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You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / Sometimes the Snark Writes Itself, Megan McArdle edition

Sometimes the Snark Writes Itself, Megan McArdle edition

by Tom Levenson|  November 30, 20105:19 pm| 62 Comments

This post is in: Glibertarianism, Pink Himalayan Salt

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Update, Correction, and (gulp) Apology:

As Megan McArdle notes below — very mildly, I’d add, given the provocation — there is a material error in this post, right there in the first line below this correction.

I said “She actually writes…” when, as she says, she did not.  The quoted lines below are from the Post itself.  McArdle was quoting the Post’s ombudman, Andrew Alexander.

Whatever one may think of the context of McArdle’s celebration of the Post’s errors, what I wrote was wrong, and I apologize to Ms. McArdle for the error.

Did that hurt to write?  Yes it did. But it is necessary.  Live by the snark, die by it, on occasion.

_____

So Megan McArdle actually goes there.  In a post titled “Department of Awful Statistics,” she busts on the Washington Post for its presumed tropism toward arithmetical mistakes.  She actually writes

I regularly hear complaints that numbers in Post stories don’t add up.

__

…Many [errors] are inexplicable, such as last Tuesday’s A-section story that said new industry-wide health-care rules, “will affect about 180 Americans with private insurance” (it should have been 180 million).

This, from the woman who infamously mistook $250 for $25, and then proceeded to build an entire argument on why we shouldn’t bother allowing taxes on the rich to return to Clinton-era levels.  (Don’t worry — that link leads to the most excellent Susan of Texas’s blog*, in which Ms. McArdle is (metaphorically) gutted like a Grand Banks cod and left to dry on the margin.)

__

Sometimes one fumes at the egregious “work” (sic–ed.) of the Atlantic’s Business and Economics Editor.  Sometimes one rages.  Here, it’s just a snort and a chortle.

A kinder person would simply avert one’s gaze and pass by in silence.

Me — I gotta laugh…and put put the boot in. Whereof that which is miscounted, those who cannot count must remain silent.

*I should note that Susan got there first with this snark too, but then she always does.  And hell — I come by the post honestly, having tracked McArdle down — with wonder — from the link at Ta-Nehisi Coates’ fabulous post on The Sons of Confederate Veterans celebration of slavery and the Times‘ miserable coverage of same.

Image:  Nicolas Neufchâtel, ” The Schoolmaster Johann Neudörffer and a Student,” 1561.

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Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    Tim

    November 30, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    I’m an artist myself, but what’s with these old paintings dorking up the place?

  2. 2.

    Carnacki

    November 30, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    The lack of self awareness by the Megans of the world is astounding at times.

  3. 3.

    Sharl

    November 30, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    @Tim: Yeah, they’re boooring.

    He should use something like this! One of yours?

  4. 4.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 30, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    This is why I come here. And the pictures are cool, too.

  5. 5.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 5:27 pm

    @Tim:

    Dor·king (dôrˈkĭng)
    noun
    A heavy-bodied domestic fowl having five toes on each foot and raised chiefly for table use.

    There you have your answer, I think. To what question? Now that’s the question.

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    November 30, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    Megan needs to clear the plus signs out of her eye before she goes pointing out others.

  7. 7.

    Carnacki

    November 30, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    @Tim: I think they give the joint a touch of class like some of those high-brow vampire blogs.

  8. 8.

    Sentient Puddle

    November 30, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    Me—I gotta laugh…and put put the boot in.

    Timed this thread perfectly, Tom. If there’s anything everyone on the blog can come together on, it’s mocking Megan McArdle.

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    November 30, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    @Tim: I think the pictures class up this joint, which could certainly use the help.

    If you want to see your picture front-paged, send me a jpeg and I’ll use it for an “Artists in Our Midst” post, okay?

  10. 10.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    My new standard for a McMegan post is called the “Abolish the TSA” test. Unless the McMegan post in question is as vapid, ignorant and insulting as Kain’s “Abolish the TSA” post from yesterday morning, I consider it hypocritical for Balloon Juice to mock it.

    While it is amusing to see McMegan make fun of someone else’s innumeracy while ignoring her own (and it’s even funnier that she banned someone in the comments for pointing out her continual innumeracy), the post in question is still not as ignorant nor as suffused in libertarian hogwash as “Abolish the TSA.” Furthermore, it does look like she did some tiny amount of research, whereas Kain probably still thinks that prior to 9/11, each airline had its own private security force.

    5 demerits.

  11. 11.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I refuse to surrender my right to mock McArdle for any reason whatsoever.

    If you want my snark, you’ll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

  12. 12.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    Also, for what it’s worth, I like the artwork. Adds a touch of class to the joint.

