Re: Faking It

1

Shit. I already feel guilty about this post. But Stossel is such a weasel.

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2

YES!

Holy shit, I remember watching that second one as a kid, and of course I thought of it when I watched the Media Matters clip this morning. You fucking genius.

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3

Perhaps we can come to an arrangement, ogged. I would like to have millions of your spider babies.

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4

All of today I was all frowny like a sad sad clown, until this post sent a little sunshine into my life. Thank you, ogged.

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5

Fucking brilliant. I love how after he says how it's a tough business, he gives a little chest-flex. Schultz sounds a lot like GWB in his second line, both content and accent- "It's a tough business- only the tough survive" = "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a — you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."

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6

Heh. Heh heh heh. Run, Stossell! Run! A-heh heh.

You know what else I like? This.

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7

Wasn't Stossel permanently injured by the wrestler?

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8

We can only hope.

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9

No, he's always acted like he has brain damage.

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10

Oh, Chthulu, it's so wrong of me to enjoy assault and battery, but ooooohhh yeah...

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11

He sued, claiming Schultz caused him permanent hearing loss, and won a few hundred thousand dollars.

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12

You are all bad people. John Stossel's mustache is a national treasure.

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13

Would John Stossel without a mustache be an astute, responsible political critic with acute hearing?

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14

He couldn't possibly be more annoying without it, could he?

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15

I think the official negator is spelled "moustache."

Has anyone ever asked the Stoss what he thinks about the use of slapping as an interrogation technique?

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16

Has anyone ever asked the Stoss what he thinks about the use of slapping as an interrogation technique?

Awesome.

I totally expected more outrage. Y'all are ok in my book.

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17

Is his moustache related to Tom Friedman's moustache of understanding- an evil twin, like Kitt vs. Karr?
Don't worry, ogged, I'm sure there's an argument waiting to be made about feminism- because he was totally bitch-slapped.

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18

Is his moustache related to Tom Friedman's moustache of understanding- an evil twin, like Kitt vs. Karr?

I think it's more like that episode of The Tick where he wakes up with an experimental mustache built by the government to fight the Russians, only different.

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19

I'm watching the full clip at the Media Matters site, and Joe Scarborough talks about attacks on O'Reilly as a case of liberal elites going after people in "flyover space" who know what the people think; and Stossel starts his reply, approximately, "Yes, in Manhattan where we live...."

Since when is Manahattan 'flyover space'?

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20

Since when is Manahattan 'flyover space'?

Man, there's a 9/11 joke in there just *screaming* to get out...

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21

(Obligatory whistle on 'bitch-slap'. "Beat down like a symphony conductor" should be OK.)

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22

Since when is Manahattan 'flyover space'?

He didn't mean it was. He was contrasting where he lives with flyover country. Culture war, you know.

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23

Lawsuits Make Us Less Safe, John Stossel, Aug. 9, 2006

It's true, you know. If it weren't for the chilling effect caused by Stossel's lawsuit, a lot more people would have slapped Stossel around over the years. Who knows what levels of greatness America would have attained if one of them had only smacked some sense into him?

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24

And notice how the cameraman made no effort to intervene...

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25

22: Good point; on further review it was 'liberal elites on the coast attacking those in flyover space who [approx.] know what they believe and like what Bill O'Reilly says."

And if Bill O'Reilly gets high ratings, what he says must be true! This goes back to a general principle, which is that 'flyover' is rarely used to denigrate people living in Middle America, almost always used to stir up hatred against people living on the coasts.

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26

If there were a show featuring John Stossel getting bitch-slapped like that every week, not only would I drag the TV out of the corner where it's been collecting dust for four years, I'd even pony up for cable.

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27

which is that 'flyover' is rarely used to denigrate people living in Middle America

I've heard it casually used to denigrate people living in Middle America. This was back in the 90s.

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28

Isn't O'Reilly famously from Levittown, New York? Man, those horrible East Coasters, flying over Long Island just to spit on the hard-working real Americans who live there.

Also, any account of O'Reilly on the internets, ever, is legally obligated to link to O'Reilly vs. Ludacris.

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29

'flyover' is rarely used to denigrate people living in Middle America

I hear it used with a condescending snicker all the time. Being from "flyover" country, I'm a little sensitive to it. (Not when used in true jest, but when used with genuine smug superiority.)

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30

If there were a show featuring John Stossel getting bitch-slapped like that every week, not only would I drag the TV out of the corner where it's been collecting dust for four years, I'd even pony up for cable.

Jesus, McQueen, you've nailed it, even though I agree with Mimi Smartypants on the question of people who boast about not watching television.

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31

I hear it used with a condescending snicker all the time. Being from "flyover" country, I'm a little sensitive to it.

I'm sure the massively disproportionate voting power afforded you by the Senate and the electoral college doesn't nearly make up for the snootiness of people on the upper west side.

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32

Ignore stras, Brock. He probably drives a Volvo.

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33

I don't live in flyover country, I'm from there. I hear "flyover" as an inslut here in my east coast state that's getting screwed by the senate. It's the worst of all possible worlds.

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34

Genius.

Old Stossell isn't too quick. The first one would have surprised anyone, but for christ's sakes, get the fuck out of there,, or put your hands up, or something. He just kind of stood there and waited for the dude to do it again.

