The New Republic

Eh, where is everybody? It's a Friday and the boards are bare on all the blogs!

We're down to the bare bones for posters on this site. Where is ChanRobt? I miss that right wing nutjob. Robert barely posts, ditto Butchie. Where is Joe, Cookie and everybody else for that matter?

Even Bone is off the glue and got himself a new site.

I mean...well who cares. At least the webmaster got paid.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 12:06pm

hey John, you scared everyone away with your drunken Irish humour. (I spelled humour the English way to piss you off). Yeah, since they "fixed" the site things sure have improved.

- blackton

December 14, 2007 at 12:42pm

If you like I can post more often!

Though I doubt I can replace our departed friends.

(A lurker)

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 1:37pm

Yea, I tend to do that Blackton. No booze for me, not after all the Xmas parties this week. I told the boss what I thought of him and then told him what I thought of myself the day after. Good to see you holding the fort Black, no better man.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 1:47pm

You look vaguley familiar doubtofbuddha? Have we meet?

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 2:03pm

I'm still around, Iggy.  I just have to fight against the maniacal left-wing posters on my new site trying to muddy up my sober analysis by implying that not all Muslims are monsters.   Don't know what to do about them.

- boneill

December 14, 2007 at 2:16pm

:)

I'm laughing out loud here Bone.

You'd want to watch those hippie communist freaks. Sober analysis doesn't penetrate their conspriacy (gin) soaked brains.

Man, where is everybody these days. I'm sure the oversexed, overpaid TNR union members can't be happy with the lack of instant gratification.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 2:27pm

Yes. When you were a bit newer to the site (or at least when I first started noticing your comments) you made a snarky response to a particular article or blog post here. I asked for clarification as to what exactly you meant by it. I've made a few other comments here or there since then. My profile says I have made something like 8 comments so far? I will try to do better in the future.

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 2:28pm

Well, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box so I have to rely on sarcasim, insults and snarky comments. So, no offence meant buddha.

(BTW, I clicked on your name and got a blog site. How did that happen?)

Sorry, Jason about the lack of reference to the post.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 2:33pm

None taken.

I listed it as my website. I didn't realize at the time that people would not be able to see my profile if I did that. I think I will remove it.

So you are from Dublin? I visited London earlier this year (my first time travelling abroad since I was little) and am looking forward to travelling again. I've considered making Ireland my next international trip, since I've heard good things about it. Plus flights seem to be relatively inexpensive compared to those of other European and Asian destinations.

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 2:41pm

Jeez, didn't I read just last week that Ed Rollins was heading up the California effort to make the Electoral College ballot there more "democratic" Not. Just like "The Great White Hope" Fred, once people start to look closer at Huck, he will join Fred and Rudy in bellyflopping in the RCP Polling Averages and thereafter making a rapid descent to sleep with the fishees. The conservative movement, the R establishment, and the realist Rs(such as they are!) now sees Romney as "Da Man". Foggit About Rudy--Shtup-gate has killed him. Foggit about Fred and Huck. Romney's got squeeky clean, business and management experience, born to the R elite, dough up the wazoo, and a strategic mind. The R's ultimately won't care about Moroni, flipfloppin' like a figgin' chameleon whore: Mitt's the Man. We're the ones who should care!

- sabatia

December 14, 2007 at 3:19pm

Iggy:  I'm afraid I've become even quieter since the print got smaller. But I'm still here, lurking around, enjoying Hillary's fake smile while she slowly self-destructs, cheering Obama's (pardon the expression) surge, watching the Republicans melt like Artic icebergs.  I appreciate you and bone and tep and blackie and have learned a lot from all of you, and, like you, cherish the odd yard or cookie sighting.  As it happens, I have been to Dublin, have biked around Cork and Kerry Counties, and consider myself an aficcionado of Irish music. So anyway, I greet you on this lonely Friday and wish you a lovely weekend.   Cheers from snowy western Massachusetts.

Jack Rosenblum

- JackR

December 14, 2007 at 4:01pm

See, dear John? Except for me, people actually like you!

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 4:18pm

I'm just joking dear John. I like you too!

