I don’t read Ezra Klein’s Wonkbook, and I’m sympathetic to the various criticisms of Ezra, e.g. that the “only thing separating Ezra Klein from David Broder at this point is six feet of dirt”. But hate it or love it, Ezra just tore Bobo a new one (via):
David Brooks: In my ideal world, the Obama administration would do something Clintonesque… a budget policy… like… Robert Rubin… and if the Republicans rejected that, moderates like me would say that’s awful…
Ezra Klein: I’ve read Robert Rubin’s tax plan. He wants $1.8 trillion in new revenues. The White House… is down to $1.2 trillion…. [T]he White House’s offer seems more centrist…. People say the White House should do something centrist like Simpson-Bowles, even though their plan has less in tax hikes and less in defense cuts…
Bobo then babbles about chained CPI — like he knows CPI from the UDA or the IRA — and his newfound Burkean opposition to Simpson-Bowles for a while. As Brad Delong put it:
At this point David Brooks has a choice: he can say “I am an idiot who does not know what I am talking about”; or he can change the subject.
Yeah, he did it in a dickless “my good friend David has a point blah blah blah” way, but it prompted Bobo to correct his dumb ass BOTH SIDES DO IT column on the subject.
Bobo’s wouldn’t do a Q&A with a hard, pipe-hitting interlocutor. Credit to Ezra for getting his shots in.
Mnemosyne
OT but about an ongoing controversy: Andy Ihnatko talked about the Tesla controversy on his podcast and managed to be all “both sides screwed up” without being too annoying about it.
Ted & Hellen
Sad, what passes for a hard hitting interview these days.
And how desperately grateful we are for the smallest of crumbs from the Beltway press.
Ezra is a sellout. Even now he is being hammered for his impudence and will shortly find a way to make nice with Bobo.
So it has been, so it shall ever be.
Hill Dweller
Klein is fine as long as he talks policy. But the minute he gets into political analysis, things go sideways. He also seems to rely too heavily on Republican sources.
Also too, it was Klein’s wife who wrote that ridiculous NYT article about Obama’s alleged woman problem in his cabinet(obviously a wingnut deflection), which he futilely tried defending on twitter.
? Martin
I don’t get the Ezra hate. He’s a wonk. His job isn’t to assess everyone’s motivations, rather just their proposals. Just because he’s unwilling to psychoanalyze the GOP at every turn doesn’t make him a both sides do it guy. There’s plenty of tea readers – too many. Instead we need more people that will simply say ‘this is what they propose, and this will the the result’. From that Tweety can then climb inside everyone’s head and try to rationalize why they’re proposing that in the first place.
schrodinger's cat
I am no Ezra, but my last blog post was about Bobo’s column about Data, with a link to your square root post. Click the blue linkie if you want to read.
Also too, Sully update from last thread
His bad NYC experiences continue. He had some bad experiences while getting his beard trimmed. He waited for 2 hours at one shop, at another one the owner dropped his Ipad and a third one he got a bad trim. I loled, I wonder how many NYC barbers are Balloon Juice regulars.
Ted & Hellen
My Gaydar-10,000 (accuracy-rated by Amazon at 9.99%) says Ezra Klein is gay, gay, gay.
I wonder if wifey is in on the hoax. Beardedness is weirdly still essential to career advancement in D.C. and Hollywood.
ranchandsyrup
Bobo does it to provide cover for the idiot Goopers.
Ezra does it for access.
Doesn’t matter, fuck them both, the results are the same.
eemom
fer fuxsake, that kid ain’t even 30 yet.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
If Ezra would actually confine himself to doing that, what he does would be very, very helpful. Unfortunately, he also tries to do tea-leaf reading and he’s no good at it. Remember, he was one of the ones who was pushing the “insiders tell me that there are going to be Medicare cuts in the debt ceiling deal!” but when the deal was actually made, those cuts were nowhere in sight.
Either he needs better “insiders” who can give him good information, or he needs to quit prognosticating and stick with what he’s good at, which is analyzing proposed legislation and breaking it down into understandable terms.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
What did the five fingers say to the face?
? Martin
@Mnemosyne:
Actually, he needs to be hired by an organization that will allow him to do just the wonk stuff. But his current employer won’t permit that. Even NYT has pushed Nate Silver in the same direction. There’s a limited market for straight-up policy. Everyone wants the soap opera.
Yutsano
@eemom: SOunds like Pumpkinhead syndrome to me. But hey the young gota take over for the oldsters at some point.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Perhaps if he doesn’t hear what he wants to hear, he just makes shit up. Kind of like you do here.
Ted & Hellen
@eemom:
fer fuxsake, that kid ain’t even 30 yet.
And how and by whom is it decided which certain very young blowhards will be allowed inside the magic circle, and which ones will not?
jl
@Mnemosyne: I agree. Klein is usually good with his analysis, but not very helpful when he tries to do horse race and tea leaves.
But, sometimes Klein makes big blunders in specific areas, and long run budget analysis and healthcare are two where I have seen harmful misinformation. On health care, he said simple capitation of health insurance premiums could reduce costs and not harm people, when the author of the research specifically said the opposite.
There is a structural problem involved. Being an all purpose wonk leads to people being a mile wide and an inch deep in their analysis. Even if Klein tried to be just a general purpose policy analyst, he would be spread very thin. then he tries to add political analysis (or gets pressure to ad that to please the suits, or something).
But Brooks looks pretty bad in the first part of that interview. Trying to dismiss one his columns as a joke, a la Rush, and then mischaracterizing WH proposals in direct contradiction to the more complete description Klein just gave.
Klein manages to drag some half hearted weak tea substance out of Brooks towards the end.
eemom
@Yutsano:
As I have previously noted, I was horrified to discover not too long ago that that fuckwit Brooks, who I had somehow assumed was old enough to be my father, is actually only a year older than I am — and that only marginally less fuckwitted Milbank is several years younger.
