops sweet nothings in his ear and Dunkin Donut munchkins into his maw.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Christie is upset because he’s used to people kissing his ass. For being the great Springsteen fan he thinks he is, the Poor Huge Rich Man hasn’t figured out that the Boss doesn’t kiss ass, he kicks it.
Every time Christie leaves a show with his State Trooper escorts, the Boss kicks his ass by ignoring it. That really burns Christie but he also knows that it would be stupid to take a cheap shot at The Boss.
So all he can do is to get sycophants like Goldturd to whine and plead for him.
Little Boots
and Culture of Truth.
even better.
Culture of Truth
I’m glad for LeBron too. and I wouldn’t play for that Cleveland owner either.
Corbin Dallas Multipass
For someone who he has never talked to he sure knows a lot about how he feels.
Little Boots
it’s fatal if we think we have this already, but ya know, seriously, who the fuck wants to vote for Romney?
seriously.
Culture of Truth
@MikeJ: I primarily use the web, ergo I credit Tim.
the Conster
“Many Democrats” find that disgusting fucker appealing? Really? If by appealing he means not batshit insane, but that’s kind of a low bar.
Gin & Tonic
@DH: There is only one team in the league I hate more than the Miami Heat, so fuck them.
MikeJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Give it a couple of listens. It gets better.
Little Boots
and another thing … oh, you goobers have to listen to me sooner or later.
it happens.
forked tongue
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes, that’s Scharpling. It’s one of his riffs. They’re totally fictional, but his tweets about sitting near John McCain and Lou Reed at Starbuck’s are classic. One day, Tom Scharpling will be recognized as one of the comedic giants of our time.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@The Dangerman:
Nor “Borne With Wattles”. “Born To Wattle”?
DH
@DougJ:
Thank you Sir! I agree that the shitstorm Lebron took the past 2 years is ridiculous. I am also happy for the Heat coach; he took a lot of nonsense too.
As for Christie and Goldberg: fuck them with a rusty pole.
Culture of Truth
No, no one finds him appealing. Even the bullies who lurve him do not find him so. Whereas even Goppers man-crush on Obama and it makes them crazee
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sweet holy mother of god on high. The Newell piece has me nauseous, I think if I started in on the actual Goldberg piece I might die of acid reflux
So much fucking entitlement from this fuck. “Do you know who I am?” Yeah, you’re the preening fuck who stumbled into office in a three way race. Can you imagine if Obama took time to go to so many concerts, much less whined about not being ‘invited to say hello”. Sweet jumping’ jesus.
Speaking of nausea, has Christie tried to get Corey Booker to make a transpartisan appeal for a crumb of attention?
Little Boots
post music.
Tom Q
@Hill Dweller: Completely agree. I was shouting to my wife during the whole bit, “He doesn’t know the facts here”. Especially after Colbert totally eviscerated the story last night, there’s just no excuse for this.
gwangung
@Chris:
On top of this is the weird shit they do when they gut every arts education program they can in the schools, virtually insuring kids have no exposure and no liking for the classics of culture that are supposedly revered. Which pretty much gives the kids over to the “crude, sexualized vulgar” pop culture by default.
Two plus two? Duh, what’s that….
Culture of Truth
I was the library and saw a book called The Whore of Akron. WTF? Michael Jordan was monk working for a non-profit? cripes.
DH
@Culture of Truth:
Thanks :)
PurpleGirl
Christie is in no way a Republican this life-long Democrat could vote for. Now, Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, Louis Lefkowitz… those are Republicans I could/would have voted for.
Mike in NC
Keep trying to cancel my subscription but they just won’t let me go!
Little Boots
see, it’s awesome that culture of truth is here, but still, it would be even more awesome if he posted his favorite song.
Mnemosyne
I thought I hated LeBron James, but it turned out I had mixed him up with Latrell Sprewell, so I’m back to having no opinion about James.
General Stuck
Wanna see something really scary? New Pew poll shows tight race, with the public viewing Mitt Romney pretty much as a two faced lying sack of shit, but strongly favor him to fix the economy. The Idiocracy Rules.
