Megan McArdle’s finace is stunt-doubling for Sully this week. He writes:
Sadly, I don’t currently have a stupid question to ask or answer, so I figure I’ll just stick with obvious background information, plus a smattering of trivia. Currently, I’m an associate editor at Reason as well as a frequent contributor to The American Scene. I’ve also served as an editor at National Review, Doublethink, and the short-lived Culture11. David Fincher is my favorite living movie director, The Dismemberment Plan is my all-time favorite band (I’ll even defend Travis Morrison’s solo records), and Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite novel. In recent weeks, I’ve wasted an astounding amount of time playing Fable II on the Xbox 360. I plan to spend this week writing about movies, comic books, video-games, and health-care politics and policy, among other things.
He also used to work for FreedomWorks. Given that FreedomWorks is at the forefront of opposition to health care reform and that Suderman will presumably be writing about health care, shouldn’t he disclose this?
Update. Good Lord, some of Suderman’s work at FreedomWorks was sleazy.
joe from Lowell
He also used to work for FreedomWorks. Given that FreedomWorks is at the forefront of opposition to health care reform and that Suderman will presumably be writing about health care, shouldn’t he disclose this?
LOL! Did you miss this part:
Currently, I’m an associate editor at Reason
Yeah, right. Don’t hold your breath.
Though, seriously, now that you called him out, I suspect there will be a whiny, Bailey-esque post titled “Radical Leftist Who Can’t Discuss Ideas Launches Personal Attack On Me. Sniff, Sniff.”
Christian
He writes for Reason.com. Even if the FreedomWorks background was unknown, isn’t that enough?
P.S. Add the “what happened to Reason” tag!
Mark S.
Is everybody who works at National Review an editor?
Comrade Jake
Heh. The best part of that post by far has to be:
Ah yes, what is Megan McArdle really like? I’m sure his email inbox shall be runneth over very very soon for that bit of trivial pursuit.
ed
He also used to work for FreedomWorks. Given that FreedomWorks is at the forefront of opposition to health care reform and that Suderman will presumably be writing about health care, shouldn’t he disclose this?
Yes.
David Fincher? Really? His resume is damn near Kevin Smith bad.
Rottenchester
It does figure that Meghan’s fiance would be a fan of the movie Heathers.
Funkhauser
“We don’t do transparency! Only the little people do transparency!
Cat Lady
Jeez DougJ, put the keyboard down, light up a Lucky and make yourself an Old Fashioned. You’ve got the bitters.
Comrade Mary
He’s bitter? I’M bitter. My cable company doesn’t give me AMC unless I spring for a package that costs $65/month, plus all the usual base charges. No Breaking Bad, no Mad Men. Grr.
Amanda in the South Bay
But he likes video games and cool movies and bands! He’s just a normal schmuck like the rest of us! How dare you knock man of the people Peter Suderman!
** Atanarjuat **
Speaking of McMegan’s fiancé, does anyone know if he was involved with the following issue during his brief but marvelous time at FreedomWorks?
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/full_disclosure_i_am_in_love_w.php#comment-109968
The question was never answered, as far as I can see.
-A
apistat
There’s really no defending Travis Morrison’s solo work.
amorphous
Shit, at this point I honestly think that McMegan should disclose that on her own blog.
Deschanel
Ugh. He’s also saying that Roger Ebert’s lament at how Hollywood blockbuster crap (GI Joe, Transformers) is aimed solely at teenagers is merely a personal gripe- that Ebert is bitter because critics no longer hold sway. The fact that they’re crap movies doesn’t figure at all.
Then he quotes John Podheretz as some sort of authority. Oh, the good old days weren’t that good. In other words, Ebert’s mistaken, and today’s films are just as good as in Hollywood’s golden age.
Dear God. No, I’ll take Ebert’s opinions on films any day over Podhoretz’s, or for that matter, a Sully substitute who plays X-Box and reads comic books and is married to that woman. No idea why I should listen to this person.
Jim
Since Sullivan is giving him the real estate, shouldn’t he disclose it? Or the once proud Atlantic?
the short-lived Culture11
somebody in the blogosphere had a whole bunch of fun detailing the short life of Culture 11. I can’t quite recall who or where, but IIRC some ‘winger wanted to show that conservatives can be fun and pop-cultury! Then somebody tried to make a joke, and pissed off their backers.
JK
Megan McArdle’s Pathetic Bullshit Defense
I hadn’t realized that my romantic life was a threat to the very foundations of Democracy. I just thought we were, like, decorating.