  13. 13.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    I didn’t say you couldn’t do it, Tom. I just said it was hypocritical to do so while Kain is wandering around the place, burbling inanely about how much easier it is to fire an incompetent private contractor than it is to reform a bureaucracy under the direct control of the executive branch. Then again, most people are hypocrites about something, so it’s not like it’s a terrible sin. Hell, it’s completely impossible to be a Republican without being a total hypocrite about one major issue or another.

  14. 14.

    Cris

    November 30, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    @Tim: what’s with these old paintings dorking up the place?

    That’s Tom’s calling card. He’s like a Batman villain. “The Curator.”

  15. 15.

    slag

    November 30, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    @Tom Levenson: The only time I don’t like the artwork is when it doesn’t come with an explanatory link. Then, I have to go a-Googling to find it. And I’m lazy.

    Next up, I will criticize someone else for being lazy. Oh wait. I just did that in the last thread. I have met the McMegan and she is me.

  16. 16.

    Southern Beale

    November 30, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    OT but folks need to read this essay (link was via Digby) on why Julian Assange is releasing all of this info on WikiLeaks. There is a purpose and agenda behind it …

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    November 30, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    The Sons of Confederate Veterans celebration of slavery and the Times’ miserable coverage of same.

    In April 2011 the GOP House will introduce some form of resolution apologizing for the defeat of the Confederacy. Guaranteed.

  18. 18.

    Tim

    November 30, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    @Tim: I think the pictures class up this joint, which could certainly use the help.
    If you want to see your picture front-paged, send me a jpeg and I’ll use it for an “Artists in Our Midst” post, okay?

    Oh…well…if you want to dork up the place with MY work, by all means: http://www.timotte.com

  19. 19.

    ruemara

    November 30, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    @Tim:
    Speak for yourself. I like it.

  20. 20.

    Jewish Steel

    November 30, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    A Wittgenstein shout out. Another thing you don’t get over @ The Atlantic.

  21. 21.

    David Hunt

    November 30, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    @Cris:

    That’s Tom’s calling card. He’s like a Batman villain. “The Curator.”

    Okay. Cris wins the thread. All other posts are redundant.

  22. 22.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    @slag: Yikes. Sorry. Fixed.

  23. 23.

    scav

    November 30, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    I’m still trying to wrap my brain around trying to comprehend how some are seemingly expecting a single, universally coherent and consistent position from a collective noun, any collective noun, let alone the local lot. Mentally insert a print from Escher here, preferably one with stairs and not the one of hands drawing each other.

  24. 24.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    @David Hunt: This.

  25. 25.

    slag

    November 30, 2010 at 5:50 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Excellent. Thanks!

  26. 26.

    Cris

    November 30, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    @Tim: I do find your work charming. May I backseat-web-develop you for a minute, though? Please put thumbnails of your paintings on the list pages, rather than 1500×1500 originals scaled down with the width/height attributes of the tag. It’ll load faster and give you more control over the thumbs.

    Edit: wow, what a condescending jerk I am

  27. 27.

    Mojotron

    November 30, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    What’s the “hypocritical” part? Should Tom refuse to post here as long as EDK does, or just ignore McMegan’s stupidity because someone else here posts foolish stuff? I’d rather have that mild “hypocrisy” than “foolish” consistency”.

  28. 28.

    lol

    November 30, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    You need some Joseph Decreux in here.

  29. 29.

    Cackalacka

    November 30, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Wow.

    I don’t know what is more unbelievable, her post, or her obtuse response/banning to the poster who Matthew 7:5’ed her.

    And yes, Chris wins the thread.

  30. 30.

    Pangloss

    November 30, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    @Sharl: He left out Hoover and Harding.

  31. 31.

    meh

    November 30, 2010 at 6:01 pm

    boy McMegans takin it on the head over there – such a delight to watch…

  32. 32.

    Poopyman

    November 30, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    @Pangloss: My thoughts exactly. Convenient, that.

  33. 33.

    arguingwithsignposts

    November 30, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    Shopping in Philly Chinatown, The Somebody and I passed some abacuses, and immediately thought it would be delicious to send McArglebargle one as a small holiday gift. And we laughed, but then adopted a glibertarian mindset and decided she could get her own abacus. and we laughed and laughed.

    Yes, I spend too much time here.

  34. 34.

    General Stuck

    November 30, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    Front pagers get to post art or whatever else

    long as Lord Tunch is pleased

    It is written

  35. 35.

    Cris

    November 30, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    @Sharl: Are we actually looking at the back of Lincoln’s head in that painting?

    You know who else did that?

