Pats and Slaps--call out the good guys and identify the jerks

Got this notion from a sports radio station I listen to sometimes. They devote the last portion of the show handing out kudos and brickbats to various superstars and people affiliated with the sporting world.

My pat today goes to, surprisingly, Terry Pratchett. I loathe the man's work but I gotta say that since he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease two years ago, he has displayed dignity and courage.

Recently he has taken a stand in favor of assisted suicide in the U.K. and I applaud him for it. Having a high profile person take up that worthy cause lends it legitimacy and weight and I say "good on you, Terry".

My pat goes to Malcolm Gladwell, who is returning to his hometown in March to do two fundraisers for a local counselling centre. His mother was one of the founders of this charitable organization. Whatever you think of his writing, you've got to love a guy who does this for his mother.

Here's a big slap to Amazon AND Macmillan: whatever happens, you just know these two behemoths care not one whit for the average writer or reader. Their motivation is pure greed.

Here's a pat for Ursula Le Guin, for standing up to the great and powerful Goog, and drawing a line in the sand for authors' rights.

80+ years old and still has fire in her belly--good on her.

Another pat for the Senior set: PD James. If you missed the smackdown she gave the director general of the BBC: Enjoy--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJB5ROrGD_s. Also enjoying Talking About Detective Fiction this month.

I thought about this scene regarding the Director General of the BBC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Bb2CjS6TE&feature=related

That stuttering, sputtering degenerate lowlife prick.

This situation, where the fuckers in suits get the money and the artist is screwed, is endemic, even in Canada. Arts administrators making many times what the people they PURPORT to serve earn. Public systems top heavy with expensive bureaucracy while the folks on the ground are told the well has run dry.

God bless ya, P.D. James...

Greedy executive pricks are the reason many artists are dirt poor, not lack of skill.

#3 You can add Apple into that mix.

Greedy pricks have gotten us to the brink of worldwide economic disaster and so few are standing up to them. You go, PD James!

Dare I say it, a pat for Amazon to assist self-published authors often overlooked.

A big slap to any country that pisses away valuable resources and tax dollars in order to claim the "honour" of awarding the best-drugged athletes a chunk of metal to wear around their necks until their premature death (from over-use of said drugs).

Canada, ya oughta be ashamed for hosting the Olympics Games not once, not twice but THREE times. A record of unmitigated stupidity...

Well Cliff,

If you really want to get steamed, think what it's costing to truck snow almost 500 km - from more interior mountains - to those being used for the Olympics. Once at the site, this "interior" snow will be mounded over straw and hay in an attempt to make it appear that there's more snow than there actually is.

Daffodils are about 3 inches above ground, elms and alders are budding with tiny leaves already discernible. Hydrangeas and Japonicas are producing buds as well. Yesterday's high was 13 C (that's about 56 F for you Americans) . We're not known for our Winters out here, but this is ridiculous.

I pity the poor T.V. anchors who'll be obliged to wear heavy jackets, scarfs and knit caps to maintain the illusion of winter for their audiences.

All of that and they just closed the operating wing of a local hospital. Money well spent, indeed.

A slap to Martin Amis, a barely second-tier novelist with an inflated sense of his literary worth who spews nonsense just about every time he opens his mouth.

Tsk, tsk, Marty is plugging a new novel and so we can expect more of this until his tour and promo appearances peter out...

12, 13,
Yes but a pat for that killer photo of Lindsey Vonn on the cover of SI!

I know, any reference to Sports Illustrated on a Snobs Thread is pretty inexcusable, but I just couldn't help myself...

Big pat to the BBC for making their production of "Hamlet" available on-line. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart star:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=95749BBC04E9D170&search_query=Hamlet...

P.S. I heard the SI cover was considered "risque" but for the life of me when I finally saw it I couldn't imagine what the kerfuffle was. Unless that's body paint...sheesh, with those Lycra outfits, it's hard to tell sometimes...

#12 That's next week. You're supposed to bitch about the Super Bowl this week.

From the games I've seen over the years, "Super" Bowl is the ultimate misnomer in sports.

No, wait, that would be the "World" Series (played by only U.S. based teams).

please reference: am interested.

sorry i meant the Leguin issue

@19, yeah, "Super" doesn't really mean much of anything, but "World Series" is comical.

Although weren't the Olympics, at some no-doubt-long-forgotten-point, entirely amateur games? That's fairly comical as well at this point. I saw Apolo Ohno on TV advertising, I don't remember, Pepsi or something, the other day, and it about made me cry. I think maybe I'm done watching the Olympics. Too bad, I like gymnastics. I guess I'll just have to pay more attention to when any of the other competitions happen...

ETA I guess it was Coke. I don't blame him. I blame the world. And society. And stuff. I will crawl now back into my cave.

Here's the bit on Le Guin, Chris:

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/01/23/leguin-petition-google.html

A BIG slap to James Cameron, greedhead creator of FX laden eye candy:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100205/canada/entertainment_us_canada_film_avatar...

Fans of the man (God knows why), please note this telling quote:

"Canadian director James Cameron said Wednesday he could be 'persuaded' to film a sequel to his record-breaking science-fiction epic 'Avatar'. ... 'We might be persuaded. We'll have to see how much money the movie makes first,' Cameron told CNN when asked about a possible sequel.

Now THERE'S an artist for you...

All that money and all that talent and he gives us THIS? For all the dough spent on CGI, you'd think he'd have spent more time making a less manipulative story. "Avatar" doesn't have characters, it has caricatures. Even the author of Jew Suss is going, "Dude, take it down a notch."

I talked to many people who went to see the movie. None of them went for the "story." It was like talking about Playboy -- "Yeah, but the articles are good." Lots of self-justification amidst the eye candy.

On that note, sci fi social satirist John Carpenter needs a come-back flick on par with "They Live" or "Big Trouble in Little China."

Puppies and pretentiousness.

"Hipster Puppies"

http://hipsterpuppies.tumblr.com/

I think a slap is in order. Not the least for wasting bandwidth.

Writers slapping other writers

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/you-suck-and-so-does-your-writing/article14...

I saw that piece and laughed heartily. That's why I miss Mordecai Richler so much: he always knew where to stick the knife in, especially when it came to the poobahs who oversee what constitutes Canadian culture...

