When I try to comment on politics or economics in normal settings, I often insert a jaded 'sorry for ranting like Emmanuel Goldstein' to acknowledge my fringeness.

Isn't The Book by Goldstein an IP production anyway?

Are you casting New York Times fancy reporters as varieties of Tom Parsons, a man of "paralyzing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms-- one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended"?

Probably true most days. But one must admit that O'Brien was a helluva ghost writer. He and his Inner Party E.G. Book Project writing committee knew themselves and their audiences well. "Emmanuel Goldstein's book"-- the ultimate in Party double-double-think. Accurate enough to inspire and lure secret scribblers out from their alcoves hidden from the telescreen.

If only Winston and Julia had had their own blogs and laptops.

[On another note, is telling Noam Chomsky to his face that he reminds you of Winston Smith really a compliment or something else?]

Jon, couldn't you have saved this post until after I've moved there?

Seth: Yes.

Today's Revolutionary was last nights true believer. As with ALL movements, the Inner Party may well exist without a benevolent God, BUT can NEVER exist without that Devil.

Don't forget the D.C. suburbs! The Pentagon is in Arlington and the CIA is in McClean, plus there are all those little boxes made of ticky tack where they all dress just the same, though now of course the boxes have become ginormous.

What that war taught me is how much people enjoy watching bombing on tv.

Washington, D.C. is the most vile place on earth.

Isn't this a form of American exceptionalism?

Isn't this a form of American exceptionalism?

Nah, because I'm not saying it's inherently the most vile place on earth. It's just like that right now. Other places have held the title in the past, and in the future I'm sure Beijing will get its time in the sun.

Indeed,

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren't worth what a pin can spit
and it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole sit the privileged few
Making mock of the vermin in the lonely zoo
turning beauty to filth and greed...
I too have sailed the world and seen its wonders,
for the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru
but there's no place like London!

What boggles me is that DC is not the most vile place on earth. There are places much viler, just less well positioned to harm everyone outside their borders.

My younger colleagues sometimes say that things couldn't possibly get worse, and I have to gently correct them: things can always, always get even worse, and then worse again. DC could, too. For getting better, there are limits; for getting worse, none.

What boggles me is that DC is not the most vile place on earth.

Well, it depends on how you measure it. But going by the criteria Orwell was talking about, I think D.C. really has to take top honors.

What about Moscow, Paris and Tel Aviv? Any of those capitals could trigger World War III today, and a nuclear winter that would end humankind.

On the bright side, it hasn't happened yet, so things could indeed get worse.

What about Moscow, Paris and Tel Aviv? Any of those capitals could trigger World War III today, and a nuclear winter that would end humankind.

I don't want to take anything away from any of those vile places. They're great competitors. But when the dust settles, Washington is still on top.

No votes for that southern tip of Manhattan?

ah, good old Noam. Too bad he's just an activist out of touch with reality, I mean an Ivory-Tower type who writes books that no one reads, too obsessed with the distant past to concern himself with events today, I mean an old-style Lefty who doesn't grasp the inner workings of deep politics, I mean a conspiracy theorist who'll believe anything bad of America, I mean ...

Speaking of Chomsky, here's an interesting tidbit from a recent interview:

"Journalist Chris Hedges is doing research on the New York Times, and a few weeks ago he came across a memo from the managing editor of the New York Times to the writers and columnists, saying that they were not allowed to mention my name."

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1001/intrvw.htm

Hmm, the memo apparently didn't reach everyone:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/c/noam_chomsky/index.html

And nobody sent the memo to West Point either.

Noam Chomsky speaks at West Point
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20060531004125659

Not that Chomsky isn't great, but nobody seriously thinks he's Voldemorte and calls him "He Who Cannot be Named." The NYT managing editor apparently had a whackadoodle moment one morning.

For getting better, there are limits

Nathan, this betrays a lack of imagination. Possibility extends to infinity in both directions.

The rate at which things can get better is seen to be extremely limited. The rate at which things can get worse has never acknowledged any bound.

nathan myers

Just think about puppies and you'll be good as new.

We don't know when the alleged NYT memo was typed. I don't recall ever seeing a NYT columnist or op ed writer mentioning Noam favorably--not sure if they've ever mentioned him at all in the time I've been reading them.

