Straussianiam and journalism just don’t mix
This is exactly why I don’t think newspapers should employ Bill Kristol or Bobo:
Brooks: ... Why do we make candidates release their tax forms? Has there ever been a case where a presidential decision has been influenced by some bit of information that might appear on a tax form? I doubt it. Has information on a tax form ever influenced anybody’s vote? Never heard of such a case….
[....]
My own view is that the desire for full disclosure stems from a few things. First, pure prurience. Second, members of what used to be called the New Class perpetually labor under the delusion that other people dislike the rich as much as they do and if they can only disclose that someone is rich that will end their political chances. Third, there is a misbegotten ideology haunting the land, the ideology of sunshinism. This is the belief that everything should be made public….
It’s sort of okay for people to believe all that Noble Lie stuff about how the wise men should secretly decide everything while the plebes occupy themselves with work and church. That’s not what I believe, but to each his own. But to preach the Noble Lie doctrine while working in a profession dedicated to what Brooks derisively calls “sunshinism”, well that seems fucked up to me.
People wonder why there aren’t a lot of conservative journalists, conservative scientists, etc. They refuse to admit that in many ways, the aims of open discussion and research are incompatible with the aims of conservatism.
January 18, 2012 9:51 pm
Posted in: Burkean bells, David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute
120 Comments
120 Responses
MonkeyBoy - January 18, 2012 | 9:56 pm · Link
I guess Brooks thinks Romney is too noble to be corrupt.
Or maybe ordinary people might wrongly misinterpret perfectly fine behavior as corruption.
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 9:56 pm · Link
We should only discuss these things in quiet rooms.
In Bobo’s case, it should be a padded room.
Chuck Butcher - January 18, 2012 | 9:57 pm · Link
Excuse me while I consult with his pooch, Moral Outrage, if I can get him off his leg…
Brandon - January 18, 2012 | 9:58 pm · Link
I wonder if Bobo ever voiced this concern in 2008 when he was probably pooh-poohing Michelle’s Princeton thesis, which is arguably much more intrusive and irrelevant to a candidacy than an examination of a candidates tax returns.
Benjamin Franklin - January 18, 2012 | 9:58 pm · Link
I think it was Justice Potter Stewart, who, when asked to define obscenity said;
“I know it when I see it”
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 9:59 pm · Link
@MikeJ: No. No. A quiet room would be just fine. Quiet, and dark.
.
.
.
with no pen.
.
.
.
or food for that matter
Egg Berry - January 18, 2012 | 9:59 pm · Link
I don’t know, there seem to be an awful lot of them infesting the op-ed pages of our daily newspaper.
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 9:59 pm · Link
Where better to do it from the point of view of a Noble Liar?
khead - January 18, 2012 | 10:01 pm · Link
Not an open thread….
...but it still needs kittehs.
dmsilev - January 18, 2012 | 10:02 pm · Link
I read the original column/debate/whatever this morning, and what got me was Bobo insisting that college transcripts were as important for us to see as the tax returns.
First off, that basically marks him as Birther-curious, as there’s a real correlation between the sort of people who were screaming “Long form vault copy!” and the ones now who believe that Obama is hiding something because he didn’t release his grades for Intro to English Lit or whatever.
Secondly, Bobo either doesn’t understand or is pretending not to understand the difference in relevance between a 30 year old college transcript and a one or two year old tax return. If our Presidential candidates were only a couple of years out of college, I might grant that their choice of courses and grades in same were meaningful. However, that is not the case.
Delia - January 18, 2012 | 10:02 pm · Link
My guess is that “sunshinism” will never catch on the way “truthiness” did.
DanielX - January 18, 2012 | 10:02 pm · Link
Bobo offended! Prurient interest! Proles getting above their station!
But – but – if Candidate Obama, back there in thatepochbeforehistory (pre 2009, that is) had failed to publish his tax returns, oh my…Bobo offended and shocked! Candidate Obama hiding something! Candidate Obama not being fully honest! Blaaarrrgh!
Veritas78 - January 18, 2012 | 10:04 pm · Link
I want to see his tax returns to find out if he deducts his veterinary bills for his horses as a medical expense, because his wife now uses them as therapy for her MS. I’d also like to know the total expense of his vets, divided by the number of horses he owns (which we also don’t know). That would tell us if his horses get better (or more expensive) health care than the average American.
