Yikes... bloggers. They took off their jammies and put on their shorts. They've come out of the house and walk among us. Black socks go with shorts, right, moonbeambushhater?
I'm looking at the paper NYT, and the photo is twice as wide. What are you missing? To the left of the white-legged ones is a slouching young woman with scraggly hair. There's a sign on the wall behind her -- something about "swing states" -- and the photo is framed so that we see the word "swing" is next to her head. To the right, we see a banner -- "Mark Warner/President '08" -- and standing above it is a very tubby man in short sleeves and wrinkled pants. To his right is a guy with a beard and hair growing past his shoulders.
Okay, let's read the text:
They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair.The horror! It's bad enough Iowa gets so much power....
"It's 2006, and I think we have arrived," Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos and the man for whom the conference was named, announced after being greeted with the kind of reception Elvis, or at least Wayne Newton to a more traditional Las Vegas audience, might have received had he walked into the dowdy ballroom at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.Is the tone of contempt subtle enough? Wayne Newton... Las Vegas... dowdy ballroom...
The ceremony and self-celebration notwithstanding, the actual extent of the blogging community's power is still unclear. For one thing, it was hard to find a single Republican in the crowd here, though organizers insisted that a few had registered. For another, as the presidential campaign of Howard Dean demonstrated in 2004, the excitement and energy of the Web does not necessarily translate into winning at the polls. "I do believe that each day, they have more impact," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, who will deliver the keynote speech to the group on Saturday night. "Now how far that will go, I don't think we know that yet." But, Mr. Reid added: "One of the reasons I so admire them is they have the ability to spread the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years. We could never have won the battle to stop privatization of Social Security without them."Hey, that's a good tag line for a blog: Spreading the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years. Yeah, all you politicians: deal with this entity! One Democrat who declined to attend: Hillary Clinton. What did Kos say when asked if she was popular with his crowd? "Oh my God, no way!" Mark Warner was there though. And Howard Dean. Tom Vilsack. Wesley Clark "was spotted on Thursday night looking somewhat out of place as he roamed the halls in a pin-striped suit before heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to hold his own reception for bloggers." The poor man! Ha, ha... they must all kneel to the lefty bloggers! Maureen Dowd was there too. If you've got TimesSelect, you can check out her column today. A taste:
I ... wad[ed] through a sea of Kossacks, who were sitting on the floor in the hall with their laptops or at tables where they blogged, BlackBerried, texted and cellphoned — sometimes contacting someone only a few feet away. They were paler and more earnest than your typical Vegas visitors, but the mood was like a masquerade. This was the first time many of the bloggers had met, and they delighted in discovering whether their online companions were, as one woman told me, male, female, black, white, old, young or "in a wheelchair."... As I wandered around workshops, I began to wonder if the outsiders just wanted to get in. One was devoted to training bloggers, who had heretofore not given much thought to grooming and glossy presentation, on how to be TV pundits and avoid the stereotype of nutty radical kids. Mr. Moulitsas said he had a media coach who taught him how to stand, dress, speak, breathe and even get up from his chair.How to dress? First, get out of the pajamas. Okay, now, about those socks....
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80 comments:
Imagine what the Times' coverage of, say, a yearly LGF would have been!
They may be more horrified by Kossacks, since they are horning in on the liberal opinionmaking game.
Surely the Times knows that politics is Hollywood for ugly people.
They would similarly sneer at a meeting of righty bloggers, Christists, and other such commoners. Bloggers of all stripes are simply not the right sort of people. Meh.
But gotta agree about the black socks. I mean, really. Even if meant 'ironically', like the teenage boy resergence of plaid shorts, the ironic of hideous is still hideous.
I'd read that one of the concerns expressed at the convention was the lack of humor among the Left. But I think they haven't figured out that the emphasis should be on telling a joke not being the butt of one.
Sippicancottage: No, they don't. They come here only to prove the NAACP was right: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Those nutty radical kos kids in their short pants and lovely long locks, controlling all the things they can control and whining about the things (tuition hikes) they can't.
