The Gallery of Regrettable Food

[TXlib]

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Lileks, you say?

He's an extreme right-wing ranter.

The ironic/hip stuff is an affectation to make him more presentable to the younger crowd. Believe me, he's become a ranting loon.

Look around at some of the other pages on his blog ...

--bkl

[mac56]

3. amen to that

Unlike Dennis Miller, he once was genuinely funny. Like Miller, he's now drunk deeply of the wingnut Kool-Aid.

I cannot forgive him for the nasty things he said about Paul Wellstone during that last campaign. I used to read his site every day, but haven't since then.

I attributed a quote to him in another thread today. Not meant as an endorsement.

[TXlib]

4. Huh? Really?

The same Lileks?

I've never seen anything else on his site except the food gallery, which is totally apolitical.

Right or left wing, ranter or no, the Regrettable Food Gallery is still pretty funny.

[TXlib]

5. I just skimmed a few of his blog entries

I couldn't find anything political in them.

Are you sure it's the same guy?

[Liberal Veteran]

2. My favority is the Veg-all gelatin mold.....

Peas and carrots in Jell-O are just scary.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Even if it IS funny (I'll never know), I won't be passing this link around

Why waste MY bandwidth to get traffic to some RW tool's site? I exercise my free speech right to remain silent. (Or is that the 5th?)

[TXlib]

7. I skimmed around on other parts of his site

but failed to find a RW agenda.

Post a link, please, to the offensive parts?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. Some

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0104/011204.html

"Anyway, my point: in any given newsroom on any given day, it’s usually safe to say “f*cking Republicans” to someone you don’t know, because if they didn’t agree they probably wouldn’t be in a newsroom."

I admit this guy has considerably less bile than Rush or Coulter, but should this be considered merit?

[TXlib]

9. OK, you're right.

So he does lean decidedly to the right.

I still contend the Gallery of Regrettable Food is funny.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. I believe you. (nt)

[mac56]

12. Here's an analysis of Lileks.

http://dailyramblings.com/ramblings/216.php

James Lileks Needs to Shut the Hell Up

(snip)

Every morning I visit his website, hoping for something entertaining, and almost every day, I'm treated to another right-wing conservative rant about how we should blow up everything in the Middle East. Sigh.

It would be fine if he only did it once in a while, or if he had facts of any sort to back up his views. But he doesn't. They're just soggy and hypocritical falsities. In the following excerpt from this bleat, he's berating director Martin Scorsese for saying we should try to settle things peacefully in Iraq.

One wonders if Marty was in NYC in 9/11, and whether he looked out the window at the caul of ash flowing from the tip of the island, and thought: I hope they find the bastards and enter into frank and productive talks with them, resulting in seventeen protocols that clearly specify the obligations of each signatory to the treaty, BY GOD.

Um, hey? You do realize that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with September 11, right? That was Osama bin Laden. They're two different people from two different areas of the world.

(snip)

A few days later, Lileks opened his mouth again, revealing more hypocrisy. Apparently, Sheryl Crow doesn't have the right to wear an anti-war t-shirt at an awards show.

(snip)

I try to find a time in the last 60 years when the hand-puppets and marionettes who make up the entertainment profession were so uniformly disposed to parade their mindlessness in the public square . . . why do they think their opinion carries weight?

Lileks works as a humor columnist. He may write about politics on the side, but "humor columnist" is his main job. Since Lileks' judgment of everyone else is based on nothing more than their main job, why should his opinion carry more weight than an actor's? He's a humor columnist! A literary court jester! Oh, and just for the record, humor columnists are considered part of the "entertainment profession" Lileks despises so much.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. Late 2001, most of 2002

The blogs are either about his infinitely interesting personal life, or wise-ass remarks about anyone who disagrees with Our Wise and Courageous Leader.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/02/0102/010203.html Nuke the Kashmir (sic) and pro-Michael-Medved stuff.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/01/1101/110101.html Nasty bits here and there; screed about Katha Pollitt toward the end.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/02/0302/030102.html Chest-thumping about Ted Rall starts about halfway down.

You can actually zoom in on the more pithy Lileks columns if you read the "warblogs" like Little Green Footballs. Most right-wing bloggers link to Lileks. He's a good writer, and he makes dozens of pop-cultural references on every page, making it easy for the young conservative Dangerous Thinker to get his day's schooling in hipness.

There are also frequent references to his eating of meat and smoking of tobacco, just to remind you that he's one Bad Boy of Political Discourse. And he also hates Al Franken. Famously.

I found it difficult to read his stuff, though. It's so narcissistic that it hurts. Everything is centered around James Lileks. How can anyone think about their own special place in the universe so much without going nuts? Perhaps he just puts in the right-wing stuff to break the tedium. But actually, I think he puts the right-wing stuff in because he's a right-winger.

Yes, he does have some funny stuff, like the Regrettable Food, and his 1950s artwork clips are cool. But that's about it.

I "discovered" Lileks some years ago when his book "Memoirs of a Nervous Man" came out. That was pretty good stuff. But it was also (IIRC) 20 years ago.

--bkl

[mac56]

13. He also hates Michael Moore famously.

I discovered him back when he was a columnist for the Daily, the University of Minnesota paper. He had a radio show for many years in the Twin Cities. I really identified with him, as did many Minnesotans of my age group. It's sad to see him turn so mean.