>26 kswolff: - I notice a certain Russian author's name is misspelled. What failed pretentiousness... Seriously, though, for what possible purpose would such a thing be inflicted upon the internet? My cat looks like Hitler - should I dress him up as a Nazi, give him a caption, and upload it for all to see? I'm sure it would be appreciated.

#24 There are two sequels already planned, so I've no idea why Cameron is playing coy.

29: Agreed, nothing worse than failed pretentiousness. Luckily there's this blog:

http://failblog.org/

By definition, you can't be called pretentious unless you fail. Pretense that succeeds is not pretense; it's the real deal.

See the irony here?

It's like rain on your wedding day.

"Pretense that succeeds is not pretense"

If we're going to quibble, I feel compelled to point out that this statement is either false or it's nonsensical (depending on which sense of "pretense" you go with). But, yeah. Gotcha.

...and by "gotcha," I mean "I understand what you mean," not "I win."

Or start doing portraits in bacon.

A pat to Mother Nature for refusing to cooperate with the Olympic Games in Vancouver. From the sound of it, the skiers better put wheels on their equipment to get down the mountain.

I hope the entire ridiculous spectacle is fucked up and ruined. Fuck the Olympics and all involved with that ridiculous, over-blown farce...

Indexed slaps snobs

(And I like the Olympics!)

I like the Olympics too, but I like them better when they're not in my city. I grew up in Montreal, which was burdened by decades of debt after '76. It's heartbreaking to see the main stadium unused and falling apart. On the bright side, the Velodrome is now a very nice nature museum.

In the shadow of the Olympic Games:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8505061.stm

The city of London is experiencing something similar re: the 2012 games--people living in squalor and hopelessness while, literally a stone's through away, billions are being spent on Olympic infrastructure. Shame!

I thought that was how Ayn Rand's version of capitalism worked?

Rand would've made the perfect head of the International Olympic Committee--venal, corrupt and egotistical.

Yes, it's true, no one cares about poor people. That's got nothing to do with the Olympics, actually.

I lived in LA during the '84 games and it was kinda cool when the torch relay went right past my apartment building. I didn't manage to score any tickets to events, however, that was for celebrities and rich people. The did fix the airport, which was nice.

How about the Olympic Games in 2020?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_X2YpBDWHkYo/S0fzoxlmE6I/AAAAAAAABQY/Y_s1UJwG9Fc/s1600-...

Well, if the Olympics will get us back to the moon, good on 'em.

This retro guy loved that, Karl!

#42: "No one cares about poor people"...yet we have billions to spend on spectacle; bread and circuses. It's about priorities and morality and so, yup, the stupid fucking Olympics and poor people are very MUCH related...

#45 We have enough money to fund poor people and the Olympics, if we choose to do so. Poor people aren't really that expensive, we just think they are. Deciding never to have fun anymore until we solve every remaining problem is not the way to go, imo.

Should we not fund the arts, then until everyone eats? I didn't think so.

A slap to the ugly, fat face of Robert Mugabe and his corrupt regime:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8509129.stm

"The luxuries God has given us..." Revolting.

Is nobody going to suggest a slap with a wet cod across the kisser of Bernard-Henri Lévy, Botulist?

Okay then, I'll do the honors.

48:
Well that's embarrassing. Reminds me a little bit of the Sokal affair.

48: That is priceless.

47: Looks like Mugabe is a fan of Atlas Shrugged too.

A slap to Faber & Faber for jumping on the let's-try-to-squeeze-money-from-sucker-writers bandwagon.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/02/17/faberfaber-writing-course.html

And another slap to any established writer who lends their name to these enterprises. Revolting...

nice retort Cliff.

My problem is I can never just let these things go. Bite my tongue and walk away without a smarmy quip or a kick in the balls. Not my most attractive feature. But thanks for encouraging my worst traits, Chris, ya devil...

Remember the quip: "Well-behaved women don't make history." Wish the same could be said for men, since the current crop of jellyfish and court eunuchs who populate the Left aren't helping. When the entire circus is going down in flames, a polite person is not required. Sometimes what the world really needs is an Antonin Artaud to scream and a Marquis de Sade to attack the foibles, idiocies, and hypocrisies of the status quo.

Aim low, kick hard, and keep kicking until the beast is dead. Best words of advice I can give to the yuppie larvae delusional enough with the idea that they might actually change the world.

Sorry to go all US centric, but pats to all the senators now signed on to the reconciliation process and revival of the public option in health care.

Will the legislation be so watered down by compromise that it's largely useless?

Like the Civil Rights Bill of 1954 (see Caro's Master of the Senate), one has to start somewhere. Maybe we'll get real health care reform by the year 3000. That is if the invading robot aliens will let us. They probably would, since they need healthy workers for their sugar mines.

"Next year in Jerusalem!"

**The above was written under a heavy dosage of cynicism, pessimism, and the historical long-view of things.**

57:
It's certainly become that way. Before the public option revival, it had gotten to the point that I didn't care whether it ever passed or not. If a public option is included, though, it'll be worth something.

Also, did anybody follow that little scrap between Sarah Palin and Family Guy? Palin got really self-righteous about how the show was making fun of her son, who has Down Syndrome. I saw the episode and I don't see how you could argue it was doing that at all. Like, at all. So, from my perspective it looks like Palin is actually using her son and his disability as a way to get cheap political points, in the way that preachy entertainment-news pundits do. Which is a lot more offensive to me than a show including a character with Down Syndrome, and having that character say "my mother is the former governor of Alaska." I mean, it's not a great joke, but it's certainly not offensive. It's not as if the character in question was portrayed as some kind of clown. Quite the opposite, actually. So anyway, slap to Palin. Not to beat a dead horse or anything...

Sarah Palin : politics :: Stephanie Meyer : Nobel Prize in Literature

I'm sick of people giving Palin, that deluded, idiotic cow, more air time, so she can spew her misinformed, bigoted, water-brained brand of cornpone corporate theocracy to the equally misinformed, hysterical rubes out there. The masses are asses worshiping a Golden Ass. She's like George Wallace minus the grasp of the English language and common human decency.

It's nice that Family Guy finally started aiming at the knees of these moral degenerates. Who knew the Christian Right was so populated by thin-skinned vole-faced sub-morons? She's been cashing in on her hateful rhetoric since she quit her job as Governor of Alaska. If she can't take from others what she does every single day, well ... who gives a damn at this point? Like Bill Murray said in Rushmore

"You guys have it real easy. I never had it like this where I grew up. But I send my kids here because the fact is you go to one of the best schools in the country: Rushmore. Now, for some of you it doesn't matter. You were born rich and you’re going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it. Thank you."

