I Know More Than You Do
I'm sorry. I just do. I wish I could explain all the things I know and you don't and how I found them out, but I just can't. I have what's called esoteric knowledge. We who have it keep it hidden. That's the whole point.
If I told you what I knew and how I found it out, it wouldn't be hidden knowledge anymore, and it wouldn't be as useful. For one thing, you might go checking up on it and finding out some of it was wrong or that it came from an unreliable source, or that I just made it up.
So you are just going to have to trust me and give me some room to operate here. It's hard to convince people and the other side is arguing against me, and the most important thing in the world is that I win this argument. So if I say I know things you don't know, back me up. And if anybody says I'm wrong or I don't know something or dares to ask me how I found it out, you go after them with anonymous insults and shut them up. Because those people are either the people I'm arguing with, or they are just plain stupid. I know things they don't know and I want them to shut up.
Now you take this Feingold guy for example. He's what I call a dangerous politician. He even admits there are things he doesn't know and wants to find out. How dumb is that? Who wants a Senator that admits nobody gave him the hidden knowledge? Not me. I want my politicians in on the hidden knowledge loop, even if they can't share that info with me.
I know some of you are going to object to this argument and bring up the invasion and intelligence briefings and reports and UN speeches and State of the Union uranium and just that whole Bush thing, but that's because you don't have the knowledge I have about how the situation is different this time. People like me can be trusted never to tell you I know something I don't know, even if Bush did that a couple of times. Okay. Even if he did it a lot.
And maybe Bush did lie some to get elected, but that was before he got the hidden knowledge. Because the thing is, having hidden knowledge means you never have to admit you were wrong or that you've changed your mind. So you can never really lie, can you?
Someone like me can't anyway. Someone like you might be going back on a promise or lying if you said you would do something and didn't. But someone like me has the hidden knowledge card to play. I just say oh I learned a lot since then, so I get a change your mind for free card.
I can use the compromise card, too, because my mom was a Republican and my dad was a Democrat, so compromise is in my DNA. So to speak.
The best thing is to combine the compromise card with the hidden knowledge card. Then you get to change your mind and compromise at the same time.
I wish I could tell you where and how I learned all this, but then you'd know as much as I do and you might not trust me anymore.
Please don't recommend this post. I don't want those other people to find out about the hidden knowledge and how to use it.
If I told you what I knew and how I found it out, it wouldn't be hidden knowledge anymore, and it wouldn't be as useful. For one thing, you might go checking up on it and finding out some of it was wrong or that it came from an unreliable source, or that I just made it up.
So you are just going to have to trust me and give me some room to operate here. It's hard to convince people and the other side is arguing against me, and the most important thing in the world is that I win this argument. So if I say I know things you don't know, back me up. And if anybody says I'm wrong or I don't know something or dares to ask me how I found it out, you go after them with anonymous insults and shut them up. Because those people are either the people I'm arguing with, or they are just plain stupid. I know things they don't know and I want them to shut up.
Now you take this Feingold guy for example. He's what I call a dangerous politician. He even admits there are things he doesn't know and wants to find out. How dumb is that? Who wants a Senator that admits nobody gave him the hidden knowledge? Not me. I want my politicians in on the hidden knowledge loop, even if they can't share that info with me.
I know some of you are going to object to this argument and bring up the invasion and intelligence briefings and reports and UN speeches and State of the Union uranium and just that whole Bush thing, but that's because you don't have the knowledge I have about how the situation is different this time. People like me can be trusted never to tell you I know something I don't know, even if Bush did that a couple of times. Okay. Even if he did it a lot.
And maybe Bush did lie some to get elected, but that was before he got the hidden knowledge. Because the thing is, having hidden knowledge means you never have to admit you were wrong or that you've changed your mind. So you can never really lie, can you?
Someone like me can't anyway. Someone like you might be going back on a promise or lying if you said you would do something and didn't. But someone like me has the hidden knowledge card to play. I just say oh I learned a lot since then, so I get a change your mind for free card.
I can use the compromise card, too, because my mom was a Republican and my dad was a Democrat, so compromise is in my DNA. So to speak.
The best thing is to combine the compromise card with the hidden knowledge card. Then you get to change your mind and compromise at the same time.
I wish I could tell you where and how I learned all this, but then you'd know as much as I do and you might not trust me anymore.
Please don't recommend this post. I don't want those other people to find out about the hidden knowledge and how to use it.
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What's your clearance level?
June 27, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ultra secret and hush hush. But I shouldn't even tell you that. Sorry. No more information.
June 27, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least you're not taking yourself seriously.
That's good, no one else is either.
June 27, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
You do that enough to completely cover the rest of us in conceit, esoteric knowledge, seriousness and self-importance. I appreciate your service.
June 27, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perfect, Billy.
That appears to be the mindset. We're not electing a President, we're shopping for a new Daddy.
June 27, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I remember my dad telling me the Kennedy and Johnson adminstrations knew more than me about Vietnam. Guess it's something we all have to go through. But I'm not sure I should be telling you that. Might give you a lead on how I got some of my esoteric knowledge.
June 27, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Point well made!
June 27, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
How can one cram so much ego into one withered old body?
June 27, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a big sack between my legs where I put most of it. Want some?
June 27, 2008 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too much information.
June 27, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get an enema treatment. That will flush it all out of you, and then they will be able to bury you in a shoe box.
June 27, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've sucked a lot of it out already.
June 27, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
No thanks. 80 year old spare sack skin is not desireable. But I'm sure you've already been told that.
June 27, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's not what your mama told me.
June 27, 2008 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
BILLY'S GOAT
Billy left his goat out, and somebody got it--the entire pro-Obama crowd. So now he's into full bore rant about his made up factoid, that little scratch on Obama's Honda--the supposition that Obama is refusing to say what his info is and where he got it.
What's the difference between a staw man and a made up man? In this case, there's too little difference to comment on.
In Vietnam, the problem was that our leaders didn't know what their leaders were thinking and vice versa. So your Dad was wrong but not within your framework. Leaders on both sides made assumptions based on their prejudices that were wrong and lethal. So there were no important hidden facts. There was a dearth of helpful points of view of what was going on--a completely absence of realistic empathy, an intellectually credible view of what the other guy was thinking.
The same problem is in force now. You don't know enough about what Obama is thinking. As John Dean and Olberman suggest, he may be thinking that, because the revised FISA bill has a giant loophole--no prohibition of criminal prosecution, there's no point in voting against it and, thereby giving the Right ammunition.
There's a chess game here that he shouldn't expose, not because he's duplicitous to us his supporters, but because his reasoning is so complicated and evocative that exposition of it at length is truly confounding more than helpful. I've read a few of his pieces, and they are difficult to get onto a bumper-sticker.
If he could say, I've seen solid evidence that the data collection we're trying to enable did stop a terrorist threat, would that satisfy you? How much do you need to know to be convinced that he's not capitulating and is being honest about his motives for voting for this bill?
June 27, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd settle for him saying what he knows now that he didn't know a year ago. In addition to the fact that he's the nominee, of course. But hell, I like esoteric knowledge as well as the next sap. Didn't I just say so?
