According to American Prospect, Ezra did not read his homophobic articles. Also, too, Ezra doesn’t know what the google is.
2.
raven
What’s up at Bubba’s?
3.
Thomas F
What makes no sense is why Ezra Klein is qualified to read a news wire, much less contextualize it for the hoi polloi. The man is in serious running, right behind Colin Powell, as one of the most overrated mediocrities of the past century.
How’s Ezra gonna play this? So far he’s trotted out the “I want diversity in opinions” angle. Which, as I related earlier, is like saying that Jenny McCarthy provides a diversity of opinion about vaccinations.
He may go full GG and tell everyone that they’re too dumb/obot/evil to understand the brilliance. Was reading earlier how EK thinks he’s post-politics (posited as a newish characteristic of the center left) and then seems confused when Paul Ryan plays him after EK goes to lengths to prop him up.
It’s kinda of like the soon-to-be President Obama inviting noted homophobe Rick Warren to be one of the public faces of his inaugural – which is one of the most important messaging days for a new president.
Actually, its not like that since the Obama decision was much, much worse for many of us who trust and respect the President.
Sometime you just have to suck it up and see how it plays out.
9.
Sly
So I suppose #voxpitch will become the new #slatepitch.
10.
lamh36
I have always thought of Ezra as one of those book smart people who just doens’t have any common sense. My sister is like that, she is really smart, yet she’s always caught off guard by the most mundane and common things that other people just never fall prey too.
I mean, if you hire someone to write stuff, wouldn’t common sense tell you to, IDK, make sure you’ve read as much of what they’ve written before hiring them?
What makes no sense is why Ezra Klein is qualified to read a news wire, much less contextualize it for the hoi polloi.
Umm, he’s sort of already been doing that with WonkBlog. Granted, Vox will cover more topics.
12.
John Weiss
What’s all the fuss? Who gives a crap who Mr. Klein hires? Who gives a crap about the opinions of a gay anti-gay? Confused, I think; I know I was when I was 23.
BTW I never got all the Ezra hype. His breathless reporting on the ACA website roll-out, was quite Broderian. He is very much the both sides do it, CW peddling, Beltway reporter.
15.
Elizabelle
Did Jan Brewer decline to run again because she’s Ezra Klein’s still not disclosed recent hire?
16.
Anne Laurie
… Says the man who gave Erik Kane the keys here!
I think Gabriel Arana at the American Prospectsaid it best:
Arana wrote that the problem with hiring Ambrosino wasn’t that his views offend some in the gay community, “it’s that Ambrosino’s quick rise to notoriety—and now, his ticket aboard the profession’s hottest new upstart—is an object lesson in the way new media equates click-bait contrarianism with serious thought, and gives hacks a platform in the name of ideological balance.”
17.
p.a.
Klein reminds me of the joke about the ACLU defending the Nazi Party’s right to burn down ACLU headquarters.
18.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
File this one under Who Gives a Fuck.
19.
Hunter Gathers
Ezra was afraid that he might look up from his Iphone while reading The Note and not see a DudeBro.
Must have bribed the interviewers with donuts and lattes.
22.
Keith G
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Come on. Don’t you want to join in judging something before it’s first material output is produced and before it has a chance to establish it’s process and voice?
Klein reminds me of the joke about the ACLU defending the Nazi Party’s right to burn down ACLU headquarters.
That’s not a joke, shit-for-brans. It is the very essence of what the ACLU is about.
I’m going to give Ezra the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the Master Plan is to set this jackalope up to fail gloriously, and we will then be rid of him.
I figured that it’s the liberal version of Hannity hiring Colmes–setting yourself up for easy wins in the debates.
35.
Keith G
@ranchandsyrup: I only know of his work through second hand info, so I will be curious to see what his writ from Ezra is and what editorial guidance/limits he is given. If he lives down to his reputation, that’s too bad for all, especially Ezra,
36.
JR
Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”
Let me repeat that: Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”
WTF? Regardless of anything else, how can anyone take a graduate of a fake university seriously? Going to Falwell’s fundamentalist churchy conjob should be disqualifying in itself.
So, once again, Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.” Right now Vox sounds like it’ll be a low rent version of Politico. Who aspires to that?
37.
Violet
I told you the Vox site is the New Village. The intro video gave it all away. Contrived hipster vibe. Same old conventional wisdom. Blech.
I said that the minute I heard he went to the WaPo. Many disagreed and still do. But I think this hire pretty much puts the nails into that particular coffin.
42.
Corner Stone
Ezra’s going to eject this guy just as fast as John Edwards did for his “internet advance team” when he ran for president.
@Corner Stone: Glenn responds to criticism and pushback in those ways. Not always though. Your mileage does vary. I try not to hold it against the points he’s trying to make. Sometimes even successfully.
44.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anne Laurie: … Says the man who gave Erik Kane the keys here!
To say nothing of Bernard Finkel! or something like that
Not only is he a graduate of Liberty Non-university, but he has written glowingly about how totally awesome and funny and fatherly and super cool Jerry Falwell was and that we feminazis and lie-berals are total doody heads for not cutting the wonderful Dr. Falwell any breaks.
ETA: One of the pieces of evidence he uses to show how super cool Falwell was was that the sainted reverend used to wear an electric blue afro wig for laughs. Highlarious! Such high jinks!
46.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Bullshit. There is nothing here in Ezra’s hire that you can even begin to bring Greenwald into unless you’re predisposed to just get your hate on.
That was a stupid fucking comment.
If he un-hires him – betch $10 he does – it makes a lot of sense. A LOT more people know about Ezra’s new thing today than before this.
P.S. I don’t even think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I just don’t care that much. All I really care about is the fact that arthritis appears to be taking over my body. So fuck you. Whoever you are.
49.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: Funny how he kept on the videographer. He must have valued her closeup work.
There’s a weird lack of overlap between various types of intelligence. None of my colleagues can keep up with me in a conversation, though many are much more accomplished intellectually, and I can’t keep up with my uncle who barely graduated from high school and can’t add one digit numbers.
What I find most frustrating is when I first become aware of something like this. I had no idea who this individual was until I ran into a few posts on liberal blogs today, which generally either paraphrased what he supposedly has written or excerpted a couple of paragraphs.
Was he fairly paraphrased or quoted in context? No idea.
Assuming he was, was he self-evidently wrong, or are there arguments for and against his position? Bloggers tend to go for the former rather than the latter.
Assuming he’s wrong, were these couple of quotes one or two-offs? Does he generally write well and insightfully, and these were just a couple of turds he crapped out, or is he just consistently full of shit? Again, no idea.
When something like this crops up I have this very bizarre thing that I do. If I want to get to the bottom of it I go back to original sources and read full context. I know, pretty radical. The frustration stems from the fact that some fucking thing like this crops up almost every day, so many of them I simply have to drop and move on.
Oh god, that is so fucking depressing. I thought once those old Village idiots died off or shuffled off to Martha’s Vineyard to retire that maybe some people like Josh Marshall would become more prominent in our national conversations, but it looks like the ones who will be there will be the least interesting, most glibertarian spewers of the Juicebox Mafia. I’m doomed to end my life still avoiding links to Matty Y’s horrid spelling and clueless privilege and Ezra Klein’s desperate Villager wannabe flailings. It makes me want to just get it over with now.
Undoubtedly. Her book came and went without any splash at all and is currently littering the remainder bins, so I’m sure she needs something to fill in the time between playing with her Vitamix and admiring her collection of colored salt.
@Corner Stone: :) it’s almost like you saw GG in my comment and did not read the rest. I was clearly speculating.
62.
p.a.
@burnspbesq: Yeah, thanks. The line is a joke, and I’m a member (ACLU, not Nazi Party). Lighten up Francis/Frances.
63.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: I read the whole thing. It was just complete douche on your part.
How you could even make that leap is a mystery.
64.
NotMax
Too much – way, way too much – of the so-called New Media views having a flavor of the month as opposed to a flavor of the week as long-term strategic thinking, outmoded and antique in the post-modern ‘now is too slow, can’t we move on faster?’ environment. And editors? Lumbering dinosaurs who slow the mad dash.
Clickbait is fine, so long as it a tool and not a purpose, a means and not an end. It is a design in icing with which to sell the cake. Problem is that the ‘news cycle’ is made up of more and more icing and less and less cake.
65.
Cassidy
Media personality who has risen to came being a young villager creates website to continue doing the same…what’s hard to understand? Jesus, most of these people would perform sex acts for money to stay in the club.