You're picking on them because you think they wear jammies? Sorry, that is the right wing bloggers that you had the dick fight with, not the Kossacks. Kossacks by and large have a median age of about 45 are gainfully employed and are highly educated.
And you know that.
Mark Warner was there though. And Howard Dean. Tom Vilsack. Wesley Clark "was spotted on Thursday night looking somewhat out of place as he roamed the halls in a pin-striped suit before heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to hold his own reception for bloggers." The poor man!
Ha, ha... they must all kneel to the lefty bloggers!
I think if you actually researched the issue, that you would find that General Clark loves bloggers (and bloggers love him). Ann, don't you love it when you see him on Fox? Don't you love his strategy of appearing on Fox so that the rank and file Republicans get regularly exposed to a lefty who is not the at all like the stereotypes you are regularly fed?
Don't you appreciate the way he communicates? Speaking simply and clearly and not afraid to take a stand? Why not contrast that in your series of hit pieces against Hillary Clinton instead of wondering all the time why bloggers do not like her?
Finally, you are upset that Markos had a media coach? I would think you would applaud that as a sign that this Berkelyite was serious. But again, PJ's? Markos, a lawyer from the Army, was more apt to dress his in BDUs, a suit, or shorts than PJs.
Did you ever speak to anyone about how you should dress, or talk when you are being interviewed on TV?
I don't know what happens at the Madison J School, but at Berkeley, the Graduate School of Journalism aims to turn out students capable of reporting in print, TV, radio, and online. And as part of that students are taught how to dress and how to speak and have resources so that the students can have (shocker) practice interviews and see how they come across.
Why is it so terrible for a group of bloggers that wish to become more effective in their communication to have a workshop on how to communicate including how to dress?
Seems like a very admirable suggestion.
Again, the typical Althouse column of smears couched in a manner that lets you claim you were critiquing a third party entirely.
Don't you have more productive ways to spend your mornings? Me, I'm going to the gym. Thanks for asking.
What's with the comment about the lack of Republicans at a lefty blog convention? That's like speculating about the lack of classical musical enthusiasts at a Kellie Pickler concert.
And you are telling us that lawyers don't take classes or workshops in how to dress and present in front of judge and jury (and media)
First lawyers, remove the your hands from your clients wallets! It doesn't look good on TV. Then wash off the crap you have all over your lips! That will give you away every time!
Sssshhh -- if the Kostrians think blogging more and getting angrier will win them elections, why disabuse them of this notion?
The math of the Left:
Kos + angry + black sox = Victory
Current score: Zero for 20.
We could never have won the battle to stop privatization of Social Security without them.
Let's triumph in the fact that we're keeping poor people from making any money!
This is an issue that everyone made fun of Bush for endorsing, but I think it would have gone a good way towards reducing that gap between rich and poor that the democrats are always saying they want to eliminate.
Does anybody know what "sexist comments" 'cptkevin' is referring to, back up there before he tried to hijack the comment thread?
Where the zarqawi is that gym of yours, quxxojacquer guy? You post comments from, what, a wired elliptical trainer, multi-tasking cross-training poly-monikerman?
Better keep an eye on that heart rate monitor, hon.
The Times article did seem pretty condescending. It is also unfair to single out the Kos event for having a freak factor (black socks with shorts, etc.). I've been to more than a few political events for Republicans and Democrats, and I can say with confidence that unless there is a high minimum donation fee for attendance and the event is located at some place that has a sense of formality, the freak factor will be there no matter what side of the fence you are on. As is the case with so many things, placing the event at a location people feel they need to dress up for and charging a high cover charge tends to keep out the riff-raff. Also, the NYT observation is at odds with one account I read from a right-wing blogger (at Hot Air, if I remember correctly), in which he said the crowd was quite clean-cut and professional-looking, much to his chagrin.
The one big problem I have with the Kossacks is this: "And a well-known columnist from a major metropolitan newspaper — this one — was repeatedly stopped by bloggers requesting that she pose for photos with them, as they expressed admiration for her work. (That would be Maureen Dowd.)"
