… Because, in a proper society, everyone who encountered him would spit. I outsource my explanation to the invaluable Mr. Charles P. Pierce, dissecting “The Bowtied Monster“:
In 1977, while awarding him that year’s prize in distinguished commentary, the Pulitzer committee said about George F. Will that he was “at home with a wide variety of topics, from international relations, campaigns, and urban problems to the history of machine guns and the vagaries of the press.” This was before Will was recognized as the thoroughgoing disgrace to the craft of journalism that he is, before we knew that he was a working advisor to the Reagan campaign in 1980 while masquerading as an independent observer in his column and for ABC. It was before he proved himself to be a big old ‘ho for the crooked Conrad Black. It was before he proved himself to be a smug, petulant dilettante who is willing to flirt with racism — Go back and study his coverage of the Jesse Jackson campaign in 1988 — and who is willing to throw himself whole hog into climate change denialism, and, now, today, at Hiatt’s House Of Hacks, George Will is someone who has nothing better to do than mock the current movement on America’s campuses to try and cope with the problems of rape and sexual assault, and trolling its victims while jacking it into his dogeared copy of Bartlett’s. For laughs…
My advice, click on the link to Pierce, but avoid Will’s column — he doesn’t deserve the clicks, and you don’t deserve the blood pressure spike. Seriously — Will finds it hilarious that “progressives” are “punishing academic communities” by insisting that sexual assaults on campus are to be taken seriously. Also (of course!) trigger warnings, because those two topics are interchangeable, and Will finds them both very very amusing. There is no punch line, unless you are a monster like George Will.
Cookie Monster
Will is still with us and Molly Ivins isn’t. No justice…
David in NY
Back when people who thought they were “real journalists” were proposing that we convene a “blogger ethics panes,” I though George Will’s conduct alone made a mockery of their position that they were, somehow, more ethical than bloggers. Christ on a cracker, this liar got a Pulitzer.
AT
Who could believe that someone who’s been “in Washington” for 40 years could be out of touch.
beltane
Let me guess, George Will thinks the sluts have it coming to them because they do not dress in the ladylike style of Ginger Rogers.
pseudonymous in nc
Trolling predates and extends beyond the internet: it just hadn’t been called by that name yet.
Debbie
He’s drunk at the trough of Glenn Beck.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
How is taking sexually assaults seriously a punishment for academic institutions? I am almost tempted to go to the Will piece to find out, but I’ll just nail my feet to the floor instead. It’ll be less painful.
lamh36
Saw Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow yesterday. It was really good. Damn u Tom Cruise for making another movie I absolutely loved (MI Ghost Protocol was awesome).
I am FAR from a Tom Cruise fan and I’ve never read the book, but I have to admit, this movie had me at the edge of my seat a number of times. And the story seemed really fresh, way fresher than I imagined it would be..
I also liked that even though Tom Cruise was the marquee actor, Emily Blunt was kicking ass and taking names!!!
I’ll def be adding this to my DVD/Blu Ray list along with MI:Ghost Protocol.
I literally had never heard of it until I kept seeing a trailer for it online some where and then before X-Men. I barely understood what it was about, but I love Emily Blunt and I like a good action adventure sci-fi flick as much anyone. I was pleasantly surprised at how much liked this movie and as the reviewer said, yeah Tom Cruise is the “marquee” actor in this, but Emily Blunt was freakin’ awesome!
Too bad it got slaughtered by that movie “The Fault In Our Stars” and Maleficent. People should def go see. Maybe it will get some good word of mouth.
Forget about that “The Fault In Our Stars”, go see Edge of Tomorrow, I promise you won’t be disappointed. Dare I say it, it was wayyyyy better than Maleficent..just sayin’.
MomSense
@lamh36:
It was as good as you say!! Loved it! Emily Blunt was kick-ass and Tom Cruise was fantastic too.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Also, lamh, if you haven’t seen Belle, please do. Beautifully filmed, beautifully acted.
RaflW
It’s sort of fascinating (like how Ebola is fascinating) that Will is both a monster and and effete member of the elite and an MSM tool. Quite the balancing act.
I hope there’s a fall off the beam coming.
? Martin
@lamh36: Teenage daughter saw Fault. And cried like a teenage girl throughout. So, its got its market.
Percysowner
@beltane:
Oh you wish! No, he thinks women like to be raped because “survivors have a “coveted status” as victims.”. George Will has NOT yet volunteered to spend some time in prison so HE can earn this “coveted status” for himself.
lamh36
@MomSense: I am so NOT a Tom Cruise fan, but man he was great in this. He was dare I say charming and damn funny at moments too. Too bad it didn’t do well at box office. It def deserves good word of mouth.