  36. 36.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    @Mojotron:

    What’s the “hypocritical” part? Should Tom refuse to post here as long as EDK does, or just ignore McMegan’s stupidity because someone else here posts foolish stuff?

    The latter. Making fun of McMegan has been a running joke here for a long time. Personally, I now find it somewhat hypocritical to do so when Kain is writing nonsense that’s just as bad. Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out Kain was one of McMegan’s pen names. `

  37. 37.

    Ailuridae

    November 30, 2010 at 6:12 pm

    When Megan McArdle makes basic factual errors that lead to laughably silly conclusions she is rightfully confronted with heaping piles of scorn from Mr Levenson.

    When ED Kain makes basic factual errors that lead to laughably silly conclusions ….

    Must be the Y chromosome.

  38. 38.

    Tim

    November 30, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    @ruemara:

    Speak for yourself. I like it

    That’s kind of what I did. You know: speak for myself, by, you know, writing a comment that was written by me to, kind of express MY opinion, you know?

  39. 39.

    Tim

    November 30, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    @Cris:

    @Tim: I do find your work charming. May I backseat-web-develop you for a minute, though? Please put thumbnails of your paintings on the list pages, rather than 1500×1500 originals scaled down with the width/height attributes of the tag. It’ll load faster and give you more control over the thumbs.

    By all means condescend away. I am well aware that my site design sucks the major dongage. Do you design? Interested in a barter?

  40. 40.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 6:21 pm

    Tim, do you have a preference for Old Masters (I assume that is the right term for the artists you’ve been favoring, but I don’t have an art background) or will you be posting art from any other styles.

  41. 41.

    arguingwithsignposts

    November 30, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    @Citizen Alan:
    are you talking about Tom L., the FPer, or Tim the commenter?

  42. 42.

    PeakVT

    November 30, 2010 at 6:26 pm

    @Ailuridae: The difference is that McAddled has made a career out of her lazy glibertarian drivel. E.D. is just some schmo who posts on some blogs.

  43. 43.

    Cris

    November 30, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    @Tim: Lemme think about it. With pre-schoolers in the house, I don’t make time for much outside-the-office work these days.

    Also, I’m not worth much on visual design; I’m an implementor. But as far as that goes, I think your site looks fine and probably just needs a bit of functional enhancement. You’re doing pretty well for what GoDaddy makes possible.

  44. 44.

    Cris

    November 30, 2010 at 6:30 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts: or Tim the Enchanter?

  45. 45.

    Citizen Alan

    November 30, 2010 at 7:04 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    D’oh! Tom Levenson, of course.

  46. 46.

    Crusty Dem

    November 30, 2010 at 7:18 pm

    Now NcMegan’s going ban-crazy against mean spirited “liberal commentators”.

    Oh Megan, it doesn’t take a liberal to hate you (though it doesn’t hurt, either), anyone with a basic commitment to factual accuracy will despise you, the fact that those are generally liberal is a sad political reality..

  47. 47.

    Barry

    November 30, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    @Citizen Alan: “I just said it was hypocritical to do so while Kain is wandering around the place, burbling inanely about how much easier it is to fire an incompetent private contractor than it is to reform a bureaucracy under the direct control of the executive branch.”

    OTOH, unless John is pulling down serious bucks from those Tunch-inspired items, ED is not getting paid for it.

    McArdle is getting paid.

  48. 48.

    Downpuppy

    November 30, 2010 at 7:49 pm

    I made a joke about one of her old errors & she corrected it.

    The laws of the universe have been repealed.

  49. 49.

    PeakVT

    November 30, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    It sounds like screenshots are in order when commenting at Mrs. Wingnut Welfare’s blog. I recommend MWSnap.

  50. 50.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 9:53 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Belatedly (I actually went out to a party this evening…what am I doing attempting a life here)…

    Yup, I do take a lot of pleasure in old-master art, along with a lot of genre art from the last few centuries. But I love a lot of other styles and sources too. (Lots of Asian art in my viewing history, for example — and I do look there for some blog illustration as well.)

    But you won’t see a ton of contemporary art on my posts for a couple of reasons. One, the most important, is the copyright problem. Older than 75 years, it’s there for the picking. Recent work, especially by living artists, not so much. You can find some under the varieties of open licenses, but it isn’t open season the way it is with the older stuff.

    Second, I often use art in these posts to play a commentary role, which means that I tend to emphasize representational work over abstraction — which guides choices here as opposed to the range of stuff I might choose to look at on a Sunday at the museum. If I’m looking for an illustration, that goes double.

  51. 51.

    Ailuridae

    November 30, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    This.

  52. 52.

