Here’s a fun fact to start out your day: PJ O’Rourke is “America’s leading political satirist.” It must be true because it says so on the website of the Cato Institute , where P.J O'Rourke is the H.L. Mencken Research fellow. The heading for PJ O'Rourke's page at the Cato Institute says “Individual liberty, free markets, and peace,” which may or may not be an example of this satire for which he is so famous, it’s tough to tell. Same with this piece he wrote for the Atlantic over the weekend, wherein he expresses disdain for “big ideas” because fascism was a big idea, and so were nuclear weapons, ergo all big ideas are bad. (Except individual liberty, free markets, and peace, presumably.) Is this a joke? Not the thing where he hates big ideas, the thing where he gets to write for the Atlantic and is a research fellow at the Cato Institute? Also, this appears to have been in print. Which means that someone PAID to print this and then paid to mail it to subscribers, which is yet another example of why American media (like American political satire, apparently) is going to hell.
Nobody expects the NRA! Our chief weapon is guns. Guns and fear. Fear and guns. Our two chief weapons are fear and guns... and ruthless efficiency... Our *three* weapons are fear, guns, and ruthless efficiency... and an almost fanatical devotion to the 2nd Amendment.
(My point, of course, was that as exercises in <a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Direct_democracy" target="_blank">direct democracy</a>, ballot initiatives directly contradict their claims about what we are not.)
Centuries, what are centuries? I&#039;ll tell you what they are, centuries are just another big idea of the left that has dragged this country down into the gutter for too long.
Instead of <em>by</em> fucking big ideas, which is what PJ&#039;s attempting, but simply waving your dick from a considerable distance isn&#039;t fucking, Mr. O&#039;Rourke.
&quot;But liberty isn&rsquo;t a big idea. &quot;
Really? Tell that to every pharaoh, baron, grand vizier, priest, king, prince, preacher, prime minister, emperor, cesar, czar, and queen who actively worked to keep &quot;liberty&quot; in the hands of a select few.
<blockquote>It gives us pause to hear our spouse say &ldquo;I have an idea!&rdquo;</blockquote>
Maybe you, because you&#039;re a misogynist. My wife has good ideas, so those are words I like to hear.
<blockquote>If our boss says it, we panic unless we&rsquo;re sufficiently quick-witted to spill coffee on the iPad the boss has just used to Google some portentous concept.</blockquote>
This is understandable - your boss was, it seems, stupid enough to hire you, but it&#039;s rather irrelevant to the concept of <em>big</em> ideas, because he&#039;s clearly a man of tiny brain. And yes, I&#039;m assuming a male boss, because, well, you probably wouldn&#039;t work for a woman, and a woman probably wouldn&#039;t hire you, you dinosaur.
Nobody expects the NRA! Our chief weapon is guns. Guns and fear. Fear and guns. Our two chief weapons are fear and guns... and ruthless efficiency... Our *three* weapons are fear, guns, and ruthless efficiency... and an almost fanatical devotion to the 2nd Amendment.
(My point, of course, was that as exercises in <a href="http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Direct_democracy" target="_blank">direct democracy</a>, ballot initiatives directly contradict their claims about what we are not.)
Yeah, it&#039;s cute how dumb they are, isn&#039;t it?
Especially when they&#039;re the same ones running around trying to push through ballot initiatives.
We can, of course, also add small-r &quot;republicanism&quot; to the list.
So, the GOP is the party of small ideas. No news there.
Centuries, what are centuries? I&#039;ll tell you what they are, centuries are just another big idea of the left that has dragged this country down into the gutter for too long.
exactly.
(and shhhhhh: i&#039;ve kinda been in love with your avatar for a couple of decades)
this is OT but GlaxoSmithKline healthcare fraud? barclays rate manipulation?
wass up britain? you rootin for our man barry?
He was funnier when he was on drugs or was what it when I was on drugs?
Would that Mencken were around to express his opinion of O&#039;Rourke...
Please, oh please!
H.L. Mencken was anti-Semitic so at least they share that.
Instead of <em>by</em> fucking big ideas, which is what PJ&#039;s attempting, but simply waving your dick from a considerable distance isn&#039;t fucking, Mr. O&#039;Rourke.
Where does Victoria Jackson fit in this pantheon of rightwing repartee?
&quot;But liberty isn&rsquo;t a big idea. &quot;
Really? Tell that to every pharaoh, baron, grand vizier, priest, king, prince, preacher, prime minister, emperor, cesar, czar, and queen who actively worked to keep &quot;liberty&quot; in the hands of a select few.
I don&#039;t thing she fits into anything unless is special made.
<blockquote>It gives us pause to hear our spouse say &ldquo;I have an idea!&rdquo;</blockquote>
Maybe you, because you&#039;re a misogynist. My wife has good ideas, so those are words I like to hear.
<blockquote>If our boss says it, we panic unless we&rsquo;re sufficiently quick-witted to spill coffee on the iPad the boss has just used to Google some portentous concept.</blockquote>
This is understandable - your boss was, it seems, stupid enough to hire you, but it&#039;s rather irrelevant to the concept of <em>big</em> ideas, because he&#039;s clearly a man of tiny brain. And yes, I&#039;m assuming a male boss, because, well, you probably wouldn&#039;t work for a woman, and a woman probably wouldn&#039;t hire you, you dinosaur.
he embarrasses me every time he opens his mouth on wait wait don&#039;t tell me.
especially when he&#039;s with the delicious paula poundstone.