Althouse: "What politics has become requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply."

October 14, 2007

"What politics has become requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply."

Let's talk about this quote. There are so many subtopics here. Let me delineate a few:

1. First, to understand this quote, you need to realize that the speaker means "that I have found in short supply" in myself. What sort of person talks like this when making a point like this?

2. What sort of person decides to make this particular point when addressing the subject of whether he belongs in politics?

3. Did you have any trouble guessing who said this?

4. Does politics today involve all that much triviality and artifice?

5. Was there some earlier Golden Age, when politics did not involve so much triviality and artifice?

6. What sort of person admires someone precisely for being the kind of person who makes that point and talks like that?

7. Who do you like better: a. Someone who says things like that quote, b. Someone who admires someone who says things like that quote, c. Someone who would only accidentally talk like that and would immediately mock himself for doing so, d. Someone who prefers to look for people who say things like that or admire people who say things like that and then to immediately mock them in writing and provide a place for you to join the mockery?

8. Why is the love I bear for Al Gore so conflicted?

9. Did #8 make you think of Manbearpig?

10. Who does 9 questions? There must be 10.

132 comments:

Anonymous said...: Your love for him is because the natural response to most things he says is Say what?

Another Algore gem from the slavering article: “Having served in the White House with the Gingrich Congress, and having watched the best of intentions so often turned into small changes ballyhooed as revolutionary, sometimes having no lasting mark, I really do believe that fixing the dynamic of democracy is an urgent task.”; 10/14/07, 11:09 AM
rhhardin said...: Earth tones used to mean a color.; 10/14/07, 11:15 AM
Anonymous said...: Algore urgently wants to fix the dynamic of democracy into what works for him-- sanctimonious, insufferable, pretend smart, inaccurate static.

Full disclosure: wouldn't vote for him even if old and given a free bus ride to the polls and advised. Would rather hang my chad. Maybe other contenders should've demanded a recount from the Nobel committee.; 10/14/07, 11:20 AM
rhhardin said...: Derrida, in _The Archeology of the Frivolous : Reading Condillac_ says that seriousness is actually just one subspecies of frivolity.

Seriousness comes on you as a surprise, and retrospectively. You can't lead with it.

That's how it gets its good name. People try to imitate it, is the trouble.; 10/14/07, 11:21 AM
rcocean said...: You're trying the impossible. Bob Herbert and interesting is an oxymoron.

Herbert is the liberal answer to Cal Thomas.

As for Gore, zzzz...; 10/14/07, 11:25 AM
Palladian said...: "I really do believe that fixing the dynamic of democracy is an urgent task."

fix |fiks| verb [ trans. ] informal influence the outcome of (something, esp. a race, contest, or election) by illegal or underhanded means.; 10/14/07, 11:26 AM
reneviht said...: Thanks for making point #5. Please, please, please do so as often as possible.; 10/14/07, 11:36 AM
Anonymous said...: LOL, Palladian and the others.

I didn't fix my first comment b/c it was obscured by overlying text from the title, symptomatic of overblown blogocracy in the times of Bush-Cheney running roughshod over the American people, but it should have read: "Your love for him is conflicted because the natural response to most things he says is Say what?"; 10/14/07, 11:37 AM
Anonymous said...: What a shocker.

The right wing nutcases here, badmouthing anything or anybody attached to the name Gore.(Oh, and we ALL know that the Clintons will surface eventually.)

As if the idiot YOU support has done anything good for America over the past 7 years.

Right wing drivel...as usual.; 10/14/07, 11:52 AM
The Drill SGT said...: The article, quote and Gore are all full of crap :)

Gore is hugely involved in the Global Warming Campaign, which is both a media and a political campaign of huge proportions. Even bigger than its companion EU Constitution campaign.

What Gore (like the EU bureaucrats) disdains is "elections" and "voters" but he loves politics.

The "elites" know what is best for us. Rather than conduct government as a democracy, they want a republican (classical sense) form with self-appointed elites determining what we need to do to save the world.

It's ironic that with the demise of Soviet communism with its central planning, that the world elites think that the solution to both European economic stagnation and GW is central planning, high taxes, no-growth economics, statism, protectionism.

Gore doesn't want to have to campaign for President, he wants to be appointed and the World Messiah; 10/14/07, 12:03 PM
Bissage said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/14/07, 12:05 PM
Anonymous said...: dRILL sGT. SAYS: "Gore doesn't want to have to campaign for President, he wants to be appointed and the World Messiah."

More far right wing bullshit.

Gore has plenty of reasons to be disillusioned by politics and elections.

He got the shaft in 2000...and America did, too.; 10/14/07, 12:10 PM
Bissage said...: “What politics has become,” he said, with a laugh and a tinge of regret, “requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.”

There’s an old cartoon somewhere in my Ziggy archives that illustrates an old, leering man who just finished speaking to a country preacher who says something like, “You ain’t confessin’, Mistah. You’s boastin’.” Okay, it’s kind of racist. NTTAWWT.

Anyway, Al Gore ain’t confessing. He’s boasting.

He saying he doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Like he’s so superior.

