Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

January 26, 2009 8:36 AM

William Kristol's last column.President Bush's last photographs (scroll down to the end of the article or search for "three versions").
posted by lupus_yonderboy (109 comments total)

Obama’s speech was unabashedly pro-American and implicitly conservative.

It's certainly a welcome change from 2004, when Kerry, Edwards, and Dean were known to get up to a microphone, piss on the US flag, and shout "FUCK AMERIKKKA WHORE OF BABYLON CAPITALIST PIGS" while Helter Skelter played in the background. How refreshing to see liberals finally loving America after so many years of misguided loathing!
posted by Greg Nog at 8:41 AM on January 26 [42 favorites has favorites]

"Conservatives have been right more often than not -- and more often than liberals -- about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked -- insofar as any set of policies can be said to 'work' in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of."

O, but he left out so many other moments of prescience and stunning insight.
posted by digaman at 8:43 AM on January 26

It always seems near-delusional when columnists/talking heads/people of the media proclaim the conservative era started by Reagn to be "good" or "principled" or somehow cloaked in a pleasant nostalgia when the current stated of totalfuckedness of our economy and country in general can be directly traced back to actions and principles ushered in by Ronnie. It's mind-boggling. It's like Blagojevich-level delusion. It makes otherwise intelligent-seeming people seem very stupid and dangerous.
posted by xmutex at 8:43 AM on January 26 [16 favorites has favorites]

Nice post. I always liked reading Bill Kristol because he at least seems to possess a sense of humour.

Interesting tidbit:

For some reason, Obama didn’t identify the author of “these timeless words” — the only words quoted in the entire speech. He’s Thomas Paine, and the passage comes from the first in his series of Revolutionary War tracts, “The Crisis.” Obama chose to cloak his quotation from the sometimes intemperate Paine in the authority of the respectable George Washington.

What do Americans thinks about Thomas Paine? I've always thought he was a bit of an agitator and buffoon...
posted by KokuRyu at 8:47 AM on January 26

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.
posted by plexi at 8:48 AM on January 26 [4 favorites has favorites]

"Conservatives have been right more often than not -- and more often than liberals -- about most of the important issues of the day

...which would, naturally, lead to "the end of a conservative era."
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:48 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Running this through the Kristol-inverter I conclude:

• Conservatism has sucked
• Not going anywhere
• Liberalism's 'fate' does not depend on the next 100 days: it's a coherent and popular ideology which will outlast any particular candidate.
• we may be able to predict quite accurately Obama's governance will be like, but not by paying attention to speeches meant for mass consumption.
• Kristol will not shut up anytime soon

Yeah, that seems right. Thanks Bill!
posted by a robot made out of meat at 8:49 AM on January 26 [23 favorites has favorites]

When will these assholes die so we can put this ridiculous false dichotomy of conservative/liberal to bed for good? It's idiots like this that exist solely to push this agenda as stool pigeons of the powers that be that are killing this country. DIE ALREADY so we can have a new perspective in this country. Wasn't it Obama who said in his speech 'the ground has shifted under you' to those who keep trying to sow this kind of crap? GO AWAY PLEASE!
posted by spicynuts at 8:49 AM on January 26

Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of.

You mean the O'Neill-Wright-Foley-Clinton-Pelosi years? Yeah, good times.
posted by DU at 8:51 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

If I ever meet Kristol, I hope one of those Men in Black flashy things is handy - the kind with a Complete Delete setting.


Or a Louisville Slugger.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:51 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world grow up and become them.
posted by rocket88 at 8:57 AM on January 26 [15 favorites has favorites]

The thing that's so disgusting about Bill Kristol is that you get the sense that he's a decently intelligent guy but lacks any sense of morals or ethics. He's decided the way to make it is to push his bullshit neo-con lies and does so in the face of any and all evidence that the policies he supports are bullshit. He exists purely to be an ideology-pusher, and he seems to not give a shit whether or not what he says is true as long as he gets to say it publicly and get paid for it. Watching his appearances on the Daily Show is the closest thing I have to an ipecac because he clearly doesn't give a shit about right or wrong or anything but Bill Kristol's bottom line.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:01 AM on January 26 [4 favorites has favorites]

...he clearly doesn't give a shit about right or wrong or anything but Bill Kristol's bottom line.

I.e. Republican.
posted by DU at 9:03 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Bush Dies Peacefully in His Sleep
posted by R. Mutt at 9:11 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.

Ermm I don't want to see my parents die actually. That doesn't feel good at all.
posted by xmutex at 9:12 AM on January 26 [4 favorites has favorites]

Kristol inverter? Shurely you mean a Kristol ball - a bit like a crystal ball but inexplicably less successful at dictating the future.
posted by MuffinMan at 9:14 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is Bill Kristol leaving his columnist job because his position was only 1 year long? Or is he leaving for some other reason? I would have thought he would have relished being a conservative commentator for the liberal Times during a Democratic administration.
posted by bluefly at 9:15 AM on January 26

"he seems to not give a shit whether or not what he says is true as long as he gets to say it publicly and get paid for it"

Are people really naive enough to not know this implicitly? Isn't that, in complete transparent fact, his job?
posted by aapep at 9:15 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

He clearly doesn't give a shit about right or wrong or anything but Bill Kristol's bottom line.

Ah, neo-conservatism defined!
posted by Happy Dave at 9:16 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

So now that Obama's moment has arrived, the NYT geniuses now feel it's safe to drop one of the most consistently wrong-headed neocon mouthpieces as a columnist? I couldn't be more happy to see Kristol go (a sense of humor, KokuRyu? Really? Would you happen to have any examples?), but the stench attached to the Times' decision - in 2007, for cryin' out loud - to reward Kristol's despicable deceptions and rabid warmongering with a plum editorial job will never go away.

Never.

Fuck the NYT geniuses for that one.
posted by mediareport at 9:17 AM on January 26 [9 favorites has favorites]

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.

