Mark Steyn is a dangerous idiot with a suspiciously homophobic streak for a bearded, show tunes-loving man who is drawn to big, strong, authoritarian types.
I'm pretty sure I've made that point here before, and I know that others have made it, too, but it bears repeating.
Especially when Beardo is denouncing the month-and-a-half old Obama administration as "incompetent." And slipping in a not-very-subtle racist crack ("Barack ain't run nuthin' but his mouth") while doing so.
It's nice to see him take a shot at fellow expat-Canadian David Frum, though, which raises hopes there may be some retaliatory man-boob nurpling coming soon.
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A very subtle and funny writer - one I've become obsessed with over the past year - in a decidedly Muriel Spark mood. Imagine The Pr...
41 comments:
Do you assert that the Obama administration has demonstrated competence? If so, can you give one example? Why do you limit your comments to ad hominem attacks? Can you share any substantive thoughts with us? What do you perceive as "racist" about the referenced Steyn comment?
Question 1: If a black man says "Barack ain't run nuthin' but his mouth" is it still a "not-very-subtle racist crack"? I just ask because Steyn is quoting Jesse Jackson there.
Question 2: What is so racist about noticing that Obama has, in fact, never run anything but his mouth?
Question 3: What criticism of Obama will you NOT consider racist?
Well, you have gotten all of TWO comments which I guess means that you are more widely read than Mark Steyn. I can't improve on the two comments you got unless to say that it is you who is witless and that I love Mark Steyn. Who the hell has ever heard of you?
A R F
Let's see, Steyn's two year old book is ranked #1,437 on Amazon, your book is ranked #3,108,877.
After this example of your writing I think that little sales mystery has been solved...
"Katrina!" Oh, sorry. I sneezed there.
We were discussing Obama's rank incompetence?
"Iraq!" There I go again...
Here's some answers:
- I have to provide examples and avoid ad hominem attacks? Have you read any of Mark's stuff?
- Yes, Steyn just happened to pluck that quote about Obama from out of the blue. Perfectly innocent. Oh, and did you know his middle name is "Hussein"? Just thought I'd mention. No reason at all. [blows dog whistle]
- And yes, Steyn is read by many millions more people than I am, so he must be right, right? But then, most bathroom graffiti is read by many millions more people, too, so I'm not sure what your point is.
What other term besides incompetant would you use to describe a man who thought the British PM would be impressed with Lawrence of Arabia on DVD while receiving one-of-a-kind historical artifacts in return?
As for the "incompetance" of wisely pricking the most productive bubble in the blistering paintjob which is the Middle East, and for the incompetance of foolishly becoming President during hurrican season, sorry I'm just not seeing it.
Honestly F&CLC: you're going to put the drowning of a major US city and the criminal invasion and bungled occupation of a country that posed no direct threat up against... an etiquette goof?
That's the debate equivalent of smearing yourself with your own shit and shouting, "Yeah, well, who's the poopyhead now?!"
Kind of explains your troubles with spelling...
Novel recommended by Todd Babiak? Nuff said about this guy!
You are a knob.
"Katrina!" Oh, sorry. I sneezed there. We were discussing Obama's rank incompetence? "Iraq!" There I go again....
You seem to have been too pleased with your wordplay to notice the defect in your implicit comparison. Try to tell us, persuasively, that your blood doesn't run cold at the thought of this clown-administration responding to a natural or man-made disaster on the scale of hurricanes Katrina and Rita or the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. As the good reverend said, "That man ain't never run nothin' but his mouth," and he appears unable even to appoint and govern capable staff, so it seems you're screwed.
Nathan- can't be bothered reading a word of you blog outside this page, but I'm assuming you're a closet- not open- homosexual (not that there's anything wrong with that). I just thought it was interesting that you had to hide behind your trombone in the photograph. You should stop accusing Steyn of trying to conceal his gayness, and proudly declare yours here on your blog.
Sigh.
I guess Mark at least knows his market...
As a friend who was hunkered down in a New Orleans hotel for over a week after Katrina and who heard the gunfire every night told me, the main story should not have been how a president coordinated evacuation and rescue (since when do presidents manage hurricane evacuations?), but the complete disintegration of local authority and disgraceful behavior of large segments of the local population. How many know that the second in command of the NOPD committed suicide when most of the police under his command became looters? Yes let's have some honest talk about race, but it won't be the kind Eric Holder wants. Sure blame Bush that Coast Guard and National Guard troops didn't get there fast enough, when they faced gunfire from thugs when they DID get there.
Bush must have blown up the levees to kill black people, don't you think?
Today, another nominated appointee to this "administration," Charles W. Freeman, Jr., has shriveled up under scrutiny. He didn't appear this morning, when the Senators studying his nomination reconvened their hearings, and later today, he withdrew from nomination. He was to have headed the National Intelligence Council.
"Steyn's gay lover". LOL!
Sorry mate, like the others, only got here via Steyn.
But I don’t need to read the rest of the blog, it is all there in one sentence:
'And slipping in a not-very-subtle racist crack ("Barack ain't run nuthin' but his mouth") while doing so.'