We are entering the Runway Era of politics. Where republican candidates are such butt ugly people on the inside, the powers that be mandate we dress them in silk to sashay down the runway as model citizens to be showered with praise, if for nothing more than some sort of irrelevant minutia.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@forked tongue: damn, I fell for it.
@Tom Q: not something you see much of, even in these odd times. St Stewart rode his Disappointment Pony to Broderville, stopping by FoxNews studios along the way to have a Very Thoughtful chat with his pal Bill O’Reilly.
Huh. Looks like the name of the mayor of Newark is going into moderation again.
CW in LA
@DH: Haha. Suck it Clay Bennett, and suck it Okie Shitty.
Little Boots
everyone’s missing the point.
Hill Dweller
@Tom Q:
I could almost excuse Stewart for doing it once, but tonight’s bit was even worse.
As you pointed out, Colbert rightly destroyed the Republicans last night. And Stewart had to hear about some of the criticism for last night’s bit. But he doubled down on the stupid.
Ash Can
Chris Christie can consider himself lucky if The Boss personally flips him the bird.
Little Boots
can I do this whole thing, then:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3j2NYZ8FKs&feature=related
DH
@CW in LA:
I have a feeling that Seattle is smiling.
But I will say that the OK team is a really good team. It was a great series for basketball.
Little Boots
can I ask what ever happened to Omnes?
Culture of Truth
Dear Christie: He’s just not that into you
Yutsano
@CW in LA: The Schaden, it is indeed freude.
@DH: @DH:
Yup.
Mark S.
DougJ is like LeBron. He’s not happy with one
titleMoore Award. He’s hungry for more.I find it almost endearingly cute that Goldberg thinks he’s entitled to an interview with Springsteen.
Culture of Truth
fucking riptides!!!
CW in LA
@DH: I know I am. I live in LA, but I grew up in Tacoma. Which, to bring us back to the topic of the thread, if Seattle is the New York of the Northwest, is the Jersey City/Newark.
Hill Dweller
@General Stuck: Romney is advocating the exact same policies that got us into this mess, but the electorate is so fucking stupid, they think it will work this time.
Obama better start explaining our current situation and the causes of our problems, because the economy isn’t going to get better between now and November. He needs to set the terms of the debate now, and put the blame on Republican austerity.
Hunter Gathers
Christie must have promised Goldberg that he would consume a foot-long sub made out of Palestinian children on national television in order to get such a wet, sloppy blowjob.
Jay
“(F-ck TNC, too.)”
And you’re down on the guy why, exactly?
If you can’t catch the giant difference between the quality of his writing and the quality of, say Jeffrey “Iraq is a threat to America, and anyone who says otherwise knows nothing about the Middle East” Goldberg’s work, something’s really up.
Mark S.
Geez, I know Christie’s pretty fat, but does he really need loading docks? I’m imagining some giant crane.
Mark S.
@Mnemosyne:
To my knowledge, LeBron has never choked one his coaches.
Hunter Gathers
@General Stuck: I remember polls coming out of the conventions that had Grandpa Walnuts and the Queen of the Iquitarod up by ten. Then Palin opened her mouth and Obama cleaned Walnuts’ clock in all three debates.
The Mormon Pansy and the jar of mayonnaise he’ll have as VP will suffer the same fate.
Little Boots
doug should love me. I’m his biggest fan.
DougJ
@Mark S.:
I think I have two already. Just nominations though.
Culture of Truth
@Hill Dweller: Obama is planning that. Phase One is to fix Romney’s identity before Mitt had a chance to do it himself. Having nailed Romney’s identity as a mustache twirling job destroyer, Phase Two is saying Cruelty McJob Killer wants to bring us back to the Days of Stupid McDepression Creator.
Bank on it.
DPS
The only way we are ever going to have bipartisan comity in this country is if rock stars start waving to people who stand for everything they oppose.
Until then, it’s all on you, libs.
Little Boots
hey doug. hey doug. hey doug.
son of a bitch.
DougJ
@Little Boots:
I do.
Sophist(from droid)
So Christy deserves a fucking cookie for being decent human being for three consecutive minutes? Talk about the bigotry of low expectations. The bar for Republicans has been set so low that people in Beijing are starting to trip over it.
Steeplejack
@Jay:
It’s the heat. Everybody’s cranky tonight.