June 27, 2008 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy,
You're perpetuating the fiction that only you have created, the idea that Obama's relying on inside information and that he is bent on hiding it. There's no evidence in anything he said that either of these propositions are true. Please help us get from the quote you began your series of posts with and these propositions.
Here's your quote of Obama again,
And he concludes that any delay in giving telecom's safeguards jeopardizes national security.
You can argue that point, but it seems absurd to get stuck on whether or not he is hiding the basis for his finding--that the program is so important that we shouldn't delay it's re-institution. That basis is all over the place. There's no hiding it.
June 27, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't say Obama had any inside information. I said he said he learned something that changed his mind. And I asked where he learned it. I'm the one who has the esoteric information. Stop trying to get it out of me. If I wouldn't tell Feingold, I sure won't tell you. And you can't make me tell you, because torture is against the law. Unless I learn something to make me think it isn't. But I guess you'll never know what that is, because after all what's hidden knowledge worth if you go around sharing it?
June 27, 2008 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The bill brings FISA back. The bill makes the system constitutional again, and makes a step in the right direction. No punishments for past wrongs, but CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEMS ARE GOOD! MY esoteric knowledge is so superer secret than yours that I can tell you exactly what I know and mean, and leave you ignorant.
June 27, 2008 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If there were an 8th level of esoteric knowledge I would say you have achieved it, unless, of course, I were sworn to keeping the existence of an 8th level secret.
June 27, 2008 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Damnit Billy, if you didn't make me laugh, you'd be super annoying. Oh man, I would hate your quick wit and role play so freakin' much.
June 27, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gee, if that is some sort of satire on Obama I guess you missed that part where he told people he will make mistakes and his constituents will disagree with him, even vehemently. But I guess it's funnier without actually looking at actual things the candidate actually says.
Must be part of that hidden knowledge - it doesnt stand up to scrutiny.
June 27, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is nothing funny about something as essential as hidden knowledge. We couldn't get anything done without it. People would be too informed.
June 27, 2008 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
yup
June 27, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey. Good to see you blue guy. Last thread I'll be responding to anonymous comments. Only talking to real people from now on. Take care of yourself. Tell the old guy and the others so long. Hope to run into you in the real world some day.
June 27, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
blue-listed, dagnabbit
June 27, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
My sanity is at stake.
June 27, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're the sanest one here.
June 27, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least give him a little blow before he leaves. you've been trying to do that for so long.
June 27, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't even get the post, do you. Pathetic.
June 27, 2008 8:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not exactly a ringing endorsement one one takes your nym at face value.
June 27, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, the TPM brain trust has arrived.
June 27, 2008 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Steve is ok. He recognizes performance art. I was hoping he'd lead the Obamanauts out of the k-hole of the echo chamber, but I think he OD on crap speak a while back. He's smart, though. Give him some esoteric knowledge and he'll bounce back.
June 27, 2008 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Best remedy there, Billy, is take a long break from TPM and work on your own stuff. This place should be fun. But often it's a huge waste of precious time when it gets addictive. That's what I've found. If you can't use it to jump start something more valuable, then it's trouble. And anyone who is on it every day, and for many hours, is in trouble-- or terribly lonely. I've thought your recent absences were a good sign. Any way, good luck. And thanks for the great back-and-forth days back some months when there was something to get excited about. I picked up some interesting points of view. And some damn good rhythms. Rest up. You seem very tired. Good luck.
dagnabbit.
June 27, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am in full agreeement, Billy. There is no knowledge you have that is obvious to the observer.
June 27, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. It helps to not have to explain myself. You'll just have to trust me. I promise never to let you down, even when I do.
June 27, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
But do you have hope Billy?
June 27, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope I do.
June 27, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do not really disagree with anything you are saying here, Mr Glad. I am totally unconvinced by the "trust me" arguments being made in defense of Obama and others on that side of the FISA renewal argument. That said, I rather wonder what you are looking for here. What sort of reaction are you hoping to elicit and from whom?
June 27, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're being punished. We're all being punished.
June 27, 2008 2:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's right. You're being scolded for forgetting that I know more than you do and for trying to trick my hidden knowledge out of me by asking questions.
June 27, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just remember, Greg: Cats have no sense of humor.
June 27, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
then why do they play with their mice before they kill them?
i always thought this was either the result of a sick and cruel sense of humour, or some sort of a skill-honing instinct.
June 28, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
The funniest part is when they leave the stomach (which, for some reason, they don't like to eat) on the hardwood floor in the hallway between your bedroom and the bathroom. Then, when you get up in the middle of the night and walk to the bathroom in your bare feet, everyone has a good laugh. Good times, good times...
June 28, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course we'll just have to trust her on that one. We have no way of knowing what Bush actually told her. She could be lying, for all we know. But in a fair world, there would be no classified information. We'd just walk out into the world with our pants down around our ankles and our dicks hanging out. Like a bunch of goddamn fucking naive, clueless idiots.
June 27, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
She has the knowledge and knows how to use it. My kind of politician. Not like Feingold who didn't trust the knowledge he was given. What a dope. McCain is best of all. Every time events catch up with him he runs over to Iraq for some more hidden knowledge. Going to take Obama with him some day. The Progressive blogs are beginning to predict that the next topic Obama will get hidden knowledge on that changes his mind is Iraq. I think it will be Iran, but, of course, I can't tell you how I know that.
By the way, I put your avatar in a book I'm working on. Made it a smart AI with a profound understanding of human nature. A white kitten, wearing bunny ears.
And I hope you didn't recommend this post. You tend to be insubordinate.
June 27, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Billy, it's OK. We trust you. If you say it, it's gotta be the truth. I recommended this post almost as many times as you did. All that logging in and logging out. What a pain! But it's worth it, don't you think?
June 27, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that how it's done? I'm pretty sure that is hidden knowledge you shouldn't be revealing.
June 27, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a question, Billy: Is the I-can't-believe-you-didn't-know-that retort an argument or a card? (I'm a little confused about what a card is anymore.)
June 27, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is confusing to the uninitiated. An argument you have to make. A card you just have flash. I may have confused the two on purpose in order to protect the underlying program.
June 27, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good post. Shudda stuck to the advice you gave me about not engaging your audience, though. Still, well done.
June 27, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. I'm only engaging because this is the last time I'm going to do it and I wanted to say goodbye to some friends. Goodbye.
June 27, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we drop by to visit your blog? Or would you prefer not.
:(
June 27, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. And I'll still post here when I have anything to say. I might even sneak up on you in another thread. Just not mine. Trying to get to a higher level of discourse.
June 27, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awe shucks. Billy Richard Drama Queen Nixon Glad tells us that we wont have him to kick around anymore. He declares that he is not going to post on TPM anymore, except when he posts here in the future. Do all PUMA nut jobs engage is as much doublespeak as Billy Drama Queen Glad!
June 27, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do your billy grackle bird one for me one more time. And you can still rag on my posts, I just won't talk back.
June 27, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know the answer is yes you can. I can't say how I know, I just do.