It's high time we start taking cricket bats to their shins. Enough shenanigans from these low-rent crypto-fascists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q47bpOCTcaY

I tend to watch Sarah Palin much as I used to watch the daleks, from behind my sofa with a cushion over my eyes - and, for added safety, albeit possibly delusional, from the other side of the Atlantic - but I did read the riposte issued by the Family Guy actress. Quietly magnificent, I thought, and magnificently contemptuous.

A pat to Christopher Walken--67 years old and still not afraid to venture a little too close to the edge:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/theater/21walken.html?pagewanted=all

(Courtesy, Gord)

With regards to Mr. Walken:

"I gotta fevah, and the only thing that will cure it is more cowbell!"

A list of publishers who rejected Beckett's Murphy:

http://www.waggish.org/2010/01/07/some-consolation-for-writers

I'm aglow with Schadenfreude.

#63: I heard that quote waaaaay too much in marching band.

On #64:

Right, assuming those rejecting publishers didn't have the excuse that they had read waiting for Godot first and so Murphy was a tremendous disappointment. If my chronology is right, Murphy was written long before "Godot" and was one of only 2 novels that he wrote in his native English. (The other was Watt which I also found to be unreadable.) In the case of either Murhy or Watt} I couldn't believe: This is actually the same guy who wrote Waiting for Godot!?

Well, Murphy -- I did manage to finish it, but thought it was tremendously over-rated.

I imagine they rejected it because Murphy lacked teenage vampires or was some vacuous celeb tell-all / twee memoir.

"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why." -- James Joyce

Ha!

This calls for an unnecessary video montage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrTlARNX64s

To kswolff (#67):

You may be right! When I read Murphy I forgot all about teen age vampires -- or, more likely, had not yet heard of them.

Although it may have been around the time when I was constantly hearing what a great work of art Polanski's Fearless vampire Fighters was.

A pat to "Something Awful" for giving a slap to those inane Pride and Prejudice and Zombies books:

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/pride-prejudice-zombies.php?page=1

Good for Zack Parsons--I hate the rape of time-honored classics (yes, even books penned by Jane Austen) that have slipped into the public domain. Falling into the hand of hacks and literary pornographers. Ptooie! Ptooie! (I spit on them)

One distortion of a classic is fine - could be humorous - but it's a series? And it keeps growing?
You'd think they would at least be able to come up with some better titles.

There's also The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies by another publisher. Blah.

72: Even if it were one book, I thought the humor was better suited to an Onion article. I have not read any of these, but it seems a rather long running gag to keep this silliness up that long.

I saw a very funny Facebook page spoof that was based on P&P. It summarized the whole novel in Facebook updates and took about 5 minutes to read. it would have been painfully unfunny if they had tried to extend it out any further.
ETA: Linky
http://www.much-ado.net/austenbook/

While I have no problem with good ole fashioned parody and satire of the Classics(TM), these "_______ and _________ and Zombies" just seem so unambiguously lazy. Fitting for the Gen-Y hydrocephalic set already poisoned with the bad science of Intelligent Design and utter failure of Abstinence Education "Something Awful's" parody of those parodies was spot-on and hilarious. "The Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dr. Martin Luther King" and the Steampunk Tom Sawyer. It cuts to the very absurdity inherent in the premise.

I dare them to adapt a Henry James novel. "Portrait of a Lady and Zombies" or "The Turn of the Screw and Ninjas" But that would involve challenging reads for the cretins involved.

re. #70-75

*sigh*

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/02/android-karenina.html

Sickening! The authors contributing to this travesty (and others like it) should have their thumbs cut off...

Haha, good review, tho.

I've had friends recommend these books and I just refuse to read them. however, I might reread Anna Karenina, that was a hell of a book.

All this reminds me of going to a store like "Everything's a Dollar" and seeing the non-union Chinese equivalent of whatever product is there. Like, say, robot toys and such. I see those books in the same way. To paraphrase the Simpsons, "Get me the non-union Mexican equivalent of Steven Spielberg, Senor Spielbergo."

This wouldn't be half as terrible as the fact that these books cater to people who will never read the actual book, but the cheeseball sci fi knock-off. Then again, this is America, we should be thankful their reading to begin with. (Slap of the hand to the halfwit liberal idiots who use that excuse every time one deigns to criticize their milquetoast reading tastes.)

Casper would be mighty offended at being called a halfwit liberal idiot. I knew Casper Milquetoast and he was not a liberal.

80: I was calling liberals milquetoasts, not Milquetoast a liberal. Then again, how could he be, having to manhandle all those frills and flounces and act like a dainty aristocratic fop.

Liberals are milquetoasts; conservatives are Little Lord Fauntleroys.

A BIG SLAP to the goons and gits who make up the Tea Party. Here's a Henry Champ piece on those charming people:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/24/f-rfa-champ.html

Not to be outdone, my slap to hipsters and Henry Kissinger:

http://coffeeforclosers.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/a-hipsters-guide-to-henry-kissi...

Terrific juxtaposition of text and images, Karl. You did your homework.

And remember, kids: Henry Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize...

84: Other Nobel Peace Prize winners:

Yasir Arafat, Al Gore, Teddy Roosevelt, and Barack Obama. See, there is a conspiracy! Only connect. And adjust your tin-foil hat. It has to look right before the Tea Party/John Birch/KKK rally.

A slap to idiotic theocracies, wherever they may be:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100331/world/lebanon_saudi_witchcraft_sentence

Ker-smack!

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2010/04/dont_title_your.php#more

A pat for the good old days:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/04/13/tech-apollo-13.html

Remembering Apollo 13.

I'm sure many have already read these, but here's a combination of slaps and calls out. 50 Author vs. Author putdowns.

http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2010m4d16-The-50-best-author-vs-aut...

86:
Ugggggh don't you just want to hit the judge in the face and yell "ARE YOU NINE YEARS OLD?? THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS WITCHCRAFT!!"

Whoo, some of them were doozies. Writers are nasty devils, aren't they?

The first thing I thought when I read the quotes was 'Sour Grapes'.