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 4:25pm

Luis, I'm always reading you in what I imagine is a Portuguese accent.   It adds "spice," as you would say.

- MOLLYSIMON

December 14, 2007 at 4:28pm

My heart is balancing Molly. But my e-lover is still Martin Peretz.

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 4:32pm

Iggy, I think the only time we really intersect is on music.  In any case, my husband discovered this website Goodblimey.com.  They offer lots of mash-ups.  Just click onto the music section.  There's  a particularly good mix of Snoop and Led Zeppelin.  In fact, I think most rap sounds better when it's mashed up.  

I'm glad you never took it personally when I told you "you're full of shit and don't you know it."  I figured you'd know the Streets, which made it a particularly satisfying post.  

- MOLLYSIMON

December 14, 2007 at 4:34pm

Luis:  "Balancing"?  Anyway, hopefully one day I'll claim you as my own!  

- MOLLYSIMON

December 14, 2007 at 4:36pm

Molly, I have to admit that imagining Luis's posts in such a manner makes them very, very amusing.

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 4:44pm

Jack, I take it that means you reccomend Ireland? Any particular areas I should check out?

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 4:45pm

"Imagining Luis's posts (...) makes them very amusing"

See, doubttofbuddah? There's a good side to everything!

And now that we are talking about sensuous languages, I must say that, in mine, would mean something (of course, with some spices added) like "doubt if I would fuck"

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 4:54pm

in mine, your new name, would mean that, of course...

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 5:06pm

And again, on my e-love affair, we're thinking about marrying and adopting dear John, giving him at last a stable home. That if the law allows us of course. But this Huckabee man simply does not understand our longings...

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 5:16pm

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I was kind of confused!

- doubtofbuddha

December 14, 2007 at 5:20pm

You're welcome "do...."

- luispc

December 14, 2007 at 5:33pm

Luis, for what its worth, I always imagine your posts being in a Portuguese accent as well, even though I have literally no idea what that sounds like.  So I generally make it as comical as I can.  I do the same with Iggy.  

Mollysimon, thanks for the kind words over at the Spine, by the way.  I enjoy your posts as well.

And doubtofbuddha, you call yourself a lurker but have contributed a lot all over today.  Please keep it up.  

- boneill

December 14, 2007 at 5:43pm

doubtofbuddha:  Absolutely.  All the places I mentioned (Cork, Kerry, Dublin), but you should consult iggy for a wider perspective.  Also. I recommend renting "Ryan's Daughter" for superbly done slice of history and a breathtaking scene of Dingle Bay in a storm.

- JackR

December 14, 2007 at 6:14pm

Jack R - you've probably seen more of Cork than I have then. I'm surprised you made it out alive to be honest. They eat their own young in Cork, degenerate animals.

Kerry is gods country. I hope you did the Ring of Kerry. Devestatingly beautiful place.

I envy you Jack, a snowy Mass sounds like the job. New England would be my American Dream.

Louis, compeletly agree with you on your Spine post on the EU meeting and your quotes were very informative in an abstract, hyperbolic kinda way. I do think there is a lot more to Europe than "peace in our time" and like to delude myself that Europe's particularly Social Democratic essence is a reaction to that history, rather than some legal anachronism.

Molly, I was only winding you up about The Streets. The first album was great.

Sir Bone - I'll try not wreck your head too much on the site (try).

Budda - if you're around Dublin let me know and I'll do my Bord Failte constitutional duty and buy you the first round.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 14, 2007 at 6:28pm

Buddha, Boneill, Luis:  If you enjoy imagining Luis's accent, try reading Sleepy's in a generic Eastern European accent!  

Luis:  I'd put off the adoption.  I enjoy Marty, but I can't imagine the head job he'd do on a kid.  

Iggy:  Another mash-up you should definitely try to find is Joy Division crossed Missy E.  Best ever.  If you work out (and I somehow doubt that you do) it'll amp you right up.  

- MOLLYSIMON

December 14, 2007 at 9:00pm

Bone, do you imagine Johny boy with a Portuguese accent? Strange.