So that I can generally expect them to still be around as long as I myself remain north of six feet under. Suck-o.
hells littlest angel
Me, too. I don’t get the Ezra Klein hate. I mean, “dickless”? Really? Grow the fuck up.
jl
The problem is that the press lets the ‘right’ sort of people say pretty much anything no matter how absurd.
If you look at Krugman today, Switzerland is being held up as having the perfect ‘free market’ health care system that we should emulate.
OK, fine, then let’s have organized state level public options, a uniform basic mandatory comprehensive health policy offered by everyone, a separate supplemental health insurance market, strict insurance and provider price regulation with complete federal government audits whenever there is a dispute over the rates, and a federal comparative effectiveness review board to decide what treatments will be covered by the uniform mandatory policy.
I would go with that kind of free market health care for the U.S.
Zifnab
@Ted & Hellen:
All the older blowhards take a vote, and part the velvet rope for the Chosen One, of course.
That’s why this whole “Erza Klein is just like Bush, he sold us out!” nonsense is so eye-ball rolling. That he got admitted to the Serious People club at all should highlight how not-radical he is. If you want straight-to-the-brain table-thumping liberalism, ready Digby or FDR (or Balloon Juice – we brew fresh daily). If you want a cup of Nice Polite Moderates tugging each other off while sipping tea and talking politics, go read the WaPo editorial page.
Jamie
Look. We need bomb-throwers and rabble-rousers. We need people saying that Republicans are rat-fucking sacks of shit, because they are.
But we also need people with big platforms calmly and politely telling the nation why Republican policies will destroy us all. That is what Ezra does. He’s pretty good at it. Expecting or wanting him to write like Digby or DougJ is just bizarre.
Tractarian
Bobo:
The memes, they write themselves.
Tractarian
Oh, and by the way, she may be a Village tool, but wifey is hot.
hells littlest angel
@Jamie:
I’d say it’s more like Bizarro-Republican. Ezra Klein fails the purity test! Stone him!
Ted & Hellen
@Tractarian:
So Bobo is a…vampire? His midnight blood lust caused him to write this column?
Emma
@Hill Dweller: I wish you had left out the second paragraph. Ezra’s wife’s failings or strengths are her own and don’t tell us anything about him.
Ted & Hellen
@Tractarian:
Beard.
Emma
@Ted & Hellen: Ask me if I care. None of my business…. or yours.
burnspbesq
So, Doug says:
If (A) is true, then there is no rational basis for (B), which is revealed to be nothing but reflexive, uninformed herd-following.
When you do shit like this, I get angry, because I know you know better.
Mike E
Calling MikeJ… any luck getting tampermonkey to work for android chrome? Ahem [points northward] Thanks
Ted & Hellen
@Emma:
REALLY? SERIOUSLY? You don’t think who we choose to partner with for life says anything about us?
For realz?
This kind of twisted beltway thinking is what lets James Carville get away with being married to the war criminal and all round gaping asshole Mary Matalin and still maintain cred. Because his alliance with her doesn’t tell us ANYTHING about him.
Yeah, right…
Ted & Hellen
@Emma:
Well, righteous Emma, you may think a person’s choice to live in the closet and marry someone for cover, especially when they are an influential public figure, is none of YOUR business, but it’s some of mine.
So you mind yours, and I’ll mind mine.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Ted & Hellen: That you think we should give even the slightest hint of a fuck whether or not Klein is gay says a lot about you.
BGinCHI
Noyer le poisson in the Brooks.
burnspbesq
@hells littlest angel:
He also weighs the same as a duck, so he’s obviously a witch. Stone him, then burn him.
burnspbesq
@Ted & Hellen:
Reckless indifference to the truth or falsity of a statement is what a public-figure plaintiff has to prove in order to win a libel or slander suit (I assume for purposes of this comment that Ezra is a public figure).
Have you made any effort to determine whether Ezra is in fact what you claim he is?
Of course you haven’t.
Better move to Florida, or Ezra will end up owning your house, dickhead.
Emma
@Ted & Hellen: No, it’s not. Ezra, IIRC, has never spoken against gay marriage or on behalf of anti-gay laws. IF you were to tell me that he’s doing that, I can see nailing him for his hypocrisy. But otherwise, who he sleeps with and why it’s none of anyone’s business.
You want to take someone on, there’s a senator you should go after. Or two.
Ted & Hellen
@burnspbesq:
Quite an assumption.
Ted & Hellen
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
Hey Douche, read carefully: It is not about whether or not he is gay, it is about whether or not he’s ashamed of it and hiding it.
Furthermore, I don’t give a flying bloody fuck what YOU think, nor did I say I did, so you know, fuck off.
Emma
@Ted & Hellen: So you’re setting yourself up as the Grand Inquisitor of the Gay Folk? Boy are you going to be popular at parties!
Ted & Hellen
@burnspbesq:
I have the clear evidence of my 99.9% accurate Gaydar. It’s all I need. What I actually said is that my gaydar tells me he’s gay. You need to work on your reading skills.
Wow, besides not knowing much about libel law, can you tell me more about why YOU seem to think being gay is such a horrible thing? Hmmm…what are YOU hiding from your wife?
Fuck face.
MattR
@Ted & Hellen:
No. No, it isn’t. I understand why you would want someone like that to come out of the closet and make a statement that there is nothing wrong with being gay. But that is not your decision to make. How anyone chooses to express their sexuality is their business alone. The only exception I would consider is a politician hiding their sexuality while railing against that lifestyle. But even there the issue is really with the hypocrisy of their political beliefs and not with how they chose to express their sexuality.
