I’m tired of talking about the debt ceiling.
Reader F sent me a link to an interesting profile of the Daily Caller, which says pretty much what I already thought: that the Caller sucks but not as badly as most similar right-wing outlets, and that it’s losing money but not as much as you might think. Mostly, though, I was struck by this picture of Tuck Tuck.
It put me in mind of Larry Summers’ quote about the Winklevoss brothers (the ones who are constantly suing Facebook, even after getting $67 million).
“One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole.”
No matter what he does, Tucker Carlson will always be an asshole undergraduate to me.
Phil Perspective
OT, but with out further comment:
http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2011/07/penny-pritzker-turns-heat-lamps-on.html
freelancer
Nice workboots there, Tuck. You just come from paving Mr. Bottomtooth’s driveway?
rob!
Tucker Carlson reminds me of the grown-up(?) version of a kid I knew back in the day: he would stand in his garage and throw rocks at other kids. If he connected and you got off your bike to chase him, he ran inside and (literally) hid behind his parents.
Bruce S
Off the topic of flaming assholes, but here’s more “good quote” from Larry Summers about something that actually matters:
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/07/taking-excellent-advice-where-one-finds.html
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I love the fact that Rachel Maddow started her TV career making Tucker nervous for a few minutes a week, now she’s in the roundtable stable and Meet The Press (which of course sucks only a little bit less for that), and Tucker is calling Bill O’Reilly’s producer every day reminding them that Tucker’s available if Dennis Miller calls in sick.
And before I got to your last sentence, I was thinking that Tucker (though I think he’s about my age) will always be a bratty 20 year old with a smarmy grin and a hey-look-at-me bow tie.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Is there some reason for you to insult asshole undergraduates, besides the obvious? I mean, really, Tucker Carlson makes them look good by comparison.
AAA Bonds
That quote is so applicable to Carlson that I’m surprised it isn’t about him. The truth is that the Alex Keatons of the world aren’t heartwarming and befuddled, but stunted, selfish sociopaths.
PeakVT
Takes one to know one.I think this is the first time that I’ve liked what Summers has to say.arguingwithsignposts
Summers is wrong. The third option is they could be both.
jwb
Bruce S.: I don’t know, Larry Summers is pretty much the definition of a flaming asshole, even if he has been talking a lot of sense lately.
Poopyman
Hey Tucker! The 80’s called and they want their blue shirt and pink tie back!
You can keep the boots.
BGinCHI
Hegel said it all in the master/slave dialectic. Tucker’s master class will never survive history by just dressing in khakis and blue blazers and hoping their underclass don’t stave their heads in.
Stupid + Privileged = Prey
cleek
just FYI, y’all should avoid Dumfries UK this week. gonna be windy
BruinKid
Heh, Larry Summers just went up a notch in my book. :-)
And why is the ad on the right side of the page that says “Collect 59 Dividend Checks a Month” have a photo of Michael Steele in it? And I’m not talking about the former RNC chair, I’m talking about the female Michael Steele that used to be in The Bangles. I’m pretty sure that’s her photo in that ad.
Han's Big Snark Solo
Slightly OT, but funny, from TPM:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/lgbt-rights-activists-dress-like-barbarians-glitter-bachmann-clinic.php#more
burnspbesq
@Bruce S:
Butbutbut … Larry Summers is a douchebag because he once said something stupid about women in the sciences, so nothing else he says ever again can be right.
/manic progressive
Stefan
Nice workboots there, Tuck. You just come from paving Mr. Bottomtooth’s driveway?
Ah, but true Yankees know those aren’t work boots, those are duck boots, specifically L.L. Bean duck boots. Ostensibly hunting boots, they are most often worn not by hunters, but are instead worn as rakish footwear by preppy kids who want to appear as if they could, at any minute, drop their glass of sherry, stuff their barn coat with some shotgun shells, and tear off to spend the weekend in a duck blind, waiting for their prey to wing its way into their sights while sipping single malt from a flask (the preppies are the ones sipping Scotch, that is, not the ducks).
And yes, I own a pair.
BGinCHI
cleek, what’s up with that?? Is it the bagpipes?
JGabriel
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
We’re not insulting mere asshole undergraduates. We’re insulting extremely rich self-entitled douchebag asshole undergraduates.
.
Han's Big Snark Solo
Oh, good lord, the video of the “Gay Barbarians” in Bachman’s clinic is priceless.
burnspbesq
Also too: he was mean to Cornel West, which makes him a double douchebag and a racist to boot.
Bruce S
#10 jwb – that’s why I added the adjective “flaming” deliberately. He strikes me as proudly “asshole”, but I don’t think in his current iteration he’s such an asshole I’d put him in the same category as Tucker Carlson. His recent pronouncements on the economy make it increasingly clear to me that there is a “structural” problem with being a denizen of the White House. The constraints of the place literally force you to start spouting bullshit. Once you’re free, you can go back to being someone who it might be worth listening to if you want to know what’s actually happening or what they really believe.
