or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 11, 2005
From This Day Forward
As it happens, Mike Gerber and I went to college with Peter Beinart, now editor of the New Republic and Thinker of Thoughts. Neither of us knew him much. Nevertheless, because Mike and I have various friends in common with Beinart, we were speaking about him recently. In my rush to express my opinion about Beinart, I accidentally crushed his two names together and referred to him as Pe-Nart. (Pronounced PEE-nurt.)
Again: this was not on purpose. Nevertheless, it struck us as funny, and somehow excruciatingly apt. Also, it saves time.
I therefore decree that, starting now, Peter Beinart must be referred to in all public fora as "Pe-Nart."
I Have Spoken.
P.S. Many progressives have been miffed by Pe-nart's decision to purge them from the Democratic party. (Pe-Nart realized they love Osama bin Laden too much.) I sympathize with the progressives' emotion, but don't share it.
Because, frankly, who the hell cares what Pe-Nart thinks? I mean, if you want to run the Democratic party and can't out-organize Pe-Nart, that's no one's fault but yours. Moveon.org has several million members, while the mighty battalions marching behind Pe-Nart consist of three 22-year-old New Republic interns.
Posted at March 11, 2005 07:36 AM | TrackBackWould the MoveOn members actually show up? Here they had a couple of house parties, expressed worried optimism, donated some money, and folded as soon as Kerry performed the final flip flop on ensuring a legal vote count. He scuttled off with the loot and they now back Howard Dean with worried optimism.
Posted by: Harry at March 11, 2005 12:21 PMWould the MoveOn members actually show up?
Well, maybe or maybe not. (I think they would.) But they were complaining about being read out of the party by Pe-Nart. If you have millions of people and can't get your act together to prevent yourself from being purged by Pe-Nart's army of New Republic interns, you really shouldn't complain.
In closing, let me add this: Pe-Nart, Pe-Nart, Pe-Nart.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at March 11, 2005 01:43 PMFrom waaaaay back in my past, there comes a protocol regarding anyone named Pe-Nart. By neglecting to put a boot to them when their posteriors are proffered, you do them a terrible injustice.
Posted by: Harry at March 11, 2005 03:43 PMNicely put, Harry. May I borrow it sometime? Credit given, of course.
Another option, though, may be to put the boot on the other foot leaving them (literally) with their delusion. Would the point be approaching where the Dims need MoveOn more than MoveOn needs the Dims?
Thank you, Jim. The protocol is considered open source and free according to the most liberal terms of the GNU public license. Your modifications and use can only improve it.
I don't know if there's much room between the Dems and MoveOn. Both have a top down style, with a grass rootsy veneer. MoveOn's general thrust is already Democratic even though most of the members identify more as progressive populists. MoveOn is locked in to working within the rules set by the established system. They have not organized the massive civil disobedience a truly revolutionary outfit would. I don't know how many of the members are up for that anyway. In short, they're pretty tame and the membership reduced to cash cow status.
Posted by: Harry at March 12, 2005 09:47 AM