Yep – the epitome of the Orwellian left wing mind is there in a few words that, first of all, assumes we all agree with it that ‘racism’ (although an entirely subjective concept limited to ‘whites only – guilty of’) is the great and terrible evil that overrides all other great and terrible evils and THEN looks for subtle giveaways of this heinous thoughtcrime in order to condemn. (what Orwell called ‘Orthodoxy sniffing’)
All very reminiscent of the David Williams case Steyn himself sometimes refers to – he was the Washington staff member sacked for using the dread word ‘niggardly’ at a meeting (duh!)
And I bet, like all left-wing-people-lacking-a-sense-of-sane-perspective, you think you are really liberated in a 60s permissive way when in fact you support Freedom of Speech only in so far as you approve of what has being said.
Sorry – been here too many times before, I am sick of the Mental Fascism, I can think for myself and I am off.
Just so we're clear, here are the two points being made in these comments:
- your criticisms of Mark's work lack intellectual heft and supporting evidence and are thus not credible
AND
- yu R Fagg!!! Steeyn roolz!!!
Like I said, Steyn knows his readership....
It's been fun, beard-heads.
@ Feynman and Coulter's Love Child:
You forgot to mention Senator Upgrayedd's "little gift" to the Russians.
Nathan, you are out of your league, as not only your visitors, but you, ably demonstrate. Steyn is brilliant, you alas are not. First he quotes Jesse Jackson, which apparently missed, and instead wrongfully accused him of racism. Then you resort to coughing "Iraq", like a true butt-boy of the US popular media. Can you do nothing but stoop to sounding the mantras off MSNBC and CNN and every other flaming liberal? And as far as Iraq goes, where do you suppose so many of these high ranking terrorists now at Gitmo were apprehended? That's right: Iraq. Maybe it wasn't material weapons of mass destruction we were after in the first place. Ever think of that?
If I were you, I'd stay off Steyn's radar; he hasn't said a thing and you've come off rather badly.
If you can combine alternate-universe ramblings (Iraq was a great idea! Gitmo's okay! Katrina was nobody's fault!) with some gay-baiting, then you truly are a beard-head. Good boy! Chase the frisbee!
Bonus points to Guy for invoking Orwell in defense of a guy who has been suckling at Big Brother's teat for years.
(No points for believing for not having a clue what Free Speech really is... Hint: it has nothing to do with much-forwarded anecdotes about political correctness gone mad.)
So, Nathan, ... what were your answers to the three questions at the top of the comments?
First:
Nathan said: "yu R Fagg!!! Steeyn roolz!!!"
No Nathan- it is you who accused Steyn of being a "Fagg".
Second:
Other comments are spot on about your attempt to cast Steyn as a "racist" by quoting Jesse Jackson. Apparently it's not racist for Jackson to say it, but it's racist for Steyn (a white male) to quote him. In some ways, this is similar to the twisted logic used by the Canadian "Human Rights" Commissions regarding Islam and "hate speech": it's ok for an imam to preach from the Koran about exterminating gays, but if Steyn points this out, he's guilty of "hate speech".
Please explain how you reconcile this second point, Nathan.
Steyn has a line in his book which perfectly sums up your line of argument: "Racist" is now no more than the cry of a western liberal who can't stand his illusions being disturbed.
Read the whole book. You might learn something.
There's this little thing called doing something "in good faith" - which is what makes Steyn's quote racist (and an idiot and a giggly homophobe, but you knew that), and it's also why it's not worth me spelling it out for you why, since you have clearly erected (tee hee!) your own hermetically sealed, analysis-free universe, and won't listen.
After all, you all know the guy's a smarmy bigot – I mean, that's precisely why you like him.
Nathan, I see you're still getting hammered ;) This isn't about politics buddy; it's about what is Truth and what is not. The quicker you figure out that you're being had by Liberalism, the quicker you'll find true liberation, which honestly isn't in any political system or party. I'm conservative because I'm not Liberal; and I'm not liberal because Liberalism seeks to destroy everything about humankind that is truly human; it has no centre.
Look, bottom line, "Tolerance is the only virtue for the man who believes in nothing", says G.K. Chesterton. Stop thinking policy and start thinking philosophy. Liberalism is anti-philosophy; it's shooting arrows in the dark, claiming only once it's hit something that that was the thing it was aiming for. It's nonsense and lies.
As for your earlier rebuttal; Gitmo is a good thing, in that it keeps murders contained [have you missed all the stories about former Gitmo detainees going active in Taliban and such? see the Weekly Standard or Drudge]. Iraq is successful in that democracy is established, thousands of terrorists dead or imprisoned, and a tyrant no longer reigning with fear. You want to start blaming natural catastrophes, such as Katrina, on Bush--you can bark up that tree til it hurts.
Josh,
I can rebut all that with one careful quote: "see the Weekly Standard or Drudge." Done.
If you actually believe all that about Gitmo, Iraq, and Katrina, you're living in a bubble, so go chase dog whistles somewhere else.