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35

Schultz sounds a lot like GWB in his second line, both content and accent- "It's a tough business- only the tough survive" = steroid queen.

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36

Check out the first page of results. Word spy's example citation is some bizarre fantasy by Walter Kirn about the Clinton White House and Hollywood as a pansexual orgy (isn't that what "swinging bicoastal encounter session" means?), with casual identification of the 'public' with 'not the coasts'. Really, the ressentiment just drips off the term, especially coming from pampered upper-class rightwing media types like Stossel and Scarborough.

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37

34, I would have been more impressed if Stossel had stood up for another one. Then again, maybe I don't have his best interests in mind. (I also wonder if he got the second slap for flinching.)

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38

33: But see, by moving to your decadent coastal enclave you abandoned your feel for the real folk of middle America, anyway. You've probably already started sprouting pointy teeth and thirsting for blood come nightfall!

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39

steroid queen
True, but at least we see the beneficial aspects of 'roid rage.

Also, I love beat down in this context.
"Futuo is believed by many to be akin to battuere, "to beat"; this metaphor has a long Indo-European heritage, and is believed to underlie the English word "fuck" as well. Tucker's dictionary invites comparison with confuto, "suppress" or "beat down"."

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40

Ouch. I'd seen the second video before, but I just watched the first. Stossel really came across like an idiot. I wonder if he has a hard time looking himself in the mirror after a bruising like that.

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41

This goes back to a general principle, which is that 'flyover' is rarely used to denigrate people living in Middle America, almost always used to stir up hatred against people living on the coasts.

Not how I've heard it used, or it least it's not primary; it can denigrate the coasts because they refer to the middle of the country (this can include Chicago) as flyover, but I've heard people refer to the middle as 'flyover' without insulting the coasts.

That moustache could consume small nations.

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42

Yeah, I shouldn't have said 'rarely', but I stand by 36. The 'coastal elites' gambit is a steaming pile of dung. As demonstrated by Stossel and Scarborough, who are elites and represent an elite viewpoint if anyone is.

But they aren't snotty intellectuals citing facts! They speak for the good ole white people! Oh noes, I'm melting!

(Born in flyover country and live there myself.)

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43

41: I think it's that once upon a time, "flyover" was a snotty thing some coastal people said. Now it's shorthand for how coastal people are snotty and want to get rid of everything you (for certain values of "you") hold dear.

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44

Thoroughly pwned, of course.

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45

It's quite a trick to be pwned when you post half an hour after the last previous comment.

(I officially give up on calling it Weiner-pwned. Fuckers.)

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46

I'm magical.

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47

Speaking of Weiner and his location, Matt, do you know the song "Levelland," by James McMurtry. Google says the place is just 30 miles to your west. It includes the great lines:

Makes you wonder why they stopped here
Wagon must have lost a wheel
Or they lacked ambition

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48

I think it should be called Weiner-pwning occasionally, to preserve my trademark.

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49

So I think this show Kidnapped is going to end up utter crap, but I also may be hooked on it. Though I don't really like the way they were just shooting "Mexico" with yellow and green filters.

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50

Didn't they do the same thing in Traffic?

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51

47: Oh hey, that's speaking of flyover country too. I don't know the song, never been to the place, but I assure you that complaining about Lubbock is not a snotty coastal elite (Yankee, anyway) thing. Maybe identifying with this post—I mean, thinking "Yes, that's exactly what it's like! Wait, I'm not actually an expatriate"—is.

Anyway, lots of honest placenaming around here. Levelland, Plainview, Brownfield, Shallowater (if there's any water at all, which I doubt). I've been thinking of combining them into a "They Are Night Zombies!" kind of song.

(That originally went here, but you really have to hear the painstaking studio version, not the live one.)

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52

Yes, and Soderbergh also did something similar in Out of Sight when he shot Detroit with tons of blue, but that was better.

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53

The "taking a break" scene in Out of Sight is my favorite movie sex scene ever.

(Hesitant to call it a "sex scene" because there's not much sex but "love scene" and everything else I can think of sound way cheesy.)

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54

Moving-pictorial depiction of the act of love.

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55

Or Becks could just admit that, like most of us, she's a bit of a sap.

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56

54 - It was more a depiction of the act of seduction.

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57

Oh for Christ's sake.

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58

That kind of stuff is why I think there should be more explicitly sexual public art.

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59

Exactly. If people are going to protest regardless, might as well go whole-hog and put up the money shot.

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60

"explicitly sexual public art" s/b "explicitly public sex."

Also, I would totally get on TV in my underwear if it meant I could slap John Stossel.

Also also, I always find it funny when the left is described as "coastal elites" by conservatives when so much of my own dear South is coastal.

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61

Yeah, "coastal" is pretty silly in that context. Mississippi and Alabama have coastlines; Vermont doesn't.

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62

People in flyover country just hate that Vermont has a coastline.

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63

A few years of global warming, and EVERYONE will have a coastline. Woo!

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64

Lake Champlain totally doesn't count.

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65

I mean, that's like saying Nevada has a coastline because of Lake Tahoe.

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66

Perhaps some shrewd senator from Nevada should have thought of that. It was a brilliant move on Leahy's part.

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67

Did it end up working?

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68

Pretty much. He ended up getting the money without the official status, IIRC.

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