I read alot moaning about there not being enough female action heroes or female leads in action movies where the woman isn’t just more than a love interest for the male action star. Well they should def see this movie, cause Emily Blunt was awesome and more than held her own against Cruise and was believable as a bad ass soldier.
The Other Bob
Will was also one of the first to blame the banking crisis on anti redlining laws, AKA the black and poors.
lamh36
@SiubhanDuinne: I do plan to see Belle. I’m gonna go to a matinee on my next off day. I heard it was fantastic.
lamh36
@? Martin: Oh. yeah, I figured they had the market sewn up. Edge of Tomorrow should have been good counter-programming, but the movie goers just weren’t there for it. Too bad, it was good.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Since we are talking movies, I watched Rush over the weekend. Well done film about F-1 racing in the 70s and the difference between “sportmen” and “professionals.” It took a few liberties with the facts; James Hunt and Niki Lauda were actually friends and, at one point, they were roommates.
Linnaeus
George Will is a Tory. Simple as that.
beltane
@Percysowner: George Will is a victim of our mean comments, which is even worse than being raped by a frat boy.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Linnaeus: And not one of the charming, louche ones. He is the priggish, creepy type.
trollhattan
@RaflW:
Everything David Brooks knows about “journalism” he must have learned from the bow tie. Peas in a carcinogenic pod.
Kay
This whole thing sounds like this to me:
“Stop talking about that! Talk about what I want to talk about!”
It was what, a week and a half they had to listen to women talk about this? It was news for a week and a half. Now it will go back to being a discussion among women, almost exclusively.
Unbearable, that they would be ignored that long, apparently. They’re still whining about it.
Poopyman
@beltane: Come to think of it, if you’re drunk, George Will might remind you of a chunky Reese Witherspoon.
Reeeal drunk.
SatanicPanic
George Will is a sociopath. I am certain he has human body parts in his freezer. Not even in the one in his basement, the one in his kitchen.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Poopyman: No one can or should ever be that drunk.
MomSense
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m going to see Belle this weekend and I can’t wait!
@lamh36:
It’s a funny thing about Tom Cruise. I gave up saying I’m not a fan because he does those action flicks really well. I thought he was great in Ghost Protocol, War of the Worlds–and a lot of other action flicks.
He was charming, funny and even sort of sweet and tender. I took my Mom and she loved it too even though she asked me to explain it at the end.
? Martin
@lamh36: I’ve heard it was quite good. Expect we’ll see it Wed.
beltane
@Poopyman: George Will better hope he is never locked in a hotel room with Maureen Dowd and a loaded candy bar.
Lyrebird
Anyone know WaterGirl offline? Just left this on the “Blowback” post, dunno if it will lead to a good lead, but thought it was worth a try.
—
@WaterGirl: I’ll put this in the open thread, too, in case you read that. (If someone else knows how to contact WaterGirl and could share this, great.)
I just put a paper note in the mail to Jane Drussel with my full name and contact info, asking her if there’s an ambulance drive or some such thing going on where some concerned readers could pitch in to support the town. (She’s the head of the CoC so she’d know.)
Will report.
Susan K of the tech support
I just… can’t… even… I just can’t. I am reading the #SurvivorPrivilege hashtag on twitter…. and seething. I’d better not write another sentence from the heart before I click the Submit Comment button.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I’ll skip reading his article… but I’d guess he still thinks of female college students as “co-eds” peripheral to the main point of the institution. (forget that Oberlin etc started out coeducational whatever) People who don’t see women’s consent as worth anything often pooh-pooh sexual assault of women and also diminish victimization of males. (TBogg and Wonkette did an excellent job showing Tucker Carlson for the sicko that he is, on this note.)
Mnemosyne
@beltane:
Uh, yes, the ladylike Ginger Rogers. ;-)
(You probably meant Doris Day — Rogers was never afraid of a low-cut gown. Hence the old saying that Astaire made her look classy and she made him look sexy.)
Culture of Truth
He’s corporatist hack. and a conservative wackjob
jurassicpork
Natural Born Cop Killers.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Lyrebird:
I think a lot of people on the right simply don’t understand (or don’t accept) the concepts of consent and choice.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Of course they don’t. Women should be owned, first by their fathers and then by their husbands, as God and the Constitution intended. They should not have the right to vote or do much of anything else, unless they do exactly what the man in control tells them to do. A woman deciding to do anything for herself, or having ownership of her own body, is not acceptable to them.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
… for anyone other than themselves, that is. Because they’re very big on complaining when Obama’s jackbooted thugs reduce their choices regarding killing devices.
SFAW
@Violet:
Now, Violet, don’t you worry yore purty little head ’bout stuff like that. You let the men-folk worry ’bout it.
