Robert Samuelson, several eons ago a competent reporter, ends a column on a housing market still constrained by tight credit in the following manner: Public policy faces a contradiction. There’s a powerful impulse to blame banks for the financial crisis and to “make them pay.” Just recently, the Obama administration sued Bank of America, charging…
The National Review explains: “We’re not racist! We hate white winos too!
Jonathan Chait has an excellent piece at New York magazine, making the same point I did last week; Republicans aren’t waging a “war” against black voters. It’s merely a sustained, unrelenting skirmish—kind of a skirmish to the death. Jon catches the National Review with its pants, morals, and intellect at half mast, “explaining” why the…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “Au contraire, mademoiselle. ‘Tubby the Tuba’ is not a cliché. It is a gift of the gods.” “Let me just warn you ahead of time. I intend to get all Katy Perry on your ass with this one.” “I love castanets. I just don’t work with castanets.” “Why not ‘Feelings’? Because it’s…
Ross Douthat’s false equivalencies
Ross Douthat isn’t always wrong. It’s just that I only write about him when he is. Or, more precisely, when he’s being deceitful. In a recent post, Ross tries to argue that, just because Republicans are trying to reduce the number of black voters (which, Ross admits uncomfortably, they are), that isn’t so bad, because…
Jack Germond, fat and deceitful. But funny!
Back in the day, Jack Germond “explained” his presence on TV thusly: sure, his heart was in print, but he needed the money to put his daughters through college. A guy’s supposed to help his daughters, isn’t he? Well, sure. But as Jack later “explained” in his autobiography, Fat Man in a Middle Seat, he…
Mickey Kaus, still alive
Still alive, and still paranoid! Yes, the Mickster, whom I’d just about forgotten about, is pushing his unique brand of jive at, where else, the Daily Caller. Mick’s latest and greatest is to do something I would have thought impossible—attack Texas senator and right-wing attack dog Ted Cruz from the right! How did he do…
Benny Green: Monk’s Dream
“Unfortunate”? Well, if by “unfortunate” you mean “utterly preposterous, verging on conscious deceit,” yeah, I’d say “unfortunate”!
New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan has been on vacation, but now’s she back, with plenty to say about this and that, including the recent NYT profile of Washington Post editor Katy Weymouth. Maggie quotes Times reader (and former Newsweek editor) Ed Kosner as wondering “how The Times managed to publish a bouquet to…
Pseudo New Yorker
Legal humor here. “What am I doing out here? Listen, Bob, don’t get all Henry David Thoreau on me, or I’ll get all Ralph Waldo Emerson on you.” “What am I doing out here? Making ten grand a pop, just for showing up, telling a few dumb jokes and roaring my ass off. Learn the…
The Grahams: Lest we forget
As the Graham family “stewardship” of the Washington Post fades into the sunset, it’s worth recalling a few things—more than a few, actually, before Jeff Bezos, aka the $25 billion man, takes over . The Post first made its modern reputation as an ass-kicking defender of the public’s right to know by publishing the “Pentagon…