Respected economist and left/liberal hack politics pundit Paul Krugman senses something ugly in the air, for the first time since, well: Bubba left town.
Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain’s chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage.
Oh, I guess. Still, as insanity goes – and there’s no excusing some of it – it’s pretty small beer compared to what some of us have been seeing for the last eight years.
Come back to me, Paul, when Madonna threatens to kick your man’s ass. When Sandra Bernhard hopes for a gang rape. When Republicans take to the street in stilt puppets with bongo drums to call your man a Nazi.
(Yes, I know that Ché is a better analog because of his politics, but the fact of the matter is that your side considers him still too, you know: Dreamy. And besides, your team hasn’t entirely gotten around to building a consensus on whether the tens of millions of innocents who were killed in the name of Communism represented crime victims on an unimaginable scale, or just the collateral damage of a good idea taken a little bit too far.)
It appears that the Politics of Hatred alternate with the Plight of the Homeless©.
You only get one or the other.
(H/T to Ms. Skiptonite – who has a great deal more – for the links)
Update: Welcome to San Francisco, Navy!
Lex …I fondly remember your comment last year when the bloviators in San Francisco had their annual hissy fit about the Blue Angels. You noted that the Navy defended those folks in San Francisco, in spite of their rude complaints, because “that’s what we’re paid to do. The rest of the country we do for free.” A lovely put-down, gently but firmly executed.
Marianne
Don’t know how it can get any uglier
Who knows, dude could end up on the federal bench.
That SF site was satire, wunnit? Iowahawk couldn’t have written it any better if it were.
This jerk must not have gotten the beating he paid for at the Folsom Street Fair.
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when reading that or similar diatribes, I have to stop and wonder, what freaking planet these folks have just landed from. Because no “normal” person could be that dense, that stupid, or that ignorant. Yet they must be, and so must be their audience, the ones that encourage such refuse…then I remember “live and let live”…because the alternative is to turn them into Screaming Alphas for the pure enjoyment of it. Maybe turn that thermal energy into electricity and sell it back to Frisco… the greens there would like it.
When I came back to CONUS from my second tour in Vietnam the “baby-killer” bit was in full flower. In retaliation I loved to play into their stereotypes at cocktail parties by wowing ‘em /regaling
‘em (take your pick) by telling all the good people and society matrons(if any) gathered round how, upon returning from a weathered out target with a full bomb load, we would swoop down on the nearest hamlet “in country” and strafe the school bell to make it ring (as if, right? But they would, slack-jawed, eat it up) and when the children, mistaking the ringing school bell for recess, rushed out into the court-yard, we would nape ‘em while laughkng all the way, I would say.
I loved to see the frozen look of horror on their faces as they would , as if in all too close proximity to a leper, slowly back away in ever widening concentric circles. (my new bride used to say: MUST YOU! Do you want NO ONE to ever talk to us?) I just couldn’t help myself.
Oh, I also endeared myself to all right thinking “progressives” by singing the little ditty: “Strafe the town and kill the people, drop the napalm in the square, roll in with your 20 mike mike, and kill the little bastards there.” That seemed to be equally effective in engendering the proper amount of shocked disbelief
and disgust–my operating philosophy being anyone dumb enough to take me seriously didn’t deserve my time and attention. (Although my wife’s social proclivities left her somewhat less than amused, I must admit)
There was one small piece in that screed I could agree with. Replace Pelosi with Sheehan. It would take 20 years for her to gain enough seniority to do any damage and I doubt she’d be re-elected that many times.
While on the topic of “feelin’ the luv” from Californians, I would relate a telephone conservation I had with my ex-fiancee on a pay phone at Norton AFB just outside LA the evening of my mid-night departure for DaNang , An AF
Navigator Colonel’s daughter,
How did that happen?
….I has met her when she was attending Ohio State and I was in RPTC boot camp at Lockbourne just outside Columbus. When her Father was transferred to Mather in Sacramento, she transferred to San Jose State where she fell under the spell of some radical left-wing Palestinian professors and we drew apart due to (1) difficulty of long-range romance, but (b) our differences over the six-day war in which she took the Arab side. As I was in pilot tng at the time, and her becoming increasingly anti-Vietnam war in belief, I don’t have to draw you a picture of the inevitable.
