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You are here: Home / Open Threads / About the same as Ezra – Open Thread

About the same as Ezra – Open Thread

by Sarah, Proud and Tall|  March 14, 20148:06 am| 62 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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I’m very excited to announce that I have been offered a paid gig with Vox.com writing about how fake old ladies are bit shit, mainly because they’ve chosen to be old and a bit shit. However, I admit that I haven’t read any of my own articles, and besides Andrew Sullivan likes me, so that’s ok.

This is your morning open thread.

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Previous Post: « PPO, EPO and HMO — what is the difference?
Next Post: Better Than Ezra »

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62Comments

  1. 1.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 8:09 am

    Transparent: your second paragraph.

    Opaque (to me): your first!

  2. 2.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    March 14, 2014 at 8:11 am

    @Cervantes:

    Opaque (to me): your first!

    Consider yourself lucky, my dear.

  3. 3.

    different-church-lady

    March 14, 2014 at 8:12 am

    According to right-hand widget thingy, Sarah Palin says she’ll continue “shaking up Washington”.

    This is true: convulsing with laughter does tend to shake one a bit.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    March 14, 2014 at 8:12 am

    The mind reels at how any early drafts read, the final repellant, repulsive, loathsome text presumably having been toned down for general consumption.

    Virginia KKK insists: We are not the ‘enemies of the colored and mongrel races’

  5. 5.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    March 14, 2014 at 8:15 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Disney’s ‘Frozen’: A Gay Conspiracy?

    Who would have thunk?

  6. 6.

    Baud

    March 14, 2014 at 8:15 am

    Anyone have any thoughts on the Senate UI deal?

  7. 7.

    Carol

    March 14, 2014 at 8:16 am

    Well, I am sure someone understands what you just said but you lost me, as did Vox

  8. 8.

    different-church-lady

    March 14, 2014 at 8:17 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: Maybe they got it mixed up with Disney on Ice?

  9. 9.

    lamh36

    March 14, 2014 at 8:19 am

    I’m sure the usual subjects will shoo shoo this too.

    @joshuafoust: @ezraklein  really told a reporter he can’t find non-white people to hire. http://t.co/HySV9sHLVY

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 14, 2014 at 8:19 am

    @NotMax: It’s obvious they’ve been studying minority outreach under the tutelage of Rinse Prebus.

  11. 11.

    Carol

    March 14, 2014 at 8:20 am

    Oh! I see. Boy am I dense. Vox’s opening video is repellent to me anyhow.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 14, 2014 at 8:21 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: What’s interesting is the nature of the “Gay Conspiracy” is to portray gays as just people, not the child-kidnapping ravenous monsters that the righteous know them to be.

    Which is pretty much projection of how they acquire new members to their bizarre death cults.

  13. 13.

    MomSense

    March 14, 2014 at 8:23 am

    @lamh36:

    Wait, that is not a noisemax headline?

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    March 14, 2014 at 8:29 am

    @different-church-lady

    As usual, Palin gets it wrong. A Washington is stirred, not shaken.

  15. 15.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    March 14, 2014 at 8:31 am

    My alternative headline was “Ground Control to Uncle Tom”.

    I’m a little too drunk to work out just how offensive that might have been.

  16. 16.

    slim shady

    March 14, 2014 at 8:31 am

    I’m hoping for a story on how a young female was able to sneak into the Men’s Figure Skating competition at Sochi. And then win Gold, after falling on her bee-hind about 6 times during the long program. I’m not sure that Ring of Steel was all it was cracked up to be.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    March 14, 2014 at 8:34 am

    @lamh36:

    Jesus. If that’s true, wtf Ezra? Is he trying to compete with Chris Christie for most rapid collapse of a public figure?

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    March 14, 2014 at 8:39 am

    Yay, a SP&T sighting! Since I’m still 3/4 asleep, my first thought was “I hope this doesn’t mean you won’t be posting around here anymore.” Then I read the link.

    I admit I’m surprised to see Ezra Klein making such an ass of himself these days.I guess he just decided that the contrarian route is where the money is.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    March 14, 2014 at 8:44 am

    @Ash Can:

    He’s probably right, sadly.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    March 14, 2014 at 8:48 am

    Sarah: don’t be leaving us to be a Vox Fox.

    And I truly do not understand Ezra Klein’s hiring skills, or lack thereof.

    What a self-inflicted wound.

    ETA: WHOA! Editing this immediately. I meant that about the Falwell U hire, not YOU!!

    And no, I have not finished my coffee yet. Just sipping the caffeine now.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    March 14, 2014 at 8:49 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall

    That would have been significantly over the top.

    Might have chosen ‘Guess Whose Vox Is Being Gored?’ But that perhaps is a little too obscure.

  22. 22.

    raven

    March 14, 2014 at 8:49 am

    Better than

  23. 23.