If the sentiment in your first sentence is a reflection of the world to come - presumably remade in the image of the younger generation you feel you represent - count me out. Sounds like a miserable shitpile of ignorant malice.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:21 AM on January 26 [5 favorites has favorites]

I went to a job placement agency. I told them I'm a terrible writer who is exactly wrong all the time about everything. They told me that they had something opening up.
posted by I Foody at 9:21 AM on January 26 [13 favorites has favorites]

grow up and become them.

Yes. Clearly the Boomers are the bestest generation ever and any generation that thinks it might be able to do a bit better than the post-Reagan era which it brought us is laughably naive and idealistic. The Boomers represent a cultural and political zenith in the history of human civilization which will never be surpassed.

Whatever gets you through the night, guys.
posted by enn at 9:25 AM on January 26 [6 favorites has favorites]

Did Krystol write that column from some bizzaro world where the "conservatism" of Bush and his cronies didn't trash the U.S.'s reputation around the world, inflame the Middle East to new extremes of peril, and unleash unthinking greed with catastrophic results including a worldwide economic crisis and accelerated damage to global ecosystems?

He must have tapped that out to comfort himself as he takes his leave in his priviledged bubble where little of all that will impact his comfortable lifestyle, as he sits with his permanent smug half-smile in the back of his town car.
posted by longsleeves at 9:26 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

No, this is just a gear up for changing the spelling or pronunciation of his name again. He'll be back. Watch his quasi-nonsensical news babble turn to shill somewhere, ADM, lobbyist, C?O, ...
posted by buzzman at 9:30 AM on January 26

This is William Kristol’s last column.

This is the only correct statement ever written in a William Kristol article.
posted by dirigibleman at 9:36 AM on January 26 [7 favorites has favorites]

After reading that column I instinctively checked the calendar to see if it was April 1st.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 9:39 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Clearly the Boomers are the bestest generation ever and any generation that thinks it might be able to do a bit better than the post-Reagan era which it brought us is laughably naive and idealistic.

People are pretty much the same wherever (or whenever) you go. If the Boomers squandered their wealth on empire and toys, it's no more or less than those coming up would have done in the same circumstances. And the young 'uns are in fact naive to imagine otherwise. But that's OK - they'll grow out of it.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:46 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yes. Clearly the Boomers are the bestest generation ever and any generation that thinks it might be able to do a bit better than the post-Reagan era

I think you missed his point. Which is, actually, kind of a cynical point. However, history shows people don't learn. The boomers thought they were gonna change the world too. They did, I guess...I mean, they gave us Classic Rock. Is that Freedom Rock, dude?? Well, TURN IT UP!!!
posted by spicynuts at 9:49 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

"Evidence that Iraq may have aided in the horrific attacks of September 11 is beginning to accumulate,"
–William Kristol October 1 2001
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:50 AM on January 26 [11 favorites has favorites]

"Let us be clear: Neither we nor the Bush administration ever suggested that Saddam Hussein collaborated in or had foreknowledge of the 9/11 plot."
–William Kristol, July 26 2004
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:51 AM on January 26 [10 favorites has favorites]

Oh, I forgot I had Kristol's head shot Adblocked.
posted by hellojed at 9:51 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

People are pretty much the same wherever (or whenever) you go.

The entire progression of human civilization would indicate otherwise. We do in fact learn from the past and try to do things differently and better each time, thus the term progress. We don't do it perfectly, which is why "history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme". --Mark Twain

And the young 'uns are in fact naive to imagine otherwise.

The only thing naive here is your cynicism.
posted by butterstick at 9:51 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

"[McCain and Palin are] gonna win tuesday night. It's gonna be huge"
-William Kristol, October 30 2008
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:52 AM on January 26 [7 favorites has favorites]

I could go on - and on and on and on - but it's clear now and has been clear for over a decade that Bill Kristol is America's dumbest fucking conservative, and his presence on the NYT editorial page signified both America's love of nepotism, dynasty, and affirmative action for retarded old white men.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:54 AM on January 26 [16 favorites has favorites]

The entire progression of human civilization would indicate otherwise.

Unless you can point to some human evil - greed, slavery, torture, religious zealotry, etc. - that is less widely practiced today than in centuries past, I think your use of the term "progression" incorrect.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:04 AM on January 26

Are people really naive enough to not know this implicitly? Isn't that, in complete transparent fact, his job?

There are columnists and, gasp, even Republicans who seem to be entirely earnest in their beliefs. I may disagree with their beliefs, but they think they are doing the right thing. I would even put Bush in that category. Then there are people like Kristol and Cheney, who could be offered irrefutable evidence that they were working for Satan and wouldn't give a fuck if it earned them an extra dime.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:11 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.


Oh yeah, this is pretty much how we thought almost exactly 40 years ago. We were so certain that we were really going to radically change the world. But things don't work the way we think they do. Do you think that the US would have elected a liberal, black president if we hadn't had the eight years of Bush &Co.?
posted by Hobgoblin at 10:16 AM on January 26

it's clear now and has been clear for over a decade that Bill Kristol is America's dumbest fucking conservative

you forgot jonah goldberg.
posted by klanawa at 10:17 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Joe Beese : Unless you can point to some human evil - greed, slavery, torture, religious zealotry, etc. - that is less widely practiced today than in centuries past, I think your use of the term "progression" incorrect.

You seriously think there as many people impacted by greed, slavery, torture and religious zeal in the world as there ever was? I want to be sure I am interpreting your point correctly before I order you a history book from Amazon.
posted by butterstick at 10:18 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Unless you can point to some human evil - greed, slavery, torture, religious zealotry, etc. - that is less widely practiced today than in centuries past

Well, in the US, at least a few of those. We don't practice legal slavery and we don't burn witches at the stake anymore. Greed is a bit amorphous, how does one eliminate that? Religious zealotry mostly agitates for legal recognition or hides from the government's view. Torture, well apparently the new guy has a few ideas about improving that.