Ah, but why should I care? Horses are people too, my friend!
amk - January 18, 2012 | 10:06 pm · Link
bobo is panicking since willard’s dirty past is catching up and starting to stick with plebes. fuck’em both.
efgoldman - January 18, 2012 | 10:06 pm · Link
Twenty years from now we’re going to find out that Bobo was a special Times project testing the possibility of 11th-dimensional parody.
Nothing else makes sense.
Laertes - January 18, 2012 | 10:07 pm · Link
Bobo’s being dishonest. Nobody is going to learn from his tax returns that Romney is rich. With or without tax returns, that’s abundantly clear.
What Bobo’s desperately afraid of is that the tax returns are going to shine a light on the shameful distribution of the tax burden here in America. His effective 15% rate is going to be a scandal, and from Bobo’s point of view, a terribly inconvenient one.
DanielX - January 18, 2012 | 10:08 pm · Link
Also, too – as with Our Lady of Stolichnaya, Bobo clearly believes that sometimes the best thing to do (when faced with unpleasant facts) is to just walk on. (Seguing into Walk On By – Lord, just take me now.)
As always, this is good news for John McCain.
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 10:09 pm · Link
@Laertes:
Well, yeah. He was writing, wasn’t he?
jl - January 18, 2012 | 10:12 pm · Link
Three thoughts on Brooks latest fine hackwork:
Not sure whether he is 5, 1 or 0.1 percenter, but he makes enough money so that releasing financial records seems dirty to him, ‘pure prurience’. Not just prurience, but pure prurience. Better (or worse, or both) than sex.
Brooks is either a fool or liar to say that our government is more open now than it has been in the past.
Three, Brooks laid down the double dog dare, now he needs to man up. He must sit behind his pundit table on TV and talk to us buck nekkid. (that part was in the link not DougJ’s excerpt in the post).
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 10:12 pm · Link
I guess we now know who will be Minister of Kulchur under the reign of Droid-Emperor Romney I.
The Dangerman - January 18, 2012 | 10:13 pm · Link
Tax form release? Bad. Blowjob, um, release? Good (this goes without saying).
Brandon - January 18, 2012 | 10:14 pm · Link
@Laertes:
Ya think? In 2008, Brooks cited Obama’s elitism as an important campaign issue with his famous “Applebee’s salad bar” remark. Four years later, he’s all, “Leave Mittens alone!” in an attempt to avoid having the reality of Romney’s elitism explosed in stark detail for the American public.
Rats, Omnes Omnibus already beat me there.
Villago Delenda Est - January 18, 2012 | 10:15 pm · Link
IRT this thread, and the last, it’s looking more and more like the only way out is the tumbrel route.
Because these assholes simply will not listen to reason, and we have no Otto von Bismarck around to bitch slap them.
jl - January 18, 2012 | 10:17 pm · Link
I will also note that Brooks discussed buck nekkid middle age men, right after the spate of phone pranks on interview shows about Romney’s large (or perhaps not large) p * n * s.
Coincidence? I think not.
Deep waters, deep waters indeed. Some subtle GOP campaign ploy, I would guess.
“getting screwed” Hey you down there, stop that dirty stuff, if Bobo reads this he will be perceive it as uncivil, rude, and might keep talking dirty (which would not be good)
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 10:18 pm · Link
Prurient interest... we’re not looking to ask at his magic underwear, Bobo. We just want to see how much the rest of us are getting screwed on our taxes.
Palli - January 18, 2012 | 10:20 pm · Link
Mr. Brooks has a small circle of acquaintances if he thinks no one cares about IRS tax forms of candidates and now when Romney, if elected, would be the richest president in history, many, many more will be interested.
And, frankly, Brooks wouldn’t want us to see his IRS forms either, because we all know tax deductions and loopholes illlustrate lifestyle choices that are not possible for most Americans to even contemplate.
Two quotes for thought:
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 10:21 pm · Link
@Satanicpanic: For some: money = sex, if not money > sex.
DanielX - January 18, 2012 | 10:23 pm · Link
@jl:
Is there some reason you want us to feel compelled to pluck out our own eyeballs?