    JR

    March 14, 2014 at 9:05 am

    I will keep posting this because I’m at a loss to understand how otherwise smart people hire morons.

    Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”

    Let me repeat that: Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.” That makes him a moron.

    WTF? Regardless of anything else, how can anyone take a graduate of a fake university seriously? Going to Falwell’s fundamentalist churchy conjob should be disqualifying in itself.

    So, once again, Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.” Right now Vox sounds like it’ll be a low rent version of Politico. Who aspires to that?

  24. 24.

    p.a.

    March 14, 2014 at 9:05 am

    @Baud: Well, where is the money coming from? Does Ezra have backers? If so, do they have a say in personnel? If not, is Vox a Sully-type startup? 1)Create following 2)Go off on own 3)? 4)Profit!

  25. 25.

    NonyNony

    March 14, 2014 at 9:08 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Maybe they got it mixed up with Disney on Ice?

    No, I had this wingsplained to me the other day. See, the Queen in Frozen is hiding her true self from the world because she’s afraid that everyone will hate her. When she gets “outed” she flees into the wilderness. But then she comes to realize that her family and country will accept her for who she is so she decides to live as an “out” gay ice queen.

    Basically any story where the lesson is “don’t hide who you are – be yourself and your friends and family will love you no matter what” is a story about gay people these days.

    (I have to say when I first read the stories about wingnuts saying this my mind was boggled because seriously – WTF? There’s no gay message in this at all, except in the sense that it has a message to all people about being nice to each other, and gay people are in fact also people. But apparently some wingnut went and saw it with his kids and he saw the gay everywhere and posted it to Facebook or sent an e-mail round or something to raise the Nut-Signal. Once you know that the assumption is that any story that has a lesson of “be yourself and your friends and family will love you no matter what” is automatically about gay people living openly instead of hiding in closets, you can see how they get there.)

  26. 26.

    beergoggles

    March 14, 2014 at 9:12 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: Aunty Tom would be the term ur looking for..

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    March 14, 2014 at 9:13 am

    I suppose it was foolish to hold out any hope that a better media might evolve from new platforms. It’s the same old money-grubbing ball of shit, whether it’s flung on your doorstep or piped through the tubes to your tab.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    March 14, 2014 at 9:28 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    There is a market, though, of people who want accurate and informative media.

    Why don’t these wankers feel that’s worth their effort?

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 14, 2014 at 9:31 am

    This is really rich. I wish I could find humor in it.

    Yesterday, pro-Russian gangs, including people bused in from Russia, set upon a pro-Ukrainian demonstration in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, beat people, sending dozens to the hospital and stabbing to death at least one. This morning the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues a statement that due to the lack of civil control, it reserves the right to protect its countrymen in Ukraine by force.

    So they send in goons to beat and kill people, then say: see, it’s unstable there, we have to send in troops.

  30. 30.

    Citizen_X

    March 14, 2014 at 9:36 am

    @JR:

    Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”

    QFT. Don’t ever grant that wingnut mill the slightest degree of respect.

  31. 31.

    tybee

    March 14, 2014 at 9:38 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    “Ground Control to Uncle Tom”

    well, i laughed. but i’m a terrible person.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    March 14, 2014 at 9:44 am

    @lamh36: WTF? Screw Klein and his new venture. Seriously. If he said that, fuck him, and fuck it.

  33. 33.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 14, 2014 at 9:46 am

    @Betty Cracker: That’s why I like Balloon Juice, it is an island of sanity floating in the sea of untruths and half-lies, and it does it with humor.

  34. 34.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 14, 2014 at 9:50 am

    @Betty Cracker: I left you reply but WP eated it.

  35. 35.

    Yatsuno

    March 14, 2014 at 9:53 am

    @NonyNony: There is really only one overtly gay scene in the movie, and if you blink you’ll miss it. When the shopkeeper waves to his family in the sauna, notice there are no women present except for what may be a couple of little girls? Even then it’s just ambiguous enough for that. “Frozen” is about acceptance and about how true love isn’t just about the romantic parts. It’s also a damn good movie.

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: Hi dear! New work schedule & I’m off to it here in a couple minutes. Loves ya!

  36. 36.

    cleek

    March 14, 2014 at 9:57 am

    @different-church-lady:
    so, Palin is responsible for cracking the Washington Monument ?

  37. 37.

    ruemara

    March 14, 2014 at 9:58 am

    @lamh36: anytime. I’ve been writing on various topics for years & FSM knows he hasn’t read me, which makes me perfectly qualified.

  38. 38.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 14, 2014 at 10:29 am

    Ok my comment resurfaced! Thanks Betty or SP&T.
    BTW did you guys see McCain’s op-ed in NYT? I has a boiling mad, after reading it.

  39. 39.

    Felonius Monk

    March 14, 2014 at 10:33 am

    I guess Ezra and VOX have saddled up for their ride off to Oblivion. God speed, Ezra.