I am ordering the Ann Taylor in magenta. The shooz I will take much more time and deliberation because I absolutely love shooz and shoo shopping. Quite unlike my feelings on dress shopping.
Yup, I think that comment nails it. This is about clickbait. Ezra is a whore, like all Villager scum.
What, no tumbrels?
As far as: “This is about clickbait. Ezra is a whore,”
Maybe it is. There are very few free lunches. Ezra has a boss. Maybe he does have certain targets to meet to keep his perch. And like a literal whore (isn’t this a sort of misogynistic term ready for retirement?) maybe he has to reach out to some he would rather not.
I have weird-shaped feet so I hate shoes, shoe shopping, and every damned shoe manufacturer in China. Also the foot doctor has sentenced me to sensible shoes. Wear sensible shoes for 9 years and see how tired of them you get. I was not even a shoe freak but at this point I’d even wear Sarah Palin’s tastefully restrained red fvck-me shoes if I could. (By the way, do any other female politicians wear hooker shoes? I can’t think of any.)
@Pogonip: Have you tried Born, they have cute designs which are not hard on your feet. Also too, Dansko.
97.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: Sorry about calling them hooker shoes, Keith G. I hadn’t got to your remark when I typed mine. Let’s refer to them as “entrepreneurial shoes,” instead.
Edit: No…No skin off my whatever. I was just wondering. So many phrases have been “red-lined” (rightfully so in most cases), that I find it interesting that that one keeps on being used.
Anti-sully? That would require that he always took the right side of the argument, always supported the humane position & defaulted to the best in humanity and then 6 months to a year later, when it no longer mattered to anyone would admit he was wrong and the racist, pointless-war mongering, anti-human assholes were correct all along & he was misunderstood or misled.
Such a human is not possible, the hypocrisy would cause a human to collapse under the shear weigt of being that big an asshole.
I missed the part where Obama gave the guy a job to continuously provide speeches or written words or what have you. Link?
You missed that part and you also missed these parts: “kinda of like” and “its not like that.”
Someone else here has the Foolish Literalism covered. Maybe find yourself another angle?
109.
Pogonip
@Keith G: What is politics but more subtle whoring?
110.
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
Aside from that Filipina lady, who might not count since she wasn’t an officeholder herself, I think Sarah Palin is the only politician, male or female, whose shoes anyone gave a damn about.
@Amir Khalid: Good old Imelda. I should not laugh though, I have 2 pairs of studio aerobic shoes and 2 pairs of running shoes, hiking shoes so five pairs just for athletic activities.
America, now an oligarchy, follows the familiar pattern — to rise in power and prestige and wealth, you must increasingly make more authoritarian bigoted noises. If Ezra Klein becomes successful enough, soon he’ll have to start screaming for the invasion of middle eastern countries, the imprisonment of poor people for the “crime” of lacking income, and eventually, if Klein gets into the truly stratsopheric upper reaches of wealth and power, he’ll have to start pounding the table and shouting for labor unions to be disbanded, for gays to be killed in the streets, for “feminazis” to be lobotomized, and for university professors to get run out American colleges and chipped like dogs and used to test dangerous experimental drugs.
116.
Keith G
@A Humble Lurker: No he did worse. He is the President – was about to be the President. Just giving Warren time at the podium on that day was worth years of blog posts that get thousands of views.
The good news is that the Republic survived Rick Warren and it will survive whatever the hell his name is, but don’t conflate the power of Presidential recognition with the power of a website that isn’t even up yet.
I won’t link, but Sully’s predictably happy about this development, and has some really impressive leaps of logic from bloggers writing “maybe not hire this asshole” to his conclusion that liberals are the *real* bigoted speech police!
Not like those conservatives and their Free Speech Zones, no siree.
Whoring is merely the continuation of politics by other means.
120.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
Don’t know about studio aerobics. But when I was a runner, I had more than one pair of (cheap*) shoes at a time, just to rotate them and spread out the wear. Of course, this was back when sports footwear was not absurdly expensive like it is now.
*Well, cheap-ish.
121.
Suffern ACE
So the hiring of the gay one went well. Did anyone bother to read the black one’s articles before hiring him or her?
122.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: You are in a vaguely mother of the bride/groom role, right? Don’t let them trap you in the dowdy middle aged shit. Just look good, but not like you are trying to overshadow the bride or the actual mother thereof and you should be fine.
123.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Why wouldn’t you just say, “I wonder if Ezra’s going to pushback on criticism of this hire?”
How you got to where you got is really ridiculous.
124.
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE: There’s a BLACK ONE?!
Holy jesusfuckballs.
125.
ruemara
@kc: Nope. To compound my errors, I don’t even care about him.
My John’s daughter is getting married in August. Shopping for special guest/sort of step-mother-of-the-bride dress is horrific, without even getting into being weirdly shaped, apparently. Because no dresses ever fit me off the rack. Why women’s dresses aren’t all sold like men’s suits are: with alterations as a given, at least when buying better labels. I don’t really know many women who are the same size on the top as the bottom.
128.
Pogonip
@Keith G: Hee Hee Hee Hee . You win the Internets tonight!
129.
Narcissus
The good news is that the Republic survived Rick Warren
This what’s his face guy’s gotta be trolling. A 23-year-old wrote this?
…The current landscape of queer politics is growing increasingly hostile. We no longer prize intellectual conversation, preferring instead to dismiss our opponents in 140-character feats of rhetoric. We routinely scour the private lives and social media accounts of our political opponents in the hopes of demonizing them as archaic, unthinking, and bigoted…
It’s like it came from a particularly well-programed Markov model trained on a bunch of David Brooks columns.
And I guess we’re just pretending the Upton Sinclair gubernatorial campaign happened not almost 100 years ago but, like, last week, now.
(By the way, do any other female politicians wear hooker shoes? I can’t think of any.)
Condi, maybe? (Not sure if she qualifies as a “politician.”) (Also not sure if they were “hooker shoes.” But Imelda Marcos is long dead, so you takes what you gets.)
I have weird-shaped feet so I hate shoes, shoe shopping, and every damned shoe manufacturer in China. Also the foot doctor has sentenced me to sensible shoes. Wear sensible shoes for 9 years and see how tired of them you get. I was not even a shoe freak but at this point I’d even wear Sarah Palin’s tastefully restrained red fvck-me shoes if I could.
“Sensible”, defined how? Just ‘no heels, no pointy toes’, or do you need them to fit orthotics?
I’m in category one — with the additional complication that I have really fat insteps (flat soles, high sole-to-top-of-arch ratio) so mostly what I can wear are ‘ballet flats’ and mary janes. (Even when Dansko finally came out with wide widths, their shoes don’t fit my insteps.) But the Cuteness factor has really improved in the last decade or so… one of the few advantages of having the early Baby Boomers right ahead of me in the age cohort! I like Maryland Square and FootSmart for standards, but if you’re in a browsing mood, even 6pm.com can be a good source for impulse buys (like a pair of willow-green suede low-heel pumps with bronze buckle trim). And all three companies, like most these days, have excellent return policies just in case…
@Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking of the last part I quoted: “We routinely scour the private lives and social media accounts of our political opponents in the hopes of demonizing them as archaic, unthinking, and bigoted,” which he offers up as a new phenomenon ‘cuz mean qweerz and Twitter.
ETA: Obviously Sinclair didn’t have any social media accounts, but countertop inspections are not new.
140.
A Humble Lurker
@Cervantes:
So you’re saying they’re NOT that alike after all? *Le gasp!*
Hiring a self-loathing gay man makes sense if all you want is click-bait. Controversial columns are click-bait. If Vox had no advertising it would be a different crew.
143.
Omnes Omnibus
@J.Ty: I was just being contrarian/clever in hopes of getting a Vox column.
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, as far as I know, as an active Socialist in the 30’s he may very well have been involved in the pre-Mattachine era of secret queer organizing at least peripherally.
@Corner Stone: fair enough. That Ezra and Glenn are similarly situated in their new projects with hiring writers that brought it together for me. Glenn has a penchant for those types of responses. One man’s reasonable inferences are another man’s “douche”.
Your lens is fascinating.
I trust him as much as one should trust another human being who happens to make a living being a politician in modern America. The President did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus, therefore a degree of mortal skepticism is always in order. That is a very American outlook.
Because I do not embrace him with religious fervor, you think that I do not, in balance, appreciate his service?