It reminds me of the time a judge described herself in a campaign pamphlet as a “legal scholar” and another judge quipped, “Isn’t that the sort of thing other people say about you?”

So, hats off to Al Gore.

He’s always selling himself.

Alan Price would approve.

O Lucky Man!; 10/14/07, 12:10 PM
hdhouse said...: "Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment."
or
"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."

Well we know that the referenced quote that guides this thread DIDN'T COME FROM Mr. Bush. I had no trouble guessing that.

So Kiley, you can add "talks in complete sentences" and "uses a better than gradeschool vocabulary" as Gorisms as well....and while you are looking up artifice, may I suggest that your observations are nonsense and trivial -- much like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. The dog pees reflexively, doesn't look where he is aiming, and generally targets it because other likeminded dogs pee there too.

Are you a like minded dog?; 10/14/07, 12:12 PM
Paddy O said...: "What politics has become requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply."

Likely overheard as he was getting back into the limo after attending the Oscars or the Emmys.

Leave politics. Go into the entertainment business.

Tee-hee.

However, I do think Gore is right. How many politicians having run to the end of their career have just kept pushing and pushing. Edwards comes to mind. Jesse Jackson. Lots on both sides of the aisle.

Gore is brilliant for not soiling himself again in politics. Like him or not, his strategy has a much bigger influence, both for his cause and for his own power/wealth/influence. He's becoming an elder statesman of sorts, the kind that Jimmy Carter was in the 90s when he was focused only on Habitat for Humanity.

Like him or dislike him it's hard to pity Gore. I think he should have taken that higher road in 2000, which might have set him up for a run in 2004. But at least he's learning now. Maybe we'll see him back in 2012, if Hillary doesn't win.

"Herbert is the liberal answer to Cal Thomas."

Ha! I thought maybe I just didn't get Cal Thomas and others saw something interesting.; 10/14/07, 12:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Having served in the White House with the Gingrich Congress, and having watched the best of intentions so often turned into small changes ballyhooed as revolutionary, sometimes having no lasting mark, I really do believe that fixing the dynamic of democracy is an urgent task.

Hmm, now. If Gore is blaming the Republicans for restricting him and Bill to small changes, I guess that's his right. But no one held a gun to their heads and made them ballyhoo their small changes as revolutionary. "Reinventing Government" and "A bridge to the 21st Century" weren't Gingrich's phrases! (Those with long memories may recall that Gingrich's own small changes were regularly denounced as revolutionary by Al Gore, and especially by Bob Herbert.)

And if Gore was already too good for politics by the 1990s, what business did he have running for President in 2000?; 10/14/07, 12:18 PM
Anonymous said...: The Bush administration has done more to prove Gore should have been elected and that he was right about damn near everything he ever said than any liberal columnist or talking head could ever accomplish.

We're buried in Iraq, we've lost 3,800 brave Americans, have almost 30,000 wounded, wasted billions of tax dollars , the economy is teetering on the verge of recession...and most here are more concerned with off the cuff comments of Al Gore.

And that's precisely why the Republicans will get their collective asses kicked in 2008...because a vast majority of America is sick and tired of the lies and distortions we've had shoved down our throats over the past 7 years.

Very few of the people here give a flying fuck about what's happening in America. All they ever to do is post inane comments about how horrible the Clintons are or how horrible Hillary is or how horrible Gore is.

*And all the while, you support a man who lugs around a 30% approval rating and can hardly string five words together without sounding like an idiot.; 10/14/07, 12:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Hdhouse, you silver-tongued devil, you. But, say what? Your comments are so erudite, eloquent and eristic they're difficult to grasp. All i get is you're likening gore to a dog-marked fire hydrant.

Further, you use quotes that have nothing to do with me and then address me, "So Kiley," as if, which is brilliant debate.; 10/14/07, 12:27 PM
hdhouse said...: Paul, that's pretty weak shit your tossing here.

Do you mean reinventing government "creating a government that works better and costs less."
Or the bridge to the 21st century after Clinton beat Dole like a rented mule?

Howabout "honey, can you move that chemo tube out of the way and put that hospital bed up some so I can tell you I want a divorce"? That Gingrichism?

Otherwise I don't get your point, if you have one.; 10/14/07, 12:29 PM
hdhouse said...: Biff bam...Kiley...zoom right over the top of your head there I guess.

If you remember one of Ann's points was "guess who said this"...so I gave you two quotes from the decider...two of thousands...sooo many quotes so little time....and of course they didn't mean anything other than examples of bad bad sentences run amuck....compared to the gore quote which is actually pretty darn clear...

sorry to have shot one right by you.; 10/14/07, 12:33 PM
Anonymous said...: One more thing: if you think about the things Gore has said about specific Bush Administration policies when he wasn't wearing his Sir Philosopher hat, would you ever guess that his core complaint against them is that they're trivial?; 10/14/07, 12:35 PM
hdhouse said...: Paul...just refresh my memory some...you mention specific Bush (administration) policies...I'm kinda stumped here....point out a few and I'll just hum along.; 10/14/07, 12:39 PM
hdhouse said...: ohhhh nevermind. Terry Schievo. Right. Sorry.; 10/14/07, 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...: hdhouse at 12:12:

So Kiley, you can add "talks in complete sentences" and "uses a better than gradeschool vocabulary" as Gorisms as well...

hdhouse at 12:29:

Do you mean reinventing government "creating a government that works better and costs less."; 10/14/07, 12:40 PM
hdhouse said...: Snow flake babies. Ok. I cry uncle. I give up. That's two.; 10/14/07, 12:40 PM
Cedarford said...: Bob Herbert - Al Gore is a serious man confronted by a political system that is not open to a serious exploration of important, complex issues. He knows it.

