Aug
10
2007

URLs du Jour

2007-08-10

  • Harry Stein reviews Al Gore's book The Assault on Reason at City Journal. It's not pretty:

    But Al Gore is like one of those guys at a party with whom, once you get a few drinks in him, you never know what's coming. He's liable to strip to his underwear or start spewing expletives or waddle over with an outstretched hand and ingratiating smile and suddenly go for your ear like Mike Tyson. For just beneath that aging prep-boy facade, there's an unmistakable anger and bitterness; where Bill Clinton has always seemed too comfortable in his skin, Gore has often seemed inclined to burst out of his, like some demented political version of the Incredible Hulk.

    This is reflected in the book:

    Yes, it's logically inconsistent and self-serving and unbelievably sanctimonious, but there's a lot of that going around. What ultimately makes the book so disturbing is that something pretending to be a brief for reason and comity is so unbelievably small and mean-spirited. It is less an argument than an extended tantrum. Reading it is often like being locked in a room with a madman.

  • But we don't just look at unsatisfactory behavior from has-been politicians here at Pun Salad; we're pretty unhappy with the current crop too. Today's indicator of dreadfulness is the Club for Growth's—heh—"2007 RePORK Card" which compiles the votes of individual representatives on 50 anti-pork spending amendments. All but one of the amendments failed. (Funding of $129,000 for the Mitchell County Development Foundation for the home of the "perfect Christmas tree" project was successfully barred.) Other Fun Facts:

    • Sixteen congressmen scored a perfect 100%, voting for all 50 anti-pork amendments. They are all Republicans.

    • The average Republican score was 43%. The average Democratic score was 2%.

    • The Democratic Freshmen scored an abysmal average score of 2%. Their Republican counterparts scored an average score of 78%.

    You'll want to check out how your representative did. New Hampshire's scored … poorly, with Carol Shea-Porter getting a 2% and Paul Hodes getting a big fat 0%.

    The GOP ads for next year's Congressional races continue to just about write themselves.

  • Catching the media in a stupid lie? So easy a caveman 13-year-old Finnish kid can do it.

  • Mark Liberman, inspired by a recent news story, looks for snowclones mutated from "I am woman, hear me roar."

    I was kind of surprised that I only found one hit for "I am blogger, hear me bore."


Last Modified 2012-10-17 3:46 PM EDT