Here Are Some News Things

Allegation: Three-star Michelin chef served worst cuts to Asians and Upper West Siders, who he termed "shit people."

An unexploded grenade sat in a tree since WWII. That tree was recently cut down for firewood. That grenade just blew up in a stove.

The grenade, curiously, was named "JON GRUBER."

Speaking of:

The media goes Full Retard on reporting what a minor staffer of an unknown GOP congressman said about the Obama girls. Most have yet to report on what Obamacare architect Jon Gruber said about the tactics used to pass that law unconstitutional enabling act.

Useless WaPo check-casher Ruth Marcus, who is by the way useless, savages that minor functionary for daring to snarkily criticize the Obama girls.

On the subject of the Obama girls' supposedly disrespectful behavior at the Thanksgiving turkey pardoning: not even close to unpardonable. As my teenaged daughters would say to the Republican congressional staffer who took to Facebook to take off after Sasha and Malia: Hello? Have you, like, ever even met a teenager?

"I get you’re both in those awful teen years, but you're a part of the First Family, try showing a little class," lectured Elizabeth Lauten, congressional schoolmarm -- oops, I mean, communications director -- for Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (R-Tenn.).

...

Where to start with this infuriating rant. First, to say that it so crossed the line that Lauten retracted it...

Um, she retracted it because The Mob demanded her scalp, not because it was actually over the line.

Marcus goes on like this. Then, incredibly, Marcus makes this admission:

Third, to criticize Lauten is not to say that presidential children are off limits. They aren’t. If they get used as props, as in the turkey pardoning–well, some commentary goes with the territory. President Obama is particularly fond of invoking his daughters to make a point, as in lecturing Congress that Malia and Sasha get their homework done. By doing so, he opens the door to public discussion.

But only a crack. The older the presidential child, the worse the presidential child’s behavior, the fairer the game for discussion. I've gone there myself: back in 2006, after a series of sackings at the George W. Bush White House, I wrote a snarky faux thank-you-for-your-service letter to the Bush twins, introducing them to new First Daughter Chelsea Clinton. The White House was not pleased.

But that was parody, and with ample ammunition (underage drinking busts, etc.) This was sheer meanness, and with little basis. There’s a new turkey in town, and she’s not likely to get a presidential pardon.

Um, her piece was a parody of a Bush letter to the daughters, firing them for their misbehavior, which included being caught drinking underage twice (caught by viciously hyperpartisan snitches, by the way, and not police), sticking their tongues out at the press, and then giving a convention speech using "Valley girl" like language.

Note that Marcus elides the actual bill of particulars here, just saying "etc." to cover the very bad behavior of speaking in Valley girl language and sticking out of tongues in a girlish way.

Marcus excuses the Obama girls' behavior by saying, "Have you met teenagers?"

Well, Ms. Marcus, you old and dried up turnip -- have you met nineteen-year-olds? Believe it or not, many nineteen year olds are drinking beer in restaurants as we speak, and many use "Valley girl" like language. Those dogged by a hostile press might even -- perish the thought -- stick their tongues out the press.

Incidentally, I don't remember the Bush girls' alleged "Valley girl" like language, but I do know that I've always mistaken people from Dallas (like Owen Wilson) of being from Encino Valley. The accents are kind of similar.

I wonder -- whatever the Obama girls wind up sounding like, whatever accent they'll wind up having -- if I'll have the license Ms. Marcus asserts to attack them for their accent, or if that too will be deemed "clearly out of bounds."

Ms. Marcus calls this Republican woman a "schoolmarm" dealing in nothing but "meanness" for her public criticism of the Obama girls, while attesting that her own Youth Shaming endeavors were warranted, because they had a "basis."

That "basis" being that Ruth Marcus is a nasty, vinegary old bird who really likes liberals and hates conservatives, and who should be forcibly retired so she can spend more time with her spite and rancid partisan bitterness.

I just can't take these people any longer and am no longer willing to share a civil society with them.

Iron Laws of Bias: The media's rules for commenting on the children of politician.

Nolte says there are six rules, but then boils it down to just one.

You know what that rule is .

posted by Ace at 05:15 PM

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