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Go Home Newt Gingrich, Duke, And the Harmonization Of Evil

JONATHAN CHAIT MARCH 18, 2011

Newt Gingrich, Duke, And the Harmonization Of Evil

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

For those of you who aren't following the NCAA basketball tournament, I apologize that it -- er, I mean, my strange illness -- is interfering with content again today. But if you can't see any reason to take an interest in the outcome, allow me to furnish this quote from Newt Gingrich:

I have a personal affection for Duke.

Of course he does. As does Rand Paul. As does David Duke. (Right? Why wouldn't he?) Really, Duke fandom offers a natural fit for the whole culture of white privilege and feigned victimization:

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16 comments

MM is going to mandate any number of slow days. Nush, where are you?

- liberalref

March 18, 2011 at 10:57am

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You having your first 70 degree down there today too JC? My concentration flags because of it too. Enjoy. It's been a vicious, stupid, scary week out there.

- WandreyCer

March 18, 2011 at 11:22am

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SND. And his technique was lame. You are supposed to make contact, leave your feet and yell. You don't just fall down.

- Nusholtz

March 18, 2011 at 11:41am

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My two long-time partners and dear friends I refer to as my football partner and my basketball partner, the former having attended Notre Dame as an undergraduate and Univ. of Michigan law, and the latter having attended the Univ. of Kentucky as an undergraduate and Duke law. Needless to say, the former wouldn't shut up in the fall and the latter wouldn't shut up in the winter and early spring. But then I'm a Gator and never shut up, winning national championship after national championship in football and basketball!

- rayward

March 18, 2011 at 11:50am

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Moment of silence for Bucknell and her fans (assuming there are some), the most recent of what will be a long list of casaulties to UCONN in the coming days.

- Tristan

March 18, 2011 at 12:07pm

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So, Rand Paul is proud to be a Blue Devil, but wants to bury his Aqua Buddhist past? That's backwards.

- Geoff G

March 18, 2011 at 12:10pm

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When I read the headline, I thought at first you were referring to Duke, the Doonesbury character. Glad you cleared that up with the photo/video.

- gwcross

March 18, 2011 at 12:48pm

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A vicious, stupid, and scary week? More so, than any other week? I hadn't noticed. What happened, where people of color running amuck, committing more crimes than usual?

- liberalref

March 18, 2011 at 12:52pm

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Well, you know, earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactors failing, then Libya, no-fly-zone, Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, and the Religious Right recruiting Republicans in Iowa, not to mention a three-week extension to prevent Government shutdown cutting 6 billion dollars, plus more NPR bashing. Compared to the normal stuff, this HAS been quite a week.

- AllanL5

March 18, 2011 at 1:17pm

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gwcross - I'm with you, but I suspect that'd be the case for most people who don't care about sports...

- janus

March 18, 2011 at 2:58pm

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And Allan - Thanks for making it clear to libref there.

- janus

March 18, 2011 at 3:01pm

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Not that y'all would know it, but the average week twenty or thirty years ago was well worse worldwide than it is now. A lot of civil wars have burned themselves out, e.g., the Congo, and the Sudan. Domestically, crime is far below what it was in 1990, though next to no one knows that. In fact, Americans commonly think that the crime rate has been soaring. There are deaths from the burning of coal every day of the year, particularly in a country like China that is hell-bent on economic growth, but this is not much written about and it certainly is not a huge news story like the problems at the Fukushima reactors. The World Bank estimates that there are more than 700,000 deaths a year in China due to air pollution related illnesses. One is not surprised at the tabloidy grasp of such matters that the average person possesses, but it raises eyebrows when putatively educated people converge on the average. So here, one sophomoric voice congratulates another one for enlightening me on how horrible this last week has been.

- liberalref

March 18, 2011 at 3:19pm

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Forty people were massacred in Yemen today, but, to keep things in perspective, I hasten to add that the Johnstown flood killed more people.

- Geoff G

March 18, 2011 at 4:19pm

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Why would you mention US domestic crime in the same breath as the Congo wars and the follies of Chinese governmental policy? That seems out of place to me.

- Simon Greenwood

March 18, 2011 at 5:41pm

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Because I wanted to include a domestic analogue to the narrative that the world at large is a better place than it was twenty years ago. Seems eminently rational to me.

- liberalref

March 18, 2011 at 7:49pm

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You better be careful with that Duke criticism, Jon, or one of your colleagues is going to call you a homophobe.

- JSAYKO@EXCITE.COM-old

March 21, 2011 at 2:27pm

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