During our seven months together, I have learned very little about Peter’s work at FreedomWorks, other than the location of his former office, the fact that he had to wear a jacket and tie, and that his FreedomWorks supplied Blackberry was easier to type on than an iPhone.
It’s reasonable to weigh anything I say about the group in light of the fact that someone I love used to work there. That’s why I made sure to disclose it as soon as I realized that it presented the appearance of a conflict of interest. It’s not possible to write a broadly focused blog without having some conflicts of interest–we all have families and friends. All we can do is tell you about them when they come up.
This doesn’t mean I endorse what FreedomWorks does–I frankly don’t know enough about the organization to have an opinion on its operations. It merely seemed to me that their specific charges about the tea parties were insufficiently backed up with specific facts.
Just to be completely clear, I did not write about FreedomWorks without disclosing that I was dating someone who had worked there. The very first post I wrote on the topic contained the disclosure that Peter and I were dating.
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/03/full_disclosure_i_am_in_love_w.php
McArdle is a disgrace to The Atlantic and a disgrace to the punditocracy if it can be disgraced.
amorphous
Also, I guess we can kiss good-bye to “The View from your Sickbed” series this week.
Francis
note also that Suderman’s presence at Reason is pursuant to a fellowship from the Koch foundation.
I just love the fact that the “pre-eminent” libertarian magazine is staffed by people who are paid by a rich man’s whim. Nothing says “liberty” quite like free money, so long as you dance to the right tune.
JK
THE UNBEARABLE CLUELESSNESS OF MEGAN MCARDLE
“I’m Not Voting Because I Forgot to Register. But that doesn’t absolve me from whatever happens next, because I wanted Obama to win. I may not have effected the outcome, but I did believe it was preferable to the alternative. Now if he’s even more of a cluster**** than I expect, I’ll have to admit I was wrong.” – Megan McArdle,
04 Nov 2008 09:36 am
meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/vote_though_it_pains_you.php
Shorter Megan: I’m a moron, but you should still have faith in me.
Sputnik_Sweetheart
I used to have a lot of respect for Sullivan. His blog was required reading. Even when I disagreed with him, I could respect him because what he said seemed well thought out and intelligent. Turned out I was wrong. I would say Sully jumped the shark here, but he already did that with the Sarah and Trig Palin obsession, the scientific racism, birtherism– really the list just goes on and on.
kommrade reproductive vigor
He was so busy outlining his … um … exciting “life” that it slipped his mind.
What twats these fReichtards be.
cosanostradamus
.
Hunh. Were they at Woodstock? No? Then their opinions are like, boozhwa, man.
.
Ned Ludd
@Francis: Besides funding Suderman, Koch is also funding Americans for Prosperity, one of the most visible anti-health care reform groups. “David H. Koch serves as board chairman of the Americans for Prosperity foundation.”
Guess Suderman forgot to mention that, too.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
“David Fincher is my favorite living movie director, The Dismemberment Plan is my all-time favorite band…”
I’ve never understood why people feel a need to share this sort of information on the internet. Whether your predilections line up with mine or not, it makes you look like a pompous asshole. Not that this is a particular concern for some folks.
Down and Out of Sài Gòn
Peter Suderman sounds like a real piece of work:
burnspbesq
@Comrade Mary:
Subscribe to Mad Men at the iTunes store.
Wile E. Quixote
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Because it makes him hip and relevant. I mean who would want to hang around with stodgy old douchenozzles like Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow? Those guys were stuffy and uptight and never told us what their favorite band was or what their favorite cocktail was or said to their audience “Want to know what Mrs. Cronkite is like? Send mail to CBS.” No way, now that we know what Mr. McMegan McArdle’s favorite band, favorite movie director and favorite book (Fahrenheit 451, I’m sure that Suderman likes it because it’s about an authoritarian dystopia where books are burned, always a popular activity amongst conservatives) we know that he’s hip and approachable and hey, he’s even willing to answer questions about what McMegan is like.
Violet
Gah. I can’t read Megan McArdle. I tried to at one point, simply because I didn’t know who she was and had no idea what I was getting into. But her posts kept making me want to throw something at my monitor. And heaven knows my poor monitor had done nothing to deserve it. So I decided it was best for everyone if I quit reading her uninformed nonsense.
How in the world did she get that job and how does she keep it? Perhaps Mr. Suderman can answer that question.