As one poster said, maybe the liberal media needed a Cal Thomas Doppleganger, or it could be something so simple as Affirmative Action Confronts the Peter Principle at the NY Times in a 2-decade long showcase of op-ed incompetence by a guy in over his head.

He got the shaft in 2000...and America did, too.

He shafted himself, running as a SF Democrat gun-banner in love with Hollywood donor money, standing by as his campaign hacks put out a Southern Christians are dumb and reactionary - and not figuring out for a moment how that would play in the Clinton's Arkansas, his home state of Tennessee, or Florida.

Just a little less arrogance and a little more humility and Tennessee and Arkansas would have been his, and Florida would have been irrelevant.; 10/14/07, 12:41 PM
Anonymous said...: "Biff bam...Kiley...zoom right over the top of your head there I guess."

Not past my head, HdHouse. As a Republican guntoter I practice on clay and paper targets and am a good shot, but your rhetorical ploy was too far afield. Bad throw.; 10/14/07, 12:43 PM
hdhouse said...: Kiley said...
"As a Republican guntoter I practice on clay and paper targets and am a good shot, but your rhetorical ploy was too far afield. Bad throw."

Well Kiley, I think "bad throw" is something of a mixed metaphor...and as to republican guntoter, where is Darth Vader when you need him?

Wait, didn't you guys have a VP named Quail or Quayle? No wonder Cheny loved him.; 10/14/07, 12:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Say what?; 10/14/07, 12:48 PM
hdhouse said...: Kiley...I think you need a new goaltender.; 10/14/07, 12:51 PM
Anonymous said...: How did you know, Hd? He was shot in the head by Cheney's puck.; 10/14/07, 12:55 PM
Anonymous said...: "It is this same disrespect for America's Constitution which has now brought our republic to the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the Constitution." --Al Gore, 1/16/06

Ballyhooed as revolutionary! Plenty more where that came from.; 10/14/07, 1:16 PM
Kirby Olson said...: Lomborg the Danish statistician argues that if Gore manages to make the world a colder and worse place than it already is in order to salvage a penguin or two (which Gore increasingly resembles esp. when he's in a tux) then an additional 1.8 million people will freeze to death every year.

Compared to the left's statistics on the Bush baby's killings in Iraq and elsewhere (a half a million over a five-year period), then it comes out that Gore's last name is more apt than previously thought, and that he is going to make the Bush baby look like a girl scout by comparison.

That said, I still like Al Gore, too. I voted for him in 2000. I like the way he presents himself as somewhat academic and reasonable. I think he is only dressing up as an academic perhaps, but still, even to seem somewhat reasonable and stiff makes him much to my liking. I'm used to people like that. And maybe Ann, who is also an academic, suffers from the same kind of mirroring that Gore offers.

I would definitely prefer him to any of the current Democratic front-runners and to most of the Republicans except perhaps Giuliani even though Gore's plans to kill almost 2 million people a year make him almost into Batman's Penguin in terms of his terrible "chilling" plot to make the world a colder place.; 10/14/07, 1:20 PM
Gahrie said...: the economy is teetering on the verge of recession

What world are you living in?

Stock markets? Up, record levels.

Inflation? Low, less than 2 1/2%.

Trade deficit? Gone lower for 17 straight quarters, exports making record gains.

Unemployment? A consistent 4 1/2% over the last decade.

GDP? Up 3.8%

Real income? Up around .5% every month

Poverty rate? on the decline.

The economy is humming along. Many economists feel that some of the numbers such as the poverty rate and unemployment can't get much better.

If there was a Democratic administration in office we would be reading and hearing about the miracle economy we are in right now.; 10/14/07, 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...: the economy is teetering on the verge of recession.; 10/14/07, 1:32 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: "I’d like to do something with my life."

"I know I have something inside me that most people don’t have"; 10/14/07, 1:34 PM
Gahrie said...: the economy is teetering on the verge of recession.

Seriously. I don't get this tactic. That's clearly false.

Are you guys operating on the old "repeat a lie often enough and it will be believed" theory?; 10/14/07, 1:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Gahrie,
Latest WSJ poll of AMERICANS: 60%+ believe we are already IN a recession or entering one.

Then again...those are merely regular American citizens...not Bush apologists like yourself.

The price of every staple is UP over the past 7 years, and that doesn't include gasoline.

You can defend Bush until the cows come home, but America knows you're full of shit...as usual.; 10/14/07, 1:45 PM
Paddy O said...: Are you guys operating on the old "repeat a lie often enough and it will be believed" theory?"