Oh get the fuck over yourself. A little speech by Rick Warren which nobody remembers today is a massive betrayal of Obama’s base? A speech which never once mentioned anything about gay rights? When the history of gay rights is written, do you think anybody is seriously going to focus on that? Or do you think they’ll look at, say, the repeal of DADT, the overturning of DOMA, the extension of rights to same-sex partners of federal employees, and dozens of other little advances which had real impacts on real people? Do you derive your nutrition from symbolism? Because that’s the only way I can explain how you could otherwise think there’s any kind of equivalence here.
154.
GregB
I propose an anal toast to the hiring of Ambrosino.
@Cervantes: Okay, the Nazis should be just as free as anyone else to burn down the house. Will that do? I believe I have brokered an adequate compromise.
I have come to love Jambu shoes, especially their sandals. And Merrells are good, too. It took me a while to figure out that if I have narrow heels, I need size N or AA.
Also, I have at least five pairs of shoes just for bicycling (three pairs of casual sneakers, two pairs of work-appropriate sandals).
My lens? My lens is fascinating?
Did you really just see what you did here? You brought Greenwald into an Ezra reaction.
I did not do that. I didn’t say, “You know who else hated it when people asked him about questionable hires? HITLER! That’s who! Hitler hated it!”
Go fuck yourself, you fucking weasel.
163.
Keith G
@Xantar: You are daft or just letting emotions lead to a (willful?) misread. I never said anything about “a massive betrayal of Obama’s base”; even though if you check contemporary news, there were misapprehensions among some Democrats.
When the history of gay rights is written, do you think anybody is seriously going to focus on that?
Thank you for making my point, even if you did so by misrepresenting what I typed.
No one knows how the Ezra Klein project is going to pan out until after it has had a chance to get its footing and do whatever it is going to do. Just like on that day when many noted that objectionable choice by the soon to be President, there was no way to judge the outcome of his efforts.
@Corner Stone: lol. You said that same thing to me before about my lens.
To go to these lengths when you don’t even dispute that Glenn acts that way is interesting.
The difference is Warren made one short little speech at Obama’s inauguration whereas Ezra has hired someone who is going to be continuously writing for his publication (at least for a little while) and implicitly representing Vox. And you think the former has such humongous symbolic significance that it’s equivalent to the latter. Actually no, you said it’s worse.
I admit I misread your tone in the original post. I’ll own up to that. I did indeed let emotions run away from me. I still stand by my original point: your comparison was asinine.
168.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone: He and the wife just had a new baby. He’s probably still sleep-deprived.
The antipathy towards Greenwald is dull, I’ll concede that.
169.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: What the fuck are you even talking about, anymore?
You were wrong then, and you are wrong now.
170.
Corner Stone
If anyone can tell me how bringing Anne Boleyn into this thread makes sense, I’m willing to listen.
The difference is Warren made one short little speech at Obama’s inauguration whereas Ezra has hired someone who is going to be continuously writing for his publication (at least for a little while) and implicitly representing Vox. And you think the former has such humongous symbolic significance that it’s equivalent to the latter. Actually no, you said it’s worse.
That’s one difference. I can think of two others that are relevant. I bet you can, too.
I admit I misread your tone in the original post, but I still stand by my main point: your comparison is asinine.
Admitting mistakes is an art form that I’ve had to perfect for myself over the years. Seems to me you’re pretty good at it yourself already — but would you like some tips?
172.
Keith G
@Cervantes: What are the metrics? Books sold? Dollars banked? As it turned out, the erstwhile pastor had issues brewing closer to home that would disrupt any evaluation we might try.
In Jan 2009, he was adamantly against extending civil right to gays. That’s what he preached, that’s what he said he believed due to scripture. He, like Saul/Paul, has had a conversion. Good for him.
they defend arson as political speech? fuck I had no idea, can you point to a case where they defended actually burning buildings versus talking about it?
that to me is a big distinction with them. they’re cool with Nazis talking about turning on the showers and firing up the ovens, but not cool with actually you know doing it.
177.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay: For example, contrast with his boss, the “MBA President”.
@Cervantes: I think that GG doesn’t do his message any favors with his tactics. I’ve come to appreciate what he’s saying considerably more than I used to. Part of my reluctance at first stemmed from that. I can separate the two better now. I didn’t bring up the merits of his argument here.
@Corner Stone: you were evasive, pretending that I was asking about Ezra above. Because Glenn does do that stuff. So save all of the bluster.
We knew even back in 2009 that whatever Rick Warren said at the invocation, it wasn’t going to have any effect on Obama’s actual policies. We didn’t know what Obama was going to actually do with LGBT rights, and I’ll be the first to say I didn’t think he would do very much. But whatever his policies were going to be, we knew Rick Warren wasn’t going to have anything to do with it.
And we also knew that Rick Warren wasn’t even going to talk about gay rights or anything else that could be seen as politically controversial.
Meanwhile, Ezra Klein has hired Ambrosino to write articles, and we have a pretty good idea what those articles are going to be. As notable as the invocation for the President’s inauguration? No, of course not. But in terms of an actual impact? Well, Ambrosino is going to be putting out real content, and unlike the case with Rick Warren, it’s going to have Klein’s implicit approval.
182.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: If you can give me one…ONE…part of this issue that is relevant to Greenwald…I would really appreciate it.
If you’d like to tell us all how Greenwald would react to criticism that he hired an anti-gay gay writer? Please proceed.
183.
Cervantes
@ranchandsyrup: I understand. I guess I must not have as clear a sense of his “tactics” as you do. (Frankly, I have other fish to fry.)
How’s the little one? And the two of you? (Not actually sleep-deprived, I fervently hope.)
As notable as the invocation for the President’s inauguration? No, of course not. But in terms of an actual impact? Well, Ambrosino is going to be putting out real content, and unlike the case with Rick Warren, it’s going to have Klein’s implicit approval.
I’m, uhh..I’m just going to leave this here.
Thanks
185.
Keith G
@Cervantes: My thoughts ended about 3 glasses of Cabernet ago, food or no. The good news is that’s it’s bed time. The bad news is 4:00 AM CDT is not far enough away.
@Corner Stone: I already procedededed above abt why it came to mind. I understand that’s not good enough for you or you’re choosing to ignore them. So this should end here then.
How do you think Ezra Klein is going to react to this? Back down, or cut off his wife’s head, the way Henry VIII would, knowing that he’d be giving rise to his own female successor?
@ranchandsyrup: We are well, thanks. As someone once said, old age isn’t pretty but it sure beats the alternative.
194.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: No. You did not.
You wondered whether Ezra would bitch out to the max like Greenwald does on a daily basis.
It was stupid then, it’s stupid now and it will be stupid tomorrow.
Bitcoins to cronuts that Ezra will not start claiming obots are attacking his hiring choices, or communications. Ezra is not going to start telling us all that he hired homophobic gay writers during the Bush era, so there’s no change from him now hiring gay self-hating haters during the Obama presidency.
This isn’t going to change. You made a stupid fucking comment.
@FlipYrWhig: Given the hipsterdouche intro video for Vox? I hope someone does come in and start cleaning out hipster douchebags. Every single person in that video deserves a serious, non-sexual spanking.
@Corner Stone: I hear you. You think it is a stupid comment. I’m gonna have to live with that. One day at a time. I think I’ll avoid jail with a stern warning and time served for enduring this.
198.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Well, if you can come out on the other side knowing enough?
Win.
Come to think of it, worrying about who Ezra Klein hires and what they write would clearly seem to fall under the heading of blogospheric navel-gazing. Personally I’m a lot more concerned about the sudden surplus of cat fur. Well, cat hairs, to be technical – it’s cat fur when it’s still attached to the cat.
@Jane2: Do people actually buy shoes online? Depending on the brand and style, I can vary from an 8 to a 9 1/2 and a narrow to medium width. My baseline size is a 9 narrow, but it is a starting point.
209.
Jane2
@Omnes Omnibus: If one is a shoe pro, yes…as long as you know your brands and shoe size, it’s reliable. And even if you don’t….I’ve bought some incredible European shoes by width/length, and knowing which brands are narrower in general, ie Italian. It’s an art.
I could see buying replacement shoes on line, i.e., another pair of the exact make and size that I had previously bought in meatspace.
211.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
After I looked up pre-Mattachine I then had to look up homophile. Sheeesh!
212.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jane2: I have found that, even within brands, things vary. For example with most Cole-Haan shoes, I am a 8 1/2 medium, I am occasionally a 9 narrow. I don’t buy online* but I am very picky about the way my shoes fit.
* Like Steep said, replacing an exact shoe is fine.
213.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Without trying to be too arrogant, I think that I am quite knowledgeable, but part of the fun of this website is come across something new – and someone usually provides it everyday. The commentariat is quite erudite and the erudition is fucking broad as hell.
