The Other McCain

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

Brooks Threatens Gore’s Grip On “The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read”

Posted on | September 23, 2014 | 22 Comments

by Smitty

Saint Albert of Gore, Lord have mercy on him and his non-grasp of weather, has never recanted from his 2010 utterance:

From the standpoint of governance, what is at stake is our ability to use the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption. After all has been said and so little done, the truth about the climate crisis — inconvenient as ever — must still be faced.

And really, thinking that we can legislate redemption has got to be the Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read.
But let’s give Brooks discredit. He does know him some fail, from the same venue as Gore above, emphasis mine:

It’s important in times like these to step back and get clarity. The truest thing to say is this: We are living in an amazingly fortunate time. But we also happen to be living during a leadership crisis, and a time when few people have faith in elites to govern from the top. We live in a vibrant society that is not being led.

We don’t suffer from an abuse of power as much as a nonuse of power. It’s been years since a major piece of legislation was passed, and there’s little prospect that one will get passed in the next two.

This leadership crisis is eminently solvable. First, we need to get over the childish notion that we don’t need a responsible leadership class, that power can be wielded directly by the people. America was governed best when it was governed by a porous, self-conscious and responsible elite — during the American revolution, for example, or during and after World War II. Karl Marx and Ted Cruz may believe that power can be wielded directly by the masses, but this has almost never happened historically.

We offer our elites every bit of the faith and respect they’ve earned, Brooks. Our self-appointed quasi-aristocracy, and the throne-sniffing sycophants that support them (e.g. you) could all be replaced by a button marked “Crap” at significantly reduced savings.

“elites. . .govern from the top” What. Elites. Brooks? If George Washington and his troops could see the utter shambles the 1787 Constitution has been reduced to in the last century of Progressive elite deconstruction, I daresay he’d order the Colonials to fix bayonets. Technology happened. We grasp that our “elites” are a pack of self-serving louts. If you want to argue something useful, Brooks, tell me about term limits. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” as Acton noted, and lesser amounts of power produce Reids and Boehners, Pelosis and McConnells over time. Like any compost heap, Capitol Hill needs frequent turning. Am I being irreverent? Of course I am, Brooks: it’s a wholly American thing. Fear God; sneer at Caesar. It’s when these two objects become confused that we can arrive at the drivel you’re pushing, Brooks.

Karl Marx and Ted Cruz. . .did you really juxtapose those two, you little passive-aggressive twerp? Cruz pulled an all-nighter for liberty in the Senate, and this is all you’ve got? Really? Are you saying that Ted Cruz argued for Athenian democracy? You’re going with that? Well, I guess you’re located in the same dirty diaper of a newspaper that thought George W. Bush had no coalition to support the Iraq invasion.

You really are a discredit to your country, Brooks.

Category: New York Times

Comments

22 Responses to “Brooks Threatens Gore’s Grip On “The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read””

  1. McGehee
    September 23rd, 2014 @ 10:31 pm

    Brooks regularly wins the “What Is This I Can’t Even” award for blithering above and beyond the call of duty.

  2. WarEagle82
    September 23rd, 2014 @ 10:37 pm

    Thank you, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Gore, but I don’t really need to be lead. In fact, your so-called “non-use of power” has practically destroyed Constitutional government here in the US and I, for one, would appreciate it if the self-appointed elites would STOP blatantly abusing their offices to exercise unconstitutional power to stomp all over my inalienable rights.

    Exercise those very few powers granted to the central government and just leave citizens alone.

    We got by fine without you for 200 years. I think we can manage for a bit longer.

  3. Adobe_Walls
    September 23rd, 2014 @ 11:07 pm

    Rule or better yet guidance by the “Elite” might actually work. Unfortunately Brooks and the rest of the gaggle of nitwits and dingbats who to presume to be our betters and therefore fit to rule are not an elite in any meaningful sense. A Navy Seal is Elite what Brooks and company are is Elitists.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    September 23rd, 2014 @ 11:43 pm

    God I miss Michael Crichton.

  5. Finrod Felagund
    September 23rd, 2014 @ 11:43 pm

    As the old saying goes: Politicians are like diapers; they should be changed often, and for the same reason.