You need to get the lingo right. They are framing. Not lying. Framing. They learned it from Democratic strategists who sold books on why Republicans were winning despite being dumb, and stupid, and clearly out of step with the 'rest of the country'.; 10/14/07, 1:47 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Ann, or John: When you are making a bulleted list, wouldn't it be more effective if you used Roman Numerals ???; 10/14/07, 1:47 PM
rhhardin said...: the economy is teetering on the verge of a recession

The verge is the male organ of copulation in certain invertebrates, if you believe the American Heritage Dictionary.

I don't know what part teetering plays, but it's understandable now at least.

What we don't know is the size of the litter.; 10/14/07, 1:48 PM
George M. Spencer said...: You want a 10 part answer to a blog post?!

I'd hate to see what your exam questions are like.....; 10/14/07, 1:49 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Doesn't Althouse seem just the type of person who would accent her "delineations" with Roman Numerals ???; 10/14/07, 1:53 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: A Man marries a Woman-- who gives birth to all sons.

A Man marries, for the second time, a different Woman-- who gives birth to all sons.

Turns out this Man's mother, also gave birth to all sons, and not a single daughter.

We marry our mothers!; 10/14/07, 1:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Trying to follow the rules, and not having read any of the posts above, here's a stray thought or two on the first subtopic--who talks like this? Pretentious, pseudo-intellectuals talk like this.

When I was a senior in high school, and throughout the lower ranks of college, I heard nonsense like this at plenty of parties where the cheap beer flowed freely. Anyone who pretends to step outside of himself and analyze himself objectively, honestly, or accurately is kidding himself, insulting those he thinks he is fooling, and lacking the good sense to keep his vain babblings to himself.

In short, nobody I care to be around talks like that. I run from self-congratulators and those who wish to organize mutual admiration societies. Does it surprise me that Al Gore said this? Not at all. He's vain beyond redemption.; 10/14/07, 2:13 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Women who give birth to all boys, and not a single daughter....what can we make of these women?

And, the Men who marry them, over and over again.

But, let's focus on the Women, and their inability to have daughters.

God doesn't give these Women daughters because it wouldn't be a good match. And there's Scientific proof the back this up--Women who have ONLY sons.

These women don't get along with other women! Even if they have sisters....and the sisterly relationship seems cordial...don't be fooled.

For instance, if you saw them shopping, and one sister enters a bargain shop, while the other refuses to enter. And, the bargain sister has hurt feelings she keeps to herself.

---That type of thing. It's very subtle, but women with all sons simply don't click with other women, and have few female friends, no matter what they present to the world!

Love, Maxine; 10/14/07, 2:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Windbag said..."In short, nobody I care to be around talks like that."

And God knows you certainly wouldn't want to be hanging around with people who were Senators, Vice-President or who may have won a Nobel Prize.

And please...stay away from Bill Clinton...Rhodes Scholar, President and all.

Just think what it would do to your intellectual reputation...WINDBAG.; 10/14/07, 2:28 PM
Anonymous said...: rhhardin,
Up the meds ol' man.; 10/14/07, 2:31 PM
Heywood Rice said...: 4. Does politics today involve all that much triviality and artifice?

What sort of person would try to pass this off as a serious question? Altouse is a quack.; 10/14/07, 2:33 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Show me! Show me a single set of sisters that seems to have a close relationship, the best of friends, and intense bonds....

....and I'll show you, betrayal, discontent and discord brewing under the surface.

EXAMPLE: Two sisters who seem to be very close, and are raising young children in common.

Ok, fine. But what happens when the children are grown and the "bond" the "glue" (young children) that was holding the relationship is gone ???

It's not a lasting relationship. Apart from sporadic shopping trips that result in hurt feelings.....sisters, in general, aren't going to maintain close relationships.

Love, Maxine; 10/14/07, 2:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Paddy O. said..."They are framing. Not lying. Framing."

Well, if anybody would know about "lying," it would be wingnuts like yourself.

WMD?
Wiretapping without court approval?
(Asking telephone companies to help out...months BEFORE 9/11?)
Gitmo / Habeus Corpus?
Torture?
Blackwater?

I'll take "framing" any day of the week over what we see every day from Bush & Company...and evidently about 65% of America agrees with ME.; 10/14/07, 2:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Maxine,
Talk to rhhardin and see about sharing the meds.; 10/14/07, 2:35 PM
blogging cockroach said...: i'd like to answer question 7
but i keep forgetting the first
by the time i get to the last choice.

i may have an analytical soul
but i only have so many brain cells.; 10/14/07, 2:37 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: The sibling relationship is fraught with all sorts of contention and unpleasantness.

The only difference with brothers, is that brothers don't play as many catty games as sisters do. Although, brothers are just as combative. Cane and Abel, anyone?

Listen, everyone: Don't be fooled by superficial closeness, shopping trips etc... that you see in warm and fuzzy pictures.

Family = Betrayal

Always.

--No matter what kind of an act some people like to put forth.

Love, Maxine; 10/14/07, 2:41 PM
hdhouse said...: Windbag:

I read your post. I think I found the problem.

