Monday, October 31, 2005

Vanity Unfair

 
One judges the cut of a man’s jib by the quality of his enemies.

Therefore, I reckon we’re doing pretty well.

Just yesterday Dymphna and I were talking about Pajamas Media (which, as you may know, we have joined).

I said, “They’re mostly going to cover the center-right, you know.”

“But what about Drezner, and that guy from the Nation?” she responded.

“Well, Roger and Charles are trying to balance things out. The thing is, we right-wingers are willing to share a forum with the lefties, but not vice versa. Their comrades won’t allow it; it’s considered treason.”

It turns out that my words were prophetic. Take a look at this cute little post by the renowned James Wolcott, entitled Pajama Bottoms:
     I recognize that it is not always easy to be fastidious about the company one keeps. You can find yourself being introduced to the most awful ogre at a party, someone who may regard you with equal disdain, forced to shake hands and grimace a smile because refusing to do so would provoke a “scene” that could wend its way into Page Six. Or you may find yourself at a dinner party adjacent to someone you vowed you’d never be trapped indoors with again, all because the host or hostess conveniently “forgot” to tell you Satan’s playmate had been invited.
Those things happen.
But I don’t understand why someone as politically keen as The Nation’s David Corn would lend his name to the editorial board of Pajamas Media, the greatest assembly of conservative deadbeats since Jonah Goldberg’s last fondue party. What an illustrious roster of ideological utensils make up Pajamas’ masthead: Michael Barone...John Podhoretz...Tim Blair...and this inveterate stirpot, whose presence all decent men and women should shun until proper disinfectant can be found. By allowing his name to be slated on the editorial board, Corn is letting himself be used as a figleaf enabling Pajamas to pretend that it’s a bipartisan effort instead of what it so flagrantly is, a neocon popstand.
Does Corn really want to be associated with fun blogs like Little Green Footballs and Gates of Vienna (“At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war”)? I guess he does, because he’ll be appearing on a panel at Pajamas’ gala conference in November in Manhattan, where Roger L. Simon and company will break out the ginger ale and announce their new monicker. Then everybody will adjourn to invade Syria, if they can arrange transportation.
We’ve arrived! James Wolcott despises us! O, frabjous day!

You can’t tell from my snip of his screed, but there was a hot link on our name in there — he’s sending us traffic!

I was so tickled by this that I danced with glee. I tell you, I ambled up and down with shallow jesters and rash bavin wits!

It’s too much.

James, my dear fellow, the freight train is coming full speed down the track at you, but you’ve got your back to it.

Choo choo!

10 comments:

Dymphna said...

Oh, dear. He's one of these "stuck on stupid" people, isn't he?

Should I know him? Has he done something special?

When we scrape up His Flatness off the track, to whom do we send his...ummm..."remains" -- I mean once we roll them up and tie them with a rubber band?

Or maybe that's tacky. How about a black ribbon?

James who? Eyeww...he's not nice. Obviously he wasn't Raised Right. But then maybe he was motherless and it's not his fault...

...one is reluctant to hasten to judgment. Hmm...though I notice he's not.

Perhaps we ought to send an engraved thank you note, anyway -- I mean for the traffic (since it's merely a party, if ogres show up we can just smile and delete their scribbles)...

But I do hope a4g does something interesting with what's his name?? Wolcott?

Hey, a4g...come here for a mome.

Baron Bodissey said...

Remember Jesus' parable about the wedding guests. Mr. Wolcott has simply been charged with going out and rounding up the vagabonds and ragamuffins from the virtual streets, to bring them here to our wedding feast.

Mr. Wolcott -- How cam'st thou hither without a wedding garment?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Mr. Wolcott could try a can or two of this stuff . Might work.

linearthinker said...

Congratulations...I guess. When I saw David Corn listed on the PJs editorial board, I wondered what were Roger and company thinking. Corn IMHO is one of those hyper- active liberal talking faces I used to see occasionally on Fox News before the TV broke and I decided I could do without it...I always hoped they had seat belts buckled on their highchairs.

Baron Bodissey said...

Hey, I really mean it when I say I'm willing to keep company with lefties. Some of my best friends are lefties.

We need to able to engage in real arguments withb each other, instead of just calling each other names (of which I've done my share). But it's not likely...

BTW, Uncle Pavian, that's a great idea!

Nilk said...

Yay, Gates of Vienna!

Go, Dymphna & Baron!

airforcewife said...

I'm a little confused. So... he quoted from your site title. Is he making fun of it? Pointing out how it is wrong? Exposing the hype?

All he does is quote it, and he doesn't point out how it ISN'T true. Is he denying that the Muslims reached the Gates of Vienna? That they had wars of conquest and they would like to have a war of conquest right now? I mean, having read his stuff before, I'm pretty sure that he doesn't hesitate to mention the Crusades and how they shape Muslim sentiment "even today."

I'm really confused by what he is trying to accomplish there.

You are right, though, you two certainly have arrived!

Baron Bodissey said...

Airforcewife -- as a friend of mind put it this morning, "he linked you as an example of someone who's obviously over-the-top."

And being considered over-the-top by James Wolcott just tickles me pink!

Robert Pearson said...

Excellent news! This reminds me of my recent (and now former) career as adviser to a statewide political figure. A certain columnist used to regularly call him names like "the Ayatollah of the Christian Right" and so on in the state's largest circulation newspaper. Then for almost a year, nothing.

Finally, I asked the Man one day "What do we have to do to get Mr. X to write some more insulting columns about you? Every time he calls you a name we get a slew of attaboys and contributions from the base."

Don't know if Wolcott will have the same effect but here's hoping...

BTW, isn't this the same gentleman who once wished a hurricane would wipe out Florida or some such thing?

I hope he dies in bed of a painful old age!

Baron Bodissey said...

Newvictorian -- What I hope is that the brave men in our armed forces are proud to die for the likes of him, and to defend his right to say the things he says.