CW in LA
@Culture of Truth: It’s a sound strategy, and surely the best chance of success. I just hope I’m wrong that the electorate has finally grown too fucking stupid for that to work.
Little Boots
@DougJ:
why you’re awesome.
FlipYrWhig
@Culture of Truth: That was exactly what the economic speech last Thursday was about. But it was too long for the crybaby media, so they made nothing of it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Culture of Truth: I’ve been wondering if the phrase ‘trickle down’ polls badly, or if they’re going to start using it in September. Seems to hit the nail on the head, and Romney’s tax returns just prove the fucking point. Gah. Fucking bewildering to me that anyone outside the 27% think Romney “knows how to fix the economy”. IT’s not like he’s a got a secret plan or a magic wand. Tax cuts and medicare vouchers. That’s his “leadership”
FlipYrWhig
@General Stuck: I don’t even understand the logic behind anyone’s impression that Romney knows jack shit about how to manage the economy. Because he’s rich, it doesn’t matter what he promises to do (or not–he never says anything)? Are people seriously that stupid?
Little Boots
can I do this for no particular reason?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST86JM1RPl0&feature=related
Hill Dweller
@Culture of Truth: The Obama campaign is full of people smarter than me, and I’m mostly venting, but I hope they start putting some blame on congressional republicans. They’ve done unprecedented shit, but paid no price because the feckless media couldn’t be bothered.
Those assholes should not be rewarded for wrecking the economy and obstructing any effort to fix it. The American people should recognize the mistake they made in 2010.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think you even need to say “trickle down.” Romney isn’t even promising anything’s going to trickle down to anyone. It’s just simply giving already rich people more money, taking away public services, and then, something gets better for some reason.
FlipYrWhig
@Hill Dweller: He blamed them in the speech last Thursday.
CW in LA
@FlipYrWhig: Isn’t he on record as saying he won’t reveal his plans, because if he did, people would be less likely to vote for him? And yet people still think he can fix the economy?
I just hope we get Indian overlords rather than Chinese.
Redshift
@FlipYrWhig: A lot of people are stupid enough to vote for tax cuts for the rich because they hope to be rich someday. With that sort of logic, believing that if someone got rich, he knows how to make meee rich doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: I watched a clip of recent interview of the ‘bot. He was programmed to say “People are suffering under this president’s policies”. Okay. Name one, one policy that’s making people “suffer”, and how. I don’t have strong memories of Dole running against Clinton (one of the reasons Dole lost), but he seems like a candidate for Rushmore compared to this dishonest fuck, Romney. Bob Dole used to be the far right of the Republican Party.. He’d be Tea Bagged today, assuming he made it past 2004.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Mike in NC:
Do you hear the music from Hotel California while trying to quit?
Hill Dweller
@FlipYrWhig: Good. I hope he continues to hammer them from now until November.
It continually blows my mind that Republicans have paid no price for their bat shit crazy behavior. They openly threatened to intentionally default on our debt. That is third world type behavior, but they paid no price for it.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I want him to be forced to explain the mechanism by which something the government does turns into a new job, considering that the idea of the government doing “stimulus” is totally off the table. I assume that the answer is that lower taxes give people with money more money to spend, which keeps businesses running. But the obvious retort to that is that the people who already have money are less likely to spend their new money than the people who are in desperate need of money now. So, if anything, Romney ought to be promising to slash the taxes of lower-income people even further. And yet, that’s not the plan at all. Why?
I’m no economist. There are surely many more issues that need to be aired in the campaign. But, you know, HOW’S THAT SUPPOSED TO FUCKING WORK? seems like it damn well ought to come up at some point.
Frankensteinbeck
@Hill Dweller:
My impression has generally been that Stewart is of the ‘this sounds bad so I’m against it’ branch of liberal. Reacts with a lot of gut feeling that anybody with a gun is bad, corporations are bad, politicians are universally corrupt liars, and anything that doesn’t sound healthily natural is bad. He takes a LOT of cheap shots in that vein, pretending that complex issues are incredibly simple. Theoretically that’s his job, but he seems to believe it, and as Colbert shows, he doesn’t HAVE to do his job that way.