214.
Jane2
@Omnes Omnibus: Cole-Haan is no longer consistent in its sizing so I don’t buy them online. However, I could order a Merrell 8M anytime, anywhere and they fit….same with Bruno Magli. I also try on various brands when I’m shopping so that I know for sure that a certain brand won’t fit, ever.
215.
Constance
@Jane2:
What European shoes? Can you give me links? I wear a Narrow with a Quad heel (even narrower) and the only shoes I’ve ever owned that were perfect were Italian shoes I bought at Macys (about 3,000 years ago. Macys no longer has anything more narrow than a medium).
216.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
I love BJ because I’m always learning, learning, learning but sometimes I start to develop feelings of inadequacy, ignorance, total worthlessness, etc. And then I remind myself that with as many thousands of commentors as prowl BJ I’m lucky to have the opportunities to keep learning, learning, learning. and then the fucking trolls remind me that I’m really a pretty decent human being after all. Even if I have to look up homophile.
217.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jane2: Sounds like you are just more willing to take a chance on a shoe fitting than I am.
@Constance: Disturbingly, I believe that Givenchy has very narrow heels. My ex was shoe obsessed with a size 5, wide toe, narrow heel. I learned things about women’s shoes. DSW actually can have a reasonable stock of Givenchy shoes. Yust wait until they hit clearance unless you have a very common size. They also do really nice ties.
218.
Gex
So wait now. Glenn Greenwald and Rick Warren are teaming up with the Nazis to burn down Imelda Marcos’ shoe closet? This is one weird thread.
219.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus: @Omnes Omnibus:
I love BJ because I’m always learning, learning, learning but sometimes I start to develop feelings of inadequacy, ignorance, total worthlessness, etc. And then I remind myself that with as many thousands of commentors as prowl BJ I’m lucky to have the opportunities to keep learning, learning, learning. and then the fucking trolls remind me that I’m really a pretty decent human being after all. Even if I have to look up homophile.
220.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gex: Welcome to Balloon Juice. Oh, here is a random youtube. I don’t have any cat pics.
221.
ruemara
@Gex: When did this thread become post-apocalyptic sci fi fan fic?
222.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Some people know about yarn or quantum theory. Me, I was once told that the mark of a person with a good liberal arts education is that he or she can make one sensible remark at a cocktail party about any topic. I aspire to that.
223.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks! I just bookmarked the DSW site. I owned one pair of 2 and 1/2 inch heels which I tried to wear to the Oscar party I attended recently. Did not make it across the bedroom before realizing this was a tragedy I did not want anyone to observe. Almost as bad as the party I attended 14 years ago when my 1960s makeup techniques created hilarity among the rest of the guests. So I wore my Danskos and hid behind the flashier guests for the group photo.
224.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
:-)
I’m off to bed. We little old ladies need our rest.
225.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Totter off on your highest heels and sleep well.
226.
Jane2
@Constance: for shoes at a reasonable discount, I use Yoox.com
227.
Jane2
@Gex: and Andrew Sullivan and Ezra Klein are the executive producers.
228.
NorthLeft12
@burnspbesq: Not sure if you are deliberately being wrong here or just ignorant. Like the original “joke” teller.
The ACLU, and CCLA here in Canada, is very specific about defending free speech and human rights. What they don’t do is defend violence or speech that promotes violent actions against others.
Not sure how people cannot understand that. It is so simple, and so verifiable that I have to think that any contrary explanation [like your joke] is a willful attempt to slander and misrepresent these fine and necessary organizations.
229.
Patricia Kayden
@Xantar: Thank you Xantar. I didn’t want to waste time responding to KeithG. It’s obvious where President Obama’s heart is when it comes to gay rights given all he has done to actually further them. Sometimes it’s good to just roll your eyes at idiot comments and keep it moving.
230.
Cervantes
@Patricia Kayden: Did you really misunderstand Keith’s point to the extent that it seems you did? I’m surprised.
231.
Kevin
I just hope no one buys the “I’ve never read any of his work” defense. Yeah, a guy responsible for a brand new multi-million dollar news site…doesn’t take the time to read the work of the people he is in charge of hiring. That sounds so likely, so…wonky! (I think wonk is the worst term around nowadays. It’s really what the kewl kids like to think of themselves, but it’s just pretentious).
Anyway, given Ezra’s love for Paul Ryan, his constant “both sides do it”, this should shock no one. He’s playing the game. You think he wants to be the next Krugman? Nope, he wants to be the next Brooks, the next Friedman.
232.
Xecky Gilchrist
Yeah, it *doesn’t* make sense just to drop a link and call it a blog post.
This site is, among other things, largely about the “willful attempt to slander” various public figures.
Note the nasty exchange about Greenwald. Corner Stone is a bit touchy because Greenwald receives all kinds of slander here, and CS respects Greenwald’s work.
As do I.
234.
Joey Giraud
One of the “other things” is supporting public protests.
JPL
According to American Prospect, Ezra did not read his homophobic articles. Also, too, Ezra doesn’t know what the google is.
raven
What’s up at Bubba’s?
Thomas F
What makes no sense is why Ezra Klein is qualified to read a news wire, much less contextualize it for the hoi polloi. The man is in serious running, right behind Colin Powell, as one of the most overrated mediocrities of the past century.
Stan
Provocative and counter-intuitive!
ranchandsyrup
How’s Ezra gonna play this? So far he’s trotted out the “I want diversity in opinions” angle. Which, as I related earlier, is like saying that Jenny McCarthy provides a diversity of opinion about vaccinations.
He may go full GG and tell everyone that they’re too dumb/obot/evil to understand the brilliance. Was reading earlier how EK thinks he’s post-politics (posited as a newish characteristic of the center left) and then seems confused when Paul Ryan plays him after EK goes to lengths to prop him up.
Citizen_X
Husker Du agrees.
cathyx
It’s simple. He’s playing to both sides.
Keith G
It’s kinda of like the soon-to-be President Obama inviting noted homophobe Rick Warren to be one of the public faces of his inaugural – which is one of the most important messaging days for a new president.
Actually, its not like that since the Obama decision was much, much worse for many of us who trust and respect the President.
Sometime you just have to suck it up and see how it plays out.
Sly
So I suppose #voxpitch will become the new #slatepitch.
lamh36
I have always thought of Ezra as one of those book smart people who just doens’t have any common sense. My sister is like that, she is really smart, yet she’s always caught off guard by the most mundane and common things that other people just never fall prey too.
I mean, if you hire someone to write stuff, wouldn’t common sense tell you to, IDK, make sure you’ve read as much of what they’ve written before hiring them?
yoohoocthulhu
@Thomas F:
Umm, he’s sort of already been doing that with WonkBlog. Granted, Vox will cover more topics.
John Weiss
What’s all the fuss? Who gives a crap who Mr. Klein hires? Who gives a crap about the opinions of a gay anti-gay? Confused, I think; I know I was when I was 23.
raven
He’s got a cute, smart little wifey.
schrodinger's cat
BTW I never got all the Ezra hype. His breathless reporting on the ACA website roll-out, was quite Broderian. He is very much the both sides do it, CW peddling, Beltway reporter.
Elizabelle
Did Jan Brewer decline to run again because she’s Ezra Klein’s still not disclosed recent hire?
Anne Laurie
… Says the man who gave Erik Kane the keys here!
I think Gabriel Arana at the American Prospect said it best:
p.a.
Klein reminds me of the joke about the ACLU defending the Nazi Party’s right to burn down ACLU headquarters.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
File this one under Who Gives a Fuck.
Hunter Gathers
Ezra was afraid that he might look up from his Iphone while reading The Note and not see a DudeBro.
JPL
@p.a.: Well did they belong to the German or American Nazi Party?
PaulW
Must have bribed the interviewers with donuts and lattes.
Keith G
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Come on. Don’t you want to join in judging something before it’s first material output is produced and before it has a chance to establish it’s process and voice?
Why do you hate this blog?
burnspbesq
@p.a.:
That’s not a joke, shit-for-brans. It is the very essence of what the ACLU is about.
I’m going to give Ezra the benefit of the doubt, and assume that the Master Plan is to set this jackalope up to fail gloriously, and we will then be rid of him.
ranchandsyrup
@Keith G: the Vox overall may find its voice, but this particular writer has his voice. Tiger don’t change his stripes.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anne Laurie:
Yup, I think that comment nails it. This is about clickbait. Ezra is a whore, like all Villager scum.
ranchandsyrup
@burnspbesq:
usually works the other way.