Wile E. Quixote
@Mr. McMegan McArdle
Dear Peter, I know that you and Megan are both fans of Ayn Rand. My friends and I were wondering if you ever re-enact the scene from The Fountainhead where Howard Roark rapes Dominique Francon and if so which one of you is the bitch? My friends were all saying that you are and that Megan slaps you around and then holds you down and drills you with a huge, black strap-on that she calls “John Henry” while putting cigarettes out on your back and reciting from memory John Galt’s 103 page long speech from Atlas Shrugged. Is this true? I thought that Megan had quit smoking.
Sincerely Yours,
jl
Seems like a nice match, from what I have seen so far.
(I’m not talking about the fiance guest blooging for The Daily Dish, though)
Dave C
Well, at least I know now that I don’t need to bother visiting The Dish this week.
gbear
@Wile E. Quixote:
Win.
Thank you for sharing.
Anonymous37
and Fahrenheit 451 is my favorite novel
Is this guy 12 years old? What adult has read so few novels that Fahrenheit 451 is his favorite?
On the other hand, if he is actually 12 years old, I have to give him credit for a fairly impressive resume.
DougJ
@Wile
Tone it down. That’s more than a little overboard.
Keith G
@Wile E. Quixote: Laughed so hard, kittens ran for cover.
JGabriel
Violet:
McArdle built up a large audience for herself amongst the ubermensch-worshipping Randroids by blogging as ‘Jane Galt’. The Atlantic, having gone neocon, then brought her aboard to co-opt her audience for their website.
Hope that answers your question, assuming it wasn’t rhetorical.
.
Wile E. Quixote
@francis
Remember, having to stand in line for government handouts is bad (socialism) while standing with your cap in hand tugging your forelock and asking your betters for money (feudalism) is A-OK.
Violet
@JGabriel:
Thank you. I guess she must have some sort of audience that brings in eyeballs for her to keep the job. I can’t fathom it. She seems so…smug. And woefully unaware of how most of the world lives. I don’t see how she keeps that job at all.
Another question, probably more rhetorical, how can anyone stand reading her blog?
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
@Wile E. Quixote:
As doug said, tone it down! Someone could get badly hurt! I was laughing so hard I fell out of my chair.
JK
@JGabriel:
The more I read of McArdle, the more repulsive and nauseating she becomes.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Have you read The Fountainhead?
Wile’s post doesn’t strike me as being that much more over the top, and given that McArdle and Suderman are obviously fans and defenders of all things Randian, they’re kind of legitimate targets for that type of attack – even if it is ugly.
.
Warren Terra
I still don’t understand how Culture 11 failed, and so rapidly – how much can it possibly cost to run an online magazine? Figure at most an ad sales person/accountant, a gearhead or two, no more than a half-dozen writer/editors, a few salary-equivalents in freelance fees for outside submissions, and some hardware. Maybe actually rent office space and hire a receptionist or administrator, maybe not. If you’re overpaying for everything and all those people are full-time, it might reach a million a year, plus whatever paid advertising you buy, and that’s running it like it’s a smaller version of the Weekly Standard, or (less offensively) the American Prospect (using a liberal opinion mag I like because I honestly can’t think of a Conservative one that hasn’t surrendered to the Crazy). Now, I assume they had no revenues – but they couldn’t find any other backers? Or, for that matter, just keep it going as a relatively formal group-blog-type site or as a side project, run cheaply as a volunteer site like so many online magazines are (thinking for example of the volunteer-run online science fiction magazine highlighted in John Scalzi’s blog on Friday, one that pays its contributors industry-standard rates and is right up there with the leaders in its field)?
Of course, given Suderman’s roots in the Astroturfing industry, maybe working cheap or free as a labor of love on something you believe in just isn’t something he understands.
JGabriel
@Violet:
And there you have an accurate description of most of Rand’s defenders. Thus, McArdle’s audience.
.
Ned Ludd
Looks like he got some emails and added some more on his work experience. Of course, his Koch fellowship at Reason, which is currently paying his salary, got buried after the oh-so-relevant work experience at Books-A-Million, waiting tables at Fudpuckers, working a busboy at TGI Fridays and doing “something-or-other at Winn Dixie”. And right before he mentioned mowing lawns.
He also never mentions Koch’s role in Americans for Prosperity, which is working to kill health care reform.
DougJ
Wile’s post doesn’t strike me as being that much more over the top, and given that McArdle and Suderman are obviously fans and defenders of all things Randian, they’re kind of legitimate targets for that type of attack – even if it is ugly.
All right.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
@JK:
I’m actually quite impressed by Megan’s talent for erecting strawmen and then knocking the crap out of them.