I can’t square that kinda-wishing-Nader-wasn’t-a-useless-dead-end mentality with his obsession with polite discourse. It’s not just that he really seems to think partisan bickering is the worst problem in America. You could make that argument. It’s that he relentlessly blames the victim. He knows quite well the GOP are insane and bipartisanship right now is splitting the difference between a plate of spaghetti and a plate of tire rims and anthrax. But he then immediately disconnects and won’t follow that thought farther. His Obama interview, relentlessly harping on how Obama did not heal the partisan divides in Washington, was disgusting. Criminy, Stewart, do you ask abuse victims why they keep making their spouse beat them?
I don’t even watch TDS much these days. I just got so tired of it.
GxB
Hate to throw a blubber laden bone to CC, but given the bat-shit lunacy to his right, I do admit to pumping my fist in the air when he calls out the Muzlin h8rz. That said maybe the Boss should have a heart-to-heart with GuvPrick. Nobody else seems to have any influence on him.
Naahhh, sorry, temporary insanity has passed – carry on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Romney today said that Obama had “huge majorities for two years” and did nothing on immigration. Has anyone not on MSNBC prime time pointed out that 1) the House passed the Dream Act, and it lost in the Senate by 55 vote minority? Or that Obama had sixty-including-Lieberman votes for IIANM 77 days?
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@forked tongue:
Oh, that would be too, too sweet. Can you let me know which gig the Boss’l do that at so I can make sure to get tickets?
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: But, regarding the civility thing, last night or the night before he did a bit on hecklers at Obama and Romney speeches, and what he absolutely did NOT do was the Exasperated Common Sense Dude routine.
But I just can’t fathom why he doesn’t see fit to mention that the “gun-walking” idea was hatched under Bush.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Mike in NC:
I just let it expire, and it’s gone. And that’s after being a subscriber since the mid-70s. Used to be, when it arrived, I’d read it cover to cover. My last 3 issues (from 2011) are sitting on a pile. Dunno if it’s the blog-induced ADD or the articles are worse than they used to be, but I can’t get through it.
I mean, Corby Kummer, and the food porn?
Several years ago, endorsing Enhanced Interrogation (loud music, freezing temperatures)?
Not the Atlantic I grew up with.
MikeJake
“@DH: “the Heat coach”? You’d think a fan of the team would know his name.
Friggin Miami sports fans.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Steeplejack:
Meek little housewives finger the carving knife and study their husband’s neck.
h/t Raymond Chandler (of course)
Tom Q
@FlipYrWhig: Or the fact that some of the documents they don’t want to turn over include the names of undercover agents whose lives could be put at risk. You know, if some asshole GOPer on the committee decided to release it — which they’d do in a minute if they thought it had an infinitesimal chance of embarrassing Obama.
David Koch
Obummer has a big speech tomorrow (1:40 PM) with the brown people taking away your agricultural, janitorial, and lawn mowing jobs.
He’s obviously gonna pander to them by treating them like human beings.
Steeplejack
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
I believe that was when the Santa Ana winds came in, right?
FlipYrWhig
@David Koch: It’s not fair to use the government to do things for people. That counts as pandering.
Burnspbesq
@Ash Can:
I’m no fan of Christie, but “trailer trash?” Ridiculous and utterly fact-free.
You can make a perfectly good case against Christie without lying about his background, so why do it?
Chad
@Jay: I think his attitude is fxck it cause motherfxckers love it
Burnspbesq
@the Conster:
Christie got elected a year after Obama carried the state by 15-1/2 points. Got a better explanation than Democratic support?
Snowwy
…and I hate, I hate, I hate Peter Pan!
Sorry, I just had to. No mockery intended.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Steeplejack: Santa Anas. Yep. I recall standing on a freeway onramp, hitching a ride, with 105 degree winds blowing at me. I could feel my eyeballs drying out.
David Koch
It appears that Black Abe has done it again: Russia Evacuating from Syria
And with Assad out of supplies, he’s being offered a way out.
So while Obama tries to solve a problem from hell, blogger can wank on about isolationism and Drooones!
Seanly
@Jay:
It’s not TNC’s writing that’s the problem to DougJ, it’s that he continues to work for a conservative rag that continues to employ McArgleBargle.
mdblanche
@Burnspbesq: I’m guessing whatever Democratic support Christie got came more from the B00ker wing of the party than the Springsteen wing.