Anne Laurie
@PaulW:
Not hipster enuf. Is ‘cronuts‘ still The Thing, or have the fedora’d beardies moved on to an even more twee sweetie?….
(aagh. From the link: “a new milk-filled chocolate chip cookie shot glass creation” at SXSW!)
Baud
Why Ezra hired Ambrosino, in one chart.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Invisible chart?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
I can’t afford charts. :-(
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup:
Could you explain what this means?
maeve
@Anne Laurie:
Toast is the new thing
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/01/15/dont-roll-your-eyes-too-hard-at-this-story-about-artisanal-toast
Actually the linked article is a good read:
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/toast-story-latest-artisanal-food-craze-72676/
Edited to add: the abbreviated URL says “anal-toast” but it actually refers to artisanal toast.
Corner Stone
@Anne Laurie:
Fucking. Snap.
lahke
I figured that it’s the liberal version of Hannity hiring Colmes–setting yourself up for easy wins in the debates.
Keith G
@ranchandsyrup: I only know of his work through second hand info, so I will be curious to see what his writ from Ezra is and what editorial guidance/limits he is given. If he lives down to his reputation, that’s too bad for all, especially Ezra,
JR
Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”
Let me repeat that: Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.”
WTF? Regardless of anything else, how can anyone take a graduate of a fake university seriously? Going to Falwell’s fundamentalist churchy conjob should be disqualifying in itself.
So, once again, Ambrosino is a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty “University.” Right now Vox sounds like it’ll be a low rent version of Politico. Who aspires to that?
Violet
I told you the Vox site is the New Village. The intro video gave it all away. Contrived hipster vibe. Same old conventional wisdom. Blech.
Keith G
@maeve: Spread with Santorum?
geg6
@Anne Laurie:
This.
Corner Stone
Hipsterdouche.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
I said that the minute I heard he went to the WaPo. Many disagreed and still do. But I think this hire pretty much puts the nails into that particular coffin.
Corner Stone
Ezra’s going to eject this guy just as fast as John Edwards did for his “internet advance team” when he ran for president.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: Glenn responds to criticism and pushback in those ways. Not always though. Your mileage does vary. I try not to hold it against the points he’s trying to make. Sometimes even successfully.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anne Laurie: … Says the man who gave Erik Kane the keys here!
To say nothing of Bernard Finkel! or something like that
geg6
@JR:
Not only is he a graduate of Liberty Non-university, but he has written glowingly about how totally awesome and funny and fatherly and super cool Jerry Falwell was and that we feminazis and lie-berals are total doody heads for not cutting the wonderful Dr. Falwell any breaks.
ETA: One of the pieces of evidence he uses to show how super cool Falwell was was that the sainted reverend used to wear an electric blue afro wig for laughs. Highlarious! Such high jinks!
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Bullshit. There is nothing here in Ezra’s hire that you can even begin to bring Greenwald into unless you’re predisposed to just get your hate on.
That was a stupid fucking comment.
ranchandsyrup
@Keith G: that’s fair Keith. Cheers.
LT
If he un-hires him – betch $10 he does – it makes a lot of sense. A LOT more people know about Ezra’s new thing today than before this.
P.S. I don’t even think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I just don’t care that much. All I really care about is the fact that arthritis appears to be taking over my body. So fuck you. Whoever you are.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: Funny how he kept on the videographer. He must have valued her closeup work.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
Invisible chart.
DougJ
@lamh36:
There’s a weird lack of overlap between various types of intelligence. None of my colleagues can keep up with me in a conversation, though many are much more accomplished intellectually, and I can’t keep up with my uncle who barely graduated from high school and can’t add one digit numbers.
DougJ
@Violet:
Yup. Dave and Cokie, now with infographs.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
schrodinger's cat
Is McCardle joining the boys?
Heliopause
@Keith G:
What I find most frustrating is when I first become aware of something like this. I had no idea who this individual was until I ran into a few posts on liberal blogs today, which generally either paraphrased what he supposedly has written or excerpted a couple of paragraphs.
Was he fairly paraphrased or quoted in context? No idea.
Assuming he was, was he self-evidently wrong, or are there arguments for and against his position? Bloggers tend to go for the former rather than the latter.
Assuming he’s wrong, were these couple of quotes one or two-offs? Does he generally write well and insightfully, and these were just a couple of turds he crapped out, or is he just consistently full of shit? Again, no idea.
When something like this crops up I have this very bizarre thing that I do. If I want to get to the bottom of it I go back to original sources and read full context. I know, pretty radical. The frustration stems from the fact that some fucking thing like this crops up almost every day, so many of them I simply have to drop and move on.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: the hire? No. The potential reaction to pushback on the hire, simmer.
Baud
@DougJ:
Why do you think that’s weird?
Corner Stone
@DougJ:
To be fair, almost no one else has the etched in glass memory of song titles of the last 80 years rambling through their brainpans.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup:
Sigh.
geg6
@DougJ:
Oh god, that is so fucking depressing. I thought once those old Village idiots died off or shuffled off to Martha’s Vineyard to retire that maybe some people like Josh Marshall would become more prominent in our national conversations, but it looks like the ones who will be there will be the least interesting, most glibertarian spewers of the Juicebox Mafia. I’m doomed to end my life still avoiding links to Matty Y’s horrid spelling and clueless privilege and Ezra Klein’s desperate Villager wannabe flailings. It makes me want to just get it over with now.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
Undoubtedly. Her book came and went without any splash at all and is currently littering the remainder bins, so I’m sure she needs something to fill in the time between playing with her Vitamix and admiring her collection of colored salt.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: :) it’s almost like you saw GG in my comment and did not read the rest. I was clearly speculating.
p.a.
@burnspbesq: Yeah, thanks. The line is a joke, and I’m a member (ACLU, not Nazi Party). Lighten up Francis/Frances.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: I read the whole thing. It was just complete douche on your part.
How you could even make that leap is a mystery.
NotMax
Too much – way, way too much – of the so-called New Media views having a flavor of the month as opposed to a flavor of the week as long-term strategic thinking, outmoded and antique in the post-modern ‘now is too slow, can’t we move on faster?’ environment. And editors? Lumbering dinosaurs who slow the mad dash.
Clickbait is fine, so long as it a tool and not a purpose, a means and not an end. It is a design in icing with which to sell the cake. Problem is that the ‘news cycle’ is made up of more and more icing and less and less cake.
Cassidy
Media personality who has risen to came being a young villager creates website to continue doing the same…what’s hard to understand? Jesus, most of these people would perform sex acts for money to stay in the club.
Baud
@Cassidy:
“would”?
geg6
@Baud:
Heh.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: you’ve never seen him do that?
Go shave a cat’s ass.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Ezra? No, I have never seen him do that.
hilts
Ezra Klein is a smug, preening asshole
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: glenn
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT, I’m betting the South Carolina Tea Party will not be amused by Lindsey Graham’s hot mike exchange with John Kerry
? Martin
So, Ezra goes and looks for a conservative voice and everyone is pissed because the guy is a dick. Is there some alternative that we’re unaware of?
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: Did you decide on the dress and the shooz ?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Nice. I’ve always wanted to use Lindsey Graham and Hot Mike in the same sentence.
MikeJ
How do you hire a writer without ever having read anything they’ve written?
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
I am ordering the Ann Taylor in magenta. The shooz I will take much more time and deliberation because I absolutely love shooz and shoo shopping. Quite unlike my feelings on dress shopping.
Keith G
@Villago Delenda Est:
What, no tumbrels?
As far as: “This is about clickbait. Ezra is a whore,”
Maybe it is. There are very few free lunches. Ezra has a boss. Maybe he does have certain targets to meet to keep his perch. And like a literal whore (isn’t this a sort of misogynistic term ready for retirement?) maybe he has to reach out to some he would rather not.
I donno. All this is speculation.
geg6
@MikeJ:
Dudebro, man. He’s a contrarian dudebro. Who doesn’t love that?
Ian
@Baud:
I’m waiting for Lindsey Graham and wide stance.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Ezra? No, I have never seen him do that.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: how about Glenn?
Narcissus
@MikeJ: This should be the part that people focus on, not this dude’s self-hatred or whatever. It’s all patronage and nepotism in the Village.
kc
Am I the only person here who has never heard of the guy?
Baud
@kc:
I hadn’t before this.