@burnspbesq: Unfortunately, that is not a very helpful comment since it reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with being gay and that incorrectly calling a person gay is legitimately injurious. I came across this PSA recently and think it hits the nail on the head.
Ted & Hellen
@Emma:
Hmmm…no. I reported my Gardar findings. I report you decide.
Why so upset at the thought of being gay? All kinds of wild accusations and assumptions about ideological enemies of all stripes are made regularly by frontpagers and commenters alike here. Yet for some reason, I can’t imagine what it would be, the assertion that someone might be gay and hiding it is the one that gets you and the other one all agog.
Interesting.
Ted & Hellen
@Emma:
The closet is an abomination, to the men and women who live there, and to everyone around them for whom they set an example of shame and dishonesty.
“Going after…”? Hardly. I made an observation on a medium popularity blog in one comment thread. Calm down. Again, why so exercised about this one thing, amid all the reckless assertions made daily at BJ?
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
… says the guy who married a poor dupe of a woman, had kids with her, and then dumped her when he finally had the guts to come out.
But, hey, like Newt Gingrich, I guess screwing up your life gives you the right to tell other people how to live theirs.
Ted & Hellen
@MattR:
Of course his decision is his decision. I certainly never asserted otherwise.
My decision to have an opinion about his decision, like the other thousands of opinions expressed here weekly, is mine. I have that opinion. I expressed it.
For your own reasons, you think it’s an opinion which dare not speak its name. I disagree.
Carry on.
hells littlest angel
Poor Ted & Hellen. Everyone is piling on. I’m sure he’ll get a much more sympathetic audience when he delivers his speech, “Ezra Klein Is A Big Faggot,” at the upcoming CPAC Conference.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Exactly, and I’ve been very open about this here, which is how you know. So I know what I’m talking about.
Because no one should EVER learn anything from their mistakes and share that knowledge with anyone else, you dumb labial cyst.
My life is anything but screwed up, you twit. I corrected my mistake BY COMING OUT and honoring the reality of the situation and my ex wife, and my children, allowing her to go on with her life. Ezra Klein should do the same. Not sure why you would think otherwise, you piece of shit.
I’m looking forward to how you will rephrase and reinterpret my comment into something unrecognizable and then argue against it.
Steeplejack
@jl:
And the Swiss system is still more expensive than anywhere else in Europe.
If we’re going to do real reform, let’s aim a little higher than that.
NonyNony
@? Martin:
These two sentences explain everything that is wrong with our Failed Media Experiment (up to and including the consumers of said media).
It’s all about the narrative. If you don’t have narrative, you don’t sell eyeballs. Selling eyeballs to advertisers is the name of the game, and you don’t sell eyeballs by doing policy analysis!
(As an aside – I’m in awe of how quickly and thoroughly T&H has trolled people on this particular thread who really should know better than to rise to his bait. I’m going to have to raise his rank on the troll scorecard.)
Ted & Hellen
@hells littlest angel:
Wow, you should seriously check your bigotry, and then fuck yourself with an anthrax infected chain saw, dip shit.
MattR
@Ted & Hellen:
Whether you have an opinion or not, does not make it your business as you initially asserted.
You really can’t figure out why folks might disaprove of your opinion that all gay people need to act in the way that you prescribe?
Ted & Hellen
@MattR:
Generally speaking, I’m pretty secure in recommending that people not marry other people of another sexual preference. Yeah, I’m really OK with that as a recommendation.
Again, so revealing that the assertion that someone is gay is the one that is considered over the top here. You guys are bigots. You think being gay is a net negative. You think it’s an insult, a bad thing. And you think saying that someone is that bad thing is a horrible act.
Um…fuck you.
hells littlest angel
Bio: When not trolling Balloon Juice, Ted & Hellen divides his time between fapping to pictures of Ezra Klein and throwing darts at a photo of Ezra Klein’s wife.
Ted & Hellen
@hells littlest angel:
The fantasies, such as this one, entertained by a wide swath of BJ Kool Kids, is disturbing and revealing at once.
Larv
Must we feed the troll?
Okay, so that was a rhetorical question. This is Balloon Juice, after all. But can we at least put him on a diet?
MattR
@Ted & Hellen:
No. I think it’s a bad thing and insulting for any one person to tell another person the proper way for them to deal with their sexuality, regardless of the sexuality of either person.
I explicitly commented to burnspesq “Unfortunately, that is not a very helpful comment since it reinforces the idea that there is something wrong with being gay and that incorrectly calling a person gay is legitimately injurious.” and included a link to a PSA about the harm of using “that’s so gay” as an insult.
waynski
Wow what a river shit I had to swim through in this thread to point out that Doug J skillfully inserted a Sex Pistols lyric in his post. OTOH, given the way the conversation has degenerated, an Anarchy in the UK reference seems appropriate.
handsmile
@Jamie:
“Expecting or wanting him to write like Digby or DougJ is just bizarre.”
I don’t know which party would be more troubled by that linkage.
Like several previous commenters here, I too am baffled by the antipathy for Ezra Klein. (By the way, that sentiment is shared, though from a decidedly more leftist perspective, by the good folks at Jacobin magazine.) Several weeks ago, Mnemosyne and I had a largely respectful disagreement on the subject of Klein’s utility.
I am sympathetic to jl’s remark (#15) that “[b]eing an all purpose wonk leads to people being a mile wide and an inch deep in their analysis.” Serving in that capacity as an online columnist for Kaplan TPD, Klein is certainly constrained from more extensive or more ideological analyses. As for his “tea-leaf reading,” Klein like any other reporter is dependent on his sources; I regret that he indulges the far too common practice of current DC journalists to cloak his sources with anonymity. But does anyone mistake his writings there to be those of an oracle or a sage?
