If David Wright still had a wife he’d have someone to tell him he is insane for wanting to piss away a few mil’ on Singular, a magazine targeting the single crowd with “advice, travel suggestions and profiles of unmarried people who travel to Tonga, collect vintage sex manuals and play polo when not performing acupuncture.”
The only people writer Alana Semuels quoted in this Los Angeles Times article are over 50. Yeah, there’s a growing demographic for you; 50-somethings with money to burn. How ’bout a sister publication — Shit for Brains: The Journal Proving That Wealth Can’t Buy Smarts?
Speaking of the endless human capacity for self-delusion, Laura Bush and Condi Rice say history will reveal the true greatness of the Bush presidency. Uh huh. Here’s Steve Benen at Political Animal:
It must be comforting for Bush, Rice, and other top officials in the administration to think this way. It’s no doubt frustrating to wake up every morning, and go to work knowing that you’re reviled by most of the public, here and around the world. If you can convince yourself that you’ll be appreciated years from now, it probably takes the edge off.
But that doesn’t make it true. Indeed, wishful thinking about history’s judgment, in the midst of widespread failures in every aspect of government — foreign policy, economic policy, constitutional policy, domestic policy, environmental policy — borders on delusional.
Remember the end of the Clinton administration? How the Repugs were gloating about the adults finally being in charge for a change? Whatever happened to those wise old heads, anyway? This crowd apparently still believes in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny — and thinks all three of them are retarded.
Mad Blog Media 
Condi, Condi, Condi… quite possibly the most delusional and over-rated political player in recent memory. They really need to stop giving out PhDs to Houseplants and Animals folks (Humanities and Public Affairs).
The only thing that she has going for her is that she never actually does anything. She’s incapable of evil because she’s incapable of action.
If only she had been a better figure skater or pianist.
Neither wealth nor age necessarily buys smarts. I’m sure that your suggested sister publication will sell well, Patrick. How about some startup cash to get the presses rolling?
There is one note of agreement between W and the public on his legacy. He said the high point of his presidency was a certain fishing trip. I’m sure we all agree. Except, of course, the fish.
I got a Mad Dog Media jersey for Christmas! (Emailed photo will be made soon.) My wife’s the best!
We just completed a 10 day trip from Houston to Dallas, Albuquerque, Dallas, and home to the PetroMetro–in a car with our six-year-old daughter. I’m alive!
After I read “Dog in A Hat” and the 75-Year History of Campagnolo, I read the first 105 pages of Woodward’s “State of Denial: Bush, The War Years.” There is nothing anyone can say that is even somewhat kind about Condi, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Cheney. At least Bush can be excused as a mamma’s boy frat-tard with exactly no understanding of how anything works except a bottle opener. But dammit, these other folks should have known better. I don’t know if I can finish the book. With each page, I just get madder and madder. How in Hell did voters even get close to letting this dipshit in the door and then bring him back on the repeat offender program?
Did I mention I got a Mad Dog Media jersey? In dog years, I’m dead!
A magazine for single people… hmm. I like it, but it just need something… Wait! I’ve got it! What if those single people were young?
The Bushian Ven diagram for ‘True and Believe’ has no overlapping sectors.
I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would live through a presidency worse than that of Richard Nixon. Ugh….
Here is my hand grenade.
What this presidency has shown me is how the Nazis could have steadily eroded legal government in Germany. The leader and his aides simply take advantage of events (9-11 in our case, the Reichstag fire in Weimar Germany’s) to assert and impose whatever crap they can get away with (in our case, rendition, torture, illegal surveillance, detention without trial or habeas corpus, and the highly questionable intelligence leading us into the war). Then, like now, the nearly silent majority, even those in government, will assume the leaders know what they are doing or will look the other way until it is too late.
What saved us from the rest of the trip down history’s toilet bowl was 200 years of Constitutional government. The Germans, as we recall, were used to Kaisers. Not only was their Weimar Republic a recent innovation, but it was saddled with the excruciatingly humiliating Treaty of Versailles.
Of course our actions were minor league (“Bush league”?) compared to Germany’s staggering war crimes. But, do we have a higher standard than others? Can one have higher standards in this so-called war on terror? Or was that the point: declare a war on a dangerous idea and then claim that any ends justify the means. Shades of the Cold War. I think we outdid ourselves in sheer brazenness and conceit this time. Previous administrations at least attempted to look like moral actors in their ill-advised adventures.
