Talking to some rich folks that you know
The twitter machine tells me that at the Aspen Wanker Festival, Tom Friedman says we need a third party. Presumably one which agrees with Tom Friedman with everything, and of course commands majority support throughout the country.
Caption contest (h/t Steve M.)
I guess I don’t mind that our Galtian overlords and their sychophants gather to plot our enslavement, I’ve always know that was going on. But do they have to be so fucking smug about it? And what are otherwise good guys like Felix Salmon and James Fallows doing there?
June 30, 2011 4:36 pm
Posted in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Our Failed Political Establishment, We Are All Mayans Now
101 Comments
101 Responses
General Stuck - June 30, 2011 | 4:39 pm · Link
I predict we will. 6 months, tops.
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 4:40 pm · Link
Speaking of “Galtian overlords and their sychophants”—Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing
So much for The Great Blog Hope.
Edwards, Grayson, Lamont, Massa, Weiner, Cuomo. The netroots has no radar.
Larime the Gimp - June 30, 2011 | 4:40 pm · Link
No, what we NEED is two parties.
What we HAVE is one party and one group of sociopathic freaks.
Wee Bey - June 30, 2011 | 4:41 pm · Link
I’ll be in my basement room, with a needle and a spoon…
DougJ in Damascus - June 30, 2011 | 4:42 pm · Link
It’s weird, Mike Kay, my liberal friends in NYS (who trash Obama) all hate Cuomo, say he’s worse than a Republican governor. So take the Kos love with a grain of salt.
Frapalinger - June 30, 2011 | 4:42 pm · Link
caption: “the great thing about China is that its run by a club of interbred elites who …”
Cat Lady - June 30, 2011 | 4:43 pm · Link
“Really? Even the Buddha would tell me I’m full of shit?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist - June 30, 2011 | 4:43 pm · Link
Isn’t “David Brooks giving a seminar at the Aspen Institute” a tag? My god, what a glorious moment of self-parody that was.
Does Friedman name an actual issue, or is this the fantasy that the Bayh-McCaskill administration would lead us to the Sweet Land Of Reasonable?
joeyess - June 30, 2011 | 4:45 pm · Link
Bobo: “Yes, but don’t you think that a salad bar at Applebee’s would give them a touch of Feng shui?”
geg6 - June 30, 2011 | 4:45 pm · Link
I can’t speak about why Felix Salmon is there. But Fallows and TNC are there because the Aspen “Ideas” Fest is put on by the Atlantic.
And just my take is that I don’t disrespect Fallows for it because he isn’t crowing about how awesome it is all over his blog. Unlike, say, TNC, who unlike almost everyone here, I don’t think is all that and an ice cream sundae. ETA: With the sole exception of his writing about the Civil War. Otherwise, I find him quite pedestrian and about as in love with false equivalency as any other pundit.
Culture of Truth - June 30, 2011 | 4:45 pm · Link
Yes they do
Calouste - June 30, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
If you think you need a third party, the first thing you have to do is change the electoral system so that it actually allows for a third party. As long as everything is first-past-the-post, the only thing that a third party will do is replace one of the existing two parties.
Third parties will come as soon as there is electoral reform, like IRV. Of course the chances that there will be electoral reform before the collapse of the USA are about the same as winning the lottery with last week’s ticket.
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
To paraphrase Bill Moyers, “if Obama has lost Tom Friedman, then he’s lost middle manhattan!”
Belafon (formerly anonevent) - June 30, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
“I’m looking for a religion that will let me take my wealth and sanctimony to heaven with me. Can you offer me that?”
NonyNony - June 30, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
I remember when the Galtian overlords met in secret at the Bilderberg Hotel to do that, instead of waving their class privilege around in public.
They better be careful – the only reason that their cries of “class warfare” everytime anyone suggests that they might pay an extra percent or two in marginal taxes are effective is because they used to keep their own class warfare attacks on the down low. Making their class warfare so open and public might eventually generate some resentment.