You can drop by mine too, bee. I just started one, but so far it's more personal than political. It's a writing/recording project nonetheless. You can access mine through Billy's or Desi's by clicking my name in one of my comments.
June 27, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks gasket. I will.
Billy, this will be a poorer place without you.
See you around.
June 27, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
But, but, but you can't abandon us now! How will we survive without LeSeEK (Level 7 Esoteric Knowledge)? Wait! Don't leave us, Bronco Billy!
June 27, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clearly, a relative unknown candidate who mapped out a plan, and used it to beat two Clintons knows things that Billy does not know, or is even capable of comprehending. That is why Billy has morphed into a PUMA without a clue.
June 27, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I rest my case.
June 27, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pay the cashier on your way out.
June 27, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You think he does that on purpose? Boy, you do have hidden knowledge. But you're right. He couldn't be better if I made him up. I thought of doing something to make the bozos think I was your alter ego as they call it before I stopped talking to them, but I figured that was too harsh, even for you. Goodbye.
June 27, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
We'll see how long that lasts. This time.
June 27, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy, not to say the FISA thing doesn't merit criticism, but not even a few weeks ago, you criticized Obama for not being "where he had to be" on the issues. Now you're preemptively criticizing for "changing his mind" on Iran or Iraq, which, if memory serves, you advocated was necessary.
I might add, being criticized by the so-called "netroots" may not be a bad thing for Obama. It may very well have the same effect as the right-wing criticizing McCain.
June 27, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't mind him changing his mind. I don't like the reason he gave. Or didn't like it until I found out why he did it. I'd tell you, but etc. So long, beach girl. Love your comments, but won't be talking back. Got to put you on the anonymous list. But I'll be reading every word you write.
June 27, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You must have been an actor in a previous life, Glad. :)
And I'm no anon. What's a gal gotta do to stay on the real person list?
June 27, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sucking up, Hilary, is probably a good start.
Billy keeps pulling me on and off his magic list.
I feel his love either way.
June 27, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Adios.
June 27, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing. You're there.
June 27, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm thrilled I'll still have someone to talk to. You, gasket, des, and I couldn't stand not talking to Bee. I have a feeling it will be like Farenheit 451. The real people will turn up a few at a time. Come to think of it, Greg is real, isn't he? Ghengis is so real he goes out in public. Articleman gives interviews. Not a bad start.
June 27, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, but how can we ever know if someone is real? I, for one, am merely a mirage...
June 27, 2008 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll be happy to take you to Brooklyn on the 19th.
Real peeps hang out here:
http://www.lingr.com/room/TPM-aholics
See ya
:)
June 27, 2008 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you have your real picture here, and looking around I see what? We only know who they really are if we have a drink with them? Come on...this is such crap. This is crap-speak and crap-think, based on THEIR real lack of identity about themselves.
June 28, 2008 8:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think I'll know. And if I get fooled? 50 years from now ... ?
June 28, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Previous life? He's an actor now...
June 27, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. For much. Said it elsewhere, I'll say it here. You were the one that caught my eye. Made me decide to wander in. Take a shot. Engage. You got the big bad brain. Multiple brains. Some won't get that sticking fingers in the sore spots is sometimes necessary. Fast Eddie - that was better than Rove. Rove's still trying to pain him into a Country Club, when the pool hall's the thing. Wit is good. Take the wit outta witless, and whaddya got?
And yeah, obviously, you're a complete argumentative prick.
So, in the words of a wiser man than I - Go. Come back. Yell trash. Sing song.
Mess with our minds.
P.S. Get rid of your "Genghis" character. That boy's lost his sense of smell. Can't tell apple pie from... whatever it is you're smelling.
June 27, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not sure what kind of game you're playing here, and, frankly, I don't want to know. But in case anyone else wanders in and reads into this a suggestion that Genghis is somehow one of Billy's creations, I can vouch that he's not. As can anyone who's been to one of the TPM-aholics events he coordinated.
And (I can't believe I'm even bothering to type this; it seems like one of those things that's just too obvious to need to be said) that boy has heart, wit, and intelligence.
June 27, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
you might have missed a joke there. quinn tends to be obscure.
June 27, 2008 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I probably did. Almost didn't say anything, on those grounds. But then I figured if I was missing an obscure joke, others might be, too.
June 27, 2008 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Paige. I was just razzing Genghis, cos for some reason he likes to float the idea that I'M Billy. And now... back to our regularly scheduled commercial.
June 27, 2008 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paige, quinn's comment is a reference to this thread in which I responded to a gratuitous snipe by accusing quinn of being billy: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/06/im-bored-thrill-me-ya-bastids.php
Any new avatar that seems to know everyone immediately is likely a fake. The narrowly defined persona and syntactical affectations are also a giveaway; quinn's posts are pretty good, but they have the feel of a fictional character. The overt glad praise and use of glad terminology, like "riff" and "crap speak" suggest that it's a glad avatar in particular, but who knows? It could be a glad acolyte like Desidero.
That said, I'm not sure what to make of the imeem profile. Interestingly, when you google "Quinn Mackeen," you get the imeem profile and a facebook page. Nothing else. Which means that it's a fake name. But...the facebook profile actually has friends that fit quinn's purported background. So color me unsure.
Anyway, doesn't matter except for my perverse curiosity. I do appreciate your spirited defense of my honor. You're one of the best souls at TPM (and I'm not saying that because you jumped to my defense).
PS Regarding BG's promised absence. I've heard that before.
PPS On a warmer note, though BG and I don't get along anymore, I fondly recall one of my first satire posts, in which BG offered the first comment on the the thread: ROFLMAO. I had to look it up because I didn't know what it meant. Pity that he doesn't offer compliments anymore except to a select few with whom he's trying to ingratiate himself.
June 28, 2008 1:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Genghis.... I hope someday to share a drink, and perhaps then we'll BOTH find this more amusing..... Bloody hell guy, just imagine I was real for a second. Ok. Tryin'? Now imagine calling me a fictional character, and commenting on my "narrowly-defined persona?" It'll be good for laughs, I suspect. I swear, I have NEVER gotten that insult before!
Look. I dropped by the TPM-aholics site last night, just to try and quickly put an end to this, and chatted with Bee and LisB and co. about my present hometown, which (surprisingly) also seems to have family ties for one of them. Bee can say what she thinks - and I'm sorry it was only for 20 minutes or so. I'll wander back when I'm back from Nova Scotia with my family, ok? (Nova Scotia or, without the Latin, New Scotland, is NOT a fictional place. Go scan for more info if it warms yer bunions.)
As for using "glad-terminology," I donno.... you may have noted my love of music, and I thought "riff" was fairly well-established over there. How the hell was I to know "crap-speak" wasn't just part of ALL of yer lingos in here? If I may say, there are a couple of characters using it. I figgered it was a label you'd all cooked up re: the shortening of words that sometimes crease the pants between the texting & non generations.
And SURPRISINGLY, I don't use my real name. Jeez, looking around, I'm somehow not convinced many people here do. And yes, I have a Facebook page now, with real people on it, because - as I've often mentioned - my family is hauled across 3 countries, and with many of them now 18-24, that's how they live. Those're my baby sister's twins, at Imeem, and they're damned cute.