I always imagine him as Papageno, as he is in Bergman's The Magic Flute. You can see it here (and don't forget to go to the minute 3.00 plus):

www.youtube.com/watch

And you have no idea of what it would be a portuguese accent?

Well, you can always listen to Durão Barroso or, not so accentuated, Teresa Kerry.

And if you want fun, you can listen to this:

www.youtube.com/watch

And if you want to hear about the nostalgic and poetic spirit of the language (much different from spanish or that awful perversion that is portuguese from Brazil) you can go here:

www.youtube.com/watch

- luispc

December 15, 2007 at 4:11am

"hyperbolic kinda way. I do think there is a lot more to Europe than "peace in our time" "

Why is it Johnny boy that you, anglo-saxons, alway have to file everything in little metal boxes, unatending the spirit of the matter.

United Europe is a spirit and nothing if not a spirit. What the Romans called humanitas or what the Germans call menschlichkeit reborn. The spiritual and political ties of Europe reborn after being broken for centuries. And now reborn in a completely different way, since we are not anymore talking about a community of believers with it's center in Rome. We are talking about a community of achieved men and women, plain citizens, that share their humane destiny...

And in what concerns social-democracy, you have a brother in me. But without that humanitas, social-democracy is worthless and unsavable...

- luispc

December 15, 2007 at 4:16am

"Luis:  I'd put off the adoption.  I enjoy Marty, but I can't imagine the head job he'd do on a kid.  "

Oh these people! Always finding subterfuges for their e-homophobia and their opposition to that wonderful  new idea called e-gay adoption...

And Peretz would make a hell of a father!

- luispc

December 15, 2007 at 4:17am

Luis:  Who would be the primary care-taker?  Or would you both work and hire a nanny?  Somebody has to cut back, though, so I guess it would be Marty in his semi-retirement.  But have you really thought about the work involved in raising a child?  You're a student.  A child has to know his father.  You'd have to become extremely efficient with your hours, even if Marty were the ones doing the brunt of it: the chauffeuring to karate and piano, organizing the playdates, checking the homework, holding the head when he's vomiting.  A child has to know his father (mother?).  And the costs!  Putting a child through a private college these days can cost you a quarter of a million, with room and board and meals and books and just general expenses.

And don't forget the meshing of philosophies.  Some parents lean authoritarian, others permissive.  No matter, there are always going to be differences, and working these through can be stressful.  Even down to his diet.  You want him all-natural all-organic, maybe Marty likes trips to McDonalds and Krispy Cream.

Would you raise Johnny as Catholic or Jewish?  Mixed marriages can be tough.  And Jews, even intermarrying ones, can be prickly.  We like holding onto our traditions.  We're a tiny population and feel more fiercely about preserving our identity.  Johnny, I presume, is a Catholic, so making him convert at this late stage would be awfully confusing.  Carting him to therapy is time-consuming and expensive.  Also, would he be Bar-Mitzvahed?  And what kind?  A trip to Israel to do his thing in front of the Wailing Wall?  Or a big affair at the Beverly Hills Hotel?  Or just a small party with a DJ?  One recent Bat Mitzvah I attended was held at the synagogue, and later, the kids were bussed off to this place in Manhattan called Chelsea Piers, where they could rock climb on walls, jump on trampolines, and play hoops. And eat sliders and ice cream sundaes.  Again, it's meshing those pesky values. This is the sort of thing that must be thought through!  

And finally, you have to let Johnny be Johnny.  Expectations that he'll go to an Ivy League school could crush a kid.  You want him to be a doctor but he wants to do graphic design or major in mythology and folklore.  Are you prepared to love a child for what he is?  You mus t leave your narcissism at the door, Luis.    

- MOLLYSIMON

December 15, 2007 at 1:17pm

Hey! I have rights you know. Although, I don't know, I think I could be a great Jew. That whole wailing wall thing looks kinda cool - a spiritual headbanging session. Motorhead up all night out of his skull on too much God.

- The Ignorant Populist

December 15, 2007 at 3:14pm

All those obstacles are surely overcomen by our overwhelming phisical attraction, Molly.

And we would hire a nanny, of course. A girl must be practical and Peretz is not destituted.