Anne Laurie
It wasn’t an instruction manual, dipstick. And, no, fapping off at the thought of heroically reciting Atlas Shrugged from memory whilst hiding from the Moonbat PC Police doesn’t make you look any less like an overaged adolescent than creaming over the idea of being able to throw people in jail for owning The Audacity of Hope.
(P.S. Comedian Bob Smith has a wonderful riff about the kind of books that would actually end up memory-preserved in a modern Fahrenheit 451 universe — stuff like Thinner Thighs in 30 Days and The Atkins Diet.)
Comrade Kevin
@Warren Terra: Health Insurance premiums?
Comrade Kevin
@Warren Terra: Health Insurance premiums?
Comrade Kevin
@Warren Terra: Health insurance premiums?
(will the third try at posting a comment work?)
Ned Ludd
It look like Koch is behind FreedomWorks, too:
“Mr. Koch, a major contributor to the Republican Party and supporter of conservative causes, was the vice presidential candidate on the Libertarian ticket in 1980. In 2003 he helped establish the nonprofit Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which supports free-market policies and promotes government spending limits. It split off from an earlier Koch-backed enterprise, now called FreedomWorks, which promotes similar goals.” – New York Times
It must be nice to live off of the welfare of oil-and-gas billionaire David H. Koch.
JK
OT
Even more disgusting than the success of Megan the clown McArdle is this:
With Obama In Office, Fox News Finds Its Stride
Fox’s viewership is up 11 percent over last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN and MSNBC, which benefited from interest in the campaign last year, are down
h/t huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/16/with-obama-in-office-fox-_n_260682.html
celticdragon
Hell NO! It’s a thing of breathtaking crystalline perfection.
For. The. Win.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Change “she” to “he” and you’ve got my opinion of Sullivan (without the swear words).
steve s
@Warren Terra:
I’ve had an online business before, and am filing paperwork this year for a new one. You might be surprised how hard it is to get eyeballs. The one I’m starting up, we’re already worried about. The Flash front end, the PHP and MySQL back end, the hosting, the merchant accounts, all that is easy, compared to the ad problem. Getting visibility is the hardest thing these days.
Warren Terra
@ Comrade Kevin, #46
There may be many costs I’ve overlooked, and more that I’ve ignorantly underestimated, but none of that changes my positions that (1) if Culture 11 was so important to sane Republicans, it should have been possible to find replacement backers, especially as the sums involved weren’t monumental and it was meant to fill a void, as there seems to be no institutional voice of Sane Republicanism (though Frum, for all he’s got an AEI sinecure, has been doing some of this lately at his own site, as has Bruce Bartlett, by – oddly – corresponding with a liberal blog); and (2) if Culture 11 were so important to Suderman, or to the other main figures (Reihan Salaam iirc), it would not have been hard to keep some significant version of it going on a smaller scale, or even as a volunteer project; even perhaps just posting essays to it that they couldn’t get paid for elsewhere. Instead, once the wingnut moneyspout was removed they dissolved it completely.
@ DougJ, #43
You were right the first time, before you bactracked – there’s plenty in their track records and public statements to attack without getting graphic, prurient, or personal, and it’s easy to say that their idol Ayn Rand was a horrible person who glorified rape without constructing scenarios in which one of them violently assaults the other.
Comrade Kevin
@Warren Terra: J O K E. I’m sure you know the word.
DougJ
You were right the first time, before you bactracked – there’s plenty in their track records and public statements to attack without getting graphic, prurient, or personal, and it’s easy to say that their idol Ayn Rand was a horrible person who glorified rape without constructing scenarios in which one of them violently assaults the other.
I tend to agree.
JGabriel
NY Times via Ned Ludd:
And yet, Dick Armey denies knowing anything about Americans for Prosperity to Rachel Maddow on this morning’s Meet The Press.
Are you saying Dick Armey LIED?
I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked!
.
MikeJ
I’ll say. I didn’t start banging 36 year olds until I was 17. Of course I stopped when I was 19.
Anonymous37
Good times, good times …
JGabriel
@Warren Terra:
It’s not just that Rand glorified rape, but that she used it as a metaphor for the common person wanting to be dominated by the ubermensch, thereby excusing it as just another byproduct of the will to power.
Pretty fucking vile, if you ask my opinion.
Consequently, I don’t see the big sin in subjecting McArdle and Suderman to the same type of rhetoric they defend and praise on their side. Unless one wants to make the “we shouldn’t descent to their level” argument, in which case we’re arguing ourselves right out of our ability to counter-attack and ought not engage in politics at all.