Unless you think "complete elimination of" is the only measure of "progress." But that would be weird.
posted by emjaybee at 10:22 AM on January 26

Oh yeah, this is pretty much how we thought almost exactly 40 years ago. We were so certain that we were really going to radically change the world. But things don't work the way we think they do. Do you think that the US would have elected a liberal, black president if we hadn't had the eight years of Bush &Co.? fought like hell during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s?

Totally fixed that for me. Wow, the cynics are really out today... look, this is just an example of one generation making the world a little bit better for the next. This is progress.

Bush just made "now" the right time for it.
posted by butterstick at 10:25 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think you missed his point. Which is, actually, kind of a cynical point. However, history shows people don't learn. The boomers thought they were gonna change the world too. They did, I guess...I mean, they gave us Classic Rock. Is that Freedom Rock, dude?? Well, TURN IT UP!!!

I got his point. It's just that he's wrong. The abolitionists thought they were going to change the world, and they did. The New Dealers thought they were going to change the world, and they did. The people fighting the Second World War thought they were going to change the world, and they did. The failure of the boomers in their later years is not an event from which one may extrapolate universals, hard though that may be for some of them to comprehend. I heard some guy talking about this the other day. Hey guys, he said, just because you've been electing mediocrities for the last forty years doesn't mean that's the way it's always been, or has got to be. Except he was a little nicer about it than that: "Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short." Imagine if we had a guy like that in charge!
posted by enn at 10:25 AM on January 26 [6 favorites has favorites]

I can't catch the bus without having electrodes attached to my balls.

And fuck, are people seriously defending baby boomers here? For reals?
posted by chunking express at 10:27 AM on January 26

Not to get into a debate about the existence or non-existence of "progress" but simply pointing to numbers is a pretty lame metric. You have to look at the way various social and cultural ills figure into the larger structure. For example, torture: we no longer have the public torture and executions of criminals. However, the last 8 years has made it clear that many people in the world, including in the supposedly enlightened US, are willing to tolerate torture as long as it is performed out of the public eye or renamed so that their consciences don't have to suffer. While the number of people tortured by any given society may be less than it was 400 years ago, the fact that it can exist and be officially condoned or unofficially winked at demonstrates that the idea that things have undoubtedly "progressed" need to at least be qualified in some way. On the same subject: prison rape. Many people in the US view it as a joke or as some sort of deserved extra punishment for criminals. But, it is arguably a form of sexual torture, allowed by (if not carried out by) prison officials. It is not an official policy, but it is something that is largely tolerated, if not celebrated, by many people. Is that progress?

Another example: animal rights. We no longer have bear baitings, and dog fights and such are illegal and generally condemned by most people. That's good. Yet we also have an institutionalized food industry that keeps animals in horrible conditions and slaughters who knows how many hundreds of thousands (or perhaps even into the millions?) of animals every year. Most people do not give a shit because, just like prison rape or waterboarding, it is done out of the public eye. Is that progress? I'm not saying there is no such thing as progress, I'm saying that you have to be very very careful and specific about how you define and measure it, otherwise it becomes a meaningless term.


And Bill Kristol is a moron.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:29 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

The entire progression of human civilization would indicate otherwise.

Unless you can point to some human evil - greed, slavery, torture, religious zealotry, etc. - that is less widely practiced today than in centuries past, I think your use of the term "progression" incorrect.

Although in terms of raw numbers, there are more enslaved people on Earth right now than ever before in history, by percentage there are fewer enslaved people than there have ever been. Although maybe "progression" isn't the right term, at least you can give us as a species credit for practicing gradually more subtle forms of evil. And (and maybe this is something actually hopeful) for developing a consensus that certain of the evils we practice are in fact evil.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:35 AM on January 26

Okay, enough Boomer hating. Here's what we didn't do-- change the world the way we said we would. Our younger brothers and sisters at the tale end of the Boom and the leading edge of Gen X allowed themselves to be sucked into the Consumers Paradise. We older and middle Boomers were asleep at the switch and let it happen.

Here's what we did do-- we are your parents. We apparently taught you, supported you and empowered you to finish the job that we started. We got out there this time, with you, and helped you elect a president who will fulfill the promise or make a good try.

I consider Obama not only the next best hope for the world, but also the redemption of the promise that the post war generation, popularly known as the Boomers, made. Perhaps, millennials, he would not be there without you.

But you would not be here without us.
posted by nax at 10:37 AM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

Also, Bill Kristol is an idiot.
posted by nax at 10:37 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

Hi dad!
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:40 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

"You seriously think there as many people impacted by greed, slavery, torture and religious zeal in the world as there ever was? I want to be sure I am interpreting your point correctly before I order you a history book from Amazon."

butterstick - Skip the book purchase, you might want to pick up a newspaper.

Institutional greed has been the *the plan* for the U.S. economy for the last eight years. Even the Fed chairman says so. And similar business models are the reason the whole world is suffering from our mortgage/credit crisis.

Estimates of current slavery start at 27 million people in some form of slavery and go up from there.

Religious extremism is the root cause of wars, bombings, terrorism, torture, etc which hardly seem "deminished" just glancing at the headlines lately.

And torture seems to be pretty freakin common these days.
posted by aapep at 10:42 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Bill Kristol is America's dumbest fucking conservative

Which is a hell of a feat, given the last 28 years of centrist to extremist conservative government and mainstream media.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:42 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Saxon, I get what you're saying, but I think we can still find some middle ground where progress isn't meaningless, yet isn't very well quantified in the moral calculus of it all.

I'm ok with saying we no longer torture animals for sport, we torture them so we can eat conveniently; and that is progress.

The state no longer tortures prisoners, but they torture each other and we don't do a good enough job stopping them; and that is progress.

The quantification you're after would no doubt be useful, but the cost required makes it in itself unrealistic. We'll never agree on all the minutia to be weighed and to what degrees. That's why I tend to let the historians do that work. Bill Kristol won't even register to them.