Anyone who thinks Maureen Dowd is admirable is clueless. Her work is just snark and eye-rolling, and I've rarely, if ever, seen anything insightful in her work. Plus, while she may be a liberal politically, she's never shown any loyalty or respect to people who actually do the real heavy lifting when it comes to political action. I'll take Paul Krugman (or for that matter, Matt Yglesias or Josh Marshall) over her any day of the week.
What's worse than dark socks with shorts? Try dark socks on a streaker.
http://www.whoateallthebratwurst.com/2006/06/bring_on_the_st.html
cheers!
Mr BlackSocks thinks that wearing them prevents 'Republican calves,' whatever those might be.
'You know, dude, put on some slacks. Would it kill you to put on some slacks?'
Having looked at the entire picture, thanks Tom, I think your description is purposefully inaccurate.
Very tubby guy? Not that tubby and with long sleeves not short sleeves.
Slouching scraggly hair chick that swings? An attractive woman that has been standing behind a booth with completely reasonable hair and who is leaning on a toy slot machine.
You should check your visual comprehension skills, you sluffed this one and the GWB caricature: two in a row? Perhaps you should be checked for diabetes?
It is equally intriguing the signs you did not read out for us. The sign that is the FOCUS of both pictures is on the tote bag: "YearlyKos Convention 2006 Uniting the Netroots" worn just below a T-Shirt that says: "Dumb, Dumber, Dubya".
You have an odd eye for a popular culture critic.
Now, I don't want to defend Adam Nagourney by any means, and so I will suggest you take a look at what he posted about his article on his personal blog.
Fyi, the link to the full picture at the New York Times.
perhaps it bears a painful resemblance to the man in the mirror
Ann, "Lurketto" used to comment here as "Reasonator". While it could be another, even more loathsome personality of quxxo's as some have suggested (quxxo made a post on its blog highlighting the "brilliance" of a reasonator comment, and they often seem to interact and congratulate one another), it's also possible that "Reasonator" and "Lurketto" are the ex-Thersites guy in deeper cover. The threat (however impotent) of "despoiling" your professional reputation sounds like the sort of thing an embarrassed little community college elf would try to do to someone (especially a woman) who he felt threatened by.
Gosh these sociopaths are tiresome!
Could have been worse. Could have been sandals or Birkinstocks.
Still it's 97F in LV today. I'd be in shorts too if I had glasses dark enough to limit eye damage from thigh glare.
I'm actually here at YearlyKos. What's impressive to me is the professionalism and maturity of the whole enterprise; this is neither a long-hairs-who-started-with-McGovern or Angry TwentySomethings rally.
I'm not seeing a lot of anger here. I'm seeing organization, and policy debates, and optimism.
Also, the key speakers today are Howard Dean, Mark Warner and Harry Reid -- and 2/3 of that is not exactly the left wing of the party.
Ann,
Here is David Ehrenstein's take, which is not that far off from yours, minus all of your stupidity about lefty bloggers wearing pajamas and being overweight and having bad hair and wearing the wrong clothes.
It's amusing (amusing as in terribly sad) when a Constitutional Law Professor in love with American Idol and who herself blogs to become famous on TV will mock people that want to influence the world for the better for their fashion sense and their willingness to attend media workshops. I can't figure out what your students make of you.
So if you actually want to critique something of substance for a change, here are some yearlykos speeches courtesy of Google including Barbara Boxer, Wild Man Dean, and Wild Eyed Kos (as you like to refer to him.)
Yeaarghh!
The comparative power of blogs:
ConfirmThem played an instrumental role in the prevention a three-decade national catastrophe by forcing the collapse of the Miers nomination.
Daily Kos has generated an incredible amount of hot air, and has endorsed various candidates, most of whom have failed, and those who have succeeded did so without Kos' help.
The "power" of blogs. Really, do we care what this buch of malcontents are up to? They might do well to contemplate that if this government really was as authoritarian as they seem to think it is, gathering together in one place probably isn't the best of ideas. Ironically enough,the mere existence of yearly Kos proves how totally unnecessary and paranoid they are.