ETA: I guess I could have spelled it “haid,” to keep the tone consistent.
lamh36
@MomSense: agreed. It’s the most charming I’ve seen Cruise be in a long time. I mean of course he has all those movies with female co-stars, but they all seemed a bit dialed in of late. The last Mission Impossible, they took the love interest out of the equation (for the other 3, he had love interest in each) and it was just a downright good action flick.
In this movie, Emily Blunt was a “love interest” in the barest sense of the word. Without giving anything away, I really appreciated how they let her essentially be the seasoned action hero and it was Cruise in this case who had to learn from her.
LOL, My sister, my cousin, my nephew and I were all STILL discussing it after we left too. It wasn’t really confusing (I mean it’s no “Inception”…eyeroll) but we all just had to discuss it afterwards.
@? Martin: Cool. It has been getting really great reviews, but just got over-hyped by the other movies. I think you will enjoy it.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@SFAW: True enough, but I would also suggest that if one believes that choice and consent aren’t for everyone then one doesn’t get the concept.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
QFT.
And — begging pardon if I’ve misunderstood your identity! — men like you and Cole and oh gosh efgoldman and everyone help me keep from pounding nails into my appendages. Really.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Lyrebird: Thank you. I am flattered, but I will probably spoil it by telling you to make me a sandwich or something.
? Martin
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
The problem is that ‘consent’ conflicts with my penîs’ 2nd amendment right to be stuck in attractive things.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Debatable. I might suggest that their inability to consider the “other” as a full human being does not necessarily preclude them (i.e. wingers/Reichtards/what-have-you) from understanding what choice and consent mean.
SFAW
@? Martin:
I’m waiting – hopefully (i.e. with lots of hope) – to hear of a rash of “unfortunate” incidents resulting from Reichtards deciding that those “attractive things” include the barrel of their AR-15 or AK-47 clone. An added benefit to that: the Vienna Boys Choir might end up with a ton of new applicants (who, unfortunately, speak nur Englisch).
Culture of Truth
I’m not a Cruise fan but…. he’s great in many things since 1983…
yeah he jumped on a couch… his co-workers usually say good things about him
SFAW
@Culture of Truth:
Yeah, but wait until he asks them if they want to take a “free personality test.”
bago
Apparently Obama’s bear really does bring all the boys to the yard.
http://gawker.com/obama-went-on-another-impromptu-stroll-today-1588315800
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Culture of Truth: I think Cruise is good when a director makes him actually act instead of just relying on his grin and ability to look good while running.
Violet
Speaking of Tom Cruise, if you haven’t seen “Risky Business” in awhile, it’s worth watching again. It’s surprisingly subversive. I’m not sure it would get made today. Tom Cruise is great in it.
lamh36
@Culture of Truth: I’ve been an Crusise-skeptic wayyy before the couch jumping bit.
I just found that he began to just dial-in performances for awhile there and then do one really good bit of acting.
lamh36
Reed F. Richardson
@reedfrich
NYT reporter says Bergdahl’s former platoon mates—shopped to media by GOP—had clearly been coached on their answers.
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/more-on-kristof-bergdahl-and-risen/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=tw-share&_r=0
Higgs Boson's Mate
George Will; he crawled up his own asshole and died.
lamh36
Obama Went On Another Impromptu Stroll Today
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: Mixing with threads from earlier nights. The second time I saw Risky Business was an overnight ferry from Holland to the UK after eating elebenty space cakes in Amsterdam with a glamorous, slightly older woman who I knew from college and had randomly run into in an Amsterdam bar. As I watch the movie, there were times when, I thought I was one of the characters in it (just a random guy – not a major character). I ended up deposited around 8:00am in a London train station as I started to become vaguely sober.
MattR
@lamh36:
Colbert’s biggest fear
lamh36
@lamh36: H/T @bago:
Mike in NC
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Will’s most infamous column came out the day the Soviet Communists tried to take down Gorbachev. He argued that those fucking commies were untrustworthy and we needed to spend billions on nukes to deter them. Then Gorby was released a day later and everything normalized. Fucking George Will never issued a retraction and has been one of WaPo’s most disgusting warmongering neocon creeps ever since.
nellcote
there goes Hillary, being unhelpful again:
Suffern ACE
I saw Art Laffer on Fox in the break room discussing student loans at work and now I’m reading about an article by Will acting like its 1983 and you can write like the idea of sexual assault is controversial. To hell with this. There are a lot of pundits who have been around too long and they insist on having the same conversation they had when they were virile. 40 years is enough of will, Laffer, Dowd, Shields and Gergen, to name a few. The worst part is that we’ll still have to deal with them ten years from now. Careers should not be that long.
Suffern ACE
In the 70s and 80s, a lot of women spent time setting up rape crisis hotlines and battered women’s centers. It was a lot more difficult to do than one might think it ought to have been. There was this idea that these centers were just feminist fronts for breaking up marriages. Yes. I wish I had the tapes of the 700 club shows where those issues were dismissed. It would be interesting and probably disconcerting to find out What Will thought about that at the time.
warren
George Will needs to be laughed at, like in this classic SNL skit:
George Will’s Sports Machine!