Of course, if I wrote those last couple of lines in an “ABL” thread, I’d be consigned to the dregs of “Obama-haters” and penned up with Adam Green and other counter-revolutionaries in the Gulag for “Firebaggers.”
Stefan
I confess to being torn: on the one hand, I want to make fun of Tucker Carlson. On the other hand, I often dress like that.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Everyone knew the guys who wore those boots in college were lousy in the sack.
ETA: Everyone except them, that is. It took some of them a full 4 years to figure out why they couldn’t get lucky with anyone but drunk freshmen.
JGabriel
@Stefan:
Must. Resist. Temptation.
Edited To Add:
Or not.
Did you really just tell us that? And expect us to let it slide?
Masochist.
.
BGinCHI
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their
skinblazers & pants & tie but by the content of their character.Poopyman
@Cleek and @BGinCHI:
I blame global warming. Or maybe Al Gore. Either will do.
ETA also too: That’s like converting wind speed to Kelvin.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
You know, I can deal with the suit + tie + scabby looking chinos + duck boots. Barely. However, suit + tie + scabby looking chinos + duck boots + checking smart phone makes me want to smack him round the ears.
Fxd.
Don’t get me wrong. Preppies can be fine people. When they know their place. And I wouldn’t let my sister to marry one.
j
At least Jon Stewart shamed Tuckie into losing that stupid bow tie, (as if it made him look smart or something).
@ 6:45 of this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
PeakVT
@JGabriel: Enough with the dots already.
scav
Over and above the dress sense, the very posture screams Somehwhat Baffled By Object In Hand. Poor dear.
OT side note: a few underlings are not falling on sharp objects for James M. and another ex-NOW head rolled, this time from his job as the Sun. Inevitable source.
freelancer
@Stefan, as someone who went to a “Preppie HS” (As much as a Jesuit HS can be) and hunted, I have to say that his look is altogether new to me and simultaneously not one to shoot for. You have my sympathies.
FWIW, I’m wearing this shirt right now, so you should have a bit of an inkling of my wardrobe.
me
Where my gerunds at?
JGabriel
PeakVT:
One dot. Singular. Because the bottom of posts here look too tight to me, like someone who’s pants are riding too high. Also, it’s pretty much a habit now.
So, go fuck yourself:
.
Bruce S
My guess is that those boots are useful for wading through the bullshit that surrounds Carlson. That or he’s anticipating the possibility of getting appointed Ambassador to Iraq by President Gingrich.
BGinCHI
Onion headline:
Blog Commenters Argue Over Single Dot
arguingwithsignposts
Please, someone tell me people do not dress like this in real life. And tie your fucking boots, man!
cmorenc
Tucker Carlson does have one redeeming quality which his stuffy bow-tied elder George Will does not: Tucker is much more fun to watch being a self-parodying elitist prick than is George Will. Not that the fun of watching him be such a cheerfully self-parodying douche-bag lasts very long before he becomes too insufferable to continue watching.
j
@9, arguingwithsignposts – July 21, 2011 | 4:08 pm
Wingnuts never “go looking” for a job, they are handed to them by the Wingnut Welfare fat cats. Being an heir to the Swanson frozen dinner fortune doesn’t hurt either.
Stefan
Did you really just tell us that? And expect us to let it slide?
Do your worst.
cleek
i read that Obama is going to ban dots because the teabaggers think they’re an affront to liberty. bastard.
Violet
Those are definitely duck boots, which are great things to have if you live in places that are wet and boggy. Tucker hasn’t bothered to tie his boot laces. I hope his boot gets stuck in the mud, his foot comes out of it, and he falls flat on his face, ruining that lovely pink tie. That’ll teach him.
freelancer
But the Deputy likes dots!
RossInDetroit
I used to sell clothes. When a guy dressed like that walked in, he was an easy sale for more blue shirts (button down), more pink ties (small patterns only) and maybe a rep stripe necktie if he was feeling rakish. And several pairs of khakis that you knew would be hemmed to mid-ankle. And loafers or boat shoes and a web belt.
jl
@17 Stefan
Yes, those are not work boots.
Some work boots
http://www.redwingshoes.com/footwear/filter-aluminum-toe,metatarsal-guard,non-metallic-toe,steel-toe
My family went with Redwing, and that was what I wore when I needed some. Though now the engineer in the family has gone over to Filson.
Edit: the engineer is a go out in the boondocks and blow up some stuff and build humongoid shit engineer, not a fancy desk engineer.
