Been following the Kinsley beat down on twitter, and have only found one defender so far. Why do the kidz talk this way?
@timfernholz well, if I can go into modal realist mode, under the terms of the parallel debate, I think Kinsley is more correct
— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) May 16, 2013
kindness
Anyone going to the new Star Trek movie tomorrow?
mai naem
I know this is OT but,heck, this is more important and I’ve never cared for Kinsley anyway. Always came across as one of the DLC type of Dems.
Anyhoo, apparently Chris Stevens turned down extra security twice -http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/14/191235/amb-stevens-twice-said-no-to-military.html#.UZVYP7XVB1W
Also, I didn’t know Gregory Hicks’ lawyer was Victoria Toensing. This is the first piece I’ve read on Hicks and Bbbbenghazeee!!! that mentions that she’s his lawyer. WTF I think that’s a relevant part of the story.
matt
Judging from her blog, Greider is a professional dogshit-gargling right wing pseudo intellectual. She has a huge piece about how Rick Perry is actually a genius.
Trollhattan
Should McMegan try to out-gibberish the above gibberish they could join, form a gibberish singularity and swallow the planet, whole. You wanna risk that?
Last time I was in modal realist mode it took an endoscopy to stop it.
Corner Stone
Where’s Jamie Dukes when we need him?
“Say What?”
Omnes Omnibus
Oh, Erica, in your modal realist mode, is this the best of all possible worlds?
beltane
@mai naem: Never liked Kinsley either. There was once a time, pre-internet, when he was one of the few liberals on TV, and those times sucked.
Maybe he sounds better in a parallel debate in a parallel universe and under the influence of potent hallucinogenics. I doubt it.
Kristin
@mai naem: I had seen already from Little Green Footballs. Here.
(I hope I did the link right!)
Higgs Boson's Mate
Grieder sounds like the love child of Donald Rumsfeld and Sarah Palin.
Baud
No, Ms.Gredier, you may not go into modal realist mode.
I mean, who does that?
Corner Stone
@Trollhattan:
It’s almost as bad as the Planetary Devastaion jutsu Pain wields in Naruto Shippuden.
Hill Dweller
As Krugman says here, Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine is starting to look prescient. The VSP use the crises they create to enact the policies they desire, even if said polices have absolutely nothing to do with fixing the problem.
beltane
@matt: There must be at least one parallel universe where Rick Perry is a genius. Ask Erica, she’s been there.
MattF
@matt: Ah, so, that settles that question.
Here’s a Windows 8 ‘viral’ You Tube clip from Microsoft, “Beautiful and Fast”, that’s actually very funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG-ORLkMiyY
Trollhattan
@matt:
A wingnut acquaintance (father of daughter’s friend, so cannot be completely avoided) defended Perry during the campaign, thus: “He’s not stupid, he’s the governor of Texas. You can’t be stupid and be elected governor of Texas.”
An investment trader, in case anybody is curious as to the brainpower required for that position.
srv
But what does Sully say behind his paywall?
I’m really terrified Megan is going to end up at the LA Times if the bros buy it.
Violet
Did someone find her picture under “pretentious” in the dictionary?
Corner Stone
@Hill Dweller: I wonder what is meant by “starting” to look prescient?
This has been so clear for so long. Even in recent modern times with how the US fucked through Central and South America.
I mean, hell, what was post WWII Germany if not a Schock Doctrine paradise?
Under the terms of the parallel debate, of course.
ranchandsyrup
@Trollhattan: I remember people using that argument for Bush the younger. Fucking hell.
Violet
@srv: Speaking of the evil brothers, there’s a new app that lets you boycott Monsanto and Koch products, among others:
the Conster
@Violet:
I think I’ll make up a bunch of stickers that say “CAUTION: GMO PRODUCT” and stick them on the supermarket shelf. If they won’t label them, we will.
NickT
Helluva pompous way to say “if I stick my head up my ass and keep talking”.
dm
@beltane: I thought “parallel universe” was a joke, but it turns out that’s what “modal realism” means (if wikipedia is to be trusted) — alternate realities are as real as this one.
So, I imagine there’s a parallel universe where Kinsley is correct. Though in that one, Kinsley probably condemns the austerians in terms that would make Paul Krugman blush.