Adam: Yeah, I watched some of the official program on CSpan. Political speeches, if you like listening to that. This post is mainly about the NYT coverage, as the post title indicates.
"I think if you actually researched the issue, that you would find that General Clark loves bloggers..."
LOL. A politician acts like he loves people who he thinks are in a position to help him get elected. What research would let me know what Wesley Clark actually loves?
Quxxo,
It really cuts you up that nobody listens to you, doesn't it? After all, all you try to do is "to influence the world for the better", and yet try, try, try as you might, it's as if you just can't get through to people. If only they'd listen to you! If only they'd pay attention to your ideas,they'd see how right you are! If only! Why do Americans have tobe so stupid; why won't they listen to you?
Professor,
What research would let me know what Wesley Clark actually loves?
Well, you're a semi-famous law professor, you could interview him for your blog. I mean, you we're pretty good at detecting the flip-flop in Kerry from the truthseeking, liberty loving stalwart we know as Dumbya, so I would think you could look into Clark's eyes and get a sense of his soul.
Or you could visit Securing America and sign up on his mailing list and read his blog and his speeches and his writings and his books (Amazon lists 11 books for him) and see what he has to say for himself. If you put yourself on his mailing list, you will see in what he mails you, what his concerns are, who he endorses, what actions he recommends, and how he writes.
I have to say, I am on Kerry's, Clinton's, and Clark's email list, and Clark gives good email. It is really insightful, not just into progressive thought, but into the man himself.
Don't you dare miss Tom Tomorrow's speech. He has a still unpublished cartoon at the end which is your story and the story of many of your fellow academics and students, I am sure!
Ann, I know it's slightly offtopic, but I hope you are planning on blogging the earth tones of Al Gore in an Inconvenient Truth. Come on, the guy is a nerd, failed in the world's ultimate reality show, and wooden. I think he lies too, just like Kerry. Inconvenient Truth is showing starting next Friday at the Marcus Theatres Westgate Cinemas Madison
340 Westgate Cinemas Mall
Madison, WI 53711
That appears to be about 5.2 miles from campus, easy biking.
Come on, we need a fashion statement blog post about Al, American Idol! Most of all, we need to stop Al before he joins forces with General Clark into bringing America down!
Simon, the big problem with the kos people and supposedly "liberal" trolls at this site is that, even though they claim (or try to appear) to have altruistic motives and ideals, they present them, again and again, with a sarcastic sneer. Why should we believe that there is anything good about a philosophy when the people who most vocally advocate it are such nasty, mean-spirited turds?
Damned Cuze is telling me to see a movie that I actually planned to see, thus making me less likely to go see it.
The Power of Cuze compels you! The Power of Cuze compels you!
If you read more carefully, I am asking you to blog the earth tones of Al Gore the stiff wooden liar. So you could defy the power of Cuze by watching the movie and blogging about its substance and not the fashion statements within.
Nevertheless, I am amused how pixels on a page can change your behavior.
The Power of Cuze Compels You!
We may ask what is relevant, but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar, the demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien. And powerful. So don't listen, remember that, do not listen.
Ok, Palladian. But after this one last dig.
I am amused that one who is amused how pixels on a page can change your behavior would bother to put so damn many pixels on ALL the pages. What would be the point?
This convention is an absolute disaster...even the Nuns are escaping to the legalized brothels to get some excitement!
Peace, Maxine
That picture is priceless.
Girlfriend is in the Desert, with exposed legs, but doesn't even have the wherewithal to get a fake tan.
Peace, Maxine
That may be the saddest convention ever held. God those people are pathetic.
Word verification: gonbigbx
Um, by the way---when is the yearly "Althouse Convention"?
And, where's it being held?
Did I miss the last year's annual Althouse Picnic and barbeque cookout?
Peace, Maxine
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jun-10-Sat-2006/news/7886491.html
"Oh, those people are so pathetic. Too bad they're not cool like us! And no tans! How stupid! At least they believe something, even if it's wrong! Who'd want to agree with a bunch of stupid turds?"
Gosh, I don't know how to intelligently contend with all this conservative wit and depth of discourse.