Rick Massimo
Specifically, the kind of asshole undergraduate I met many examples of in my 1982-1986 college years: They had absolutely no problem admitting that they weren’t as smart as a lot of people there (or a lot of people who weren’t able to go there), that they were riding on their family connections, and would always be richer than their smarter, more able classmates, but that’s just the way it is and ha ha ha smirk smirk smirk and what are you gonna do about it?
Stefan
@Stefan, as someone who went to a “Preppie HS” (As much as a Jesuit HS can be) and hunted, I have to say that his look is altogether new to me and simultaneously not one to shoot for. You have my sympathies.
Seriously? Personally, I saw this all the time. Where’d you go to school? Can’t have been the Northeast…
FWIW, I’m wearing this shirt right now, so you should have a bit of an inkling of my wardrobe.
That’s great.
goblue72
There’s all sorts of assholes. Larry’s the kind of asshole that comes from spending most of his life as being the smartest guy in the room by several factors, and then being unable to adjust his sneers once he’s climbed to the top of pyramid and finds himself in the company of other smartest guys/gals in the room.
Tucker and the Winkevosses are the kind of assholes who are born with a silver spoon up their butts and think their farts smell like sterling.
Poopyman
FTFY
JGabriel
@Stefan:
Actually, I already did. I was just kidding. My worst is pretty tame.
@BGinCHI:
Frankly, I though I was pretty restrained. It’s not like I responded by mocking PeakVT’s unconventional User ID capitalization, which, you know: I could have.
@cleek: Heh.
.
Stefan
I used to sell clothes. When a guy dressed like that walked in, he was an easy sale for more blue shirts (button down), more pink ties (small patterns only) and maybe a rep stripe necktie if he was feeling rakish. And several pairs of khakis that you knew would be hemmed to mid-ankle. And loafers or boat shoes and a web belt.
I take it you worked at J. Press…
Martin
Technically, it’s a period… Could JGabriel be more misogynistic? Didn’t Cole ban them back during the primaries?
Stefan
Though now the engineer in the family has gone over to Filson.
You can’t go wrong with Filson. Shit’s indestructible.
PeakVT
@JGabriel: One dot. Singular.
It was two dots, like Uncle Shithead does, when I posted.
Because the bottom of posts here look too tight to me
Modern psychopharmacology can do wonders, you know?
So, go fuck yourself:
But maybe not in your case.
RossInDetroit
Saks. You wouldn’t even show this guy the Armani. Maybe Hugo Boss, the most conventional of the European lines. Try and put a Zegna on them and they’d have to go hide in a Brooks Bros fitting room and suck their thumb until the anxiety attack passed.
Stooleo
@Stefan 17
Yes, every preppy New England kid had a pair of these at my college in Maine. Back in the West we wore these.
jl
Spent most of my youth in these kind of work boots. I think Tucker would look better in these, either the standard weird green color, or the standard shiny black, which aged gracefully into an eggshell matte bald tire black (pic of which I cannot find now)
3/4 Length Rubber Irrigation Boots
http://www.farmhardware.com/SuperStore/SuperStore-Product.asp?ProductID=7466
jl
@53 Stefan
That’s what he says. Looks like they have some very good wool stuff for when shells or insulated not appropriate. I will probably get a couple of Filson items for next winter. I just can’t quit those Red Wing boots though.
Edit: except their hiking boot line (vasquez or something) is getting into fashionable duck boot territory.
PeakVT
mocking PeakVT’s unconventional User ID capitalization
Actually, VT is the correct abbreviation. You would know this if you have ever sent a letter in the United States. It’s also the correct abbreviation for one of the universities I went to.
JGabriel
@PeakVT:
Right. Like I’m gonna take criticism about formatting or grammatical conventions seriously from someone who closes their User ID with three fucking consonants in a row.
And not only that, but capitalizes two of them?
Under the circumstances, my friend, mein petit cabbage head, your argument lacks credibility.
.
Joel
@JGabriel 34
While I have no beef with the dot, it does remind me of UCT posts.
Stefan
That’s what he says. Looks like they have some very good wool stuff for when shells or insulated not appropriate. I will probably get a couple of Filson items for next winter. I just can’t quit those Red Wing boots though.
Try their tin cloth pants.
Egypt Steve
Back when Tucker had his gig at MSNBC I used to post this limerick everywhere, but no one ever told me how great it was. I’ll try again here:
On MSNBC, there’s Tucker
A most supercilious fucker.
When I watch his damn show,
I shout “Take this, and blow!”
Then I add, bending over, “Now pucker!”
Anne Laurie
Burnspbesq: Don’t forgot “We should ship America’s toxic waste to the Third World, because it’s cost-effective, and hey Those People are gonna die young and horribly anyway & they already have more kids than they can use.” Which ‘thought experiment’ Summers angrily defended, until it looked to cost him his gig, at which point he went all “can’t anyone take a joke these days?”
