He Said What?!
An affectionate spelunk into the writings of chatterbox (or is that "gearbox"?) extraordinaire, Mickey Kaus.
1. "It looks like an electrogothic cab of death . . . (but) drive a (Toyota) Scion XB for a few days and you'll see other cars the way Humbert Humbert saw college girls—as repulsively over-ripe."
2. "Isn't USA Today's front page "special report" on Eric Rudolph's letters from jail, the "worry and heartache" of his mom--complete with blowups of his handwriting--making way too big a deal of him? He's another terrorist, no? Why reward him with four-color publicity about his "witty teen" past and his "introspective" present, reading Brothers Karamazov and Melville (conveniently timed two weeks before his sentencing)? ... Next: The agony of Carlos the Jackal!"
3. "The Hollywood pill du jour: Lexapro. Mothers are on it. Children are on it. ... When the whole family takes the same antidepressant, it promotes healthy bonding!"
4. "I support the idea of experimenting with gay marriage, but surely it's possible to be a non-bigot and be reluctant to immediately tinker with such a venerable social institution (even if modern monogamous marriage is itself a tinkering with the much longer-standing human tradition of polygyny)."
5. "At some point, who cares if David Geffen has $1 billion or $4 billion--except Michael Eisner? He's rich, OK? If our goal is (attainable) social equality rather than (unattainable) income equality--as I think it should be--there are more efficient, direct ways to achieve it than by raising Geffen's taxes."
6. "Did Jeff Gannon really have "access to classified documents that named Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative? . . . If "Gannon" did get a leak of classified documents, would that make him more of a fake reporter or more of a real reporter? Wouldn't it make him Robert Novak?"
7. "But maybe the amount of money that can be raised over the Internet from Democratic true believers is now more important than PAC money. And if you want to draw a Dean-like share of this Web loot, you have to be ruthless in bashing Bush. Not all the consequences of Internet politics are benign. ... P.S.: Note that this theory explains Barbara Boxer's behavior too. ... "
8. "I'm not saying torture or intimidation or humiliation is justified, in principle or in this case. I'm not saying the practices at Abu Ghraib weren't stupid and damaging. I'm not saying that the techniques applied to high-value detainees should be routinely applied, assembly-line style, to run-of-the-mill detainees. I'm saying you can't understand why it happened while pretending that it never worked, any more than you can understand why people get addicted to drugs while pretending that drugs are never fun. ... "
9. "I dunno--if Duncan Sheik is one of the best XM satellite channel's "core artists," do I really want to buy a $200 radio and give them $140 a year? If I need breathy wimpy over-hyped pop, I can hear it for free on Nic Harcourt's show!"
10. "To enjoy the (Mazda) 3, I found, you have to abandon any anthropomorphic notion that the car is an extension of your body, revolving around your solar plexus. You have to think, more accurately, that you are Linus, clinging to a blanket and being pulled around corners madly by Snoopy."
OFF-TOPIC:
Could all the Democratic Politicians and media bootlickers practicing their best rendition of faux outrage over Rove-Plame-Wilson-Libby-Miller-Novak Gate just shut up!
Thank you.