Nathan,
It appears to me that many here would gladly engage you in open and honest debate but are having a hard time figuring out the mature way to respond to your debating style, which seems to be confined to an adult equivalent of a child thumbing his nose and going "nyaah nyaah." Personally, you lost me at "tee hee".
Nathan, your caustic dismissals are truly sad, not witty. They, like most liberal diatribe, preemptively end the dialogue. Who's living in the bubble? Really. I'm not seeing Iraq, Katrina, or Gitmo through rose-colored glasses, I'm just saying there's no conspiracy here; I'm seeing them for what they are. Why are you so quick to deflect and deal with these strawmen instead of the real issues? I think I'm done dialoging with you until you can do so more reasonably, because it seems that you revel in bumpersticker talk rather than in substance.
one must pay for a book , while
graffiti is forced upon us all.
"In the conservative world, we have a tendency to dismiss unwelcome realities." - David Frum (who is also an idiot, but maybe slightly less so right now)
Nathan, you use the following terms (in your 10.36 am comment) to describe Steyn: racist, idiot, homophobe, smarmy bigot.
You're an angry man it would seem. All juvenile ad hominem attacks. You haven't responded to several questions put forward on this page- presumably because there is no sound rebuttal.
You alluded to Steyn being a repressed homosexual in your first comment, and then, when people responded to your ridiculous assertion- eg. by suggesting that a trombone player like yourself is no more likely than a "show tunes-loving man" like Steyn to have underlying gay tendencies- you invert your original argument and accuse the people commenting of being bigots with your comments like "yu R Fagg". You don’t seem to follow what is so obvious- and what others have attempted to point out.
The racist "in good faith" response is just nonsense- and I think you know it. I also suspect you weren't aware of the origin of the quote.
You are seriously confused it would seem.
I hope members of the public who may have read the reviews of your novel (which appear on this page) come to this website to read what you have to say here. Rubbish.
Save your breath folks. Nathan has already explained 1) why he's a liberal, and 2) why he won't change:
no facts, no logic, can't write.
Oh, Nate, may I call you Nate? Nathan is so, well Nathan Lanish. You know, Nathan belongs to Nathan Lane.
You lefties are so ungrateful. Here Mark provides your link on his site and what do you do? Do you appreciate a hit on your blog for the first time ever, or do you do what little minds do: call someone poopyhead. Bet you never had so many hits on your blog till Mark's zillions of readers checked out his daily wonderments. Yeah, that "poopyhead" thing - it really slays 'em every time, eh? Suggestions: 1. learn to read. 2. quit attempting to write. Perhaps there is a career for you cleaning dog kennels in Siberia. But don't call the Russkies poopyheads. Bye, now. Won't be back 'cause you're juss a ole meany racist! Oh, and did I mention boorish?
Wow, it's like having my yearbook signed against my will by a bunch of junior conservatives who've read some PJ O'Rourke and are feeling their oats.
This is one sad kegger, folks.
...hmmm. sharply focusing on the alleged gayness of others, and then slipping with "tee hee".
m'thinks thou dost protest too much.
that's ok though. we kinda hold you to a different standard.
You see why I don't plan to rebut any of these oh-so-sincere questions?
So if you are still waiting for me to explain why Steyn is a smarmy bigot, why cherry-picking loaded Jesse Jackson quotes is suspect, given the continuing bad faith of the picker, why calling the man out on his sniggering brand of homophobia and suggesting (ironically) that he is projecting is not itself an example of homophobia or projecting on my part, why Iraq was a stupendous mistake, why Katrina was a massive fuck-up, or why debating Steyn fans on comment threads is a pointless exercise, then give up waiting – I hate explaining jokes to the dimwitted.
And if I had to actually explain all that, then I'd probably have to explain to that fire burns, objects don't fall up, and glue isn't food – I'd rather you all figured that out through trial and error.
...and yet you can't seem to help responding to the slackjawed, stumptoothed mouthbreathers like a fish to bait.
heh. human nature.
please feel free, if the spirit moves you, to answer the pertinent questions asked here.
Just an observation- and all jokes aside. I’ve noticed there is a kind of "Steyn-hater" stereotype, based on the blogs of "Reader of the Day" that Steyn often links to. There is a definite pattern I've noticed, and I suspect that overwhelmingly, his hate mail is predominantly from these emasculated “men”; polar opposite of "strong authoritarian types". Just an observation.
Some people just don't know when the party's over...
Off you go now, the frisbee's being flung somewhere else and The Beard That Walks Like a Man needs you to chase it.
I love reading the blogger profiles of those "participants" here that clearly don't understand the style in which Nathan presents his points. They're priceless bios. Now, go look up: metonymy, allusive, paradox (misdirection...as a trope), alliosis, (the Tel Quel School), trace, synedoche (not the movie and as a theme throughout), hagiography (as a conservative appelation), bowderlize, anthimeria (for inadvertent gonzo stylin'), raissoneur (playful objectivity), and langue... . By the by, this comment, in itself, reaches for that tone, especially up there in that first sentence, see it, up there at the beginning...the one that begins with "I love..." Okay? Hmmm.
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