Dennis Dale’s daughter purchased the right for him to post on Slog for a week through our annual holiday auction Strangercrombie, which this year benefited neglected children and the homeless. More info about our charity auction here. The views expressed in Dale’s editorials on Slog are his alone and have not been edited based on ideology.
As the maudlin glee of the media exhausts itself, Dan Balz of the Washington Post ferrets out the pony in the Arizona massacre:
[Senator John] McCain took a significant step toward reconciling with the president in a graceful op-ed in Sunday’s Washington Post. If that article marks a genuine fresh beginning, it would be one positive thing to come out of the horrific shooting spree in Tucson eight days ago.
Huge, Dan.
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I read the whole thing!
Since when did pointing out truths (Obama made a great speech, his policies that are in opposition to the conservative/republican agenda does not make his anti-american) become such a huge deal? Why are we rewarding someone for stating the obvious?
These “attaboys” shows you how far the republican party has truly devolved into a worthless party of ignorant contrarianism and obstruction.
Don’t worry, the Republicans will soon be asking for the murder (or should I suggest blood attonement) of those who disagree with their corporatist policies soon enough. I mean next year’s an election year! So LOCK AND LOAD BABY!!!!
What does ‘ferrets out the pony’ even mean? And all Dan Balz did was recap the op-ed. What’s the news here?
SHOT, Canuck, Lissa and Nurse. Six to go…time to pop some pennies, or what have you.
See, now that’s a good Slog post. It’s short, snappy, and I have no idea whether or not you’re being sarcastic. Bravo!
I don’t get it.
It took huge balls for this reporter to write that McCain and Obama seem to be more cordial with each other after the shootings in AZ?
I can’t believe I’m going to write this, but, perhaps you should have explained this a bit more Dennis?
John McCain, not unlike his hero Ronnie Reagan, is suffering from dementia, and probably doesn’t even know where he is. I’m sure this comment came from his staffers.
Tell us more about the “race-realism” movement, Dennis. We’re all ears. Don’t hide your light under a bushel; let it out there. Tell us about your fantastic whiteness.
The fact that we reward someone for stating the obvious, whether McCain in his op-ed or Boehner saying that if the State of Hawaii says Obama was born there then that’s good enough for him, is not “huge”.
It is a reminder that the far right wingnuts have become the dominant force in the Republican Party and the broader conservative movement. A reasonable conservative would not have to be convinced that Obama made a good speech at the Tuscon memorial, or that Obama is not fundamentally un-American, in the same way that a reasonable conservative would not have to be convinced of the President’s valid citizenship by the Speaker of the House.
I think they should have a duel with swords.
McCain is as relevant as the Dodo Bird and the Passenger Pigeon. All that is remaining in his career as bloviating seat-filler is the end, which his egoiste ass refuses, or is unable, to recognize.
If this a ‘positive’, then our expectations are infintessimal.
@5:I’m torn. I’m at work so it would have to be coffee, but if I do that I won’t sleep….Oh! I’ll save them up and drink them all with pizza when I get home! This’ll be FUN!
@12, yours is the best kind of genius, I think.
What does ‘ferrets out the pony’ even mean?
I think it’s related to the story of the optimist whose dad gave him a roomful of shit for Christmas. He dashes to the garage to get a shovel, and when asked what he’s doing, he says, “With such a huge pile of crap, there’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”
But since the sentence mentions maudlin glee, it seems like there’s a mixed metaphor there. . .
oh right, if you’re given a room full of horseshit there’s gotta be a pony in there somewhere. So he’s saying that Obama in his speech gave a bunch of shit about civility and oh look there is some actually there. I get it now.
Soooo, this is a backhanded compliment or something? What’s the point here again?
Is he trying to use the existence of McCain’s op-ed to somehow argue against the left’s urge toward less polarizing rhetoric, like here’s one example so your argument is invalid? Couldn’t this also be seen as a sort of capitulation of the point, that Obama called out for civility and McCain followed suit, and therefore it was somewhat successful?
I went and looked at some of his blog posts at Untethered and entries at the American Conservative, and noticed the links to American Renaissance et al. So basically he spends his time defending against the erosion of white male privilege among a bunch of other white males, with tacit support of veiled white supremacy organizations that talk like NWSLP. Trolls at best.
I particularly like this Anon’s comment:
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/11/denni…
@4 I did a Bing Image search for “Ferret out the Pony”, and it didn’t really help.
@17 did you watch the Cat in the Horse vid?
