Just who exactly are these scumbag-ette sisterhood vipers? Well one is the "queen of mean" and the other, well, she's just "mean." In fact both of them fall in the category of a variation of a quotable phrase by Maureen Dowd "we are in era of Republican Mean girls" (in her recent article, "Playing All the Angles" in the New York Times on 10/16/10). In turn Michelle Malkin (on Fox News 10/21/10) quoted and characterized Ms. Dowd as "catty, nasty and mean."
But I want to begin with just "Ms." rabidly "mean" here. I am of course speaking of Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. This woman I surmise has been rabidly mean since childbirth, and somehow I suspect before that too. And this far, far leftist viper saves and stores up all her venom and hisses and dishes it out solely for Republicans, Christians and conservatives with her (and that of Ms. Dowd's) special emphasize on Republican women and of course, the Tea Party.
In fact, both Ms. Dowd and Ms. Maddow have been dishing out and walloping a dollop of pure, unadulterated "catty, nasty and mean" on a daily and weekly basis for almost the last two years now. So as I figure it, it's high time for them to take a walloping dollop of comeuppance with their own medicine, and to wit, eat a little, nay, make that a whole lot of crow.
You see attacking conservatives and Republicans, Christians and Catholics, both male and female, appears to be their life's mission. To demean, vilify, delegitimize and disgrace the former, is truly their life's work and makes their day both happy and gratifying which believe it or not, is my mission too, but only it is she and her ilk who make up my target, and yes I guess, my life's work too.
But let us return solely to Ms. Rabidly Mean. Her modus operandi as I see it, is a not so subtle combination of "gotcha" yellow journalism and the head drop, eyes darting around, and body coil of a viper before it strikes viciously with its venomous loaded questioning of "isn't it true therefore, ergo, ipso facto, igitur, hoc propter hoc, that you are a conservative, a Christian and a Republican guilty of the supreme, capital crime of hypocrisy through the sheer, utter sin of believing in the evil nonsense you do, and the sheer fact of your breathing, having a pulse and being alive and existing at all? Aren't you thoroughly guilty as charged? Aren't you, aren't you!?"
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - blossom
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
i can't remember the last time i read something so lacking insight and truthfullness
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
2 - El Bicho
Just one example of said meanness would have gone a long way to making your point. Unfortunate that an editor didn't bother to ask that of you before publishing.
3 - Glenn Contrarian
The author obviously hasn't watched Rachel Maddow very much...because if he had, he'd know that vicious insults are NOT her modus operandi...and he'd also know that what the vast majority of what she does is expose hypocrisy using EVIDENCE, publicly-available video/audio/print/text from reputable sources.
If he watched Rachel Maddow, he'd also know that (unlike the pundits on the Right) she doesn't accuse this or that person of being Hitler/Stalin/Mao/Marx/Lenin...which is something that nearly every single pundit on the Right (with the possible exception of George Will) seem to do every week, if not every day.
No, Mr. Cohen, this retired Navy man has seen both sides of the story. I used to be very much like you...until I began to see that the facts didn't back the rhetoric of my Republican party back in the early 90's. The final few years in my Navy career I was the token liberal on a ship chock-full of conservatives...but I stood my ground because I'd rather be right then popular.
I know you'll probably claim to have watched Rachel Maddow and know both sides of the story and you probably really believe that you do...but I lived your side of the story for a lot of years, and while I see the title of 'Marine' as an honor for anyone, I assure you that you don't know both sides of the story.
I refer you to this website for you to begin checking what you're seeing on Fox News. It's a Media Matters site - you know, the place that the Right tells you is a leftist tool and Thou Shalt Not Go There - and check the list of five hundred and eighty-two pages, each containing ten to fifteen documented inaccuracies, context-changes, misquotes, and outright falsehoods broadcast by Fox...all for the Glory of the Right.
Read that list and you just might start to wonder (like I did) about how much you and your compatriots have been manipulated by those you support. Or you can refuse and stick close to that grape Kool-Aid dispenser that tells you how unAmerican it is to not follow the Republican line that has moved so far to the right that even Nixon, Bush Sr., and even Reagan (whom I still hold as one of the best presidents ever) would be labeled 'socialist' and drummed out of the party.