92: Except for the Twain takedown of Fenimore Cooper, which is a lot longer than that quote and is pretty hilarious, I would agree with you...

Yeah, except witchcraft is an accepted part of a lot of older cultures unfortunately. Hopefully massive pressure from the rest of the world will at least convince these clowns to stop killing people because they have an overactive imagination.

94: How about we stop buying their oil? All the liberal finger-wagging and hand-wringing won't make these fanatical sociopaths budge an inch. Taking away their billions of petrodollars will make that decadent, corrupt, inefficient, inept monarchy think twice. The challenge is replacing the decadent theocracy with something else, not Bin Laden's 7th century theocracy. If Saudi Arabia was more like Turkey, this would be a much better planet.

Saudi "culture" is not actually "old." I lived in three Arab countries, one of which was Saudi Arabia. The other two did not prosecute "witchcraft."

The best thing that could happen to global Islam would be for people to suddenly stop needing oil and for Saudi Arabia to go back to being a desert backwater.

The story is very sad.

Demi Moore gets a pat, and very likely a lot more, for her portrayal of Mrs Jones. For some reason I have The Joneses filed with Thais, no second act yet, perhaps there is a sequel.

A slap with a wet sturgeon to Orlando Figes. How do you say "total asshole" in Russian?

(Robert Service checks in.)

#95
True that Karl. Scary as shit, but true. Just don't even whisper "Armenia" or Turkey will stop buying our Blackhawks and other neat toys.

99: Oh, that's right. Compared to Saudi Arabia, Turkey is quite modern and secular. But "compared to ..." is a slippery slope in the realm of international relations. Just ask uber-realist Henry Kissinger

Quarterly Conversation on Under the Dome:

http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-king-of-complacency-under-the-dome-by-steph...

A big pat for the sophomoric, mildly courageous, hugely entertaining Jon Stewart:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-22-2010/south-park-death-threats

A terrific observation from Karl's link--a review of Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME:

"...a book this poorly written and edited can’t be glossed over by its author’s reassurance that, hey, he never pretended to be a good writer in the first place."

King's "aw shucks, I'm just an entertainer not a great author" attitude has always rankled--his false modesty seems to seek to excuse the hurried, over-written quality of the vast majority of the books he's written. It's an unspoken plea for reviewers to give him a bit of break, not dwell on the clumsiness of his prose, the very obvious shortcomings in skill, depth and editorial ability which are manifest in almost all of his titles...

103: Another thing that irked me is how King markets his novels like "a burger from a small-town diner" but is in fact a Big Mac. The false modesty parallels the false marketing. It isn't a burger from a greasy spoon, but another corporate product meant to move units like anything else. It's like calling Las Vegas "a town of schools and churches."

I don't mind commercial mind candy on occasion, but it seems like King can't even live up to that standard. How sad is that? "King of Complacency" -- touche! Then again, having a reliable fandom and more money than the Catholic Church usually turns artists into lazy hacks. Just look at George Lucas.

Edward Champion slaps Yann Martel clear across a couple time zones:

http://www.edrants.com/why-yann-martels-beatrice-and-virgil-is-the-worst-book-of...

Nasty, nasty review...

Childish review, in fact. Suggests a desire to find fault rather than an attempt to evaluate the work honestly.

I liked Beatrice and Virgil.

107:

Yep. Another aspiring critic confusing insult with insight. Well he got a little publicity out of the deal, so I imagine he's pleased with himself.

There are many self-styled critics in the blogosphere--no professional credentials whatsoever, just a web site and a license to speak ill. Many of these people are failed writers...or folks who just KNOW they'd be fantastic authors if they had the time and energy to, y'know, turn their hand to wordsmithing. So in the meantime they talk trash about scribes who actually DID have the guts and perseverance to sit down and commit 100,000 words to paper, spending years of their lives toiling on a manuscript. Those frothing critiques and petty libels are their way of compensating for their own inadequacies.

But, soft, I spoke more eloquently about matters relating to this topic here:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/the-importance-of-a-critical-communi...

110: Would the slap be less traumatic if it was a Justifiable Target(TM) like Dan Brown or Ayn Rand? I've never read anything by Yann Martel -- although damning reviews always get me curious -- but Martel does seem to be the darling of the Literary Set.

But I'm also for reviewers not reviewing works they are prejudiced to hate. I get pissed when a major news organ doesn't "get" Pynchon. "There's too many characters!" "There's no plot!"

It does seem that Edward Champion has the journalistic street cred to work as a book reviewer. The problem is most newspapers and magazines simply don't review books anymore. Another symptom of the systematic no-brow-ification of American taste. I doubt anyone beyond the New Yorker reading cognoscenti even know who James Wood? Then again, the whole Tea Party phenomenon shouldn't make me that surprised. If it's one thing we Americans proudly shout from the rooftops it's our anti-intellectualism. (That and our toxic spiritual self-righteousness leavened with a fat dollop of moral hypocrisy.) Basically, American tastes are the equivalent of a Creed song at a mall food court.

There is a thin gruel of a critical community in the United States, only because the critical toolbox of aesthetic judgment has been bred out of us, turning us into Reverse Thoroughbreds: fat, stupid, braying idiots gullible for whatever trend the media tells us we should swallow yet belligerent enough to dismiss everything that doesn't fit into our Peasant Logic as "People don't listen to critics anyway." I'm surprised Middle America hasn't fallen into the Abyss. We're tap-dancing rather close to it these days.

A big exploding pat for Chris Morris .... a fond shot of Meadowhall until now thought impossible. Four Lions; not for everybody but for anybody who's been hoisted by their petards (check spelling). One sheep down gets the credit.

103:
Whether King's modesty is genuine is up for debate, but his "aw shucks, I'm just an entertainer not a great author" attitude sums up his stuff pretty well. He admits he's not a great author. He calls himself an entertainer. That's right, isn't it? He sells tons of books. People are entertained, evidently.

113: Can't debate that. Prolific as King is, at least he hasn't turned himself into a Brand like James Patterson and VC Andrews Some may take issue with his writing quality, but at least he writes his own stuff. Faint praise, but justified.

Dyson's "Air Blade" hand drier would've got a pat but for a foul water well at its base.

Mainstream publisher CEOs seem kinda dumb:

http://www.edrants.com/bea-2010-the-ceo-panel-the-value-of-a-book/

Pop over and read my reply, Karl, I think you'll be amused...