Don't drink cheap beer.; 10/14/07, 2:43 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Hi Dell !

Hey Dell, it's a lovely day, isn't it?

Love, Maxine; 10/14/07, 2:46 PM
Trooper York said...: Nanny McPhee: There is something you should understand about the way I work. When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go. It's rather sad, really, but there it is.
[Nanny McPhee turns around to walk out of the room, but stops once she hears Simon]
Simon Brown: We will never want you!
Nanny McPhee: Then I will never go.
(Nanny McPhee 2005); 10/14/07, 2:46 PM
Heywood Rice said...: ”Who do you like better” … “Someone who prefers to look for people who say things like that or admire people who say things like that and then to immediately mock them in writing and provide a place for you to join the mockery?”

Althouse or Gore, who do you like better? What sort of person asks a question like this on their own blog?; 10/14/07, 2:50 PM
ricpic said...: Windbag -- Spot on comment.; 10/14/07, 3:06 PM
hdhouse said...: Out damn spot (on).; 10/14/07, 3:15 PM
Trooper York said...: Address Unknown - not even a trace of you.
Oh what Id give to see the face of you.
I was a fool to stay away from you so long.
I should have known thered come a day when youd be gone.

Address Unknown - oh how could I be so blind?
Whod think that you would never be hard to find?
From the place of your birth to the ends of the earth
Ive searched only to find - only to find - Address Unknown.

(Spoken:)
Address Unknown - honey chile, I aint even got a trace of ya.
You know one thing?
Id give anything in the world just to see the face of ya.
I was a fool to stay away from you and everything else so long.
I should have been diplomatic and figured that some day
Youd be solid gone.

Address Unknown - oh how could I be so blind?
Whod think that you would never be hard to find?
From the place of your birth to the ends of the earth
Ive searched only to find - only to find - Address Unknown.

(The Inkspots 1952); 10/14/07, 3:21 PM
Anonymous said...: So sad. Solid gone?; 10/14/07, 3:42 PM
Gahrie said...: Latest WSJ poll of AMERICANS: 60%+ believe we are already IN a recession or entering one.

Then again...those are merely regular American citizens...not Bush apologists like yourself.

If this is true, it is because the MSM does nothing but talk about how bad the economy is, even though it is doing great.

The price of every staple is UP over the past 7 years, and that doesn't include gasoline.

The price of staples is always up. That's how healthy economies work. If prices are going down, you are usually in a depression. The key is, are incomes rising at the same pace or quicker. And incomes are rising quicker than prices at the moment. Gasoline is cheaper today than it was in the 1970's adjusted for inflation.

You can defend Bush until the cows come home, but America knows you're full of shit...as usual.

That's just it. It's not about Bush. It's about the objective reality that our economy is doing great, and the Democratic (and MSM) need to badmouth it because there is a Republican in office. (Just like they are constantly badmouthing our progress in Iraq); 10/14/07, 3:43 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: "The Catholic Church does not consider homosexual tendencies sinful in themselves but condemns homosexual acts and teaches that priests should adhere to their vow of celibacy."

Compared with Dr. Helen, the Catholic Church is quite lenient.

They've got a lot of catching up to do, if they want to meet Dr. Helen's standards.; 10/14/07, 4:05 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: Dr. Helen, I know it's rough. But just stay the course, and there will be Redeption in the end, I promise!

Love, Maxine; 10/14/07, 4:06 PM
John Stodder said...: Making truthful observations about the strength of the economy has nothing to do with Bush, except in LOS's world, where a boil on his neck is blamed on Bush.

It's been shown repeatedly...I think I might have even READ IT IN A BOOK...that presidents really can't help or hurt the economy except on the margins. I would agree, the WSJ poll is mostly due to media talking down the economy, but the consumer confidence numbers, which are more indicative, undercut the WSJ poll.

The point is, it's okay to hate on Bush all you want and still observe we've got a pretty strong economy. But it's lame to falsely represent the economy as weak as a tactic for denigrating Bush. Talk about something else if that's your goal. You look stupid doing it this way.; 10/14/07, 4:06 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "What sort of person asks a question like this on their own blog?"

A person with a taste for self-mockery. (Obviously.); 10/14/07, 4:11 PM
Joe said...: Al Gore believes that humans are causing catastrophic global warming. He also believes that the US should withdraw from Iraq ASAP.

Instead of running for President where he can effect the most change in both these, he runs companies that enrich himself by selling carbon offsets (and which do nothing to actually change the alleged anthropological global warming.)

Instead Gore claims politics requires artifice. Fine, change it. Be serious. Run a purely intellectual campaign. Don't attack your opponents and run purely on what you would do about the issues.

Al Gore does have a point, so why doesn't he show how it could be done? Or doesn't he really believe his own words?; 10/14/07, 4:15 PM
Christy said...: Strikes me as that quote is extremely disrespectful of his daddy, for whom I voted in my first election ever. (The year Sr. lost his Senate seat. I didn't vote for a winning candidate for the next 20 years.)