I think the NYT has been less Orwellian about Noam in recent years, starting sometime in the Bush Presidency when mainstream liberals began to realize that an American President could be a war criminal. Samantha Power (ugh) gave a mixed review to one of his books in the early 2000's. If you go back to the Clinton era when liberals and conservatives argued about whether we should support the International Criminal Court, the conservative "fear" was that Americans would be dragged into court on bogus charges and the liberal reply was to assume with the conservatives that the charges would be bogus, and argue that there were safeguards in the system that would prevent such a ridiculous thing from happening. In that atmosphere you wouldn't expect the NYT to mention Noam or anyone like him, except to dismiss as a crackpot.

@ N E: "The NYT managing editor apparently had a whackadoodle moment one morning."

Every moment for NYT editors (managing or otherwise) are whackadoodle.

As one who lives in DC, I would just like to point out that if this were a state, it would be the most liberal in the country. The community is wonderful.

Your issue is with Capitol Hill.

Ted Stein

The District has the best license plates in the country too.

These comments are full of garbage. Take or not advice and -delete!-
Kick this rubbish out of here. Why should we comment in here with all this nonsense and professional stupidity related factors present?

Posted by Cloud at June 10, 2010 10:40 AM - useless. delete!
Posted by seth at June 10, 2010 10:54 AM - superfluous. delete! - might get evil, stupid and useless in.
Posted by Mike Meyer at June 10, 2010 12:32 PM - useless. delete!
Posted by Mike Meyer at June 10, 2010 12:41 PM - stupid useless. delete! He throws the cat in Asia.
Posted by Nathan Myers at June 10, 2010 05:20 PM - false, borderline stupidity. delete! For getting better there is the sky. But not for those that can't fly, mentally (99% fail). You are that problem over here, buddy.
Posted by Duncan at June 10, 2010 08:57 PM - unfactual. Noam's on the inside, been thrown a bone: "-There, you go say how bad we are. Bark, but don't really raise people against us. Go!"
Posted by N E at June 10, 2010 10:50 PM - N E is a puppet. delete! "whackadoodle". He came to put in us that it's no biggie.
Posted by Nathan Myers at June 11, 2010 03:10 AM - false. Myers is a puppet. delete! "Extremely limited" has no sense. He came to down us with irrational garbage. "The rate at which things can get worse" - how about death dude? How much deader than dead and sicker than sick can you get? Are you talking about countries? History? Nothing has ever changed more than slightly, puppet!
Posted by N E at June 11, 2010 06:44 AM - stupidity dribble by brainwashed concerned citizen. delete! "Just think about puppies and you'll be good as new." Look upon sweets and the big little devil will go away because he's not actually there. People enjoy bombing, the retards, southern subject of decay, Chomsky is not the boogie man, puppies cure evil. Kick his great no biggie ass out of here, Jonathan Schwarz, what are you, a retard?
Posted by RedPhillip at June 11, 2010 08:53 AM - useless with borderline stupid. delete!

If you let weakness in comments, there's no biggie in some exacerbation towards complete bullshit, by puppets, that's meant to not mean anything so it's total annihilation of your thoughts for the length they are made by them.

Why the fuck would I comment in this line of bullshit? Freedom of speech for puppets who are paid to not give a shit about the content of their comments, so that you do give all the shit of your brains.

Why do you write about the party if you're letting it's imbeciles comment here? I'm not even inclined to wipe my ass with your blog if you moderate stupid comment. I'll come back in a year or so, why the fuck would I.

Posted by johnhatem at June 11, 2010 12:14 PM - incoherent, hateful and misguided. delete.

johnhatem: I thought my 12:32 comment was pretty snarky.

in all fairness, a lot of the immigrants are nice. but yeah, as far as the average bourgeois yuppie d.c. citizen and especially the "elites", it's utterly vile on a good day.

and the "action" is still in the streets of prague. just ask rocco siffredi.

the "paie"? oops.

wow, i just saw johnhatem's comments; it's what borat would crap out after eating a floppy disk of javascript files. thanks for the acid flashbacks, though.

Apparently my previous comment on this thread was OK - at least it wasn't specifically denounced. I feel so proud.

at least it wasn't specifically denounced.

stupdity dribble useless

delete!

“In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory, from a longer continuance of the war.”
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/06/04/adam-smith-quote-of-the-day/

Adam Smith's quote is great, but the Cato Institute isn't.