I'm not an E-Reader kinda guy, but I know people who are. Capitalism is all about consistently delivering content across all media. It's also about pushing technology forward and getting cheap commodities to the most people as possible. Granted, I have many, many issues with capitalism (in the macroeconomic sense), but the heart of the matter is: choice, consistency, and cheapness. The fact that Galassi doesn't understand high school economic principles like supply and demand is scary. Brings to mind now-classic films that died in the theater because of botched distribution campaigns or nonsensical marketing strategies.

Publishing CEOs are now like bankers and stock-brokers: just in it for the fast buck and personal bonuses. Screw the consumer! "We decide, you obey!" I imagine Galassi and Turow never saw "They Live!" Letting a writer know about POD technology (and it's so ridiculously cheap!) is like giving them the magical sunglasses.

"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I'm all out of bubblegum."

116> His description of the FSG head-honcho is confusing, considering they publish a lot of titles straight to paperback now.

118: I have read several of Turow's lawyer thrillers. His schtick is boomer nostalgia, so hardly surprising he has no idea what anyone under 60 is doing these days.

A nice pat to John Barth:

http://hilobrow.com/2010/05/27/john-barth/

Love that guy.

The buyer who placed the order for "The Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom" by Marquis de Sade, currently for sale in our Waterstones store... I nominate for a hearty pat borderline slap.

123: I thought you had to pay extra for that?

A pat for any book that can still shock after nearly 200 years.

You still do, the book in paperback albeit with extras cost me £16.99 .... de Beauvoir says in a pithy statement "Sade is not Sacher-Masoch." I can buy 120 days with a straight face, not sure about Venus in Furs. The other day I bought Pasolini's "Salo..120 days (etc)" on dvd, under similar conditions in that the title next to it was Swedish Erotica, a title guaranteed a smile.

On a similar note, Nobel Laureate Jose Saramango slaps the Bible:

http://www.alternet.org/story/143685/

Calling it a "catalog of cruelties."

***

Re: Sade: Sade did not invent sadism in the same way that Marx did not invent communism.

Having read Juliette by Sade and The Old Testament, I'd say Sade's characters are less cruel, since they are merely sadistic individuals satiating their personal lusts as opposed to collective genocidal behavior done "for God's pleasure" or "the common good." Also, less people die in Julette than in Genesis Sade's characters kill and torture a lot of people; God nearly destroys His own creation in a fit of pique.

Apples and oranges?

A well overdue slap to the Classic Literature + Monster sub-genre:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-tolerability-index-june-9-2010,41941/

#127 I'm just as glad to see someone mentioning how annoying Glee is. Give me Treme, at least the music is good.

I'm in the middle of The Wire, Season 1. So I won't add any superfluous praise for writer / Time Lord David Simon

A wet, oily slap to British Petroleum...and a pat for THE ONION for knowing where to kick those slimy bastards:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/massive-flow-of-bullshit-continues-to-gush-from...

I can't find the original article I read on this, but here's one I found through Google: http://www.news.com.au/technology/bp-admits-buying-oil-spill-search-terms/story-...

Basically, BP has bought search terms from Google (et al) so if you search on "oil spill", at the top of the page is a sponsored link from them saying "Learn more about how BP is helping."

And the problem is, many users don't understand that the sponsored links differ from the other links.

Sneaky bastards. And spending money on PR, not on fixing the leak. Another wet, oily slap to BP.

(Although if you search on "oil catastrophe" or "oil disaster" you don't get the BP link. So not completely foolproof.)

I just wrote a short story about watching the live feed of the oil spill while talking to a friend on the phone about watching the live feed of the oil spill.

#128 Best tv show ever.

Yesterday, in the June 2010 thread we ventured into a brief discussion of W.G. Sebald and his translator.

Here's a giant pat for another giant in German to English translation. John E Woods.

Love Woods' modesty--the authors possess genius, not him. I read his translation of the Suskind book, it was marvelous.

A giant sized slap to Ayn Rand's cult of corporate self-discipline:

http://www.newsherald.com/news/panama-84604-ashore-pcb.html

"The 10 Stupidest Moments in Glenn Becks' New Novel":

http://www.alternet.org/story/147187/the_10_stupidest_moments_in_glenn_beck%27s_...

Just 10?

But the prick is laughing all the way to the bank. See:

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/glenn_beck_we_sell_books_hand_o...

138: Don't worry, they pay him in US currency, which is pretty worthless these days.

Nah, they pay him in gold, which, ultimately, except for a few electronic applications and some jewelry is pretty worthless itself these days.

Nathan Rabin's genius slapdown of racist jackass Ray Stevens:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/week-36-ray-stevens-jester-of-the-tea-party-set,4...

I wonder if the worthless gold geneg mentions would be the same mineral that's currently selling for over $1200 an ounce.

That would be it. Can you eat it? Can you drink it? Will it make you feel better when feel sick? What practical application does it serve. Is your plan to exchange it for vegetables when the time comes? When all you and your neighbors have is your gold, let me know how it works out for you as a medium of exchange.

Yes, you can turn gold into money and vice versa, but it makes a pretty poor item of barter. Gold is pretty and it's fun to fantasize about gold and wealth, but when the chips are down and currency is not working, straight up barter will be the method of exchange and gold comes in pretty far down the list of things people will want. Somewhere south of beans and rice.

Gold is a fantasy. Make me a gun out of gold and maybe I'll reconsider. I'm sure it might even go beyond $1200 an oz. But it won't be useful when you need it.

Are you in possession of any gold. When you buy it on the market do you take possession of your gold, or do you get a certificate saying you own "X" ozs. of gold? Tell me, when the chips are down and currency is no longer working as a medium of exchange, just how much gold can you eat.

When the economy has collapsed to the point gold will be useful as a medium of exchange, how do you propose to get your hands on the actual gold you "own"? Are you going to your local bank, certificate in hand, to pick it up? Or to Fort Knox? When the economy has collapsed, chaos reigns, and the computers are down, how are you going to obtain your gold?

Gold is a fantasy, and a piss-poor investment to boot. It goes up when people are afraid and comes down when times are good. The only thing is, when times get bad enough for gold to come into play, you can wave all the certificates you can find in the faces of those who hold the actual gold. Do you think for a minute they will honor your certificates?