Don't think much of Junior. I never got the smart vibe from him. Educated, trained, and groomed, yes. Smart, no.; 10/14/07, 4:17 PM
Heywood Rice said...: ( Obviously.)

This is a joke too, right?; 10/14/07, 4:32 PM
Maxine Weiss said...: I set up a spycam and now watch the Neighbor's comings and goings (literally). I can see what they watch on television. I can see what (or who) they have for dinner. I know their daily routines.

Anyone have a problem with this?

We are living in an affluent country where our basic needs are being met, so naturally this is how time is spent.

If I were a granny sitting out on the front porch taking notice of which neighbors were doing what.....would that be any different?

Peace, Maxine; 10/14/07, 4:39 PM
rhhardin said...: Tim Blair cites Kim Beazley Sr.

When I joined the Labor Party, it contained the cream of the working class. But as I look about me now all I see are the dregs of the middle class. And what I want to know is when you middle class perverts are going to stop using the Labor Party as a spiritual spitoon.

Sort of a Lieberman.; 10/14/07, 5:17 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Maxine are you saying your neighbors are cannibals?

Back to Gore- Al Bore spent 30 frigging years on the Beltway and was an insider's insider and now he claims it is "urgent" that democracy be fixed?? What did he fix in his 30 years? Lucky - why don't you answer this one.; 10/14/07, 5:20 PM
Anonymous said...: luckyoldson....I won't bite on that bait. I can easily cite Senators, Vice Presidents, and Rhodes Scholars that are equally offensive to you. The pertinent fact that you didn't address is that I said I don't care to be around anyone who is that vain and pretentious--Republican, Democrat, atheist, Christian, Northerner, Southerner, conservative, liberal, commie, libertarian, luckyoldson, or unfortuanteyoungdaughter.

So, no, I won't line up and hurl grenades over whatever line you want to draw in the sand. As far as my intellect, I'll match wits with anyone anywhere. I'll bet you know plenty of things I don't, and vice versa.

hdhouse...upon further reflection, they were guzzling, not drinking, so that only exacerbated the situation.; 10/14/07, 5:25 PM
Heywood Rice said...: I don't care to be around anyone who is that vain and pretentious…

Well you’re here Windbag…; 10/14/07, 5:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Gahrie said...“our progress in Iraq...”..................This is a joke too, right?; 10/14/07, 6:38 PM
Anonymous said...: John Stodder said... Bush...really can't help...just stay the course...just stay the course...just stay the course...just stay the course...just stay the course...just stay the course...just stay the course...As if the idiot YOU support has done anything good for America over the past 7 years.; 10/14/07, 6:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Banks Prepping Up To $100 Billion Fund Against Further Securities Collapses; 10/14/07, 7:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Republicans on the Hill have a serious morale problem.

The leading cause of the discontent, at least right now, is the Republican sense that they’re loosing the S-CHIP battle in a big way.

“It’s just stunning to me,” one veteran Republican strategist told me this week, “that after seven years of Republicans complaining that the president won’t use his veto, [the White House and Republican Congressional leaders] choose their big showdown to be over children’s health care. Good Lord, it probably polls at 80 percent!”

Added the GOP insider: “If we had been talking about cutting spending and waste in government for years, we could oppose SCHIP. But now we are finally going to get religion on spending?”

So what advice would this Republican give his party’s Members of Congress? “If I were in a swing district, I’d vote to override. There’s no way I’d take a bullet on this.”

One GOP lawmaker added, “It’s stupid politics. The leadership is putting pressure on Members [to sustain the veto], promising to rebuild the brand. I don’t know why our guys are following [Bush] into the sea like lemmings.”; 10/14/07, 7:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Our moral trajectory over the Bush years could not be better dramatized than it was by a reunion of an elite group of two dozen World War II veterans in Washington this month. They were participants in a top-secret operation to interrogate some 4,000 Nazi prisoners of war. Until now, they have kept silent, but America’s recent record prompted them to talk to The Washington Post.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an M.I.T. physicist whose interrogation of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, took place over a chessboard. George Frenkel, 87, recalled that he “never laid hands on anyone” in his many interrogations, adding, “I’m proud to say I never compromised my humanity.”; 10/14/07, 7:20 PM
Anonymous said...: “In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development,” Rice told reporters after meeting with human-rights activists.; 10/14/07, 7:21 PM
Anonymous said...: GOP Exodus

12th House Republican Calls It Quits; 10/14/07, 7:25 PM
Anonymous said...: For the portion of this discussion on whether or not we're in a recession, the general public probably can't define the word, yet alone recognize when we're in or approaching one. The generally accepted definition is a decline in gross domestic for two consecutive quarters. Here's a chart (http://www.bea.gov/briefrm/gdp.htm)
showing that we haven't come close in years.

Tossing about economic analyses based on your political leanings is pretty suspect, casting doubt on your arguments in general. I don't like Bush or Clinton, but the economy has prospered under both administrations.