His regular essays for the New York Review of Books are a better demonstration of his not inconsiderable talents. Moreover, that Rachel Maddow often invites him to be guest host of her program (and she extends that invitation) is an endorsement I’m content with.
Is there another columnist for a general-interest newspaper or magazine whose overall reporting and analyses commenters find more reliable for an introduction to Beltway-centric political theatrics cum policy discussions? I’d be happy to read nominations.
JustRuss
@Tractarian: So in the cool light of day is the new get out of jail free card? Let’s see:
“In the cool light of day, I can see that bundling all those crappy mortgages and passing them off as grade-A investments may not have been entirely prudent. Can I have my seven-figure bonus now?”
Yeah, that works.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I really don’t get the Klein hate here. He just used his high profile position at the Washington Post to prove that the NYT’s most prominent republican pundit doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The more people who realize even the sharpest, most moderate republican in the drawer is a full of shit dull butterknife, the better.
xian
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: trollsby be trollin’. remember this is the same pedo-defender who leaps at any chance to accuse the bj commentariat of being squicked by sexuality, and suddenly is now queerbaiting someone he wants to take down politically. if it were possible to have negative self-awareness, special timmeh would be all over that, too.
PeakVT
@JustRuss: What is “the cool light of day” anyway? Are we to believe Bobo wrote his column in “the hot light of night” and that is to blame for what otherwise might be described as old-fashioned lying?
waynski
@handsmile: This. And thanks for actually talking about Ezra’s policy analysis, which I believe was part of the point of the post. The other was David Brooks is an asshole, or gay, or something. Don’t feed the troll.
waynski
@handsmile: This. And thanks for actually talking about Ezra’s policy analysis, which I believe was part of the point of the post. The other was David Brooks is an asshole, or gay, or something. Don’t feed the troll.
BGinCHI
@handsmile: Agree with this completely.
You can wish for the Ezra Klein you don’t have or you can take what’s useful from the one you’ve got.
To put it differently: if Ezra Klein was our problem we’d have very small problems.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Ted & Hellen: Whatever, bigot.
SteveM
Yeah, but the mea culpa he attached to that column is the most begrudging apology since the last time a state GOP official forwarded an email Photoshop of Obama with a bone in his nose. Christ, Limbaugh’s phony Day 5 Sandra Fluke apology seemed more heartfelt.
Ted & Hellen
@xian:
Seriously, where do you get this shit? I’ll tell you: out of your bigoted head.
I have no desire to “take down politically” Ezra Klein. I just want him to live an honest life for himself and as an example, espcially since he is a public figure.
YOU are the one who for some reason believes that coming out of the closet/being gay would “take him down politically.”
In my view, doing so would garner accolades and an increase in credibiity.
You were talking about negative self-awareness….look in the mirror.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Yep, nothing hypocritical here. I’m just trying to share my knowledge!
The fact that you have a hard-on for Ezra doesn’t mean that he’s gay. Get over yourself.
BGinCHI
@SteveM: Genius doesn’t apologize, Steve.
Alternatively:
If you imagine David Brooks as Donny from The Big Lebowski it makes everything better.
xian
@Mnemosyne: it also thinks I’m talking *to* it when I’m talking *about* it, as if I would care to respond to a worthless piece of shit directly.
let’s not even get into the piece of shit’s off-hand misogyny.
at least on Cole’s threads it sucks up to Daddy and drops its attention-addiction bullshit a notch.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
T&H has such an expert, infallible gaydar that he didn’t notice that he himself was gay until after getting married and having kids. With a track record of success like that, obviously we should trust this gaydar to be accurate about people he’s never actually met.
What do you call the gay version of Uncle Ruckus?
Juju
Just ignore Ted & Helen. He’s an ass. When you see his name, just scroll by. Life will be much nicer.
Emma
@Ted & Hellen: I shouldn’t feed the troll… I shouldn’t feed the troll… but I will say one last thing.
When some arse like yourself spouts off and then finds himself at the receiving end of negative comments, his most common tell is to fall back to the “why are you angry” or “I was only making an observation”, or even, God help us, “I am only doing it for his own good.” All three statements should be cause of keelhauling for a first offense, and rolling down a hill inside a barrel filled with nails for the second. It’s the weasel’s way out.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Fuck you, you lying, dishonest, neurotic sack of shit.
xian
@Juju: http://www.illdoctrine.com/2011/05/a_brief_note_about_not_feeding.html
kay
@handsmile:
I read him and I think he’s fine. I learn a lot.
I don’t think he’s great on tv, though. I listened, not watched, but there’s something halting and awkward about his speech. The pauses are in the wrong places. I wondered if he took some training in that where it backfired a bit. There’s something forced about it. He should just use his natural delivery.
Ted & Hellen
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
Hmmm…I wonder if growing up in deeply conservative, homophobic to this day, southern Kansas in a profoundly religious early 1960s environment might cause a young gay person to go off the rails into self hatred, denial, and dishonesty? And furthermore, I wonder if gathering the courage to BE honest and correct the resulting mistakes might not be, oh I don’t know, an HONORABLE thing worthy of admiration?
And I wonder if someone might not learn a few things from that experience going forward?
Just a thought.
Ted & Hellen
@Juju:
They cant’. Moths to a flame.
Plus, they know I’m right and they hate me for it.
Ted & Hellen
@Emma:
You stupid twit.
I asked a very specific question about the anger addressed to this ONE issue as opposed to all the others, which you ignore. YOu haven’t answered.
I AM just making an observation, like thousands of other observations made here every week. You are the one who is distraught about this one in particular and can’t find the will to explain why.
Finally, since I am not talking to Ezra Klein, I’m not doing anything for his good, you dumbass. But if he DID come out, he would be much happier.
Why that makes you crazy is obvious: YOu have massive issues around the topic of homosexuality, believing it to be a negative thing. And you’re in denial about that.
