Althouse: The phony Catch-22 of conservative commentary.

February 20, 2012

The phony Catch-22 of conservative commentary.

"Unless you are wise and scrupulous, your efforts to debunk the popular mythos will only result in your ostracism and the diminution of your influence."

20 comments:

rhhardin said...: Ostracism is the belief that if you stick your head in the sand everything will be okay.

It comes from the East.; 2/20/12, 9:45 AM
edutcher said...: Anyone who ever read the Ionesco play "Rhinoceros" knows where this ends up.

PS You're linking to McCain?

Tell it not in Christendom.; 2/20/12, 9:57 AM
tim maguire said...: You read that whole thing?!? Maybe it's fascinating, maybe it's brilliant, but if so, he should publish it and so I can read it on the beach.

There isn't enough coffee in my kitchen or hours in my morning to get thought that screed.; 2/20/12, 10:50 AM
Synova said...: I check out The Other McCain every few days.

I understand he's been ostracized, but I've never been a good follower.; 2/20/12, 10:50 AM
Synova said...: Oh, I did read the whole thing, BTW. It was oddly compelling.; 2/20/12, 10:52 AM
LarryK said...: Tim Maquire, I read the whole thing and it was fascinating, if you like reading an interesting and unique individual chewing over his experience and processing his reactions in real time....but it wasn't exactly trying to make a point.; 2/20/12, 10:57 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: I found more interesting the article McCain linked to on dress codes: CPAC: The Jersey Shore-ification Of Our Young People — UPDATED

Apparently, there was some pushback at CPAC against all the beautiful young women in short skirts showing a lot of cleavage.

It has been suggested that this doesn't happen as much on the Democratic side because much of it is controlled by women who couldn't get dates because of how they dressed or looked. NEA and feminist types, that sort of thing.

And, yes, Fox News does seem to put a lot more beautiful women on the air than do their competitors, and a lot of them do wear somewhat short skirts. They also seem to have developed the "thigh" chair, or something like that, with a shapely women sitting on the camera side of panel discussions, showing a nice set of crossed female legs to the audience. (And, yes, Ann Coulter has sat there many times).; 2/20/12, 10:58 AM
Synova said...: I think that people have this notion that girls know far far more than they know about how they look and how they present themselves.

Also, there's the problem of limited wardrobes. Figure you've got blue jeans and casual stuff, and then maybe if you dress up for church, you've got some dresses or slacks, but probably you just wear your jeans to church because it doesn't make sense to buy clothes you don't really need. If you work, you have work clothes, but that's probably not "professional" dress.

So what do you wear to dress up? You pack anything dressy you've got, and that's probably date clothes.

(When I went to church off-base at Clark (the Assemblies of God had a missionary church there, serving the base) the local girls would come to church dressed like hookers. The problem was, they either were or used to be hookers and any dress-up dress they had involved sequins. It's important to look at the intent, I think. It may have been wildly inappropriate, but it was all they had.); 2/20/12, 11:15 AM
Andy said...: I like how he is aghast that people have noted that he is a white supremacist.; 2/20/12, 11:58 AM
John Stodder said...: This is not readable prose. It is feverish, unedited and completely self-referential. If you'd told me it was written by a future presidential assassin, or a recently dumped 14-year-old girl, I would not be surprised.

This must be a lawyer thing. Got an unreadable document? I can read it!; 2/20/12, 12:06 PM
Joe said...: Stacy McCain is a bore. His blog has long been unreadable. So have the blogs of most the people bitching about this. I often wonder if the only people reading these blogs are each other and Glenn Reynolds.; 2/20/12, 12:20 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I agree with Synova; it was oddly compelling, and I read the whole thing.

However, I still don't know what he's referencing, and the whole thing felt a bit like reading a person's private diary. I came away with the impression that the writer was the sort who'd always be talking about office politics if you worked with him.; 2/20/12, 12:21 PM
Joe said...: When I went to church off-base at Clark... the local girls would come to church dressed like hookers.

"When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."; 2/20/12, 12:22 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: What was he talking about? I clicked on one link to find out, but it took me to a post just as obtuse as his own.; 2/20/12, 12:24 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Synova is also right about women's clothes.; 2/20/12, 12:26 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Unless you are wise and scrupulous, your efforts to debunk the popular mythos will only result in your ostracism and the diminution of your influence.

Couldn't you just take out the middle part?; 2/20/12, 1:06 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Being foolish and unscrupulous is usually going to result in ostracism and dimunition of influence regardless.; 2/20/12, 1:20 PM
Chip S. said...: By linking to this unreadable crap, you've made an attention whore's day.; 2/20/12, 2:13 PM
Synova said...: "I like how he is aghast that people have noted that he is a white supremacist."

Because Charles Johnson said so. Yes, I *know*.

When I actually see any evidence of even the remotest amount of racism from his own keyboard, I'll reconsider. Until then, gossiping is a sin listed alongside murder.; 2/20/12, 4:19 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: There's no crying in baseball.; 2/20/12, 10:15 PM