I've heard many a tale about the banality of the Althouse blog, and I had to come over and see it, just once, for myself. I have to say, it didn't disappoint.
All partisanship aside, what's going on in Vegas is a meeting of folks engaged in the political process, a bit of a rarity in this country. They're having discussions and forums not just about media presentation, but also about the substantive issues facing our nation. Kos, along with many of the other liberal bloggers, are working to build a political movement because we're dissatisfied with the entire political system, not just the complete failure of American conservatism. Like other failed rightwing ideologies, it will one day be consigned to the dustbin of history and laughed about by future political scholars. What people like Kos are trying to do is build a viable political movement that appeals to a broad base of Americans and gets people interested in politics again.
But never mind that. I mean, who cares about the direction of the country when there's overweight people wearing silly clothes to mock. Much better to have that kind of serious conservative discourse, instead of those "crazy" and "angry" lefties...
"All partisanship aside, what's going on in Vegas is a meeting of folks engaged in the political process, a bit of a rarity in this country. They're having discussions and forums not just about media presentation, but also about the substantive issues facing our nation. Kos, along with many of the other liberal bloggers, are working to build a political movement because we're dissatisfied with the entire political system, not just the complete failure of American conservatism. Like other failed rightwing ideologies, it will one day be consigned to the dustbin of history and laughed about by future political scholars. What people like Kos are trying to do is build a viable political movement that appeals to a broad base of Americans and gets people interested in politics again."
It's funny that that slab of cant is preceeded by the words "all partisanship aside". Yes! All partisanship aside, aside from the COMPLETE FAILURE OF AMERICAN CONSERVATISM and that nice image of DUSTBINS (who says "dustbin"?) and LAUGHING POLITICAL SCHOLARS (since when do serious scholars laugh at ideas?) Yawn.
The problem with your kind of liberal is rather the same problem that certain religious missionaries have: you're so damned earnest. You're "Up With People" in BUSH IS DUMB t-shirts. You've got BIG IDEAS! You're learning how to put on 5000 watt smiles and to grease yourselves up and try and wriggle your aimless, angry, failed philosophies past the "dumb" American public yet again. What does the "broad base" think of a man whose first response to 4 murdered Americans in Fallujah was "Screw them"? Is that the kind of person whose opinion should matter to the "broad base"? Is that what you're peddling? Are people as "dissatisfied" as you and yours perpetually try to tell them they are?
The problem isn't that people aren't hearing your message, or that you need to improve your presentation. The problem is that people hear your message and reject it, again and again, no matter how many times you call them deluded and stupid and naive.
This may all sound like another bit of partisanship to you (after all, you want EVERYTHING to be political), but I assure you that I find most political discourse, whether it comes from someone with a beard and a beret or from someone with a bow tie and a starched collar, equally distasteful. You don't get this blog, or the mindset of the people who enjoy coming here. We don't respect politics, we don't respect your earnestness or feigned earnestness. We hate phonies, of any stripe. You want to play politics like the big boys and girls? Fine, then get used to having your black socks/shorts combos and white dreadlocks and tempeh-stained "Dumb, dumber, Dubya" shirts mocked, mercilessly, by those of us who see through your bullshit.
I wish someone would save Enlightenment liberalism, and get people interested in "ideas", but it sure as hell isn't Markos Zuniga. Talk about banal.
who says "dustbin"?
People who are still smarting over the phrase "communism has been consigned to the dustbin of history."
Samurai Sam: "I've heard many a tale about the banality of the Althouse blog..."
Banal or are you just deaf to half of what's being said? You obviously failed to pick up that what I was mocking was the NYT coverage. Because -- as you admit in your first sentence -- you're the kind of reader who arrives with an expectation about what you're going to read, then engages in a reading-like activity, and believes he's found just that. So go back to your blogs that hit you over the head with clear ideology.... until the next time you're pointed over here to see what the pointer will tell you you're supposed to see and you pop over here like a good little boy and see what you were told.
Ouch.
You're "Up With People" in BUSH IS DUMB t-shirts.
Ok, this is officially my favorite comment ever.