Mnemosyne
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire:
Exactly. Wishful thinking =/= reality. I know a whole lot of gay guys whose “gaydar” for celebrities consists of, “If I want to sleep with him, he must be gay!” and nothing will ever dissuade them. I still see people who insist that Hugh Jackman must be closeted and his wife must be a beard, because he can sing and dance and he’s hot, so any evidence that Jackman’s not gay is all a sham.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Jackman’s def gay. You’re an idiot.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Also too: You’re lying again. You don’t know a whole lot of gay guys.
xian
@Mnemosyne: totally. I met Ezra briefly when we were blogging the 2004 convention. Set off my jewdar, for sure, but not my gaydar.
Now Ted Cruz, he pins my gaydar.
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI:
This made my day. Thanks.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
And your proof that he’s gay is that you want him to be gay, because he’s hot. Therefore, he must be gay.
Here’s a hint so you don’t accidentally embarrass yourself like a friend of mine did: a lot of the cues that American gay men read as “gay” don’t mean the same thing in other countries, so that cute Englishman or Australian who reads totally gay to you is actually giving out clear “straight” signals in his own country.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
I live in Los Angeles and I work in the entertainment industry. But both of those places are notoriously full of completely straight people and there’s no way I could possibly work with or be friends with any gay people since they’re scarce on the ground in entertainment, amirite?
handsmile
@kay:
“I learn a lot.”
Given Klein’s subject matter, that’s a pretty definitive appraisal in my book. (based upon how much I learn from your posts on this blog)
xian
@Mnemosyne: why bother responding to such self-apparent idiocy and projection? this troll’s ideas of proof is emphatic assertion.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Moron.
Tons of men are hot. Most of them are straight. I don’t “want” anyone to be gay, you third grader.
As with everything else, you think you know it all, straight woman.
Try using the approach you use with ABL as a Black Woman: Because I am a gay man and you are not, my opinion has much more validity on this topic than yours.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Prove it.
Juju
@Ted & Hellen: Are you sure that it’s not just that you think you are right and you think they hate you for it, when in fact they just think you are an annoying flame thrower?
Ted & Hellen
@xian:
How HIGHLARIOUS that you would write that, without apparent irony, to the queen of emphatic assertion as proof! ha
Ted & Hellen
@Juju:
No…if they thought that, surely they wouldn’t be so retarded as to spend all this time responding to me…?
handsmile
@ranchandsyrup:
Yes indeed! BGinChi gets to take the Intertubes home for the weekend.
That’s one mnemonic that’s gonna come in very handy in the future.
Juju
@xian: Ted Cruz sets off my gaydar as well, but that’s not saying much. He kind of makes me think if Michelle Bachman’s husband if he was petty and mean.
BGinCHI
@ranchandsyrup: He’s out of his element.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Prove what, that I live in Los Angeles? That I work with gay people? What do you want me to do, post people’s names and e-mail addresses so you can check with them and make sure I know them?
Maybe you need to prove your infalliable gaydar. You must know men who have had sex with Hugh Jackman since you know for a fact that he’s gay, right? Why not post their names and e-mail addresses so we can check your references?
Doug Galt
@Jamie:
Yeah, I agree.
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI: I just had someone come and ask if I’m ok because I’m laughing so hard.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Just prove who you are. Everyone here knows who I am.
Post your web site or something. Let’s see it.
Also, I love the inherent bigotry in your idea that gaydar is frustrated wish fulfillment.
Hell, I think straight people have gaydar. We have all kinds of sensory abilities we’re encouraged to ignore. It’s instinct, and I believe in it.
I have asshole-dar too. It goes off every time you comment.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Just prove who you are. Everyone here knows who I am.
Post your web site or something. Let’s see it.
Also, I love the inherent bigotry in your idea that gaydar is frustrated wish fulfillment.
Hell, I think straight people have gaydar. We have all kinds of sensory abilities we’re encouraged to ignore. It’s instinct, and I believe in it.
I have asshole-dar too. It goes off every time you [email protected]Juju:
BGinCHI
@ranchandsyrup: We all need to laugh more. As attested by the rest of this thread.
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI: Amen. Thanks again and hope the family is well.
xian
and so we the projection at work (and of course simple assertion: no actual pointers or anything else to back up trollsby’s assertion)
BGinCHI
@ranchandsyrup: Indeed they are and thanks for asking. Ready for the winter to wind down soon though….
BGinCHI
@ranchandsyrup: Hey, liked your post on the misuse of those words, especially irony and literally.
Jesus, I’m so tired of all that. Not to mention the use of “if” instead of “whether.”
It’s not pedantry to point out inveterate stupidity.
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI: Right when you think you can’t take any more it will get nice. And then you’ll get that one freako spring storm that drags you back into winter.
ETA: Thanks for reading! My wife and I have been neglecting the blawg, sadly.
BGinCHI
@ranchandsyrup: We tried that with the kid but he just yelled louder.
Juju
@Ted & Hellen: You need to learn how to read. I never called you an asshole. I called you an ass. There is a difference.
I don’t keep track, but if I have made more than 30 comments here in the four or so years I have read this blog, I would very much be surprised. Your so-called asshole-dar must be overwhelmed by your own personal qualities.
Don’t waste your time replying to this. My time is too valuable to waste on this, and I hope yours is as well. It’s Friday, go and do something nice. Life is too short to be petty.
ranchandsyrup
@BGinCHI: Heh. Sometimes when our daughter wakes up in the middle of the night I tell my wife just to turn the monitor down. Then she slugs me. Good times.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Only because you’ve been grifting your paintings here. IIRC, you tried to get Amir banned when he followed the link to your website and posted your real name before John bought his painting from you.
