Carnival of the Takedowns

Is there anything better or more satisfying than a well-written rant? And I don't mean rant in the 'Christian Bale going off on a lighting director in incoherent rage' fashion. I mean the beauty of reading a post or essay written by someone who has successfully turned their anger or frustration into a thing of beauty.

Today, there are three 'rants' that are worth highlighting:

First, James Lileks on George Will's 'denim' essay. Sample:

We can gather much from this, aside from the fact that the tea was tepid when served that morning, which always puts one in a querulous humour. We can assume he hasn’t seen more than two seconds of “King of the Hill,” a very clever show that’s firmly on the side of the folk who share his instincts and understands their culture far better than Mr. Will does. (Hank Hill is a man haunted by Oughts of all sorts, constantly parsing the demands of modern life with the Oughts that arise from being a middle-aged Texan father who deals with propane. And propane accessories.) The self-contented sneer against animation suggests no disrespect for the thing itself, but rather the moving drawings aimed at adults. They should content themselves with the amusing engravings in Punch, which stay in one place and do not excite the blood.

And now this morning, Obama was on the tube again, yapping about traffic jams. What the hell is going on here? The president of the freaking United States is talking about traffic jams? Then again, in grammar school we did all learn that part of George Washinton's Farewell Address where he warned against entangling alliances and the dread menace of highway jughandles and traffic circles. That Obama's big solution is, ta-da!, "high-speed rail" is simply one more sign that he is simply not serious about anything other than paying off 19th and 20th century legacy special interests. I look forward to tomorrow's press conference, when Obama trains his laser-beam brain on the question of whether Razzles is a candy or a gum.

Despite the fact that the Globe engaged in hypocritical, personal attacks on myself and other Herald reporters over the years, in several cases targeting reporters who had beaten them, claiming falsely that their reporting was flawed. In my case, reporting on my alleged “looting” while failing to report that one of its own reporters had encountered similar problems with US Customs, which seized loot the Globie had acquired in the invasion of Iraq.

But I will miss the Globe if it doesn’t make it. Not for the unseemly whimpering it is now engaged in. Mainly because I have so much enjoyed the many times my small, scrappy, disrespected tabloid has kicked its Global ass.

Special bonus: The true face of cable news, courtesy of Jim Treacher and Batton Lash.

posted by Slublog at 10:03 AM

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