keyholez

hiatus mark 2

Having just cleared out my queue, I’m going to be gone for a while. Again. Bye!

let us ponder this

Richard Lawson (of Gawker and reality fame):

I’ve been watching all this Palin craziness over the past few days with probably too much fervor, but I’ve learned one really interesting thing:

It’s completely OK to call people who trend toward the Left ‘East Coast elites’, and godless, and selfish, and out of touch, and mean, and snide, and (gulp) educated, and non-Americans. This kind of mass character assassination goes without question. But the minute anyone assesses ol’ Prudhoe Bay Barbie based on her geoographic and, gulp, educational status, it’s all vicious attack and slander.

And you know what? That’s OK. Because we educated, forward-thinking, urban folks have already won. We won a lonnnnggg time ago. We’re on the top of the hill. So it is probably pretty petty to lob insults down at the lowly shufflers too up their own asses to try and improve upon their own willful idiocy. We’ll always read more books, see more plays, watch better TV, have bigger ideas, engage in more interesting conversation, meet more diverse people. We’ll always die with a far greater wealth of stories and experiences than Palin’s frothing, inward, inbred cult ever will. We’re better at being alive. Plain and simple. 

And of course there are people who do lead ‘regular’ and totally fulfilling lives in ‘Middle America’ with genuine class and smarts and integrity. It’s just that those folks don’t worry about these silly comparisons. They understand the spectrum of America, they’re content with their lives and their choices. And bully to them! They are not the Urban Elites’ enemy in the slightest.

It’s these jealous, grasping simpletons who constantly complain about ‘libtards’ and their wine-swilling who we really ought to fear, but ultimately pity. What disappointments their lives must be. How embarrassed they must be by their own circumstances to keep tossing dog shit over the fence into the greener grass. 

Sure we’ll get angry at these fools when they say “Liberals are more likely to abort fetuses with Down Syndrome”, but we really should mostly be pitying them. Because it’s the only emotion they merit. And it’s what irks them the most. And that’s kind of fun. 

Us: 1, Them: 0. Forever.

Very, very interesting. And refreshingly honest. Here’s someone who knows there’s not a worse swearword than fuck! But all the same I don’t think the full scope of the insight has set in with him yet. He still thinks of the educated, forward-thinking, urban folks as an embattled minority, kind of like mutants in the Marvel Universe, rather than the monopolists of the means of cultural production. But it’s not that hard to rack up a score like “Us: 1, Them: 0. Forever” when you’re the one writing the rules and coaching the players.

supply, demand

“Tonight, Tonight”:

Dayton and the production crew initially had problems locating costumes for the video because the movie Titanic was being shot at the same time in Los Angeles.^[19]Titanic director James Cameron rented nearly every turn-of-the-century prop and costume in the city, leaving the “Tonight, Tonight” production crew little to work with.^[19] Directors Dayton and Faris compromised by renting the leftover costumes

phrases like this are so disingenuous

Populist anger has been fanned by a growing perception that the Treasury has lavished generous bailouts on Wall Street institutions while neglecting ordinary homeowners — this, in the midst of double-digit unemployment, which is daily sending more households into delinquency. (#)

“Populist anger has been fanned by” = “People like me have written articles with the intention of creating”

(Obligatory concession: the Treasury has in fact lavished generous bailouts on Wall Street institutions while neglecting ordinary homeowners. But lavishing generous bailouts on ordinary homeowners isn’t a good idea either!)

failures of materialism

My eight-year-old son, Joel, comes into my office to ask if there’s a worse swearword than fuck. “No,” I say.

There’s a silence. “You’re lying,” he says.

“There’s none worse than fuck,” I say.

Joel narrows his eyes. “I know you’re lying,” he says. He leaves the room. (#)

I love this story to death, in part because it matches a pattern for strange, insistent denial that I’ve observed elsewhere. When I inform fellow members of the Tumblr elite that they’re basically the coolest and most influential people on the planet, they never want to believe it, in part, I think, because of a theological notion that the real maximally cool people are always someone else, someone alien and remote. Similarly, I once pointed out to my wife’s family that they were, in fact, the upper class, by educational attainment if not by cash income (but in many cases by that too). Intelligent as they are, they just flat-out refused to admit it. The truly rich and connected and powerful guys? Oh, we don’t know those shadowy, menacing figures. Those are the guys you want to be worried about.

No one here but us chickens. We always want to believe there’s a worse swearword than fuck.

seriously, this is the most sinister-sounding shit ever

Michael Mann, from one of the stolen climate emails, via Seth Roberts:

[B]e a bit careful about what information you send to [NYT reporter] Andy [Rivkin] and what emails you copy him in on. He’s not as predictable as we’d like.

ugly America

Intern Juli, a little while ago:

According to this extremely patronizing CNN story—in which Jacksonville, FL. and Rochester, NY are essentially characterized as nothing more than some dirt paths strewn with human bones, maybe six trailer homes and a Starbucks—the GR Tour will instead be hitting mid-size cities in more traditionally conservative parts of the country.

“Some dirt paths strewn with human bones.”

a useful reduction

Eliezer describes “intuition” as “subcognitive black boxes giving us advice”.

U.S. Bancorp is the best company, for realsies

Without doubt, [U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis]  said, there were “some bad actors” in the financial industry, and he apologized “for some of the horrible things that happened.” But not all banks are equal, he said.  And bankers aren’t the only ones who should share the blame, he said. There also were “billions and billions of dollars” that consumers and businesses borrowed and then didn’t pay back. “That’s not cool,” Davis said.

Mortgagez: “‘Not cool’ continues its ascent to being the most deadly serious thing one can say.”