    Platonicspoof

    November 30, 2010 at 10:40 pm

    The Curator gets my internet vote for his calling cards too, if only because I associate them with the photoshopping at Sadly, No! (e.g., I’d anticipate the figure on the right to be Megan with an abacus from AWS).

    . . . the most excellent Susan of Texas’s blog

    And probably just as important as my internet vote, “Texas’s” was an eyeball speed bump to me.
    If you scroll down to the Feb. 20th entry at the Houston Chronicle blog, Jim Newkirk makes a case, based on the AP stylebook, for not using a second letter ‘s’.
    At the same time, there is a commenter there that interprets his source, Strunk and White, as saying your spelling can be correct.

    / Channelling my inner Adrian Monk and crossing my fingers that WP lets me edit.

  53. 53.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 10:59 pm

    @Platonicspoof: I’m usually a single “s” kind of guy, but when I typed Texas’ it just looked and (in my head) sounded wrong. Nice to know that Strunk and White support me, even if the AP style sheet does not.

    And yes, I am deeply impressed by the high functioning OCD on display here. ;)

  54. 54.

    Tom Levenson

    November 30, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    @Ailuridae: This doesn’t count, I suppose?

    Life is too short to jump on everything that spikes my outrage meter — that’s what the community of commenters is for, to share the load. But if you are looking for the equivalence: since I started posting here at Balloon Juice I’ve done one long post dissecting an E. D. Kain argument politely, I hope, but with great gusto…and one short bit of easy snark at McArdle.

    You make the call.

  55. 55.

    Ailuridae

    December 1, 2010 at 12:12 am

    @Tom Levenson:

    Your post in relation to McArdle is IMO appropriately disdainful.

    Your post in relation to Kain’s hackery is conciliatory by comparison. And Kain’s errors in that post are much more substantiative. They either stem from not understanding what a monopoly is or he’s being intellectually dishonest. That sole provider contracts from municipalities for trash pick-up are not monopolistic isn’t a matter of opinion; it is a matter of fact. And unlike McMegan, he can’t claim he fat-fingered the calculator.

  56. 56.

    Platonicspoof

    December 1, 2010 at 12:14 am

    @Tom Levenson:
    Hopefully you’ve gone to bed by now, but as you say, it probably depends on the number of syllables and any difficulties in saying the possible spellings.

    Since you not only blog, but write books, you probably already have more than enough grammar books and book editors. However, I googled (Googled?) “internet style guide” (Internet?), thinking it might be a running joke, like “blogger ethics panel”, and Yahoo (Yahoo!?) actually published one.

    I’m sure it covers more than blogging.

  57. 57.

    Quiddity

    December 1, 2010 at 2:04 am

    Reporters not having a working knowledge of arithmetic adds up to a negative performance while covering issues that divide the nation, and can only result in a flawed journalistic product.

    While these topics are admittedly complex, I don’t thinks it’s irrational to demand that reporters get to the root of the problems and shun the untested, imaginary solutions that look attractive but cannot succeed in the real world. That should be the cardinal rule for journalists. They should be able to differentiate between honest arguments and ideological foolishness.

    The point is, if we base our actions around a continuous effort to thoroughly examine the various dimensions of policy options, we can surmount the limits presented by today’s partisan discord. In that way, we will be equal to the challenge of the twenty-first century.

  58. 58.

    Susan Of Texas

    December 1, 2010 at 8:46 am

    Way, way back when I was going to college, they told us to add ‘s when the word ended in s, unless it was traditional to just add the apostrophe. They also told us that different people/groups used different rules. So maybe you’ll see Jesus’ or Texas’s or the other way around-there doesn’t seem to be just one official way, at least in everyday usage. No wonder some people prefer math over English.

    Not McArdle, obviously!

    Kain is cursed with the “what if” disease, which is contracted through excessive exposure to science fiction as a child. (I used to irritate my high school biology teacher with what ifs, but I moved on in time.)

  59. 59.

    Megan McArdle

    December 1, 2010 at 9:37 am

    Um, I didn’t “actually write” what you have attributed to me, the Washington Post did. I did actually copy and paste it into a quote, but your attribution erroneously makes it seem like I was the author of the words in question.

  60. 60.

    Tom Levenson

    December 1, 2010 at 10:58 am

    @Megan McArdle: Indeed. See the correction at the top of the post.

  61. 61.

    arguingwithsignposts

    December 1, 2010 at 11:01 am

    @Tom Levenson: She still went there, Tom.

  62. 62.

    Susan Of Texas

    December 1, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    Not that we shouldn’t be careful, but it would be more productive to address the substantive problems–claims on healthcare, income inequality, obesity and poverty.

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