DougJ in Damascus - June 30, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
Shit, I forgot to add the tag, what am I thinking. Blame it on the jet lag.
xochi - June 30, 2011 | 4:47 pm · Link
“Do you think I could get one of those robes? It looks very comfortable.”
cmorenc - June 30, 2011 | 4:48 pm · Link
@DougJ in Damascus:
...because Aspen is a lovely, fun place to go and WANK, especially if your trip is being paid for by the festival or some corporate expense account.
arguingwithsignposts - June 30, 2011 | 4:49 pm · Link
Aspen is the low rent Davos. And they’re there because that’s where the money is.
cleek - June 30, 2011 | 4:49 pm · Link
mediocre intellect elevated to high-profile status by yet lesser intellects overestimates own intelligence, confuses size of paycheck with size of worth to society.
evinfuilt - June 30, 2011 | 4:49 pm · Link
@3 Larime the Gimp
I think you’re half right. we have a group of sociopathic freaks but the other party really is 2 parties, and I really wish the sociopaths would die off so the blue dogs can be let to go to turn into their own party.
Culture of Truth - June 30, 2011 | 4:49 pm · Link
Caption:
“It’s a very good thing for this caucasian fool I’m non-violent, for I am suffering from an overwhelming desire to strike this twit with great strength upside the head.”
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 4:50 pm · Link
They had to do rebranding after the Bilderbergers and the Bohemian Grove became toxic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist - June 30, 2011 | 4:52 pm · Link
I stopped reading Friedman a long time ago, but from what I remember, his big issues are the environment (without ever suggesting that one party may actually be a bit more coherent on the issue, because that would be biased), and the “Arab street” needing to do what the American political establishment thinks it should. We would maybe have our ambassadors spreading diplomacy from the back of taxis?
srv - June 30, 2011 | 4:52 pm · Link
There is nothing funnier than a real zen quote:
Many Zen teachers, in their pride, vainly boast that they know nothing, but it is I alone who have truly succeeded in achieving total ignorance….
Tom Hilton - June 30, 2011 | 4:53 pm · Link
@Calouste: Exactly. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to explain this to Green-ish types who piss and moan about how nobody represents them. I could actually develop a tiny amount of respect for the Green party if it put 90% of its efforts into pushing for some kind of ranked-choice voting in every state in the US.
Spaghetti Lee - June 30, 2011 | 4:54 pm · Link
“What? No-I’m trying to provide you with enlightenment.”
Tom Hilton - June 30, 2011 | 4:54 pm · Link
“Hey, can you tell me where there’s an Applebee’s in Aspen?”
Culture of Truth - June 30, 2011 | 4:54 pm · Link
As I recall I stopped Friedman around the time he told a whole region of the earth to ‘suck on this’
murbella - June 30, 2011 | 4:55 pm · Link
you retard, they are illibertarians™ like all the rest.
Davis X. Machina - June 30, 2011 | 4:56 pm · Link
For much of my life we’ve have had basically four parties, but only two labels.
Democrats who are Democrats.
Democrats who are actually Republicans
Republicans who are Republicans
Republicans who are actually Democrats.
Since the last species, common in my youth (cf. Senators Brooke, Chuck Percy, Javits, Hatfield…) is all but extinct, we are in effect a three-party polity.
And coalition politics.
Violet - June 30, 2011 | 4:56 pm · Link
Caption:
“Of course the Buddha would have understood the importance of not raising taxes on the top 1%.”
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 4:56 pm · Link
@ DougJ in Damascus:
Eric Alterman calls Cuomo, “the bull dog of the rich.” It doesn’t get more cutting than that or more honest than Altercation.
DougL - June 30, 2011 | 4:56 pm · Link
“I was thinking of attending a nearby SlutWalk, but this is all I could come up with.”
Cris (without an H) - June 30, 2011 | 4:56 pm · Link
I’m not really convinced that instant runoff is sufficient. For a “third party” to have any real influence, you need proportional representation, and that would entail a radical (in the most literal sense of that word) change to the structure of Congress.
I spent the entire 1990s flirting with the notion of third parties, and I finally came to peace with the situation when I realized that we do have multiple parties within a two-party system. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties are actually coalitions, and a lot of the apparent contradictions within them begin to make sense when you realize it’s the result of trying to accommodate multiple factions.
Jim, Foolish Literalist - June 30, 2011 | 5:00 pm · Link
I actually always thought this was a worse moment than “Suck on this”
There used to be video. His petulance was gob-smacking.
Kerry Reid - June 30, 2011 | 5:00 pm · Link
“If a group of wankers wank in the Rockies and nobody sees them, did they really wank?”
slag - June 30, 2011 | 5:01 pm · Link
Good to see Bobo already taking advantage of NY’s new gay marriage law. Maybe he’ll now also start dressing better.