I wonder if the NYT is goint to replace him with some other prominent conservative? Can we get someone we've never heard off who does more than toe the GOP line? Don't they want their party back?
posted by butterstick at 10:42 AM on January 26

I wonder if the NYT is goint to replace him with some other prominent conservative?

"One of those people is Joe Wurzelbacher, a k a Joe the Plumber. He’s the latest ordinary American to do a star turn in our vulgar democratic circus. He seems like a sensible man to me."
-William Kristol, October 20, 2008
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:46 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Not to derail the Kristol hate, which I wholeheartedly share, but the photos in the OP are pretty cool too. Those last three shots on that page really are amazing and like no other photos of Bush I've ever seen. Is the commentary there right? Was Bush crying behind the closed door? And if so, could we ever hope (pray?) that he might have a sense of regret? Or is he only regretting his loss of power?
posted by dellsolace at 10:55 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

What do Americans thinks about Thomas Paine?

Late in his life he skirted being an public atheist back when that was a dangerous idea (well, more dangerous than it is now).

One of the first to lay out the Georgist moral philosophy in Agrarian Justice, which Henry George of course extended into the best-selling work of the 19th century. Apparently his 1776 monograph Common Sense was the best-selling work of the 18th century.

An unknown hero.
posted by troy at 10:56 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

aapep : Institutional greed has been the *the plan* for the U.S. economy for the last eight years. Even the Fed chairman says so. And similar business models are the reason the whole world is suffering from our mortgage/credit crisis.

Sure. No argument there. But we're not going to respond to it the way Herbert Hoover did, because we learned from that. Fed and Treasury have even said as much. At the very least we know what NOT to do. Say what you like about the nightmare that is TARP, at least it's not raising taxes and trying to balance the budget like Hoover did. So again, that's progress.

Estimates of current slavery start at 27 million people in some form of slavery and go up from there.

Yes, slavery is bad. Is it as bad as it was in the colonial era?

Religious extremism is the root cause of wars, bombings, terrorism, torture, etc which hardly seem "deminished" just glancing at the headlines lately.

This is a more debatable point, but it still pales in comparison to the religious wars of the past. The Crusades? I would also argue that the Global War on Terror which you're referring to is not 100% about religion; it's just a really good recruiting tool when your only weapon is an undereducated populace who you need to convince to take some very risky actions against your enemy.

And torture seems to be pretty freakin common these days.

Media saturation, just because you hear a lot about it doesn't mean we've returned to the era's of Mao, Stalin, Hitler, blah blah blah.

So yeah, newspapers are great and all, but you must have some context. Any one of these things above is bad on it's own, but you can't debate progress without the context you're progressing from and towards.

and on preview.... I hope his by-line reads Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher.
posted by butterstick at 10:56 AM on January 26

"[McCain and Palin are] gonna win tuesday night. It's gonna be huge"
-William Kristol, October 30 2008


In fairness to Kristol, (though, like, why?) he was kidding on the Daily Show when he said that.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:02 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Not to derail the Kristol hate, which I wholeheartedly share, but the photos in the OP are pretty cool too.

Thanks for posting this. I would have skipped that whole thing otherwise. Fascinating.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:13 AM on January 26

So what did you think of the Bush pictures? I personally was shocked...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 11:17 AM on January 26

The source makes clear that the decision not to renew Kristol’s contract is not related to his neoconservative ideology...

The problems that emerged were more fundamental. Kristol’s writing wasn’t compelling or even very careful.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:20 AM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

An unknown hero.

I would go with little-known rather than unkown, but yeah. Common Sense should be required reading in high school, since it's one of the first documents to lay out what would later become the ideal of America.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:21 AM on January 26

The best part about that long photo feature was hearing why different pros pick different versions of the same photo.

This photo of Bush is pretty stunning, but I would look that distressed and haggard if I were just ending an 8-year presidency so full of fail.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:24 AM on January 26

The pictures certainly showed how controlled our image of the President (any President, not just Bush) is. What's amazing is that this control obviously broke down for a moment there, with Bush not waiting for the press to clear out before returning to say goodbye to his people. I don't think I've ever seen a photo of any President that is quite so stark and clearly unplanned.

It doesn't make me feel more sympathetic to the guy, but I do find it comforting to know he's human, not just a Cheney-like machine. Actually, "comforting" is not the right word. I'm not sure what is the right word. And again, he may just be upset on a personal level, because he's leaving office and the world hates him. He may not care why the world hates him, but I think it hurts him that they do.

And no, I am not bothered by that thought.
posted by dellsolace at 11:27 AM on January 26

Okay, enough Boomer hating.

Bitch didn't want me to hate her, bitch shouldn't have shot Adama.

Here's what we did do-- we are your parents. We apparently taught you, supported you and empowered you to finish the job that we started.

So you're saying that the boomers are great because... their reproductive tracts work? I like the implication that you taught us (X-ers in my case) by leading us in some especially positive way instead of by providing a cautionary example.

We got out there this time, with you, and helped you elect a president who will fulfill the promise or make a good try.

Actually, you didn't. According to the exit polls I can conveniently find, boomers were a wash.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:27 AM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

"If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning"
posted by bonehead at 11:37 AM on January 26

"Conservatives have been right more often than not -- and more often than liberals -- about most of the important issues of the day

...which would, naturally, lead to "the end of a conservative era."

Just for the sheer, giddy intellectual challenge of trying to defend the idiot Bill Kristol -- it's not conceptually impossible that conservatism could be a victim of its own success. When you spend every minute of your life calling for government to be made smaller, and government (outside of defense spending and certain other vast exceptions to the rule) is indeed made smaller, it's logical that you'd arrive at a point at which government was small enough for most people, whereupon the conservative call for small government would start to look like a call for a too-small government. At this point, the success of conservatism would indeed lead to the end of conservatism. How far any of that has actually happened is debatable, of course.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 11:38 AM on January 26

Yet we also have an institutionalized food industry that keeps animals in horrible conditions and slaughters who knows how many hundreds of thousands (or perhaps even into the millions?) of animals every year.