Oh so now Slog is hosting someone who links to VDare and American Renaissance? CHARMING
I hope Dan is just saying that Balz sucks himself.
Huge, Dennis. This stuff is mind-bendingly good. If we could please tone down the back-patting and ramp up the bigotry again, that would be much appreciated. Also, word count a little anemic. A bit worrying, perhaps you could self-apply maudlin glee and add an extra animal to another scatological fuckphrase.
@16:
It should be mentioned that the Steve of the site you linked to is Steve Sailer, regular columnist for VDare, a hate site (named for the first English child born in America) that according to the SPLC regularly posts articles by white nationalists, anti-semites, and “race scientists”, the latter of whom Dale seems to think himself to be.
I should also note this wholly civil comment of his in re Michelle Obama:
> Dennis Dale said…
When I look at and listen to Michelle Obama I think one thing: Ball-buster. Industrial grade, pummel ’em into fine sand and compress ’em into diamonds caliber ball-buster. I swear when I watch him watching her speak in interviews I can see the trepidation in his mind about what sort of sh*t in search of a fan might spontaneously eject from that ferocious-looking underbite of hers. So anxious he looks almost entirely caucasian.
At least when he’s president he’ll always have a handy excuse for getting out of the house. Let’s hope he doesn’t nuke somebody just to prove she’s wrong about him being a wimp who lets all the other politicans push him around.
I imagine Barry enduring one of her fierce tirades and thinking glumly, “should’ve married the white girl.”
2/22/2008<
Classy. And classy on the Stranger’s part.
@22 Excellent summation. Can you write two articles a day for 5 days?
@18 Are you implying Dennis is the one who staged that video?
Woot! Busy at work, then a birthday dinner, gus, and didn’t even SEE this post until now…birthday cake plus booze, I highly recommend for future posts…like Lissa says, save the posts until *after* the alcohol…is this one shorter, or does all the wine just make it seem that way? (urp…)
Meanwhile, relations between Obama and Stephen Colbert also appeared to be on the mend, as Colbert graciously responded to Obama’s address in Tuscon by conceding that “Hitler gave a pretty good speech.”
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert…
16. So basically he spends his time defending against the erosion of white male privilege among a bunch of other white males, with tacit support of veiled white supremacy organizations that talk like NWSLP.
Yup, you got it! That’s all there is to Dale. Good work. It’s a good thing nothing about YOU guys is so sui generis, so off-base. Anyway, keep the comments coming. They’d be worth rating and reviewing in themselves.
@22 FTW
good to know for sure he’s just a batshit racist
@26: Well I’m glad you showed up to defend Dennis. I’m tender hearted and was beginning to feel sorry for him, so it’s nice that one of his friends has come to his rescue. I should warn you though, Slog is not your house, and the people who do live here are not going to let things like the misuse of latin phrases (or racism) slide. But, you know, Pax Vobiscum! 🙂
Hey, I’ve not written Dennis off. I was pretty excited to get a Conservative on Slog for a week for some debatin’. Unfortunately I have yet to see him make a straightforward point about anything.
I’m certainly not “friends” with Dennis or contracted to defend him.
Lissa/Gus/Canuck: Out late last night so just read this and had a quick shot of extra-old rum before bed last night.
Canadian Nurse: To whom do we send the bill for our rehab/caffeine addiction when this is over, Slog or Mr. Dale?
Highly recommend reading post-consumption, though, they go over EVER so much better…
@30: Shall we say sympathetic to his world view instead? And I made no mention of contractual obligation on your part. I base my observation on the two posts you have made so far and the timing of your joining our happy band.
@31 and 32: Two shots of Jack before bed, and I slept like a rock. A sweaty, sweaty rock.
@33: Sure, go with that. Don’t expect much of me, though. I’m just another pretentious mental case who observes the world in racially binary terms.
@ 35: Admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery. Good for you!
It occurs to me that the commenters here might not be up to seeing the facetious quality of my remark, in particular the phrase about a “racially binary” viewpoint. So, a clarification. Not that anyone here is owed one. Although Lissa seems maybe kind of alright.
35. It’s OK, it was pretty clear you were being facetious.
Not “mental case,” but just someone with a frontal lobe syndrome of some sort. Most of them are not degenerative though, so not to worry.
Does racially-binary refer to two races? I’d never heard that phrase before.
“Pretentious” is apt.
You’re right in that you don’t owe anyone an explanation; it’s just the tone, you know?