January 1, 2008

Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one.

I've decided I'm going to be good. Really! You should see the post I was just in the middle of writing. I was going to post it and then shame myself for being so bad as to post it — on New Year's Day no less. Then, I decided I am going to be good. Why step into the gutter on Day 1 just because you see a juicy glob of raw blog material there. Who is that going to help? How will that improve the world?

IN THE COMMENTS: Looks like everyone wants me to be bad. Best advice, from EnigmatiCore:
Follow Huckabee's lead. Update this post to include what you were going to post, to prove to us that it existed and to demonstrate what you won't be posting in order to be good.

27 comments:

Bob said...

So you'll post it tomorrow, then?

*winks*

Roger J. said...

damn, Professor--we dont want you to be good--we want you to be "bad"

:) Happy new year to all commenters, even Freder :)

Anonymous said...

Huckabee wants you to post it where reporters can read it.

Happy New Year, everyone.

nina said...

Good is relative. Happy New Year, Ann & Co.!

Ron said...

It will improve the world by removing the crap that's in it! Hack away, Mein Althouse!

john said...

Happy New Year to all.

Ann, can we post our resolutions here?

hdhouse said...

Since Ann is going to behave, I am too. I've made my resolutions some of which include being even more reasonable than I am now. Hard to believe, but amazingly there is room for improvement even in me.

I promise also not to call people stupid and think they are dumb just because they haven't seen the light.

I won't lash out. I will try and make each post clearer and even more compelling.

In short, I will behave like the perfect liberal.

Roger J. said...

HD--Happy new year and we wish you the best on your resolution--but we will still love you no matter how it finally turns out! OK--maybe love is a little too overstated--:)

Anonymous said...

Thanks Hdhouse. Over the last few years I've become a liberal. Yet I still need living examples on how to be a good liberal. It really is too bad Barry Goldwater has already left us.

dbp said...

I am glad you are trying to be 'good' professor, but now all I can think about is what the "juicy" post was about. Perhaps you could do a sanitized version?

Peter Hoh said...

It's good to be bad.

EnigmatiCore said...

"I was going to post it and then shame myself for being so bad as to post it — on New Year's Day no less."

Follow Huckabee's lead. Update this post to include what you were going to post, to prove to us that it existed and to demonstrate what you won't be posting in order to be good.

Randy said...

I agree with Nina. Happy New Year, Ann!.

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year!

All the best to Professor Althouse and everybody here.

Whether Althouse decides to be good or bad, I hope she continues to be as interesting in the coming year as she has been in past ones.

John Stodder said...

It came to me in a flash.

Althouse Derangement Symptom is, and always has been, pre-emptive. People who are used to the media supporting their prejudices about acceptable political commentary, acceptable feminism, acceptable positions for self-described moderates, acceptable positions for attorneys are afraid of you. Not this blog, but what this blog might lead to. You're attractive. Well-spoken. A little edgy. A three-fer at least: Pop culture, politics and the law. The nightmare of the left is that someone is going to put you on TV. It's what they would do, in a heartbeat, if you were on their side. You'd have your own show on MSNBC. That's their nightmare -- they're going to wake up on day and read that MSNBC is bumping Keith Olbermann to make room for you. Aaaahh!!! So that's why there's such an emphasis put on not just disagreeing with you, but discrediting you, depicting you as a wine-guzzling, breast-obsessed Bush-lover, putting words in your mouth to that effect if necessary.

So, Ann, don't be nicer. Be the "strong horse." Frighten them more. Get an agent. Or, if you already have one, publicize that fact. Start showing up on those cable TV shows, and be brilliant. Even more frightening: Become a regular on Charlie Rose. More guest columns. Leverage everything you're doing. Even if it doesn't work, the mere threat of your impending hugeness will drive your foes completely out of their minds!

Ann Althouse said...

John, it's not that easy to do those things! And I probably don't fit the msm mold. I think I have an alternative presentation that most people don't get or don't like.

Kev said...

Happy new year! And I'm looking forward to reading no matter whether Good Althouse or Bad Althouse shows up, because it's always interesting.

John Stodder said...

I realize it's not easy. It might even be literally impossible (although I think you're selling yourself short if you think so). But it's the threat that you might become a MSM pundit, that's what you need to keep alive.

Your "alternative presentation" strikes me as completely sane and well within the bounds of intelligent, imaginative discourse. It's telling that the left doesn't get as apoplectic about Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, Red State or National Review. Format-wise, you're not that different, if anything more straightforward. You've got American Idol and that fashion show, Hewitt's got Cleveland sports, Josh Goldberg's got sci-fi. But your foes know that no one they know will ever take such obvious right-wing mouthpieces seriously. You're a different story. You blow the whistle on bad liberalism from a semi-liberal point of view, not a doctrinaire conservative one. You need to be kept in your place, is the idea. So, the more it looks like you're going to break out, the more disturbing you are.

Anonymous said...

They get very apoplectic about Michelle Malkin. She really pushes their buttons.

rcocean said...

Yep, they hate Malkin. She's a woman, asian, and a conservative - IOW, a heretic.

The NYT tried to insult her by calling her the "Filipino Firecracker". Think they'd ever call Ellen Goodman the "Hebrew Hottie"? I think not.

Fen said...

John, it's not that easy to do those things!

You should contact Malkin. She's fair-minded and would have alot of wisdom to share re getting it all started.

Or are you holding out for a SCOTUS appointment? ;)

Ann Althouse said...

A search of the NYT archive for Malkin and firecracker returns 0 results.

rcocean said...



It seems the comment was deleted and was made on a NYT blog, whatever that is.

hdhouse said...

try googling

malkin, liar

or perhaps

malkin, stooge, skank?

if all else fails, try

caulter, fat, rancid.

hdhouse said...

oops...i meant coulter...

now i have to wash.

Anonymous said...

It prolly already needed washing.

Trooper York said...

Hd it's New Years Day not April fools.