  40. 40.

    Origuy

    March 14, 2014 at 10:42 am

    Can Sarah or someone define “bit shit”? It’s not in Urban Dictionary. Her first paragraph would make more sense if I knew what it meant.

  41. 41.

    Suffern ACE

    March 14, 2014 at 10:45 am

    @Gin & Tonic: pretty much. But the US has done the same thing. Therefore, liberals should accept and praise those things when a poor, powerless country like Russia does them to a strong us backed puppet state like Ukraine. Blowback equals justice!

  42. 42.

    catclub

    March 14, 2014 at 10:52 am

    @NotMax: My wife says one of our cats is evil. I say differently motivated.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 14, 2014 at 10:58 am

    @Suffern ACE: Спасибо, товарищ.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    March 14, 2014 at 11:05 am

    @Yatsuno:

    I’m still waiting to get my DVD, but I think there is an adult woman in there — it’s hard to tell because the steam needs to hide the most telltale signs. But she has long braids and is zaftig, as the kids say.

    I read Libby Anne at LoveJoyFeminism and she was shocked to discover when visiting her homeschooling, Quiverfull fundamentalist family that they all love “Frozen” and her younger sisters run around singing “Let It Go” all day.

    (Libby Anne is not shocked because it’s a “gay” song, but because she thinks of it as being about her escape from fundamentalism and she just doesn’t get how they can like it, too.)

  45. 45.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 14, 2014 at 11:06 am

    @Suffern ACE: Good channel of Comrade BIP.

  46. 46.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 11:13 am

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    Consider yourself lucky, my dear.

    I never have, actually — and now I come to find that research indicates people who think of luck as an external, unpredictable factor in their lives tend to be less mentally healthy — so better not!

  47. 47.

    Aaron Morrow

    March 14, 2014 at 11:14 am

    Where’s the analogies to Conservative Revisionist Fantasy MLK? You can’t work at Vox without them!

    Note to self: If money marks giving me sacks of cash require me to hire a racist homophobe before any minorities are on the payroll, DO NOT TAKE THAT MONEY.

  48. 48.

    kindness

    March 14, 2014 at 11:14 am

    @catclub: Karmicly challenged. Cats aren’t evil, some are just challenged.

  49. 49.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 11:29 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I suppose it was foolish to hold out any hope that a better media might evolve from new platforms.

    Why would “new platforms,” unlike almost every other technological innovation, come with a built-in moral perspective?

    I guess I don’t understand the complaint. There are plenty of good publications out there on various “platforms,” don’t you think? Is it your expectation that “mainstream journalism” in this country will someday be worth a tinker’s damn?

  50. 50.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 11:31 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    So they send in goons to beat and kill people, then say: see, it’s unstable there, we have to send in troops.

    The oldest trick in the book, no?

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    March 14, 2014 at 11:39 am

    @Cervantes:

    Is it your expectation that “mainstream journalism” in this country will someday be worth a tinker’s damn?

    No. As I said, such an expectation is foolish.

  52. 52.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 11:39 am

    @lamh36:

    I’m sure the usual subjects will shoo shoo this too.

    Who or what are the usual subjects? What does “shoo shoo” mean?

    Also, who is Joshua Foust and what makes you think he can be trusted? (I’m not saying he can’t be.)

  53. 53.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 11:41 am

    @Betty Cracker: OK, but then do you agree with this?

    There are plenty of good publications out there on various “platforms,” don’t you think?

    If you do agree, then it does not matter that Vox may or may not be useless.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    March 14, 2014 at 11:49 am

    @Cervantes: Yes, and there always have been plenty of good publications, but they’re not generally influential because few people read them. I was merely noting that the overturning of the establishment press via the digital age isn’t going to change that, which, while a pity, isn’t unexpected.

  55. 55.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Sure.

    But maybe the predictable awfulness can be set aside for a bit — while the good stuff can be highlighted?

    Just a thought.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    March 14, 2014 at 12:41 pm

    @Origuy:

    I think she meant “a bit shit,” as at the end of that same sentence, meaning slightly shitty. It’s a Britishism.

  57. 57.

    different-church-lady

    March 14, 2014 at 1:04 pm

    @Cervantes: Obviously you’re not aware of all internet traditions.

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    March 14, 2014 at 1:05 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    It’s a Britishism

    Is she fictionally British, or actually British?

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    March 14, 2014 at 1:30 pm

    @Cervantes: And a peachy thought it is! Makes me want to skip to the Well of Comity while waving my Glo-Stix, it does!

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    March 14, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    I believe the author is Australian. “She” sometimes lets her narrator’s mask slip a bit.

  61. 61.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 3:45 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    But not all traditions.

  62. 62.

    Cervantes

    March 14, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Come to think of it, you’re right, of course.

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