Howard Beale IV
Simple-He’s the Anti-Sully.
schrodinger's cat
@geg6: Nice! Keep me posted when you get the shooz! What about the bag and the jewelry?
schrodinger's cat
@kc: I had never heard of him either.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Not sure. Let us know when he hires a homophobic gay writer.
Keith G
@Baud: Me neither, but judging from the clicks he is causing here in this one little blog….
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: have you seen Glenn react to criticism as I described?
Pogonip
@geg6: What’s the occasion?
I have weird-shaped feet so I hate shoes, shoe shopping, and every damned shoe manufacturer in China. Also the foot doctor has sentenced me to sensible shoes. Wear sensible shoes for 9 years and see how tired of them you get. I was not even a shoe freak but at this point I’d even wear Sarah Palin’s tastefully restrained red fvck-me shoes if I could. (By the way, do any other female politicians wear hooker shoes? I can’t think of any.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Howard Beale IV: Interesting theory.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Then we should get Sully and Anti-Sully together in a room.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip:
Ilona Staller?
schrodinger's cat
@Pogonip: Have you tried Born, they have cute designs which are not hard on your feet. Also too, Dansko.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: Sorry about calling them hooker shoes, Keith G. I hadn’t got to your remark when I typed mine. Let’s refer to them as “entrepreneurial shoes,” instead.
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Never cross the Sullys.
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: No, I haven’t, I will look. Thanks!
Keith G
@Pogonip:
Possibly Kristin M. Davis.
Edit: No…No skin off my whatever. I was just wondering. So many phrases have been “red-lined” (rightfully so in most cases), that I find it interesting that that one keeps on being used.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: particle + anti-particle; they go boom and we get photons!
This guy looks like he is only one half Anti-Sully.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation
Schlemizel
@Howard Beale IV:
Anti-sully? That would require that he always took the right side of the argument, always supported the humane position & defaulted to the best in humanity and then 6 months to a year later, when it no longer mattered to anyone would admit he was wrong and the racist, pointless-war mongering, anti-human assholes were correct all along & he was misunderstood or misled.
Such a human is not possible, the hypocrisy would cause a human to collapse under the shear weigt of being that big an asshole.
Anoniminous
@kc:
I hadn’t. But then I don’t follow the ups and downs of Teh Mediums so that says nothing.
A Humble Lurker
@Keith G:
I missed the part where Obama gave the guy a job to continuously provide speeches or written words or what have you. Link?
Cervantes
@Pogonip:
I saw Golda Meir’s shoe-rack once. You can cross her off your list.
max
This Makes No Sense to Me
They liked the band’s first record better.
max
[‘Before they sold out.’]
MikeJ
@Pogonip:
Mary Carey
Cervantes
@A Humble Lurker:
You missed that part and you also missed these parts: “kinda of like” and “its not like that.”
Someone else here has the Foolish Literalism covered. Maybe find yourself another angle?
Pogonip
@Keith G: What is politics but more subtle whoring?
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
Aside from that Filipina lady, who might not count since she wasn’t an officeholder herself, I think Sarah Palin is the only politician, male or female, whose shoes anyone gave a damn about.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: Check with Peggy Noonan.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: Good old Imelda. I should not laugh though, I have 2 pairs of studio aerobic shoes and 2 pairs of running shoes, hiking shoes so five pairs just for athletic activities.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Ségolène Royal seems to opt for surprisingly sensible footwear.*
*The fact that a website called wikifeet exists if both disturbing and inevitable.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I own at least six pairs of boots.
mclaren
America, now an oligarchy, follows the familiar pattern — to rise in power and prestige and wealth, you must increasingly make more authoritarian bigoted noises. If Ezra Klein becomes successful enough, soon he’ll have to start screaming for the invasion of middle eastern countries, the imprisonment of poor people for the “crime” of lacking income, and eventually, if Klein gets into the truly stratsopheric upper reaches of wealth and power, he’ll have to start pounding the table and shouting for labor unions to be disbanded, for gays to be killed in the streets, for “feminazis” to be lobotomized, and for university professors to get run out American colleges and chipped like dogs and used to test dangerous experimental drugs.
Keith G
@A Humble Lurker: No he did worse. He is the President – was about to be the President. Just giving Warren time at the podium on that day was worth years of blog posts that get thousands of views.
The good news is that the Republic survived Rick Warren and it will survive whatever the hell his name is, but don’t conflate the power of Presidential recognition with the power of a website that isn’t even up yet.
Good grief.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
I have a great Coach small satin bag and, like I said, I will savor the shoo shopping. Possibly metallic, but maybe not.
J.Ty
I won’t link, but Sully’s predictably happy about this development, and has some really impressive leaps of logic from bloggers writing “maybe not hire this asshole” to his conclusion that liberals are the *real* bigoted speech police!
Not like those conservatives and their Free Speech Zones, no siree.
Keith G
@Pogonip: Didn’t von Clausewitz say:
Whoring is merely the continuation of politics by other means.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
Don’t know about studio aerobics. But when I was a runner, I had more than one pair of (cheap*) shoes at a time, just to rotate them and spread out the wear. Of course, this was back when sports footwear was not absurdly expensive like it is now.
*Well, cheap-ish.
Suffern ACE
So the hiring of the gay one went well. Did anyone bother to read the black one’s articles before hiring him or her?
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: You are in a vaguely mother of the bride/groom role, right? Don’t let them trap you in the dowdy middle aged shit. Just look good, but not like you are trying to overshadow the bride or the actual mother thereof and you should be fine.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Why wouldn’t you just say, “I wonder if Ezra’s going to pushback on criticism of this hire?”
How you got to where you got is really ridiculous.
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE: There’s a BLACK ONE?!
Holy jesusfuckballs.
ruemara
@kc: Nope. To compound my errors, I don’t even care about him.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Wrong thread.
geg6
@Pogonip:
My John’s daughter is getting married in August. Shopping for special guest/sort of step-mother-of-the-bride dress is horrific, without even getting into being weirdly shaped, apparently. Because no dresses ever fit me off the rack. Why women’s dresses aren’t all sold like men’s suits are: with alterations as a given, at least when buying better labels. I don’t really know many women who are the same size on the top as the bottom.
Pogonip
@Keith G: Hee Hee Hee Hee . You win the Internets tonight!
Narcissus
The good news is that the Republic survived Rick Warren
jesus christ dude
J.Ty
This what’s his face guy’s gotta be trolling. A 23-year-old wrote this?
It’s like it came from a particularly well-programed Markov model trained on a bunch of David Brooks columns.
And I guess we’re just pretending the Upton Sinclair gubernatorial campaign happened not almost 100 years ago but, like, last week, now.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s one pair more than I own!
SiubhanDuinne
@Pogonip:
Condi, maybe? (Not sure if she qualifies as a “politician.”) (Also not sure if they were “hooker shoes.” But Imelda Marcos is long dead, so you takes what you gets.)
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I have many shoes. Many shoes.
Anne Laurie
@Pogonip:
“Sensible”, defined how? Just ‘no heels, no pointy toes’, or do you need them to fit orthotics?
I’m in category one — with the additional complication that I have really fat insteps (flat soles, high sole-to-top-of-arch ratio) so mostly what I can wear are ‘ballet flats’ and mary janes. (Even when Dansko finally came out with wide widths, their shoes don’t fit my insteps.) But the Cuteness factor has really improved in the last decade or so… one of the few advantages of having the early Baby Boomers right ahead of me in the age cohort! I like Maryland Square and FootSmart for standards, but if you’re in a browsing mood, even 6pm.com can be a good source for impulse buys (like a pair of willow-green suede low-heel pumps with bronze buckle trim). And all three companies, like most these days, have excellent return policies just in case…
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
But are they hooker boots?
Omnes Omnibus
@J.Ty:
Upton Sinclair was involved in queer politics?
@SiubhanDuinne:
The tan suede chelsea boots are a little whorish, I guess.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
Too late to /thread, I’m sure but Klein is a fucking bonehead.
mclaren
@J.Ty:
You, sir, have just described America’s mainstream media.
J.Ty
@Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking of the last part I quoted: “We routinely scour the private lives and social media accounts of our political opponents in the hopes of demonizing them as archaic, unthinking, and bigoted,” which he offers up as a new phenomenon ‘cuz mean qweerz and Twitter.
ETA: Obviously Sinclair didn’t have any social media accounts, but countertop inspections are not new.
A Humble Lurker
@Cervantes:
So you’re saying they’re NOT that alike after all? *Le gasp!*
Duh.
Keith G
@Narcissus: We didn’t?
kindness
Hiring a self-loathing gay man makes sense if all you want is click-bait. Controversial columns are click-bait. If Vox had no advertising it would be a different crew.