Your move.
4 - roger nowosielski
I would have thought that Olsen's and Dawn's departure would bring about a significant improvement.
I was wrong. When the cat is away, the mice will play.
5 - Arch ConscienceStain
There, I Said It!
and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It, and Said It!!!
6 - Irvin F Cohen
Dear Arch ConscienceStain,
I'm at a loss and a bit of a quandary too, for you see I'm a conservative and therefore am rather slow on the uptake...
But what pray tell did you say?
Or am I just too ignorant, stupid and gullible to understand your highly nuanced, complex and sophisticated brilliance [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]? Don't answer that, cause that's a rhetorical question. You do know what a rhetorical question is, don't you?
7 - Alan Kurtz
Shit. For the past few months, my BC bio has maintained that I am "Running Unopposed for Blogcritics' Most Hated Writer of 2010 Award."
However, now [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor] Irvin F. Cohen has materialized out of thin air to challenge me for that coveted prize. It's damned discouraging. I worked and slaved all year long to earn the Most Hated Award, submitting over 100 articles published on BC from January through October. Yet here comes Sergeant Slacker, with a grand total of three blogs over the last two weeks, and I seriously feel him breathing down my unleathered neck.
I appeal to the many BC regulars who have taken such pleasure in vilifying me throughout 2010. Please, I beg you, remain loyal in hating me above all others! Do not be swayed by a latecomer, no matter how much you may despise him! I am the most deserving of your malevolence. Vote for me as Blogcritics' Most Hated Writer of 2010!
8 - roger nowosielski
Alan, you're just vying for attention. [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
9 - Irvin F. Cohen
Please note blogcritters,
That first and foremost I am not me, but am rather him. That, I Alan Kurtz, have created this loathsome, detestable character Irvin F. Cohen, this much desired noble and compelling fictional persona that I could only dream of for myself in my wildest imagination; solely in order to gin up interest in my own personal, overweening loathsomeness and overwhelmingly despicable nature, heart and mind, and very lowly, nay, make that lowliest soul.
So second, I, Allen Kurtz do hereby reclaim my rightful place to being truly the most loathsome, reptilian, lowlife, scumbag critter in all of Blogocritterland. So please, reconsider, and do not allow this upstart figment of my deranged imagination to beat me at my own game. Please, Please, pretty please with sugar and spice on it, and I'll even throw in ten bucks to boot. Oh, alright, you drive a hard bargain, I''ll make that 20 bucks and to show you what a decent sort I truly am, I'll give you the super-duper, sech-a-deal, Jewish, double, super, absolutely going out of business, crazy Irv, deep-deep-deep Jewish wholesale, reduced for quick sale, clearance absolutely must go, price of only $ 2.99! That's right, if you vote for me as the most loathsome and detested blog-o-critter in all of blog-o-critter-land I'll give you all of $ 1.99. So vote for me...or die or go fornicate yourselves up your collective anuses, in your ears, in your nostrils under your arms, in your mouths, between your toes and wherever your masculine, erect phallus will goeth or reach or fit.
10 - Irvin F. Cohen
Dear Roger, [Edited]
Let's see, you don't hate me nor do you hold me in contempt.
I'm a little confused... does that mean you love me?
11 - Alan Kurtz
Roger (#8), you take everything so seriously. I bet you're no fun at all at a party. Or maybe you're still suffering from the flu? If so, here's hoping you get well soon.
12 - STM
Al: "However, now [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor] Irvin F. Cohen has materialized out of thin air".
Well, possibly not out of thin air. Cleverly cooked up, perhaps ...
Nice going, though Irv ... only three pages!
13 - Jordan Richardson
A party? Please, Alan.
A party is just a socio-cultural manifestation of the political class structure defined through a Foucaultian lens vis-à-vis the working class something something and reworked within the framework of the dialectic model utilizing, but not withstanding or neglecting, of course, the absolutely spurious nature of, say, hanging out by the stereo.