Billy is right now laughing his hole out, Genghis. When I came onto the site, that furrowed brow little guy avatar he had about 5 weeks back caught my eye. You couldn't NOT notice him everywhere, because he was in great, fur-tearing arguments, with everyone in general, and then the bunny racing in like this was Itchy & Scratchy.
I'm beginning to wonder if YOU GUYS didn't create HIM.
And when I cut through all that arguing shit, I noticed that grumpy BG - though I agreed with him about 3 in 10 - had some real brains. Was fast. Well-read. Completely disagreed with him on the HRC-backing, but still - I can smell a really good mind. I'm no fan of cynicism, and vinegar ain't my thing, and Billy's got warehouses full of those.... but when he peeled off into other threads, on art and music and film and such, a lot of that dropped away. I suspect his brawls & history here have made him more that way than when he started, but who knows?
And I apologize for any "gratuitous snipe" I may have made. Yer avatar WORKS for God's sake. You're all smiling & got the flashing collar, so obviously.... it seeps in, and people are gonna feel like you're open to clowning. Won't happen again. (Joke. When I'm back, I'm gonna remind you every month or so about my narrowly defined persona and being a fictional character. And that "F" you got on working out fictional/real people. If you got a spouse, tell 'em this one. I want em to throw it back at you during domestic scraps.... )
Finally, the speed at which I came in happened because.... how to say this politely.... well, because I'm really freaking FAST, Genghis. Schools kinda reward the ability to read/think fast. I had a really good education, ok? You want the details? Match up "Floreat Magdalena" and "Brian Greene."
Now. Not only have I fucked up Billy's good-bye page (which I suspect - and hope, actually - is not his last), but YOU guys have shown yourselves not only to be utterly vulnerable to Billy's "performance art." Which means, Genghis - you. owe. me. beer.
And apologies to anybody else reading this, and having their eyes cross with confusion. Not my fault. Really!
June 28, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
A public chewing out. Ouch.
Quinn, you owe Genghis a beer for that! ;)
June 28, 2008 8:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Quinn, I can't tell you how hard I'm laughing about this.
G, Seriously, he's not Billy or Blue Guy. I sort of suspected an alter ego at first too but I was wrong.
June 28, 2008 8:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Same here. If quinn was someone's alter ego, that person would have to be really, really good. It'd be a waste of effort, which is almost a proof positive that quinn is real.
June 28, 2008 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Christ. I wish the shirt had an alter ego. And to all the goody-two shoes around here, kiss my blueness, and anyone who knows my posts has seen my email several times. How is it no one talks about banning Moncia and Krankypants. I woudn't. I like them both. I like most everyone here. What's going on here is jealousy. Everyone knows it, no one says it. Some "rules" for some, others for others. No one would be discussing quinn if he weren't a good poster. And it's not true that people who show knowing too much are fakes. Plenty of people read and wait to join. There are all kinds of fakery, pettiness pretending to be concern is so low, it's embarrassing. I'd put ass-kissing below that,And what's the big deal The site is self-correcting. People hang with who they hang. Some are interesting, some are boring. Who cares. Get a fucking life.
June 28, 2008 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
June 28, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
If I could even know you.........please........is that your real pic.........
June 28, 2008 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why do you even care what people think. That's the beginning of the end here. They like you or they don't. I was sure you were someone else, and when you're weren't I was sorry because I thought he had brought off a challenge. What does it matter to me
who you are. At some point you believe what's coming at you at you some level or you don't. It's the most interesting when you're talking to an unknown, the intellectual, artful and political mind behind the mask. Make no mistake, unless you post a fucking real picture of everyone, the whole place is fraudulent. The idea of blogging here isn't fucking face-book, it's the opposite. This is the boring stuff, the kind of thing that says to the mind, fuck this. I'm gone.
June 28, 2008 8:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
All right, all right, come to NY, and I'll definitely buy you a beer. If you're real, then yeah, it's fucking funny. I've been in a cranky (not crankypants) mood all week, so I'm more prickly than usual, but yeah, I can take a "swipe." However, since you and I had never conversed before, I assumed that you were someone else expressing a grudge. Since I half suspected that you were he-of-the-many-alter-egos already, and since BG is the only one I know around here to bear me a grudge--ergo BG. Yes, I'm sure that BG is as delighted by this as codegen. Whatever.
PS Glad's resignation letters date back to at least March. Back then, I was one of the ones encouraging him to stay.
June 28, 2008 8:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not going to hang with a guy that has a flashing shirt. He might not be taking his meds. And also, how is this fair to people in the ten-step program. It's an insult.
June 28, 2008 9:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't say that I'm not invited, shirt, you just invited me.
June 28, 2008 9:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cypher, as yourself or as Billy Glad or as whomever, I don't care which, I hereby invite you for a drink.
June 28, 2008 9:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
The day you stand up for all the people here, and welcome all of them into this little place, I'll drink with you. But this nazi crap has to go. If you want to track people down for the intellectual side of it, the challenge of style, the fun of it, then fine. Others are doing it and having fun. If you want to ease off the Stalinist tactics, you can have a drink with me. Read my first post,
June 28, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Suit yourself, comrade.
June 28, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I made my offer. Read my first post.
June 28, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/05/readers-contributions-to-tpm-p.php
June 28, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting read. Looks like Cypher made a real effort to open up the place for new people. They really wanted Cypher out.
June 28, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess people can read the piece and make their own decisions about what's pseudo and what's pettiness. Personally, the next time I see Crankypants I'm going to get her kicked off TPM. If you want her and her other people to go PLEASE reply here with GO.
If you want her to stay, you may, of course reply STAY--if you have the balls.
June 28, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
STAY !
June 28, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Genghis. Why didn't you defend Cypher's efforts back then? And check out the Workerbee. She's on his case right from the start.
June 28, 2008 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'd maybe take you seriously if you didn't use psuedes to call attention to your own weak points.
June 28, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
The interest here may be the threads themselves, easily accessed for a blog to discuss any answers not given here. Why not?
June 28, 2008 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wasn't delighted, merely amused. I may think that your shirt is a bit on the flashy side, but I bear you no grudge.
In fact I'm sorry you're not posting more often. Your posts are always fun to read, even when you're serious.
June 28, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
You see? This is why you people will never rise above the second or third level of esoteric knowledge. You are constantly spilling everything you know and everything you think you know. Can't be trusted.
As far as leaving goes, the date and time of my ultimate departure is the most esoteric knowledge of all, hidden even from me.
What we're doing here is protesting anonymity. I'm just going to stop talking to anonymous people. Ironically, that means I could talk to Ghengis any time I want to. Why don't Ghengis and I get along? 8th or 9th level knowledge at least. Classified as I don't even remember.
June 28, 2008 10:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
When I start spilling everything I don't know, I might begin to get worried.
June 28, 2008 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Billy: Personal attacks. Same reason anyone who doesn't get along with you doesn't get along with you.