.
The Moar You Know
@Wile E. Quixote: Epic win.
JGabriel
And for the record, I hate being on the side of defending ugly jokes. That said, I really don’t see the point of limiting ourselves to civil discourse when the subjects are defenders of discourse as incivil as Rand’s.
.
General Winfield Stuck
@Wile E. Quixote:
LOL
oliver's neck
Yeah, Ayn was one of them Bad Nietzscheans. Poor Friedrich, so misunderstood, abused, and misused.
wasabi gasp
Ohhh, so that’s what a fountainhead is.
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
An early exposure to Randonite™ can fuck you up really bad. I have to say that a lot of times when I’m around Randroids like McMegan or Mister McMegan I shudder and think “There but for the grace of God and Hunter S. Thompson, go I.”
Wile E. Quixote
@Oliver’s Neck
Bad Ayn! Bad. You’re a bad little Nietschean young lady. Kein Überbiscuit für dich!
Anne Laurie
According to my libertarian acquaintances, volunteer work is inherently suspicious, because doing anything “for free” is a crime against one’s own worth. When pressed, there was some concensus that volunteer work might be acceptable if (a) it was something one really enjoyed doing, or would be doing anyway; or (b) if it held out the possibility of future financial reward, i.e. by improving one’s skills or demonstrating them to potential future employers. To hardcore glatt libertarians, however, even an act of mutually enjoyable sexual congress should be carefully weighed afterwards, with the partner who enjoyed such act “more” owing some form of payback to the “less successful” partner. (This is the sort of late-night conversation nerds had in college dormitories back before online gaming was invented.)
Under such a philosophical standard, the popularity of astroturfing among libertarians, and vice versa, becomes much more explicable. “Free” blogging, or any form of communication that isn’t paid for in advance, is for luzers who don’t understand that anything that doesn’t have a price doesn’t have a value. On the other hand, ideas that people are willing to spend their own precious dollars on are, by definition, good — or they wouldn’t be attractive to people with money.
Peter Suderman is “following his bliss” by advocating for money whatever positions he’s paid to advocate; the fact that he’s doing so dishonestly and sometimes illegally is less important in Mr. Suderman’s worldview than the fact he’s getting paid. Megan McArdle is a less polished version of Peter Suderman, in that her writing is so clumsy and her lies so blatant that she’s easily exposed and even more easily mocked. But then, mockery from us unenlightened proles is further proof to McArdle that she is in possession of a Special Talent… and her paymasters don’t care whether we’re laughing with McArdle or at her, as long as she draws the click-throughs.
However, since Andrew Sullivan is a better judge of writing than to have hired Suderman for his talent, I’m guessing that Sully thought a week’s exposure to a pathetic little no-talent putz like Suderman could only improve Sullivan’s own stature in comparison.
burnspbesq
@Warren Terra:
“I still don’t understand how Culture 11 failed, and so rapidly – how much can it possibly cost to run an online magazine?”
Salon is a public company subject to SEC reporting requirements. It’s SEC filings are interesting reading, to say the least, on this topic.
Lesley
Why would Sullivan pick this guy???
JGabriel
Wile E. Quixote:
Yes, I’ve had similar experiences, though in my case I suspect the Randian lead shielding was via Shaw — who had a far more liberal/socialist take on Nietzscheanism than Rand’s nearly fascist capitalistic interpretation — rather than Thompson. I didn’t come across Thompson’s work until my early 20’s, whereas Shaw was strewn all throughout my teens.
.
burnspbesq
@Lesley:
Dunno … maybe Megan promised to walk the beagles for a month.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie:
And thereby parenthetically providing proof for the social utility of online gaming.
.
Anon
Wile E. Quixote does set up the situation as two adults engaging in consensual roleplay. Who are we to judge?
Mike Furlan
That would be his support for the “Bell Curve” nonsense?
burnspbesq
This is likely to make you crabby. Further evidence on the increasing concentration of income at the top of the distribution table.
taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/08/saez-new-income.html
burnspbesq
It may be a bit early, but I want to nominate this guy for Dumbest Criminal of the Year.
kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1376343.html
Wile E. Quixote
@Anne Laurie
Color me cynical but I have a hard time believing that nerds who had conversations like this had much, if any experience with mutually enjoyable sexual congress with anyone other than themselves.