Keith - June 30, 2011 | 5:01 pm · Link
Caption: “At dinner, I would like you to rub my left thigh while Senator Graham covers my right.”
Roger Moore - June 30, 2011 | 5:01 pm · Link
@Larime the Gimp:
Unfortunately, there are enough sociopathic freaks in this country to make up a major political party. Until we can get rid of them, we’re going to have a sane party and a sociopath party. In the interim, the best we can hope for is that the sociopath party is a long-term minority. Wishing this wasn’t so isn’t going to change anything.
SiubhanDuinne - June 30, 2011 | 5:02 pm · Link
Caption:
“Hmmm . . . He’s tanned (in a prairie, sun-chapped sort of way), and if I sit next to him at dinner he might just put his hand on my inner thigh the whole time.”
aisce - June 30, 2011 | 5:02 pm · Link
@ dougj
don’t worry. mike kay is just on another rage-ohol bender because some random commenters on some random blogs he religiously watches said something nice about some random cause celebre for a day who wasn’t obama.
nobody actually gives a shit about andrew cuomo. just like nobody ended up giving a shit about whoever the governor of connecticut was when they passed same sex marriage. google says it was jodi rell. who is apparently republican. so whatever.
Cris (without an H) - June 30, 2011 | 5:04 pm · Link
I’d respect the Green party if they woke up to the fact that they are a subset of the Democratic (coalition) party, and start acting like they have a stake in it. The Moral Majority didn’t wander off into the desert nominating vanity candidates and hoping to maybe poll 5%, they made a concerted, organized effort to take over the Republican party and became one of its major powers.
jimbob - June 30, 2011 | 5:05 pm · Link
“Why yes, I have heard of Nirvana. They were a little too loud for my tastes.”
“Absence of desire? Well, I’ve been told that I have that effect on people.”
JPL - June 30, 2011 | 5:09 pm · Link
aisce I disagree…several liberal sites painted Cuomo as a savior for passing the right to marry. Cuomo is anything but a liberal and New Yorkers might know that but many liberal blogs do not.
EDIT… I guess I’m on a rant also, too.
aisce - June 30, 2011 | 5:12 pm · Link
@ geg6
he’s a black dude who’s lived in baltimore, washington d.c., and new york city. yeah…i can’t imagine why he would have an occasionally jaundiced view of democratic governance.
i’ve tended to notice that urbanites tend towards “both sides are all alike” with greater intensity than other people, black, white, whatever. cynicism is even easier when the suck is just right on top of you day after day. and since the media is all urban types, it gets amplified. it says a lot about our cities, i think.
Pococurante - June 30, 2011 | 5:12 pm · Link
@10 geg6
As much as I like TNC’s essays the community there is a throwback to early 1990’s Political Correctness.
That’s nice for them, everyone needs someone.
If Sullivan had a comments community he’d be a worse moderator. So I guess TNC has that going for him.
@46 aice
He’s also a black dude that says, sure I live with the mother of my children but I’m not going to marry her because “comicsWoWslartibartifastShesaidicould”.
So he has that going for him too.
slag - June 30, 2011 | 5:12 pm · Link
So, for Friedman, “suck on this”, is just slang for, “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent”...? OK…I can see that.
murbella - June 30, 2011 | 5:13 pm · Link
ditto here. TNC lurves him some Weigel and Douthat and Sully.
he is just a useful idiot for the illibertarians™ except for his civil war stuff…. i have to admit…his civil war stuff is truly epic.
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 5:15 pm · Link
Here’s a photo of Friedman’s mansion.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2.....tt-taibbi/
He married a billionaire. I guess Obama went to far in calling for the elimination of tax deductions for private planes.
pragmatism - June 30, 2011 | 5:16 pm · Link
with all the hipster facial hair these days, is the mustache of understanding hip as well for the next 6 months?
Suffern ACE - June 30, 2011 | 5:21 pm · Link
JPL - netroots though didn’t elect Cuomo, nor did they chase Patterson from office. Fairly mainstreem folks did that.
People getting excited about a piece of legislation passing that had failed in the passed can be allowed to be exuberant for a few days I think without Michael Kay banging them on it. But alas, no.