Codegen: I didn't take it personally. I'm amused as well. I haven't had as much time to post lately, and I'm off my snark game for some reason.
June 28, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Snark never dies. It just hibernates now and then.
June 28, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now I remember. You like to explain other people.
June 28, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously. I would buy tickets to see the shirt and the mean guy have a drink.
June 28, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Methinks I owe Quinn an apology, too.
Sorry Quinn.
June 28, 2008 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Awww. Does that mean I don't? You be careful now, or someone will think you're one of my sock puppets just trying to throw people off from the pursuit of esoteric knowledge. Did you wander in here by mistake?
June 27, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
BG, I didn't mean to imply you were lacking heart, intelligence, or wit. Just didn't think quinn's comment about G's sense of smell ... well, smelled fair, and since I wasn't sure what he was getting at, I covered the basics. (*My* nose you may all feel free to lambaste as much as you choose.)
No, not here by mistake. I may not always end up where I "belong," but that's hardly ever an accident.
June 27, 2008 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wasn't insulting Genghis. He's gotta sense of humour. Was just an odd reference of mine to a particular hero (Nietzsche), who felt the sense of "smell" - in regard to what people, events, motivations really are - was a key skill. The "apple pie" comment was because I grew up on an apple farm, and I don't know where Billy grew up. Maybe you do, maybe he does, maybe no one does.
Here. It's me. See? Not even a hat.
http://www.imeem.com/people/kX4Dhqp/playlist/urTk1HQ-/quinn_the_eskimo_music_playlist/
Does that work? God, now I'm fuckin' up everybody else's posts.
June 27, 2008 9:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hats come and go, quinn. Nietzsche, eh? You must've been reading here for quite some time before you started commenting.
June 27, 2008 9:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and glad to see I misunderstood.
June 27, 2008 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you know I was kidding about Ghengis and Articleman. If they were my sock puppets I would have tossed them long ago. I don't like the way they make fun of my esoteric knowledge all the time. I'm not kidding about liam, though.
June 27, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
And speaking of humor. My all time favorite lampoon is the first Mr. Crankypants. Perfect pitch.
June 27, 2008 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's what he gets for screwing around with you. His buddy, too. Both of them are my sock puppets, but you're the only one who figured it out. liam is my butt boy. Not smart enough to be a sock puppet yet, but I've trained him to shit when I come in the room. Burroughs. Naked Lunch. I've got four or five of them hanging around. He only had one I think. But he had better drugs. I ain't seen nothing like the mighty quinn, man.
June 27, 2008 8:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
See how you are? And you have the nerve to call me mean. I know where you keep your daggers stashed, chum, so pay attention.
June 28, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds menacing. Should I forward it to the FBI?
June 28, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't you promise to shut the fuck up awhile ago?
June 28, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/barack_obama_john_barrow.php#comment-2916096
June 27, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
More esoteric knowledge. Why do you think he did that?
June 27, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're asking me? You're the one with all the answers. Of course, you're not at liberty to tell us.
June 27, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who says you ain't smart.
June 27, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
And I hardly knew ye, Billy!
...I just read Obama's comments again, where he said the bill isn't what he'd want, but better than no bill...and I have to say, they guy has a real talent for making bullshit taste like candy. That being said, isn't the only issue on this bill about the retroactive immunity? And wouldn't any discovery on BushCo. or Telecom misdeeds that could be gleaned from a lawsuit be secret and unknowable (esoteric) to us lay-people?
So I guess I am suggesting that maybe this was a weak move on principle but not the worst move politically? I guess in retrospect the GOP can hammer him just as easily for being a flip flopper as for being weak on Terrorism, and maybe that's your whole point, and that he should've stuck with principle.
Maybe Obama is just better at making sausage than pristine works of art. What else would you expect from a Chicago Pol with his substantial gifts?
June 27, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd say you have 7th level esoteric knowledge. quinn thinks along those line, too. Hang close to McCain so the thugs don't get an issue. Myself, I'd hang close to the Constitution. Make them pry it from my dead hand. Or was that my gun?
June 27, 2008 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have read quinn, and yes, he makes sense to me. But I have also read the Constitution, and it also makes sense to me. What's a imp with 3 red hairs to do?
June 27, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
"an" imp. Sorry. And it's more like 9 red hairs.
(edit function? Please?)
June 27, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd go with the Constitution, Dorn. It's got more experience.
June 27, 2008 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have a dead gun?
June 27, 2008 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Flip-flopper won't stick as well as soft on terrorism/security. The Republicans really want that "soft on security" label to stick because that's the only current advantage they have, however false.
I'm not a fan of Obama's decision on FISA because I don't think it's either/or. I think we can have security without immunity, and I think we can live with the issue in doubt a little longer because nothing is going to stop BushCo from doing what they want anyway. The only way it could bite Obama is if there were actually some attack that got through and they could claim that it was because the bill was stalled, but that would be more utter bullshit.
Still, I don't really think Obama has, or claims to have, secret esoteric knowledge like Billy, but I think he's made a decision that he thinks is best. Why? How would I know? How would Billy know?
If he wins, I think we'll be able to see how he works, what he works for, where he makes compromises, and where he takes a stand.
People say he's moving to the center, but his stated goal is to unite people, not divide them. It's hard to unite people if you're extremely on one side or another. Bush said he was a uniter, but it was obviously utter unmitigated bullshit and, in fact, more of his Orwellian rhetoric, but we have yet to see if Obama will really bring people closer by how he conducts himself.
But I congratulate Billy for a clever post that said nothing, but implied a lot, and got another discussion going.
June 27, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. The problem is that it legalizes the warrantless surveillance that once was illegal. In otherwords, it pretty well guts the Fourth Amendment.
See a href="http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/fisa.html">http://www.aclu.org/safefree/spying/fisa.html
June 27, 2008 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
So long Billy, it's been real, but apparently not real enough.
June 27, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Goodbye, my little taste of pineapple. I'll see you in Des's threads for sure.
June 27, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or on my blog, however pathetic it looks at the moment. Like the South, it will rise again. And then fall back over in the swamp.
June 27, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy Glad as Willy Loman.
June 27, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay. We have to rename those flowers some day.
June 27, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Posted this on Ripper's thread, just wanted to make sure you got it:
First of all, ::white flag::
Secondly,
Yeah, I have a hard time seeing redemption in that book. I think I understand that other blurb about "regeneration through violence," which I always thought had to do with the idea that "War is God." You know, war serving as that unknown ultimate that divines morality not through the limited realm of argument but by determining what continues to exist and what vanishes...the testing of human wills within the larger will. And that it is this way that humanity progresses and will forever progress.
So, to answer your question, I don't really know. I would have to read the book again. If there is redemption in Blood Meridian, I'd suspect it has to do with this notion of war being God or the absolute -- that "higher court" that the Judge claims all men eventually must answer to. Definitely in that framework, if it's there at all.
Also, I'm not Japanese and don't speak Japanese. I was/am an East Asian Studies major, so I study a lot of Japanese history, but I don't know the language. I can speak Chinese, though. At least 3 1/2 years worth of it.
