drsmooth wrote:services like public post embody the nexus of political/economic activity, and test the persuasive powers of those who like their ideological abstractions transferred to the world of living breathing people straight up & unsullied by inconvenient habits, customs, etc.

Werthless wrote:

drsmooth wrote:services like public post embody the nexus of political/economic activity, and test the persuasive powers of those who like their ideological abstractions transferred to the world of living breathing people straight up & unsullied by inconvenient habits, customs, etc.

Werthless wrote:

drsmooth wrote:services like public post embody the nexus of political/economic activity, and test the persuasive powers of those who like their ideological abstractions transferred to the world of living breathing people straight up & unsullied by inconvenient habits, customs, etc.

drsmooth wrote:

Werthless wrote:

drsmooth wrote:services like public post embody the nexus of political/economic activity, and test the persuasive powers of those who like their ideological abstractions transferred to the world of living breathing people straight up & unsullied by inconvenient habits, customs, etc.

it's probably the purest coincidence that you responded to this post so quickly.

And then pretended to be incapable of reading.

When did it become cute to feign intellectual incapacity? I've noticed that this trope has gotten inordinate use in recent years.

Werthless wrote:The entire second clause is nearly incomprehensible....

PS. Maybe law school isn't for me.

* Abortion
* Death Penalty
* Education Reform
* First Amendment
* Gas Prices
* Gun Control
* Homeland Security
* Immigration Reform
* Social Security Program Participation
* Taxes
* Tobacco

jerseyhoya wrote:

* Abortion
* Death Penalty
* Education Reform
* First Amendment
* Gas Prices
* Gun Control
* Homeland Security
* Immigration Reform
* Social Security Program Participation
* Taxes
* Tobacco

The issues that the member of Congress I'm doing research on today has on the drop down menu on his Congressional homepage. So, abortion and death penalty, check. Tobacco, check. Health care? Eh, is that a big deal these days?

jerseyhoya wrote:

* Abortion
* Death Penalty
* Education Reform
* First Amendment
* Gas Prices
* Gun Control
* Homeland Security
* Immigration Reform
* Social Security Program Participation
* Taxes
* Tobacco

The issues that the member of Congress I'm doing research on today has on the drop down menu on his Congressional homepage. So, abortion and death penalty, check. Tobacco, check. Health care? Eh, is that a big deal these days?

Werthless wrote:

dajafi wrote:He was the worst president in our history, but I have to admit Bush had some pretty okay lines:

The president didn’t think much of Joe Biden either. “Dana, did you tell them my line?” the president once asked with a smile on his face.

“No, Mr. President,” Dana replied hesitantly. “I didn’t.”

He paused for a minute. I could see him thinking maybe he shouldn’t say it, but he couldn’t resist. “If [BS] was currency,” he said straight-faced, “Joe Biden would be a billionaire.” Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
...
I was about to be engulfed by a tidal wave of Palin euphoria when someone—someone I didn’t expect—planted my feet back on the ground. After Palin’s selection was announced, the same people who demanded I acknowledge the brilliance of McCain’s choice expected the president to join them in their high-fiving tizzy. It was clear, though, that the president, ever the skilled politician, had concerns about the choice of Palin, which he called “interesting.” That was the equivalent of calling a fireworks display “satisfactory.”

“I’m trying to remember if I’ve met her before. I’m sure I must have.” His eyes twinkled, then he asked, “What is she, the governor of Guam?”

Everyone in the room seemed to look at him in horror, their mouths agape. When Ed told him that conservatives were greeting the choice enthusiastically, he replied, “Look, I’m a team player, I’m on board.” He thought about it for a minute. “She’s interesting,” he said again. “You know, just wait a few days until the bloom is off the rose.” Then he made a very smart assessment.

“This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for,” he said. “She hasn’t spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let’s wait and see how she looks five days out.” It was a rare dose of reality in a White House that liked to believe every decision was great, every Republican was a genius, and McCain was the hope of the world because, well, because he chose to be a member of our party.

This entire article was filled with gems. It's no cruel hoax.