Whatever. He’s more upset that someone liked Cuomo for 2 days and more excited that he can bash them on a few BJ threads than he actually is about the Fracking. He could care less about policy as long as someone he’s decided is a firebagger or a PUMA gets hit. People with dirty water aren’t that exciting. He is, really, a firebagger claiming to represent some kind of radical pragmatism.
Omnes Omnibus - June 30, 2011 | 5:22 pm · Link
Caption: Of course I know the sound of one hand fapping. Oh, clapping…. Never mind.
Turgidson - June 30, 2011 | 5:23 pm · Link
Is it wrong that I think this is the perfect time to authorize the first-ever drone mission over our own soil (after quietly notifying the sane journalists who should be spared of what’s to come so they can get out)?
DougJ of “Collins-Bobo murder-suicide” fame should take this idea public while we have this chance.
Valdivia - June 30, 2011 | 5:23 pm · Link
Sorry if someone has already made this hyper banal comment—but man, what is it with the sneakers paired up with dress pants? That is what sartorial nightmares are made of. That and the fact that it’s BoBo.
JPL - June 30, 2011 | 5:24 pm · Link
Suffern ACE ..I’m concerned about fracking.
EDIT.. I was thrilled with the civil rights decision in New York to allow couple to marry but to me fracking is a more serious issue. Texas is suffering from lack of water but rejoice in a policy that uses up more water.
Let me now be pelted with rocks for saying that ..
taylormattd - June 30, 2011 | 5:24 pm · Link
@ Mike Kay – 2:
If Obama had used the bullypulpit on Cuomo, this wouldn’t have happened.
Turgidson - June 30, 2011 | 5:26 pm · Link
Oh and I forgot to mention, let’s make sure Halperin is there.
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.) - June 30, 2011 | 5:26 pm · Link
What would it take to get tools like Brooks or Friedman to give up a few weeks to go work in an inner city soup kitchen or a third world clinic? I’d love to hear them tell us why we need more tax cuts for Paris Hilton more than a social safety net after that.
Tonal Crow - June 30, 2011 | 5:26 pm · Link
Apple, apple, apple pie!
Blueberry too, as blue as the sky,
And key-lime, mmmm, the price is not too high.
But trollberry, that’s the best, and that ain’t no lie.
SiubhanDuinne - June 30, 2011 | 5:27 pm · Link
@Valdivia #55:
He prolly figured, “Hey, the other guy’s wearing a skirt, no one will pay any attention to what I have on.”
taylormattd - June 30, 2011 | 5:27 pm · Link
@DougJ – 5:
This is the key to remaining sane when reading the incorrectly self-titled “left” blogosphere.
Chris - June 30, 2011 | 5:28 pm · Link
Every time this conversation comes up, I end up wondering, how many countries are there in the world that actually have a third party, regardless of their electoral system?
I mean, I always hear people say “why can’t we be like Europe, look how many parties run in their elections…” Truth is, I look at Europe, and I don’t see much difference in most cases: two parties, one on the left and one on the right. No one in Britain’s going to win who’s not Labour or Conservative, no one in France is going to win who’s not Socialist or UMP.
Yeah, they’ve got a lot of other little parties running around, but none of them are viable; the best they can do is take away enough votes from one of the major parties to benefit the other one, which is pretty much the same thing spoilers like Ralph Nader, Ross Perot or George Wallace do over here.
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.) - June 30, 2011 | 5:28 pm · Link
@ Valdivia, no. 55:
It’s because he’s an asshole and a tool who most likely wears a suit to sit down to eat dinner with his wife and children. Black tie if it’s a special occasion.
Jeffro - June 30, 2011 | 5:28 pm · Link
TIE: Spaghetti Lee @ 27 and Omnes @ 53
Not gonna beat those, folks…
Omnes Omnibus - June 30, 2011 | 5:29 pm · Link
@ Valdivia: I think he is wearing chinos. I am not saying that this makes it right, just different. If he had gone with preppy, hipster, retro sneakers (Rod Lavers or Jack Purcells) and chinos, maybe. But then again, he is Bobo, so, no, it wouldn’t work.
Mike Kay (The Base) - June 30, 2011 | 5:31 pm · Link
Eric Alterman—The Skinny Chris Christie
Valdivia - June 30, 2011 | 5:35 pm · Link
@61 hey that robe is rocking compared to Bobo.
@64 yeah I guess this is his dress-down version of the self.
