ha! i think this might be my favorite post i've ever seen on here. i've looked at counterpundit, and, for all his high-minded talk about 'reason' and 'argument', i've mostly seen a lot of name-calling. for example, his latest post in which he 'dissects' the 'rants' of bushies, he has the following to say:

Here's Something...
...you won't see the wingnuts talking about. Especially Captain Underpants, who apparently is taking a few days off from his arm chair "analysis" of the war in Iraq. Reading all of those news feeds must have exhasuted him.
-----------------------------------
some dissection, eh? it's about as persuasive as a michael moore film.

anyway, that is beside the point. the idea that one must see F911 to talk intelligently about michael moore is as prima facie absurd as the proposition that one must have listened to 'suite no.1 in G major, BWV 1007: sarabande' to be able to say anything intelligent or accurate about bach, and i thank you for your satirical treatment of said idea.

Thanks, Eric!

You're a credentialed commenter here, so of course the rules (which I must by necessity be able to make or break at any time) do not apply to you!

:)

Hot dam, I can comment on all I want to! Dang! I knew all those dam BA degrees were going to pay off.

I hope I'm not disqualified because I'm too dumb.

1) I did read "Mein Kampf". I hope that doesn't make a Nazi. I hate potato salad. I haven't read "Capital", though I did read "The Communist Manifesto". I did read Ludwig von Mises's "Human Action" many years ago. Sorry, but economics books just aren't sexy enough for me. I did read a Communist book about Donald Duck, "Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic". I have a couple books by Stalin and by Mao, too. I also have Senator Joe McCarthy's "The Fight for Americanism", J. Edgar Hoover's "Masters of Deceit", and Whittaker Chambers's "Witness". I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party.

2) I haven't read anything by the Clintons, though the Starr Report was interesting. More so was the special report on pornography put out by the Meese Committe in 1986.

3) I think I present an appearance of impropriety. (At least, I hope I present as much an appearance of impropriety as I do of stupidity!) I have a book on the law of outer space buried somewhere. I watched "Lost in Space" as a boy, and I have good books on astronomy. I buy astronomy magazines every month when I go to Crossroads.

4) I have read Bork's books "The Tempting of America" and "Slouching Toward Gomorrah". Has Santorum written a book? That would be interesting to read, though I already have "The How and Why Wonder Book of Dogs" from when I was a little boy. Tom Coburn's book on the problem of lesbianism in the girls' restroom would be _extremely_ interesting to read.

5) I have not seen President George W. Bush's "On God and Country", but it does sound interesting. I'll look for it. The _style_ of the title is conservative.

6) I swear upon the altar of Osiris and Isis that I did indeed see Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ". Quite an excellent film, in my opinion, best film on Jesus that I've yet seen. It concretized the essence of the Christian soteriology, including the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The Body and Blood of the Christ. You probably won't want to watch it too close before dinner. Some have said that it was anti-Semitic. I did not find it to be so. It did portray the penal system of the Roman Empire to be rather cruel and unusual by our modern Constitutional jurisprudence. I wrote a review of it in Up With Beauty. Again, I love the _style_ of the title.
Holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma, the High Priestesses of the One And Only Christian Apostolic Tridentine Tribadentine Catholic Church of the Cathedral of Our Most Holy Virgin Mother, The Queen of Heaven, have themselves enacted "The Passion of the Christ", Dawn as the Christ, Norma as the Queen of Heaven.

7) I don't watch TV any more, not have I seen too many movies lately or very often. I don't discuss or think about celebrities all that much, though I think Barbra Streisand's nose is sexy, and a man's man once pointed out that Sean Hannity is sexy from a manly point of view. I used to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Eleanor Clift is very sexy to me. I used to watch her on "The McLaughlin Group".

8) I only read "The Prince". I have read James Burnham's "The Suicide of the West", who draws upon Pareto and Machiavelli to a large extent. I shall leave the deft statesmanship to President Nixon.

9) I'm definitely an expert in immorality, being a masturbater and a deviated prevert. I have read the Marquis de Sade's "Justine", "Juliette", and "120 Days of Sodom", as well as Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's "Venus in Furs". I'm gynosexual, so I have much more in my inner being of a Lesbian's, a homosexual woman's, desire than of any heterosexual woman's attractions, though I have felt some attraction toward some of my fellow men as well from time to time. I'm not really man enough to be a man's man, though.

10) I seem to be entirely of Northern European descent according to my genealogy as pieced together so far by my relatives (primarily my Aunt Fran) who study that field, and Gentile, not even any Jews at all. I have blue eyes and was blond as a child. I hope that doesn't make me a Nazi. I hate potato salad. Sometime, I wish I was a beautiful Negress like holy Norma. Dawn is her captive. Wanda -- Hmmm....

11) A blogger speaking ill of another blogger? A commenter disagreeing with another comenter? Hmmm....

12) Abortion? No, I never had an abortion (and neither did my mother, I'm happy to say), unless masturbation counts. On the other hand, I was a fetus once.

I'm not as beautiful as Leni Riefenstahl nor even quite as fat as Michael Moore, so I guess I'm not qualified to discuss their films, either, by all these criteria.

Well, I think you've just cut your comments down ta zero, with the possible exception of thet thar Thezbian Egoist feller above me. *waves Hi Steve!* ;)

Ironbear, you have an Official Indulgence, License, and Credential to comment at will. These rules, of course, are not intended to apply to the Anointed. They are very complicated, and are therefore enforceable only by the Honor System, with reference to gut feelings.