Wile E. Quixote
@Anne Laurie
For the record I would like everyone to know that even though I went to college before online gaming was popular and available that me and my nerd friends did not have discussions such as this one. Instead we played D&D and talked about which was better, Marvel or DC, one more reason I think “Thank God I went to a state school and not some decadent Ivy League college!”
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
And thereby parenthetically providing proof for the social utility of online gaming.
I think this would be a great PSA. A spot explaining how online gaming can prevent your kids from becoming Randroids.
JGabriel
Dumb Kansas Criminal via burnspbesq:
That’s such a cliche anymore. How come we never see a death threat like this:
See? THAT would be scary.
.
Wile E. Quixote
burnspbesq
I hope they give him extra time for misspelling “anthrax”. That sort of thing really pisses me off.
General Winfield Stuck
@burnspbesq:
You can pretty much discern from that first graph, the rise and fall of the GOP, with the period From the Great Depression until around 1980 pretty much flat or evening out of wealth with a vibrant middle class, with before and after an Oligarchy in the making. The social wedge issues and faux patriotism, and all the other wingnut ideological dog whistles being a ruse. It is, and always has been for them, about creating a two class system of rich and poor– And stoking the fears and insecurities of innocent rubes of mostly poor into screwing themselves by backing up the Plutocrats who carry out the heist.
burnspbesq
@JGabriel:
Naah … the scary part is that people dumb enough to use a credit card to pay for postage to send death threats to a government agency are still allowed to breed. And vote.
Wile E. Quixote
Oh, and isn’t “Antrax” an Anthrax tribute band composed of professional exterminators from Orkin? I think I saw them opening for the Armchair Eberts.
MBSS
via one of my fav. salon threads ever, one fine specimen of the wingularity:
There already building the death camps for white people, and a porto rican on the surpreme court and a negro in the white house quinches it. Listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and wake up before we white people loose our country.
letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/07/limbaugh/view/index28.html?show=all
MBSS
via one of my favorite salon threads of all time, one fine specimen of the wingularity:
There already building the death camps for white people, and a porto rican on the surpreme court and a negro in the white house quinches it. Listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and wake up before we white people loose our country.
letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/07/limbaugh/view/index28.html?show=all
Martin
Did you forget that Sully is gay?
Wile E. Quixote
@burnspbesq
Have you ever felt that judges should be allowed to increase sentences if the guilty party is really fucking stupid. I mean not only does this guy send a death threat and pay for it with his credit card, but he also misspells “anthrax”. Shouldn’t the judge in this case be able to say “Mr. Barker, your threat is an offense to a civilized society and cannot be tolerated but it is your breathtaking stupidity in paying for this via a method that is trivially trackable, and in misspelling “anthrax” that is causing me to throw the fucking book at you, you incredible dumbass.”
MBSS
beat this:
There already building the death camps for white people, and a porto rican on the surpreme court and a negro in the white house quinches it. Listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and wake up before we white people loose our country.
letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/07/limbaugh/view/index28.html?show=all
b-psycho
@Anne Laurie:
God fucking damn I hate Objectivists. Poisoning the well with their greed-is-wonderful, everything-must-be-done-for-profit bullshit. It’s because of imbeciles like them that I have to constantly explain to people any time I express skepticism at the need for government “no, I don’t think altruism is evil, I don’t think all economic outcomes are fairly earned, I don’t think CEOs are wonderful” — shit, if it were up to me corporations wouldn’t even fucking exist…
There’s a phrase, “state-soshulism”, which describes a political concept. My problem is with the 1st half, not the second. M’kay?
MBSS
check out this guy who achieved legend status on a salon thread:
There already building the death camps for white people, and a porto rican on the surpreme court and a negro in the white house quinches it. Listen to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and wake up before we white people loose our country.
MBSS
letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/07/limbaugh/view/index28.html?show=all
JGabriel
Wile E. Quixote:
The Eberts were good, but I really thought Unplanned Burst of Idiocy stole the show. Then again I’ve always enjoyed melodic noise noise bands like Jesus & Mary Chain, so Uboi kind of fills the bill.
.
General Winfield Stuck
And this ladies and germs is the loyal opposition.
Or, How the Quinch Stoled Murka
Wile E. Quixote
Yeah, Unplanned Burst of Idiocy are pretty awesome. Have you heard that they’re going to do an album of Hoot Smalley covers?
Dave C
Since today is apparently national “Mad Men Day” here at BJ, I’ve got a question: In the history of television, has there ever been a character more pathetically self-absorbed, emotionally immature and shallow than Pete Campbell? God, I love hating him.
Keith G
I am still in moderation since 10:44 and all I said was-
Laughed so hard, kittens ran for cover.