So, no, thanks. I really don’t want to be getting creepy midnight phone calls from you or have my boss get calls from you demanding that she fire me because I posted my real name.
Not everyone’s gaydar is frustrated wish fulfillment, Timmy. Just yours.
Ted & Hellen
@Juju:
Apologies. The asshole-dar comment was for the sole benefit of Menmospleen.
I have no idea how your nym got attached to that, but it was inadvertent, and I beg your pardon.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Once again, you are lying. The Amir incident was AFTER Cole COMMISSIONED a painting from me for big bucks, not before as you would like to pretend to believe.
Cole has a policy against posting other commenters’ real names, even if you know what it is, which is what Amir was guilty of and Cole lowered the hammer.
I never have and never would do such a thing. I just want to know who you really are, to level the field. But you’re a coward in that regard.
Funny…you never mention ABL’s grifting, or Tom Levenson’s grifting, or that of any other…just mine. Wonder why?
eemom
@Ted & Hellen:
been following this latest episode of the Mr. Popularity show with interest.
I think you have a point that closeted gay people hurt all gay people; and I also, of course, respect your history. (Hell, I might even mention to the sneering kewl crowd of “pedo” bleaters what a beloved Dad and generally respected person you are IRL if I thought you really gave a shit about your bizzaro image here… ; ) )
However, I have these questions: (1) really, how CAN you be so sure your gaydar is accurate? and (2) wouldn’t it be odd for someone of Klein’s age, who is NOT from an oppressive homophobic background like yours — in fact, presumably just the opposite — to be self-hating and closeted if he was in fact gay?
hells littlest angel
Wow. I apologize for troll-feeding. I didn’t know what I was getting into.
To get back to the point of the thread, I just want to say that I really like Ezra Klein — in a totally platonic, keep-my-eyes-above-the-waist way.
Ted & Hellen
@eemom:
You are the sweetest thing! I appreciate you risking your BJ cred to hang out with a known and ravenous pedo. :D
Of course I don’t KNOW that Klein is gay, in that I have not had sex with him myself (thought I totally WOULD!)yet. BUT my own personal gaydar apparatus has proven very accurate in the past as applied to people IRL and public figures alike, so I just kind of go with it. So I “believe” that he is gay, but really, it seems redundant to always put “I believe” in front of an assertion, so I tend to do away with that superfluous phrase.
In response to the second question, it surprises me how many young men STILL remain in the closet and even enter into straight marriages these days, although as a percentage I believe that percentage is way lower than it used to be. There are LOTS of reasons he may be closeted, and who knows?, his wife may even be aware of that; I don’t claim to know the reasons.
To summarize, as I originally made clear: I simply believe, according to my gaydar, that Ezra Klein is gay. It is other commenters here, as always, who make that into an accusation equal to calling someone a Nazi Pedophile Murderer and play the outrage game, which I believe is based on their own homophobia, plus their hatred of me as a commenter. If I say the sky is blue, they would denounce me for it.
P.S. I frequent a couple of online gay dating sites. The number of men there in straight marriages who are trolling for sex is off the charts. I am WAY glad the Internet was way young when I was married; it would not have ended well.
Ted & Hellen
@hells littlest angel:
LIAR!
eemom
@Ted & Hellen:
You can’t blame Mnem for not mentioning something that, to a pixel, everyone here is either too deluded or too scared shitless to mention.
eemom
@Ted & Hellen:
heh. “Cred” on this blog is a fleeting thing, especially mine. A certain late night queen of passive-aggressive copyright infringement actually banned my ass a few weeks ago, just for — well, calling her out as a queen of passive-aggressive copyright infringement.
Appreciate your response. I am saddened to hear that about the persistence of many young men in self-denial…..though I guess, on reflection, it may not be surprising. As you say, there are likely lots of reasons.
Ted & Hellen
@eemom:
I don’t get what part of Cole’s “don’t ban people” policy these tender skinned folks don’t get.
You’re in VA, right? My daughter is pursuing her Master’s in Creative Writing at VCU. She loves it there. :)
eemom
@Ted & Hellen:
Glad to hear that. Richmond is a nice town; my SIL lives there. (The eedad family is originally from the Norfolk area.) We live in the godforsaken NoVA suburbs, ourselves.
MattR
@Ted & Hellen:
It might be the part where there are no negative consequences for banning someone while the positive side is that they don’t have to deal with the banned person for a few hours. Why wouldn’t they take advantage of it?
Peter
I thought it was the UK.
jamick6000
(from interview transcript, bold mine)
I like to shit on Bobo as much as anyone because he sucks, but I think people are missing the bigger takeaway here. Klein is basically showing Bobo that substantively, the President is actually proposing things that are fairly similar to what Bobo wants. My problem here is that the things Bobo wants are horrible, so I am sad that the President is proposing these things.
jamick6000
@Jamie:
Whoa, I totally disagree. Ezra Klein is a VSP who can make charts in Excel. I just went to Wonkblog. A top story is :
And another:
So a bullshit story about the debt and a horse-racey poll. How is this different from the rest of the washington post?
Redshirt
Another great thread of T&H! But hey! Can’t ban an obvious troll! Wouldn’t be prudent.
FlipYrWhig
@Ted & Hellen: @eemom: I have a friend who teaches at VCU. I myself am somewhere between Richmond and Nawfick.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
So it’s fine for Cole to post your real name so you can grift your paintings to other suckers, but it’s bad bad bad for someone else to take that same information and put it into a comment?
And now you demand that I reveal my real name because you permitted Cole to post yours?
I always think I must have reached the top level of your hypocrisy, but there isn’t a top level, is there? You just go on and on.