In the US: 10 billion. Globally: 60 billion.
posted by nooneyouknow at 11:48 AM on January 26

I was raised to believe that Thomas Payne was one of the revolution's unsung heroes, mostly for putting high-falutin' ideas about liberty and independence into straight-forward terms the guy at the docks could not only understand but appreciate and embrace. The country's first columnist, I suppose.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:55 AM on January 26

The Republican Party is the 'me' party. The Democratic Party is the 'we' party. It really does seem that simple to me. Conservatives say stuff like, 'Work hard, take care of yourself, be self-sufficient, and if there are people suffering, well, let them help themselves (unless they're not born yet, in which case, don't let them die until AFTER they're born).' The liberals say stuff like, 'We need a clean environment and social justice and health care and education for all, because that's good for all of us as a society.'

The selfish 'me' stuff only works for so long, until things start breaking down and people have to choose between working together or letting everything fall into anarchy. By electing Obama, I think we have made the choice to work together for our collective good rather than our individual good. Or at least I hope so.
posted by jamstigator at 12:15 PM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

Wow. Nothing that preceded you mattered. Nothing that came before had any impact. Oo did it all oo widdoo selves.

Thank you for reinforcing all my prejudices about what self-centered little idiots you are.
posted by nax at 12:26 PM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Does this really need to be the generational cock-measuring contest?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:29 PM on January 26 [4 favorites has favorites]

A masterful summary of Thomas Paine's life and legacy by american patriot Peter Bagge.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:33 PM on January 26

Does this really need to be the generational cock-measuring contest?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:29 PM on January 26

Yeah, I could take it or leave it each time this happens.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:47 PM on January 26

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.

Haha! I'm younger than you, fuckface!
posted by chugg at 12:58 PM on January 26

Between William Kristol and Thomas Friedman, I'm wondering who the hell decides these guys should be public voices. I'm actually boggling at this. I mean, I can string together a few words in a reasonably coherent fashion. (Well, sometimes.) Why not me?

I recognize that these guys are Educated and Important, but their education doesn't seem to have made them right, and their importance has only served to magnify the damage they do. Those things don't seem to be awfully useful selection criteria right now.

I promise, if I'm elected New York Times columnist or Popular Macroeconomics Book Author, that I'll devote every word of every column to computer game, British humor, and Mystery Science Theater-related issues. Check my posting history for proof. I make no apologizes for this, and propose that it will be an improvement.

(Holding out Colbertian gimmie-hand) Career, please!
posted by JHarris at 1:14 PM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

So the correct response to someone who has some hope for changing the world is to tell l them they're insane and pathetic and naive? I don't know,,, that might just makes the world EVEN WORSE! It's good to warn newcomers about traps , but crushing enthusiasm of the idea of making a better world, that's just blind cynicism. If that's how ya feel then keep it to yourself so it can corrode your stomach lining , and kill you. Let people have some hope.

The boomers get big credit for classic rock, but not much for STDs.
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:21 PM on January 26

One of Conservatism's most successful policies----- The Drug War!!!!!!
posted by Liquidwolf at 1:22 PM on January 26

Oh for God's sake. He didn't even know that Presidents don't carry their own umbrellas? I guess it's only fitting.
posted by rusty at 1:28 PM on January 26

Does this really need to be the generational cock-measuring contest?

The generation that sat in lines for gasoline at the pump in their 20s and 30s was the same that produced and consumed SUVs and pickup trucks as consumer vehicles to be used in daily commutes.

The generation that was drafted into a ludicrous war in Vietnam that exemplified everything that was wrong with American military policy was the same that dropped our men and women into Iraq, continuing a ham-fisted policy of military might over diplomatic finesse.

The generation that watched the Savings and Loans scandals unfold was the same that produced the economic atmosphere that let our banks produce an unhealthy economy, a housing bubble, and this current recession. The generation that saw McCain's connections to Charles Keating during those scandals was the same that nominated him for President in 2008, and nearly did so in 2000!

They call us "lazy", but they are the first generation in a long time to essentially live it up while they drank greedily from their children's futures. Our generation is the first in over 100 years to have a standard of living lower than that of our parents. The first to earn less on average in inflation-adjusted dollars than our parents.

So yeah. I love my Baby Boomer parents, but as a generation, they've definitely not done so well by America. In the "generational cock-measuring contest," they win. They've definitely dicked up America more than any other.
posted by explosion at 1:40 PM on January 26 [7 favorites has favorites]

For some reason, Obama didn’t identify the author of “these timeless words” — the only words quoted in the entire speech. He’s Thomas Paine, and the passage comes from the first in his series of Revolutionary War tracts, “The Crisis.” Obama chose to cloak his quotation from the sometimes intemperate Paine in the authority of the respectable George Washington.

What do Americans thinks about Thomas Paine? I've always thought he was a bit of an agitator and buffoon...

Most of us think of him as "...author of the firey pamphlet Common Sense...," which is the one sentence he gets in just about every high school textbook ever printed.

I love the idea that Obama somehow shied away from him because he was too controversial. Maybe he was afraid someone with a handlebar mustache would be offended and challenge him to a vigorous bout of 30s style boxing?
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:45 PM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thank you for reinforcing all my prejudices about what self-centered little idiots you are.

Now I know who's buying all those tickets to Gran Torino.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:47 PM on January 26

I really like this photograph. It's a circus clown car.
posted by mattoxic at 1:52 PM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

Don't make me post the Brokencyde video again to prove you are all a bunch of old folks with lawn care issues.