This is why NYMag‘s Daily Intel ran the Winkelvei quote next to a picture of Summers captioned Game recognize game.
Stefan
Ballon Juice’s descent from a blog about politics to a blog about men’s haberdashery was as swift as it was certain. Internet historians trace the conversion to a picture of Tucker Carlson which appeared in July 2011, the last full year of peace before the Drone Wars began….
BGinCHI
Ballon Juice’s descent from a blog about politics to a blog about
men’s haberdasherya single dot was as swift as it was certain. Internet historians trace the conversion to a picture of Tucker Carlson which appeared in July 2011, the last full year of peace before the Drone Wars began….Fixeded.
arguingwithsignposts
@PeakVT: Ah, yes. Good ole VPISU (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). ;)
Woodrowfan
dot are cool. But calling them periods is a symbol of the oppressive patriarchy.
…
slag
@JGabriel:
Indeed. The dot was actually a reasonable innovation. In spite of its overuse by some, the original is worth keeping.
RossInDetroit
If you embiggen the pic, he’s actually wearing a striped shirt and the pants are corduroy. There goes my whole thesis.
Poopyman
And yet
remains an unword.
RossInDetroit
In that case we’ll refer to it as ‘spotting’
cursorial
He looks like he just walked out of Bloom County panel. Steve Dallas’ long-lost college roommate come to visit.
slag
To me, the most depressing part of this post is this:
There are fewer than 40 wild Amur leopards left in the world. How many Tucker Carlson-type douchebags are there in DC alone?
See also: Proof that there is no god.
JGabriel
@Egypt Steve:
Egypt Steve, that limerick is really …
Well …
Uh …
It’s really there. You know?
It just sticks out, and announces itself, and says, I’m here.
(ETA: Honestly, I thought it was pretty great.)
.
invisible_hand
hey, summers, chill out.
when i was in college, and my then-girlfriend ripped my heart the ever-living fuck out, i was down in the dumps for months. you know what got me out? jackets and ties, mon frere. they just make you feel good about yourself. so fuck you, summers. asshole.
JGabriel
@slag: Thank you, slag! At least someone here gets me.
.
NonyNony
@invisible_hand
Dear Grod! invisible_hand is apparently Barney from “How I Met Your Mother”! Suit up, invisible_hand, Suit up.
I wonder how many other television characters are posting to Balloon Juice…
Woodrowfan
Invisible-hand: yeah, but there are different types of dressing up. There is the “dressed up and feeling good” (which you were) and “dressed up because I am so uptight that if I ate coal I’d poop diamonds” which is Tucker and his ilk..
invisible_hand
@woodrowfan – i never ever in a million years intended, in any way, to defend tucker carlson from legitimate claims of douchebaggery.
@nony nony – suiting up totally works.
funny suit story: my best friend’s dad used to go to vietnam war protests when he was in college, but he attended dressed in a 3 piece suit. his reasoning: he wanted to make sure to communicate that opposing that war was not a fringe position but an entirely reasonable and even mainstream one.
Stefan
funny suit story: my best friend’s dad used to go to vietnam war protests when he was in college, but he attended dressed in a 3 piece suit. his reasoning: he wanted to make sure to communicate that opposing that war was not a fringe position but an entirely reasonable and even mainstream one.
Which is precisely why I also wore a suit and tie to the Iraq War and anti-GOP Convention protests in NY in 2003 and 2004.
Also, take a look at pictures of the March on Washington and other civil rights protests from the 1950s up to the mid-1960s. Dr. King and many others are wearing suits and ties. They came correct.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@RossInDetroit:
Thank you for a much needed chuckle.
spark
Having grown up surrounded by southern-prep douches (and having attended UVa), that look is very familar.
burnspbesq
@spark:
Did you have to remind me of the worst year of my life (freshman year, which I spent at W&L)?
RalfW
I remember him mostly for his short-lived piece of crap show on PBS. It was the flimsiest garbage I’d ever seen on that network, and I endured a lot of Nightly Business Report blow-job reporting by Neil ‘Foxshit’ Cavuto back when my git off my lawn dad ensured that the family color TeeVee was tuned to the NBR drivel of PrNewsWire ‘reporting’ every danged day.
Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)
of course he’ll always be an asshole, he’s a trust fund baby.
it tends to happen when you grow up with literally a silver spoon in your mouth. he can afford to be an ass because he can afford it.
JJinSF
I literally ran into the Winkelvi at Coachella. It was completely my fault and I apologized. They quickly accepted it and really didn’t set off my douchebag radar. They were really nice guys and didn’t seem like assholes in the few minutes I was in line with them. Larry Summers on the other hand is a known racist and sexist asshole. I’d take anything he says with a grain of salt.