So- for old times sake, thought I’d give her a ring before stepping on the big bird. Her reaction? Virgil, come up to San Jose, we’ll (as in she and new paramour) hide you! We’ll get you to Canada, don’t go! At that point I had an out of body experience in which I found myself simultaneously hovering over me talking to her and at the same time thinking , “her I am a serving officer and this is my patriotic send off? You can’t make it up, I thought, there must be a movie in this! Then, my thoughts wandered back to when my Father sailed out of New York at midnight also in WWII as a young Capt. Co Cmdr on a troopship in a convoy with his entire Division–the 42nd Rainbow. \What a contrast I thought, even as I was speaking to Judi,
he and I both at midnight with no one to see us off, but he had the company of 15,000 fellow comrades-in-arms to bolster his spirits, and I had the former love of my life trying to talk me into defecting….the contrast pretty much says it all, I thought at the time, about the mental state of the nation. I also contemplated after I hung up that there is a reason the phrase “soldier on” came into being…….
PS to my story: I forgot to say that at that time I had a real mental picture of me hiding from the authorities under her bed and the squeeking bed-springs with she and her new fellow anti-war “love” on top. An inspiring thought, to say the least.
Lex — you masochist. Why torture yourself reading that idiot Krugman’s ideologically tainted “stuff”? It is like reading the Kos, or HuffPo, or watching David Axelrod on a talk show. It will only make your head hurt, so why consciously do it? Seeking englightenment on alternative viewpoints?
I asked the Flight Lead, reformed Democrat that she is, where I am wrong. Being the analytical sort, when there is an issue, I want to drill down and get at the cause — can’t fix it until you know why it happened. Not bad for a lit major — we tend to get into the symbolism, vice causal factors… Once you get the cause, then you can look at evidence based solutions — use what has worked before, avoid what has shown to not work. But all of the answers from the political class on how to fix any problem, quickly descend into what is good for my political side. Same thing for Krugman — he isn’t seeking the truth, he is seeking what makes his opponents look bad. I have zero faith that incipent unified political class will fix anything, because they are incapable of removing their ideological blinders. Their lust for power overwhelms their search for truth. Proof? Just wait for Chuck Schumer to open his mouth — the solution lies astern, in every case.
Stay away from Krugman, Herbert, Dowd, Rich… Unless you like your head exploding.
While Krugman was once hugely irritating, he will now become insufferable.
The money shot:
“…After all, the Democrats led the charge in stealing $700 billion so there will be no money for the socialized medicine that the entire US Congress, president and president’s cabinet enjoy. ”
Precious!
If I lived there, my vote would be for Sheehan.
On the other, the Grey Lady might not be able to afford Krugman any longer.
It will be a long wait for Paul to find these t-shirts offensive. Doesn’t fit the narrative, and all that.
Okay. Like, was that for real??!! WTF?!
Wow, I can’t believe what I just read. From another planet would be a bit of an understatement, me thinks. Well, at least I will always know that our crazies aren’t as crazy as your crazies … or at least they don’t go to such efforts to let the world know just how insanely nuts they are!
You do have my deepest sympathies …
Jules Crittenden isn’t so sure that the Nobel Prize is all that and a bag of chips.
The problem with a big-name annual award is that it has to be given annually. Whether there is a deserving recipient or not. Not the the first time the Nobel committee has given one just because it had to pick someone, nor the first time it’s tried to use its clout to influence politics and public policy.
Won’t be the last, either.
This sort of thing doesn’t happen with, say, the Fields Medal. Of course, most people outside the math/sci illuminati have no clue what that is. Which may be a good thing.
FWIW, Friedman’s work on globalization is markedly more insightful and better written.
If you can get through Krugman’s column, look at the comments.
For some reason, the Ann Arbor News, my local paper, regularly runs Krugman’s column. There are days when I can’t bear to read it based on title alone, yet feel I must.
Usually, he has more criticisms than solutions. If he does have solutions, they are so pie-in-the-sky as to be unworkable.