Generational wars are baseless media-created demographic-clashes that only Douglas Copeland-addled 13th-Gen devouring suburban kids who wanted an identity to be defensive about in 1995 when everyone was choosing identity endzones could love. Every generation is 90% meh 9% suck and 1% wanna-be genius. Think about your HS. How many of those people were world-changers and how many were total destructive assholes? Few of each, amirite? Now multiply that by the entire history of humanity. Every now and then something awesome occurs, whether winning WWII or marching for civil rights or tearing down the Berlin Wall. The people involved in these things aren't special magical wizards, they just got lucky to be pointed all in the right direction at the same time. Be grateful for the individual sacrifices of the past, and try to do better yourself in the future. If we get praise for Obama, we're to blame for Bush (Yes I'm Talking To You). So let's not break our necks sucking our own as yet un-wrinkled dicks just now shall we?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 2:08 PM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

An interesting derail, but it totally misses the point of my "grow up and become them" comment.
Even if our (your?...I'm on the cusp) generation don't abandon our ideals and turn into dottering old conservatives, the next generation after us will still despise us and relish the day we and our old ways fade away and they take over to "remake the world".
posted by rocket88 at 3:00 PM on January 26

Damn it feels good to be young, to watch the older generation die away. We'll have time to be sad for them after we remake the world.

If only all of _____________ would just die off and then we, the inheritors, will live in a blissful utopia of our own conceits.

How history repeats. Takes a curious and rather fascistic douche bag to believe in that kind of bullshit. But, hey. Speaking as a 1963 borne Gex Xer on the Cusp of Boomer... Good luck kids.

They call us "lazy", but they are the first generation in a long time to essentially live it up while they drank greedily from their children's futures. Our generation is the first in over 100 years to have a standard of living lower than that of our parents. The first to earn less on average in inflation-adjusted dollars than our parents.

What makes you think you deserved to live better than your parents. For fuck sake that expectation IS THE PROBLEM. Your parents didn't 'deserve' to live the way did. And neither do you. Yeah. The dream is coming to an end becuase it was a fucking illusion in the first place. This lifestyle correction HAD to happen. So you wanted it to happen with your kids?

You want to solve this problem then a shit load more people than just your parents are gonna have to die so a yet another whiny-ass self indulgent segment of earths population can live like people in the West did in the 1950's or 1960's. Let alone the 1990's.
posted by tkchrist at 3:07 PM on January 26

What do Americans thinks about Thomas Paine? I've always thought he was a bit of an agitator and buffoon...

And a whole lot of more admirable things, besides. Surely your appreciation doesn't stop at "agitator and buffoon"?

He was brilliant, courageous and arguably the first American punk. For courage, vision and inspiration at a critically dark time for American independence it's hard to beat his example. That Peter Bagge comic is funny and gets in some great pokes, but Scott Liell's 46 Pages: Thomas Paine, Common Sense and the Turning Point to Independence is probably a better place to start for folks who don't know anything about him; it's a wonderfully concise look at just why Paine is so important to the creation of the USA. Chapter 6 looks closely at the immediate aftermath of the publication of that little pamphlet; it makes a very convincing case for Paine's importance - far beyond most other single individuals of the time. That he was a prickly irreligious fuck who had a bad time later on doesn't lessen that importance, but does explain why he gets shafted by some history books.
posted by mediareport at 3:30 PM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

nax wrote "Thank you for reinforcing all my prejudices about what self-centered little idiots you are."

Funny, I always thought it was the other way around. Here's a recap in case you've forgotten the pattern of the last 50 years:

1960s: You're young, you're at the mercy of the bad decisions made by your elders, so you rebel against them, take a lot of drugs, chase a lot of tail, protest against wars that kill your friends and try as hard as you can to save as much of the planet as possible so you have something to look forward to in the future. You treat your parents like shit, because they're stuck in the past, and their Depression-era mentality doesn't sit right in your free-wheeling world. In short, it's all about you, and fuck everyone else because they don't get it, man.

1970s: You start having kids. You also start settling down. You're still fairly young, but you're moving on to better drugs. You still care about things like the environment, but you care more due to monetary reasons than to idealism. Aside from wishing gas was cheaper, as long as you have clean parks to take the kids to, you don't worry as much as you used to. You're also starting to realize that your education is helping you make more money than your parents ever did, and you start trying to live better than they did as well. It's still all about you, because you're doing it for your kids, right?

1980s: You're becoming the man now. You're making money. Business is booming, so you make damn sure nothing stops you from making as much as possible. Your drugs are more expensive but you still take them. Your kids are starting to hate you for not being home and for your two-faced attitudes, and you're starting to hate them because they don't like your music and because you strongly suspect they are taking the same drugs you used to so vigorously defend in the 1960s. You start pushing for legislation to ensure that your kids can't enjoy the same freedom you did at their age, starting a 30-plus year cycle of micromanagement of their personal lives, hysterical drug paranoia, overinflated fears of stranger-danger and near-criminalization of anything to do with sex. You're pretty sure your parents are going to ruin your retirement, so you start planning on moving them somewhere you won't have to deal with them. It's still all about you, because you only live once so you might as well live in the fast lane.

1990s: As you move towards retirement and get into politics, you start feeling guilty about sticking mom and dad in that nursing home, so you spend a whole lot of time praising the "greatest generation" to make yourself feel better. Of course, at the same time, you're pushing legislation to deregulate industries and fuck with Social Security, because hey, when drug companies are making fat cash off mom and dad your stock portfolio gets bigger, and you're retiring on that instead of relying on the government. It works so well, you make damn sure that oil stays cheap and business don't need to pay taxes or offer healthcare, because your bottom line is the most important thing in the world. The environment? Hell, what does it matter if some trees get clear-cut or some otters get oiled or some slave workers in Africa trash the countryside looking for raw materials? You need that hardwood floor for the vacation home, cheap gas for your SUV and boat, and that anniversary stone isn't going to dig itself out of the ground now, is it? Screw your kids, they're taking out college loans and beginning to buy their first homes, so of course you make sure that you get your cut. It's all about you, because you need to make sure you are secure for the future, and you won't be around long enough for the rest to matter.