Phoenician in a time of Romans - January 18, 2012 | 10:23 pm · Link
Why do we make candidates release their tax forms?
No-one “makes” them do anything, Davy – but if a candidate is evasive about whether they pay their fair share, the electorate can draw their own conclusions…
The Republic of Stupidity - January 18, 2012 | 10:23 pm · Link
@MonkeyBoy:
Or perfectly fine corruption as appropriate, nay, even desirable behavior…
slag - January 18, 2012 | 10:23 pm · Link
Yeah…why is that so hard for people to acknowledge?
It seems patently obvious, but yet, we’re subjected to constant bitching about LIBRULS in the academy. Nobody in their right mind goes on and on about the REACTIONARIES in the 700 Club. You might just as well go off about the PEANUT BUTTER in your chocolate.
machine - January 18, 2012 | 10:24 pm · Link
Paging Mr. Agnew.
The Republic of Stupidity - January 18, 2012 | 10:25 pm · Link
@The Dangerman:
And birth certificates…
DON’T forget… the birth certificates…
Special Patrol Group - January 18, 2012 | 10:25 pm · Link
It’s like Mom used to say: Elitist Fuckhead is as Elitist Fuckhead does.
Diana - January 18, 2012 | 10:25 pm · Link
Speaking of elitism, this may be off-topic but tonight, in the course of making dinner from a recipe in an old “21 Club” cookbook (I love restaurant cookbooks, the ingredients are often cheaper than you’d think and the recipes have been tested to death) I encountered this fact about Jimmy Carter: because his only experience of restaurant dining in NYC was some NYC liberal elites hosted two fund-raising events for him at the 21 Club restaurant, after he became president, Jimmy Carter called up the 21 Club under the impression it was a private club and asked if there was any way he and Roselyn could still get an invitation to dine there when they next visited NYC. The owners hastened to explain to him that the 21 Club was actually a restaurant open to the public (and in fact was an ancient speakeasy that had always been open to the public) and he and his wife could dine there anytime.
Time’s changed, don’t you think?
Villago Delenda Est - January 18, 2012 | 10:25 pm · Link
@slag:
Your chocolate is in my peanut butter, dammit!
Martin - January 18, 2012 | 10:28 pm · Link
Who was that fucking hippie that said “Trust, but verify”?
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 10:28 pm · Link
@DanielX: Cruelty.
/Marquise de Merteuil
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 10:29 pm · Link
Honestly, this all comes back to one thing: David Brooks and his cronies in the elite hate and fear democratic accountability more than anything else. When oligarchy finally comes to America, it will be wrapped in a Walmart flag and heralded by very reasonable columns explaining that people don’t really want the distraction of voting when their lives are filled with two jobs and the World Series.
Egg Berry - January 18, 2012 | 10:32 pm · Link
I think Brooks should release his tax returns. As should all the highly paid bloviators in Washington and New York. Sunshine for everybody!
Ella in New Mexico - January 18, 2012 | 10:35 pm · Link
This one’s easy:
Bobo’s in the 15% OR LESS effective tax bracket.
That’s it, in a nutshell.
Mnemosyne - January 18, 2012 | 10:37 pm · Link
You know what would be funny as hell? If it turned out the Obamas paid more in taxes than the Romneys did. Not just percentage-wise, but in actual dollar amounts.
Talk about campaign commercials that would write themselves …
Montana - January 18, 2012 | 10:38 pm · Link
Oh, fuck me. This pudgy, soft, spoiled, little sophomore of a man has been nailed, with perfection, by Mr. Pierce. So, I will just rest peacefully knowing he lies alone, late at night, demanding that Moral Hazard tell him why, why, why he is still a pudgy, spoiled, little sophomore of a man.
Satanicpanic - January 18, 2012 | 10:38 pm · Link
@slag: We’re just defending the natural order of things by keeping liberals in academia and conservatives in media that are designed to make you dumber.
Chris - January 18, 2012 | 10:40 pm · Link
Off-topic question: what’s the time frame for the book club? I missed last week’s discussion and assumed it was a weekly, Wednesday night event.
slag - January 18, 2012 | 10:42 pm · Link
@Villago Delenda Est: See…now I want Reese’s peanut butter cups. I definitely should have gone with my alternative analogy: Your REAL AMERICAN is in my Applebee’s salad bar.