Chris
@Corner Stone:
I do believe post WW2 Germany was rebuilt along much more New Dealish lines than any of the reconstruction we’ve seen in the third world lately. Same for all the Western European countries the U.S. ended up occupying, for that matter. Not going to say there wasn’t a lot of dirty politicking that went on in the postwar era, but at least the local societies were rebuilt into something that involved the local people as something other than cogs in the one percenters’ machines.
There’s no parallel between the way Germany was rebuilt after World War Two and the “shock doctrine” we encouraged the Russians to follow after the Cold War (or its equivalents in the rest of the world), IMO.
jl
I assume she is joking and that is “I give up” as translated into bullshit.
dm
@mai naem: That’s what you get for not reading Charles Pierce. He mentioned the Toensing-Hicks connection a week ago.
t4toby
I looked up both modal realism and parallel debate (because I ain’t so smart as you city folk) and discovered that they are both synonyms for ‘circle jerk’.
p.a.
To blatantly steal from Dave Barry, ‘The Modal Realists’ would be a great name for a band. Maybe I’ll grab the URL!
jl
@dm:
I’m afraid Wikipedia is to be trusted in this case. It’s an influential philosophical doctrine (IMHO confused gimmick that can’t really do what it wants to do) that you have deal with in modern philosophical logic.
A lot of philosophers and logicians think it’s BS. Thank the Lord.
sparrow
@Violet: THAT IS SO AWESOME! sorry for the allcaps I was excited.
SRW1
@NickT:
Wouldn’t that make her fart an awful lot?
Seanly
Both of my parents are retired English professors & I’ve been speaking and writing English for 45 years, but I have no clue WTF this means:
It uses English words and is even contructed similar to a sentence, but makes no sense at all. Anyone out there speak Gibberish?
EDIT: Err, I’m 45 so I guess I haven’t been writing or speaking the entire time, but you get my drift…
dedc79
It’s very important not to get punched while you’re in “modal realist” mode or you get stuck that way for the rest of your life.
Omnes Omnibus
@SRW1: No one said she was a hedgehog.
Roger Moore
To quote Buffy Summers “And in some language that’s English?“
Violet
@sparrow: Yeah, I thought it was really cool too. The updates to the article say the server was swamped due to the publicity and they also found a bug in the Android version, but hopefully the developer will get those kinks worked out.
Mike E
OT but gotta give credit to NPR’s glib host of Marketplace Kai Ryssdal who interviewed war criminal Donald Rumsfeld and let him have it. Nothing earth-shattering, but good for him to utter a few “Are you shitting me?” type questions in his brief segment… one gem, and I’m paraphrasing, “McNamara said I’m sorry in his Vietnam book…why not in your book?”
Oh well.
mouse tolliver
@mai naem:
The surest sign yet that the media is ramping up for Whitewater 2.0. Surely Susan Carpenter-McMillan can’t be too far behind.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus:
Corporate media pundits fart out new universes that operate and a parallel plane distinct from our reality on a regular basis. So, they are not your average standard issue hedgehogs.
Violet
@Seanly: Allow me to translate. It means: “well, if I can just make up any shit I want, under the terms of wingnut teabaggery, I am going to fellate Kinsley in hopes of getting a more lucrative job.”
Bobby Thomson
The last time I went into modal realist mode someone yelled “green balloons!”
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: There are more lucrative jobs than senior editor at Texas Monthly?
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes there are. She’s paging the Koch brothers.
Hill Dweller
@mouse tolliver: BENGHAZI! is quickly dying. Pickering and Mullen are demanding a public House hearing so they can address Issa’s attack on their work in the ARB. Issa only wants it in private.
The IRS stuff is even more of a nothingburger than I first thought.
The AP stuff will linger in the media, but I’m not sure if it has legs with the public.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: She should probably tone down the pretentiousness a bit then.
Trollhattan
@Seanly:
I think it’s fair to say you began life uttering Erica Grieder-speak but, gradually, overcame this obvious shortcoming once you hit two, or so.
jl
@Hill Dweller:
” The IRS stuff is even more of a nothingburger than I first thought. ”
I don’t have time to go through the IG report, but I read that the IRS targeted groups all across the political spectrum with dubious screens, and asked them improper questions. I haven’t seen any push back from the administration against the teabagger drama queen orgy of victimization.
Why not? Are they going to let the reactionaries over reach and then humiliate them, like on the birth certificate nonsense? Or what?
Trollhattan
@Hill Dweller:
Issa should have thought a wee moment before lying about Pickering on teebee while sitting next to Pickering. But that would require Issa to think.