How many jobs and what kind of jobs are they that investments in gold create. Most of the people who mine gold are slaves. Investment in gold just makes the money changers wealthier and fatter.

Gold, as a practical matter, with the exception of a few electronic applications is a fantasy.

But hey, who am I to stand in the way of someone's fantasy.

If the world falls apart, I want to surround myself with people who still know how to till the land, build a house from scratch, hunt, fish, etc.

The armed mobs may run wild for awhile but, sooner or later, everyone needs to eat and have a roof over their heads. And, Gene, you're right, I'll leave the rest of the people to their sacks of gold, figuring out how they can digest the stuff. At that moment, ALL gold will be "fool's gold"...

Another thing for the gold theme:

http://jalopnik.com/5563226/this-bugatti-veyron-model-costs-more-than-the-real-c...

Point taken geneg. Actually, I put all my disposable income into food and books, and I'm sure both bring me more pleasure than gold or diamonds could ever do. I think my wife's wedding ring may have a bit of gold in it, but that's about all of the stuff we own.

Having said that, economies in which items of only symbolic worth (pieces of paper with dead presidents on them, shiny rocks, amazon gift certificates, whatever) have persisted for quite a while, and I suppose, at the end of the day, the willingness all of us have to act as if there is something behind those symbols makes trading for our day-day-day necessities a lot easier than it would otherwise be. I really don't want to have to write a couple of book reviews and then bike up to a farm somewhere and trade them for turnips, and then have to cart the turnips over to the butcher shop where I'll trade half of them for a piece of meat. I prefer, for example, to sell my reviews to newspapers, take the money over to the market, and trade that symbolic paper for my turnips and my meat.

As usual, Jorge Luis Borges said it best:

"there is nothing less material than money, since any coin (a twenty centavo piece, for instance) is, in truth, a panoply of all possible futures. Money is abstract, I said over and over, money is future time. It can be an evening just outside the city, or a Brahms melody, or maps, or chess, or coffee, or the words of Epictetus, which teach the contempt of gold; it is a Proteus more changeable than the Proteus of the Isle of Pharos."

http://southerncrossreview.org/66/borges-zahir.htm

And so begins my epic take-down of Atlas Shrugged:

http://coffeeforclosers.wordpress.com/2010/06/21/atlas-summer-introduction/

If anyone else here has slogged through Rand's manipulative trash and survived to tell the tale, let me know. Leave us comments. It's time to see if Rand's Objectivist fable / benzedrine-fueled capitalist rant stands the test of time.

#130
>A wet, oily slap to British Petroleum...and a pat for THE ONION for knowing where to kick those slimy bastards:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/massive-flow-of-bullshit-continues-to-gush-from....

Thank you, sir. Thank you. (I live very near the Gulf coast.)

Atlas Shrugged gets a slap in this hilarious review:

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2010/02/atlas-shrugged-ayn-rand.html

I'd like to restore this thread, save it from dormancy, by giving a huge swat upside the head to Lance Armstrong. With a smelly, old catcher's mitt.

Cheater!

Knew it all along but, dang, it feels good to say it.

Severo Sarduy, one of the good guys:

http://driftlessareareview.com/2012/10/16/translation-tuesdays-firefly-by-severo...

#s 12 and 22

"Entirely amateur" meant that only the affluent could take part; in fact, one athlete's eligibility to compete was questioned on the grounds that his dad was a bricklayer. Horrors! Amateurism as touted by that prime fool and poor sport, Avery Bloody Brundage, is gone and good riddance.

And sure, some athetes cheat, and always have, from the earliest days of sport. That doesn't mean that all athletes, or even most athletes, cheat.

Cheers to Canada for having hosted the Olympics three times!

>150 CliffBurns:: I have to agree. What worries me is the possibility that Armstrong himself didn't do dope, but forced his team members to do it so they could continue to support him (no one rider can win le Tour on their own, they need a full supporting cast). To me, that would be worse: a team captain who was not only a cheat but a hypocrite too.

After the death of Tom Simpson, a universally popular British rider on Mont Ventoux in 1967 as a direct result of amphetamine misuse, you'd think that sanity might take hold. But obviously not where money is involved...

I have friends who are keen cyclists, take part in amateur events, etc. They tell me that even at this level, there are plenty of people engaged in doping.
Personally, I would need a stimulant to watch cycling.

There is no possibility, absolutely NONE, that Armstrong didn't juice. You don't win that many Tour de Frances and then get riddled with exactly the type of cancer that steroid abuse triggers, unless you've been gulping the stuff like a polluted fish. He was a cheater, a liar and he was enabled by the people around him., that rah-rah, win at all costs mentality that he existed within.

155: Armstrong seems to epitomize the Bush-era Athlete: He can only achieve victory through cheating and everyone (at the time) loved him for it. He's like the white Barry Bonds. And allegations that he forced his team-mates to juice sounds like a storyline right out of The Wire

155: Didn't Armstrong's illness take place before his Tour wins? Doesn't rule out that he was already on the drugs, of course.
156: The people I know who admired Armstrong didn't believe he was cheating. In those days, there was still some belief that consistent doping would be detected.

So illness makes one immune from moral culpability? Maybe more cancer survivors should take up bank robbery if we're going to let Armstrong's cheating pass muster.

The Lance Armstrong timeline:

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/lancearmstrongtimeline.html

Big drop-off there at the end.

Don't worry about it, Lance. Some people still believe O.J. was innocent and try to set him up on dates with their daughters...

I suspect it was more wishful thinking that he wasn't doping. We can all be guilty of wishful thinking from time to time.

It's entirely possible, of course, that all this will catch up with him and he will crash and burn. We will all have to live with how we will feel about that when the time comes.

Meanwhile, the next time Le Tour is on the TV, I'll look at the scenery, which was the only reason why I started watching it. The UK ignores Europe so much in so many things that it makes Le Tour worth watching as an act of cultural rebellion. (And then the Brits get angry when Europe repays the compliment.)

158: I didn't mean that illness excused Armstrong. Just that he didn't cheat first and then get ill. It was the other way round or, quite likely simultaneous.

A well-deserved slap to Joshua Cody's pretentious content-free cancer memoir:

http://biblioklept.org/2012/10/24/i-riff-a-little-on-joshua-codys-memoir-sic/

A pat on the back for the Little Free Library program:

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/

God bless 'em!