As Treasury started to use the bailout funds to invest directly in financial institutions, Ed wanted to come up with a name for the plan that made it sound better to the public, particularly conservatives who thought this was nothing more than warmed-over socialism. Yes, a catchphrase would solve everything. As we were working on this, Ed called a few of the writers on speakerphone with the idea he’d come up with: the Imperative Investment Intervention. “Oh, that sounds good,” one of us remarked, as the rest of us tried not to laugh. We decided that if a catchphrase must be deployed, surely we could come up with something better than a tongue twister with the acronym III. We started out with dark humor: the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Capitalism” Plan; the MARX Plan. I suggested that we also apologize to the former Soviet Union and retroactively concede the Cold War. Then one of the writers got serious and came up with the Temporary Emergency Market Protection Program, or TEMP. Not bad as gimmicks go, and Ed liked it. But he decided that instead of dropping it into a speech, we’d leak it to the press that this was the phrase we were using internally. Ed’s logic was that anything Bush said would be ignored, but if the press thought they’d got it from a leak, they’d find it more interesting and newsworthy. TEMP never made it as a catchphrase regardless.

TenuredVulture wrote:I think that McGurn comes off the worse for writing and publishing this. He comes across mean and petty.

Comments are somewhat revealing. Or not. Who knows what really happened.

Harpua wrote:I'm not trying to turn this into a whole big issue, but yeah, the writing in the public post paragraph made it hard to understand. Now seems like a fine time to link to this: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/george ... e-writing/

Werthless wrote:

Werthless wrote:

dajafi wrote:He was the worst president in our history, but I have to admit Bush had some pretty okay lines:

The president didn’t think much of Joe Biden either. “Dana, did you tell them my line?” the president once asked with a smile on his face.

“No, Mr. President,” Dana replied hesitantly. “I didn’t.”

He paused for a minute. I could see him thinking maybe he shouldn’t say it, but he couldn’t resist. “If [BS] was currency,” he said straight-faced, “Joe Biden would be a billionaire.” Everyone in the room burst out laughing.
...
I was about to be engulfed by a tidal wave of Palin euphoria when someone—someone I didn’t expect—planted my feet back on the ground. After Palin’s selection was announced, the same people who demanded I acknowledge the brilliance of McCain’s choice expected the president to join them in their high-fiving tizzy. It was clear, though, that the president, ever the skilled politician, had concerns about the choice of Palin, which he called “interesting.” That was the equivalent of calling a fireworks display “satisfactory.”

“I’m trying to remember if I’ve met her before. I’m sure I must have.” His eyes twinkled, then he asked, “What is she, the governor of Guam?”

Everyone in the room seemed to look at him in horror, their mouths agape. When Ed told him that conservatives were greeting the choice enthusiastically, he replied, “Look, I’m a team player, I’m on board.” He thought about it for a minute. “She’s interesting,” he said again. “You know, just wait a few days until the bloom is off the rose.” Then he made a very smart assessment.

“This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for,” he said. “She hasn’t spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let’s wait and see how she looks five days out.” It was a rare dose of reality in a White House that liked to believe every decision was great, every Republican was a genius, and McCain was the hope of the world because, well, because he chose to be a member of our party.

This entire article was filled with gems. It's no cruel hoax.

As Treasury started to use the bailout funds to invest directly in financial institutions, Ed wanted to come up with a name for the plan that made it sound better to the public, particularly conservatives who thought this was nothing more than warmed-over socialism. Yes, a catchphrase would solve everything. As we were working on this, Ed called a few of the writers on speakerphone with the idea he’d come up with: the Imperative Investment Intervention. “Oh, that sounds good,” one of us remarked, as the rest of us tried not to laugh. We decided that if a catchphrase must be deployed, surely we could come up with something better than a tongue twister with the acronym III. We started out with dark humor: the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Capitalism” Plan; the MARX Plan. I suggested that we also apologize to the former Soviet Union and retroactively concede the Cold War. Then one of the writers got serious and came up with the Temporary Emergency Market Protection Program, or TEMP. Not bad as gimmicks go, and Ed liked it. But he decided that instead of dropping it into a speech, we’d leak it to the press that this was the phrase we were using internally. Ed’s logic was that anything Bush said would be ignored, but if the press thought they’d got it from a leak, they’d find it more interesting and newsworthy. TEMP never made it as a catchphrase regardless.

Followup/rebuttal

TenuredVulture wrote:I really thought that Doc Smooth's comment wasn't all that obscure. I didn't much care for the etc. at the end though.

I might revise it slightly:

services like public post embody the nexus between economic and political activity, and test the persuasive powers of those who like their ideological abstractions transferred to the world of living breathing people unmodified and unsullied by inconvenient habits, customs, and mores.

But I'm not sure I've really improved it. Does nexus take the preposition between?