Avedon Carol Worse Than Hitler!
Says Anne-Marie Slaughter’s oped not the dumbest thing ever written by anyone in any venue. She gives the game away when she calls Charles Krauthammer “stupid.” Krauthammer is evil, not stupid. If you started from the question, “What would the bitterest mean man in the world believe?” and went from there, everything Krauthammer writes would make perfect sense. Broder is senile, and I don’t think it’s fair to include people with impaired mental function in the contest. That leaves Richard Cohen. “Richard Cohen” is actually, like Ern Malley, a persona adopted as part of a literary prank. I can’t reveal the names involved, but three decent poets of my acquaintance – two men and one woman – compose the “Richard Cohen” columns according to the perorations of the beloved golden retreiver of the two who are a couple. Depending on how the dog zigs and zags through the living room of their Catoctin Mountain cabin, ironically not far from Camp David, they choose subject, stance and even certain images according to a system that, when they explained it to me, I frankly did not get. The explanation of how the dog’s mishap with a shaving-laden electric pencil sharpener led to the famous ‘why, even back in elementary school, I was sometimes asked by the teacher to “say something funny” ‘ jape went, I shamefully admit, right over my head. In any case, more details I must not give, lest the authors be discovered.
I can say that Cohen’s recent consistency in admitting that, yeah, that Iraq War was kind of a bad idea all along owes itself directly to the poor pooch’s increasing troubles with hip dysplasia, curse of the breed.
But as you can see, these facts disqualify the other candidates on Avedon’s list, and are facts she could surely have learned for herself if she were less fixated on constructing massive highway systems and conquering a slave empire in the territory to her east.
Comment by SomeCallMeTim —
July 28, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
It’s not the cheating that disappoints me so much as the shoddiness of the cheating, Henley. Cohen has a fair claim. Airmiles probably does, too. And I’d be astonished if you couldn’t pin a single article on Brooks.
The list is probably not endless, but it feels that way.
Comment by Avedon —
July 28, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Oh, yeah? Well:
[Defense Against the Dark Arts mode on]
Debbie Howell.
[/Defense Against the Dark Arts]
(I just noticed that the acronym is DADA.)
Comment by david —
July 28, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
dumbest thing ever was Kristof on the god gene.
Comment by Jim Henley —
July 28, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
See, david is at least playing the game by the rules. It’s not “dumbest columnist,” it’s “dumbest thing ever written in any venue ever.” You can’t just invoke names. You have to adduce specific pieces of writing.
Comment by Henry Farrell —
July 28, 2007 @ 9:29 pm
Angry Penguins!
Comment by ¡El Gato Negro! —
July 29, 2007 @ 12:57 am
…it’s “dumbest thing ever written in any venue ever.â€
¿Really?
From “Fundies Say the Darndest Things!”
“One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn’t possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.
(post of the year, 2005)
Hokay.
¿Who’s up next?
(bathe, bathe)
Comment by CMike —
July 29, 2007 @ 1:54 am
Does this mean Kati Marton was having a four way on the side when she was married to Peter Jennings?
Comment by liberal —
July 29, 2007 @ 3:14 am
Broder is senile…
Well, he’s been senile for decades then. He’s been writing the same awful crap for a long, long time now.
In his first edition of Sound and Fury, his book on pundits, Eric Alterman had Broder completely pegged. That book was written in 1992.
Comment by Mr Sideshow —
July 29, 2007 @ 7:17 am
It’s all true. She *is* worse than Hitler!
Comment by Jim Henley —
July 29, 2007 @ 7:25 am
@6: I followed that quote all the way to the original boards wondering if it might be a troll. After ten forum pages, I can’t say definitively that it is, so, point to you.
Comment by George Sorwell —
July 29, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Dumbest thing ever written in any venue ever?
I win!!
Comment by Candymarl —
July 29, 2007 @ 10:08 am
Who’s Hitler?
Comment by kid bitzer —
July 29, 2007 @ 10:15 am
ah, but the real question is:
is avedon a vegetarian?