@66 retro sneakers would have worked except for the bobo-ness. But—together with my allergy to socks and sandals—seeing anyone wear anything sorta dressy with running shoes. Just no.I know—am a total fashion-freak for caring.
jaleh - June 30, 2011 | 5:35 pm · Link
I live in Aspen but I can’t afford going to any of the festival’s pow wows! it’s like $1300 for a day!
Anyway, I listen to them on the local NPR while they are happening. Tom Friedman was on today, he actually sounded pretty good. I did not hear him say anything negative about President Obama or a third party. When did he say that?
Chris - June 30, 2011 | 5:36 pm · Link
FUCKING WP.
Every time this conversation comes up, I end up wondering, how many countries are there in the world that actually have a third party, regardless of their electoral system?
I mean, I always hear people say “why can’t we be like Europe, look how many parties run in their elections…” Truth is, I look at Europe, and I don’t see much difference in most cases: two parties, one on the left and one on the right. No one in Britain’s going to win who’s not Labour or Conservative, no one in France is going to win who’s not Soshulist or UMP.
Yeah, they’ve got a lot of other little parties running around, but none of them are viable; the best they can do is take away enough votes from one of the major parties to benefit the other one, which is pretty much the same thing spoilers like Ralph Nader, Ross Perot or George Wallace do over here.
scav - June 30, 2011 | 5:39 pm · Link
“Ahhhhhh, so the next cycle of re-incarnation will feature an entirely new lifeform that it is not only blameless but pious to step on.”
Lysana - June 30, 2011 | 5:40 pm · Link
“Is it idiot compassion if the fool in front of me takes ‘idiot’ to a nadir so low that smacking him upside the head would be closer to squashing a bug?”
DougJ in Damascus - June 30, 2011 | 5:49 pm · Link
I think he could have pulled off the beige Chuck Taylors there. Would have looked better.
Frankensteinbeck - June 30, 2011 | 5:51 pm · Link
‘Even in Confuscianism you’re wrong.’
Omnes Omnibus - June 30, 2011 | 5:51 pm · Link
@ DougJ: Nope, the bobo-ness kills any chance he had.
Stan of the Sawgrass - June 30, 2011 | 5:52 pm · Link
(caption) “Tell me, O Learned One, if I should follow the Buddha upon the Eightfold Path, rid myself from the dustbag of material possessions and desire, and thus free myself from the Wheel of Karma and its endless cycle of reincarnations, will I be able to maintain my huge Bush Tax Cut, and all the numerous deductions which follow for certain High Earners?”
David Brooks: “I think you’re good to go! Plus, since you’re off the life-death wheel of Karma, none of your descendants will be subject to the Death Tax!!”
joeyess - June 30, 2011 | 5:57 pm · Link
Addressing Bobo’s chinos and sneakers, this is “dressing down” for him. This is as DFH as this fucker ever gets.
The next step is Bobo in boxer shorts.
And that way lies madness…...
Frapalinger - June 30, 2011 | 6:03 pm · Link
caption:
“What Jesus failed to realize is that its the meek that are the problem.”
Valdivia - June 30, 2011 | 6:05 pm · Link
@joyess—no no no. what have you done? bobo in boxers.
must.wash.brain.
@ omnes 75—I agree with you, the bobo-ness does kill it. Sorry DougJ!
ETA—@DougJ I do agree that the Chuck Taylors would have looked much better, if it weren’t BoBo.
ChrisNYC - June 30, 2011 | 6:08 pm · Link
Picture is too funny. That Buddhist is Matthieu Ricard, the happiest person in the world, as per testing.
They should re-check him after his convo with Brooks. Ba-da-bum.
jl - June 30, 2011 | 6:17 pm · Link
“So, I’m going to be liver fluke for a billion generations and then work up from there? Have I been THAT bad?”
JohnR - June 30, 2011 | 6:26 pm · Link
I like your portmanteau word, but you left the silent ‘p’ off of “psychophant”. In a different sense, it would also serve as the label for the symbol of the new GOP. Layers of meaning. Like a cake, or an onion, or a parfait.