I personally believe quxxo/jacques/reasonater/lurketto/thersites are ALL the same person. For me the source of the bitterness over all these months (years?) seems to be jealousy/envy that this blog is so successful. And the fact that Ann's a prof and he perceives his job as less successful adds fuel to the fire. The politics just gives him endless material to channel his bitterness into.
Knoxgirl: Yeah, it's telling that their comments so often take the form of calling me a bad law professor.
Knoxgirl said: "I personally believe quxxo/jacques/reasonater/lurketto/thersites are ALL the same person."
In keeping with the "The Exorcist" theme, above:
KARRAS: I think it might be helpful if I gave you some background on the different personalities Regan has manifested. So far, I'd say there seem to be three. She's convinced...
MERRIN: (brusquely) There is only one.
Cite.
You obviously failed to pick up that what I was mocking was the NYT coverage.
So did 90 percent of the conservative comments in this thread.
You obviously failed to pick up that what I was mocking was the NYT coverage. Because -- as you admit in your first sentence...
Gosh Ann, you are so misunderstood! How hard it must be to be you!
Try this simple experiment Ann, using the posts that have not been deleted, up to and including the post of dbrooks (David Brooks, wow!). Code each post as follows:
1 -- Attacks the NYTimes
2 -- Attacks the NYTimes AND Kos/Kossacks/Leftists
3 -- Attacks Kos/Kossacks/Leftists
4 -- Attacks Ann Althouse
5 -- Random spew
It really doesn't take that long, and the results provide insight into your behavior or writing skills.
By my count, out of 61 messages,
24 are random spew
21 attack Kos, Kossacks, and Leftists
7 attack the NYTimes for a crappy article
7 attack you for being a smear artist
2 attack both the NYTimes and Kos/Kossacks/Leftists
Paraphrasing Ann as she replies to Samarai Sam today, and Scott Lemieux yesterday, my posts are about critiquing the NYTimes and generating outrage. You would have to be awfully dumb to think it was about attacking Kos or saying that the government should spy on people!
But the data in this post alone shows that 21 people made personal attacks on Kossacks, 7 people attacked the NYTimes, and 2 people attacked both.
The blogosphere complains that Ann Althouse never makes her message clear, instead coding her message such that everyone knows what she is really saying, though she says it with a veneer of plausible deniability. This is intellectually dishonest of her. I would hope that lawyers and professors would strive to be as clear and upfront to their students and to the public as possible.
In this case, the data show that contrary to Ann's protestations, her regular commenters understand her message as well as those who complain: this post was not about a critique of the NYTimes, this post was an attack on Kossacks, Leftists, and Democrats.
Ann, why do you think that your posts are so frequently misunderstood? Are all of your readers and favorite commenters that wrong about you? Or is the blogosphere picking up something that you are not? Or are you just intellectually dishonest, a smear artist, and a crappy professor?
get a sense of humor.
get a sense of humor.
Say something funny! "Those stupid leftists, they're fat, they don't have a tan, and they're mean turds, too"--I dunno; it just lacks something, maybe, hmmm, wit? You want to laugh? Go read some Ann Coulter. Those 9/11 widows are a laugh riot! It was so funny how their husbands burned to death and now they want to complain even though it made them millionaires. Those guys were probably going to divorce those skanks anyway.
You're right--humor helps! I can't stop laughing now. Conservatism is truly a source of joy.
I am a proud, card-carrying member of the random spew.
oh come on, that photo is funny. Black socks worn with shorts is funny!
If you can't get a sense of humor, get a sense of proportion about what is worth getting mad at.
Mary: My point about the photo is that the NYT chose that one to illustrate the piece. The post is (mostly) written sarcastically from the point of view of the Times deciding to slam the bloggers. I don't know why that's so hard to see. It's not really too subtle.
The word "swing" next to the woman's face is a choice by the photographer to frame the photo that way. It's not me going there and picking people to mock. I'm describing at the photo the NYT chose.
Admittedly, if I went there with my camera, I'd frame shots for humorousl effect. But this photo doesn't represent what I'd frame. I'm pointing out what they framed. Why is that so damned hard to perceive!