I know Mishima, but haven't read him yet. Temple of The Golden Pavilion is high on my list, but right now I've been getting my Kobo Abe on.
June 27, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. Luck with your studies.
June 27, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bullshit. -- I -- know more than -- you -- do.
You wouldn't understand the proof.
June 27, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Masterful.
June 28, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Loved your post, Billy. Secret knowledge: always the defense of the indefensible. Love the humor - that so totally illuminates how vacuous that argument is.
However, to be perfectly frank, yours was not the funniest post on this thread. That honor goes to Preach. For his satiric "sendup" of the mindless hero-worship of Obama and his Oscar-deserving portrayal of Advanced Obamatronics, particularly in this quote "There's a chess game here that he shouldn't expose, not because he's duplicitous to us his supporters, but because his reasoning is so complicated and evocative that exposition of it at length is truly confounding more than helpful." he has trumped your satire and your wit and scored a complete take down.
Now that is satire pushed to its limits.
June 27, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is a saint. He makes mistakes, but even St. Paul admitted, "I do what I don't want to do and do not do what I want to do." Obama is genuine, as those who've known him personally for many years attest. He truly is uncannily honest in the face of a clawing electorate on the left and right. His imperfections seal his perfection. I can't imagine a better living person for the job. As the wild enthusiasm for him in other countries suggests, his ascendance will lead soon to peace on earth, a level of harmony promised by many prohecies. Not since St. Patrick, the fearless man who transformed a barbaric country, ending slavery, subjugation of women, human sacrifice, just to name a few gross inhumanities he ended in just a few years after returning from England. Obama fulfils the ministries of Jesus and St. Patrick and a few other saintly folks. Obama truly is a harbinger of Heaven On Earth. These things I believe with all my heart and soul. Now If I could just get Billy to agree with me.
June 27, 2008 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I will miss talking to both of you. Never share esoteric knowledge, Oregon Activist. Preach intended that for your eyes only.
June 27, 2008 9:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down," Clinton said to a meeting of donors. "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them."
Fuckin' activist base. If only they understood secret knowledge.
June 27, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The activist base about which Hillary Clinton spoke has been humbled by this FISA shenanigans, and I think the best of the bunch will come out better and more effective for it. I think for some it has been an important reminder, and for many others, especially those new to things political, Obama's pragmatic electoral decisions have been an imporant lesson.
I'm going to try and put an optimistic imprimatur on this dust-up. In a way, Obama's vivid demonstration that he's just another one of the guys is going to give us all a better perspective and perhaps bring us closer together. Folks, Obama should be elected to serve us. We the people, activists like you and crusty cynics like me, need to take control as citizens, as brothers and sisters, pragmatically when necessary, but never overestimating the ability of one human being to take us through the desert and into the Promised Land.
June 27, 2008 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Amen, Brother bslev.
June 27, 2008 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought his original explanation several days ago was pretty clear and didn't require any hidden knowledge.
His assessment is that democrats extracted sufficient concessions from the repubs to make the bill a net positive. He'll continue to work to make the bill more positive during its run in the senate. You might disagree (I know I do) but it's a pretty simple and perfectly reasonable explanation.
June 27, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let me be the first to say, I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
June 27, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not the first . . .
June 27, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Between us, we know everything there is to be known.
Why is that?
Because you know everything save the fact that you're a fool.
I know that.
June 27, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
For the love of Christ, how many times do you have to say good-bye? Stop teasing us and just go.
Please.
June 27, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's torn between tormenting you and not tormenting himself. And the suspense is killing me. Of course the obvious solution... well, that's too much to ask.
June 27, 2008 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bye, Billy. I will miss you.
Here's a song for you to sing on your way out. It's James Blunt's rather aptly-named "Billy":
Billy's leaving today (don't know where he's going).
Holds his head in disgrace (he can't escape the truth).
He knows the price that he's paid.
He admits that it's too late to admit that he's afraid.
Tomorrow comes. Sorrow becomes his soul mate.
The damage is done. The prodigal son is too late.
Old doors are closed but he's always open,
To relive time in his mind.
Oh Billy.
Billy's leaving today (don't know where he's going).
He's got lines on his face (they tell the story of his pain).
He accepts it's his fate.
He admits it took too long to admit that he was wrong.
Tomorrow comes. Sorrow becomes his soul mate.
The damage is done. The prodigal son is too late.
Old doors are closed but he's always open,
To relive time in his mind.
Oh Billy.
Once he was a lover sleeping with another.
Now he's just known as a cheat.
And he wish he'd had a mirror; looked a little clearer.
Seen into the eyes of the weak.
(x2)
Tomorrow comes. Sorrow becomes his soul mate.
The damage is done. The prodigal son is too late.
Old doors are closed but he's always open,
To relive time in his mind.
Oh Billy.
June 27, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shane Shane Shane!
Come back Shane!
Come back!
Shane
Shane
Shane
Shane
June 27, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Say it ain't so Billy. Say it ain't so.
June 27, 2008 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It ain't so.
June 27, 2008 11:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
To you and whoever else you may be - you start a commentary and keep it going. Good, bad and everything in between. We all go nuts (npi) over your posts, and cannot type fast enough in response. We hate ya, we love ya. Yea, mostly we hate ya. But ya get us going, the blood flows...sometimes boils.
To you and whoever else you may be - thanks for that.
June 28, 2008 1:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
don't worry, Hallmark, i'm not all me-selves with me
June 28, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry. The card I sent myself was not forwarded to you.
June 28, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy... you don't know shit. Never have, never will.
Just the same... try and keep it on the black stuff between the trees, ok?
June 27, 2008 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy you should try to get someone to pay you by the word to say nothing. You're an expert at it but no one pays anyone to be so pointless and you'd starve to death in the process. It's a win/win for the species as far as I can see.
June 27, 2008 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy, don't be a hero. It's been goodbye and will hopefully be drawn out further. I am quite certain of this but can not tell you why. Coming from a politician who has staked out a position as a truthteller, Obama's reliance on classified information to support the bill is not defensible. However, I think he would have earned your ire no matter where he came out on this.
June 27, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I meant to say long goodbye. Just got a little longer.
June 27, 2008 8:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Adios, amigo. I'll be around, but I'll be trying to talk to only real people. You anonymous avatars are just going to have to wonder what I think.
June 27, 2008 8:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
My very existence is a state secret. If my enemies knew, the consequences for national security would be dire. I am therefore forced to send my missives from my bourgeois, urban-jungle hideout.
I am puzzled by your preference for non-anonymous avatars, a threadworthy topic that I would be disqualified from participating in. I have let slip a few biographical details along the way. Perhaps I will visit your blog and disclose some more... provided you pass a security clearance.
June 27, 2008 8:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
No way. Too hard to beat the box.
June 27, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
another beggar
June 28, 2008 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not true, but if I told a communist like you how I know that, I might be hounded off of TPM.
June 27, 2008 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't it weird that on the same day that Billy "signs off" we have a very rare blog from Pirate Pete posted?
Coincidence? Or rebirth?
June 27, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm still here. There is only one me. Don't waste your time with that. I wouldn't even share my hidden knowledge with an alter eqo. It's too precious.
