Althouse: "Ack! It’s the Holy Fellowship of the Orange Lanyard!"

June 11, 2006

"Ack! It’s the Holy Fellowship of the Orange Lanyard!"

Tim Blair giggles at the innocent, self-loving kids at YearlyKos.

15 comments:

Simon said...: There's something deeply amusing in knowing that Yearly Kos has attracted one twelfth of the attendees of the "2006 Las Vegas Hair & Nail Convention." What was it Quxxo said the other day? They were just some folks who wanted to make a difference or some such nonsense? Apparently, that is one twelfth as intersting as watching paint(ed nails) dry.; 6/11/06, 5:35 PM
XWL said...: Let me beat some later commenters to the punch.

You are a mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, mean, old closet Republican.

And as a supposed lawyer, you should know better.

Plus, Gen. Clark looks dreamy in a sweater.

Also, the Kos Kids are the only possible salvation for Democracy in the World, they are the only folks with the properly attuned and regulation thickness tinfoil hats (either gathered from post-consumer waste, or mined from fairer trade mining facilities. Did I mention that they make sure all their tinfoil is 'carbon neutral'?) to thwart the Rovebot mind-rays.

(there that should take care of about 40-60% of any subsequent comments); 6/11/06, 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh goody! I assume you are making fun of Tim Blair this time, because we know you don't make fun of Kos or the Kossacks.

Since I am now in on your pop cult critique joke, wink wink, may I join in?

Tim Blair is self-absorbed Aussie who is afraid the boogy boogy blogosphere is going to replace him! And Kossacks smell bad!

Woohoo! Oh I am so good at this! And it is fun too! Let me try again!

Tim Blair is a poopy head that should link to me, Ann Althouse, more often! And Kos is wild-eyed!!!!

Really Ann, you just spent a whole post telling us that you have been misunderstood most of your life and you weren't making fun of the Kossacks and encouraging your "functionaries" to do likewise. And that we were all dumbies for thinking otherwise.

So how do you explain this post?

Are you really surprised that people that have never met in public, but communicated often on the net, after making an investment of time and money, would be eager at meeting their online friends in person? And maybe gush a bit?

As though you, SlipperyCheese, and Plutonium-Q36 wouldn't fall all over each other! (Assuming the SloanBot could be kicked aside.)

"Oh no, I wasn't making fun of people, I was critiquing the Times!"; 6/11/06, 6:37 PM
Simon said...: ^ Most. predictable. post. ever.; 6/11/06, 6:46 PM
altoids1306 said...: Chill out. Ann wrote one sentence. It's like a Rorschach test, you can read whatever you want into it.; 6/11/06, 8:07 PM
JohnF said...: Tim Blair is a very funny guy.

Of course, I'm sure this convention would look the same as one of bloggers anywhere, united by almost any criterion.

I'm talking appearance here, not content of blogs!; 6/11/06, 8:19 PM
Goatwhacker said...: Of course, I'm sure this convention would look the same as one of bloggers anywhere, united by almost any criterion.

I had the same thought - the people in the NYT photo looked like average schlubs.

Tim Blair seems condescending with respect to their ideology, while the NYT seemed condescending in more of a "we're the mainstream media from New York and you're not" way. But both seem condescending.; 6/11/06, 9:38 PM
KCFleming said...: Re: "Tim Blair seems condescending with respect to their ideology..."

I disagree. He was mocking them for their unwarranted sense self-importance. When someone declares things like:
What is amazing about us in the flesh...
Our intelligence, both collective and individual, has always been on display ...
it seems like every fourth person you run into is here covering the phenomenon of ... us.
We’re worth it, too. We are something else.

When someone declares such things, not recognizing their numbers are smaller than the interest in coffee, trucks, roofing, poker chips, hair, and nails, well, outright mockery is called for.

Tim always disagrees with their their ideology, but here he sneers at their hubris.; 6/12/06, 7:28 AM
Simon Kenton said...: The Quckup gets it, and you guys don't. It was, like, kind of ... holy ... seeing misfits fit, turn their netvents outward, and blow gas over the media, and like, become a generation, and you guys just sneer. This was, like, sort of, their Woodstock (except for no hot chicks dancing topless and nobody being stomped to death by the Hells Angels), and you guys are just being mean and jealous about it. "We are smart dust, we are golden, and we've got to get ourselves back to the cubicle."; 6/12/06, 8:40 AM
Al Maviva said...: This was, like, sort of, their Woodstock

Couldn't they have just had a party in Markos' backyard, and played some Rage Against the Machine, and some Phish?; 6/12/06, 8:46 AM
Adam said...: Err, isn't attendance at those other conventions something which was employment-or-trade-related for many (and mandatory), while YearlyKos was voluntary and self-financed? Surely, that matters a little.; 6/12/06, 9:26 AM
Simon said...: "Err, isn't attendance at those other conventions something which was employment-or-trade-related for many (and mandatory)"

Even assuming it makes a difference (which is not proven or accepted), what's your evidence that these other conferences are distinguished by mandatory attendance?; 6/12/06, 10:52 AM
XWL said...: I was kidding about the tinfoil above, but are they?

(pictures, and commentary, here)

Also, regarding Mary's comments about the 'youth haters' hating on the youthful vigor of the KosKids, they are KosKids by demeanor, not by age, looking at photos of the event, they are as pasty, and as aged as most any other political convention (except maybe an AARP convention).

But really, the only comment that ever needs be said about anything Kos related is "Screw 'Em".

(Finally, saw Markos Moulitsas Zuniga on Meet the Press, if those running the TV Punditry seminars at YearlyKos got paid, they should give refunds); 6/12/06, 2:24 PM
Al Maviva said...: There really must be a fear -- from MSM, aging boomers, hard righties -- of this horrid "earnestness". Else, why so many slams?

No, it's not fear of their ernestness, Mary. It's laughter at their un-self-conscious, delusions-of-grandeur hubris. Hard belly laugher.; 6/12/06, 2:51 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Kos is young..."

That made me look up his birthday. He's one of those people who has September 11th as a birthday. He'll be 35. Is that young? It's young enough to continue to assert that you're young. Even 40 is. It's only when you're 50 that it's conclusively ridiculous to say you're young. Unless you actually die. Then people will say you died young.; 6/12/06, 5:32 PM