Linnaeus - January 18, 2012 | 10:43 pm · Link
Brooks is another neofeudalist.
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 10:44 pm · Link
@slag:
Is that anything like the people who stick their dicks in the mashed potatoes?
MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson - January 18, 2012 | 10:45 pm · Link
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ah but the crucial difference is that when David Brooks inserts his favorite conservative into the white frothy potato mix, he does so to the accompaniment of a half-remembered and imperfectly understood social science paper!
Hawes - January 18, 2012 | 10:46 pm · Link
Holy crap. Bobo has moved from a target of ridicule to contempt. I always thought of him as an essentially educated man who was constantly forced to prostitute himself to keep his job as the Times new Safire. I imagined every column killing his soul a little bit at a time.
And now, apparently, the job is finished.
Belafon (formerly anonevent) - January 18, 2012 | 10:48 pm · Link
The hilarious thing, according to DK, is that Mitt’s dad released 12 years worth of tax records because he thought that only releasing one year could just be a fluke.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 10:50 pm · Link
Brooks’s vice, projected
Brooks’s deepest fear, projected
Brooks’s deepest repressed desire, projected
slag - January 18, 2012 | 10:50 pm · Link
@Omnes Omnibus: No. It’s more like finding lead in your Chinese toothpaste.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 10:52 pm · Link
This is the Rosetta stone to someone like Brooks:
Brooks includes no empirical investigation in his writing, so everything he writes reveals things about himself that he doesn’t want to reveal
His form knows no other proper subject than Brooks, Brooks, Brooks
wasabi gasp - January 18, 2012 | 10:54 pm · Link
Forever begging for coinage.
Omnes Omnibus - January 18, 2012 | 10:54 pm · Link
@slag: Inevitable?
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 10:55 pm · Link
I think I will call this “Quiet Room Theory”
jl - January 18, 2012 | 10:56 pm · Link
@Hawes:
” Bobo has moved from a target of ridicule to contempt. I always thought of him as an essentially educated man who was constantly forced to prostitute himself to keep his job as the Times ”
I do not have the link, but I remember reading an interview with him where he said in college he decided that studying was too much work, and he started looking for a moderate knowledge and low hard-work career path, that paid.
Brooks just out and said it. Not sure if he had any idea about how that would come off to a person like, well, I guess me, who worked quite a few twelve hour days on the farm, and worked most of their way through kollej.
If anyone remembers that interview, please provide a link.
Adrian Haiwei - January 18, 2012 | 10:56 pm · Link
I think Brooks has patterned his life on the Darvin character in the Star Trek episode “the Trouble with Tribbles.”
see: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wik....._(episode) – before SOPA passes.
Kola Noscopy - January 18, 2012 | 10:56 pm · Link
@MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson:
Serious question: Do you believe it is not already here?
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 10:57 pm · Link
The shitter of the whole thing is that Brooks’s actual opinion will come down to the question:
“Did supporting Obama in 2008 make me cool enough that I can risk supporting Romney in 2012?”
“. . . am I . . . do I suck . . .?”
ys, dave, u suk
WeeBey - January 18, 2012 | 10:57 pm · Link
Someone with the stomach for it want to compare and contrast Bobo on Obama’s birth certificate with this right here?
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 10:59 pm · Link
Fat headed rich ass nerdlinger, palms carved by God for the wall, David Brooks.
Head look like a goddamn stack of chitlins wearing glasses
Gilles de Rais - January 18, 2012 | 10:59 pm · Link
Go directly to gallows. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
slag - January 18, 2012 | 11:00 pm · Link
@Omnes Omnibus: Indubitably.