June 27, 2008 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell DF I said goodby. I'll be watching, but not talking. Unless it turns out he really is my favorite slayer.
June 27, 2008 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure he'll be happy to hear that.
June 27, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You guys have a ton of hidden knowledge about the energy crisis. Have to eavesdrop now and then.
June 27, 2008 8:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Psst! Billy! The knowledge isn't hidden. The problem is that people don't believe it when you lay it at their feet.
And that includes the members of Congress I've briefed.
But what the hell: I had to convince the UnderSec of Homeland Security that there were plenty of terrorist targets west of the Mississippi.
Again, this is not hidden knowledge -- you just have to take your nose out of the so-called "news".
June 27, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Monday, a British parliamentary committee proposed that every citizen be required to carry a carbon card that must be presented, under penalty of law, when buying gasoline, taking an airplane or using electricity. The card contains your yearly carbon ration to be drawn down with every purchase, every trip, every swipe.
There's no greater social power than the power to ration. And, other than rationing food, there is no greater instrument of social control than rationing energy, the currency of just about everything one does and uses in an advanced society."
Thoughts?
June 28, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy: As someone who has actually gone through many many clearance processes, for many worthy missions, I find your post amusing, insulting, and just plain full of shit. That said, your sense of irony is worth noting. I'll take you on any day of the week on top secret shit we can't talk about. "Bring it on", in the words of your leader. Your ego is the size of the universe, but easily detonated.
June 27, 2008 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Okay. You go first. What's your juiciest piece of ultra ultra hush hush knowledge that you can't share but will? Or should I just toss a tennis ball and say fetch?
June 27, 2008 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Game. I worked with a group during the Clinton administration (lead by Hillary Clinton) trying to figure out why Gulf War veterans were getting sick. We figured out, with low level clearance, that all WMDs had been destroyed by coalition forces in 1991-1992. So, when Bush/Cheney and their ship of fools started saying there were WMDs all over Iraq, and Senator Clinton accepted that as gospel, EVEN THOUGH her husband's administration accepted the findings of its own commission, and SHE VOTED to authorize the war, I found it a bit amazing, if not disturbing. If I knew there were no WMDs there, why didn't she? She was in a better place than me, no? She did know that there were no WMDs in Iraq, but it wasn't in her political best interest to go there. Go.
June 27, 2008 9:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I worked with a group of ex-OSS agents, charged with breaking he neo-nazi code transmitted by Joseph Beuys's performance pieces. We broke the code and gave the information to Jack Kennedy. I was working as a lineman for the county at the time and the Kennedy's arranged to have me struck by lightning, completely erasing my memory. I call this my Joseph Beuys lost code episode. Go.
June 27, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
GAME FORFEITED!
June 27, 2008 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on Glad. You're doing the real insider stuff now in a room that doesn't get the jokes. I'm going to miss this shit.
June 27, 2008 11:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh we get the jokes, they just ain't funny. He's an asshole, pure and simple. I don't find assholes funny. I find them annoying.
June 27, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you don't like the guy, get off the fucking thread.
June 28, 2008 8:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, is that how it works around here? Certain people are told to leave and others refuse to leave? That's right, no one is allowed to challenge the man behind the curtain.
June 28, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. I think everyone should come on and say what they want. However, when you say the same thing over and over, and you've made your point, then it becomes gratuitous and boring. At that point, some one may finally say "we got you the first time." But, in the balance, I apologize. If you want to be boring, have had it. It was my mistake.
June 28, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
You have proven yourself to to be not qualified for the game.
June 27, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Despite my typos, that was intended for the Glad Hand. Take off your mask, oh devious one, and reveal yourself. Perhaps a parting act of courage. Nah....
June 27, 2008 11:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was mine not crazy enough? I'm sorry. I'll try to think more like a low level bureaucrat who imagines they almost saved the world.
June 28, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
And I'll try to think more like a pretentious prick who has convinced himself and apparently a few others that the tortured drivel he posts on his blog is good literature.
June 28, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy, your farewell thread has a touch of the meta-surreal about it. I am left disoriented and utterly lost as to why any of us are here. Of course, I know it's all just a double-bluff: you genuinely think you know more than us.
June 27, 2008 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Billy, your farewell thread has a touch of the meta-surreal about it. I am left disoriented and utterly lost as to why any of us are here. Of course, I know it's all just a double-bluff: you genuinely think you know more than us.
June 27, 2008 9:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
... I see that the TPM software has decided to reinforce this sense of the surreal by printing my comment in duplicate.
June 27, 2008 9:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know why you're here. Some call you smart. Some call you stupid. Some call you naive, some call you sophisticated. But what you really are is ... ... ...my audience.
June 27, 2008 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a selfless act to come straight out and tell us that, compared to you, were all full of various levels of shit!
Saves us all a shitpot full of typing.
Might cut back on the comments, though.
Except those like:
Seconded!
Ibid!
Co-signed!
Beautiful!
Well said!
True dat!
Et glorious cetera.
My won't those conversations be engaging!
June 27, 2008 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spot on!
June 27, 2008 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
And, in all seriousness, here's a goodbye gift with you that I only share with people I respect.
Mind you, I didn't say "like" or "agree with," I said "respect."
Enjoy this and best of luck!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UuFJoexdlU
June 27, 2008 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like this guy. He kisses no ass, period. But shows respect.
June 28, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
You see? There you go, spilling esoteric knowledge in a room full of morons. If the masters see this, you are going to get demoted a couple of circles.
June 28, 2008 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you Nora Desmond.
June 27, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
So you are leaving, eh?
Will I be conversed with or will you sidestep me?
Sorry to see you go.
June 27, 2008 11:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's not leaving. The guy is an egomaniac and a pathological liar. He will change his avatar, come back as someone else, or just disappear for awhile so everyone will wonder where Billy went. Then he will come back like the triumphant king. So predictable. He is the greatest con man of all time, and everyone buys his snake oil. It is worth noting that he responds positively to commenters who are obviously men, or commenters with very feminine or sexy avatars. I would be willing to bet that he is one of the most sexist assholes in the world. But, he probably thinks of himself as an Alan Arkin, feeling kind of guy--you know the type.
June 28, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you telling me I have a sexy avatar?
Thanks.
However, Billy also convereses with Workerbee, with Desi and with Quinn and Blue Dude and BunKitty and LisB and HilaryM and clearthinker and Codegen. Are we sure any of them are female or male? Are you sure I'm female?
June 28, 2008 12:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hold on. Lemme check.
Hold on. Lemme check.
June 28, 2008 3:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
And......?
June 28, 2008 3:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
I guess the results were inconclusive.
June 28, 2008 5:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going with the middle choice. The taste of the dress and color is exquisite.
June 28, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Cricket:
My parts and your parts would get along just fine.
June 28, 2008 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Clever answer, CT. ;-)
June 28, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
We don't converse, we just insult each other. Which is perfectly fine with me.
June 28, 2008 5:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
I ban your ass from TPM. No man is a fountain.
June 28, 2008 10:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can I come back when I'm an island?