Needless to say, I laughed heartily when I heard the Nobel Prize announcement this morning…
What expression fits this post, where Paul Krugman is the lead hit, and is then lathered with a strange and irrelevant mixture of a Madonna U-Tube clip revving up a crowd about Sarah Palin, followed by some inane comment by Sandra Bernhard (AKA jewish comedian, singer, actress and author), and ending with a Google search of Bush=Hitler?
You sure got me by the socks. Given a multitude of options, I would call it prescient. Go on record about your disdain for the man before his dim star explodes into a super nova.
But then, attacks on pointed head academics were enshrined during the Nixon administration, and have been a staple of staunch conservative ideologs since those glorious days (“empty suite” anybody?). Krugman is recognized as an innovative student of economics, and his trip to Stockholm is well deserved.
I for one can understand Lex’s disdain. Not only has Krugman demystified economics in his NY Times column and blog, but he is an incisive critic of the Bush Administration and warned against the incursion into Iraq. Long before most pundits and economists, he predicted the coming financial meltdown. And when the initial bail out plan was announced, he blasted it as a government give away to big money.
To those of us whose fun bone is tickled by irony, Lex’s post, and his obligatory link to Our Lady of the Poison Pen, is the cream in our coffee. And then, rather then celebrating the accomplishments of a fellow American, with whom he may disagree, Lex (post #18) goes to the fountainhead of impartial comment, Jules Crittenden, of Boston Herald fame.
Pssssst if your are going to criticize the validity of a Nobel Prize in economics, you find yourself an economist, not Pajama Game hit man…
OP, I’m certain you were trying to say something in all of that. For the life of me, I haven’t the patience or will to try and suss it out, though. It seems an awful shame to let so much… effort go entirely to waste.
A bit of advice, given freely, probably worth less: 1) Try to focus on the issue at hand (Krugman’s sensing of a certain “ugliness” in the political wind- how novel! – , and 2) Try to be as brief and direct to your point as possible.
All of your circling around to addressing a point you’d wish I’d made (rather than the one I did – glory in the duality of man, that he might simultaneously be a “respected economist and hack political pundit”) makes me – as so many others – scroll to the bottom in mystification. If you insist that this is your “style” or that writing this way gives you some sort of pleasure, then very well. Just be aware that whatever substance underlies the style is entirely submerged by it, and your audience is left – if anything – less persuaded of your point of view than before, if possible.
People here admire a good argument, well made. We still await one from you. Preferably on the topic at hand. Otherwise it might be better to, you know: Start your own blog.
Lex…shack.
Whenever I see OP’s name, I just scroll on past.
Saves on head-scratching & headache meds.
Ouch. That’ll leave a mark.
DNFTT. You all do understand that even acknowledging him just encourages more. Butch has the preferred COA. Though I share Lex’s befuddlement, asking for an explanation is begging for more Motrin.
I, for one, would like to thank OP Johnson for that prime sample of authentic frontier gibberish.
Dragged up to the NY State North Country by the house engineer to close down the summer cabin, thus my ability to defend my honor, or compliment those like Butchwhose heart is pure, mind is strong, and thus able to resist my tantalizing prose will be limited. Sigh, I guess nobody in this blog is going to post a congratulatory message on Professor Krugman’s blog.
My goodness Lex, I am sorry I confused you:
As you well know, the McCain campaign has stated that it will not discuss issues, and that the only thing that matters is Obama’s character and qualifications. The result is that his supporters have had a field day with innuendo’s, fabrications, and outright lies. Part of that has been the tarring of any luminary who might present a contrary view.
My comments were a straightforward reply to your ad hominem attack to Paul Krugman’s blog. The two thesis in his blog were not addressed by you, instead he was lathered by association with three links that had nothing to do with the two points he was making. Help me out, the word lathered may have confused you., Any suggestions?
Pssssst: Stock market up by 900+ points on the news that the Bush Administration, to be able to join a coordinated approach to the economic catastrophe, has agreed with its G-7 partners on a variant of the “Swedish” solution. Government takes an equity stake in banks, not just doles out the cash, as Bernakie and crew first proposed. Even a casual reader of Krugman will tell you that he has been warning of debt over load for over a year, supported government intervention before the slime hit the fan (which it did), and strongly argued against the cash with no strings attached that was first proposed.
