bustardblog

Bruni vs Friedman

In his late eighties, my great-uncle Edwin, sliding towards dementia, sounded an awful lot  like Frank Bruni. But he wasn't paid a good salary, nor give the invaluable real estate that is space in the N.Y. Times, to complete his thoughts with phrases like "it's time to take our medicine."

A lot who I admire on the left have no problem mocking the pompous balloon who writes under the name Thomas Friedman. "Friedman Units" and his chats with cab drivers en route to the five star hotel from an airport's first class lounge are lengenday, and legitimately so. He doesn't often go out on a limb, but at least at times he approaches one.

But does even Friedman ever get more fatuous than the following paragraph from today's op-ed by Bruni?

"I think the rise of interest groups, identity politics and cause-specific lobbyists has diminished our attention to, and sense of, a communal good."

Frank  Bruni, ever the Edgy Thinker.

 

Ryan's Fingers

Roger Simon's piece in Politico has got to be a phony. The idea that he refers to Romney as "Stench" simply doesn't pass the smell test. I'd love it if the good people at Baloon Juice were correct, but I can't believe it.

If Paul Ryan were actually witty enough to be saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.” he would be a far more formidable foe.

Then again, if he were really smart enough to come up with a line like that he would never been a believer in Ayn Rand, nor the creator of such a rediculous budget proposal.

The guy is buying his ten year old daughter a shotgun, teaching her how to keep her finger on the trigger. He's not thinking about Ms Noonan's sandwiches. 

(Thanks Memeorandum)

Pam & Mitt

A fervent Romney supporter, Pamela Geller has tried again to foment conflict between Muslims on the one side, and Israel and the U.S.A on the other. She has paid for ads in the New York Subway system that essentially imply that Muslims are savages, against whom we should be at war. (The woman condemns Rupert Murdoch's New York Post for its anti-semitic, pro Sharia positions. - she's quite a special kind of person)

And the Romney team repays Ms Geller with their fervent support. In fact a Romney foreign policy advisor and former Bush appointee, John Bolton, wrote the forward to one of Ms Geller's more unbalanced anti-Muslim screeds.

The question is: Does Romney condemn Ms Geller, or applaud her, as she does him?

 

h/t meme.