The guy who owns this car:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2132581/Thats-cracking-motor-Brave-owner...

Aaron Swartz RIP:

http://hilobrow.com/2013/01/13/aaron-swartz/

168: Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

Been a bit of a fuss in UK newspapers the last couple of days. Suzanne Moore writes an article on feminism for the Guardian, but makes an offhand disparaging remark about transsexuals. Numerous transsexuals get upset and say so on Twitter. Some of which is abusive. Moore loses her temper and gets abusive and offensive in return. Julie Burchill then leaps to Moore's defence, with a hateful rant against transsexuals bafflingly published in the Observer on Sunday. Cue complaints to the Press Complaints Commission. The Observer commissions a reasoned response from Roz Kaveney. The Observer decides to withdraw Burchill's rant. Almost everyone is happy.

Then Toby Young, in a bid for Dickhead of the Year, rants in the Telegraph that Burchill was being censored, and reprints the entirety of her hate speech. FFS.

This is why we need a proper legal body to oversee the British press.

171: Never heard of any of these people. Ignore them - you'll be happier.

In rebus 171 & 172. And who, pray tell, is to save us from our saviours? Waywiser is truly way wiser: ignore all that flap-doodle. Save your computer time for making meaningful connections. -- G

"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me."
- Martin Niemöller

174: Is there a less cliched way of voicing that sentiment? Every time I read that quote, I imagine some hipster driving a Prius with some inane bumper sticker, then promptly tune out.

You'd be surprised how many people are ignorant of it. Or of the message it expresses.

Speaking of sliding into the cultural abyss:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/tyler-perry-and-larry-the-cable-guy-to-finally-br...

Self-explanatory:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things-adults-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-get-mad-about...

A very bitchy, cynical old sportscaster I love (Dave Perkins) refers to Oscar Pistorius (that fucking asshole) as "The Blade Gunner".

Love it. The fact that ol' Oscar's legless means it's easier to kick him in the balls.

You'll need all that speed in the prison yard, Oscar.

Here's a human slimeball even more morally contemptible than Pistorius:

http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/embattled-cardinal-asks-ireland-to-p...

"We are a priest-ridden race and always were and always will be till the end of the chapter!" -- James Joyce

#180 The man's a pig. He'll be buried head down like the rotten Popes in Dante's Hell.

181: I have an even better idea, abolish the Papacy and turn the Vatican into a museum. Between the Popes and Berlusconi's underage shenanigans, well ... who am I to judge? I'm a filthy unbeliever.

Then again, the Pope and his minions may have to answer to the World Court. If an errant drone strike doesn't hit them first. So long as leave some cells open for Dubya, Dick Cheney, Wolfowitz, and the rest of that sick crew.

The New York Times Dining section gives Guy Fieri's restaurant a hilarious kick in the pants:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american...;

This one is for Cliff:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/for-our-consideration-why-understanding-and-embra...

And what's wrong with Phish?

185: Nothing's wrong with Phish.

But this paragraph was memorable, especially with has passed for conversation in this group lately:

"The piece personifies the snarky emptiness that constitutes so much of what passes for discourse on the Internet, especially where Phish is concerned. It begins with a snide, click-bait title that promises to cut through the deafening white noise of the Internet, where only the assholes who bray loudest get heard. It aims at simultaneously mobilizing knee-jerk detractors (“Yeah, Phish does suck! It’s about time someone had the courage to say it!”) and zealots. (Shockingly, some Phish fans took offense to the piece calling them “human garbage.”)"

A pat on the back to Sheryl Sandberg for her controversial book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead that came out this past week. Although I am not necessarily a Sandberg fan and I did find the book rather platitudinous and not necessarily adding any new perspectives on the entire debate, I think it's always good when a well-known personality raises her voice.

Having read the many critical reviews by other well-known personalities like Maureen Dowd, Jodi Kantor, Susan Faludi, Maureen Corrigan, Rebecca Rosen et al, I think they all had good points (if somewhat contradictory) to add as well. And, of course, in their usual style, Slate.com had at least 3 very caustic articles this past week. In particular, I enjoyed the Susan Faludi piece on CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/13/opinion/faludi-poor-single-mothers-sandberg) and the Rebecca Rosen piece in The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/03/why-men-need-to-read-lean-in-too/273984/#).

At least Sandberg is doing something practical by starting her Lean In Circles (http://leanin.org). We'll have to see what comes from these eventually - or whether they'll just fade after the ongoing PR blitz.

As you can see, I am both hopeful and cynical about certain aspects - but, overall, I think, hopeful that this will start to change the conversation about women in leadership.

On a lighter note, here's a feminist joke from a male comedian that made me smile today: http://www.upworthy.com/a-joke-about-male-genitalia-that-even-hillary-clinton-wo...

When a snob becomes a crank, he deserves to be slapped:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/alexander-theroux-the-grammar-of-rock-art-and-art...

Looks like Alexander Theroux now has his Charlotte Simmons moment.

Sounds like pedantic egotistical writer is pedantic and egotistical. I sometimes criticize grammar/usage in rock lyrics (for example "live and let die" where he says "in" twice and stuff like that). But I certainly would not write a book about it or think that I was making a funny, then again I don't have the ego that Theroux is known for.

187: I agree and there were several good articles by feminists that did not give into the snide hype against her.

189: Sounds like pedantic egotistical writer is pedantic and egotistical.

I totally agree. Usually that works for him. I'm a huge fan of An Adultery and the flawed bloated maximalist masterpiece Laura Warholic But this time around, he seems more like a cantankerous crank. "You damn kids with your rock and roll music! Get off my lawn!" I might pick it up in a remaindered bin. Otherwise, I'd rather save my money for the new David Bowie album and Pynchon's upcoming release.

"Fantagraphics co-founder Gary Groth is a grumpy middlebrow who has been known to use his magazine, The Comics Journal, as a dumping ground for his own drably written but furious screeds, in which he tends to mistake rudeness for moral principle and the production of mediocre but commercially successful superhero comics for a war crime. "

Ouch!

Screw Apple and their corporate lackeys:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23259935

and my response:

http://cliffjburns.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/bitch-slapping-apple-inc/

193: I have never made my books available in the Apple store. I now realize that this was out of principle and not, as originally thought, because it was too flipping complicated.