Omnes Omnibus
@J.Ty: I was just being contrarian/clever in hopes of getting a Vox column.
J.Ty
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, as far as I know, as an active Socialist in the 30’s he may very well have been involved in the pre-Mattachine era of secret queer organizing at least peripherally.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Keith G:
You have repeatedly demonstrated that you are not one of these.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: fair enough. That Ezra and Glenn are similarly situated in their new projects with hiring writers that brought it together for me. Glenn has a penchant for those types of responses. One man’s reasonable inferences are another man’s “douche”.
Your lens is fascinating.
Omnes Omnibus
@J.Ty:
To the google machine with me, stat.
ETA: One learns something every day.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
OOFMB?
Keith G
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): That’s just nonsensical.
I trust him as much as one should trust another human being who happens to make a living being a politician in modern America. The President did not spring fully formed from the head of Zeus, therefore a degree of mortal skepticism is always in order. That is a very American outlook.
Because I do not embrace him with religious fervor, you think that I do not, in balance, appreciate his service?
edited
Mandalay
@Thomas F:
Maybe, but there are many things far more unkind to say about Colin Powell. His mediocrity wouldn’t even appear on a top ten list.
notorious JRT
@burnspbesq:
Hmmm. Last time I checked the ACLU was not into defending arson as a civil liberty.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Sure, in a Conversation on a Barstool sort of way. A bit battered and scuffed up, but still elegant.
Xantar
@Keith G:
Oh get the fuck over yourself. A little speech by Rick Warren which nobody remembers today is a massive betrayal of Obama’s base? A speech which never once mentioned anything about gay rights? When the history of gay rights is written, do you think anybody is seriously going to focus on that? Or do you think they’ll look at, say, the repeal of DADT, the overturning of DOMA, the extension of rights to same-sex partners of federal employees, and dozens of other little advances which had real impacts on real people? Do you derive your nutrition from symbolism? Because that’s the only way I can explain how you could otherwise think there’s any kind of equivalence here.
GregB
I propose an anal toast to the hiring of Ambrosino.
Cervantes
@A Humble Lurker: You’re catching on.
Cervantes
@notorious JRT: Details, details.
Omnes Omnibus
@GregB: You saw that too, huh?
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Okay, the Nazis should be just as free as anyone else to burn down the house. Will that do? I believe I have brokered an adequate compromise.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus: Veritably Solomonic!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Pogonip:
I have come to love Jambu shoes, especially their sandals. And Merrells are good, too. It took me a while to figure out that if I have narrow heels, I need size N or AA.
Also, I have at least five pairs of shoes just for bicycling (three pairs of casual sneakers, two pairs of work-appropriate sandals).
Cervantes
@Keith G:
But are you certain that being up there with Barack Hussein Obama was a net plus for Warren?
I’m not sure it was.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup:
My lens? My lens is fascinating?
Did you really just see what you did here? You brought Greenwald into an Ezra reaction.
I did not do that. I didn’t say, “You know who else hated it when people asked him about questionable hires? HITLER! That’s who! Hitler hated it!”
Go fuck yourself, you fucking weasel.
Keith G
@Xantar: You are daft or just letting emotions lead to a (willful?) misread. I never said anything about “a massive betrayal of Obama’s base”; even though if you check contemporary news, there were misapprehensions among some Democrats.
Thank you for making my point, even if you did so by misrepresenting what I typed.
No one knows how the Ezra Klein project is going to pan out until after it has had a chance to get its footing and do whatever it is going to do. Just like on that day when many noted that objectionable choice by the soon to be President, there was no way to judge the outcome of his efforts.
Again, thanks much.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: lol. You said that same thing to me before about my lens.
To go to these lengths when you don’t even dispute that Glenn acts that way is interesting.
Anne Laurie
@Thomas F:
Ah — you saw that selfie “news” today, too?
Mandalay
@Keith G:
Of course you didn’t, not even remotely, but the Association of Disingenuous Strawman Manufacturers still have to do their dirty work.
Xantar
@Keith G:
The difference is Warren made one short little speech at Obama’s inauguration whereas Ezra has hired someone who is going to be continuously writing for his publication (at least for a little while) and implicitly representing Vox. And you think the former has such humongous symbolic significance that it’s equivalent to the latter. Actually no, you said it’s worse.
I admit I misread your tone in the original post. I’ll own up to that. I did indeed let emotions run away from me. I still stand by my original point: your comparison was asinine.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone: He and the wife just had a new baby. He’s probably still sleep-deprived.
The antipathy towards Greenwald is dull, I’ll concede that.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: What the fuck are you even talking about, anymore?
You were wrong then, and you are wrong now.
Corner Stone
If anyone can tell me how bringing Anne Boleyn into this thread makes sense, I’m willing to listen.
Cervantes
@Xantar:
That’s one difference. I can think of two others that are relevant. I bet you can, too.
Admitting mistakes is an art form that I’ve had to perfect for myself over the years. Seems to me you’re pretty good at it yourself already — but would you like some tips?
Keith G
@Cervantes: What are the metrics? Books sold? Dollars banked? As it turned out, the erstwhile pastor had issues brewing closer to home that would disrupt any evaluation we might try.
In Jan 2009, he was adamantly against extending civil right to gays. That’s what he preached, that’s what he said he believed due to scripture. He, like Saul/Paul, has had a conversion. Good for him.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone:
Given the title of the thread, methinks you’ve answered your own question.
Corner Stone
@Xantar:
Just to make sure I am clear. Giving the invocation for the inauguration of the POTUS is *less* notable than being hired by Ezra Klein?
Cervantes
@Corner Stone: Spoilsport.
gian
@burnspbesq:
they defend arson as political speech? fuck I had no idea, can you point to a case where they defended actually burning buildings versus talking about it?
that to me is a big distinction with them. they’re cool with Nazis talking about turning on the showers and firing up the ovens, but not cool with actually you know doing it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay: For example, contrast with his boss, the “MBA President”.
Cervantes
@Keith G: All good questions, all good points.
My prior question was merely food for thought — not that you need any.
ranchandsyrup
@Cervantes: I think that GG doesn’t do his message any favors with his tactics. I’ve come to appreciate what he’s saying considerably more than I used to. Part of my reluctance at first stemmed from that. I can separate the two better now. I didn’t bring up the merits of his argument here.
@Corner Stone: you were evasive, pretending that I was asking about Ezra above. Because Glenn does do that stuff. So save all of the bluster.
Cervantes
@Mandalay: A 501(c)5, is it?
Xantar
@Corner Stone:
We knew even back in 2009 that whatever Rick Warren said at the invocation, it wasn’t going to have any effect on Obama’s actual policies. We didn’t know what Obama was going to actually do with LGBT rights, and I’ll be the first to say I didn’t think he would do very much. But whatever his policies were going to be, we knew Rick Warren wasn’t going to have anything to do with it.
And we also knew that Rick Warren wasn’t even going to talk about gay rights or anything else that could be seen as politically controversial.
Meanwhile, Ezra Klein has hired Ambrosino to write articles, and we have a pretty good idea what those articles are going to be. As notable as the invocation for the President’s inauguration? No, of course not. But in terms of an actual impact? Well, Ambrosino is going to be putting out real content, and unlike the case with Rick Warren, it’s going to have Klein’s implicit approval.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: If you can give me one…ONE…part of this issue that is relevant to Greenwald…I would really appreciate it.
If you’d like to tell us all how Greenwald would react to criticism that he hired an anti-gay gay writer? Please proceed.
Cervantes
@ranchandsyrup: I understand. I guess I must not have as clear a sense of his “tactics” as you do. (Frankly, I have other fish to fry.)
How’s the little one? And the two of you? (Not actually sleep-deprived, I fervently hope.)
Corner Stone
@Xantar:
I’m, uhh..I’m just going to leave this here.
Thanks
Keith G
@Cervantes: My thoughts ended about 3 glasses of Cabernet ago, food or no. The good news is that’s it’s bed time. The bad news is 4:00 AM CDT is not far enough away.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone:
Let me guess: “He [would] go full GG and tell everyone that they’re too dumb/obot/evil to understand the brilliance”?
(I’m trying to help. Really, I am.)
Cervantes
@Corner Stone: Wise move. When a monument nearly falls into your lap, leave it where it is.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: I already procedededed above abt why it came to mind. I understand that’s not good enough for you or you’re choosing to ignore them. So this should end here then.
FlipYrWhig
@Corner Stone: Pfft, that’s easy.