gex - January 18, 2012 | 11:01 pm · Link
@Laertes: An effective rate of 15% might sell with the people who really work at buying GOP bullshit. I’ve seen many a libertarian switch from percentages to actual dollars so they can make it look like the 1%ers pay a ton. An innumerate public falls for that.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:03 pm · Link
Look at this fuck head
No one wants to see you on TV with your dumbass hairpiece and fuck me lipstick, it’s like you’re waiting until I turn my back to reach out and grab my kid’s junk through the screen
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:05 pm · Link
D . . . david. . . will you take me to the prom ._.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:07 pm · Link
I called the Wikipedia blackout “the interdict” all day
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - January 18, 2012 | 11:08 pm · Link
@khead: It certainly does. Thanks.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:09 pm · Link
I am most certainly of the New Class, and I will rip David Brooks’s head off and shit broken Ming vase down his throat. I will literally eat a Ming vase he owns in order to do this
jl - January 18, 2012 | 11:12 pm · Link
@WeeBey: No no my lad, there is no smoking gun there to humiliate our Mr. Brooks on an outright contradiction. Nearly that, but Brooks knows how to play it. Brooks mealy mouthed both sides on it, with an emphasis that a political lose lose approach by Obama would have been the preferred, civil approach that, for example, the thoughtful Mr. Brooks would have taken.
” Mr. BROOKS: I agree he made the right choice in putting out the long-form itself. I wish he’d done that years or months ago. But I think that was absolutely right. Whether I would’ve myself gone out and given a press conference at the same time Donald Trump was giving a press conference and thereby creating a split screen; whether I would’ve complained about the aggravating debate going on in Washington, that I would not have done.
BLOCK: Why not?
Mr. BROOKS: Well, because I think what we all have to do – there’s really a two-class system in politics. There’s the circus class and the serious class, if I can be pompous about it, and why not. And I think people in the serious class should just avoid the circus class. And the birthers are in the circus class and just go on with the serious business that you were elected to do and don’t engage all that directly ‘cause there’s no way to come out unsullied. ”
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/29/.....ertificate
It was important to release the certificate months before Obama did, to appease the insane circus caucus. But to do so in quiet way that attracted to uncivil notice.
Too bad Obama did not do it right, even though the whole issue was nuts, isn’t it? Brooks I am sure is rueful, and reflecting deeply on how ironical the whole thing turned out to be.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:13 pm · Link
@jl:
AnotherBruce - January 18, 2012 | 11:14 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds: Fuck, he does wear lip stick or gloss.
Thanks a lot, now I’m gonna have nightmares about that.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:14 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds:
jl - January 18, 2012 | 11:15 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds: What’s the problem? Was that dirty? Did I stumble on another Brooks’ projection? You know, a lot of this stuff goes right over my head. You know that, right?
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:15 pm · Link
@AnotherBruce:
It is the scariest thing about his scary face, I think he had . . . . work done on his lips
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:16 pm · Link
@jl:
I just tried to distill the post to the essence
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:17 pm · Link
If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that Brooks cradles the balls and works the shaft
jl - January 18, 2012 | 11:18 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds: Oh, OK. Thanks.
Martin - January 18, 2012 | 11:20 pm · Link
Just to clarify – the 15% rate that everyone is comparing Mitt to is bullshit. Even if he is paying 15%, he’s not paying the 6.2% payroll tax that everybody was paying on every dollar from the first, but which he pays nothing on with no earned income and would pay damn near nothing on due to the payroll tax cap. So while my effective income tax rate is probably no more than 15% thanks to my ginormous (relative to salary) mortgage interest deduction, toss in my payroll tax rate and I’m certainly over 15%, and so are most workers.
Which of course is yet another setup for Obama to talk about payroll taxes and the middle class, which is always hidden in the tax debate.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:22 pm · Link
I only troll on here anymore by writing superior posts to the OP in every thread
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:23 pm · Link
@Kola Noscopy:
Explain.
@Martin:
I know you’re some kind of right-winger but you should probably be on the FP with that game, that’s killer
“Mitt Romney” and “payroll tax” in the same sentence will murder
befuggled - January 18, 2012 | 11:30 pm · Link
@Hawes:
Dude, what took you so long?
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:33 pm · Link
All good Democrats are well into McCain’s 2008 oppo research right now, come on, at least skim it
Convert it to ereader, I don’t know what you people do with your time
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN) - January 18, 2012 | 11:33 pm · Link
@Martin: It’s a minor nit, but Mitt does have earned income and would be paying Social Security taxes all the way up to the cap. The speaking fees we’re all mocking him for are earned income.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 11:35 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds:
No, that takes talent, skill, finesse, and a work ethic.