El Cid
__
Fuck yes. All of that, and more.
bjacques
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
A little early in the year, but…
This August heat is stifling.
It’s enough to drive a man mad.
(h/t W.F. Harvey)
DPS
Yeah. Fallows I think thought Megs was beneath him, along with most of the others on the masthead. Rightly. TNC is preoccupied with the Civil War, which isn’t uninteresting at all, or without contemporary relevance. I guess the question is whether you should stay with an organization even if you’re not inclined to argue with the idiocy that other people put out under its banner. Looking at newspapers, I’d incline to think it’s OK: I don’t think Krugman should resign for Friedman’s, Brooks’, or Dowd’s sins.
On the other hand, maybe op-eds are different from blogging gigs.
Amir Khalid
There’s this bit on The Atlantic Wire blurbing the Goldberg piece:
It suggests that, rather than seriously urging Bruce Springsteen to make nice to a politician whom he clearly cannot stand, Goldberg was mocking Governor Creosote for being such an over-the-top Springsteen fanboy.
Although one might find it hard to pick that up from the somewhat oblique writing. For instance, Goldberg doesn’t bring up the absurdity of Christie asking Bruce to sing “The gambling man grows fat/The working man grows thin” before an audience of casino patrons.
You could say, with a straight face, that when it comes to fans of Springsteen’s music, there’s none bigger than Chris Christie. But of what Springsteen has to say with that music, Christie hears only what doesn’t bother him as a Republican.
Oh, and hasn’t Megan McArdle gone over to The Daily Beast/Newsweak?
Arundel
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good journalist and blogger. That’s about all.
I find him wildly over-praised, rewarded overmuch by us liberals with effusive love, “Look, an articulate black man who writes well!”. Then he goes on to write essays about some shitty 80’s movie or comic book that drove him to raptures. Maybe I’m too old at 42, but TNC really doesn’t seem to have cultural references before himself, unless it’s something about slavery or the African-American experience (which, fair enough) but in a third-or fourth-hand way. He’s an extremely average writer, a blogger basically. One that bores me more than engages me, on the whole. Why is it extraordinary for a writer to express common sense from a liberal point of view, except that he has a sinecure at The Atlantic? Which means something for some reason. (yes, I know the reason, history, thanks anyway.)
TNC is hugely overrated as a writer. He’s fair, sometimes very good. But way over-praised in an insultingly condescending way by white liberals here. The home of people praising ABL’s shit ramblings as real journalism. The place where I have literally never posted a comment without getting some hugely snotty reply from the same twenty or so people who think it’s their job to police comments at Balloon Juice and deliver the fuck-you. For anything that deviates from the script. As a gay, liberal NY Democrat who’s well-read and educated, I think TNC is a hack, and the same twenty or so commenters here are viciously insular, the in-group rules, and I honestly think they are fucking hicks in their own way, if they think TNC or ABL are in any way good writing, good journalism.
No, they’re average and ordinary as writers, you’re seeing race first for your own goddamned reasons. As writers, they’re incrediby ordinary.
(Cue the snide,snotty comments from people in the hinterlands that populate this place. I’m in the Hamptons myself, and TNC is just a boring average writer. Stop compensating for your region’s terrible legacy by overpraising a hack.)
Amir Khalid
(reposted because of FYWP-banned word)
There’s this bit on The Atlantic Wire blurbing the Goldberg piece:
Read the whole piece at The Atlantic. It’s hilarious.
It suggests that, rather than seriously urging Bruce Springsteen to make nice to a politician whom he clearly cannot stand, Goldberg was mocking Governor Creosote for being such an over-the-top Springsteen fanboy.
Although one might find it hard to pick that up from the somewhat oblique writing. For instance, Goldberg doesn’t bring up the absurdity of Christie asking Bruce to sing “The gambling man grows fat/The working man grows thin” before an audience of cas1no patrons.
You could say, with a straight face, that when it comes to fans of Springsteen’s music, there’s none bigger than Chris Christie. But of what Springsteen has to say with that music, Christie hears only what doesn’t bother him as a Republican.
Oh, and hasn’t Megan McArdle gone over to The Daily Beast/Newsweak?
