The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Ten Years of AOSHQ Awesomeness

Posted on | December 30, 2013 | 17 Comments

Back when I was working the national desk at the Washington Times, I’d read Ace of Spades and say, “Wow. That looks like fun. He’s writing about politics and making dirty jokes. I could do that.”

So after I actually quit my job and started blogging, Ace’s inspiration was alway there. R.D. Brewer takes us on a trip via the Wayback Machine to the AOSHQ Primitive Era, before he got all respectable and shit.

George W. Bush was in the White House, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, Howard Dean was running around Iowa as if he were a Serious Contender, and it was safe to ridicule Democrats while making masturbation jokes.

Good times, my friends, good times.

Alas, Karl Rove’s Permanent Republican Majority proved to be not quite so permanent, and the Era of Grim Seriousness has overtaken us. Ace still manages to crack a joke now and then, but we’ll probably never return to the carefree days of yore.

Overwhelmed with bittersweet nostalgia? You can go read 2004’s “Ace’s Generic Walk-Thru For Every Video Game You’ve Ever Played,” or the 2007 classic, “Howard Fineman Has Nothing to Say So He Gets Falling Down Drunk and Gushes about Barack Obama,” and laugh so hard you’ll piss your pants, but once you’re sitting there in a warm puddle of your own urine . . . then what?

See what I’m talking about here? Even if you were Ace of Spades and had consistently written the funniest shit on the Web for the past 10 fucking years, that’s all in the past and is of no use whatsoever in dealing with today or tomorrow. Hell, no, you’ve got to get up in the morning — just like every morning for the past 3,650 days — and try to think up some new funny shit to say about the latest silly D-vs.-R controversy in Washington about which, if the truth were known, you probably don’t even really care very much.

Look back 10 years and then look ahead and say to yourself, “Is this all there is? Am I going to be doing this until the day I die?”

The real miracle of AOSHQ is that he hasn’t yet been overwhelmed by existential dread. You should probably go hit his tip jar.

 


Category: Ace of Spades

Comments

17 Responses to “Ten Years of AOSHQ Awesomeness”

  1. Hanzo
    December 30th, 2013 @ 10:15 pm

    ” …. with Integrity Like Paul F***ing Anka!” That is classic. Fits Ace to a tee.

  2. DonaldDouglas
    December 31st, 2013 @ 1:17 am

    You’re good too, Robert. Keep chugging my friend.

  3. CrustyB
    December 31st, 2013 @ 3:22 am

    I’ll pass on the anti-Palin RINO blog.

  4. Adjoran
    December 31st, 2013 @ 4:43 am

    Ace won a bookmark with his Mencken quote motto.

    It’s been a running joke over there ever since he won mention as a “smart military blog,” but I’m pretty sure I first found him from a link on BlackFive.net (under the old site).

    With the cobbers added over time, he rarely puts up a pro forma post, unlike some who make a thread out of every single opinion poll that comes out to impress their oberfuhrers at Salem or something.

  5. Adjoran
    December 31st, 2013 @ 4:44 am

    Memory lane on that Anka rant, which was an early “viral video” on the interwebs.

  6. K-Bob
    December 31st, 2013 @ 8:08 am

    I was a regular participant in the ONT at Ace’s for a few years.It was like twitter minus all the leftist drones.

    Ace would hang out in an occasional thread and engage us on his topics. The humor was always how we dealt with the crap going on, so it was therapy and drinks (which are also therapy).

    I had to move on, though. Funny is for closers.

  7. robertstacymccain
    December 31st, 2013 @ 8:21 am

    “… some who make a thread out of every single opinion poll that comes out to impress their oberfuhrers at Salem or something.”

    Must you remind us of what Corporate Blogging has done to Allahpundit? I mean, there is a certain admirable discipline necessary to that kind of work, don’t get me wrong. “Oh, here’s the latest Big Headline at Drudge, and I’m going to turn it into a 450-word aggregated commentary” — so that what you’re providing readers is a general daily political news digest.

    I don’t want to do a hippie-dippie left-wing authenticity putdown of that gig, but if you remember the kind of eccentric stuff Allahpundit used to do, you realize that he is now just doing a job. He does it well, and there are still occasional flashes of Old Allah, but in the final analysis, it’s a corporate product — a commodity, a brand — and it’s as if Hemingway got hired at an ad agency.

  8. robertstacymccain
    December 31st, 2013 @ 8:27 am

    As indicated above, I think the important divide in conservative blogging is between Bush era and Obama era. Especially prior to the 2006 election, there was a victorious confidence among conservative bloggers, so that they could sneer at the futility of the moonbat Left. Once Democrats took back Congress in 2006, and especially after Obama was elected in 2008, however, the Era of Grim Seriousness took hold.

  9. Calvin Everhart
    December 31st, 2013 @ 9:33 am

    I like his gun thread, and a lot of his other stuff too !

  10. Quartermaster
    December 31st, 2013 @ 11:11 am

    Can’t wait to see what happens to Twitchy
    /sarc

  11. Dave
    December 31st, 2013 @ 12:57 pm

    Oh bullshit. Sure there are some Palin bashers, but she also gets more vigorously defended at AoS than anywhere else. RINO? Just skip Gabe’s threads.

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  13. Bob Belvedere
    December 31st, 2013 @ 6:47 pm

    True, but you’ve always tried to remind us not to lose our senses of humor.

  14. Adjoran
    January 1st, 2014 @ 2:00 am

    Yeah, I remember when he was virtually freelancing as Michelle Malkin’s sidekick, you could never predict what he’d post or comment.

  15. Adjoran
    January 1st, 2014 @ 2:04 am

    Rush Limbaugh always said he experienced his greatest audience growth when Republicans were in power, the Bush Presidencies and the times of Republican control of Congress. He thinks that is because “the left is never funnier than when they are out of power, they are shrill and always doing or saying something ridiculous. When the left is IN power, they are scary.”

  16. K-Bob
    January 2nd, 2014 @ 5:48 pm

    I totally agree. I have simply moved further into Grim Seriousness mode. I’ll participate in the funny again when I get past some major work.

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