  6. Good Stuff
    September 24th, 2014 @ 1:33 am

    “The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read” not Michael Crichton

    “The nation and world are experiencing weather of an intensity that should rattle the stubborn false convictions of even the most fervent climate change denier.

    Terrible flooding in India and Pakistan, the worst in more than a century, with heavy monsoon rains, 500 lives lost and hundreds of thousands left stranded… thousands of wildfires ignited by severe drought in California and the West… flashfloods in Arizona… the punch of a hurricane pounding Mexico’s Baja coast, the strongest in nearly fifty years, battering locals and trapping tourists in their hotels without electricity.

    We know it’s important not to confuse day-to-day weather patterns with climate, which measure variations of things like temperatures and humidity over long periods of time, but it’s clear that these disasters are made more powerful by global warming.” – Barbra Streisand

  7. K-Bob
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:03 am

    Brooks needs to grow up.

  8. DeadMessenger
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:15 am

    And stop passing legislation like you’re passing gas! Get rid of existing legislation. When it takes 2 guys a lifetime to read the existing legislation, there’s too much, mmkay? We need somebody to step up and say, “I’m going to make a management decision here, and political correctness be damned!” I could do that, and so could millions of other people, such as many of those inbred and inconvenient “citizens”. (Just not the ones like Brooks. I said “citizens”, not mindless drones.)

  9. DeadMessenger
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:17 am

    That’s gotta be in the Top 10 Dumb of all time. Actually, that crosses the line from “dumb” to “insane”.

  10. DeadMessenger
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:17 am

    HAHAHAHAHA! Too bad that’s too long for a bumper sticker.

  11. DeadMessenger
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:19 am

    No chance of that happening. He’s frozen in permanent adolescence. Just by saying that, now he’s going to stomp off to his room and slam the door, screaming “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! You just don’t understand me!”

  12. DeadMessenger
    September 24th, 2014 @ 3:25 am

    There’s a lot of competition for that award, too, given the number of blithering idiots given a *cough*-“journalistic platform”-*cough*.

  13. Adobe_Walls
    September 24th, 2014 @ 5:21 am

    So she thinks droughts “ignite” fire. Wow what a revelation dry, is an ignition source. That explains why my paper towel rolls keep bursting into flames all this time I thought it was the absorption.

  14. Trespassers W
    September 24th, 2014 @ 7:57 am

    So, what does Brooksie know about whom? That’s just about the only reason I can think of to explain why he has a job.

  15. Squid Hunt
    September 24th, 2014 @ 12:03 pm

    The argument that ruling is defined by passing legislation is my favorite part. Particularly when you describe the elites as self conscious and responsible.

  16. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2014 @ 12:14 pm

    Twerp = Anglicism for constipated worm.

  17. Quartermaster
    September 24th, 2014 @ 12:15 pm

    They absorb phlogiston, the stuff that makes fire.

  18. Steve Skubinna
    September 24th, 2014 @ 2:40 pm

    Actually, legislating redemption is the core of all progressive thought. With just the right mixture of laws and soclal engineering we can achieve utopia.

    Oh, and enslavement and mass murder. We need that as well.

  19. Daniel Freeman
    September 25th, 2014 @ 12:35 am

    “Politicians : Power :: Diapers : Poo”

    I’m not sure I agree, since elected officials can be a counterbalance to otherwise-unaccountable power — such as appointed officials, public bureaucracies, and private wealth — but at least it’s short.

  20. DeadMessenger
    September 25th, 2014 @ 2:48 pm

    I like it!

    And I get what you’re saying about counterbalance, but any comparison between politicians and poo is going to be more accurate than not, I’m thinking.

  21. FMJRA 2.0: Fire Escape : The Other McCain
    September 27th, 2014 @ 8:00 pm

    […] Brooks Threatens Gore’s Grip On “The Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Read” […]

  22. The Republican Direction Is The Same Tired One As The Democrats; Just Slower : The Other McCain
    September 28th, 2014 @ 11:52 am

    […] isn’t that the essence of politics? At least, that’s what I got out of the last Brooks column I formally laughed at. Mark Levin says that it’s time to nominate another Reagan for 2016. […]