14 - Irvin F. Cohen
Hey STM (whatever the fornication that stands for, to reiterate the question)
Yeah Dude, methinks you got this one right... nice going
But don't let that get to your [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor] head [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]!
15 - Dr Dreadful
The following far-right, [Edited] self-righteous rhetorical tactic is often seen here at BC and has already been employed in this article and subsequent, for want of a better word, discussion:
1. Make argument.
2 Wait for first few comments.
3. Claim that argument is watertight and that no-one has, will or can refute it in any particular.
4. Ignore it when someone does.
16 - Arch Conservative
How can someone actually write a three page article discussing Rachael Maddow and not use the word androgynous even once?
17 - Irvin F. Cohen
Dear Doctor commie-lib, etc., etc., Dreadful (you know the drill - up against the wall maternal fornicator and prepare yourself for some mee-narr-rity justice - wait, wait a minute, that's not the drill i had in mind. Scratch that. But to the point)
Dr. Dreadful are you saying that I am guilty of the fallacy of the straw man or the "straw man fallacy" as it is mostly known? Is that it? Cause, no, I never heard of that. I really don't know what your fornicating talking about. But if it is, look here, it ain't me, it's all them other maternal fornicators.
Nevertheless, to show you my good bonafides and absolute, intellectual honesty herein, I will cross my heart and hope and pray that someone other than me is smote down and or just shrivels up and dies. Will that suffice for thee? I mean aren't we being a bit too demanding here?
18 - Irvin F. Cohen
Dear comrade arch conservative,
I actually had a much more basic, crass and crude term in my soul, but did not employ such lest the vengeful and capricious and arbitrary Gods of "edited-out" cut, snip, excise and censor into oblivion come crashing down upon my head and shoulders.
In actuality SCUMBAG-ETTE was part of the original title which however did make it to the first graff - thankfully.
19 - roger nowosielski
Nice show, Jordan, BTW, It tells more about yourself than I ever wanted to know.
20 - Arch Conservative
[Edited]
Well I share the author's disdain for Maddow, she doesn't get my dander up nearly as much the likes of Joy Behar or Jeannine Garofalo, two of the most reprehensible (in every sense of the world) people walking the planet.
21 - handyguy
Rachel Maddow is the smartest, most articulate of all the opinion-heads on MSNBC and Fox. Not even a close contest.
She's also remarkably civil for a cable-TV opinion-head. Perhaps Mr. Cohen is reacting to her already legendary inteview with Oregon Tea Party House candidate Arthur Robinson. It was Mr. Robinson who turned the interview instantly tense and loud. Rachel was insistent, but not rude.
Even her more recent "walk fast" interview with Joe Miller in Alaska could not be described as ill-mannered.
So what's this article actually about?
22 - handyguy
Well, there is Rand Paul. But again, not rude, just tense because he didn't like the questions.
Also, satellite-feed long-distance interviews have a built-in delay between Q&A that can turn them into train wrecks. Both the Robinson and Paul interviews were conducted this way.
23 - roger nowosielski
As to Rachel, she does have a mean streak. Whether it's traceable to her childhood experiencea is debatable. It's a fair hypothesis, to say the least. [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor]
24 - Arch Conservative
I just read a poll showing Alan Grayson down by seven points in Florida.
Marco Rubios is going to squash Crist like the cockroach he is...........
Paul Hodes and Carol Shea Porter in my home state about to be thrown out on their asses............
Pleasant dreams all..........
25 - Alan Kurtz
I seem to be the designated director of everyone else's attention to an article being tongue-in-cheek. Remember Danny Vollmer's recent Gavin Newsom: The Epitome of What Every Man Should Aspire To Be? Even Dave Nalle, who edited that blog, didn't realize it was humorous until I pointed it out.
And now we have the present piece by Irvin F. Cohen. Unlike his two previous Blogcritics entries, which were vaguely classified as "Opinion in Politics," this one is expressly labeled "Satire in Politics." Yet you still don't get it! Everyone is reacting as if Irvin meant for this to be taken seriously.
I know, I know. I will now get lectures from the same old same olds about how if it isn't funny, it's not satire. But, honestly, when it comes to humor, you guys haven't a clue.