Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Price

Miss Megan McArdle must be feeling rather rattled right now. Her Brave New Economic World of investment banks, securities, bubbles and regulation-free Randians has come crashing down around her Mossimo-clad ankles. The blogosphere has not been kind lately, and smarter fish have found a new sea in which to swim. What's a highly-paid, almost-but-not-quite-Ivy Leaguer to do?

Borrow material from the low-rent versions of herself.

Yes, McArdle has descended into Michelle Malkin territory, using many many words instead of home-made cheerleader videos, to deplore Barack Obama's connection to Bill Ayers.


[...I]n fact I think that the Ayers connection is too tenuous to be
interesting. But there is a nugget of a real critique at its heart, which
is that the academic culture Obama belongs to thinks its just fine to be a
former active terrorist who has refused to renounce support for the violence
committed by his group; that culture has rewarded Bill Ayers with prestigious
employment and other positions in a way that it wouldn't dream of rewarding a
similarly "idealistic" abortion clinic bomber. I know it's hard to
imagine, but if you're conservative, that seems like a real problem.


Yes, the connection between Obama and Ayers is tenuous, but it allows one to use the word "terrorist" next to Obama's name, and that's enough to earn another paycheck. You see, if you connect Obama with terrorists in the pages of The freaking Atlantic, you can afford weekends at Myrtle Beach, where lonely Republicans with trust funds go to play, or uncomfortable shoes that other women will look at with envy. You can leaf through catalogues of overpriced clothes made by Chinese wage slaves knowing that you can buy anything you want, as long as you charge it. You can linger in the sidewalk cafes, ordering tapas and wine by the glass. It's a good life, and all she has to do is drop a word here, a word there. Tiny little drops of poison, administered slyly to the body politic day after day, to keep the jewels and shoes and catalogues coming.

I'll have more later. Much, much more.

6 comments:

Righteous Bubba said...

the academic culture Obama belongs to thinks its just fine to be a former active terrorist

While that's bullshit, the pundit culture thinks it's just fine to advocate war crimes.

Susan of Texas said...

But they're crimes in the name of peace, prosperity and Jesus. So it's okay.

merlallen said...

I'm two years older than Sen Obama and up until lately I'd never heard of Ayers.

merlallen said...

does anyone besides Ezra even take that nitwit seriously? I think Ezra's just trying to get in her pants.

Anonymous said...

The Weather Underground were a bunch of spoiled rich kids who liked to feel important by issuing "communiques" and blowing up empty buildings with hours notice to authorities. At the worst, an accident killed two of their own. I would hardly call it "active terrorism." Vandalism is more like it. And what in the hell is a "former active terrorist" anyway? Doesn't just writing "former terrorist" imply inactivity? Megan's turned hyperbolic overstatement into a full-time job. Besides, so what if Obama knew him? Being aquainted with a person does not imply that you endorse every choice they've ever made in their life.

Susan of Texas said...

CP, I believe by Megan's standards she is a terrorist, since she advocated acts of violence against American citizens.

Plus, both are all talk and no action, and their ideology has a habit of blowing up in their faces.

Merlallen, I've seen quite a few complementary links to Megan. I don't know their motives, and hope I never ever learn them.