Bah, humbug!!! What exactly the link to a Google search of “Bush=Hitler” has to do with Krugman’s blog is beyond me. My prediction: In the next two days, or during the debate, McCain will have to admonish his more virulent supporters to quiet down, and he will have to acknowledge Obama’s integrity and accomplishments.
Hard to believe, but it isn’t all politics, all the time — especially since my ‘Horns beat the snot out of OU. Sort of a four day afterglow that should last until late tomorrow. One of my favorite UT sports blogs was explaining why they selected Alabama, by a nose, over the ‘Horns for #1:
I think that nails it — Ann Coulter on one side, Paul Krugman her moral equivalent. Celebrity Deathmatch anyone?
OP, you must have gotten very low scores in the verbal comprehension section of the SATs. Or would it have been too much to ask of you that you read the actual post? The point was the Krugman has suddenly discovered something toxic in the political atmosphere. That is not an ad hominem assault on the good economist/hack pundit. It’s irony. I thought your set went in for that sort of thing.
BTW, the post’s title is an admittedly oblique reference to people only noticing a problem when it is their own ox being gored. Yes, it required a moment’s thought, if not quite a deductive leap. My apologies.
It’s increasingly difficult to take you seriously. Or was that the point?
Also: I find it personally frightening how very invested you are in The Chosen One’s Narrative. I always knew you were ideologically alternate, but have not until recently suspected you to be a personality cultist.
Deep breath, brother – your team’s probably going to win, so long as by “win” you don’t move the goal posts past the electoral college into the philosophical dhimmitude of your adversaries.
Because that’s just not happening.
28 RetRsvMike // Oct 13, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I, for one, would like to thank OP Johnson for that prime sample of authentic frontier gibberish.
I about fell out of my chair on that one. Thanks!
Paul Krugman is naturally a polarizing figure, mostly because of his slanted NYT editorial opinions, and criticisms of the Bush administration. Thus he is admired by laymen ‘lefties’, but intensely detested by a large (many in the closet) conservative segment of laymen NYT readers – especially those of different economic and political persuasions.
Nevertheless, those who are more knowledgeable should recognize, despite Krugman’s left-leaning critiques, within the far more
amicablené ‘respectful’ world of award-winning economists and academia, Krugman’s economic research and contributions seriously hold the highest respect of nearly all, and transcend most all political and economic disagreement.We all should salute Paul Krugman, as we all did the late former Nobel winner, Milton Friedman.
[But unfortunately, some pettifogging petty bloggers will try to divert what should be our national pride for one who is so internationally acknowledged, into a cheap and petty blog post.]
Although I have long disagreed with the late Friedman’s economic positions (and politics), I thoroughly respect and admire his significant contributions to economic theory…. (wrong as they appear today.) Likewise, I submit all should respect Krugman’s equal contributions and Nobel award as well.
These guys – Friedman/Krugman (regardless of being on opposite ends of the political/economic spectrum) don’t get the Nobel Prize for naught. They all deserve respect on the international Nobel world stage for their extraordinary contributions. Belittling their achievement belittles the porcine belittler, as it also does diminish us all.
Flit — I respect the academic prowess of Krugman. It is the willingness to trade that capital for a pulpit to preach on all subjects of interest, enabled by a syncophant publisher, that is irritating beyond belief. You correctly equate the enviable economic intellect of Friedman and Krugman. But most of Freidman’s opinion writings were focused on tax policy, fiscal policy — all things related to economics. If Krugman stayed there, and didn’t get into his trademark didacticism, always focused on the perceived crimes of Republicans, he’d be OK. But he can’t resist the temptation to swap his well earned credibility in one area, for preaching on any crime he sees through his procrustean lens.
Very well put, fliterman. It would be a lovely addition to a post that belittled Krugman’s economic contributions. Let’s all go and look for one.
Do you guys never run out of strawmen?
lex – My apologies. Those prickly comments were actually a direct result of, and a response to the anti-Krugman post that appeared on Jules Crittenden’s blog, and that you had linked to in #18 above.
I now realize my comments would have been more appropriate on Crittenden’s blog, than on yours. And at the very least I should have, but failed, to indicate here on your blog exactly what I was responding to. Sorry.
Accepted. My apologies in turn for jumping to conclusions.