2000s: Oh, you're coming in to it now, aren't you? These are your golden years, the kids are grown and grandkids are there when you want them. Your health is good, so long as you have the pills to keep your cholesterol down and your dick up. You can still mostly afford them because you invested wisely, and you can live on your pension if it comes to it, so you don't understand why everyone younger than you can't just do the same, because you conveniently forgot that you fucked the stock market, fucked Social Security, fucked health care, and fucked the pension plans when you decided to move the plant overseas 10 years ago. No, your focus now is on your health and your nest egg, they're your primary concerns, and you need to make sure that there's a plan to keep the pills coming. You complain about how expensive health care is for you, conveniently forgetting that a big part of it is due to all those medical malpractice lawsuits you filed and the laws you passed to allow corporations to line their pockets at the expense of everyone in the country. As your mortality looms you have of course found Jesus, and you want to make damn sure everyone else finds Him too.

It's still all about you, isn't it? Perhaps when you die it can be about us for once. Except even then, we'll be in therapy trying to figure out why we have so many problems, and eventually we'll discover that, too, is all about you.
posted by caution live frogs at 3:39 PM on January 26 [3 favorites has favorites]

So yeah. I love my Baby Boomer parents, but as a generation, they've definitely not done so well by America. In the "generational cock-measuring contest," they win. They've definitely dicked up America more than any other.

Let me put this another way:

Replace "generation" with any given race or nationality in these same criticisms you've made. The logic of blasting an entire generation for the crimes of a few holds about as much water as pointing to crime statistics to back up blanket statements about a minority or ethnic group. In all instances, you're leveling charges against millions of people based on the actions of a few, with whom the only thing they have in common are immutable circumstances of birth, in this case, year of birth.

Yeah, I know the blowhards who claim mutual victories for things other people their age accomplished, things in which they took no real active part, which is about on par with listening to some peckerwood brag about the achievements of the white race. But equally dumb is to basically say, "All you people born between 1945 and 1955: you have dicked up America more than any other".
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:45 PM on January 26 [2 favorites has favorites]

This is William Kristol’s last column.

This is the only correct statement ever written in a William Kristol article.

Sadly, even this is wrong. Wonkette reports that he's just been hired to do the same shite over at the Washington Post.
posted by jokeefe at 3:51 PM on January 26

Caution Live Frogs that was the most insipid, bitter, and idiotic diatribe I have seen in a long time on the blue. Congratulations.

You realize that resource over-exploitation has been happening since... oh... since humans could run entire herds of Bison off of cliffs, leaving hundreds to rot in the sun, just so's they could eat maybe ten of them.

The fact is this generation you want to so bitterly blame for all worlds ills was simply the logical extension of cumulative human successes (and failures) where more people could live with more. In fact it's no coincidence world population tripled with in a century and half once certain technological and economic innovations spread globally. Every single culture since the dawn of fucking man would have done exactly the same thing as these evil yuppies if they had the technology.

Nobody really understood it was species suicide. Now we do. So fix it. And stop bitching.

Me. I still blame the Kaiser and the pernicious Hun!
posted by tkchrist at 4:01 PM on January 26

Wonkette reports that he's just been hired to do the same shite over at the Washington Post.

*throws half-eaten container of low-fat strawberry yogurt at the wall, kicks chair*

Ah well. I would've missed the guy anyway. He's like the Don Rickles of columnists. So offensively wrong, but not for the reasons he thinks he is.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:04 PM on January 26

Bill Kristol is so wrong he belongs on the Island of Misfit Toys.

He is so despised that every single night as Kristol tucks his kids to sleep, and he leans over and says "Good night, dear," his six year old daughter replies "Don't you dare kiss me, you relentless douche bag."
posted by tkchrist at 4:12 PM on January 26 [7 favorites has favorites]

to do the same shite over at the Washington Post

Only once a month, according to that Daily Beast article. It's pretty obviously a business move on the Post's part to get some benefit from the controversy without giving Kristol much of a platform, really. But I will bet they're paying him more than some of their starting reporters for his once-a-month gig.
posted by mediareport at 4:12 PM on January 26

Oh, and caution live frogs: you're just embarrassing yourself with those hilariously dumb and bigoted generalizations. You should probably consider stopping soon.
posted by mediareport at 4:13 PM on January 26

I wish some of this disgust were directed not toward commentators and propagandists like Kristol, but to the media outlets that give them such prominent voice. You can be absolutely morally bankrupt, wrong about every single thing you say, and willfully obtuse when citing opponents' positions and statements, but as long as you have some semblance of name recognition or influence, the news channels will always have a place for you. I don't follow much media-on-media coverage these days, but Brill used to have a pundit-prediction scorecard that should be instituted in these places, with the same level of priority they give to Neilsen ratings.
posted by troybob at 4:21 PM on January 26

>Liberalism’s fate rests on our new president’s shoulders. If Mr. Obama governs successfully, we’re in a new political era. If not, the country will be open to new conservative alternatives.

Watch for his "Sky: Blue; Water: Wet" thinkpiece, to be published in the Science Thursday section.
posted by darth_tedious at 4:31 PM on January 26

I, for one, am satisfied Bill Kristol went out consistent. I mean, there's almost talent in how far is he strays from real concepts such as historical truth, it's like he walks around constantly listening to one of these.

On the generation tip, my father, who was born in 37 in Hungary, survived the Nazis by hiding in attics, watched the Soviets destroy rape and pillage as "liberators," fought in the revolution, was sent for execution and only escaped because a guard forgot to lock the train door, walked 20 miles back to his city, only to leave that night and never see most his family again, then to live in 4 different countries, learning 3 different languages, then put up with raising my spoiled american ass, once remarked on the generations before him with: "you realize how hard they worked and how tough they had it, I mean, compared to them my generation isn't worth shit."

I'm not defending boomers at all. But the statement my dad said made me look hard at myself before wantonly condemning an entire group of several hundred million.

