Pun Salad

… boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past:

• As Jonah Goldberg notes, the President's big "Gee, I Guess I Should Say Something About the Deficit" speech was "a breathtaking tour de force of dishonesty and tendentiousness."

  For example, from the transcript here, discussing his "approach":

  It calls for tax reform to cut about $1 trillion in spending from the tax code.

  Translating the Obamese into plain English:

  It calls for raising taxes by about $1 trillion.

• Don Boudreaux wonders about the folks who both (a) advocate taxes on "unhealthy" foods, because that will significantly decrease their consumption; (b) deny that raising taxes on income-earning activities will discourage income-earning activities.

• Perhaps such people are believers in the famous F. Scott Fitzgeraldism:

  The true test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time.

  Two problems there: (1) despite thousands of web pages claiming otherwise, I think Libby Koponen is pretty convincing that Fitzgerald never actually said that; and (2) even if he did, why would you want to get your epistemological advice from a drunk?

• IMAO observes:

  If you rearrange the letters in Mitt Romney, you get 'mormon robot'.

  This is, unfortunately, less than literally true. Here are some actual candidate anagrams (which I didn't figure out myself, thank goodness):
  • Maraca Kabob

  • Memory Tint

  • Wimpy Talent

  • Dismal Ethnic

  • Damn Turd Pol

  • Anal Parish

  • Meek Hick Beau

  • Machine Man Belch

  Any of these would be a darn fine name for a blog.

  (Or, as Dave Barry might say: "I saw Machine Man Belch open for Moby Grape back in '67.")

• And I embed Memory Tint's Exploratory Committee announcement video here, because—hey!—that's a blurry Mooradian Field ("in Cowell Stadium") (not to mention the "Reggie F. Atkins Track & Field Facility") at the University Near Here in the background:

  He didn't stop by to say hello, however.