I've been an Apple computer owner for 20+ years but the company is really getting on my nerves. Two months ago my computer was acting up (rare occasion, they're great machines) so I called the Apple hotline; because my warrantee had expired I was expected to pay (via credit card) before they would connect me with one of their service people. Lovely, eh? I got my answer elsewhere but swore I'd get my revenge. Writing the post I allude to in #193 was a wonderful, cathartic experience.

Bastards!

195: Looks like you wrote that before your morning cup of coffee! Feeling better now?

Yep...

That puts you in a happier position than George Orwell.
http://augustusgump.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/not-having-coffee-in-huesca/

A fun post, Monsieur Gump.

Alexander Theroux = good guy. Read his stuff -- at least his novels -- whenever you get the chance. Hell, even his subpar stuff is extraordinary. Rabelais meets Henry James

Alan Turing given a posthumous pardon from a UK Parliament undergoing a rare outbreak of human dignity:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/19/enigma-codebreaker-alan-turing-pos...

Almost makes up for the groveling exhibit of boot-licking it showed during the Margaret Thatcher burial (orgy of anti-austerity and ossified state ritualism, leavened with not an undue bit of irony).

It's been a while since this Kevin Spacey MacTaggart lecture video has gone viral, but I've been off LT and searched this thread and see that it hasn't been mentioned here.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2013/aug/23/kevin-spacey-mactaggart-lectu...

Transcript: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10260895/Kevin-Spacey-James-MacTag...

I must say, I enjoyed this talk of his. There's been a lot of talk about the end of network TV as we know it, cord-cutting, etc. But, to stand there, in front of the most eminent TV executives and to say this to them.... I thought, wonderful.

I wrote about it on my blog too: http://storyacious.com/its-the-creative-stupid/

Edited to add the quote I enjoyed the most:

And the audience has spoken: they want stories. They’re dying for them. They are rooting for us to give them the right thing. And they will talk about it, binge on it, carry it with them on the bus and to the hairdresser, force it on their friends, tweet, blog, Facebook, make fan pages, silly gifs and god knows what else about it, engage with it with a passion and an intimacy that a blockbuster movie could only dream of. All we have to do is give it to them. The prize fruit is right there. Shinier and juicier than it has ever been before. So it will be all the more shame on each and every one of us if we don’t reach out and seize it.

A slap to anyone who would sell/put a price on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24218530

Big slap for "self-publishers" who churn out shit like:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24491723

As if paranormal romance wasn't low enough.

204: But they aren't associated with the Big 6 mainstream publishers who churn out stuff by such literary demigods like Snooki and Chelsea Handler But hey, write off an entire genre by picking out the worst examples of it. (I remember an Austrian corporal writing off an entire ethnic group based on a couple bad examples of said group. So yeah ... keep up with that.)

205: Seems like a pretty egregious example of Godwin's Law.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/godwins-law
or even reductio ad hitlerum
http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallacies/153-reductio-ad-h...

I don't think Cliff can be accused of painting all self-published writers with the same brush, given that he is one.

206: Egregious, yes. Inaccurate, no. Maybe it's just my habit of calling out intellectual laziness masquerading as literary criticism. And equating shifter erotica to a war crime surely merits a meme of its own. Like pulling a Gary Groth or something:

http://samuraifrog.blogspot.com/2007/04/why-arent-people-defending-harlan.html

208: It is debatable whether Hitler's racism relied upon a couple of bad examples within an ethnic group. Be that as it may, it is still ridiculous to bring up Hitler in this context. The silly mustache tends to stick to the accuser's upper lip, rather than to that of the accused.

Paradoxically, these days, the Hitler card seems to be played more often by the idiots on the political right than their counterparts on the left, usually when referring to Obama or anything associated with him. This is grossly unfair, as Obama is clearly a socialist and therefore a Stalin or a Mao. Obviously only a Republican president can be a Hitler.

Idiots on the "political right"
have something of a tradition of "playing the Hitler card", if I remember rightly. (Of course it was with the understanding that they, like the otherwise execrable Left, were AGAINST Hitler.)
It used to be commonplace to remind us that being against a laissez-faire gun
society put "us" on the same
side as Hitler, on that issue:
"Remember that HITLER was for gun control!"
By the more intellectual of the right-wingers, we were often reminded that the Nazis, like our cold war foes the Soviets, were originally a Marxist party. With the German words for "Socialist" and "Labor" in their official name.

Concurrently with that, and waiving the idea that our mutual opposition to Nazism gave us some common ground, there was the old
theory of "Hitler was bad, BUT
NOT AS BAD as Stalin: For one thing, with Hitler, we at least 'knew where
we stood.' "

(I don't think this would get much support from the
non-Fascist diplomats of the 1930s. They sooner or later found (usually sooner)
that he had, all along, been practicing a deviousness that Machiavelli would envy.)

It used to be commonplace to remind us that being against a laissez-faire gun
society put as on the same
side as Hitler, on that issue:
"Remember that HITLER was for gun control!"

It still is. Thus the posters of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Obama that you will see on the Internet. This is, however, historically inaccurate, as Hitler in fact reduced gun controls in Germany -- except for Jews.

By the more intellectual of the right-wingers, we were often reminded that the Nazis, like our cold war foes the Soviets, were originally a Marxist party.

This is also inaccurate. Nazism was always opposed to Communism and part of its appeal to Germans was that the Nazis represented the most powerful anti-Communist faction. Nazism envisioned a society in which private property was preserved and social classes existed, defined by merit. Of course, people who have money always think they have it by dint of merit, so this kept the powers that be and the middle classes happy.

They were socialist in name, but they were not socialist as we understand socialism.

(This is more interesting than picking on kswolff, but perhaps less fun.)

Indeed, there were a lot of radical parties in Germany in the 1920s that tended to perm their names from a limited range of adjectives. The NSDAP was merely the most successful of them; and no party is so wedded to its policy tenets that they can't be changed at a whim.

By the standards of some on the Right, the Nazis were socialist because they had state-sponsored welfare schemes. then again, I've heard of people (mainly from the USA, oddly enough) who called Margaret Thatcher a socialist because she didn't abolish the welfare state on day one of her Government. The difference was that in Nazi Germany, the benefits of that welfare state were only available to the right ethnic group.

Be that as it may, has anyone read any good shapeshifter erotica lately?

More on #204:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24519179