Why the eff do you think they call it a blow job?
Brooks hasn’t worked an honest job in his life, blow, or otherwise.
Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 11:36 pm · Link
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I bet you he has those as 1099s. Which means he has other obscure methods for not paying the payroll tax on those. I highly doubt he’s the estimated tax payment type.
Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 11:37 pm · Link
PS: 88 comments in and no one noticed this?
It’s your portmanteau and all DougJ, but really? :)
suzanne - January 18, 2012 | 11:39 pm · Link
@Omnes Omnibus:
Either they’ve never had really good sex, or I’ve never had enough money to feel anything close to that. I suspect both are true.
Martin - January 18, 2012 | 11:43 pm · Link
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Ah, right. Forgot about those. How much in deductions do you think he took against those for travel, attire, etc? I’m thinking quite a lot.
Martin - January 18, 2012 | 11:45 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds:
Huh. That’s a new one.
Gilles de Rais - January 18, 2012 | 11:46 pm · Link
@AA+ Bonds: This might be the best comment ever written here.
AA+ Bonds - January 18, 2012 | 11:55 pm · Link
Come on, that barely needs psychoanalysis
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN) - January 18, 2012 | 11:58 pm · Link
@Yutsano: Maybe. But just because it’s 1099 doesn’t mean you don’t owe the payroll tax. I know you know that, but others might not.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal - January 19, 2012 | 12:03 am · Link
all of the david brooks threads break down into two competing schools of thought.
one is that brooks finishes a column, runs to the shower in tears, where he never seems to be able to wash off the smell of bleach and daddy issues.
the other is that he loads the meerschaum with bulldog blend, simultaneously strikes a wooden match and hits send. Then puts his hand inside his smoking jacket while thinking he has explained enough of how the world works for one day.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN) - January 19, 2012 | 12:04 am · Link
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: You say that like he can’t do both.
AA+ Bonds - January 19, 2012 | 12:05 am · Link
Sarah’s post about oppo on Mitt Romney: 52 posts
Cole links to Drudge to talk about Gingrich’s ex-wife: 72 posts
52/72 expressed as a percentage is 72.22%
Yet one of these things has far more impact on the race to decide the most powerful man in the world than the other
mclaren - January 19, 2012 | 12:05 am · Link
Shorter David Brooks:
AA+ Bonds - January 19, 2012 | 12:10 am · Link
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
You talk like those don’t go hand in hand
AA+ Bonds - January 19, 2012 | 12:14 am · Link
Inside of David Brooks somewhere there is likely a human trying to get out
jl - January 19, 2012 | 12:16 am · Link
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: There is the ‘pump out low effort BS for money and status’ school. Or is that a division in one of the two schools?
Edit: And what is this supposed to mean: “Then puts his hand inside his smoking jacket” ?
hitchhiker - January 19, 2012 | 12:17 am · Link
The Obama grades talk has to do with not very subtle intimations that he’s an affirmative action boy. What I don’t get about that is . . . if so, he’s a spectacular example of how valuable that approach is, so yay. If not, who cares?
When I hear them demanding always more “evidence” from his past, it makes me think of a cartoon I saw somewhere, of a completely naked stripper reaching into her own guts to pull out her entrails while a crowd of men hollered “MORE!!” at her feet.
Also too, Mr. David Brooks ought to post not only his entire high school and college transcript, but his tax returns for the last 20 years, all of his wife’s college papers, his children’s grades to date, his documented porn-watching history, his SAT scores, and his dream diary.
After that I might be interested in his thoughts about what others owe to their public.
AA+ Bonds - January 19, 2012 | 12:20 am · Link
What’s great is that Obama’s people have actually sealed him off against oppo and all these other guys have leaks pissing down their legs, so much for the private sector
srv - January 19, 2012 | 12:23 am · Link
DougJ, you’re going to have a dream tonight.
300, starring Willard.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN) - January 19, 2012 | 12:28 am · Link
@srv: Faced with a Persian invasion, Mitt decides to take a walk with $300,000, looking to buy some oil?
jl - January 19, 2012 | 12:29 am · Link
@srv: WE. ARE. VULTURES! TONIGHT, WE PICK THE LOOT!