The religion side is the one that worries me. But the best thing to do with that wretched boy is to raise him an atheist and giving him lots of Mozart, Bergman and Camus. He'll find his way to God. It worked with me.

And Johnny, you have no rights whatsoever. Didn't you know that gay parenting was about the parents, their longings and their "rights"?

- luispc

December 15, 2007 at 3:22pm

I've just been thinking about the fact that Peretz money belongs to his wife so they keep saying at The Spine. And that ex-TNR that left angry seems obsessed with this.

Anyway. I've already figured out a good solution inspired in the case of that New Jersey governor that left his wife for his macho love, who turned out to be an Israeli spy or a Lebanese spy (whatever, I know the story since his wife was Portuguese and now published a book here and is constantly complaining about her sad story on television).

The solution, of course, is to play the victim. It suits perfectly in this sentimentality age of "rights". We'll both publish books on our stories and market them at Oprah Winfrey show (she'll sure will have us if we are "sincere" and "sniffy" enough... and when Peretz' wife wakes up from coma and gets herself on Oprah and publishes her own book, ours will then have sold enough to cover for a flat, Johnny's education and that nanny...).

Oh, and thinking about the ceremony. I've already asked Bone to be Peretz' bridesmaid. He said yes, if Peretz agreed on posting occasionally on his new site about the Middle East. And, of course, Molly I'm counting on you to be my bestman.

- luispc

December 15, 2007 at 4:13pm

Luis, can't wait for the wedding.  Is it black tie?  I'll need to rent a tux.  I underestimated your ability to think this through.  You'll be happy to know that Peretz  lives in Massachusetts, which means community property.  Assets accrued during the marriage get divided evenly.  So no need, Mr. Rising Star PhD, to go the tacky Oprah route.    

As for religion, as you must have figured out by now, Marty will insist on raising the kids Jewish.  You'll be joining a temple and schlepping them to Sunday school (which is nice, it gives you the morning off--and of course  time for you and Marty to keep the fires burning).  You'll  observe the high holidays, and passover in the spring-- the seder is delicious, though the matzah is constipating.  I suggest apricots.

You're lucky, Luis.  From what I've read, Portugal is extremely enlightened on the subject of gay rights.  The people are, too.  

Johnny, don't get to excited about having your Barmy  in Jerusalem.  I'd go that route, but Luis and Marty call the shots.  Not you.  Do look forward to getting lots of Marc Cross gold pens with your name engraved.  And multiple copies of Moshe Dayan's biography.  

- MOLLYSIMON

December 15, 2007 at 9:06pm

See, Molly? We've found, against all odds, a purpose for the new blog.spot 2.0. TNR: an ongoing post-modern mix in which sitcom meets reality show. All this with a highly markatable political message too! And in order to add a multicultural aspect, I can't wait for the episodes in which Johnny falls in love with an iranian duck and decides to adopt a goat from Peru.

- luispc

December 16, 2007 at 6:18am

If it's a Persian duck, it must be Jewish, of which they're are many in Los Angeles.  And for the goat, China has plenty of females waiting in orphanages.  Abandoned by parents because of the one child rule, and because girls are so undesirable.  Gay parents or straight, there are plenty of these Chinese adoptees running around town.  So there should be a support group for fathers like Johnny.  I hope you're prepared to respect his choice, no matter what.  Otherwise, you may never see your grandchild.  

- MOLLYSIMON

December 16, 2007 at 1:18pm

From a strictly selfish perspective, I'm so relieved the duck is a Jew. Martin will be so pleased. I was already fearing his reaction and possible consequences if Johnny brought a Shiite for the holidays... I just can't imagine... and if this show is to have a multicultural flavour, those would probably be counterproductive.

I don't know, to add the muslim factor, perhaps we'll watch someday a menage a trois in which Thors Provoni demands to marry his two lovers at once (one Shiite and one Sunni). It will all be so peaceful.

- luispc

December 16, 2007 at 4:44pm

And when I say that it will be peaceful, I'm not being ironic. I'm sure Thors will Saddamize them both very effectively!

- luispc

December 16, 2007 at 5:16pm