You can’t always get what you want in life. FWIW, everything I post about myself on here is true: I’m a married, middle-aged secretary with three cats who works for a Giant Evil entertainment company. I’m really not any more interesting than that, and having my real name wouldn’t give you any additional information, except that it would allow you to start harassing me IRL and not just here. So, sorry, no go. You’re going to have to make those midnight phone calls to someone else.
You constantly complain about other people grifting while pimping your artwork. Again, there’s no limit when it comes to accusing others of doing the exact same things you do, is there?
That’s why I doubt the accuracy of your “gaydar.” You project so many of your failings onto everyone else that I find it more than likely that you project your desired outcome of “gay” onto everyone you want to be gay.
handsmile
@jamick6000:
I don’t want to be carrying too much water here for Ezra Klein (my opinion on him and his reception on this blog is above #58), but of the 20 stories now posted at Kaplan TPD’s “Wonkblog,” 2 are written by Klein himself: “Should Democrats stop worrying and learn to love the sequester?” and the conversation with Bobo that started off this thread.
The “Is there a tipping point…” article you cited is by Neil Irwin, a Kaplan reporter and economics editor of Wonkblog.
The “Wonkbook: 49-31…” is the headline of the morning compendium of links to news and opinion articles at Kaplan and other publications, assembled by Klein and Wonkblog co-editor Evan Solitas.
“How is this different from the rest of the washington post?” Probably not very much. But evaluated individually, Klein is one of the very few current employees (Greg Sargent, Harold Meyerson, E.J. Dionne and the essential Dana Priest being the others) worthy of readers’ attention and the once proud reputation of that newspaper.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
I’ll just reply to the dumbest parts of your rant (there are so many to choose from):
Cole posted my full name and contact info without asking my permission to do so.
It is his rule that no one here refers to another commenter by their name IRL, period. It’s a good rule.
I complain about OTHER, special status, grifters here because people like you pretend I am the only one. And as you know, I grift far, far less than ABL or Levenson. But you let their grifting go because you agree with their politics and prejudices.
And of course, I am the only grifter who admits to their grifting, Cole included. So that’s in my favor.
Just because you say you are one thing IRL doesn’t mean you are telling the truth, especially as you are so prone to twisting reality to suit your psychoses here. (As many of the few, other sane commenters have noted, you are an inveterate liar. If you really do work in Hollywood, you are well suited to your industry.)
Mnemosyne
@eemom:
Actually, there’s a relatively easy way for Timmy to redeem himself here. He can name three (3) celebrities who pinged his gaydar before they officially came out.
But there are two rules:
(1) They have to be people who have actually come out publicly, not just people who are rumored to be gay. Anyone can start a rumor and, as I said, I suspect some wish fulfillment with some of the rumors.
(2) They have to be people who were surprises. Elton John, Jodie Foster, and Neil Patrick Harris don’t count. Even my mom knew Jodie Foster was gay a decade before Foster made the official announcement.
eemom
@handsmile:
I would also include Eugene Robinson.
I am very glad you mentioned Meyerson — one of the few remaining liberals of the elder generation left anywhere in the emmessemm, and he gets zero attention here, and very little elsewhere.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
That’s right, they have a special status — they have the keys to the front page and Cole allows them to post there. Let us know when you get the same privilege and I’ll stop calling you a grifter.
No, I let their grifting go because they’re front-pagers on the blog and you’re not. Cole has given them explicit permission to promote themselves and their work. If you want the same privilege, then get Cole to make you a front-pager. Until then, STFU.
Yes, and 9/11 was an inside job and the killing of Bin Laden was all faked. Oh, sorry, we were talking about my supposed psychoses, not yours.
jamick6000
@handsmile: I see what you’re saying about evaluating him on his own writing, not what other people on the blog write. I kind of agree with you, but he is the editor of the blog, correct? So a bit of the blame for some of the things on there goes to him.
I guess I come in from a different place. All I see are people quoting or linking to him in very complimentary ways. And he’s become pretty famous, is on TV a lot, etc. I guess I don’t get what the big deal is. There are a lot of people who do a much nicer job.
eemom
@Mnemosyne:
um, I would say that Cole’s having explicitly front paged the fact that he bought the gentleman’s art work himself amounts to some kind of “permission” for further promotion, whether or not on the front page — even assuming the idea that such permission was necessary ever entered into Cole’s head at all, which I find a little challenging to believe.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
How’d she know? Gaydar?
So by your reckoning, your mother wants to have sex with Jodie Foster, which is fine, but you might check on that with her.
Mnemosyne
@eemom:
Timmy’s the one who’s decided that front-pagers promoting their websites and podcasts are “grifting,” so you’ll have to get him to explain why it is they’re “grifting” and he’s promoting his work with Cole’s permission. If you can understand the difference he’s drawing between when the front-pagers promote their work and when he promotes his work, please explain it, because I don’t get it.
@Ted & Hellen:
Who needed gaydar to figure out Jodie Foster was gay? That’s like saying you needed gaydar to figure out that Liberace was gay.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Jesus, you’re a nutjob.
Cole HAS given me permission to flog my artwork here, you stupid cretinous ass hair. Why do you think I do it? He commissioned a painting from me FOR HUGE BUCKS, and did a huge long front page post on my work when he received it. He loves my work. How far up your ass is your head?
Plus, of course you are lying again: If I agreed with your Bot politics, you would LOVE my artwork and my grifting. But I don’t so you don’t. Surely you know this about yourself and are just lying. Or, maybe you really are that stupid.
As for the possibility that you are misrepresenting yourself here, is it your position that that just does not happen on the Internet?
It’s kind of fun just going back and fort with you. Every time you try to refute something, you just expose more of your biases and self-delusion and lying.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
You MORON.
There IS no difference. That’s my point.
You are the one who maintains there is a difference. And this is EXACTLY the sort of ass backward reasoning you employ here all the time.