June 28, 2008 10:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
there's a big joke in this one, fountman.....too funny.
And say, how is that a guy like you knows so much stuff about American culture? Amazing. You lived in Ca. for a time. Apparently you live across the sea. Beats me.
June 28, 2008 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Osmosis, man. That's all. It's not like I'm an anthropologist or anything.
Besides, Americans are very good at exporting their culture. Even people who'd never been to the US think (often incorrectly, but I digress) that they know a lot about American culture.
June 28, 2008 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Codeman, You're a smart thing. And I wish I could get to the point of ideas as fast as you do. But I'm guessing that you have to have that kind of precision to write clean code. I'm going to say something now that will only encourage more speculation. In the old days, it was fun when Billy would quote old standards. We have made a joke on one of them ..."No Man is an Island," though it comes from a poem also. (I think the song.) Written by Kramer and Whitney. I knew them both quite well, though I'm younger and they are gone. Their great tune was "Far Away Places."
June 28, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
"No Man is an Island" is actually a well known phrase at least in the Western cultural sphere, if not worldwide. Happens to come from the same poem as "for whom the bell tolls".
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Meditation_XVII
But I'm sure you knew all that...
June 28, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes I know that. And I once asked Kramer if he felt bad about it. He was a straight-up guy, coming up the music business making a buck playing any kind of thing--and then got to the top of the publishing world in those days. He said something like --Yeah, I feel really bad every time my ASCAP check shows up.
June 28, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have no objection to conversing, O Fountainous Angel. In fact, it appears to me that I'm always the initiator in conversations. Jeez, I came into BillyG's threads to beard the Sphinx himself and look what I got for my trouble - designated as persona non grata and Desi won't talk to me either.
I'm going back to the other coast to visit family next week. Perhaps I can kick this stupid habit called TPM.
Per your suggestion I picked up Diamond Age. I had read his other stuff and apart from Zodiac, was unimpressed. Diamond Age promises to be a bit more involving.
June 28, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm hoping you're female. And I'm hoping you really wear that blue dress and carry a sword. Because a guy's got to have heroes--imaginary or not. :) "In my dreams, she fights braver than I..."
June 28, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you know something I command you to say it.
June 28, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm thoroughly female, BunnKitty. Two good friends, mythographers, both read tarot, tell me that I constantly turn up as the Queen of Swords in their decks. I know the feeling. ;-)
People who know me will tell you that I do carry swords, but I rarely draw them. When you draw a sword, it has to be satiated.
June 28, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cricket, there's a tribe. And we've fought together and fought apart. But I believe in my heart there's a tribe. And I can't help feeling that I've seen the sunlight flash off your sword from time to time. Perhaps it's a dream. Perhaps not.
June 28, 2008 10:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed, KateO.
He'll either rationalize staying as Billy Glad or come back in some other incarnation.
TPM's a drug and Billy's freakin' if his syringe ain't loaded. He plunges in the needle and waits for the high of adoration.
June 28, 2008 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
high of adoration.
LOL.
Like you telling hime you "respect" him? That kind of adoration? ;-)
June 28, 2008 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't equate respect with adoration.
Dude's got literary skills. That, I respect.
I don't respect condescension.
Not even sarcastic condescension.
June 28, 2008 12:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
has he condecended to you? I'm sorry. I was not paying attention. If he did that, then it must have felt bad.
June 28, 2008 12:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not to me specifically.
But look at the title of the post.
Is that not condescending?
Sarcastic, but condescending.
Dude's talented and smart as hell, but chock full of himself.
June 28, 2008 12:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
And he probably just read that ^^^^^ and loved it.
June 28, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think he'd like for a new myth to explain his post. I have one. If he comes back I'll give it to him...
June 28, 2008 1:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
stop begging and say it
June 28, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Blue Dude, I do not do "beg."
June 28, 2008 1:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hurry. We don't have much time.
June 28, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll still be posting and chatting with people who aren't anonymous. I'm sure you know I'll miss talking to you.
June 28, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Billy's not going anywhere. He's just trying to wriggle his way out of the straitjacket he's found himself in (he mistook it for a tuxedo). No worries, though. He'll work his way into a new one soon enough. And his promise/threat to ignore his detractors and critics? Wishful thinking (or more likely a bluff). It's my guess the heroic farewell is just another way to garner a little cheap attention. Billy may try to quit us, but he's a junkie--totally hooked on the bad shit.
And he's totally LOVING THIS THREAD!!!!
June 28, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
BillyG,
Why did you write that? What purpose? What provoked this?
June 28, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
He wants you to feel bad. He wants you to know his pain. He wants you to apologize for not supporting his candidate. He wants you to regret your decision.
June 28, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
You never fail to impress, hrebendorf.
June 28, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is crapping on the people who nominated him. Some of them like it. I don't. Although I admit that most of them are getting what they deserve.
June 28, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course you had nothing to do with getting him nominated, so you're off the hook.
June 28, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
And here I thought you were keeping in character as the Sphinx of TPM laying out a riddle. Instead you were being angry and pedestrian.
June 28, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Should ease the pain of parting. :)
June 28, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
no pain. Easy come, easy go. Pain is reserved for other things.
June 28, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't equate respect with adoration.
Dude's got literary skills. That, I respect.
I don't respect condescension.
Not even sarcastic condescencion.
June 28, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Late night radio. "Fugitive Kind," by the grand master, Paul Westerberg. How the hell does Minnesota do it? Dylan, Prince & Westerberg. Jesus. If you don't know him.... give it 90 seconds to start to burn. By 4 minutes in, he's alone in his basement, blowing the upstairs neighbours out. The real deal.
And Billy.... you'll get the sentiment. Listen close. It'll make ya grin.
http://www.imeem.com/people/kX4Dhqp/music/5KwQo3Go/paul_westerberg_fugitive_kind/
June 28, 2008 1:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Billy. I gotta get my cab now, but you rotten old bastid, you must be laughing your ass off! WTF? Anyway. When you come back, PLEASE offer a pint less vinegar, ok? Pull down the cynic thing a coupla notches. Harness that tall forehead so it helps pull people forward to, you know, some positive responses to things. Not just make 'em question everything.
In short, BE NICE. Two words I suspect you hate more than any in the multiverse. But DO it. For me.
Cause right now, they're at the point of questioning MY fucking existence! Which means both Genghis AND you owe me beer. And an ass-kicking may also be in order if/when I meet you guys. My narrow persona? Awwww Jesus. That's harsh! (I'm laughing Genghis, but inside.... tears, buddy. Nothin' but tears.)
Later dudes and dudettes.
June 28, 2008 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Have a good trip, Esquimo.
June 28, 2008 8:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
****hug****
June 28, 2008 9:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
What a weird thread. Congrats, billy. Should you actually follow through on terminating your TPM blogging, it would be a fitting end.
June 28, 2008 9:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Every time we say good-bye I wonder why a little.
June 28, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
DO NOT TRY PUSSY-HARE'S CODE.
Codgen says it could hurt your computer.
Funny how people turn out to be who you thought they were all along.
June 28, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink