printCommissar Keith Olbermann of MSNBC needed a good smack for his sneering pomposity, uncompromising partisanship, and dedicated efforts in furthering Fabian economic planning and centralization. Unlike the Obama Doberman, Rachel Maddow, his comrade in arms, will occasionally have Ron Paul on her show.
As a libertarian who opposed the war in Iraq and the occupation of Afghanistan (the only legitimate libertarian positions), I had once harbored a soft spot for Olbermann. It’s since become abundantly clear that he’s unprepared to so much as cross Obama–even when it becomes apparent that his man is digging-in in Afghanistan.
Ann Coulter’s angle is fun. I’d have never mustered the interest to look into Olbermann’s Ivy-League pretensions. Curiously, no less an august authority than the Newspaper of Record reported that Olbermann was a Cornell graduate. It turns out that it was from that school’s agricultural college that our earthy Keith rose to fame:
“… Keith didn’t go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell.
The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants).”
I’ll be glued to the screen for the next hour, waiting to see how Keith handles the blow to his Cornell core. He’ll have to contend with quite a bit of snickering in the future.
A good read is “Olbermann’s plastic ivy.”
Update: Olbermann was flustered and awkward. He made Coulter his “Third Worst Person in the World,” and struggled to counter her revelations about his plastic Ivy degree. By appealing to her inclusiveness, Olbermann flunked logic miserably. Paraphrased:
“I thought we were all supposed to respect our fellow Cornell graduates no matter the college from which they graduated.”
An appeal to good will and emotion? How like a liberal to sidestep immutable truths by an appeal to emotion: “please be nice to me, Annie.”
(1) Interesting thing about partisan hacks is how they will switch sides in an argument with no shame – such as the Red pacifists (like Pete Seeger) of early 1941 who became war hawks when Germany invaded Stalin’s “Workers’ Paradise”. Coulter will criticize the big spending Democrats while conveniently ignoring the big spending Republikeynsians. Olbermann will criticize the warmongering Republicans while ignoring the Democrusaders. (2) George Will correctly points out Democrusader hypocrisy on the unconstitutional “status of forces agreements” that Bush and others negotiated that have never been ratified by Congress: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will030509.php3 {apparently Congressional approval is ONLY needed if a Republican is in the White House according to the Bidens of the world}. (3) What is a bit more difficult for me – since I don’t spend too much time watching the talking bloviators – is whether they (Ann and Keith) take their Cornell “credentials” seriously as some sort of apriori proof of their inherent brilliance or are just being satirical. Sad if they believe the former. (4) Are the pathetic Republicans who make pathetic or trivial (rather than principled) attacks on Obama deliberately amplified by the media as a plot to make Obama look good?
A pragmatist doesn’t believe that there is even such a thing as an immutable truth.
The very concept of values is alien to them, the best they can do is pretend to have some. Which values they pretend to have depends completely on the situation, or more accurately, who they are portraying it to.
The one thing they are best at is spending all their time proving that you can’t trust them.
Coulter clubs
Olber flubs
Ilana drubs
Literary goddesses 2 – Keith 0