You shouldn’t be here. You should be in a controlled environment because you don’t even know what comes out of your own mouth.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
The densitude, it burns.
If your mother did not perform cunnilingus on Foster herself, and experience her cries of ecstacy with her own thigh-muffled ears, how did she know Jody was gay other than thru gaydar?
Or was it from reading Enquirer headlines like her daughter does?
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
That’s right, just as he has given ABL and Tom permission to flog their websites and podcasts. And yet when they do it, you accuse them of “grifting.”
So explain it to me in small words: why is it “grifting” when ABL and Tom promote their work with Cole’s permission, but it’s totally not “grifting” when you do the same thing?
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
ACTUALLY, your good friend and philosophical soul mate ABL is the go-to genius on this one. Remember when she used to regularly denounce Jane Hamsher for GRIFTING?
Yeah, she doesn’t do that anymore now that she’s got her own con to work, does she?
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Wow, really? You had no idea Liberace was gay until he came out? Or Elton John? You had to use your special gaydar to figure it out?
That is some weak-ass gaydar you have there if Liberace couldn’t get past it.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Ah, yes. I should have known this was some deeply-buried firebagger resentment because people talked about Hamsher making money from her PAC instead of bowing to kiss the train of her garment as she passed.
So what meannastyrotten thing did Tom say about Saint Jane that made you add him to your grifting list?
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
Again: You poor stupid, ignorant child.
I have said outright in this thread several times that I am an artwork “grifter.” I don’t deny it at all. But you just wrote that I do.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?
YOU deny that the front pagers are grifters, though they are doing the same thing I do, THEN you say I am the one making the distinction.
Because, apparently, you are insane or retarded.
Wow.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
You are bat shit crazy. Fuck off. Pie me, for the love of god.
RaflW
Love this (long and good) takedown of BoBo. From 2004!
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/booboos-in-paradise
RaflW
Oh, sorry, didn’t realize I’d wandered into a long, OT drama.
I thought this thread hadn’t died. Toodles.
Amir Khalid
Boy, am I glad I stayed out of this thread.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Ah, I didn’t realize you meant it in an affectionate, joking way when you applied it to ABL and Tom. Right? Because otherwise it would make no sense for you to attack people for being “grifters” while calling yourself a “grifter” for doing the same thing.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Amir Khalid: no kidding, what a train wreck.
Denali
The light has dawned, as to Ted and Helen’s true identity! Who, after all, has had his paintings revealed on the Internets recently. Welcome, Schrub! But, what did Laura say when you finally came out?
Ted & Hellen
@Denali:
She was not at all surprised. Her gaydar went off years ago.
Mnemosyne
@RaflW:
@Amir Khalid:
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Sorry about all this, fellas. It seems like someone always ends up having to keep T&H confined to one thread, and I guess it was my day to draw the short straw.
Ted & Hellen
@Mnemosyne:
God, you’re a freak.
Mnemosyne
@Ted & Hellen:
Admit it, you just can’t quit me.
eemom
before the thread is officially RIP, I am constrained, as an old English major and general language scold, to point out that we seem, as a blog, to have drifted into a common misusage of the term “grifting.” It is not, in fact, the same thing as simple whoring or selling. See, e.g., http://www.thefreedictionary.com/grifter
BruinKid
Sigh… since I was at UCLA at the same time as Ezra, and we have quite a few mutual friends, and I’ve talked with him on occasion, I’ll counter and say that when you can actually talk with him in person, and he’s not trying to awkwardly read the teleprompter when filling in for Rachel or Lawrence, he doesn’t come across as being gay at all. And in all the gossip I’ve heard here at UCLA, none of it was ever about him being gay.
Also, bringing up his wife is a really tenuous connection. My best friend, who is to the left of EVERYONE here (he’d be considered a leftist in Europe) is dating a very conservative sorority girl, and they’re both madly in love with each other. It happens.
BTW, Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings, who basically brought down Stanley McChrystal, is now married to… (after his original fiancée was killed in Iraq) Elise Jordan. You know, Condi Rice’s former speechwriter. I’d love to hear how she must have influenced his reporting to become more neocon-like.
eddie blake
LOVE the sex-pistols bit, hope i’m not the ONLY person who got that, but DAMN david brooks needs a new gig…
Bruce S
The Klein/Broder “six feet of dirt” line is utterly dipshit, ignorant and toxic. Anyone who claims such or is “sympathetic” to that obviously doesn’t read Klein.
Oh…wait a minute. That admission was the first line. What a worthless take on Klein’s wonkish and generally diligent work v. the late Broder’s endlessly recycled bromides. There’s more well-researched reporting in one week’s Wonkbook than Broder did over his entire career. Klein doesn’t throw flames and he is tends to try to take even the biggest clowns like Paul Ryan “seriously” – but the concrete result of his work is data driven analysis that is extremely useful and, overall, shines more light on the GOP’s Asshattery than if he were in some Amen corner. Because he’s so fucking moderate and polite in tone – and always reaching to find some sense in what the GOPers are pitching – it’s very difficult to dismiss his data-driven conclusions. I would put him in the same category as Nate Silver. Klein engages in some minimalist political punditry because the market demands it, but he’s really just a numbers guy. It’s evident that’s his passion – not running commentary on how he feels about shit.
Bruce S
@BruinKid:
Hastings married Elise Jordan? That’s fucking weird. (I’ve seen her on Chris Hayes and she doesn’t strike me as terribly bright.) But it’s not as weird as the wackos, Carville and Matalin, neither of which is to be taken seriously. I’m one of those people who wouldn’t touch anyone who is actively Republican. No respect for them. Literally can’t imagine falling in love with someone who is so evil and/or stupid that they stick with the current iteration of that party. And I grew up in a family of Eisenhower Republicans – who became Democrats in 1964 for obvious reasons and never looked back.