Recall the comments of Dick Cheney Counsel David Addington: To paraphrase: the Presidency would push for greater powers and controls until a greater power then the Executive pushed back. Well, there was no greater power. The opposition had the backbone of overcooked spaghetti. To think that these guys are now in the majority actually worries me.
Back to justice. The only reason any of the top Nazis saw the inside of Spandau Prison or the business end of the gallows was because 1. They lost the war. 2. Germany’s wartime enemies were the judges, juries, and hangmen at Nuremberg.
Our guys probably won’t face a courtroom for their ignoble behavior because most Americans either don’t want to face the ugliness of what we let them get away with in our name or don’t agree that they did anything wrong. I don’t think that simply closing the book and walking away will suffice, though. Too much damage and precedent has been done.
So what the hell do we do with this mess so that we can once again salute the flag with pride rather than with some reservation? Germans had/have collective guilt. So far as I see here, all we have is collective moral and economic bankruptcy. Our biggest worry right now is that we can no longer use our homes as ATM cards.
@Mark I think most products and services that target “upscale” tend to have customers that are 30 and older. If you look at the SingularCity.com site you’ll see lots of people in their 30’s and 40’s as well their 50’s. I’m happy to have met some amazing women there. This is a nice place to find potential friends.
@Patrick You’ve written one of the best “rights reserved” messages (under “OK, listen up”) that I’ve seen. LOL.
Khal et al:
The only greater power than the Presidency is the People.
If you think it’s the House/Congress; what part of “politicans” do you not understand? Having never voted for any of those bastards/bitches for all I care they can rot in ‘h-e-double hockey sticks.’ They made this problem, and they can get us either deeper into that sheit quagmire, or they can get us out.
Unfortunately as a Nation, we get what we vote for. If you voted for them, I hope you’re ready to face the music boy-os cause the “change” y’all clamored for may not be what ya’ll wished for. If you did not, hold on for the ride!
I can’t say that leaving this great Nation for foreign soul is the answer, but maybe, just maybe, what we need is a trip down the sheit canal to see what lays at the other side. For is it not the adage of athletes to test their abilities to the edge – just so they can know their limitations? Maybe that is what we need.
Sure as hell can’t be much worse can it? Where is Eric Blair when we need him?
The people are the ultimate power, I suppose. Assuming they use it.
Congress and the Courts are supposed to be checking and balancing the Executive and vice-versa. That ain’t been working, and it seems to take the public, the ultimate show-stopper, a loooong time to figure out that something smells really bad in the fridge. In our case, the public only started rooting around for the rotten smell in 2006 and didn’t clean the fridge out till 2008.
We will see how long this fridge full lasts before it is smelling bad, too. The Founders were wise to schedule a cleaning every two years. Whether we have the will to use it is the question.
As far as leaving the States? This is my country to bitch and moan at. Keeping it on the edge but not in the ditch is a good idea. You are right, James. Keeping the nation on the cutting edge takes hard work, not complacency. But one can’t get too arrogant and end up off the cliff, either. Even a good athlete taking prudent risks can eat it. Recall Paolo Salvodelli? Great nations are the result of skill, resources, and a certain amount of good luck. We have been pushing our luck in the opposite direction with lousy foreign policy and environmental/economic policies that are not sustainable. Would be as though Salvodelli were urging on that crash. Sheit canal indeed.
I’m going to go out on a limb here: Bush’s approval ratings are damn near negative numbers right now… but after history has a chance to look back with a sober mind… his ranking among his peers will sink even lower.
As much as the right wingers think the leftie press has given him a raw deal, I think they’ve let him slide on too many issues.
Big Corporate Media goes after the low hanging fruit, and the GAP eats it up. In their emphasis on catching gaffes, at the expense of researching and analyzing, they have missed the real impact of his signing statements and executive orders.
Over time, some grad school student will tear through the official record, and look at what he said and what he did and what it all meant with a somber and detached eye. And that’s when folks will realize that it wasn’t just a case of Red vs Blue ideology — that regardless of which side of the aisle you sit, we all would have been much better off if the Major League Baseball owners hadn’t had such high standards and had let him run their show.