How do you think Ezra Klein is going to react to this? Back down, or cut off his wife’s head, the way Henry VIII would, knowing that he’d be giving rise to his own female successor?
Keith G
@Cervantes: ::Snicker::
ranchandsyrup
@Cervantes: all good thx. Baby’s a Teething and drooling machine so less sleep but she’s a really good baby.
You and yours?
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
That’ll come as news to them, I bet.
Cervantes
@ranchandsyrup: We are well, thanks. As someone once said, old age isn’t pretty but it sure beats the alternative.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: No. You did not.
You wondered whether Ezra would bitch out to the max like Greenwald does on a daily basis.
It was stupid then, it’s stupid now and it will be stupid tomorrow.
Bitcoins to cronuts that Ezra will not start claiming obots are attacking his hiring choices, or communications. Ezra is not going to start telling us all that he hired homophobic gay writers during the Bush era, so there’s no change from him now hiring gay self-hating haters during the Obama presidency.
This isn’t going to change. You made a stupid fucking comment.
Cervantes
@Keith G: ::Snicker::
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig: Given the hipsterdouche intro video for Vox? I hope someone does come in and start cleaning out hipster douchebags. Every single person in that video deserves a serious, non-sexual spanking.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: I hear you. You think it is a stupid comment. I’m gonna have to live with that. One day at a time. I think I’ll avoid jail with a stern warning and time served for enduring this.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Well, if you can come out on the other side knowing enough?
Win.
Cervantes
@MikeJ: Nonchalantly.
@kc: I had not, either, and I really can’t see why that had to change. Happily, I’ll have forgotten all about him by tomorrow.
ranchandsyrup
@Corner Stone: it’s never enough.
Bobby Thomson
@Thomas F: This. Fucking this.
Corner Stone
@ranchandsyrup: Obviously. No. For you it can’t be.
I hope one day you can take that leather bit out of your mouth.
danielx
@Thomas F:
Yup.
Come to think of it, worrying about who Ezra Klein hires and what they write would clearly seem to fall under the heading of blogospheric navel-gazing. Personally I’m a lot more concerned about the sudden surplus of cat fur. Well, cat hairs, to be technical – it’s cat fur when it’s still attached to the cat.
Bobby Thomson
I hate ACLU-burning Nazis.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: Even the fucking Illinois ones?
Jane2
@Anne Laurie: Shoe sources…thank you for the one valuable thing in a post about someone that only the few have ever heard of.
Bobby Thomson
@Omnes Omnibus: I see what you did there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bobby Thomson: It was beyond my control.
@Jane2: Do people actually buy shoes online? Depending on the brand and style, I can vary from an 8 to a 9 1/2 and a narrow to medium width. My baseline size is a 9 narrow, but it is a starting point.
Jane2
@Omnes Omnibus: If one is a shoe pro, yes…as long as you know your brands and shoe size, it’s reliable. And even if you don’t….I’ve bought some incredible European shoes by width/length, and knowing which brands are narrower in general, ie Italian. It’s an art.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I could see buying replacement shoes on line, i.e., another pair of the exact make and size that I had previously bought in meatspace.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
After I looked up pre-Mattachine I then had to look up homophile. Sheeesh!
Omnes Omnibus
@Jane2: I have found that, even within brands, things vary. For example with most Cole-Haan shoes, I am a 8 1/2 medium, I am occasionally a 9 narrow. I don’t buy online* but I am very picky about the way my shoes fit.
* Like Steep said, replacing an exact shoe is fine.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Without trying to be too arrogant, I think that I am quite knowledgeable, but part of the fun of this website is come across something new – and someone usually provides it everyday. The commentariat is quite erudite and the erudition is fucking broad as hell.
Jane2
@Omnes Omnibus: Cole-Haan is no longer consistent in its sizing so I don’t buy them online. However, I could order a Merrell 8M anytime, anywhere and they fit….same with Bruno Magli. I also try on various brands when I’m shopping so that I know for sure that a certain brand won’t fit, ever.
Constance
@Jane2:
What European shoes? Can you give me links? I wear a Narrow with a Quad heel (even narrower) and the only shoes I’ve ever owned that were perfect were Italian shoes I bought at Macys (about 3,000 years ago. Macys no longer has anything more narrow than a medium).
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
I love BJ because I’m always learning, learning, learning but sometimes I start to develop feelings of inadequacy, ignorance, total worthlessness, etc. And then I remind myself that with as many thousands of commentors as prowl BJ I’m lucky to have the opportunities to keep learning, learning, learning. and then the fucking trolls remind me that I’m really a pretty decent human being after all. Even if I have to look up homophile.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jane2: Sounds like you are just more willing to take a chance on a shoe fitting than I am.
@Constance: Disturbingly, I believe that Givenchy has very narrow heels. My ex was shoe obsessed with a size 5, wide toe, narrow heel. I learned things about women’s shoes. DSW actually can have a reasonable stock of Givenchy shoes. Yust wait until they hit clearance unless you have a very common size. They also do really nice ties.
Gex
So wait now. Glenn Greenwald and Rick Warren are teaming up with the Nazis to burn down Imelda Marcos’ shoe closet? This is one weird thread.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus: @Omnes Omnibus:
I love BJ because I’m always learning, learning, learning but sometimes I start to develop feelings of inadequacy, ignorance, total worthlessness, etc. And then I remind myself that with as many thousands of commentors as prowl BJ I’m lucky to have the opportunities to keep learning, learning, learning. and then the fucking trolls remind me that I’m really a pretty decent human being after all. Even if I have to look up homophile.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gex: Welcome to Balloon Juice. Oh, here is a random youtube. I don’t have any cat pics.
ruemara
@Gex: When did this thread become post-apocalyptic sci fi fan fic?
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Some people know about yarn or quantum theory. Me, I was once told that the mark of a person with a good liberal arts education is that he or she can make one sensible remark at a cocktail party about any topic. I aspire to that.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks! I just bookmarked the DSW site. I owned one pair of 2 and 1/2 inch heels which I tried to wear to the Oscar party I attended recently. Did not make it across the bedroom before realizing this was a tragedy I did not want anyone to observe. Almost as bad as the party I attended 14 years ago when my 1960s makeup techniques created hilarity among the rest of the guests. So I wore my Danskos and hid behind the flashier guests for the group photo.
Constance
@Omnes Omnibus:
:-)
I’m off to bed. We little old ladies need our rest.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance: Totter off on your highest heels and sleep well.
Jane2
@Constance: for shoes at a reasonable discount, I use Yoox.com
Jane2
@Gex: and Andrew Sullivan and Ezra Klein are the executive producers.
NorthLeft12
@burnspbesq: Not sure if you are deliberately being wrong here or just ignorant. Like the original “joke” teller.
The ACLU, and CCLA here in Canada, is very specific about defending free speech and human rights. What they don’t do is defend violence or speech that promotes violent actions against others.
Not sure how people cannot understand that. It is so simple, and so verifiable that I have to think that any contrary explanation [like your joke] is a willful attempt to slander and misrepresent these fine and necessary organizations.
Patricia Kayden
@Xantar: Thank you Xantar. I didn’t want to waste time responding to KeithG. It’s obvious where President Obama’s heart is when it comes to gay rights given all he has done to actually further them. Sometimes it’s good to just roll your eyes at idiot comments and keep it moving.
Cervantes
@Patricia Kayden: Did you really misunderstand Keith’s point to the extent that it seems you did? I’m surprised.
Kevin
I just hope no one buys the “I’ve never read any of his work” defense. Yeah, a guy responsible for a brand new multi-million dollar news site…doesn’t take the time to read the work of the people he is in charge of hiring. That sounds so likely, so…wonky! (I think wonk is the worst term around nowadays. It’s really what the kewl kids like to think of themselves, but it’s just pretentious).
Anyway, given Ezra’s love for Paul Ryan, his constant “both sides do it”, this should shock no one. He’s playing the game. You think he wants to be the next Krugman? Nope, he wants to be the next Brooks, the next Friedman.
Xecky Gilchrist
Yeah, it *doesn’t* make sense just to drop a link and call it a blog post.
Joey Giraud
@NorthLeft12:
This site is, among other things, largely about the “willful attempt to slander” various public figures.
Note the nasty exchange about Greenwald. Corner Stone is a bit touchy because Greenwald receives all kinds of slander here, and CS respects Greenwald’s work.
As do I.
Joey Giraud
One of the “other things” is supporting public protests.
https://balloon-juice.com/2014/03/14/on-wisconsin-singer-activists/
Good work.