To Mr Quixote
sigh
Wile E. Quixote
@Dave C.
Since today is apparently national “Mad Men Day” here at BJ, I’ve got a question: In the history of television, has there ever been a character more pathetically self-absorbed, emotionally immature and shallow than Pete Campbell? God, I love hating him.
Holy shit. I didn’t know that Suderman played that guy on Mad Men.
Wile E. Quixote
So is there some kind of weird sub-program that monitors the contents of each thread and selects banner ads based upon certain keywords or is there another reason why there’s an ad for “John Galt Gifts. Gifts for proud producers everywhere” or is it just a coincidence?
JGabriel
@Wile E. Quixote:
One of my favorite … incidents … involving Uboi was this exchange from the interview they did with Rolling Stone:
RS: You really don’t rehearse? Ever?
Uboi: Dude! What part of the word “unplanned” do you not understand?
Just awesome.
.
b-psycho
@Wile E. Quixote: I think it’s keywords. There was an ad in the left sidebar a moment ago claiming to be (or I thought it was) an expose from the St Petersberg Times. It turned out to be a Scientology-run website criticizing them instead.
Still have no idea why the Filipina bride ad keeps coming up tho’.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
Also, Suderman is 27. Not to say there’s anything wrong per se with marrying someone a decade older, but it sort of (along with his monologue and other commentary on the relationship) suggests where the balance of power in the relationship lies…
JGabriel
@b-psycho:
We put up posts about the economy all the time, but do banks advertise here? No.
We put up posts about cats and dogs and caring for them, but do veterinarians advertise here? No.
But put up just one post about Michelle Malkin …
.
Wile E. Quixote
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
I could go somewhere with that, and was going to, but DougJ has already admonished me this evening, so I’m just going to leave it where it lies.
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
For the win sir. For the win.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Wile E. Quixote:
Something about how female Objectivist matrons have a predilection for younger male acolytes who worship them?
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
The part I really enjoy about all this is that Megan McArdle has her name on google alerts so she’ll probably read this thread.
Wile E. Quixote
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
Dude, you are so awesome! I have to confess that I completely missed that, I was just going to work in a dick joke.
Anne Laurie
Michigan State University, aka “Moo U”, in the early 1970s. D&D was just being invented (my Spousal Unit still has the second edition of Steve Jackson’s Monsters guide), but I am even more incompetent at FRP gaming than at HTML, so once the gang had covered Marvel v DC, plus the latest sf con gossip, it was all competing Grand-Universal-Theory-of-Everything worldviews.
My GUTE was Feminism, which at least had the virtue of novelty in our circle. I know, I know — you’re all shocked. I still have a copy of Dan Mishkin’s “Feminist Marvel Heroes” poster somewhere…
Dave
Even omitting the FreedomWorks line from his resume, he might have just called himself a professional asshole. Same as McMegnut. I expect their relationship is a hell of power games.
amorphous
Suderman has updated his introductory resume, and essentially buried the FreedomWorks association amid his equivalent roles as
Move along, nothing to see here. Keep walking.
Anne Laurie
@amorphous: Cutting grass, spinning astroturf — don’t all aspiring Creative Minds need these early bouts of peonage to add “stret cred” to their CVs?
DougJ
Oh, wait, I should be checking the moderaton queue. Sorry I forgot.
Comrade Mary
What a disingenuous fuckwit. Here’s the whole update that amorphous quoted from:
My guy is 12 years younger than me. Should I instruct him to start with the worship pronto?
Sputnik_Sweetheart
@Mike Furlan: Yes, I was referring to Sullivan’s support of the Bell Curve. Although to give credit where credit is due, I thought his posts on Gatesgate were pretty good.
matoko_chan
Suderman is a moron.
In his review of District 9 he sneers at director Neill Blomkamp for condemning apartheid in a scifi noir epic about condemning apartheid.
It really creeps me out how he tries to put a conservative spin on any movie he reviews.
Sputnik_Sweetheart
The Angry Renter website makes my blood boil. I used to canvas for a tenants rights group– we would go to buildings that were facing foreclosure and let renters know what their rights were and put them in touch with lawyers who could help them either fight eviction or get a fair settlement. Renters’ rights are tied to the mortgage crisis because if someone is renting in a building that is being foreclosed upon, they are usually evicted on very short notice (and questionable legality) and with very little compensation. Of course, the people I canvassed were in the lower tax brackets, so I’m sure Suderman and Freedom Works couldn’t really give a damn about their rights.