Bill Murray - June 30, 2011 | 6:45 pm · Link
Chris @ 70
That’s just not really true unless you only consider the Prime Minister which usually isn’t an elected position. In Germany there are 6 parties with at least 7% of the Bundestag seats; the Knesset has 5 parties with the same level of support; Canada 3 parties, Netherlands 7 parties, Belgium 8
jl - June 30, 2011 | 6:54 pm · Link
” So, you’re humble and wise, and good and very worthy of emulation by the lesser people, and if a rich guy needed all your stuff, you’d ‘understand’, right? Can I use that in a column? ”
Calouste - June 30, 2011 | 6:59 pm · Link
@Chris:
You get coalitions, with different parties. Germany for example has had three different coalitions in the last decade: Labour/Green, Cons/Labour and Cons/Libs. It’s not just about the largest party.
Chris - June 30, 2011 | 7:24 pm · Link
@ Bill; well, I meant the “executive” and the government in general – third parties will get a few seats, but the lion’s share will go to one of the two parties.
But I see what Calouste means about coalitions. Although Israel shows the flip side of that – you can end up with entire governments held hostage by tiny groups of fanatics.
James E. Powell - June 30, 2011 | 7:28 pm · Link
Speaking of liberal governors, when was the last time we had an actual, no shit, no apology, liberal governor in any state? Can an actual liberal get elected in any state?
Lihtox - June 30, 2011 | 7:38 pm · Link
I’ve been waiting for the GOP to split for ages and ages now; I think Specter and Castle and others really dropped the ball in 2010, by not joining with some Blue Dogs to form a third party, and I think Snowe would be smart to try something along those lines for 2012 (i.e. find some like-minded conservatives and start a movement, instead of just running as an independent).
But when I see the divide between the tea-party on one side and the Chamber of Commerce on the other, I gotta think that the GOP is going to split down the middle any day now. Maybe it’ll be this debt vote: Dems and Boehnerites raise the limit, and tea partiers storm off in a huff. I really really hope they do.
Tom Hilton - June 30, 2011 | 8:16 pm · Link
@Cris (without an h): Well, yes. But then with RCV, they could actually maintain their illusions of being an independent party without actually harming the viable party that (more or less) represents their interests. I’m willing to settle for that.
Nellcote - June 30, 2011 | 10:53 pm · Link
Code Pink should go to Aspen.
The Spy Who Loved Me - June 30, 2011 | 11:03 pm · Link
This coming from the guy that has the money to take a European vacation on what seems to be an annual basis? Boo Hoo. I’ll have to worry about our Galtian Overlords while on my vacation, which will be spent laying on a cheap lounge chair in my own backyard.
dedc79 - July 1, 2011 | 12:01 am · Link
91 comments and no mention of the lyrics from “Dead Flowers” in the title to this post?! Love that song, especially the Townes version (which you may recall from the last bowling alley scene in The Big Lebowski”)
William Hurley - July 1, 2011 | 12:15 am · Link
Tibetan Buddhist Matthieu Ricard is presented with a living example proving that “emptiness” and “vacant” are profoundly different states.
Dear Earnest - July 1, 2011 | 12:59 am · Link
“So I tell the hot dog guy, ‘Hey make me one of everything!’ Do you see what I did there?”
Steeplejack - July 1, 2011 | 1:44 am · Link
@Dear Earnest:
Buddhist humor fail.
Chris T. - July 1, 2011 | 2:58 am · Link
The funny thing is, we do need a third party. Sort of. More precisely, we need the Republican party to disappear in a puff of greasy black smoke, and the Dems to split into the “conservadems” (who take over as the Rs) and the “middle of the road” Democrats. That would put us back where we were in the 1990s, which is not a great place but did at least work.
Anne Laurie - July 1, 2011 | 3:55 am · Link
Steeplejack: Me, I figured getting the pronoun wrong is just the sort of tin-earred cluelessness that BoBo would use when attempting to “joke” around us “humans”...
bob h - July 1, 2011 | 6:43 am · Link
A two-party system in which one of them is not insane and committed to warfare against the state would actually do just fine.
bjacques - July 1, 2011 | 8:43 am · Link
Ricard: ...and the second monk whips out his chopsticks and says “what’s so fastidious about wanting a hot lunch?”
Brooks: I don’t follow you.
Ricard: Boot to the head.
Happy Canada Day, eh?
Dead Earnest - July 1, 2011 | 10:07 am · Link
@ Steeplejack;
Perhaps I was too ‘sophisticated’ there.
Bobo’s “See what I did there?” was him showing His clever variation – not wanting to be one with everything but that he is entitled to have one of everything.
Steeplejack - July 1, 2011 | 12:32 pm · Link
@Dead Earnest:
Too sophisticated for me, anyway.