Bobby Thomson
@Jay:
Better than Goldberg doesn’t necessarily mean good. That’s a pretty low bar.
Can I agree that TyposNeverCorrected is overrated while also thinking that Arundel is an asshole?
rikyrah
I’m a Democrat who will never find that fat fuck appealing.
danielx
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Christie is a roaring, screaming asshole?
Omnes Omnibus
@Arundel: Clever. This way you get to post a comment full of criticisms and snipe remarks, but you have self-inoculated against any disagreement.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Bobby Thomson: “Can I agree that TyposNeverCorrected is overrated while also thinking that Arundel is an asshole?”
Only if you preface “asshole” with “pompous”.
kay
“Did you know Chris Christie once appointed a judge based on something other than religion?”
Apparently this merits high praise.
Also. I’m suspicious of conservative motives regarding drug law reform. Christie is tied into the for-profit probation/detention industry. I’m afraid this is just another taxpayer funded privatized scam. I’d have to see specifics on what they’re proposing, and who benefits.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not really, this is Balloon Juice. I’m sure that Arundel was holding the teacup properly, pinky daintily in the air, while delivering what they consider a devastating blow to the proles here.
Nope, Arundel just blows.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Snide, not snipe. Coffee first, then commenting….
Omnes Omnibus
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I know that it won’t work, I just thought the attempt was clever. The Hamptons bit was especially good.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Omnes Omnibus:
Actually, that was the best part of it. The rest isn’t worth printing out to wipe my ass with.
Maude
Christie fell asleep at a Springsteen concert.
Argive
@Arundel:
Grade-A trollery right here.
TTT
@Hill Dweller:
Jon Stewart can be surprisingly easy to confuse, and when confused he leaps to the wrong idea without hesitation or apology: see his treatment of global warming contrarians on many occasions, plus Climatefakegate itself. He hyped the initial fake story, then ignored all the exonerations and didn’t mention it again for months.
gocart mozart
http://vimeo.com/40249209 Bruce with Tom Morello!
The Boss should dedicate this song to Christie, also Corzine.
Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it ’til you’re done
Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well
Send the robber baron’s straight to hell
The greedy thieves that came around
And ate the flesh of everything they’ve found
Whose crimes have gone unpunished now
Walk the streets as free men now
And they brought death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown
Clean Willie
A few of their writers come out against targeted killings and, like magic, Balloon Juicers nationwide suddenly wake up one morning with the realization that you know what? we really fucking HATE the Atlantic! It’s the damndest thing…
So what publications do you guys not hate?
Maude
@Clean Willie:
We’ll let you know when we find one.
Please leave your name and number and we will get back to you.
Omnes Omnibus
@Clean Willie: Yeah, that’s it.
Clean Willie
@Maude: Here, try this! http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/stopme/preface.html
brantl
@Burnspbesq: As in cart his ass around in a trailer. Dipshit.
g
Rock and roll musician fails to toady to powerful establishment figure. News at 11.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
That’s an exact Goldberg quote. Up can’t make this stuff up. I wonder how big the forklift was.
Waingro
@Arundel:
You’re probably going to get a lot of shit for that comment, but I can’t say I disagree with a word of it.
El Cid
@Arundel: If there is a ‘white liberal’ factor in any appreciation of TNC’s writing, it’s not going to be very easy to separate from a traditional and nearly fetishistic over-appreciation of anyone at the Atlantic themselves.
For myself, I don’t have a particularly strong opinion on TNC’s writing. There are very, very few bloggers whom I read because of the quality of their writing. Mostly it’s based on the subject matter they cover and the quality of arguments and evidence they bring to them.
I mean, that is, with regard to serious stuff.
Writing quality in the humorous / snark vein is very different and found in-a-plenty.
They may not be a serious news & review site, but nobody on the planet gives as much compact, layered sarcasm on politics as Wonkette, and on a nearly minute-by-minute basis.
If Atlantic writers in serious fashion were as good as Wonkette is in the bitter snark fashion, I’d never leave the page.
Legendary Bigfoot
@Hill Dweller: This *100
John Stewart has bought in to the system big time. Wyatt Cenac piece on the recall was pretty offensive, mediocre, and Brodertastic.