By the way, both were supply siders, which has more to do with our current prosperity than Supreme Court nominations, military service, or approval ratings.; 10/14/07, 7:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Windbag said...“For the portion of this discussion on whether or not we're in a recession, the general public probably can't define the word, yet alone recognize when we're in or approaching one...................... Banks Prepping Up To $100 Billion Fund Against Further Securities Collapses.”Banks Prepping Up To $100 Billion Fund Against Further Securities Collapses; 10/14/07, 7:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for making my point for me. Did you happen to look at the chart?; 10/14/07, 7:40 PM
Anonymous said...: But where was Fred Thompson?

Besides participating in his first presidential debate in Michigan last Tuesday, Thompson was missing from the campaign trail.; 10/14/07, 7:51 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Ann- you should consider asking Lucky to find another blog where he can spew his canned but unlimited bile.; 10/14/07, 7:55 PM
blogging cockroach said...: aj, i'll eat anything that leaks from a can.
in the end everything is cockroach food; 10/14/07, 8:04 PM
Anonymous said...: AJ Lynch said...MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!; 10/14/07, 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: America............I think it is only getting better for all.; 10/14/07, 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Luckyoldson,

I thought you were some kind of businessman who played golf and made lots of money doing business which afforded you lots of time to play golf and comment incessantly on this blog. How come you don't know what a recession is?

I don't know what a recession is either, but I am not a businessman. But I do play golf. Space golf.

Also, you...use...ellipses...incorrectly. Which strikes me as odd since you read so many books.; 10/14/07, 9:10 PM
Gahrie said...: If President Bush gave Luckyoldson a million dollars in gold, LOS would complain that it weighed too much, and was part of some plot to cripple him.; 10/14/07, 9:14 PM
The Exalted said...: It's been shown repeatedly...I think I might have even READ IT IN A BOOK...that presidents really can't help or hurt the economy except on the margins

did your book have anything on blowing a trillion dollars on iraq?; 10/14/07, 9:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Johnny Nucleo said...MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!

Luckyoldson...uses...ellipses...incorrectly.; 10/14/07, 9:48 PM
Steve M. Galbraith said...: on blowing a trillion dollars on iraq?

A trillion?

I guess I missed where Congress authorized that extra $600 billion for Iraq (Costs)

Projections do not equal expenditures.

SMG; 10/14/07, 9:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Gahrie said...If President Bush gave Luckyoldson a million dollars in gold, LOS would...wear...earth tones.; 10/14/07, 9:54 PM
blogging cockroach said...: johnny nucleo, you're back...
how is trixie electra...
please don't tell me she got killed in some freaky space accident.

i use ellipses incorrectly too
i use them for question marks
exclamation points and every other
thing on the keyboard i can't do
by hopping and flopping.

i have an excuse
i'm a cockroach
althouse thinks i'm a bitter sockpuppet,
but i still only can type one key at a time.

btw, if you want bad writing,
i'm just reading 'the last of the mohecans' for the first time since i was a larva.
there's some really awful stuff i might try
to work into some of my comments
along with the haiku...; 10/14/07, 9:54 PM
mtrobertsattorney said...: The last time hdhouse surfaced, he was entrusted with the task of solving the riddle of what Hillary stands for. Now he's back with a riddle of his own: "don't drink cheap beer".

Are we to believe that this what Hillary really stands for, or could it be that the quest has driven hd mad?; 10/14/07, 9:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Hillary............President; 10/14/07, 9:58 PM
blogging cockroach said...: other than the bad writing
the biggest problem with 'the last of the mohecans'is that i have a discarded library copy.
that paste they used back in 1954 is so yummy that i keep getting distracted.; 10/14/07, 9:59 PM
Anonymous said...: blogging cockroach..................Raid; 10/14/07, 10:01 PM
Anonymous said...: AJ Lynch..................MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!; 10/14/07, 10:03 PM
blogging cockroach said...: the thought of that library paste
caused me to miss a couple of
carriage returns in that last comment.

i try to be neat in my own way.; 10/14/07, 10:04 PM
blogging cockroach said...: 'don't drink cheap beer'
ooh. i love beer spills.
i'm not fussy.; 10/14/07, 10:06 PM
blogging cockroach said...: speaking of alcoholic beverage spills,
last week at st. paul's someone spilled some of the wine.
now i like when that happens at st. eulalia's.
rich, sweet, yummy red wine
enough to make me a believer.
but at st. paul's it was white wine...dry white wine.
'this is my body
this is my plasma...'
and they had sushi instead of doughnuts.
those anglicans.; 10/14/07, 10:22 PM
Anonymous said...: "Mommy!" is an awesome addition to your comeback repertoire, Luckyoldson. Not as awesome as "Did you run out of meds?" or "What, out of meds?" or "You need meds, you are crazy!" or "What happened to your meds, crazy!" But still, totally awesome.

Here is another awesome comeback.

"Luckyoldson is awesome with comebacks. Not!"