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
I tried giving him three reasons he was wrong, but I could only remember two….
Omnes Omnibus
@Trollhattan: You can always close out your list with “because Fuck you, that’s why!”
scav
It does seem to be a crie de cœur that she wants the evil goatee and double-billing role but is only a redshirt and knows it.
catclub
@jl: Probably yes on the overreach.
Obama seems to have dealt with all three issues rapidly, and two of them put congress in the crosshairs: 1) Press shield that many of the GOP voted against last time it was up, and 2) request for full funding of diplomatic security. Many GOP also voted against that last time. This time the votes will get more scrutiny.
I only wish they would go for better funding of the IRS.
Unsympathetic
In my modal realist world, conservatives don’t exist – so her argument fails because freedom.
jl
@catclub:
Probably. I read today that the press shield law is going to be reintroduced in the Senate, with WH backing.
I’m not a big Obama fan, and don’t believe in eleventy D chess. But he has discipline and seems to know how disciplined words and actions can be put together in way that counters the wingnut sound machine.
Except, where was that for the 2010 midterms, is what bothers me and makes me worry about how Obama operates.
Splitting Image
The only place I have ever heard modal logic seriously discussed was in a university course on Theism in a textbook that discussed different ways to prove that God existed. “Maybe you can’t prove God exists using standard logic, but there may be some other system of logic out there that will do it. Neener neener.”
lumpkin
Disappointed to read the comments and find out she’s a nut. When I first read her tweet my response was “this is meta-fucking-physically awesome”.
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: yeah. On the AP stuff, it is unfortunate that this is a media “scandal” because they are circling the wagons and one should have been more cautious in dealing with them. However, if instead of the AP, we were dealing with a corporate counsel of a meat packing company that may have been releasing horse meat, we’d laugh when the counsel went on TV and claimed to be the victim of over zealous investigators and demanded that those investigators be fired immediately. We probably wouldn’t say “yeah. Lets fire those investigators.”
Rex Everything
@Seanly: I’m thinking a “modal mode” is akin to a “static state,” or an “embryonic embryo,” or “Juicy Juice.”
Juicy realist juice. Crappy realist crap.
(Come to think of it, maybe these are the “parallel terms”!)
Steeplejack
For serious modal realist stuff I go to Miles or Booker Ervin.
schrodinger's cat
I made this lol after reading the Kinsley piece. Paraphrases Kinsley’s article succinctly.
liberal
@catclub:
What are the details of this so-called “press shield”? One of them in recent history that was considered had, IIRC, protections for credentialed (read: corporate) journalists only. In other words, not worth the paper it’s written on.
dm
@Bobby Thomson: Eek! The glossary appears to have disappeared in the redesign? It took a while, but Google finally came through on “Green Balloons”.
ruemara
@catclub: the press shield would not have helped AP. That’s an investigation into a NatSec leak that affected a CIA operation. One requested by the Congress. I’m not sure why people aren’t a bit more outraged that successful CIA ops that contain terror groups are being leaked to the press (a la Plame) and it means that using those methods rather than troops (a la, getting the fuck out of Afghanistan) could be perceived as not worth it if one leak can do so much damage.
SiubhanDuinne
@Trollhattan:
LOL. ‘Scuse me, WUT??
NonyNony
@ruemara:
If you mean “people” in general – it’s because they don’t know why Justice subpeonaed the phone records and they don’t know that it was perfectly legal according to current law. When folks in my acquaintance who aren’t raving wingnut family members were made aware of those two facts they have been universally angry as hell at the media that they’d been paying attention to because the fact that DOJ was hunting down a leaker who accidentally outed a CIA op was not made clear. Roughly half of them decided on hearing that that if I was right (and I was) they weren’t concerned at all.
The other half fall into the camp of why I am concerned – because I think this shit needs to go through the search warrant process. Go to a goddamn judge, get a warrant, and go serve it the way it’s supposed to be served. Congress needs to lock that down and make that the correct procedure for this shit – no get a subpeona and serve it to the phone company and tell the target after the fact crap.
Batocchio
“Well, if I can go into modal realist mode” is the mental masturbating bullshitter’s way of saying, “According to the new rules I just invented, I win.” Jeez, late-night, drunk college banter is supposed to be fun…
sherparick
@Trollhattan: I think this could serve as the example in the Thesaurus for “Word Salad.”