Barry
“Megan McArdle’s finace is stunt-doubling for Sully this week.”
There’s a joke (from memory): “If your family tree is nothing but a trunk, you might be a redneck”. By now, rednecks are probably making incest jokes about the Atlantic.
raff
@ amorphous & Cougar Mary (rowarr)
I’d be interested in the substance of those emails. Were they, like: “Hey Peter, you seem like a cool & funny dude, but you didn’t mention anything about your professional background starting from when you were 13. Dish dude!” or were they more like: “Say, didn’t you used to work for Freedom Works? & wouldn’t that be useful information should you post about health care over the course of your guest-blogger gig at TDD?”
I’ll assume it was more of the latter owing to Suderman’s somewhat peevish update: ‘Well, since you’re too lazy to google me, why don’t I just tell you every job I’ve had since I was 13’. Thanks for sharing, Pete. I can’t wait to see what perspective lawn-mowing & working at “Fudpucker’s” brings to your health care debating chops (as opposed to, say, working for an org dedicated to destroying health care reform).
Also, I notice Patrick Appel has a midly critical post regarding McMegan. Will Suderman offer comment? Will he stay out of it? (probably the smart move)
Hmm, perhaps there was a method to Sullivan’s madness when he asked Suderman to guest blog. An interesting dynamic, but one that, I fear, won’t be utilized to it’s full degree.
mutt
Ive been a daily reader of Sullivans for several years- post “Bell Curve”, from what Im reading here.
Everybody got blind spots in their belief system. Amog Sully’s is Ronald Reagan and (amog other horrors & train wrecks) the mass death he caused thruout Central America, for instance. (To be sure, he built on the foundation laid down by Jimmy Cracker, which brings up other peoples blind spots) To Sully, those vile wars never happened, evidently.
But Im really appalled by his guest bloggers this time around…..pretty damned juvenile. Patrick Appel can turn a phrase, & seems a thoughtful man. Beyod him, tho…….
You’d think the guy has serious people standin in long lines for a chance to fill in.
We get tawdry nepotism, yup navel gazing, & trivialities.
And a slimeball from FreedumbWorks…..
C’mon, Sully- Burke AND Oakeshott would have caned Rand…..
matoko_chan
yeah..the atlantic mafia.
the conservative bench is very thin anymore….sully has to give welfare epics and mercy to dimbos like McArdle and sleazy poseurs like Suderman.
burnspbesq
@Martin:
No, I didn’t forget, and that’s why I rule out sexual favors as a possibility. Or maybe she threatened him with sexual favors if he didn’t give her what she wanted.
Xanthippas
Guess you guys got to him:
Anybody else read that and think McArdle herself might’ve written that, given her propensity for using “humor” or sarcasm to off-handedly dismiss critical oversights on her own part? I suppose he’s also insufferably arrogant and completely unaware of his own failings, which means they’re a match made in heaven.
matoko_chan
Look…there is a lower standard for conservative pundits…..because most of the smart people have left the building.
I got banned by Ta-nehisi because I said Douthat was just Bill Kristol with a thesaurus and more hair.
But it is true.
That is why Sully gives mercy
f*ckslinks to McArdle and David Hume and lets the “special” bloggers like Suderman stunt-double for him.pseudonymous in nc
If McCurdle and FreedomJerk have children, I fear that they’ll throttle themselves while attempting to tie their shoelaces.
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
The final nails in the coffin of my Randroid phase were hammered in when I read The Illuminatus Trilogy when I was 18 years old. The trilogy, which you should read if you haven’t, contains the most devastating and spot-on parody of Ayn Rand ever written, a novel called Telemachus Sneezed which asks the question, “Who is John Guilt?” I realized then, at the tender age of 18 that I’d much rather hang around with guys like Hunter S. Thompson, Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson or the characters in Shea and Wilson’s fiction than I would with Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden or any of the characters in any of Rand’s work.
Years later Matt Ruff wrote Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy which is as wonderfully goofy and weird as The Illuminatus Trilogy and has as one of its characters a computer simulation of Ayn Rand that resides in a hurricane lamp and which delivers hilarious lectures on objectivism before one of the characters gets fed up and points out to Rand that by her own values her life was a lie. It’s funny and it’s brilliant and although exasperating Rand is portrayed sympathetically and in the end heroically.
Interestingly enough John Belushi, Ayn Rand and Philip K. Dick all died in the same week in March, 1982, an interesting coincidence although not as interesting as the fact that Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis and JFK all died on the same day in November of 1963.