I was amused by the way the photo coincided with my well-known distaste for shorts.
add "mary" to the list of the hydra heads
Close? Online the internet since the 70s. Hey are you a profiler? Are we neighbors? Am I using your wi-fi?
Did you go to MIT? Ever study string theory? Play in the chatrooms?
Yes, but no. (Applied to grad school there, admitted, went to Berkeley instead, a mistake on my part but with two wonderful little absolutely redeaming side effects).
Not really. We discussed string theory in courses as the next big theory that none of the profs really understood yet. Though 20 years later, I notice the layman's articles are exactly identical.
Played in the chatrooms? Like this one? Of course! (Played in the muds or on irc, not really.)
Had an email address since 1978? Yeah. Used the net before there was a TCP? I have to fess up to that too.
There's only one of me, though about a month or so ago, I enjoyed playing with blogger's ability to change names to use non Western character sets, but behind that the blogger true name always pointed to quxxo and quxxo.blogspot.com.
It's fun to see that Ann and Noxie are starting to see me wherever they look and that all sorts of people that disagree with them are being accused of being me.
Boo!
Right, knoxgirl, when commenters call leftists "mean-spirited turds" they're talking about the funny black socks, and making a little joke. Your reading skills need a tuneup.
JC is an old sonofabitch. But I don't think he's my genius neighbor in the neighborhood, because he just doesn't seem smart enough.
I'm an old SOB? You're ten years older than I am. What's that make you?
I'm reminded of the time I caught my pet baboon humping a goat.
You're telling us you were spanking your monkey while visiting goatse.cx? Eeew. Too much information Nucleo!
See Ann, you delete me when I mention this, but people either think I am the best part of your blog, or they think I am your sock puppet (oh, stop that Ann, that tickles, and it's Nucleo who goes in for that action.)
You need me Ann, it's very zen if you stop to think about it.
Your reading skills need a tuneup.
Repeat: sense of humor! come on, it's not like we're talking about the war! I can't get too worked up about "turd" for that matter...
Why aren't we talking about the war? It was certainly what they were talking about at the YearlyKos?
Why are we talking about black socks and shorts at YearlyKos instead of talking about matters of substance?
Why hasn't Ann talked about the war recently? We need more people to talk about all the good things happening in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and to help us prepare for the inevitable new product launch in Iran.
Come on, NoxieGrrl, I know you care enough about our country to discuss such issues.
knoxgirl,
Johnny Nucleo, the Q, and Mary are having a funny exchange right now. That's humor.
Taunting like self-satisfied 12-year-olds isn't funny. It's like hitting a button; certain threads rev up the conservative echo chamber with nothing more to offer than variations on "aren't liberals dumb?" remarks. There's no wit, no style, just stupid, repetitive, boring crap. If that has you laughing, you need to rent a good comedy and remind yourself of what jokes are, and how funny happens.
So, to be fair, I'll have to point out that Mary has ceased to be funny.
Jacques: "I'm an old SOB? You're ten years older than I am. What's that make you?"
It makes me someone who has all along admitted I'm old and therefore easily able to laugh at the absurdity of someone who's old but acting really childish. The older you are, the more ridiculous your behavior is, and we've just learned that you're 45. You're acting about one third your age. I'm in the perfect position to laugh at that.
Elizabeth, fer chrissakes, the point is: lighten up!
Well I think I have dropped all sorts of relevant information. If you had still wanted to know, why not just ask me?
But yes, I was conceived in 1953 and born in 1960. Perhaps this is one reason why I respect the labor movements so!
If you want to send me birthday presents, let me know and I will set up an Amazon wish list. But please just send donations in my name to either the ACLU, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, usocares.org, or draftgore.com.
Ann, I did't understand the concept of blog jealousy. I couldn't imagine a motivation or a line of thinking that could cause it. However, I finally came up with a plausible censario.
Why would anyone be jealous of a blog? Because it consumes the time of the author. I believe Jacques to be none other than your own Husband!
Jacque, talk about the war past it's useful life long ago.
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