I Really Couldn’t Agree More With the Headline on This Column

01/31/2009 04:10 AM  | 

Turns Out David Denby’s Two References to Wonkette Were Filled With Clumsy, Retarded Errors: Which is not surprising, because David Denby is terrible.

01/31/2009 03:47 AM  |  Comment (2)

Ann Coulter = HST?: Writing in Russ "Mugger" Smith’s interesting Splice Today publication, Robert Stacy McCain makes one of those so-provocative-it-just-might-be-true comparisons: Conservative bomb-thrower Ann Coulter is secretly just like gonzo Nixon-basher Hunter S. Thompson!

I find striking parallels between the two, and wonder why others don’t also see these parallels.

The short answer is that those "others" wouldn't unironically write the word "parallels" twice in one sentence. Whoops!

Therein contains the kernel of one crucial difference between the two: Thompson, especially but not only during his astonishing 1962-75 run of writing, was a great comedic stylist of the English language. Ann Coulter? Uh, not so much. Take the two paragraphs McCain leads with in an attempting to show commonalities:

"There is no way to grasp what a shallow, contemptible, and hopelessly dishonest old hack Hubert Humphrey really is until you've followed him around for a while on the campaign trail."
—Hunter S. Thompson

"[Jodie] Evans is the founder of the 'grassroots' anti-American group 'Code Pink,' which is funded with the multiple millions of dollars she got in her divorce from billionaire Max Palevsky.... However much Max Palevsky paid to divorce Evans, he got a bargain."
—Ann Coulter

One of those is good, funny writing; the other is bad writing (multiple millions of dollars she got??) attached to a tired, possibly funny punchline.

There is one other crucial difference (well, more, really, but let's just cite one): Thompson meant what he said. I don't know how many mutual acquaintances of Ann Coulter have told me "No really, she's not like that in person," as if that would somehow endear her more to me. While there is a time-honored tradition in this country of political-hack performance artistry, that kind of joke only goes so far. Thompson lived and died by his beliefs, for mostly better and occasionally worse. He spent his final years, yes, as a celebrity clown of sorts, but he also busied himself fighting for people who were unjustly imprisoned due to the nation's awful drug and criminal-justice laws.

Anyway, nice try RSM! It strikes me that the Right, broadly speaking, is grasping for cultural straws these days. "Mickey Rourke defends President Bush!" does not a political revival herald, nor does trying to claim more than one drop of HST's excess talents for the bony fingers of Ann fucking Coulter.

01/27/2009 03:51 PM  |  Comment (6)

Get a Haircut! Mix in a Salad!

01/27/2009 03:14 PM  | 

Economic Policy by Metaphor

01/27/2009 02:46 PM  | 

Hi! What are you doing down here?