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/89/89qsportsmachine.phtml
Suffern ACE
On a happier note, there is so much love in the world, that ritually expressing it creates problems.
Luthe
@lamh36: Can we have some money quotes for those
unwillingunable to break the paywall?MattR
@Luthe:
The reporter added that she and her editor decided that if they were going to use the quotes from the soldiers they had to include who had arranged the interviews.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
I keep intending to look up that internet tradition (make me a sammich I mean) but then figuring I don’t want to see the source.
May we all find (and having found, enjoy the company of) people we enjoy making sandwiches for and/or washing up the cutting boards for to continue the exchange.
(Says someone whose main contribution to local canvassing drives consists of trays of homemade sammiches on real bread. Can’t stand knocking on strangers’ doors, but feeding people is fun.)
jl
‘Hiatts House of Hacks’, and ‘Glennbeckistan’: those are good; I like those.
I actually tried to read the link, but it was such dreck, I ended up skimming it. Will seems to have aimed for the lowest common denominator of Fox, say down around the circle of Fox and Friends, and now he is having trouble keeping that trash out of higher class arenas like the WaPo House of Hack (which may make no more sense than Fox and Friends, but at least is a little more civil and presents a better front0.
Weird that Mr. civility and tradition and olde tymey society values has a problem with asking questions when a dude presses a drunk chick for sex, but he has no problem with undergraduates drinking at all, since the way more than half of them are underage. But the whole column is full of sloganeering and empty trigger words (in a different sense) for mindless Fox News type viewers.
PurpleGirl
@beltane: Ginger Rogers did a good amount of cheesecake photos in her day. She was known for her beautiful and shapely legs. I’m sure there was more than one bomber in WWII graced with her picture in a bathing suit.
jl
@lamh36: If that is true, glad the press is calling the GOP on it. GOP outreach effort now includes veterans.
I cannot believe that the general population will be duped by this vile dreck but I have been wrong before.
Though, come to think of it, this is not a new thing for the GOP. Remember during the W years, when there was a fuss about abusive, unreasonable, and probably counterproductive and dangerous multiple deployments and forced extensions to duty, in a war of choice, after the war had dragged on long enough to have financed some additional troops.
Remember that? What was the GOP’s public response? IIRC it was EFFFF UUUUUU, and screw it. They signed up and we can do what we damn well please with their lives. Too bad SUCKERS, you enlisted and we can do what we want. We have a SACRED CONTRACT and we will EFF UUUU all we want with it.
I mean seriously, that was the jist of what they said. They said it in a different way, but there was not even an attempt to extend any sympathy, or empathy, or expression of regret. They more or less got up in front of the whole country and said in a calm and stern voice that they ratfucked people when they could and that was just too bad.
So, is this latest episode of GOP depravity any surprise? Cole was too easy on the GOP in the earlier post, and maybe a little too optimistic about how toxic they have made serving the country in the military.
Michael G
I still believe the quintessential George F. Will column is the one where he comes out against jeans.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041502861.html
(He also comes out against sitcoms, video games, and Batman. Hey, when you have a national platform you obviously use it to discuss the important issues.)
Just One More Canuck
@Michael G: I’m sure there’s one with him decrying the immorality of kids being on his lawn
He’s just an old man yelling at clouds
Matt McIrvin
@jl:
Well, now they’ve got a scapegoat who’s sufficiently powerless to blame all that on. It’s interesting that they don’t even really go after Obama for keeping people in Afghanistan; they go after him for doing a prisoner swap for Bowe Bergdahl, who is now the true cause of everything that’s gone wrong there. It’s more fun if you can punch down.
J R in WV
George Will is, has always been, and always will be an evil, self-centered, pompous and pretentious donkey’s ass.
Whatever intelligence he may have is applied to discovering new ways to express his evil, or to move forward evil political themes.
He is the sort of person who, if confronted with the knowledge that a Republican President was committing treason, would devise “clever” justifications for the treason. Or perhaps would ask to be allowed to assist in the crime.
He is the sort of person who, if confronted with the knowledge that rape was a common crime, would devise “clever” justifications for ignoring it…
Oh, wait…
schrodinger's cat
@lamh36: Emily Blunt was wonderful in the Devil Wears Prada too.
ETA: George Will is an idiot. Why are men who wear bow ties so insufferable?
schrodinger's cat
[email protected]Michael G: What does he have against jeans? Does he have a pancake butt?
SFAW
@schrodinger’s cat:
Hey! I used to wear a bow tie!
Oh, wait …
Er, uh, never mind.