This one I invented myself, just like you invented "Mommy" and "Meds." Basically "Not" works like this: You say something that you don't agree with, but your opponent does, and then you say "Not!" and it totally confuses your opponent and makes him look stupid. It is awesome!; 10/14/07, 10:32 PM
Anonymous said...: http://bloggingcockroach.blogspot.com/............MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!; 10/14/07, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Johnny Nucleo said..."Not" ...totally awesome; 10/14/07, 10:37 PM
blogging cockroach said...: johnny, please don't get sidetracked.
i want to hear more stories of you
and your spaceship, the 'babemagnet.'
the more great tales you tell
the less room there'll be for
anything else.
i can fill the gaps with my little
bon mots, titus will join us
and pretty soon althouse will be an
entertainment powerhouse.
it could happen.; 10/14/07, 10:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeti I have never needed Viagra.; 10/14/07, 10:40 PM
Anonymous said...: blogging cockroach said......i can fill the gaps with my little......projection.; 10/14/07, 10:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Dalai Lama Rad Dude.; 10/14/07, 10:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Dude, your posts are sputtering and spasmodic. You took two shots at me within three minutes of each other and neither one was any good. Take a little time on your posts. Compose, edit. They will be more effective.

Have you been taking your meds?; 10/14/07, 10:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Lindsey Graham throws Lt. Gen. Sanchez under the Bus: “…his criticism is a bit astounding to me given his role in the war itself.”; 10/14/07, 10:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Johnny Nucleo said...Dude...totally awesome...Dude...totally.; 10/14/07, 11:02 PM
blogging cockroach said...: 'bon mots'
it means 'bad meth' in french.

anyway, johnny, pleeeeze no editorial advice.
i just want trixie electra...
trixie electra...
trixie electra...

see, i'm not really gay; 10/14/07, 11:02 PM
Revenant said...: I've lost count of the number of times Gore has pulled this "politics is beneath me" routine.

It would be impressive if he had any chance of ever being President, but he doesn't and he knows it. He had an easy shot in 2000 and he blew it.; 10/14/07, 11:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Johnny Nucleo: Space Patrol Blog........no comments...........What a shocker.; 10/14/07, 11:08 PM
blogging cockroach said...: i can tell you that with his size
i don't want to be beneath al gore.
but i really don't want to talk politics.
i want to talk about alcoholic beverage stains
i have known and loved.
i once sampled a little '61 latour stain on a tablecloth.
can anyone top that...; 10/14/07, 11:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Revenant said...I've lost count of the number of times I have needed Oral Sex.; 10/14/07, 11:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Blogging Cockroach,

Are you saying I am gay? Because I am not. If you say that again, I will kill you. I mean it. I will kill you. Don't ever, ever, ever say that again. I will kill you with may bare naked hands all over your body.

Luckyoldson,

You are comically stupid. Try to leave a comment on my blog.; 10/14/07, 11:21 PM
blogging cockroach said...: johnny,
you have that completely wrong...
i'm saying -i'm- not gay...
i'm saying i covet trixie electra.
now you may want to squash me for that.
i'm not sure which commandment covers not coveting trixie.
but i will tell you she sure gets
my antennae quivering.
no, i'm definitely not gay either
but it helps to pretend around here.; 10/14/07, 11:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Johnny Nucleo said...Try to leave a comment on my blog.

LOL; 10/14/07, 11:29 PM
Trooper York said...: [repeated line]
Agamemnon "The Mole" Busmalis: This is the best Miss Sally ever.
(Oz on HBO, 1999); 10/14/07, 11:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Blogging Cockroach,

I apologize for freaking out about you calling me gay (Which I am not!) when you did not in fact call me gay. I apologize for threatening to kill you with my bare naked hands all over your body.

Trooper York,

Are you saying I'm gay?; 10/14/07, 11:54 PM
john said...: I Maxine - thank you, I will consider roman numerals.

II Johnny N. - why has noone left a comment on you blog, ever?

III Has there ever been a post on Gore that didnt immediately go straight into repetitive mud slinging? Has there ever been a courteous or even an intellegent exchange of thoughts? If you can you point me to one I'll be happy to apologize.

IV Blog.cock. - I am starting to see your way. After all, short of just ignoring LOS in his stage 7 entrances, maybe just acting Maxine-like crazy is the only sane way to participate here.

V Never mind about III, I enjoy the insanity.; 10/14/07, 11:54 PM
Trooper York said...: Jack: For your information, most people who meet me do not know that I am gay.
Will: Jack, blind and deaf people know you're gay. Dead people know you're gay.
Jack: Grace, when you first met me, did you know I was gay?
Grace: My dog knew.
(Will and Grace 1998); 10/15/07, 12:07 AM
Anonymous said...: John,

There are no comments on my blog because the comments function is disabled. It's not that kind of blog.

Trooper York,

You are good. But I am not gay. So stop. Or I will kill you.; 10/15/07, 1:10 AM
blogging cockroach said...: john, maxine has been an inspiration to us all.; 10/15/07, 6:02 AM
mythusmage said...: You'd think by now third rate chatterbots like Luckyoldson would be gone from The Net.; 10/15/07, 10:20 AM
Trooper York said...: So you wanna dance, Frank, or do you wanna sit here and have a heart attack?
(Scarface 1983); 10/15/07, 10:55 AM
Parker Smith said...: Luckyoldson -

Bear in mind that noted economists have predicted seven of the last three recessions...; 10/15/07, 11:50 AM