Citizen_X - January 19, 2012 | 12:33 am · Link
Excuse me, but who the fuck is the New Class, and why do they need the pretentious capitalization?
Citizen_X - January 19, 2012 | 12:36 am · Link
@srv: “Our arrows will blot out the sun.”
“Then we will vacation in the shade.”
Oh, wait, that’s Newt’s version.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal - January 19, 2012 | 12:47 am · Link
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
@AA+ Bonds:
of course, but its a lot of whether he actually believes his hype vs he is carrying water and must feel as cheap as his readers do reading it.
the basic question being whether or not you believe he has a soul, is just a shill.
@jl: a gesture of self-satisfaction that also implies a gesture of self-satisfaction.
The prophet Nostradumbass - January 19, 2012 | 12:51 am · Link
@AA+ Bonds: I think this is the perfect Bobo picture.
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: It goes perfectly with your comment, as well.
Mnemosyne - January 19, 2012 | 12:57 am · Link
@Citizen_X:
I’m not sure, but it sounds like something that EST participants came up with in 1973.
Odie Hugh Manatee - January 19, 2012 | 1:36 am · Link
OT:
Erickkk, Son of Erickkk, is being ripped a new one at Redneckstate for his post asking Perry to bow out of SC and endorse Noot as the Anti-Romney.
Some nutpicking:
... and so on and so on. Not one ban either. What a trainwreck of a diary there…lol!
ETA: OMG, they are pissed that Drudge is a Rombot and is shilling for him…lol!
SRW1 - January 19, 2012 | 3:05 am · Link
Bobo is such a nice canary. His anxious tweeting gives away how much Mittens is suffering with Bobo’s core audience, i.e. ‘moderates’ and independents, over the income tax issue.
There’s no way Mittens can get away with not making his tax return public. The real purpose of Bobo’s column is to soften the public up for accepting that Mittens showing his 2012 ‘For Christ’s sake, I’m running for office’ tax return is such a big sacrifice of privacy that asking for anything before that would be just pure obscenity.
Lurking Canadian - January 19, 2012 | 7:21 am · Link
New Class is a concept invented by one of the neocons (Kristol pere, I think). The claim was that there was a new ruling class of college-educated bureaucrats (liberals in Washington and NY) who were using the power of the state to re-order society in their own interest.
Basically, it’s a name for the “elite” the wingnuts gripe about to distract people from the actual elite who are stealing everything while the rubes aren’t looking.
Palli - January 19, 2012 | 8:40 am · Link
@SRW1:
a question: is there a way to confirm that the tax forms a candidate files are the exact forms the candidate releases to the public. In other words, if can Romney’s accountants doctor the forms to look better can the IRS release the actual forms?
DanielX - January 19, 2012 | 9:03 am · Link
Mr. BROOKS: Well, because I think what we all have to do – there’s really a two-class system in politics. There’s the circus class and the serious class, if I can be pompous about it, and why not. And I think people in the serious class should just avoid the circus class.
And if there’s one thing that can be said about David Brooks, it is that he is a Very Serious Person, and he’s right at least as often as Bloody Bill Kristol. Admittedly, that’s setting the bar pretty low….
Bullsmith - January 19, 2012 | 9:40 am · Link
So in other words, people who pay you money could never influence your actions, knowing who paid your elected officials money could never influence your vote and knowing what your elected officials are actually doing is detrimental to democracy.
Mr. Brooks, with all due respect, fuck you.
Krankor - January 19, 2012 | 9:40 am · Link
@Lurking Canadian: Hayek and Popper pretty much lifted the entire idea from Milovan Djilas. It was a Communist theory before it was a Neoconservative one. And an idea (inevitability?) that, well before it got a name, was pointed out to Marx himself by Bakunin.
All that said, dipshit here is using it wrong. The New Class is a class that arises from a statist bureaucracy. In fact, the idea that some functions of government “should be hidden” is an utter surrender of power to the New Class.
The man is a turnip.
evinfuilt - January 19, 2012 | 11:24 am · Link
@khead:
Okay, its like you broke into my house and nabbed my kitties… Adorable lot you have. Okay, so mine are all grown up now (though the Tortie is only 6 pounds.)