Great post. I think you should put a permanent link to it on your sidebar towards the top. Use it as a club... :D
Also, I had no idea that I fulfilled the Classical Values' prerequisite reading list.
Yay me! My readership (2 people!) would be appalled to find out that I don't only read new age schlock and occult books.
Have a great day, Eric!

Excuse me while I slink back, back into the darkness to resume my lurking.

Well. I guess the party is over here, then. :)

Rue and Bink are of course credentialed, indulged, grandfathered in, titled, anointed, etc.

Bink, there are no party rules.

Well... I'm close to watching every episode of Stargate SG-1. Can I comment on situations involving alien parasites in people's brains, even though I haven't had one myself?

I've also been a biophysicist, so I can comment on any dilemmas involving protein structure.

I'm also theoretically a writer, so I should be capable of spelling dillema correctly. Dilemma? Dillemmmma? Oh crap, this is what we have editors for...

Well, this leaves me with nothing to say! (Oops, was that a moral argument?)

You don't have to eat cat duty to know it doesn't taste good.

You don't have to hit your head with a hammer to study the treatment for concussions.

A person can be an expert on the effects of cyanide on the human anatomy, and the chemical structure of cyanide, without ever having chugged a shot of the stuff. In fact, that person has a better chance of being an expert than someone who does drink it regularly.

You can't speak about the emotional impact of Moore's filmmaking, or the artistry of his montages, without seeing the film.

However, it is consructed mostly of footage that can be seen elsewhere. That footage has been discussed, in its context in f-9/11 and in its true context, to expose the propagandist's tactics. It has been criticized and defended in great detail.

In this case, a person who has studied the background of the material in the movie, and what was cut out from it to make the movie, is better qualified to discuss it than someone who has seen "F-9/11" a hundred times and has seen or read nothing else about it.

Eric Scheie, the King, Warrior, Magician, Lover, and God of Classical Values, wrote:
"Well done Steven. Love your awareness of unforeseen (and often paradoxical) consequences.

I hereby extend to you the Official Steven Malcolm Anderson Indulgence And Permanent Exemption from the "Eleven Rules of Etiquette for Commenters" I was just forced to implement!

(Hey, they're my rules! I can break them whenever I want -- and now you can too!)"

Dear Eric:

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!

Ironbear wrote:
"Well, I think you've just cut your comments down ta zero, with the possible exception of thet thar Thezbian Egoist feller above me. *waves Hi Steve!* ;)"

Hi, Ironbear!

And Eric replied:
"Ironbear, you have an Official Indulgence, License, and Credential to comment at will. These rules, of course, are not intended to apply to the Anointed. They are very complicated, and are therefore enforceable only by the Honor System, with reference to gut feelings."

Good! Good! Good!

I must add a few things to what I wrote:

Eric wrote:
":* No one may discuss Machiavelli (or use the word "Machiavellian") without having read Machiavelli's Discourses. (Sorry, but The Prince is just lowbrow introductory High School stuff, folks!)"

Good old Central High School, Monmouth-Independence, Oregon, Class of 1973! "The Royal Orgy House"! I'm as lowbrow as Mike Nomad, I think. I should be driving a truck for "Proof" magazine. Maybe Steve Roper. I'll have to dig up that old letter to the editor of our High School paper, the letter that says "Mole Says Hippies Wrong". That's my kind of reading.

I wrote:
"5) I have not seen President George W. Bush's "On God and Country", but it does sound interesting. I'll look for it. The _style_ of the title is conservative."

Sometimes President Bush even looks a little bit like E. Merrill Root.

I wrote:
"Holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma, the High Priestesses of the One And Only Christian Apostolic Tridentine Tribadentine Catholic Church of the Cathedral of Our Most Holy Virgin Mother, The Queen of Heaven, have themselves enacted "The Passion of the Christ", Dawn as the Christ, Norma as the Queen of Heaven."

I must add that these two Goddesses re-enact their sacred "Passion of the Christ" every Easter morning, and they are showing films of it to the warriors inside our nuclear missile silos and submarines. Commies beware!

E wrote:
"ha! i think this might be my favorite post i've ever seen on here. i've looked at counterpundit, and, for all his high-minded talk about 'reason' and 'argument', i've mostly seen a lot of name-calling. for example, his latest post in which he 'dissects' the 'rants' of bushies, he has the following to say:

"Here's Something...
...you won't see the wingnuts talking about. Especially Captain Underpants, who apparently is taking a few days off from his arm chair "analysis" of the war in Iraq. Reading all of those news feeds must have exhasuted him."
-----------------------------------
some dissection, eh? it's about as persuasive as a michael moore film."

This blogger just quoted from also calls Glenn Reynolds "the partisan hack" and calls Michelle Malkin "the breathless nitwit". Something about these misogynistic references from men of the Left to women of the Right makes those women all the sexier to me.

The _style_ of it all....

I had a dream about "breathless" Michelle Malkin last night. I hated her, she was a complete fascist, but she was _very_ sexy. She wrote a book in that dream, the kind of book I often dream about, with lots of charts and spectrum dualisms, even though I completely disagreed with the the ideology she was advocating. She was against homosexual marriage. Then, she changed sides and started preaching the ideology, the Conservative Lesbian Individualist Theology, of "breathless" holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma, for homosexual marriage and against adultery. The _styles_ of the Starboard side of a spectrum! Tight and High.

I was born a thespian. At a very early age I just "knew" it. Being one (a thespian; not, you know, a zen buddhist or anything like that), I never felt a need to read a book on thespianism. Writing one, maybe, but that's a future project.

So can I comment on thespians? Do I have to wait until I have written my book (assuming of course that having written it I will actually manage to have read it as well)? What if I know Mary Cheney personally?