Kristol represents the ugly side of his generation. I am sure the ugly side of mine will prove even more astoundingly stupid (looking at you Jenna).
posted by sarcasman at 4:41 PM on January 26 [4 favorites has favorites]

Not to derail the Kristol hate, which I wholeheartedly share, but the photos in the OP are pretty cool too. Those last three shots on that page really are amazing and like no other photos of Bush I've ever seen. Is the commentary there right? Was Bush crying behind the closed door? And if so, could we ever hope (pray?) that he might have a sense of regret? Or is he only regretting his loss of power?
posted by dellsolace at 1:55 PM on January 26

Those photos brought my scrolling to a dead halt. They are simply shocking. It's clear from those photos that he completely understands the magnitude of the failure of his administration. All I could think of was "Weary is the head that wears the crown."

That is the look of a man who realizes now, at the end, when its too late to do anything about it, that he blew it. He realizes that all his "trusted advisers" lied to him, they all had their own agenda, and they played him. He knows on some very honest level that he's not the manager/executive he tried to convince everyone else he was. He knows he was the dumbest guy in the room. And it's clear he's feeling some guilt and remorse over that.

I think he also realizes, on a much more personal level that he's failed to measure up to the standard set by his father, and considering the paramount importance of his dad in his life, that may be the most crushing realization of all.

I noticed the other day that Bush didn't really pardon all that many people. Certainly nowhere near the laundry list that Clinton pardoned. Most of the people he pardoned were already serving their sentences, and most of the commutations were for drug offenses. Given the kind of administration he ran, one would have expected blanket pardons of dozens of insiders, Wall Street guys, etc. But no. He's finally distancing himself from the truly evil people he hired.

The guy was a colossal fuck-up, but he was never the smug, insufferable fraud that Kristol was.

Oh well. It is what it is. American history was a bizarre Greek tragedy since 1992 when Clinton won. W avenged the metaphorical defeat of his father by defeating Gore, and literally avenged the attack on his father by Saddam by conquering his country and killing him. In the process he tore open so many old wounds from the 60's and 80's that he set in motion Obama's historic rise to the Presidency. What is ironic is that had he not pursued and held the presidency so ruthlessly, Kerry might have been elected in 2004, and Obama would be no more than a democratic party back bencher.

None of that vindicates him or his presidency, but it reminds us that he's a human, and not a caricature.

Oh well. Onwards and forwards. If the new crew (and the rest of us) are as smart, we should have this all wrapped up in a year.

Right?
posted by Pastabagel at 4:58 PM on January 26 [5 favorites has favorites]

forget about Krystol. those last 3 photographs are stunning.
posted by liza at 5:28 PM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

His nose may not have grown based on pronouncements.

The pictures (1, 2, 3) pronounce ... Bush growing knows.
posted by phoque at 5:48 PM on January 26

Given the kind of administration he ran, one would have expected blanket pardons of dozens of insiders, Wall Street guys, etc.

Nah. If he pardoned them, then they couldn't plead the fifth when subpoenaed about other, more important people.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:28 PM on January 26

pastabagel, you are giving Georgie WAY too much credit. My guess is that the time span of those three shots is about 1.7 seconds - it's just a photo montage of George Bush exhaling, or some such action that requires his facial muscles to relax. No doubt leaving office was an emotional thing for him, but to read into it that he had some greater realization about the role he played in history over the last 8 years is WAY off base in my opinion. Why, on the plane home from DC, he and his aids were defending their record against the charges Obama made in his inauguration speech.

Dig this: George W. Bush will go to his grave thinking that he was a good president who helped the country, if not the world. And a certain percentage of the American electorate will agree with and defend that position.

Vive la difference.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 8:55 PM on January 26 [1 favorite has favorites]

now, you'll note in those last three photos that there's a photographer BEHIND the door with George. Show me HIS pics, of a clearly weeping, repentant Bush, and I'll consider changing my tune.
posted by fingers_of_fire at 8:55 PM on January 26

It's clear from those photos that he completely understands the magnitude of the failure of his administration.


I really really really wish I could believe that.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:18 PM on January 26

Only once a month, according to that Daily Beast article. It's pretty obviously a business move on the Post's part to get some benefit from the controversy without giving Kristol much of a platform, really. But I will bet they're paying him more than some of their starting reporters for his once-a-month gig.

It will take a month just for the fact-checking alone.
posted by chillmost at 2:21 AM on January 27

That is the look of a man who realizes now, at the end, when its too late to do anything about it, that he blew it. He realizes that all his "trusted advisers" lied to him, they all had their own agenda, and they played him. He knows on some very honest level that he's not the manager/executive he tried to convince everyone else he was. He knows he was the dumbest guy in the room. And it's clear he's feeling some guilt and remorse over that.

You sure are reading a lot into an attack of gas.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:03 AM on January 27

Yes, slavery is bad. Is it as bad as it was in the colonial era?

Do we have huge national movements fighting to end it the way we did in the late 18th & early 19th centuries? Would the US population and government be willing to go to war to end slavery? (I know that the Civil War was more complex than that, I'm simplifying for the sake of argument.)
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:49 AM on January 27

"Caution Live Frogs that was the most insipid, bitter, and idiotic diatribe I have seen in a long time on the blue. Congratulations."

Thank you. I do what I can to uphold the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. In fact I hope to see that diatribe as a major motion picture soon. Or at least a miniseries. To be honest it turned out a lot more bitter than I intended it at first, but it was just so goddamn fun to write once I got started. I mean, come on - pills to keep your cholesterol down and your dick up? That's comedy gold right there.

Besides, every word there can be proven to be based in reality. I'm sure of it. Which is why I used the diatribe as an example of my fine writing skills when I submitted my columnist application to the NYT.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:16 AM on January 27 [1 favorite has favorites]

"Every word there" can be proven to apply to some subset of the group Baby Boomers - not to all, or even to most. It also completely ignores the fact that Reagan was elected not solely by Boomers, but also by large numbers of the so-called Greatest Generation, and some of their parents. Likewise, W was elected with the help of significant numbers of Generation X, and with some of the group that followed them.

Every generation has large numbers of selfish, shortsighted, or gullible people, including yours.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:33 PM on January 27 [1 favorite has favorites]